The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Josh Elledge of UpMyInfluence.com

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CoFounder of Riverbend Consulting, Lesley Hensell.
Riverbend Consulting provides services to assist sellers in navigating the complex rules and regulations of the Amazon marketplace. They may offer guidance on product listing optimization, account management, and compliance with Amazon's policies. 

Lesley shares that having a presence on Amazon is crucial for brands as it is one of the biggest platforms for e-commerce and offers a built-in audience of millions of potential customers. Being on Amazon can also help brands grow their business through its powerful e-commerce features, such as search optimization and customer reviews. The platform can also be seen as a small business incubator, providing resources and support for small businesses to reach and grow their customer base.

Key points from the Episode:
Overview About Riverbend Consulting2 Reasons Why Amazon Sellers Get SuspendedTips on Becoming an Amazon ChoiceAmazon SEO versus Google SEO2023 Insights About Amazon

About Lesley Hensell: Lesley is co-founder of Riverbend Consulting, whose 85+ employees solve critical problems and offer effective growth strategies for sellers on Amazon and other ecommerce platforms. Lesley oversees Riverbend’s client services team. She has personally helped hundreds of third-party sellers get their suspended Amazon accounts and ASINs back up and running. 

Lesley leverages two decades as a small business consultant to solve the underlying business issues in online retail businesses, resulting in improved operations and profitability. She has been an Amazon seller for a decade, thanks to her boys (ages 20 and 15) who do most of the heavy lifting. 

A lifelong Longhorns fan, Lesley earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and volunteering for A Wish With Wings, a wish-granting organization for little Texans with life-threatening conditions.

About Riverbend Consulting: Their team comprises ex-Amazon employees and Amazon professionals who will guide you through the tedious Amazon reinstatement process. They help thousands of Amazon sellers in reactivating their accounts and ASINs following a suspension, deactivation, or ban.

With thousands of accounts have been reinstated due to inauthenticity, review manipulation, product quality, policy violations, and other reasons.
They provide excellent ongoing services like account maintenance, seller account protection, FBA reimbursements, and Amazon account and ASIN reinstatement.

Their clients come for the appeals but stay for the continuous services, which include:

Reimbursements, ensure that FBA sellers receive every dollar owed to them by Amazon. Account management includes bad feedback removal and customer service communications across several platforms.Seller Account Protection, in which we monitor and respond to performance notifications to ensure the account remains healthy - Account audits for potential acquisitionsProject-based consulting services include pick-and-pack engineering, warehouse management audits, and customer service audits, among others.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Want to learn more? Check out the Riverbend Consulting website at https://riverbendconsulting.com/about/
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In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the CEO and Founder of Ignition, Derek Osgood.
Ignition is a platform that helps companies create structured launch plans by providing tools and resources tailored to the launch process's specific communication needs. Derek advises businesses that treating each launch as a smaller version of future launches can help owners establish a defined process for launching new products or services. This approach helps ensure that each launch is well-planned and executed, and helps identify areas for improvement that can be applied to future launches. 

Additionally, having a tiered launch process that can adapt to different types of launches can be beneficial, as it allows the company to tailor its approach to the specific needs of each launch. 

Key points from the Episode:
What is Launching?Insights on the Launching ProcessDisadvantages in Using Simple Platforms Ignition versus Project Management Tool

About Derek Osgood: Derek is a former marketing exec turned founder, building Ignition – the collaborative GTM platform helping Product and Marketing teams to get new products to market faster and more effectively. Prior to founding Ignition, he was an early hire at Rippling where he stood up the Product Marketing function and helped scale the company to $20M in ARR. As a Product Marketing leader everywhere from startups to major brands like PlayStation, Derek has launched over 100 products and his products have generated over $1B in revenue. Now he’s building the platform he wished he had along the way.

He's an executive with broad marketing knowledge and talents. His skill set was polished while running massive P&Ls at PlayStation and constantly performing at startups. It includes all aspects of marketing, such as go-to-market, segmentation, product positioning, user acquisition and engagement, integrated offline marketing, digital performance marketing, creative development, and product management.

About Ignition: It's a collaborative center designed with Product Marketing Alliance to manage GTM activities from start to finish. It assists Product Marketing and Product teams in increasing internal alignment by centralizing launch plans, assets, and execution in a single, visible source of truth, which automates internal communications and predicts whether products will ship on time or not.

