How To Partner With Amazon Influencer’s and Make More Money from Expert Deanne Gustafson

Episode 191

Ever wondered how an Amazon Influencer really makes a living? Or perhaps you’re curious about how your brand can collaborate with influencers for mutual gain? Buckle up, because we embarked on a deep dive into the world of Amazon influencer marketing with none other than Deanne Gustafson, the Amazon influencer and co-founder of the successful company, Kombucha On Tap.

Deanne took us on a journey from her early days as a TV news reporter, through her transition to becoming an Amazon influencer, to creating her own successful brand. She shared invaluable insights on the Amazon Influencer Program, including the nitty-gritty of how it works, and how influencers and brands can build lucrative partnerships. We took a magnifying glass to everything from finding the right influencers to understanding fee structures and best practices for using influencer-produced content. Deanne was also transparent about the unpredictable nature of Amazon’s metrics and cashflow, offering her own experiences and solutions.

But that’s not all! Deanne also let us into her entrepreneurial journey with Kombucha On Tap. We explored the importance of spotting trends with high demand but low supply, and how this strategy has helped her build a successful venture. By the end of our conversation, you’ll have new insights on Amazon influencer partnerships, understand how to spot potentially profitable trends, and be motivated by the power of influence and entrepreneurship in building a business. So, whether you’re an entrepreneur or an Amazon seller, grab a cup of your favorite brew, and join us for this treasure trove of knowledge and inspiration.

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00;00;24;03 – 00;00;48;17
Speaker 2
Welcome, everyone, to the Firing the podcast. On today’s episode, we have the privilege to interview Diane Gustafson. Diane is an Amazon influencer and co-founder of Kombucha on Tap. Diane is also a former news reporter slash anchor turned full time Amazon influencer. She also co-founded Kombucha on Tap in 2014 and has nearly a decade of experience growing this brand.

00;00;48;18 – 00;00;52;24
Speaker 2
We are excited to share Diane’s wealth of knowledge with you today. Welcome to the show, Diane.

00;00;52;26 – 00;00;53;24
Speaker 1
Thanks for having me.

00;00;53;26 – 00;01;02;28
Speaker 2
Absolutely. So for those of our listeners that have not heard you speak, can you please share with them a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are today?

00;01;02;29 – 00;01;25;01
Speaker 1
Absolutely. So as you mentioned in my bio, I started as a TV news reporter and anchor. And so communications and storytelling is in my blood and doing videos. That’s like what lights me up. And I did TV news for many years. In 2008, I left that industry kind of when the economy started tanking. I just moved back to San Diego, where I’m from, and I was freelancing and they basically let go of all freelancers.

00;01;25;01 – 00;01;43;15
Speaker 1
So I didn’t really have a choice. I just kind of had to pivot. And I went to online news. But I actually found a lot more like life that I liked in online news. I was able to work remotely, which I loved. This was, you know, back before remote was like the cool thing. And I was getting really burnt out as a journalist on negative news.

00;01;43;15 – 00;01;58;29
Speaker 1
I had actually become desensitized to death and had kind of a life changing story that we can share. Another day cause it’s kind of long. But basically I’d like a wake up call that made me realize like I was not the person I wanted to be. Like I was excited for people to be dead. And that’s that’s not a good thing to be.

00;01;59;01 – 00;02;18;02
Speaker 1
So I really left that world and kind of decided to focus on positive stories and positive news and still did the news for many years in the online space. And then in 2013, I met my boyfriend, who’s now my husband, and we were on a business trip in Bend, Oregon, where I used to be a news anchor, and we just saw kombucha on tap everywhere.

00;02;18;02 – 00;02;36;14
Speaker 1
And he never had it. So I just kept making him drink it. And I said, Hey, nobody’s doing this on tap in Southern California. Like, this is the market for it, you know, helping people. So we just realized there was this window of opportunity and we took it and we launched our company knowing nothing about being beverage distributors or kegs or anything like that.

00;02;36;14 – 00;02;55;29
Speaker 1
And then that was like, yeah, almost ten years ago, 99 and half years ago now that we launched that. So then I did that with him. We grew that company really fast and then I just started feeling like part of me was missing. I wasn’t doing the videos. I never dreamed of being a beverage distributor. That was never my long term goal in life, and he was super happy.

00;02;55;29 – 00;03;10;22
Speaker 1
But I was getting really stressed and I was doing a lot of admin, which just kind of stuck to my soul. And then I started by selling for a fashion boutique locally, which was fun because it was like doing the live part of TV news that I love, but instead of covering a homicide, I was just trying on clothes.

00;03;10;22 – 00;03;26;25
Speaker 1
And so that was fun. And then I started just looking, How can I get better at live selling? And I found Amazon how to live programs. So I applied to that. That was about the end of 2020. And I got in and I did an Amazon live and I made like $0.25. Why? What is the point of this?

00;03;26;27 – 00;03;48;12
Speaker 1
But I thought, don’t give up yet. You know, maybe you’re first of all, it’s just rough. I don’t know. So I did it again and I made like $0.50. And I just thought, well, this is just kind of a waste of my time. So I tucked the program away. I didn’t touch it for about two years. January 20, 22, I started joining these Facebook groups for Amazon influencers, and everyone was talking about shoppable videos, nothing like that.

