One of the best ways to get inspired is to learn from others’ successes.That’s why in my Elevate online training program, we spotlight one of our premier members during our member Monthly Access Calls.
Elevate Coaches James Roche, Joy Chudacoff, and I select and interview one Elevate Premier member who is making great strides with the program.
Some successes are large, some small, but it’s all about taking steps forward and making progress.
Today, you’ll meet Elevate Premier member Erik Kreider, a biochemist and founder of Kabana Skincare (www.KabanaSkincare.com). He was our spotlight on our August 2012 call.
Enjoy our quick interview with Erik below, and be sure to take notes. There are several golden nuggets you can apply to YOUR business right away!
James: Erik, how are you doing, my friend?
Erik: I’m great. How are you?
James: Erik, you’re on the meteoric rise here. Every time we talk, you and I, both in our meetings in Premier and privately, you’ve always got something new going on. But for the purpose of this and for the benefit of everyone listening, just share with us what has been some of the biggest results so far, and then some of the biggest ahas that you got along the way.
Erik: Great. Yes, certainly. The major thing for us for this year was redesigning my website, which was huge and a lot of passive SEO and whatnot. That was sort of solidified through Ali’s conference, the SHINE conference in the fall.That was great.
Ali: Some of you may remember, we had Erik on stage at SHINE, actually, if you were there.
Erik: Anyway, just redoing that and getting that all up, which has been on my schedule for a little while and needed to be desperately done, has increased my receipts by 250%, average receipts, which was just great. Another thing that was really great in the spring here with the Elevate program was going back and doing a new interview, or basically, not interview, but a survey of my customers.
James: Right.
Erik: One of the major things I discovered through that was that most of my customers didn’t realize I offer all these other fabulous, organic personal care products. It was a high percentage, like 70% of my customers thought I was just making sunscreen. That’s been my major differentiating product, but it certainly was problematic. The new website was really specifically designed to highlight the fact that I have all these other products.That has really driven the massive increase in my receipts, I believe. That was really great to deploy and get that going. Otherwise, I’ve been working really hard to get the word out more. I have a major message to tell the world in terms of you’re trying to live clean, and you’re really interested in health and longevity, which we all are.
Ali: You’re riding a wave right now of people really waking up. People are paying attention finally to, “What am I putting on my face? What am I putting on my skin?”
Erik: Exactly, and that’s huge. If you’re already living clean and trying to do your best, but not paying attention to personal care products, you’ve got to start paying attention to personal care products, because they’re the number one source of petrochemical exposure in our lives. You’ve got to learn something about ingredients and look at simple products. Your program has really been helping me refine that message and get out there and get into channels where I can talk to more people and get more impact, because people just don’t think about it. Everybody knows, well, we need to eat well, and if you can have an organic diet as much as you can that’s a good thing. But when it comes to personal care products, people are just beginning to pay attention to that, and it’s really critical, particularly with respect to sunscreens. The sunscreens are number one on the list, and that’s our major product.
James: Erik, your passion has always been so clear, and it’s so resonant.
Erik: Yes, right. I know.
James: Because of that, we also talked a lot about getting you on video. You started doing a lot of that, and it seems like your list just to took to that as well as another strategy you started implementing.
Erik: I need to do more of that. I’ve got a list of ideas, and I’ve just got to start filming. I did one in June about—a lot of you probably heard about the guy in Massachusetts who caught on fire after spraying Coppertone spray sunscreen on himself . . . and then going to his barbecue. I demonstrated sunsationally how flammable this stuff is . . .at the pool. There was a woman in the background that I didn’t choreograph who was spraying sunscreen on herself. It was just classic. Anyway, I did that at a community pool, and that was really well received. I hooked up with the San Diego Surf Rider Foundation’s group and did a basically a presentation to them via just from my office, my home office, using GoToMeeting, and it was audio and great slides, PowerPoint slides. I presented them, and then had questions. We filmed it, so that’s going to be in the next newsletter. That went over really well as well.
