Inspired Insider With Dr. Jeremy Weisz | Ecommerce Interviews | Entrepreneurship | Inspirational Stories | Business Lessons

Today we have Maddy Hasulak who is the founder of Love Grown that started in 2009. Love Grown has a mission to make cereals healthier, their tagline is, “Beans for breakfast.” Their cereals are made with a blend of navy, lentil and garbanzo beans with flavors such as Chocolate and Strawberry Power O’s. In addition to cereals for kids and adults, they also have ancient grain granola and regular granola. They can be found in thousands of stores across in the US such as Sprouts, Kroger, Whole Foods, Safeway, Natural Grocer, and many more.  Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:25] Jeremy introduces his guest, Maddy Hasulak. [3:00] What has allowed Maddy to successfully market her product to retailers? [4:30] Maddy talks about the ecommerce angle for her brand. [6:00] What was the process of acquiring the Love Grown domain name? [8:00] Maddy shares a low point faced along the way. [10:00] Proud moments on the journey. In this episode… What does it take to develop and market a product that utilizes sweet bea

Today we have Sadie Scheffer founder of Bread SRSLY, it’s the Bay area's first gluten-free sourdough bread company. The company began late in 2011 after a bout of gluten-free sourdough experiments in Sadie's home kitchen. The bread is free of any gluten, eggs, dairy, soy, sugar, tree nuts, peanuts, potatoes and some other things I am missing....but I am sure it is not free of good taste! She began to send 40, 60, 100 loaves out into the world, delivered by ladies on bikes. Most weeks she biked 100 miles plus to get the bread out. They are now found in stores all over California and have expanded into Arizona and Idaho including some regional Whole Foods and Safeway. Production has gone from her home kitchen to their 6th commercial kitchen. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces his guest, Sadie Scheffer. [3:00] Sadie talks about dropping out of MIT and navigating her early career. [13:00] What led Sadie to move from the east coast to the San Francisco Bay area? [16:00] Sadie shares h

Today we have Eddie Levine co-founder a wholesale ecommerce and brand management company which he started in 2012 with his business partner, Greg Gilpin. They have created a multi-million-dollar ecommerce operation in a short period of time and specialize in purchasing products directly from manufacturers, distributors, brand owners, and then warehouse them all under their own roof to sell on various channels. If he were not busy enough, Eddie has an information and consulting arm of his ecommerce business found at WholesaleBreakthrough.com where he teaches others how to tap into the business opportunity. In his limited free time, he also is Director of Operations for the non-profit, Laughs For the Troops which helps raise funds to help increase awareness of traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:20] Jeremy welcomes his guest, Eddie Levine. [2:50] Eddie talks about why he created Wholesale Breakthrough. [6:00] Who is a good fit to work with Eddie and his team? [8:00] A l

Today we have Jon Olafsson, co-founder of Icelandic Water Holdings. He has spent the last 30 years building successful companies from the ground up and transforming them into industry leaders and he has done this in a variety of fields including entertainment, media, construction and many more. Jon started to build a media and broadcasting portfolio when he founded Skifan, Iceland’s largest music recording and distribution company with distributing rights for a variety of music and film companies such as Sony, Universal, Warner Music, Columbia Pictures, Miramax, 20th Century Fox and more. Jon co-founded the Icelandic Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), before moving into television in 1990, when he took over the Icelandic Television Corporation (ITC). In 1999, Jon merged all of his companies (Skifan and IBC) under one umbrella to form Northern Lights Communications, Inc. (NLC) – Olafsson served as chairman until November 2003 when he sold everything and stepped down to co-found Icelandic Water Holdings with his s

Today we Dame Stephanie Shirley, known to business contacts as Steve because in a male-dominated business world she would sign letters with her pen name. She has an amazing book called, "Let It Go" where she documents her life and starts with her experience as an unaccompanied child refugee at age 5 where her parents wanted to protect her from perishing in the Holocaust. Her early experience of the 'glass ceiling' at work because of gender discrimination encouraged her to set up her own business which, she did in 1962 with only 6 pounds. Dame created one of UK’s first software startups. She forged the path for not only women but the whole computing industry. While planning to start a family, Dame hit on the idea of offering part-time employment to professional women with dependants. Essentially, she had pioneered freelance driven business and wanted it to be woman-owned. The IT business prospered with a lot of hard work and, in 1996 the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange earning hundreds of mill

