In this episode, we have the pleasure of interviewing John Roman on the show, and John is the CEO of BattlBox and Carnivore Club, both very successful online subscription model businesses.
Transcript from video:
0:04 all right this is Patrick Rogers and today we have the privilege to have John Roman on the show and John is the CEO of
0:10 Battlbox and also Carnivore Club welcome to the show John hey thanks for having me yeah you bet man so John lives
0:17 in Atlanta with his wife and dogs and bunnies and he actually started his career out as a professional poker
0:24 player got tired of taking everyone's money uh went into it services and Consulting uh spent a number of years
0:30 there from there John actually co-founded Battlbox and initially took on a very limited role with the company
0:37 was supposed to be there you know just a few hours a week I know we're going to get into some of the details but but I
0:42 quickly turned into him being the CEO in really being being behind the steering
0:47 wheel that was eight years ago and John and his team had have not looked back since so again John great to have you on
0:54 the show before we get on get into you know battle box carnivore club and your journey what's one interesting fact that
1:01 not many people know about you um I do 200 push-ups every day
1:08 not non-negotiable non-negotiable okay at least 200
1:14 push-ups every single day okay so when do you do doing first thing in the morning do you spread them out
1:20 um so it's 11 right now I'm at 150 so I did a set of 70 and then I super early
1:27 at like six and then I did a set of 80 um maybe an hour and a half ago
1:35 that's awesome that is the kind of that I'm talking about like people that are recognized okay this is an area of
1:41 my life that I'm going to focus on and then turning out those habits on a regular basis yeah it's interesting what
1:49 what started off as um so about a year and a half ago I had
1:55 a protruding disc uh in my back L4 L5 and went through the
2:01 usual uh specialist stuff and they gave me a cortisone shot like a pers
2:09 that was actually like a procedure with a camera because it's spine um that didn't work did PT didn't work
2:17 it finally came to the point they're like we can do a discectomy um oh what's up then literally just
2:25 going in and and fixing the recruiting part of the disc but they're like you
2:30 know you're you're in your 40s now you're for the next 30 40 50 years however long to live you will have
2:37 additional back surgeries like uh once you cut it once you cut you're going to continue to have to cut and um he's like
2:44 alternatively you could just focus on your core and continue to do the exercises that you
2:51 learn in PT and it'll it'll get better um it just might take might take six months yeah and from that can't do
2:59 sit-ups right so push-ups are a great solution for core
3:05 and uh I started doing them every day in
3:10 starting in July end of June July last year and um told some friends about it you're
3:17 like I want to do push-ups so we uh we have a text group and if you don't text
3:22 your push-ups I texted myself yeah I texted my my 80 to go to 150. if you
3:28 don't text it didn't it doesn't exist so it's created this accountability
3:34 Network you will where we're all now lost our mind in doing 200 push-ups a
3:39 day very cool man so have you have you seen a physical Improvement in the chest
3:45 and arms because of it yeah yeah 100 100 um when I you know in June July when I
3:53 started I was probably able to do 25 to 30 maybe 35 in a set
4:01 and now I'm I'm doing 70 80 I've done 100 before and I said
4:06 um so the strength right there but more importantly my my back is like at 99 better no way
4:14 and it's awesome it's bigger than that right it's like it's such a simple task if even if you're doing
4:21 20 push-ups at a time that's all you can do right yeah you have to find 10 times
4:26 throughout the day it's going to take less than 30 seconds like it's not that big of a time commitment not at all true
4:34 test right like can you actually do this yeah I don't know
4:40 go ahead I was just going to say like sometimes the hardest part is is taking
4:46 something that you want to do and turning it into actually doing it and a lot of that has to do with you know just
4:51 the The Habit the habit forming the actual art of forming a habit right
4:57 um I was gonna say like for me like I'll have the intention of doing it but I'll get so distracted or pulled over here or
5:02 pulled over there that I don't do it there's actually a book you ever read uh BJ Fogg uh tiny habits no oh man amazing
5:10 books so one of the things he talks about in there is he talks about a trigger you like you got a new habit
5:15 that you want to do you're doing something else so you got to have some kind of a trigger so he talks about this map model motivation ability and prompt