00;03;48;13 – 00;04;05;24
Speaker 1
So once I learned that you could do these videos that are like product reviews and make money that way, I started doing that and it was like instilling money was hitting my account and then I went all in. So I’ve been doing that full time now for a year and a half and I love it. In addition, I still live sell once a week at a fashion boutique.

00;04;05;24 – 00;04;15;14
Speaker 1
I do UGC content. I kind of have a few different like things that I’m involved in. And then of course, I also do a little bit with Rich on Top. So that’s kind of like my background in a nutshell.

00;04;15;17 – 00;04;30;10
Speaker 3
That’s really cool. Thanks for sharing your story and I think it’s awesome how you said earlier in the interview that you kind of light up when you get on screen in your video and it’s kind of like you’re your wheelhouse. And so you’ve kind of went back to that. Now you’ve kind of found that in the in the e-commerce space with with Amazon live.

00;04;30;10 – 00;04;46;04
Speaker 3
So that’s that’s really cool. So can you share with the are the audience like at a high level what is it Amazon influencer like what are they and how do they make money like how how does it all you mentioned $0.25 $0.50 and now it’s hitting your account like how does that how does that work?

00;04;46;05 – 00;05;02;22
Speaker 1
Absolutely. So the Amazon influencer program is through Amazon. You apply to get in and they kind of change the requirements all the time. We don’t know what their requirements are, so there’s not like a set in stone, do this and you get in. But anyone can apply and you can see if you get in or not. And then there’s, there’s two things.

00;05;02;22 – 00;05;19;16
Speaker 1
So there’s Amazon influencer and there’s Amazon Associate, Amazon associate. Pretty much anyone can do it. You have a website, you could make a website tomorrow and get into that. That’s where you share your link on social media and you get commission that people buy from your link and actually you get a higher commission than you do as an Amazon influencer.

00;05;19;17 – 00;05;36;14
Speaker 1
The Amazon influencer allows you to have your videos on Amazon earning Commission for people that are there to shop, so they’ll see the product I’m reviewing. And if they watch my video, either 30 seconds or more or the whole thing, if it’s under 30 seconds, and then they buy, I get commission that way.

00;05;36;15 – 00;05;43;12
Speaker 3
Okay. And so it’s on the Amazon app. I guess as they’re shopping, there’ll be videos or yeah, reading the app.

00;05;43;12 – 00;06;01;06
Speaker 1
And one thing to know is Amazon changes constantly. I’m sure you guys are very used to that as sellers. So for a while we’re showing on the app and then we’re not shown on the app. So we kind of have to be really ready to just like roll with it. And sometimes your commissions are great and sometimes you’re like, Oh my gosh, are my videos even being seen?

00;06;01;06 – 00;06;02;04
Speaker 1
Like, where are they?

00;06;02;08 – 00;06;21;14
Speaker 3
Gotcha. Yeah. And so one last question. I’ll kick it over to David. Is there a way to search product? So for sellers like, you know, for selling certain products? Okay, two questions. One, how do we connect with influencers to get our products promoted in to if, let’s say every once in a while we’ll have a massive spike in sales that we can’t figure out why.

00;06;21;15 – 00;06;28;00
Speaker 3
And we’re like, Maybe it was an influencer. Is there a way for sellers to like look at all the influencers and see if they promoted their product?

00;06;28;00 – 00;06;47;05
Speaker 1
Yeah, I wish it was like that simple right model where you could just be like, This is who I’m looking for. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt to find us. And when you get those spikes, yeah, you would maybe be able to see if a video was in the place and the influencer video, but if they shared it on their social media, it would be really hard to track it back to who you could give a nice tip to.

00;06;47;05 – 00;07;01;11
Speaker 1
But one way a lot of people find me, and it’s mostly brands in China, but they’ll see me on their competitors page. So let’s say I reviewed the Roomba. They have an off brand Roomba, then they reach out to me and give me in, you know, see if I want to do their product.

00;07;01;14 – 00;07;02;10
Speaker 3
Okay, sounds good.

00;07;02;12 – 00;07;15;04
Speaker 1
So you can look for your competitor if it’s on your competitor. They have a full on as a new look. That’s a video that’s. I want you to do it. Yeah, I wish it was easier. I mean, if you guys have pool sellers, like, feel free to reach out to me. I’m happy to.

00;07;15;07 – 00;07;29;17
Speaker 2
Assemble. You’re talking to most of our audience because a lot of our audience are cool sellers. So I would like to look at this from the perspective of the seller. How can brands partner with influencers and make money through the Amazon influencer program?

00;07;29;18 – 00;07;47;12
Speaker 1
Yeah, so you can definitely find different influencers that are in the program doing these videos. That’s one way to do it, connecting with them. Usually on our storefront, it has all our social media, it usually has our email. So right in there, just send an email out and then just know most of us do want to get paid for it.

00;07;47;12 – 00;08;07;04
Speaker 1
So a lot of times there’s like, Hey, we’ll send you a free product. But unless your products like a really high end product or maybe someone’s just starting out, they might take it for free. But our time is still spent, like making the videos, editing the videos, posting it. So usually, you know, they’re going to the influencer will come back to you with a price that they have, and then you ship the product to the influencer.

