Guest Bio

Devin is the Co-Founder and CEO of DSquared International LLC, an eCommerce company specializing in consumer brands.  He is a ninja when it comes to building brands on the Amazon platform. He is currently best-known for his Grillaholics line of barbecue products..

Show Notes

Amazon is a great platform for minimizing the friction between creating a product and connecting it to consumers. But how can you scale up and make a big splash in an ocean of global competitors?

That’s why we approached Devin Dorosh, who has hit some awesome goals and brand recognition, to share with us tips that you can use now in your Amazon strategy - and maybe even get featured on television.

Stay focused on the things that you do well. Devin made sure he launched products that fit the niche he was targeting, with branding consistent with message. He kept rolling out more products, but focused on doing things well on Amazon (his strong suit) instead of getting distracted with new marketing techniques.

Treasure your interactions with your market, both positive and negative. Devin has a policy of replying to every single Amazon review his products get, whether they praise his goods or criticize them. This helped him build a feeling of real connection with his target market, pushing his brand to best-seller status on Amazon with great reviews.

That unique touch Devin takes with his audience is what got him noticed by Rachael Ray’s television show, getting his products and brand in front of the mainstream television-watching population.

Keep to a long-term vision to motivate you through your short-term goals. Growing your business can be a grind. Devin even found himself managing his supply chain during his honeymoon, when inventory matters became time-sensitive. But Devin stays motivated by thinking about the freedom he can give himself, his spouse, and his future children through the strong financial safety net he’s building.

We wish you the best of luck on your own Amazon business journey!

Key takeaways:

• Stay focused on the things that you do well
• Treasure your interactions with your market, both positive and negative, and
• Keep to a long-term vision to motivate you through your short-term goals

Connect with Todd

Find out more about Devin at www.devindorosh.com

• On Facebook
• On Twitter

Connect with Ryan

Find more amazing podcast discussions on FreedomFastLane.com.

• On Facebook
• On YouTube
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

Guest Bio

Todd Herman is a high-performance coach and advisor to Olympic athletes, billionaires, and entrepreneurs. Among many successes in athletic and business coaching, he is the creator of the “90 Day Year”; in his own words, “a program for business owners who are frustrated with their level of performance and want a highly refined system to get out of their own way and see their business and personal leadership thrive”.

Show Notes

We’ve had so many amazing conversations with people over the years, so we’ve decided to go into our archive and bring back some of our favorite podcasts for you. In this Freedom Fast Lane replay, we learn from coach and advisor Todd Herman about structuring your productivity calendar and goals in ways that deliver you better results, in a faster and saner way.

Todd won’t deny the importance of a long-term vision for success. But achieving that vision through long-term goals is the wrong way to go about it. We need to stop chasing goals with year-long, five-year-long, or ten-year-long deadlines, and we should instead break down our quest into 90 day sprints.

Why 90 days?

It’s short enough to feel tangible and doable, while long enough to achieve a serious goal. You also take advantage of positive neurological feedback loops by bringing the rush of success from achieving your goals more quickly, giving you the drive to ramp up your business faster than ever.

How can you get started?

You pick one particular, high-impact skill or goal that, if you focused on honing right now, would deliver the best performance results. That’s your target for the next 90 days.

These can be outcome goals (e.g. losing X pounds in 90 days), performance goals (e.g. doubling Facebook followers in 90 days), or process goals (determining who will do what, when, and where, to enhance business clarity and momentum).

Don’t let long-term goals drag down your long-term vision. Break things down into 90 day sprints, and you’ll see results sooner.

Key takeaways:

• Long-term vision is important, but long-term goals are inefficient at achieving that vision
• Pick your most high-impact skill or goal, and focus on that for 90 days
• These can be outcome goals, performance goals, or process goals.

Connect with Todd

Find out more about Todd at http://toddherman.me/

• On Facebook
• On Linkedin
• On Twitter

Connect with Ryan

Find more amazing podcast discussions on FreedomFastLane.com.

• On Facebook
• On YouTube
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

We had such a great response to Jeff Hoffman’s talk that we wanted to share his brief Q&A with Ryan. Even in just 14 minutes, he tells us three awesome, actionable tips that you can use now to build your business and plan for the future.

No matter how good you are, Jeff says, you can’t scale up your company without hiring other people. You can’t do everything, so you shouldn’t try to. Get the best people for the right job and put them to work for you.

Jeff also dispelled myths about initial funding. You don’t need to take on debt, talk to venture capital, sell private equity, or try all those other “traditional” approaches to get early cash. Jeff built his airline kiosk company by asking airports for a 50% deposit in advance. That way, he told them, they would be at the front of the line when the kiosks were completed.

It worked! He got a big pile of cash directly from his customers.

Jeff notes that we build businesses to chase our dreams. But sometimes they seem impossible to reach. Jeff’s managed to reach his, and he told us how.

Picture your goal, and work your way backwards in time from that moment. Jeff imagined meeting Elton John, and worked backwards from that imagined meeting to figure out how to make it happen (Jeff figures out products that the music industry wants to buy -> Jeff makes that product -> someone in the music industry takes his phone call -> he gets introduced to Elton John).

You can make it happen, too!

Key takeaways:

• You can’t scale a business without hiring a team
• You can raise funding without taking on debt or talking to venture capital, and
• You can chase “impossible” dreams if you work backwards from the dream to where you are now.

Connect with Jeff

• On Linkedin
• On Twitter

Connect with Ryan

Find more amazing podcast discussions on FreedomFastLane.com.

• On Facebook
• On YouTube
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

This week we go over an awesome, detailed talk about getting the most out of advertising on Facebook.

Curt Maly gave us a ton of practical, actionable information in just one hour. So we wanted to make sure you got those strategies.

These tactics include harnessing organic content properly. Make sure you post quality posts on your Facebook page on a regular basis, then test out which type of content resonates with your target audiences by promoting it through Facebook’s ad system.

Don’t worry about your clickthrough rates. Clickers are like window shoppers; 90% of your purchases come from people who never click on your ads, but see your content.

Once you’ve used Facebook’s tracking tools to generate lists of audiences with various levels of engagement with your brand, Curt says to host Facebook Live events at least once every two weeks. Every few minutes, make a call-to-action; for example, asking people to say where they’re watching from in the comments below, or to comment with questions they have.

That interaction reduces your ad costs, because Facebook detects that you’re putting out stuff that other people finds valuable. It also adds new people to your engaged audience lists for further targeted ads.

Curt also urges us to use Facebook Messenger bots now, to automate communication with interested leads and get them to see more ad copy.

Curt gave us so much great tips in this talk. If you want to scale up your business and are looking for advertising advice, you can’t miss this incredible hour-long speech. Get into Facebook Ads the right way, before your competitors do.

Key takeaways:

• Focus on generating relevant organic content, then testing its relevance by promoting it
• 90% of your purchasers don’t click on your ads, so don’t focus on clicks
• Host Facebook Lives for your audience with quality content and regular calls-to-action
• Take a look at using Messenger bots