5:22 or trigger and even if your motivation's high and your abilities high but you don't have the trigger then then you
5:28 don't end up doing it so for me it was kind of funny it's very similar very funny that you said this so I started doing it where I can't eat
5:36 anything in during the day unless I do 25 push-ups so that was my trigger yeah
5:41 so it's kind of similar but that's what I needed because I just don't think about it and I'll forget and then then
5:47 it's like seven o'clock oh it's time to go out to dinner or time to do this with the family I don't ever freaking get it done so but dude I commend you man
5:53 that's freaking awesome 200 a day that's balls that's baller I wanna I wanna now I'm I'm struggling I want to up the
6:00 number and why not yeah but I'm trying to I'm having issues getting uh
6:06 now that we have a team all doing this trying to get everybody else up what
6:11 what if you just do it you just do it and I think yeah I think at that point
6:17 you don't want to be left out so maybe you'll start doing too dude we're men right we're like oh John's doing it
6:23 well I'm not gonna be a great I'm not gonna be a piece of crap I'm gonna do them too yeah there you go all right
6:30 cool man so um speaking about man up stuff tell us about Battlbox man so
6:36 Battlbox Outdoor Gear Adventure Gear survival gear delivered monthly it's
6:41 it's uh not a novel idea but it didn't exist and um you know through the years
6:48 we've amassed a pretty pretty cool subscriber base um slightly different from your
6:54 traditional brand where we we really focus on building community and putting
7:01 out lots of content mainly video content yeah um which all of that is is you know it's
7:07 non-direct non-aggressive sales right um it's just you know getting the brand
7:13 out there and getting people engaged and they start to feel like they're a part
7:18 of it because they've become a part of it and then they end up wanting the subscription as well
7:23 how did uh you know I know you co-founded it how did this concept even come about
7:29 sure so uh my ex-business partner um Daniel he had uh his fiancee at the time
7:36 was getting a Birchbox so it's like a monthly makeup makeup oh the chick
7:42 version of it okay yeah and um she'd get it every month and he'd watch her open
7:47 it and you can see this like genuine excitement level of oh it's like Christmas every month exactly and uh
7:55 that's how I was born he was like what he's a Outdoorsman and he was like I want I want to feel that so he went
8:02 online and couldn't find it I couldn't find it and it it turned out that he was wasn't
8:08 alone in wanting wanting a box like this yeah yeah very cool so so it could be
8:15 like um like a typical month or like one month what would what would be in the box like an example of the
8:22 survival gear stuff yeah so um so we have four different tiers we have the basic the advanced okay and the Pro Plus
8:30 um basic is is 35 plus sales tax and shipping yeah
8:36 um the advance 65 plus sales tax and shipping the pro is 119 plus taxes and
8:43 shipping and then uh the Pro Plus which is our actually our most popular box
8:48 yeah 40 45 of our customers are in it it's uh in the Pro Plus one it's uh it's
8:55 169.99 Plus taxes and shipping ends up being about 200 yeah okay and um so as far as items
9:04 so the cool thing is they stack on top of each other yeah so if you if you're a Pro customer for example you're getting
9:10 everything in the basic everything in the advance and then the pro item and
9:15 okay you know if you're a pro plus you're getting the entire Gambit okay so a basic box is
9:22 you know it's we're selling it for 35 it's typically going to have somewhere in a 65 70 75 dollar maybe greater value
9:29 if you were to buy it on your own really well because of this massive quantity we're purchasing yeah get the price down
9:37 and and our motto is we share that that value and savings to the consumer
9:42 so basic box could be somewhere in the three to five items
9:48 um typically three items four items like fire starters could be a a cool wallet
9:55 um could be a lower a knife it literally is anything that you might go out and
10:03 and have the Denture with right yeah yeah um and and typically the the higher the
10:09 higher boxes the tiers because there's more value there we can add it's typically lesser items it might be
10:15 Advanced typically as one to two additional items but they're a higher priced higher quality higher priced
10:22 correct um and then the same with the pro same with the Pro Plus so when you start getting in the pro and pro plus
10:29 um you know the advance might be a cooking set to go camping or or go out
10:35 um in the outdoors with it Advanced and pro items might be a um a takedown bow
10:42 like a bow and arrow that you would put together oh wow um could be additional knives could be water filtration kits