00;08;07;04 – 00;08;20;10
Speaker 1
We can’t buy it on Amazon because that would be against the rules and that would kind of show you’re like selling I guess gets a boost or whatever. So and we also cannot rate it, so we can’t give it like a five star review or anything like that that would get us in trouble.

00;08;20;11 – 00;08;39;25
Speaker 2
Okay. And from a sellers perspective, there’s a one time flat fee which is negotiated between the the Amazon seller and the influencer. And then that video presumably would go up on that product detail page. And then is there any other expense or any other obligation of the Amazon seller moving forward?

00;08;39;26 – 00;08;56;20
Speaker 1
So then after that, the only thing is if you ever want to like use the rights to that video, you also can negotiate that. But what you don’t want to do is just take that influencer video, download it, and then use it as your own because it is copyrighted by that influencer. And a lot of sellers kind of don’t know.

00;08;56;20 – 00;09;16;23
Speaker 1
Either they don’t know or they think it’s a gray area, but it really is theft of our videos and it hurts us a lot. We actually end up just filing a report with Amazon and do a copyright strike, which I can’t imagine is good for a seller as well. So yeah, so if you do love that video and you’re like, Hey, I would love to put this on my website, ask the influencer what the price would be for that.

00;09;16;23 – 00;09;22;11
Speaker 1
And you always could negotiate that upfront too, and say, how much would it cost if, you know, we want to use your video?

00;09;22;13 – 00;09;42;01
Speaker 2
Okay, that’s really helpful in as you’re looking through your offers, what at what price point do you typically kind of move on? You had you had mentioned free product is unless it’s a really high end product, probably not something you’d entertain if someone is going into this, at what price point should they? What is a fair offer?

00;09;42;03 – 00;10;05;00
Speaker 1
That’s a great question. And I again, it kind of depends on how kind of what you’re looking for. If you just want like volume, you could offer like 35, 30 bucks to people and they’ll take you up on it. But if you’re looking for like really quality, you might want to go 50 to 100 or even more. I will usually do it and I want to like Bell Low myself, but usually I put out my form letter 100, right?

00;10;05;00 – 00;10;25;13
Speaker 1
So it’s just like a flat rate. But if it’s something that I know I could do fast, like you’re sending me a shirt, like fashion videos. I can put a trial video and do that pretty fast. I’ll do that for 50. I’m not going to, like, charge the full usually charge the full 100, but if it’s going to be a product where we got to install it and it’s going to be a whole, you know, hours, then we definitely have to charge for that time.

00;10;25;13 – 00;10;37;24
Speaker 1
And actually my husband does a lot of the install stuff because I awful at that. So he’s he’ll install ceiling fans and stuff like that. If I did it it would take me like three weeks. But he can do that you know, and I’ll fill it with him doing it.

00;10;37;24 – 00;10;51;24
Speaker 3
Another follow up question. This is good stuff. I’m sure all the sellers listening to this are kind of like, All right, what’s next? What’s next? So it sounds like there’s a range depending on how complicated the product is, how long it would take. Your time is worth money, right? And so a follow up question would be now two.

00;10;51;25 – 00;11;06;11
Speaker 3
One is the Amazon influencer is like on Amazon Associates is the is commissions of the same does it translate over like as Amazon associates I think the commissions are between 3% and maybe eight or 10%. Is it similar for the influencer or is it the same?

00;11;06;11 – 00;11;08;18
Speaker 1
I’m it’s a little lower on the influencer side.

00;11;08;20 – 00;11;22;07
Speaker 3
Okay, that’s a little lower. And then the follow up question to that would be if someone sends over, let’s go with the t shirt example. They send over a t shirt. I don’t know why you would want to launch a new t shirt. There’s a million of them. But let’s say someone was like launching a new t shirt and they send it over to you.

00;11;22;14 – 00;11;39;17
Speaker 3
You know, they send you a $50 payment and you do a five minute video or whatever on the T shirt unboxing. Yeah, this t shirts awesome, blah, blah, blah. Post it. Now, how do you have like metrics that Amazon sends you and says, Hey, your video reached a thousand people or 5000 shoppers and ten of them purchased it.

00;11;39;17 – 00;11;43;17
Speaker 3
Like, does it share metrics with you and do you share that with the sellers?

00;11;43;18 – 00;11;51;19
Speaker 1
That’s a great question. Okay. So first of all, I would never do a five minute video on a shirt. Yes. So lower expectations are on 30 seconds.

00;11;51;21 – 00;11;53;07
Speaker 3
That’s a long video for a t shirt.

00;11;53;07 – 00;11;57;18
Speaker 1
Yeah. But I know videos are reserved for things that are like, like really detail or.

00;11;57;18 – 00;12;00;09
Speaker 3
Just say so 30 sec, what 30 seconds said. Okay.

00;12;00;11 – 00;12;18;27
Speaker 1
Milliwatts. Okay. So how our metrics are not wonderful. I wish Amazon had better metrics for us, like some we don’t. We can see how many the use of video has gotten in 30 days and how long people are watching it for. And then we can see in our and our reports daily what sold. So that’s about all I know.