Today I have a force of nature, Adrienne Richardson. First of all, you don't mess with a hockey mom from New Jersey. I like to brag about her that she is one of the top marketing experts around. I don't like to pigeonhole her even though it is on her site that she is a Facebook Ad expert because she is so sharp when it comes to messaging, copywriting, funnels and direct response marketing and there is so much more that goes into the campaigns that she runs for people. What I want Adrienne's tagline to be is "Hi, I am Adrienne and I drive cold traffic (people who don't know you) into an automated webinar and have it spit out millions of dollars on the other side." Of course, Adrienne work with top people who have systems in place to do this and she has spent tens of millions of dollars on Facebook so she knows what works and what doesn't. Adrienne has a laundry list of amazing clients like Russ Ruffino, University of California, and many more. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces hi

Today we have Habib Salo, CEO of Young Nails. They have been serving the nail care industry for over 20 years. Habib and Greg (Habib’s older brother) run the business and their mom decided to start her own business at the age of 49. She had a passion for the nail industry and they did everything to support her. Greg, the older brother, became a licensed nail technician after switching gears from firefighter training. Habib took a detour from medical school and a life in music. Young Nails Inc., is a professional nail care manufacturing company exporting to over 40 countries worldwide and distributing domestically to over 3000 stores. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:40] Jeremy introduces his guest, Habib Salo. [3:05] What are the future plans for Habib and Young Nails? [5:50] Why Young Nails manufactures their own products. [7:15] How staying connected to social media helps Habib stay on top of trends. [8:15] Habib talks about how he connected with Azriel Ratz. [11:45] Low moments faced along the wa

Today we have Justin Christianson, he went from bull rider and electrician to eventually co-founding Conversion Fanatics which helps companies double customer sales and profits with A B testing...not in all cases of course..they are a full-service conversion rate optimization company and have worked with companies like Hertz, Paypal, Investors.com, BlueJeans.com and MORE! Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:20] Jeremy introduces his guest, Justin Christianson. [3:00] Justin talks about the issue of cart abandonment. [11:00] What was Justin’s start in direct marketing like? [17:00] Maximizing the initial purchase. [23:45] Software applications that Justin recommends. [27:00] What works best when it comes to guarantees? [31:00] Why optimizing product pages can boost sales. [40:00] Justin talks about how he’s built his website to maximize conversions. [47:00] Who uses Conversion Fanatics? [51:00] How Justin and his team help their clients. [54:00] Testing for clients that have failed. [58:00] Justin’s fav

Today we have the co-founders of Tenzo Tea, Steve O’Dell and Robbie Page. They run a matcha tea company based in Santa Monica, CA. Tenzo Matcha Green Tea is grown in Kagoshima, Japan. Their products can be found at various coffee shops and smoothie facilities all over California and online at tenzotea.co and not on Amazon. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:33] Jeremy introduces his guests, Steve O’Dell and Robbie Page. [2:40] Closing the information gap about Matcha Tea. [5:30] What are some common uses of Matcha Tea? [7:00] What are the future plans of Tenzo Tea? [9:20] Low points faced along the way. [14:50] High points that came with business growth. In this episode… What does it mean to close the information gap between what your customers know and what you want them to know? Is it even a practical expectation to have a business leader? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneurs Steve O’Dell and Robbie Page. In their conversation with Jeremy, Steve and Robbie explain how

Today we have Christopher Lochhead who started his first company at 18 and retired 30 years later. He is a three-time public company CMO, best selling author, and host of Legends and Losers Podcast. He was a co-founder of Play Bigger Advisors, served as Chief Marketing Officer of Mercury Interactive, a $1B software company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5B. He is coauthor with Al Ramadan and Dave Peterson and Kevin Maney of Play Bigger: How pirates, dreamers, and innovators create and dominate markets. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:25] Jeremy introduces his guest, Christopher Lochhead. [3:00] The world doesn’t need more bullshit. [12:30] Where is podcasting going? Is it oversaturated? [17:00] Christopher talks about his Father-In-Law and his fruit orchard. [22:30] What was the motivation for writing the book, “Play Bigger?” [27:20] A healthy disregard for the status quo. [29:00] Christopher talks about getting kicked out of school. [32:00] The value of entrepreneurship and th