10:50 um and then moving to the Pro Plus the Pro Plus is is it's a high-end knife
10:55 it's it's yeah pretty much the night for the month club yeah it uh it's just a
11:00 high-end typical the retail value of it is going to be somewhere in the 80 to
11:06 120 dollar range so it's a good knife yeah super high quality knives we're you know partnering
11:12 with the leaders in in that space for those that's really cool that you guys uh you
11:19 you know you're taking advantage of uh you know you you get to buy a volume discount and then you're passing that on
11:24 that savings on that's that's really awesome uh and you're still able to to be very profitable obviously right
11:32 um you know just in in preparation just talking you know from from marketing and sales and positioning standpoint
11:39 uh first of all congrats on 45 of your consumers being at the pro plus that's that's phenomenal yeah when we launched
11:46 we that was not our Theory our theory was that the basic box which is yeah it was going to be the invert yeah yeah
11:52 typically right yeah um uh did you guys along the way do you
11:58 think that that are there reasons that that's been happening for you guys yeah so there's there's a couple couple
12:05 reasons so so off the Jump just from from inception it was the Pro Plus was
12:10 about 35 of of our of our base okay initially um
12:16 but you know over time it's moved up to 45 so we do a lot of things to
12:23 um to kind of show the value of that higher tier one you know the 50 boxes we
12:29 send out a month to influencers YouTubers people that are putting on content that are not part of us we only
12:37 send the Pro Plus we don't send anybody the basic we don't send it so that's what they're talking about the influencers are showing the
12:44 entire thing exactly and then a lot of it is if you're a basic advancer Pro
12:51 customer let's say you're a basic customer you get your box we put a um you know five six seven page booklet in
12:58 the Box telling about all the items use case what they are why we chose them but
13:04 okay there's there's one booklet so if you get the basic you're gonna open up the book you're going to see your basic
13:09 items sure if you go to the next page you're going to see everything you missed out on oh so they start seeing yeah that's smart that's ingenious man
13:15 but you start seeing that wow like I really should upgrade because so much more value and it's it's one of
13:22 those things there's so much value there and you know it's tough to appease everybody right not everybody's gonna
13:29 like every single item in the Box sure but the cool thing is there's so much value there you might like these four
13:36 items and not like this fifth but those four items you like the value
13:41 is still there for what you pay and you can you can gift the fifth item to someone for a birthday or just a friend
13:47 and and it's like that added added value of we see a lot of our customers that'll
13:53 gift items um yeah and so are your margins actually better at the higher tier than the lower
13:59 one um it's slightly better yeah slightly better dude that's awesome that's
14:05 awesome so so typically because these um these knives are
14:11 um are high value super high quality knives the quantity that we need are
14:18 never sitting on a shelf anywhere so they're always manufacturer yeah they're having a they're having to do a a custom
14:24 run or an additional run for us so at that point
14:30 um we're just very honest right so we are a marketing engine um we're a great place for a brand to
14:37 Showcase their product because you know you send us the product we're going to put in all these boxes
14:44 um you're gonna have user generated content right you're gonna have hundreds of people that want to share their box anyway social but we're also going to
14:51 send this out to 50 influencers YouTubers reviewers that's so smart be
14:57 showing your item and then you know combined on our channels we have 1.8
15:02 million followers so we're gonna showcase it as well and the the reach
15:08 you're getting the audience you're tapping into um it typically makes sense for them to
15:15 sell us the product at their cost plus shipping just because of the fact that
15:21 the marketing return and the eyeballs and the brand growth and and in site
15:27 traffic you're going to see is is of such value so you guys worked out a deal with them
15:33 to get these products at their cost typically at their cost plus plus
15:38 shipping um we don't want them to you know come out of pocket we don't think that's
15:43 necessarily a fair proposition sometimes you know sometimes the knife companies
15:48 they don't see the value they they won't sell it to us at all at a price point
15:53 that works sometimes it's somewhere in the middle of um you know maybe they're making 20 but
16:00 they can't make our model doesn't support them to sell it to us in traditional
