Mastermind is where we create the blueprint of the company here's a good example. Should we bring manufacturing and fulfillment in house under one roof that we own? What are the implications of this? ? How much space do we need? What's it going to cost? Who can we put in place? What are we looking at here? It's not a decision that can be made easily and lightly or without a lot of data. So in Mastermind, we get together and we work on this problem together.
We figure it out and we make a collective decision and we move on. Why do I get together with my business partner in person for four days at a time twice a year? In January, we get together in the Redwood forest and an Airbnb with a Jacuzzi and a ping pong table and a fireplace and just a beautiful working space. We're going to do the same thing in June, July. We do it twice a year and we call it a mastermind.
The reason we call it a mastermind is because we put our brains together and create literally a mastermind by linking together. The work that we do in these masterminds has nothing to do with the day to day. In fact, we do almost no daily work. There's no slack responses and email answering it's all about the future. It's all about who we are, our identity, our mission, our purpose, and most importantly, our goals.
Every single mastermind, we have one intention, and that is to create three rocks. Rocks are the three focuses. of your business. Now, some companies will do three rocks a quarter. Some will do three rocks every six months for a total of six. We focus on three things for the entire year. When you're in e commerce and selling products, it takes a long time for changes to take place. It takes a long time to get product shipped to you.
It takes a long time to get things moved and created and approved and designed. It is a slow process. It is not fast, especially when you start talking about product development. Oh my gosh. It's insane. So we only choose three rocks because of that reason. We're a fairly slow moving ship and there's only about seven of us on the core team. So we can only do so much. The point of these masterminds is to choose which three things we're going to focus on.
It can be any three things you want, but I believe that what you focus on increases, and as you split your attention, you become less and less and less effective. So next week Nick is going to fly into town. I'm going to pick him up at the airport and we're going to go straight to the Airbnb.
We'll probably stop by the store and grab some snacks and some other things, but a majority of the time we're just going to be door dashing food, working out, playing golf, going on hikes and putting our brains together to decide what it is that we want to build. Let me explain it another way. Mastermind is where we create the blueprint of the company in mastermind is where we figure out what makes sense and where we make big decisions. Here's a good example.
Should we bring manufacturing and fulfillment in house under one roof that we own? What are the implications of this? What's it going to cost? What's the difference between working with a 3PL and a supplier? Or just working with a 3PL and being just our own supplier? Or bringing all of it in house under one roof? How much space do we need? What's it going to cost? Who can we put in place? What are we looking at here?
It's not a decision that can be made easily and lightly or without a lot of data. So in Mastermind, we get together and we work on this problem together. We figure it out and we make a collective decision and we move on. Another thing, it's like, what do we want to focus on? Throughout the year or throughout the last six months, we create lists and we keep putting it onto the Mastermind agenda. What should be our focus? Here are some examples of things that could be our focus for the year.
Paying down debt. Creating a continuity program. Launching a new product every quarter. Doubling down on TikTok shop. Pulling back on ad spend and focusing on organic. Building out specific funnels that are congruent with high performing organic content. Doubling down on the Tik Tok creator program, going into retail, building kits for Walmart and Hobby Lobby, specifically working with specific creators and capitalizing on their audience by creating a specific branded project for them.
The list goes on, the list goes on. You can be anything from paying down debt and shoring up operations to collecting customer testimonials. There are certain actions you can take that will get your business to where you want it to be. But it's hard to figure out what those actions are if you don't know where you want to go and who you want to be. I found that a lot of businesses don't know what they want. Myself included, I was one of them.
I was just making a product so I could make some money online while I slept. Like that's how it started at least, that's my, that's the only why that I needed. But as I've grown and we've jumped up in revenue and in size and in complications and in values and mission, I've grown as a human being. And that's what's so special about business.