Ali: Erik, I have a big question for you. I didn’t realize—I’m looking over what you wrote in for the spotlight feature, and then you have an MBA, actually, that you got in 2005.
Erik: I do. Yes.
Ali: Now, did people think—they knew you had an MBA. Then were they like, “Well, why are you joining this Elevate program?” Why did you join Elevate even though you already have a Masters in Business?
Erik: That’s a great question. Really, it’s because if there’s one thing that’s totally critical in business it’s recognizing that change is the only constant. As such you really need
continuing education, always. You always need continuing education. Your program has been great for that.It provides a lot of wonderful information that’s totally relevant to today. It’s up to date, lots of great tricks, lots of high value, low-hanging fruit stuff you can access that an MBA program really might not have taught or may have basically taught, but there’s a major difference.I’ve recognized from my last seven years doing my business, between theoretical knowledge that you may learn in an MBA program and practical information that is executable on a day to day basis and really operationally important. The MBA, I’ve got the background. A lot of this stuff I’ve kind of heard before. But you guys position it in such a way that you can digest it easily.
Ali: I’m blown away. You’ve increased your website sales by 250%, so that’s more than—what is that? That’s more than double.
Erik: Yes, yes, yes. It’s 2.5 times.
Ali: That’s awesome. Congratulations. I also heard you’re hiring your first employee.
Erik: Exactly. Yes. I’ve got a part time guy on right now, and he may transition to full time eventually. Something else that was sort of unexpected with the new website was I do private label for other companies, and so other companies that are interested . . .
James: Oh, yes, tell them about this big deal you got.
Erik: Right. Other companies that are interested in quality products and the ingredients we use, I get their packaging, or I have them ship me their packaging, and then I fill it with my
formulas. What’s really nice about it is that first off, it basically helps me manage some of the competition out there.Then it helps educate the marketplace, which is still in its infancy, and it allows me to sell thousands of units at once. The recent order I just got—this was about a month ago, or five weeks ago now, and we’re still filling it—was my first six figure private label order.
Ali: Wow.
James: This was a six figure gig, basically.
Erik: Yes. Yes, yes. It was great, a great little—a great customer, not so little customer.
James: Right. Exactly. The thing I want to emphasize with you, Erik, and so everyone can hear this—and I think they can hear it, but I want to bring it up and put it in the spotlight—is that you take action like crazy. You will dabble and you will try these different things. Some of it sticks, and some of it doesn’t.But that doesn’t deter you from just keeping plowing ahead. Those things that are working really well, you latch onto it, the low-hanging fruit, and you go for it, and you maximize it. I just want everyone to hear that, how much you are focused in your actions. It’s not random.You’re trying different things, and some things work better than others. Those things that work really well, you go with it. That I think is the universal that we want everyone to hear and kind of emulate as they’re growing their businesses. Focus on the things, the low-hanging fruit, that’s going to get you the results. Once you get something, go deep. Just maximize that as best as you can, because that’s where you’re going to pump up your income so quickly, just like Erik did with a six figure private label customer, because of the brand, the prestige of the site. The site needed to be updated.
Ali: Erik, one of the secrets to your success is you hustle. You realize what you need to do. It’s done. James talks about you all the time, like how much you implement. It’s great to have you in the program. Thank you.
Erik: My pleasure. Thank you. It’s been great. You guys provide so much great information that I’m working to implement it all. I’m not even close to that.
James: I know. That’s cool. I’d like to plug you, Erik, too. I use Erik’s lip balm all the time. I’m kind of one of those lip balm addicts. I used to use Burt’s Bees and stuff. But never again. Kabana, the lip balm is by far the best ever. It’s totally natural. It feels real. There’s no chemical feel on it. It’s fantastic.
Ali: Thanks, Erik.
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To move forward in building your business, you need specialized information, experienced mentors and coaches, and a supportive community. It’s exactly what Ali created her Elevate program to provide!