16:06 wholesale rates um so we've got to find brands that see the value and understand 1.8 million
16:14 eyeballs from our audience another four million eyeballs from
16:20 um from those influencers we're sending to right like there's value there and I
16:25 mean you have to understand the value to to want to be in the battle box and we
16:30 have and we also have um you know if you're a giant
16:35 um you know nine figure or billion dollar brand yeah the uplift we give you might not be uh it's probably not going
16:43 to move the needle right um but if you're if you're a small small up and coming yeah yeah like we have so
16:51 many cool case studies that we'll share with vendors that we're trying to onboard just what we did for people's
16:57 business it's like it's it gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling like it's so cool yeah yeah no I think that that's that's
17:03 ingenious that you guys have have found that there's a value to them on the other side of giving it to you for a lot
17:10 less of a cost the the eyeballs that they're getting from your own influencers excuse me from the influencers and from your own audience
17:16 and so they're then they're getting sales on the back end that support this it's almost like this is almost like a
17:22 sales and marketing uh expense for them in one in one sense and you know there's some companies there's some brands that
17:28 we we through the years have worked with a couple of times yeah and that as the relationships matured it's like hey we
17:34 we have a new product coming out we want to launch the product with with you guys
17:40 right right because it's just getting it out there yeah totally and it's it's a way more cost effective solution than
17:47 you know spending millions of dollars on Advertising when people were having attribution issues sure
17:53 so take us through this journey what what are the the major you know the major Milestones or or you know how did
18:00 you get to where you are now from eight years ago man sure um so so off the Jump we saw
18:07 um we saw success right away um you did I think so we launched in February 2015 and in year one we did uh
18:16 around four and a half million in Revenue um wow and we just weren't
18:22 um none of us had a background in e-commerce so we were making mistakes we
18:27 just didn't even know we're mistakes um the main one being we were only advertising on one platform Facebook
18:34 yeah why not um it worked right it was working and um
18:40 it was working until it wasn't that first exactly yeah Labor Day weekend going into the weekend and like six or
18:47 seven o'clock our time Eastern Standard all of our ads are at account everything
18:52 got shut down no way so we went through the only incoming lead source and yeah
18:58 so we went from know from all these sales but I have our
19:03 best weekend ever no sales it took us five six days to get back or five days
19:11 to get back up but it was at that point after Labor Day yeah it was after Labor
19:16 Day and it was one of those things where it was the aha moment huh maybe we
19:22 should be a little bit Diversified on on our lead Source right yeah so shame that
19:27 it took that to happen but you know year two um year two we saw additional growth we
19:34 then got into other lead sources um continued growth continued growth and
19:40 then we um 2020 was a real pivotal year for us yeah
19:46 um the obvious pandemic covid um was really kind to e-commerce
19:53 businesses right everybody's stuck in the house everybody is doing really well shopping online so that and pool
20:00 manufacturers did really good [Laughter] um so so that started our 2020 in March
20:08 and then in July we had our Netflix original series
20:13 um so there's no survival premiered oh cool and that was uh another
20:18 um giant influx of of traffic yeah
20:24 so um it was at that point that we then started to see additional
20:31 exponential growth um covid and the show and then towards
20:36 the end of 2020 we said okay we want to um
20:42 we were we weren't all that there were three of us that were the principals and we weren't really all eye to eye on what
20:49 the future was two of us wanted to keep going one of us wanted to retire
20:55 um so we figured out how do we how do we find uh something that works
21:01 for everybody and we ended up deciding to sell so we we found some suitors and found one in
21:09 October of 2021 we were Acquired and two of us stayed on and the one that wanted
21:15 to leave Daniel was able to retire so every Everybody won it was uh the
21:20 perfect outcome for everybody yeah awesome awesome congrats on that so
21:25 thank you um yeah so uh so where do you guys at now like how many you know
21:32 whatever you can share to to let the audience know early just know like how you know what's your guys's size like
21:37 where are you at now so so we're in the mid mid to high 20s uh 27 28 in total uh