Today we have Dan Kurzrock who is the Co-Founder of ReGrained. ReGrained leverages technology and culinary science to transform beer waste into food. They call this edible upcycling. I was surprised to learn that only about 10% of the ingredients used to brew beer end up in your glass. ReGrained takes the spent grain waste from local brewery partners and they build recipes around it with other locally sourced ingredients to craft delicious, healthy, and inherently sustainable foods. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:05] Jeremy introduces his guest, Daniel Kurzrock. [2:15] Daniel talks about how connecting with breweries to get their discarded grain. [7:45] How has the process changed over the years? [10:30] What has been the lowest point for Daniel and his business? [11:30] Proud moments in business so far. [14:00] How to connect with ReGrained. In this episode… How in the world can you use discarded grain from breweries for a new and edible purpose? That sounds crazy, right? It’s not! On this episo

Today we have Greg Smith co-founder of Thinkific which is a platform that has everything you need to create and launch courses on your own site. Greg is a recovering lawyer and for the past 10 years he has taught thousands of students online with his own course and now with Thinkific has helped many others create their own online courses. He's worked with companies like Intuit and Hootsuite, including service professionals like accountants, lawyers, doctors, and many more. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces his guest, Greg Smith. [2:30] What led Greg to create his first online course? [7:30] How did Greg get the word out about his course? [9:15] Greg talks about making the switch to working on Thinkific full time. [14:00] Non-scalable tactics that Greg has used. [18:00] How has Thinkific changed over the years? [21:15] What integrations have Greg and his team added? [23:30] Early challenges faced with building the Thinkific platform. [27:00] Getting back to the basics. [29:30] Bu

Kailey Donewald is the co-founder of Sacred Serve, a Chicago-based company innovating ice cream that is fully organic, raw vegan gelato made from whole coconuts. All flavors are dairy-free, vegan, and paleo and strictly free of gluten, dairy, corn, soy, GMOs, stabilizers, fillers, and preservatives. They are challenging the conventional route of pint-sized packaging with their super unique looking 10oz containers. They have 40 locations across Chicago. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces his guest, Kailey Donewald. [2:20] Tackling the challenge of logistics. [4:30] Finding new ways to market and engage with the right audience. [6:00] Good advice that Kailey has received. [9:00] The biggest mistake made so far. [10:15] Low point - financial restrictions. [11:30] Milestone - signing on with the first distributor and going to vegan events. In this episode… Can you think of specific business lessons that have been helpful for you on your journey? Did you have to learn them the hard w

Michael Eldridge is the founder of Safety Glasses USA. His experience as a U.S. Marine veteran, auto mechanic and assembly line technician amplified the importance of vision safety. In 2000, he turned his knowledge into one of the internet's most popular companies for protective eyewear. They have grown to 20+ employees and have supplied protective eyewear and safety equipment to hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers around the world. In 2012, Michael started an online community forum for people interested in EDC (Everyday Carry) called EDC Planet.     Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces his guest, Michael Eldridge. [2:30] Michael talks about how he first started selling safety glasses online. [9:15] What were the most popular safety glasses then? Now? [12:00] From safety eyewear to expanded safety options. [17:30] Michael talks about getting into private labeling. [23:00] How did Michael move from a Yahoo ecommerce store? Where did he go? [26:30] What systems do Michael an

Today we have Tom Kulzer founder of AWeber.They are one of the top email marketing providers on the planet and help over 100,000 businesses build their audience. They started all the way back in 1998. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:30] Jeremy introduces his guest, Tom Kulzer. [2:15] Tom talks about the culture he’s created at AWeber. [7:00] The lowest moment in the journey so far. [9:00] Milestones that Tom is proud of. [10:00] Tom talks about how AWeber has impacted client businesses. In this episode… Have you ever worked in an environment that sapped your morale? How long did you have to endure working there? What steps have you taken as a business leader to create a positive company culture that people are proud to be part of? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from innovator and business leader, Tom Kulzer. In his conversation with Jeremy, Tom opens up about the company culture at AWeber, some of the challenges he faced along the way, milestones he is proud of, and much more! Yo