Ignition has embedded tools to help you execute tasks such as conducting pricing research, monitoring competition intelligence, and recommending planning modifications based on your goals, allowing you to produce better plans faster. Ignition is backed by some of the best investors in the valley, including Bling Capital, Hiten Shah, Jack and Max Altman, and executives from Uber, Opendoor, TechCrunch, Sentry and others. Our founding team has extensive experience building at high-growth, industry-leading companies like Rippling, Facebook, Craft and PlayStation.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Want to learn more? Check out the Ignition website at https://www.haveignition.com/
Check out Ignition on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/haveignition/
Check out Derek Osgood on LinkedIn at a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekosgood3/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the Brand Champion and CEO of Brand Iron, Michael Doyle.
Michael is an expert in building great brands and Brand Iron helps its clients achieve their desired results. His company, Brand Iron, works with clients to develop a strategic brand plan, make brands quantifiable, trackable and produce desired outcomes.  According to Michael, their team tackles the branding issue from every angle because he strongly believes that a great brand is more than just having a great message and a great persona.

Michael advises business owners to first identify their interests and desired outcomes before seeking help from a branding or marketing company. By having a clear understanding of what they want to achieve, business owners can better evaluate which company will be the best fit to help them reach their goals. He suggests that this understanding will guide them to the right company to collaborate with, and ultimately lead to their desired outcome.

Key points from the Episode:
Insight on the 2023 Graphic Design trendsUnderstanding the difference between Brand Strategist and Web DesignerEngagement & Consultation

About Michael Doyle: For almost two decades, Michael has been transforming the face of Brand Marketing. He grew DNA Advertising, a tech-based advertising business, into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. In 2000, Michael sold the company as part of a nationwide IPO. Michael launched Brand Iron in 2002 and has since advised hundreds of other companies in a variety of industries throughout the world.

He also loves actively participating in community events and public speaking to educate others on the power and importance of branding and business development. Michael enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for what can be achieved when branding and strategy are aligned. He wants to help others by sharing his network and expertise. 

Michael has: 
• Built a Denver-based advertising agency into a multi-million dollar company and sold it to a national integrated services provider in 2000.
• Served as a National Brand Director for a National Dotcom in preparation for going public.
• Has more than 25 years of branding, marketing and advertising experience.
• Michael has led more than 450 signature BrandStorm sessions & lead more than 500 brands being developed, has helped companies raise more than 5 billion dollars in capital and helped more than 40 companies get acquired.
• Serves on various boards - Return to Prosperity, The Dealmakers Conference, Halen Technology.
• Michael facilitates several CEO Groups including the The Dealmakers Conference (PE, RE and Tech networking group) & Emerging Companies Group.

About Brand Iron: Brand Iron is a multi-faceted branding and marketing agency passionate about changing businesses and altering brands. They're a group of independent thinkers, artists, and doers dedicated to producing unparalleled results for our clients.

They have years of experience in creating real-world results for companies in different industries, and know what it takes to make your business stand out.They propel their clients and organizations to new heights by utilizing tried and tested marketing strategies, inspired design, and integrated technological solutions.

Since 2002, Brand Iron has been inventing, defining, and reshaping brands, partnering with businesses seeking to achieve specific goals through their brand. They've worked with over 200 clients around Denver,...

In this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with Sigjun Gudjonsdottir, Europe’s #1 Online Best Mentor, Award Winning Business Coach, International Speaker and Bestselling Author of Kickstart Your Online Business: Create an Online Course and Start to Make Sales.
Sigjun shares her mission to use online business to accelerate gender equality for female entrepreneurs. She reveals that more than 90% of businesses founded by women generate less than 6 figures per year, which means that they are not contributing to the economy in the way expected of them. Her goal? Increase the contribution of women-owned businesses to overall turnover, which is only 4% at the moment.

She believes women entrepreneurs need to see more role models of women doing what they want to do. She helps women gain self-confidence so they can unleash their full potential. She also shares the best process she discovered when launching a new program. She recommends providing FREE transformation programs so you can convert about 5-50% of customers afterward.

Key Points from the Episode:
How to Accelerate Gender Equality for Women Entrepreneurs?How to Manage Risk When Launching a New Program?Guiding Principles for Running a Program

About Sigjun Gudjonsdottir: Sigrun Gudjonsdottir is founder and CEO of Sigrun GmbH, a company that focuses on helping female entrepreneurs turn their passion into a profitable business.

She has combined her unique background in personal development, architecture, software engineering, and business, to offer result-driven online programs and high-impact coaching.

During her 10 years as a CEO, she also consulted numerous startups before she became an entrepreneur herself. Sigrun has trained thousands of entrepreneurs with her live online training and mentored hundreds of passionate entrepreneurs to take their business to the next level. Icelandic by origin but global citizen by heart, she splits her time between Switzerland and Iceland while also traveling the world.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Want to learn more? Check out Sigjun Gudjonsdottir’s website at https://www.sigrun.com/
Check out Sigjun Gudjonsdottir on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sigruncom/
Check out Sigjun Gudjonsdottir on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sigruncom
Check out Sigjun Gudjonsdottir on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sigruncom/
Check out Sigjun Gudjonsdottir on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sigruncom

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