I’ve started 9 businesses in 12 years. No wonder I’m exhausted. Here’s what I would do differently if I were starting today, which is actually what I did to start my latest business. Note: if you want to be a solo consultant or freelancer, that’s different than I’m talking about in this episode. That’s a fine choice but it will have very different considerations. Also, I said make $100k in annual revenue before committing to the business. That might be too high. Maybe $50k is the number, but I w...
Jun 17, 2025•19 min•Season 2Ep. 3
What is product-market fit actually? I stumbled onto it, partly on purpose, partly through dumb luck. In this episode I share how 3-way differentiation (a niche within a niche within a niche) built my current business. And the 4 phases you'll go through to find product-market fit. Listen and apply them to your own business. You can contact Isaac by clicking the link below: http://hireteamup.com/contact-isaac
May 19, 2025•32 min•Season 2Ep. 2
It's been 2.5 years since Isaac published an episode. What happened? Where did he go, and why publish this now? You can contact Isaac by clicking the link below: http://hireteamup.com/contact-isaac
Apr 30, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Check Jesse out at productpearl.com Get a free copy of Joe Valley's book The Exitpreneur's Playbook: exitpreneur.io/nextlevel/ Get ready to sell you business by getting your books in order: summitecommerce.co
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 112
Daisy Delfinado Operations Manager Summit eCommerce Advisors Need help with your bookkeeping or cashflow planning? Daisy & Isaac's professional team provides bookkeeping and fractional CFO service. Get in touch here: Summit eCommerce Advisors summitecommerce.co
Sep 06, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 111
Nate Ginsburg tells the story of acquiring Centrurica, a company that does due diligence services for online businesses. Nate Ginsburg CEO Centurica centurica.com Need help with your bookkeeping? Want help with cashflow planning? Isaac's professional team provides bookkeeping and fractional CFO service. Get in touch here: Summit eCommerce Advisors summitecommerce.co
Aug 09, 2022•59 min•Ep. 110
Nick Contristan tells his story of building and selling his ecommerce business. Want to sell your business? First, you'll need clean books. (Otherwise buyers and brokers won't even talk to you.) Second, you'll need a team doing most of the work. (Buyers don't want to buy a job.) Isaac's team can help with both of these things. Get your books cleaned up and ready for the sale by having Summit eCommerce Advisors do it for you. And let us help you build a rockstar team. Find out more at: www.summit...
Jul 19, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 109
Scott Moran Founder of Go2 https://www.go2.io
Jun 21, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 108
Joe Valley Quite Light Brokerage - https://quietlight.com The Exitpreneur's Playbook Get a free copy here: https://exitpreneur.io/nextlevel Have Isaac's team get your bookkeeping in order, so you can sell your business: https://summitecommerce.co
May 24, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 107
Mads Singers Management Consultant www.madssingers.com
May 10, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 106
The story of Duda acquiring Snipcart, with the CEOs of both companies. Duda - https://www.duda.co Snipcart - https://snipcart.com Francois’ blog post about selling Snipcart - https://www.flanthiernadeau.com/selling-snipcart-part-one/
Apr 05, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 105
Amy Wees Founder of Amazing At Home
Mar 15, 2022•49 min•Ep. 104
Get free SEO tips & fundaments - www.summitecommerce.co/seomonth Check out John’s new eCommerce SEO course - www.ecomseomethod.com
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 103
Guest: Ben Leonard Company: Ecom Brokers Links: EcomBrokers Website Why eCom Brokers in Facebook
Jan 25, 2022•49 min•Ep. 102
What if you focused on your superpower? How much progress could you make? Michael Erickson Facchin did exactly that. He knows where he's best and delegates the rest. Listen now to find out how he found his superpower, how he trusted it, and how he's able to delegate without fear of losing control. Show notes: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Get Beta Access to our new program at NO COST: How To Build Teams & Systems For Ecommerce Business Owner We're only taking beta 25 members, and there are on...
Jan 18, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Everything changes when you find out you have a baby on the way. If you're doing everything yourself in your business when you find out, what changes would you make? Anastasia Vankova knew she had to systemize and outsource. Otherwise how would she run her growing business with a new baby? How did she get free from the day-to-day operations without causing problems? Listen now to find out. Show notes: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Get your no-cost bookkeeping strategy session with Isaac here: www...
Jan 11, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Entrepreneurs are a strange bunch. It takes someone special to make that big leap. Caleb Roth has been hustling since college, when he learned to flip textbooks on Amazon. When he turned his side hustle into his full-time gig, he found out what separated him from everyone else. He learned it again with his employees. Why didn't they try to steal his ideas and compete with him? Listen now to find out what separates entrepreneurs from employees and everyone else. Show notes: http://nextlevelecomme...
Jan 04, 2022•1 hr 7 min
How will marketing change in 2021? How will you keep up? George Bryant has his finger on eCommerce marketing's biggest pulse. Today, George shares: - the #1 most important thing for marketing in 2021 - the 3 fundamental ways marketing will change in 2021 Listen now to find out how you can avoid being left behind. Show notes: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Want to exit your eCommerce business? Sell it to Ian Bond and his investors. Contact Ian - ianbond@professionalwebsiteinvestors.com...