00;12;18;27 – 00;12;39;19
Speaker 1
I don’t know like you know, anything beyond that. So as far as sharing our data, usually I don’t think we’re allowed to I don’t think we’re supposed to really share our data with sellers. Some sellers do work something out where they give you like an extra commission per month and you can send them like your monthly sales. But I’m not sending them like how many views it gets or anything like that.

00;12;39;19 – 00;13;03;25
Speaker 1
It’s just like a straight like this is how many were sold this month. It’s hard to track, you know, it’s hard to know if like, does a video help your page rank higher? You know, that’s something that it might be helpful for, which in return is going to lead to more sales, but maybe not through that video per se, because again, we only get the commission that people watch the full length of our video or as long as much as 30 seconds, so they could still buy the product.

00;13;03;25 – 00;13;10;13
Speaker 1
But we don’t get the commission because they stop at 25 seconds. So it’s kind of hard to know, you know, exactly how much it’s.

00;13;10;13 – 00;13;30;01
Speaker 3
Helping is kind of what we call the halo effect, where you kind of do something and then it’s kind of like you can’t really trace it. But, you know, sales went up because the halo effect And so, yeah, it sounds like it would be much better is if you could you could track it and translate that to sellers and say, look, my video produced X amount and so you want to do it, you know, then you can ramp up.

00;13;30;01 – 00;13;39;26
Speaker 3
If Sellers knew that they’re going to get an eye on that investment and they would they would do more of it. And so it sounds like sells like Amazon has some work to do on their side to get some metrics.

00;13;39;29 – 00;13;42;02
Speaker 1
And they’re listening. That’ll be awesome.

00;13;42;05 – 00;13;59;08
Speaker 2
So we’ve talked a lot about the perspective of the sellers, and I would like to talk about from the perspective of the Amazon influencer. There may be some people listening that that are saying, Hey, I’ve got a full time job. This sounds great. I’m comfortable in front of a camera and this seems like it may be a way I could find it.

00;13;59;09 – 00;14;11;12
Speaker 2
So. So can you walk us through like from start to finish what that looks like from the point in time where you have contact with the seller all the way through kind of submitting that video and washing your hands clean of this project?

00;14;11;12 – 00;14;26;13
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. And one thing to be an Amazon influencer, you don’t have to work with any sellers. You could just review things in your home or buy things so you don’t have to be sent anything. And if you do get sent something, I always disclose that in my videos that I was sent it. But yeah, you don’t actually have to work with anyone.

00;14;26;13 – 00;14;46;05
Speaker 1
But from the point of when I do work with people, usually my emails are blowing up. I’m West Coast, so like 11 p.m. to 12 p.m., which I happen to be up because I’m a night owl solving hunting the emails and then we reconnect our conversation in the mornings because they’re on China time frame. So it’s a little bit interesting, but communication and yeah, definitely some communication things.

00;14;46;05 – 00;15;02;01
Speaker 1
You know, you have to just be ready for that dear friend, you’re going to get that a lot. And overall it’s been I mean, I have people I work with like constantly, like I really like them, I respect them, they’re awesome. But I’ve also worked some super shady like brokers that I don’t know, I just like would cut ties with.

00;15;02;01 – 00;15;20;16
Speaker 1
I was like, This doesn’t seem right. Like something seems off. So yeah, it’s emailing back and forth and then once you agree on a price, I usually try to get payment upfront using PayPal. I just do that if I’ve never worked with someone for sure, I want my payment upfront because I don’t want them to ghost me or I don’t want to be like chasing them for 50 bucks or 100 bucks.

00;15;20;16 – 00;15;39;15
Speaker 1
Like it’s just not worth my time. And sometimes they’ll say like, No, we only pay after you send the video. And it’s like, Oh, okay. If they’re like a reputable company, then I’m good with that and then do the video. I usually give a timeframe if you’re just starting out, try to make your timeframe pretty quick turnaround. I have sometimes like 60 products I’m sitting on to do videos on.

00;15;39;15 – 00;15;56;13
Speaker 1
So I try to give myself like 2 to 3 weeks that I tell them the video will be up by and then yeah, I stick to that. So and if something comes to me and it’s like broken or not, right, I let them know so they can either send me a new one or if it’s just like a defective product will kill it.

00;15;56;14 – 00;16;03;09
Speaker 1
You know, we won’t do that. I won’t do a bad review. I’m not there to, like, trash them. I’m just going to say, okay, you know, pay me for my time and amount.

00;16;03;09 – 00;16;17;02
Speaker 2
In in terms from a money standpoint is if you look at your overall cash generated, is a bulk of that cash generated from the upfront payments or from the commissions by Amazon. What does that split look like?

00;16;17;04 – 00;16;40;18
Speaker 1
Yeah, Amazon commissions are my number one. And number two would be that payments upfront. And it kind of depends on how much I want to hustle too, because it does take time to shoot these. So, you know, if I want to take on everything in anything, then then I can hustle and do that. But you also have to you know, you’re kind of we’re not that you’re working for someone you were yourself, that you’re working with the demands of other people.