You work on it, but it works on you more and it turns you into a person capable of doing this or X or Y. It really shapes you, especially if you're someone like us. So in the beginning, I didn't know what I wanted, and this mastermind process probably wouldn't have really helped that much. But over the years, I've come to care more and more and put more and more effort into the business.
I put more attention on it, and I've said no to more things, because saying no means that I can continue to focus and say yes to that one thing. But in order to get excited about what we're building, it's got to work. It's got to make us money. It's got to be fun and it's got to be sustainable and actually be profitable, so it can self fund. I don't think enough people think about that, but that's a discussion for another day. Figuring out what you want is quite difficult.
It's difficult to do as a person, and it's difficult to do for your business, but I think it's arguably easier to do with your business. We want to make a bunch of money by doing this. You know what I mean? We want to be able to change this many lives or affect this many things. It's a great way to start. And like I mentioned to you, as I've grown as a business owner, my values have changed. My morals have changed. What I want in this world has changed.
I now want very different things than I did two years ago. And so we take all of that into account when we're figuring out what we want to do with this business. Each year I learn more. I mean, shoot, every month I learn more and it turns me into a person capable of understanding another pathway that may potentially exist, which is really great, but also creates a lot of shiny objects at the same time. It distracts you. So at Mastermind, we're going to choose just three.
Just three of the million things that we can do as a business. And I know you feel this too. Oftentimes it feels like, almost like overwhelm or an anxious feeling when you have so many options, but you don't have clarity on which ones you've chosen to do and where to spend your time. Mastermind. With Nick, my partner eliminates that feeling of unease, anxiety, and really helps us focus and hone in on the three things that we really want to grow this year.
If we choose everything, we choose nothing. If we choose three, I know that we can probably execute and get it done. So. How does the process go? What does it like look like? Well, the first and the most important thing is for both of us to be in a good state of mind, right? We both want to come into this with a plan and an agenda, knowing what we're going to discuss. This isn't just a hangout, although that ends up happening a lot of the time. We get to know each other.
We. Deep in our relationship, our focus is work. And after we wake up in the morning, have something to eat, hit the gym, we work through lunch through dinner. And it is only in the evening time that we start to chill out and relax and go places in the conversation that we normally wouldn't. It's really special every single day. We just keep working through the agenda. We'll never get it all done. There will never be enough time to finish everything on the list.
So we have to be strategic about it and lay out our priorities. For example, one of the first things that we're going to do and mastermind together is lay out the agenda. And we're going to organize it in terms of priority. What's the most important thing for us to work on? And oftentimes determining your three rocks is at the top of the list. Now, just a quick side note here. You've heard me say the word rocks quite a bit. That terminology comes from the entrepreneur operating system, EOS.
It's. clearly outlined in the book traction, which is a fantastic book. If you haven't read it, it's a management system. It's a way to guide and drive your business through a framework that they suggest. For example, you determine your three rocks and then you work that backwards and you create three goals for each employee.
Who's in a specific department and then based on each goal, you create KPIs or key performance indicators that that individual can fill out and monitor to know how close they are to getting towards the goal. Here's an example. , let's say one of our rocks this year is to collect a thousand memories, right? A thousand customer testimonials. What we'll do is we'll break that down into three specific goals for our customer success manager, and these three goals are things.
Actions that she can take and these three goals relate to that rock. Now they're not always actions. Sometimes they're things to monitor. Sometimes they're projects. It can take any form. But the important thing is, is that we get clear. For example, reach out and request 10 video testimonials every single day. Make sure our link is included in every customer service correspondence, , after a successful customer interaction, send the link to the customer for feedback.
The KPIs that can be associated with this specific task or goal would be number of customer testimonials, number of reach outs, percentage of testimonials returned. Total number of reach out. See what I'm saying? So we create a plan and we work it down all the way for every single person on the team. That way the company knows where we're going. We can all be focused. We can all work together and we can all have an understanding of what we're building here.