21:46 million in total revenue currently dude that's awesome congratulations John that's fantastic man and uh and and
21:53 still got a nice trajectory yeah it's uh you know there's
22:00 there's been nuances with in a post iOS world of attribution and and advertising
22:07 and costs have gone up so so we're navigating those Waters
22:13 um I think this year will will probably be pretty flat which
22:19 um doesn't sound great but when you look at some other brands and how much
22:24 they've they've lost because you you look at the e-commerce Spike that was
22:30 you know the end of 2020 2021 right and then there was you know people were
22:37 saying oh well now it's it's going back down um when you look at like previous years
22:44 it's it's a little blip but we then compare like 2019
22:51 and then we look at 2022 2023 yeah and and we look at that
22:58 anomaly right our trend line is still where it should be it's just it's just a
23:05 little bit of a it's like a stock it kind of dipped down it's coming back up yeah yeah right so yeah okay yeah so
23:11 it's it will probably be pretty close to Flat this year but we're we're really investing this year into the the
23:19 infrastructure what we need to then be a little bit less dependent on advertising
23:25 and and be able to really start the growth how it needs to go what kind of
23:30 thing what does that mean invest in infrastructure what kind of things so um content so you know we we've always
23:38 focused on content it's it's why we got our Netflix show we we put out a a great
23:43 bit um but we're doubling down on it so we've already um last month we hired our
23:49 uh second full-time video editor and we're going to take an interesting model
23:54 where so we have uh Brandon Currin which if you've seen the BattlBox video bearded guy he is the face of Battlbox
24:03 um that Brandon was actually a paying customer in the beginning oh was he man
24:09 he's got the perfect beard dude he's got the everything he's just yeah man um and he does so what we saw early on
24:17 um we had a pre-purchase survey and people you know tell us where you found about us found out about us and people
24:24 were putting other and putting his information uh that's cool and uh it went from hey
24:29 he's a paying customer that hey we're gonna send you a box for free just keep doing what you're doing hey please don't
24:36 stop um we're gonna write you a check every month yeah you're now part of the team yeah to hey do you want to move your
24:44 wife and three kids down to Georgia let's do this thing man and do this yeah
24:50 um that's so cool so we're gonna we're gonna continue to focus so we have you know Brandon who who is a full-time
24:57 Creator we want to hire additional full-time creators we we really want to
25:03 lean in on content and and build Brands around
25:08 um the audiences that that the creators can can grow oh wow yeah so so so almost
25:14 like hey this thing fell in our lap and kind of accidentally but it's working working like a charm so how do we now
25:21 instead of accidentally do it intentionally you know look for others 100 customers
25:27 a hundred percent so you're seeing this this trend and it's not it's not new
25:32 it's been going on for for a decade now but it's continuing in the same in the
25:39 same velocity and Direction where the consumer behavior um of purchases it obviously matters
25:46 you've got to Overlay a need want scale and see where your product or brand Falls in that sure but the closer you
25:52 get over to the want toilet paper on the far left of need but
25:58 like battle box and and Brands like us where it's it's not necessarily a necessity right correct
26:04 um the closer you are on the to the want side right the more it matters brands or
26:10 consumers want to identify with the brand they want to feel some kind of connection and um yeah you're really
26:18 seeing what I described super tree look at these creators that were full-time
26:24 creators right so the one that comes to mind that everybody knows so it's it's the great one to give is the example is
26:31 Mr Beast of course yeah this guy has a massive following he's built purely from
26:38 a content and Community side point as a Creator and then he decides hey I'm
26:43 gonna launch a fast food chain hey I'm gonna launch a chocolate absolutely and
26:48 they're instantly successful because he already did the hard work of of building
26:53 this audience and having a connection she already has the eyeballs that's right he already has the eyeballs and
27:00 because he's amassed so many the the typical hurdles that a traditional business would run into like the you
27:08 know that's probably no the ridiculous sales funnel of how are we going to get our product in Walmart it was in Walmart
27:15 weekly he's already there yeah yeah he's already there it takes people years uh in finding the right buyer in the right