00;16;40;18 – 00;16;49;14
Speaker 1
Now. So you have to make sure, like your schedule’s clear to get those videos done because the last thing you want to do is like take on products and then not be able to get them done in a timely fashion.

00;16;49;18 – 00;16;56;00
Speaker 2
In that stream of cash flows after the fact. After you’ve submitted that video, how long do those last for?

00;16;56;01 – 00;17;16;03
Speaker 1
You know, we don’t know. Amazon teaches it on us all the time. So some of my videos from a year ago are still doing some earning me money and some does drop right off, but then they come back like it’s so unknown and kind of goes back to the metrics how we don’t have a ton of metrics. We really don’t have a lot of like predictability of our cash flow.

00;17;16;07 – 00;17;35;02
Speaker 2
And then the last question, I’m going to kick it over to Ken. In terms of the deliverable, you had mentioned editing the video. What’s the expectation there? What would be what would be something you’d consider sloppy if you were to turn it in and and what is kind of the expectation when somebody is paying you for that video?

00;17;35;03 – 00;17;54;10
Speaker 1
Yeah, I’m you know, it kind of depends. So if you’re taking on some of the lower priced things, there’s the expectations are kind of low, I would say. So if I’m being paid only $30 to do something, let’s say it’s like my mug here, I can do this in like a one take shot, you know, just sitting down, talking about it, done my editing.

00;17;54;10 – 00;18;08;13
Speaker 1
Then it’s just going to be, I mean, the beginning term in the end and that’s it. But I’m also, you know, I have years of experience so I can do a one take shot like and I don’t need a script it I can just go. But if it’s going to be a little more detailed, then yeah, we do mount multiple takes.

00;18;08;13 – 00;18;22;27
Speaker 1
I want to be showing all the features of a product and I want to use the product to rights of and like an oven. And I’ve never touched the oven, but I’m giving a review on it. I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem authentic. So I want to like use it for maybe a week and be like, Hey, we made pizza in this thing.

00;18;22;27 – 00;18;39;16
Speaker 1
It was the best pizza we’ve ever had, you know, and be really truthful in that. So it depends. So there might be some edits, but it’s not like a full stage production. I think most viewers don’t really want that either. They just want it to feel like, you know, they’re talking to like a normal person that’s used a product.

00;18;39;21 – 00;18;56;25
Speaker 1
And I’m going with my kids. My kids are in a lot of my videos. They’re ages four and five, so nothing is like planned or scripted, like a bon scented toy. And they’re just playing with it super organically, like giving, like they’re excited already. I could hand them a box and they’d be like, you know, they’re just excited.

00;18;56;25 – 00;19;06;27
Speaker 1
But I’m also I’m filming it all. Those are my most edited videos because I’m not making them like act or do anything. And then I voice it over, you know, or put the story together.

00;19;07;04 – 00;19;24;13
Speaker 3
Yeah, no, that sounds fun. That sounds like probably the most organic videos is having kiddos play with toys and you know, you never know with. I babysat my niece and nephew over this weekend and it was hilarious. My kids are older now. My niece and nephew are seven and nine. And so kids do that do and say the most crazy thing.

00;19;24;13 – 00;19;35;22
Speaker 3
So one last question on on the influencer piece before we kind of move into e-commerce now, do you do Amazon live? Like are the influencers and Amazon Live, is that the same or is that different?

00;19;35;28 – 00;20;05;18
Speaker 1
Yes. So as an influencer you have the opportunity to do Amazon live and there’s like levels of it. There’s like a basic an insider, an A-list A-list is when you have over 2000 subscribers to your Amazon page and you’ve made a certain amount of sales on your live. I’m not there yet, so I’m in the middle tier, the insider tier and some For a while the Amazon lives were decent, but they seem like lately it’s just been like the least amount of views and not kind of translating to good ROI.

00;20;05;19 – 00;20;20;14
Speaker 1
It’s one. It’s kind of sad because I love being live and I think there’s a lot of opportunity there. But when you spend an hour doing it and you’re like, Oh wow, like nobody watched, it’s really deflating. And so some people did great in it, but I’m not I’m not there yet. I don’t know.

00;20;20;16 – 00;20;27;15
Speaker 3
Okay, Now, fair enough. And, you know, if Amazon can control the shopper’s eyeballs for a long time, maybe they just don’t want to do that or, you know, I think.

00;20;27;18 – 00;20;50;21
Speaker 1
This is like a theory. But what happened was a lot of people were getting into this influencer program that probably shouldn’t be in it. And they were like, just deteriorating the Amazon life. They would just be live with like nothing going on for 24 hours a day in like a literally it’d be like them just sitting there, but they’d have an expensive product in their carousel and just hoping people, I guess like randomly click and think.

00;20;50;22 – 00;20;59;18
Speaker 1
Amazon just got frustrated and was like, okay, we’re just going to make it so that nobody sees less. People see it unless you’re like, vetted at the higher level, right?

00;20;59;18 – 00;21;16;01
Speaker 3
Yeah, that makes sense because I think our attention span is what, 7 seconds now? We don’t see anything cool in 7 seconds. We’re off to the next time. You know, it’s like Tick Tock and YouTube shorter. So nobody wants to sit and look at someone sitting there still. So it makes sense cause I’d like to pivot into brand building and e-commerce a bit.