I am so guilty of not being clear about what I want and what we need. This is a great way for us to put clarity around this business. And make sure that everybody can get on the same page, because without clarity, it's just, it's inefficient. You know, a lot of leakage of efficiency everywhere. And I really want us all to work together like a professional team. At least that's how I envision us. And doing these activities is what the big boys do. And I want to become a big boy.
So I'm going to do what they do because I know that it works. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm just trying to make some more money. So I can create more opportunity for my team, my family, my customers. It just, it just speaks to me right there, man. It's just so real. It's exactly what I'm trying to do. Meaningful relationships and meaningful work and create as much opportunity and abundance as humanly possible. So back to mastermind.
I filled you in on traction and the Entrepreneur operating system, or EOS. It's one of the ways that we manage our employees and our team. It's also one of the ways that we figure out how to create what we're going to create. I follow the same system. I respect the system. Nick does. We work together on this because we deeply care. Another thing that we're going to look at is key decisions, right? For example, all of us are faced with all kinds of decisions every single day with our business.
Do you want to ship your own products or do you want to hire 3PL? Shopify or do you want to be on WooCommerce? Do you want to spend more money on ads on Amazon or on Facebook? Um, should we look into TikTok? Should we look into YouTube shops? You know, how's our Google performance max campaigns? How should we allocate the budget? Are we budgeting correctly? Cause right now we have our budget broken down, um, in terms of percentage of top line revenue.
You know, for example, um, salaries is no more than 20 percent of the money that we make in top line. So for doing 200, 000 a month in sales, our salaries are only going to be 40, 000. So we need to fit within that mastermind is where we can dig into the nitty gritty and make plans about that. Sometimes we'll write job descriptions. Sometimes we'll lay out the framework for a website. Sometimes we will just create. plans and frameworks for our team to follow that we believe might help.
Mastermind is a really special thing and, I didn't know it was possible. I didn't know that it was just, it was a thing that you could do because I'd never spent time in that world around people that are as high quality as my partner, Nick. He's the one that taught me all of this. He's fantastic. And if you don't know about Nick, his name is Nick Marquis. He is my partner in Scorch Marker. He is the CMO, the chief marketing officer, and he handles all the sales and marketing side.
I'm in operations. I handle the operational side and cast the vision. He's the no guy, I'm the yes guy. He's the numbers and analytical guy, I am the creative, non numbers guy. We have very complementary skill sets. Fun fact, I had been looking for a partner for a very long time. I was just unsuccessful. I didn't find the right person who had the right combination of skills, time, and money that they could bring to the table. Nick does, but it took five years to find him.
And I bring this up because I know that you and I are similar in the respect that we don't want to do this alone, that it would be more fun, more enjoyable, and we could go farther with a partner. The problem was, is I didn't know how to look for the right partner. I didn't know what to look for. So I just want to touch on that really quick because it's very top of mind for me and very apparent.
Especially as I've grown with Nick, I've come to, love him as a human and as a brother and like, Oh, he's such a good dude. But I didn't know what to look for. So let me share that criteria with you now. There are three things. Time, skills, and money. And you want your partner to bring at least, at the very least, one of those to the table. In addition, you're looking for somebody who is not the same as you. If you're a visionary, you need an integrator.
If you're someone who comes up with all the ideas and has all the plans, you need an analytical mind. You need an integrator or an operator to compliment you. If you're really good at numbers, you need someone that's not really good at numbers. If you're really good at leadership, maybe you can use somebody that's not also skilled in leadership and management. The reason I bring this up is because I didn't know what a good partner looked like until I came across a good partner.
Now that I've met Nick, I have a new understanding of what it's like to have a synergistic relationship. You read about it. You hear about it, especially in Ray Dalio's book principles, but I couldn't really conceptualize it and identify with it until I met this guy, man, we could literally just talk for hours and time melts away. We want to work hard for each other. We push each other to be better people and everything is just, it's a beautiful relationship.
