Looking for that Injection

Hey everybody. Sorry it’s been a while. I’ve been kind of busy this summer and I’ve neglected my blog for some time now. But as of recently I’ve been wanting to update this sucker because writing my thought down (or typing them out) helps me think about things more clearly. I almost just recorded a solo podcast episode thinking it would let my mind wonder a little bit, but I figured my blabbering wouldn’t make for quality audio listening. So I’ll blog it out. I’ll give you a quick update on the summer:

This summer I went through a painstaking property and casualty insurance licensing course and just barely passed the state exam. None-the-less I am now licensed to sell insurance in New York! I learned cold calling sucks and people hate talking about insurance. These same people are severely underinsured and are basically holding a loaded bazooka at their bank account. My best advice: no matter how good a driver you think you are, make sure your properly insured. (And not just what the state says you need. Cover yourself for what you need)

Kick Zone has entered a new era of business strategy. After not seeing much profit from sponsors of the podcast I realized my profit model was identical to the model I’ve highlighted as being ineffective in supporting Nordic athletes. I needed to find a new way. That’s when I stumbled upon Ecommerce. I decided, instead of reaching out to companies to support me (when they could be supporting athletes) what if I started an ecommerce shop where people could purchase clothing, casual sunglasses, fashion accessories, and other fun/popular stuff (yes, I mean fidget spinners). Then use the profit to grow KZM and support athletes as they pursue their Olympic dreams. Head over to www.nordiclifestyle.shop to check it out.

“But Brian, doesn’t running an online store require a lot of upfront cost in order to purchase all this stuff for your ecommerce site? And you just said KZ wasn’t making much money, yet. What are you thinking?”

Yes this is true, but through the power of drop-shipping, I can sell products on my ecommerce store and never have any inventory. Through my supplier, I can upload products and set prices. Once someone orders a product off the site, I notify the supplier and they send the product directly to the customer. Sounds great, right? Ecommerce and drop-shipping are the golden tickets of entrepreneurship!

Wrong! Ecommerce is tough. On Shopify there are tens of thousands of ecommerce shops and the chances of a customer finding your shop over others is slim. Online marketing through social media and SEO (search engine optimization) cost a lot of money and doesn’t see great numbers in terms of sales. (One poor fella spent $750 in Facebook advertising and got over 70,000 page visits to his site and not ONE person made a purchase! I read about his story on a Shopify blog and most people were like “sorry dude. That sucks”). I have spent some money on social media advertising and the results have led to me just barely making my money back from the advertising. Basically not even worth it.

Another problem with drop-shipping is unless you want to pay an extra $40, shipping usually takes 25 days. In the world of Amazon’s 2-day delivery, this is highly unacceptable. I have had customers reach out to me wondering where their product is about 2 weeks after they ordered it. And all I can really tell them is it’s on its way. I’ve also had people reach out to me and complain that the shirt they received is the wrong size (despite them clearly ordering that size in my records) but I don’t have an office or a store front so I don’t want to give out my home address to some stranger for returns. So I end up just having to send them a second shirt and tell them they can do what they want with that one. (This person was stoked and said he’d refer my shop to all his friends. Still have yet to see a sale from any of his friends).

To stand out amongst other ecommerce shops I started pushing the “why” over the “what.” Why I was selling was hopefully enticing enough that the potential buyer could find something in the catalog that they wanted. I started only marketing my ecommerce shop on Word on the Trail because it became easy for me explain the mission and how your purchase directly helped nordies in need. However, despite giving listeners exclusive discounts, sales from the podcast were minimal. And, I found myself stuck in what I like to call “the loop of hypocrisy”

The whole point of KZM is to bring money into Nordic sports and use it to promote living a healthy Nordic lifestyle, as well as support those who live the Nordic life. But if I only advertise and capitalize on people already in the industry, I’m not expanding the industry, I’m just redirecting the money that’s already here. My goal is to inject a shot of adrenaline (cash) to help grow this industry.

So I’ve modified the shop to be more consumer friendly. Hopefully this will be more enticing for the social media crowd. Before there was a lot of athletic specific products, but now I offer more generic stuff that more people can relate to. Right now I only have sunglasses on the shop, since I love sunglasses, but will be adding more soon.

Part of me wants to work 24/7 on KZM and the other part of me needs to focus on school. I’ve deliberated about this dilemma in my previous post: Pushing Boulders. I’ll be honest, when I’m at SUNY Adk I feel like I’m in purgatory. I’m in a holding pattern waiting to launch. I constantly try to apply what I’m learning in the classroom to KZM but all it does is make me wish I wasn’t there learning from a textbook, but out there actually doing. They say to be successful you need to fail, and fail a lot. I want to hurry up and fail. I want to learn from that failure and come back stronger.

Right now I’m forced to read a textbook and submit reports of what I learned. A professor will determine if what I comprehended is up to their standards and if not 100%, 75% is good enough to achieve the diploma that will land me that elusive job that I am supposedly seeking in order to live a life society deems standard. (Despite the fact all my high school friends have graduated with that diploma and they have yet to even land themselves a job that would set them on the path to that standard of living. But that’s a social issue for another post).

I want to WANT to read a textbook (or informational book written by an entrepreneur before me) and I want to learn from it as if my goals depended on what I comprehended. The free market will decide if what I comprehended is sufficient. And there is no passing or failing, there is only “works” and “doesn’t work.” I long to be in a situation where I am not valued on my regurgitation skills rather my ability to think outside the box and act in strategic method. A life where my standard of living is not the goal, rather the reward.

But for right now all I can do is hustle, and hustle hard. Prioritize what needs to get done and be efficient with time permits.

I’m sorry this post ended up being so long. When I have a lot on my mind I kind of like just being able to type. For anyone who made it this far, as a thank you for listening to me ramble on feel free to use promo code “Blog” at checkout at www.nordiclifestyle.shop to receive 20% off your next purchase. Obviously 1/3 of KZM profits go directly to nordies living the Nordic lifestyle and the other 2/3 goes to building KZM (which means more podcast, videos, blogs and more. All Nordic specific)

Thanks for reading folks!

My bike is a Cannon-dale