The Story of a Brand CommerceFocused Media, Inc.

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.
 
Success Cards are so new that right now, the primary marketplace for them is via Etsy, says John Uke, the brand's Creator and Founder.
 
"Etsy has a much more esoteric audience," John says. "I could see this being very big for business gifts. It's hard to shop for people, and you don't want to buy somebody's book because they're probably not going to take the time to read the whole thing. But this is very beautiful. It's on your desk. They'll be reminded of you. It's very approachable. It's beneficial, whether you are a new entrepreneur or a veteran."
 
John says his original thought was that the cards would benefit those starting a business most. He's discovered that all levels of entrepreneurs are using them.
 
The cards were designed during the COVID lockdown, giving John more time to work on the project. Future projects include increasing distortion for the cards. John is also planning a people-matching brand and a tool to work on creating and joining networks.
 
In Part 2, John talks about:
 
* Why the cards are selling on Etsy.
* The attraction and similarities to Tarot cards.
* The organization of the card topics.
* Future plans unrelated to Success Cards.
* Plans for increased distribution.
* Mulling over ideas for future decks of cards.
 
Join Ramon Vela and John Uke as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.
 
For more on Success Cards, visit: https://success.cards 
 
Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.
 
*
 
This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.
 
If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?
 
They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.
 
Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.
 
Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.
 
Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.
 
Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story 

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.
 
Gold foil, a magnetic flip box, and beautifully crafted designs. It might sound like a collector's deck of superhero souvenirs, but it's 101 cards with prompts to plan, manage and grow a business, says John Uke, Creator, and Founder of Success Cards.
 
"All of them have different unique illustrations relevant to different lenses through which you can analyze your business," John says.
 
He says that one critical limiting factor to growing a business is the ability to ask the right questions. The best-known thinkers - philosophers, professors, and coaches - spend most of their time asking questions.
 
"I've just spent hours on every card compiling the best questions relevant to so many facets of business that you might not even comprehend or think to look at, and that questions within those facets that you might not ask yourself," John says.
 
Growing a brand as an entrepreneur is second nature to John, who grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. His undergraduate work in college was also focused on entrepreneurship. After school, at a coding boot camp, he came across a deck of cards called "The Art of Game Design: A Deck of Lenses." He was hooked and realized the need for a business-oriented set of cards.
 
"I've done a lot of different things in my life, but I think this is the best idea I've ever had, and it's not so complicated," he says. "It's just taking something that existed for gaming and being like, Why doesn't this exist for business?"
 
One of the challenges of creating the deck is ending the process at 101 items.
 
"At first, it was challenging getting up to 101, and then it was challenging reducing it to 101, where it has a painful process to decide what are we cutting out and what order do we put all these things in?" John says.
 
In Part 1, John talks about:
 
* Gratitude for the freedom he enjoys, something that's come into greater focus with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
* A 100-foot overview of his brand.
* His background in entrepreneurship.
* How a game design card deck caught his attention.
* A look at some of the cards.
 
Join Ramon Vela and John Uke as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.
 
For more on Success Cards, visit: https://success.cards 
 
Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.
 
*
 
This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.
 
If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?
 
They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.
 
Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.
 
Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.
 
Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.
 
Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story 

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.
 
Entrepreneurs wanting to build a brand that's going to last should make as many decisions as possible based not on a first-order principle but a second-order principle, says Tony Drockton, the Founder and "Chief Cheerleader" of Hammitt, a brand that focuses on luxury handbags and small leather accessories.
 
"A first-order principle is 'I do this, and this is what happens.' A second-order principle is 'I do this. This is what happens. And then, later on, this is the result of that happening, the long-term effects," Tony says.
 
He says that many handbags in America are made with the first-order principle.
 
"Second-order principle is the luxury brands of Europe," he says. "That's what Hammitt is built upon. ... It's a longer-term play for us to build something that never falls apart and breaks down. But what it does is it builds that long-term trust so that they have more and more of their friends and more of our bags in their closet."
 