27:21 test and he just goes Nationwide um so so it's funny we were a business
27:27 first with content and we've seen what these creators have done and we actually
27:33 reverse engineered it yeah and accomplished it but now we really want
27:38 to focus on content yeah it's it's so smart and and so so
27:43 coming out with with even new maybe Brands right getting that in front of people as well and maybe even
27:49 Acquisitions or maybe others that you could you know look for something that's uh you're probably already going down
27:55 this road or thinking about it but something that's maybe they don't have the eyeballs you do and then you acquire
28:00 and bring it in and boom exactly so we um so that was the the story of
28:05 Carnivore Club was it was a monthly you know charcuterie subscription doesn't
28:11 necessarily um you think battle box carnivore Club sure there's probably you know some
28:16 Battlbox customers might like salami and killed Meats yeah but it was also
28:22 the the fact that we had this team in place we we have the marketing team we
28:27 have the operations team we own our own fulfillment sort of houses so we literally can take a brand like
28:33 Carnivore Club fold it into the mix and there's instant synergies um which and it also obviously then
28:40 creates additional revenue and profit yeah man very cool um
28:47 wow I love the journey man so what's What's um so so you guys are working on the uh
28:52 additional Brands additional content audience expansion other ways
28:57 um yeah that's exciting man so um the question I always ask all of my guests
29:02 on the show if there was uh if you're gonna hire a CEO to take the reins for your company what's the one book that
29:08 you would require he or she read before taking over for you um
29:13 so we had chatted about this book when we spoke last time the signal and the noise yeah
29:18 um so it's a lot of times it's probably not a traditional like
29:25 sea level or founder book right but but what it what I love about it is I mean
29:32 the title A lot of people are going to hear the title and understand yeah like what it's about which is accurate I
29:38 think that's probably the most important thing I would be looking for would be someone
29:44 that's able to to tell the difference right differentiate what is just noise yeah and what actually matters and it's
29:52 it's so true in the case of the Battlbox brand yeah because we have
29:57 such um uh passionate customers
30:02 um they let us know when they when they didn't like the box and um a lot of times it's noise right it's
30:10 it's two people and don't get me wrong I want everybody to be happy but they're these two really loud people that are
30:16 going on all social media channels super loud but Patrick we sent out twenty thousand
30:22 boxes last month like right everybody else right loved it everybody loved it yeah and that's probably uh uh not the
30:30 greatest example but it but it's an example right just being able to tell what's what's actually important and
30:36 what this signal is when you're when you're looking at data when you're you're looking at anything
30:42 and you have to be right I mean you're you're the CEO of the company you have to fly high you you have to 80 20 you
30:49 know what what is something that I'm going to put my attention towards what's real what's not real just out of curious
30:54 that since you curiosity since you brought it up is there a certain percentage of you know negative feedback
31:00 you say okay if we get above like a certain percent maybe five percent of the people or complained about this box
31:07 that's when we start you know looking at hey what do we need to do different type thing
31:13 yeah typically it's it's you might be surprised it's it's one percent one
31:19 percent okay one percent get this that's a lot of people yeah but it gets us to look at
31:24 maybe it's not something we need to address but right we're 100 gonna have a
31:29 conversation about about it was was it a product defect was it a you know did it
31:36 get damage in shipping right right was it just did we make a bad product selection
31:41 um it makes us at least dig into it yeah totally if it's if it's one percent or above it's on all of leadership's radar
31:48 yeah someone someone's sounded the alarm and said potential issues here yeah
31:54 totally yeah and you got you just got an award recently right
32:00 uh yeah so um to cheat and see what it's called
32:05 impact award yeah sub Summit so so sub Summit it's uh
32:13 um it's a conference for subscriptions right so everything from subscription
32:18 boxes like a battle box to um you know media like a periodicals
32:25 like Washington Post whatever it is yeah streaming service a lot of contenders yeah um and it the impact award is the first
32:32 year they they did it and um it was just highlighting and it was kind of cool