If you take anything away from what I just said, please hold out and wait for the right person. If you even have a shadow of a doubt that this person may not be the right fit for you, just don't do it. Just wait, be patient on this. I know that's hard to do. I know that's really hard to do because a lot of times you're just like, fuck, I just need the help. Uh, I just, I don't want to be alone anymore. it's much more difficult to unravel that relationship than it is just to wait.
And I'm so glad I waited with some of the other people because they just weren't right. They just weren't right. I needed someone who was a little further ahead than me but saw value in what I was creating and who I was so they could bring me up to their level and then we could go together. It's really special. And now that I know the quality of partner that Nick is, I would never consider to do something other than what we have together. Very special.
This is one of the most exciting things that I do all year, is get together with Nick and work on business. I'm obsessed with this stuff. And I know you are too. If you're anything like me, business banking can feel intimidating and overwhelming. That's why this podcast is sponsored by Relay, a business banking platform that's better than all the others. Why do I say it's better though? Because I've used it. I still use it.
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I'll leave an affiliate link in the description so you can try it out for yourself. So, that's why this podcast subject matter is what it is. This is a slept on exercise that people do, and in this world where we are. Spending more and more time online, more and more Zoom meetings, more Slack communications. It's, sometimes it's rare for us to get together in person, but it's a requirement if you really want to go deep and go far.
I think that it's in our best interest to create human connections. There are energies and things that we can transmit to each other beyond the spoken word and what we can see in person that we can't get online. Especially when it comes to deepening relationships and building bonds and getting close. So, on Wednesday I'm going to pick up Nick. We're going to hit the grocery store. We're going to head to the Airbnb. And we're going to start working on this business.
We're going to start building something really special. And we're going to revisit all of the hard work we've done in the past and say, What worked and what didn't? What needs to be taken out or added in? What can we refine? What's our priorities? What should we be working on? What's this company going to look like? We're going to revisit our mission, our vision, and our values. We're going to make sure it's still in line with what we want to do. And then we're going to think about our team.
Look at it through their perspective and look at who we have on this bus and where we might be able to go because we have those people. I'm telling you, Mastermind is worth it. It's very special. It's a business expense, so you can have your company pay for it. Just make sure you get good use out of it. Don't squander it. I mean, I don't think you will, to be honest with you.
Even if we just hung out and played golf all day long and ate good food, because he's my partner and we work in this business together, we're inadvertently going to make strides. But I really like the frameworks that Nick brings to the table, and I deeply enjoy this process because I know that we're setting the tone. And laying out the plan for the company, for the people on the team to build. And that's really special. And it's not something you can take lightly.
Or do easily without intention and thought. And when you get together with another great mind and synergize, that intention and that thought comes together. And it's a beautiful thing. I hope you got something out of that. And if you have any questions, please let me know. You can expect me to start a mastermind just for e commerce entrepreneurs like us eventually. It's something that I've been talking about for a couple of years now and, , I've put a little bit of effort into it. I don't know.
I'll give you a sneak peek of what that's going to look like. For example, pay me a couple thousand dollars. And just get to the Redwood Forest. Just fly into my airport. I will take care of the rest. The goal is to get like minded people like you and me together in a physical location. So that we can spend time together and do the same things that I do with Nick. Golf. Work out. Eat good food. Go on hikes. Spend time outside. Fire pits. Psychedelics.
Having a good time breaking through walls and getting to know each other and helping each other. You see, you can go so fast if you're by yourself, but you can go so much further if you're with a team, with a group, with a tribe. So my intention is to build this place so that for two, three days, you can come out to the Redwood forest, spend time with me and a bunch of other seven figure operators and we can get dialed in.
We can become friends and we can help each other make even more money and become more wealthy. Now remember when I say wealth, I'm not just talking about cash, I'm talking about the seven categories of life that my wife and I have designed. for ourselves and your categories might be different, but to give you an example, ours are finance, business, spirituality, philanthropic, home relationship, friendships, things like that.