Hammitt has been in business for 15 years; a longevity Tony attributes to editing.
 
"I think for any entrepreneur, the secret to longevity is saying no - a lot," he says. "The secret to a great brand in fashion is to edit, edit, edit. ... Believe it or not, we are five times larger than we were just four years ago in size, and our collections are half the size of what they were."
 
Despite the downturn in the economy, Tony sees nothing but sunshine ahead for his brand.
 
"I feel secure. (Hammitt) was built during the worst of times. This is our time," he says. "This is when a brand like Hammitt becomes the staple because we're not luxury. We're not so gaudy that people would be embarrassed to wear it when going through recessionary or tough times."
 
In Part 2, Tony talks about:
 
* The thought processes of first-order principle and second-order principle.
* How quality affects the relationship with retailers.
* A closer look at Hammitt's products.
* The production and design process.
* Why editing is essential to longevity.
* Why the downturn in the company might not hurt Hammitt.
* Where to find the brand's products.
 
Join Ramon Vela and Tony Drockton as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.
 
For more on Hammitt, visit: https://www.hammitt.com/ 
 
Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.
 
*
 
This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.
 
If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?
 
They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.
 
Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.
 
Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.
 
Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.
 
Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story 

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.
 
Hammitt is on a mission to become the most outstanding new luxury handbag brand coming from the United States, says Tony Drockton, the company's Founder and "Chief Cheerleader."
 
"Our simple philosophy is that we build the most beautiful, luxurious product that also incorporates the highest level of functionality so that we're the go-to handbag or accessory that our fans will carry when they travel when they go out for some coffee with friends, when they go to the office or for the evening to have a little fun," Tony says.
 
The brand is 15 years old and is now carried in more than 950 retail stores around the country, along with two of its locations in Southern California. (A third is about to open.)
 
Tony says he moved to SoCal from Ohio with the goal of incorporating his love of art, architecture, and entrepreneurship.
 
"The fashion industry just fit," he says.
 
In Manhattan Beach, he was introduced to a fashion designer looking for an investor.
 
"I fell in love with her designs, spoke to some people in the community that also loved them," he says. "I thought, let's just do this thing."
 
Tony says fear and failure are vital parts of an entrepreneur's life - it's just how you deal with them.
 
"If you choose the life of an entrepreneur - everyone needs to understand - you choose to fail," he says. "Nobody really can call themselves an entrepreneur if it's successful the first time they do something. That's just luck."
 
The key is turning the fear of failure into positive energy.
 
"The purpose of fear - going back to the earliest times - was fight or flight. It was to make you aware of a danger of a predator," he says. "As an entrepreneur, the danger of the predator can come in many ways, and the fear to me, that's the battery. That's the charge that keeps us all moving."
 
For Hammitt, Tony says the factor that has set the brand apart is the focus on the brand experience.
 
"We want everyone to walk away from meeting Hammitt, touching a Hammitt bag, encountering a Hammitt fan - just really understanding what we're all about and what we're all about is we're this little brand out of Hermosa Beach, California."
 
In Part 1, Tony talks about:
 
* Gratitude for a Father's Day gift from his young son years ago that he still displays today.
* The company focuses on building the brand one relationship at a time.
* His background in art, architecture, and entrepreneurship.
* How to stare down fear and failure.
* The focus on the brand experience.
* Why making a high-quality product is better for the environment.
 
Join Ramon Vela and Tony Drockton as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.
 
For more on Hammitt, visit: https://www.hammitt.com/ 
 
Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.
 
*
 
This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.
 
If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?
 
They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.
 
Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.
 
Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.
 
Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.
 
Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story 

This episode is brought to you by Yotpo.
 
At Seattle Chocolate, the mission is the elevate the dialog around chocolate, says Jean Thompson, Owner, and CEO. Part of that mission is also helping the community.
 
To that end, the company gives its product to food banks. Chocolate, Jeans reminds us, is a plant-based food that's high in antioxidants.
 