Dec 21, 2021•1 hr 29 min
For many, Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad Poor Dad opened our eyes to entrepreneurship. But what can you learn by revisiting the book? Guest Matt Scott has built a successful ecommerce business. In planning for his family's future, he's gone back to Rich Dad Poor Dad and the follow up, Cashflow Quadrant. He shares how he's starting to put those lessons into practice in his business. Listen to find out how. Show notes: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Get your no-cost bookkeeping strategy session wit...
Dec 14, 2021•57 min
What sourcing advantages can you gain for your eCommerce business by living in China for 10 years? How about being able to find your competitors' factories, improving their products, and beating them on Amazon and other platforms? That's exactly what Brian Miller has done. During that time, he also built a logistics company, with a modern warehouse in China. Click to listen, and find out exactly how he's done that. Show notes: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Want to exit your eCommerce business? Se...
Dec 07, 2021•1 hr 13 min
eCommerce store owner, coach, and consultant, Jon Warren, shares what all $1-10+ million stores have in common. He talks marketing, strategy, and mindsets that he's seen separate big businesses from those that struggle. He also tells Host Isaac Smith why he suggested that Isaac sell his drop shipping store, over 1 year ago. Show notes: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Now tap play to hear Jon! Want to exit your eCommerce business? Sell it to Ian Bond and his investors. Contact Ian - ianbond@professi...
Nov 30, 2021•51 min
Entrepreneur Jon Warren shares lessons from consulting with 7 and 8 figure eCommerce businesses. Jon talks talks about partnerships, and how to set them up for success. Importantly, Jon is the one who first suggested that Host Isaac Smith should sell his drop shipping store. Show notes are at: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Click play to hear Jon's story! Want to exit your eCommerce business? Sell it to Ian Bond and his investors. Contact Ian - ianbond@professionalwebsiteinvestors.com...
Nov 23, 2021•48 min
Starting his eCommerce journey in 1996 by building a website to sell gift baskets for a pecan farm in Alabama, Patrick Pitman has seen a lot. The biggest successes in entrepreneurship often come directly after the biggest failures. Knowledge and skills that are built during those times of struggle that lay the foundation for the next big success. Today, Patrick serves eCommerce businesses, by helping them connect with their customers on a deeper level. But it was facing obstacles head on that eq...
Nov 16, 2021•1 hr 1 min
This is a story of leverage. It's the story of how Kiri Masters built a 25 person Amazon-based eCommerce marketing agency, by leveraging skills she developed with her eCommerce store. Now she's leveraging what she's created with the marketing agency to serve even more eCommerce businesses. This is a must-listen for all entrepreneurs, because it shows how to connect your current progress to your next steps. Show notes can be found at: nextlevelecommerce.co Want to sell your eCommerce business? Ia...
Nov 09, 2021•1 hr 21 min
How do you build an eCommerce business that supports your family without taking your time away from them? Jeremy Parker has been hyper-intentional about making sure his company works for him, not the other way around. Jeremy explains how he was able to do just that. Show notes are at: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Want to sell your eCommerce business? Ian Bond and his network of investors may be interested. Contact Ian - ianbond@professionalwebsiteinvestors.com...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 9 min
What is the secret to scaling an eCommerce business? Facebook ads? A new SEO strategy? Samantha Wu and Wad Ali share how they've scaled as far as they can, working on their own. Now they're building teams, to free up their time, so they can work ON their businesses. They share why they struggled to find good team members, and how they're finding Rockstars now. Listen now to find out how you can do the same. Show notes are at: http://nextlevelecommerce.co Want to sell your eCommerce business? Ian...
Oct 26, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Saxon's business was plummeting, due to something outside his control. He felt like a failure. Fast forward 1 year, and he's back on top. But man, that was a tough year. He wanted to give up. He doubted himself. Saxon Funk told the first part of that story over a year ago on the podcast. When he was at the bottom. Today, he comes back to tell what happened. How did he keep going? Listen now to find out the real truth of what it's like. The truth NOBODY wants to talk about. And how you can keep i...
Oct 19, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Successful eCommerce store owner, Saxon Funk, is experiencing a major downturn in his business. He shares openly about what it's like when you're in the middle of an emotionally low moment. As online business owners, like all entrepreneurs, have dips and valleys in our journeys. But the struggle and pain isn't often talked about. Today, we go deep. Huge thanks to Saxon for being so open and sharing the dark side of this journey with us. We know he'll come back bigger and badder than ever, like m...
Oct 12, 2021•1 hr
How Ronnie Teja built an aspirational brand of watches, even though he knew nothing about them. He talks about growing a distributed team of 25 people, and selling in countries you would not expect. Ronnie shares openly about the low moments in his entrepreneurial journey - the time he though he would have to quit and get a job. He talks about how he got through that obstacle, and now faces similar challenges regularly. He talks about starting eCommerce stores in multiple currencies, and many co...
Oct 05, 2021•58 min
Our most exciting episode yet - Host Isaac Smith interviews the buyer of his eCommerce business. Steven Pflaster shares why he chose to buy Isaac's drop shipping store. You'll learn what he looks for in businesses, and how he's growing the store beyond the level Isaac did. Steven and Isaac talk about the details and emotional side of the deal, and going through migration. They discuss how the business is performing now, and Steven's plans for the future. This is a surprisingly honest and transpa...
Sep 28, 2021•1 hr 21 min