00;21;16;01 – 00;21;28;01
Speaker 3
You had been involved co-founded Kombucha on tap for for almost the last ten years. Can you share the top three lessons learned? And they could be good or bad from co-founding all the way to where you know where you are today?

00;21;28;04 – 00;21;52;19
Speaker 1
Oh man, so many more are set. Top three. Okay, One is just start. We always had this motto set of ready, aim, fire. Just ready, fire, aim. Like, just do it. And then like, perfected as you go, because otherwise you’re never going to get started. So that was like our number one motto. And I think that that made such a difference in like our growth in the company to find something that has a high demand and not a lot of people doing it yet.

00;21;52;19 – 00;22;13;24
Speaker 1
I think that was like a secret sauce for us, was that we found like an opportunity that had a demand and nobody was being able to fulfill it. At the time we started. We of course got competition like within a couple of years, but we were a little bit ahead of the game in that sense. And then, you know, with that, don’t be afraid to keep pivoting like what’s your high might not be the high forever.

00;22;13;24 – 00;22;30;19
Speaker 1
So we are starting with kombucha. We brought the cold brew coffee and then as our coffee sales are higher than our kombucha sales. So, you know, always be looking for like, what’s the next thing? What else do you need to add or take out of your business? And then my third one is don’t always work with your spouse.

00;22;30;22 – 00;22;47;22
Speaker 1
We’re super happily married, but I think that’s a big reason I took a step back of our company and it just started affecting our marriage and and now, like we wouldn’t fight as a couple, but we would fight as business partners. And I didn’t love that. And so I think, like, there’s it’s really difficult to have those boundaries.

00;22;47;22 – 00;23;04;22
Speaker 1
And we didn’t have kids when we launched it. So like, we would work around the clock on our company, like get to bed at night and like still working. And we really had to turn off like, okay, you’re not my business partner now, you’re my husband. Like, that is such a hard switch. And but I will say as a positive and to this day it’s a positive.

00;23;04;23 – 00;23;22;29
Speaker 1
If he has to go like over to our warehouse and he’s there till one in the morning. Two in the morning. I know he’s like legit working, but I would have thought he was cheating on me like 100%. I would have thought he had, like, a second family. That’s how much time he puts in. That’s the truth of being an entrepreneur is like it is hard work.

00;23;22;29 – 00;23;26;26
Speaker 1
It’s long hours when you have it, when you’re starting a business and out the business.

00;23;26;26 – 00;23;45;10
Speaker 3
Absolutely. So those were really, really great. I want to I want to recap those before I passed over to David for the next one. And so ready, fire, aim. So don’t be afraid to just get something out the door and refine it later. Do not do not go into business with your partner. Or if you do have some really good ground rules and everything there.

00;23;45;10 – 00;23;55;13
Speaker 3
And then the third one was don’t be afraid to pivot and add new ideas and innovation into the business. It sounds like you start with kombucha and then you brought in coffee called brew coffees. And so that that’s awesome.

00;23;55;13 – 00;24;19;01
Speaker 2
So I would like to dive into identifying the trend in as I think and keep in mind, I’m here in Missouri and it seems like trends generally start on the coast and then make their way to Missouri. To me, Tom Boucher in 2014 was not cool yet. I probably first heard of Kampuchea in 2018 or 19. Im I is that right now?

00;24;19;01 – 00;24;37;01
Speaker 1
That’s about right. When we started our company it was a lot of educating. Like we would go to restaurants and trying to get them to put kombucha on top and half the time they wouldn’t know what it was and they weren’t. The managers were like, No, I don’t think so. But then their waiter or staff would be like, Oh my gosh, I’m obsessed with Kombucha.

00;24;37;01 – 00;24;57;20
Speaker 1
You have to get this. And so it was almost like they were our cheerleaders. But so many people. It was just educating them like, well, there’s health benefits. And then by the time it was about 2018, we didn’t have to educate anyone. We were just if you didn’t know what kombucha was by that point, it probably wasn’t a fit for your restaurant, you know, like you probably weren’t like the organic, you know, farm to table style eating.

00;24;57;20 – 00;25;01;13
Speaker 1
But yeah, it’s definitely we were a little bit ahead of the trend.

00;25;01;16 – 00;25;19;25
Speaker 2
Which is awesome. And I want to dig into that a little bit because I think every year you hear people talk about like they got in at the ground level, like they were an early adopter, they were before the trend. So if we can go back to 2014, what what allowed you to kind of see the future of this?

00;25;19;25 – 00;25;33;24
Speaker 2
Was it it gut feeling was it based on data? Was it based on just personal experience with Kampuchea? What was it in in? The goal here is to try to coach our listeners on how to identify these things and get in at the ground level.

00;25;33;27 – 00;25;55;07
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, I think one thing that was was big is like find something people are obsessed with, right? So I was obsessed with kombucha. I was drinking tea and bottles and, and paying 4 to 5 bucks each bottle and drinking like two a day. So this was like 2013 timeframe. And I wasn’t alone in that obsession. A lot of people were doing that, but still a lot of people didn’t know it commercialized.