Today we have Erika Szychowski, founder of Good Zebra which is a protein-packed animal cracker set out to challenge the snack food industry. Good Zebra has 12 grams of protein per 2-ounce servings, NO refined sugar – it is sweetened with only organic honey and coconut sugar and has no artificial ingredients or preservatives. The 11 unique spirit animals found in Good Zebra are inspired by street and tattoo art, the flavors include vanilla, lemon, and chai with peanut butter and chocolate not far behind. Good Zebra can be found in Peet's Coffee & Tea across the nation, select retailers, on Amazon and on the Good Zebra website. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces his guest, Erika Szychowski. [3:00] Launching a brand in China. [6:30] Erika talks about how she came up with the name, Good Zebra. [18:00] What led Erika to branch out and work in the food industry? [23:00] Leaving the corporate world behind and becoming an entrepreneur. [28:00] Why create an animal cracker product? [3

Today we have Josh Felber, Co-Founder of Primal Life Organics and host of the hit show, Making Bank. Josh is a serial entrepreneur with more than 28 years of starting and growing several multi-million dollar companies (including one with $5 Billion in annual revenues). He is married with 3 kids and has twin boys. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:50] Jeremy introduces his guest, Josh Felber. [2:45] Josh talks about his vivid vision for Primal Life Organics. [6:00] Who is on Josh’s top 100 list? [10:30] What is Paleo Pets? [12:45] Josh talks about teaching his kids the entrepreneurial lifestyle. In this episode… What does it look like to pass on and cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit in the next generation of leaders? How can you build up and invest in the young leaders around you? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from innovator and business leader Josh Felber. In his conversation with Jeremy, Josh touches on his vivid vision for Primal Life Organics, who is on his top 100 list to i

Today we have Sarah Chalos co-founder of I Heart Keenwah with Ravi Jolly. I Heart Keenwah makes "superfoods" accessible to consumers with a range of tasty food products, including quinoa based snacks such as Himalayan pink salt chocolate quinoa puffs, peanut butter chocolate quinoa puffs and many more. They can be found in thousands of stores across the U.S. and globally in places like Whole Foods, CVS, 7-11 and of course on Amazon and their website. Before I Heart Keenwah, Sarah studied engineering at MIT, worked in R&D, manufacturing at Abbott Laboratories, earned her MBA at Chicago Booth and consulted for big corporate clients at Bain & Company. The most impressive part is that Sarah does all this while raising 2 kids. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:10] Jeremy introduces his guest, Sarah Chalos. [2:30] Juggling life as a professional and a parent. [5:30] How did past business experience help Sarah with launching her startup? [7:30] Why did Sarah go get her MBA? [9:30] How did the idea t

Today we have Aimy Steadman co-founder of Beatbox Beverages who started the company with Justin Fenchel, Jason Schiek, Dan Singer, and Brad Schultz. They were drawn together by their love for music and the entrepreneurial spirit of Austin, Texas. the founders of Beatbox Beverages set out to make the world’s tastiest portable party punch, and since 2011 have grown into a million dollar company with distribution in Krogers, 7-11, Walmart, HEB, Ralphs and many more all over the country. They were even featured on the hit TV show Sharktank! Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:20] Jeremy introduces his guest, Aimy Steadman. [3:00] The unique challenges of working in the alcohol industry. [4:00] Putting together a compelling video. [6:00] The lowest moment in business so far. [9:30] Managing stress and keeping a healthy mindset. [11:00] Proud moments on the journey. [13:00] Aimy talks about getting her product into retail stores. In this episode… How do you grapple with stress in the workplace? Have you dis

Franz Jordan is the Co-Founder of Sellics which is a powerful all-in-one tool that combines everything sellers need to be successful on Amazon. Sellics evolved from Franz’s first company Marketplace Analytics, a German data analytics company that was the first of its kind to focus on Amazon SEO back in 2014. You can manage and optimize your Sponsored Product campaigns entirely in the Sellics PPC Manager. Other features include a profit dashboard, keyword ranking optimizer, competitor monitoring, and much more. Companies such as Bosch appliances, Lego, and Brita are some of the businesses that use Sellics.  Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:10] Jeremy introduces his guest, Franz Jordan. [2:20] Why did Franz start Sellics? [6:15] Franz explains why he pivoted from his first business. [11:20] What was the first version of Sellics like? [13:00] Landing the first big client and setting a price point. [20:30] What is working to improve rankings on Amazon? What is a super URL? [25:30] How sellers and use a