We're very intentional about what we're building and what the perfect life looks like. And so when we get together in places like this masterminds, we can get wealthier because we can teach each other what we're doing in our lives. For example, I'm an excellent father and a great husband.
I don't have as much money as other people though, and so where I can offer you solutions and help and guidance in fatherhood and masculinity and, just being there for a wife and kids and doing it in a way that feels good and brings you joy, I got you.
Maybe you can teach me how to be Better at sales or learn how to, transmit information to my ideal customer better There's just so many things that I need help with there's so many things I'm not good at But there are a handful of things that I am good at I can teach you how to make content I got you on that and that's what these places are Like these masterminds are designed to bring our minds together and create one master mind Now there is one other thing that we would
do there that will be quite beneficial and quite fun And it's actually called the mastermind process And what that is is?
Every person gets eight minutes, we have an object like a ball and you can only speak if you're holding the ball, you give your speech for eight minutes, whatever it is that's going on in your life and you need help with and when someone has something to add or offer, they raise their hand and you give them the ball and they are able to speak for eight minutes regarding what you talked about and offer suggestions, help guidance, insight or ask questions.
We do that in a group setting so that we can all work on problems collectively in a structured environment. It's incredibly powerful and I have literally seen it make people millions of dollars. That's what you have to look forward to in this community. That's what you have to look forward to if you hang out with me and continue to make more and more money. These types of opportunities are going to become very real. It's what I want. Remember, my personal mission in life.
is to do meaningful work with meaningful people and to create as much abundance and opportunity as possible. This is my way of doing that. Thank you for listening, by the way. I really appreciate your attention. Let's dig in to the numbers. Like I promise on every episode. Let's take a look at our 30 day sales numbers and conversion rates for Scorchmarker. The day I'm recording this podcast is January 7th. So we're still including some of the data from Q4 as it's the trailing 30.
Meaning the last 30 days, regardless of what month we're in. So what you're hearing from me now, we'll have a little bit of our Q4 sales in there as well. But nonetheless, every time I record 30 day sales numbers, it just makes things simple. And it's a metric that I track often. Let's start with retail. Retail. We earned a total of 19, 000. Now, we submitted and sent out the inventory months ago, but we did get paid within the last 30 days. So, I'm including it, and it's going into the bucket.
Last episode, we did not include retail because I didn't have anything to show for it. Uh, we hadn't had any Uh, checks come in, but we did in the last 30 and that was from Hobby Lobby, 19, 000 from that over the last 30 days on Shopify, we've done a total of 56, 000 in sales, 56, 000. Our conversion rate was 1. 31%. It dropped. I can explain that drop, but I also want to get that up, right? Uh, just because I can explain it doesn't mean I don't want to change it.
We had a lot of content on the Vanader side of the business go viral. We have, I got 10 million views on a YouTube short and it was a video about me making maker's magic. So we've had a lot of traffic come to our site that are not buyers.
People that wouldn't typically purchase our product and so that is a blended conversion rate for the entire website Which includes MetaShops and Instagram and as well as all the other ways that we get traffic So the conversion rate dropped but the total visitors went up and the total sales went up while marketing spend went down CPMs dropped in everything.
So it's really interesting to see the conversion rate go down, but sales go up I wish the conversion rate could get to like three four or five percent. I would Be over the moon. I would have a completely different business. The conversion rate is just so important. Amazon over the last 30 days on Amazon, we did 162, 000 in sales. Our conversion rate dropped a little bit as well. I believe that's from less buyer intent after the holidays, but it is now at 13 percent blended on Amazon.
That's 19, 000 from Hobby Lobby, 56, 000 from Shopify, and 162, 000 from Amazon. I'd like to take a moment to thank you for listening. Your attention means the world to me. It really does. If you've gotten to a point where you have any questions or you're ready to apply for the Operator Academy, shoot me a DM so I can take care of you. Otherwise, keep doing the boring work and be good to future you.