32:37 because I had no idea um oh you didn't know when you were there no I knew I knew a couple weeks
32:44 prior oh did you okay all right but like I didn't it wasn't an award prior so like I didn't think oh I wasn't like hey
32:51 I hope I win the impact yeah yeah yeah yeah it didn't exist um right it's just for for helping the community
32:58 um being someone that um you know doesn't mind sharing yeah what's under under the robe or behind
33:05 the curtain um I don't think others have to lose in
33:12 order for a battle box for me to win I love it I think everybody I mean that's your business model you
33:18 created it such that it's a win for the supplier the vendors it's a win for the client because they're getting something
33:23 for I mean I don't know 30 Less in retail 40 50 whatever that is and you
33:28 guys are a profitable company that's that's that's how the most successful businesses are are created man yeah
33:34 absolutely um yeah but I feel I I that's like when I think about
33:41 the things that give me enjoyment and fulfillment um outside of of Battlbox which which
33:48 does it's it's giving any kind of insights that you know maybe I can share
33:53 five insights and one of them resonates with someone being being able to share and and watch someone else have a
34:00 success from it that's like that's what gives me the the Good Feeling to to keep pushing and keep going cool man awesome
34:07 well great to have you on the show John I want to take a few seconds here and just summarize some of my key takeaways
34:13 one is uh direct to Consumers is is influencers really utilizing influencers
34:20 it sounds like that's been a real key strategic move for you guys you're sending out 50 boxes every month to your
34:25 influencers I think that's phenomenal um and you had talked about working with the vendors getting them uh really the
34:33 value proposition to them to sell their products to you at at their cost plus shipping and and really they're getting
34:40 the eyeball on the back end and they're getting sales that's that's phenomenally ingenious in that and you're passing on
34:46 that savings to to the battle box customers and and subscribers the other thing I thought was a great uh you know
34:52 sometimes we learn since the hard way and sometimes it takes the hard way for us to really you know make it click in
34:59 life and that's diversify your marketing lead sources and uh don't don't rely on
35:04 one uh platform even though it's going phenomenally well because you never know one algorithm one change one to anything
35:10 and then you're knocked out right right and it is kind of the same like when you're looking at a company you never
35:16 have more than you know 20 of your Revenue come from one client which is obviously not your anywhere near your model and then the last one I thought
35:22 was really great is is your brand connection uh especially that'll help you through tough times like as we know we got 2025
35:30 they're saying it's going to be you know or 2024 is going to be a recessionary year so you know having that brand
35:36 connection the the difference between something that people need versus want and if you don't have that in order to
35:43 just get through times like that you got to have that connection with them uh if you're if you're leaning more towards
35:49 the want side of things so awesome stuff man if there was one takeaway that you'd
35:54 really want the audience to absorb what would that be Joan um so so so building building the
36:00 community and trying to get the product right um I think it's it's so simple and
36:07 everybody knows this yet I think a lot of people don't do it is talk to your customers ask them for feedback right
36:13 ask them how you can can improve um I'm I'm really against like
36:20 for lack of better words like Ivory Tower Management uh that kind of view yeah control right yeah like I've I I
36:29 post we have a members only group you have to be an active subscriber to be in there um not everybody's in there we have
36:34 maybe 8 000 um members in there but I'll post in
36:40 there I'll interact with customers um if someone someone made a comment
36:45 yesterday about they didn't win a giveaway and they thought they should have won
36:50 very unusual for for the the CEO to jump in and interact with them of a company
36:56 right yeah I jumped in and I would do that yeah I said hey I was like what what platform was this and he said
37:02 Twitter and he showed a screenshot and I said you know we'll look into this and I tagged someone else in the group that
37:08 can take the ball and run with it but that interaction um it doesn't take a lot of time right
37:14 and you can use those interactions to to ask for for ways to improve and um
37:20 customers are going to tell you what they want right yeah absolutely um that's that's it seems more so than
37:27 ever before that consumers