00;25;55;07 – 00;26;11;25
Speaker 1
So it was something that I personally love. Now, again, my husband, when he first tried it, he wasn’t even blown away by it. He just kind of liked it. He could never say it right. He called it Can Booch Caffe for like half a year. And then but he wanted to start a company that fit his healthy, active lifestyle.

00;26;11;25 – 00;26;31;22
Speaker 1
So he’s like a mountain biker, triathlete, all that stuff. So that kind of fit his zone right there. So I feel like when you’re looking for something, if it can fit into your lifestyle or like something you’re passionate about, like we’ve had opportunities to do alcoholic kombucha, which I think would be really smart. That’s like a market that kind of has a big or had at least an upward tick.

00;26;31;22 – 00;26;49;11
Speaker 1
But my husband doesn’t drink alcohol, so it didn’t align with his values, so we never took that on. So that’s something to kind of think about is like what aligns with your values, your lifestyle, and maybe if it’s something like people are obsessed about or they just, you know, like there’s so many fans that’s going to grow it in propellant.

00;26;49;12 – 00;26;49;20
Speaker 1
Is there a.

00;26;49;20 – 00;27;12;02
Speaker 2
Couple? I like that I really like that in That’s helpful. Finding things that you are personally passionate about. That’s something that usually when people start their ecommerce journey, that’s the first thing that they need to do is decide what they want to sell. And that’s, I think, really good advice and very helpful. So looking at the last ten years, what were the top three initiatives that helped you grow your brand?

00;27;12;10 – 00;27;35;17
Speaker 1
So one of the things that helped us grow, we started literally like most companies in our garage, and we just reached out to different brands of Kombucha and said, Hey, can we distribute you in kegs? And there was a local brand who took a chance on us and we started with her keg within a few months of doing that, I had we were reaching out to all the major brands and saying, Hey, we’re distributing, would you like us to do this?

00;27;35;17 – 00;27;55;18
Speaker 1
And the nation’s number one keg or not, Number one. Number one kombucha company called Gt’s Kombucha Synergy. Kombucha. It’s probably the kombucha, you know. You know, Kombucha said, yeah, we need a distributor. We’ve been trying to do it ourselves. It’s been a nightmare. So when they came on board, that gave us a lot of validity and every brand wanted to work with us.

00;27;55;19 – 00;28;13;19
Speaker 1
I was like, Oh, you’re working with us. Like we think about this. So that was a huge propelling thing. And we still work with doctors, We still work with a lot of the major brands and smaller local brands too. We work with a bunch of different brands, so that was huge for propelling us, trying to think of a couple other things that propelled us.

00;28;13;22 – 00;28;33;14
Speaker 1
I think, yeah, I like being on that wave of the trends. That was a big one. I guess two people that like worked around the clock on it that propelled us. This wasn’t a side hustle. This was like an all in and we did hire staff, but we were also really resourceful and scrappy. Like we started out renting cold storage space from a brewery.

00;28;33;14 – 00;28;51;15
Speaker 1
So we rented until like our kegs outnumbered their beer kegs and they were like, okay, guys, you got to like fly out of the nest, like you’re done here. But we’ve always grown very organically. We didn’t take huge salaries when we started. We actually didn’t take a salary. I think our first year kind of put everything back into the company.

00;28;51;16 – 00;28;53;21
Speaker 1
I think that propelled our growth a lot.

00;28;53;24 – 00;29;03;06
Speaker 3
That’s that’s huge. So anything so we run all of our guests into the fire around. Is there anything else we want to cover before we get into the fire around anything we missed out on?

00;29;03;06 – 00;29;04;00
Speaker 1
I think that’s good.

00;29;04;01 – 00;29;11;08
Speaker 2
I do have one thing that I do want to ask. If people are interested in working with you through the influencer program, what would be the best way to get a hold of you?

00;29;11;09 – 00;29;33;23
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. So I do one on one coaching, so people are either struggling to, once they’re in to get to the next step or they’re actually making money in it. I’m really good at helping people kind of break to that next level. So yeah, I’m happy to entertain that. Or if you just have a random question, you always can reach out to me, I’m on social media that’s probably like the easiest or you could just in the link, you have a link to my Amazon storefront.

00;29;33;23 – 00;29;36;27
Speaker 1
From there you’ll see all my social media and my email to reach out.

00;29;36;28 – 00;29;38;18
Speaker 2
All right, let’s get into the fire.

00;29;38;20 – 00;29;39;25
Speaker 3
All right, Dan, are you ready?

00;29;39;25 – 00;29;41;20
Speaker 1
I’m ready. Let’s do it.

00;29;41;22 – 00;29;43;15
Speaker 3
Awesome. What is your favorite book?

00;29;43;17 – 00;30;01;00
Speaker 1
Okay, so my favorite book is one called Just Mercy. Have you heard this book? So it’s an author named Bryan Stevenson, and they made a movie out of it, actually. So if you don’t have time to read it, go watch the movie. But it’s like life changing. It’s about it’s a real story of a guy who went to an Ivy League school.