"If we could use the power of our category to empower our consumers, to help their neighbors in their time of need, it felt really good, and it has felt so good for the past ten years to do that to the point where we've now added a built-in mission for chocolate," Jean says.
 
Seattle Chocolate likes to think of its products as "thank-you bars." With gift-giving in mind, the brand spends a lot on design to help set it apart from the competition.
 
Other considerations at Seattle Chocolate are ensuring the ingredients are clean and non-GMO. They're often vegan and locally sourced as much as possible.
 
Jean says that the company's Jcoco brand is more of an "origin" chocolate.
 
Inspiration for the various flavors comes from everyone and anyone at the company and often is inspired by travel and destinations. Flavors also change for the seasons and holidays.
 
In Part 2, Jean talks about:
 
* A rundown of the brand's products.
* The difference between truffles and chocolate bars.
* The company's charitable efforts.
* Why chocolate is a healthy food in some ways.
* The emphasis on package design.
* Why the company partners with Girls Inc.
* A look at the ingredients.
* Where to find the products.
 
Join Ramon Vela and Jean Thompson as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.
 
For more on Seattle Chocolate, visit: https://www.seattlechocolate.com/ 
  
Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.
 
*
 
This episode is brought to you by Yotpo.
 
Rising acquisition costs and the return to in-store shopping have eCommerce marketers double-clicking on their retention strategy.
 
Now more than ever, brands need to focus on lifetime value. Yotpo is proud to announce Yotpo Subscriptions on Shopify, making retention easy and affordable for growing brands.
 
Take 8 minutes, or less, to add a recurring revenue channel to your business.
 
Download Yotpo Subscriptions from the Shopify App Store today https://apps.shopify.com/yotpo-subscription 

This episode is brought to you by Yotpo.
 
It took an earthquake to turn Jean Thompson, an investor at Seattle Chocolate, into the company's owner.
 
In 2001, an earthquake hit the Seattle area, leveling the building that Seattle Chocolate was renting. The building was condemned, so suddenly, the company needed significant investment to buy and prep another building to make its confections. Thompson went from investor and owner. Shortly afterward, the company's CEO resigned, and the company was entirely in her hands.
 
"I luckily was so naive as to how difficult it would be and how steep the learning curve would be that I just thought, 'It's a great product, and I love chocolate,' and I'd gotten a little bit of a taste for it, so I decided to try running it myself," she says. "And that was 20 years ago."
 
The key to surviving any challenge is figuring out your brand's trajectory and having patience with yourself, Jean says.
 
"I forget the silly ballplayer or coach who said, 'We didn't lose - we just needed more innings,'" she says. "I thought about that many times because it’s the long runway that allows you to work through all the difficulties."
 
Surviving a competitive environment can seem like a massive jigsaw puzzle year after year.
 
"If you give yourself enough time, ultimately, somehow, miraculously, it seems to work," she says. "Or at least that was the case as I look back on my 20 years."
 
In Part 1, Jean talks about:
 
* Gratitude for the support and hard work from the people who work at Seattle Chocolate.
* An overview of the two brands - Seattle Chocolate and Jcoco.
* How an earthquake changed her role in the company.
* The challenges of running the company without a marketing background or business degree.
* The case for patience and perseverance.
 
Join Ramon Vela and Jean Thompson as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.
 
For more on Seattle Chocolate, visit: https://www.seattlechocolate.com/ 
 
Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.
 
*
 
This episode is brought to you by Yotpo.
 
Rising acquisition costs and the return to in-store shopping have eCommerce marketers double-clicking on their retention strategy.
 
Now more than ever, brands need to focus on lifetime value. Yotpo is proud to announce Yotpo Subscriptions on Shopify, making retention easy and affordable for growing brands.
 
Take 8 minutes, or less, to add a recurring revenue channel to your business.
 
Download Yotpo Subscriptions from the Shopify App Store today https://apps.shopify.com/yotpo-subscription