00;30;01;00 – 00;30;23;23
Speaker 1
He’s black, and he moved to the Deep South to help people that are incarcerated on death row that are wrongly accused. And it is like eye opening, life changing about the criminal justice system, things I knew nothing about. I lived in the Deep South as a reporter and I knew nothing about this stuff. So I used to be very not to get political, but I used to be like, oh, why would you know, death penalty?

00;30;23;23 – 00;30;41;00
Speaker 1
Of course. Like, why are we warehousing people that did these horrific crimes? But now I’m like total opposite because there’s so many people that are wrongly accused, like actually wrongly accused that lived like 30 years on death row and then they just get released. It’s crazy. So his book is really eye opening about race in America and a lot of things.

00;30;41;00 – 00;30;43;07
Speaker 1
So I don’t I loved it. I definitely recommend.

00;30;43;12 – 00;30;46;02
Speaker 3
Okay, awesome. Sounds good. What are your hobbies?

00;30;46;05 – 00;31;04;07
Speaker 1
Okay. My hobbies include sleep. And I’m going to look at this book. But really, like one of my things. This is funny. We did a date night last night. It has been a night and we go to this like, massage place that has, like, I don’t know, babies or you guys live, but they have like, where it’s like a common room and so you get like a cheap massage, but they’re awesome.

00;31;04;09 – 00;31;18;17
Speaker 1
So like, I was like, Gosh, I could do this every day of my life. So I feel like, like self-care, massages, like that is a hobby of mine. I will go get pampered any day. And then as far as like sports go, there’s only one I do well and that skiing. And then I guess it’s like, I don’t know.

00;31;18;17 – 00;31;26;04
Speaker 1
I don’t think being a mom is a hobby, but, you know, family time, seeing my friends, I’m big on that, but I don’t have like per say, hobbies Now.

00;31;26;04 – 00;31;35;24
Speaker 3
I definitely think that qualifies as a hobby, right? You’re enjoying it and you like it and it brings happiness. So next one. What is one thing that you do not miss about working for the man or the woman?

00;31;35;24 – 00;31;52;23
Speaker 1
So I go back to my TV news days there because when I was in the office and all that, and the first thing that came to mind was like just the cattiness you guys probably have never dealt with that in your life. But as a female, like in the wrong office environment, it can be really toxic and catty and like awful.

00;31;52;23 – 00;32;10;16
Speaker 1
And I had to deal with that, especially in the news industry, just like people that would like throw you under the bus at any given moment to get ahead in their career. So there was a lot of that. And I mean, it’s so hard to have more Blake or myself for so long. I can’t imagine like going back to like an office, like I love every day can be different.

00;32;10;16 – 00;32;28;16
Speaker 1
Like I can like, sit in my pajamas as long as I want, you know, and have my coffee by the pool and just, like, do my thing. But I also will work in the evening. So it’s really like on your own terms. So I don’t miss like a whole 9 to 5, even like, I think it’s like it wasn’t for me when I look back on it.

00;32;28;19 – 00;32;38;08
Speaker 1
So don’t miss the cattiness, I don’t miss the micromanaging, I don’t miss the like a lot of the negativity. Yeah. All that you don’t have to deal with when you find.

00;32;38;10 – 00;32;39;10
Speaker 3
No regrets, then.

00;32;39;18 – 00;32;41;00
Speaker 1
Oh, no.

00;32;41;03 – 00;32;46;25
Speaker 3
Awesome. Last one. What do you think sets apart successful entrepreneurs from those who give out? Fail or never get started?

00;32;46;25 – 00;33;02;26
Speaker 1
Got to have an ambition. You got to have drive and you got to really want it because it’s not for the weak. And there’s some people, I think, that are out there for like quick money, fast grab. It’s not. I think they fail in the end because it’s not like that. Like, yes, you can get in at the right time, but you still got to work at it.

00;33;02;26 – 00;33;20;13
Speaker 1
And being an entrepreneur, it takes a certain personality to keep going when when it feels like everything’s on fire around you and you’re just like putting up we we joke about that all the time. We’re like, oh, being an entrepreneur is being a firefighter. Like you’re literally putting out fires all day some days, and that can be tough.

00;33;20;13 – 00;33;31;09
Speaker 1
And and when it’s good, it’s good. But when it’s bad, you know, you got to make sure like it’s your life. You know, you’re going to have groceries that week. So it’s good to be, you know, diversified, all that stuff.

00;33;31;11 – 00;33;32;25
Speaker 3
Awesome. Excellent answers.

00;33;32;27 – 00;33;47;21
Speaker 2
All right. And I want to thank you for being a guest on the Firing Grant podcast to our listeners. We are going to post links in our show notes. If you’re interested in working with Diane on any of the influencer marketing that programs that we talked about today and thank you.

00;33;47;21 – 00;33;59;24
Speaker 1
Yeah. And if you guys, you know, no pressure to work with me. But one thing I would love if you go to my Amazon storefront, hit the follow button because you may help me reach that A-list level and then my lines will actually be seen. So I would love that.

00;33;59;27 – 00;34;06;19
Speaker 2
Absolutely. We’d be happy to do that. And we encourage our audience to do the same. So thank you for being a guest and looking forward to staying in touch.