Nate Lind is one of the best-networked people in the entire eCommerce industry. He has been involved in founding several eCommerce brands, one of them a competitor to The Beard Club when we met called Beard Czar. Nate comes from the world of big-time traffic and has been bringing many of the black hat marketers of the world around to the white hat side of the equation for years now. He is the founder of AdSum, now the Online Sellers Summit, and runs an incredible mastermind for 7+ figure ecommerce entrepreneurs called Legends Mastermind.
Nate got started in eCommerce as a VP at the Bank of America as a side hustle and quickly got hooked and decided to go all-in with the business model. Nate was drawn into the supplement industry by the margins and opportunity and really developed a strong ability to develop and market products. He and his partners made every mistake in the book when developing their business, but that got them on an accelerated path to success.
The CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) space was the niche that became the most effective niche in advertising that Nate and his partners got into. Product owners referred to as Advertisers, whereas publishers and affiliates drive traffic and pay a set fee to the advertiser for each successful product sale.
A huge key to success in eCommerce is creating a funnel, and this is Nate’s top recommendation for anyone in the industry. Upselling and cross-selling products at checkout can be absolutely game changing for most companies to increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) and make your business far more profitable.
Using these tactics allowed Nate to very quietly outsell and outperform the success of The Beard Club with Beard Czar. For all the publicity we had, mastering funnels and internet marketing in the CPA/Affiliate Marketing space gave them a significant edge in top-line revenue.
Working in industries that cater to lower average incomes can put you in a difficult spot when it comes to margins, and this will often lead to difficulty scaling, especially in the CPA space. Architecting a product based on who the desired demographic would be can help avoid getting trapped into the position where your acquisition costs are choking your ability to scale.
Fueled by amazing experiences with other entrepreneurs after hours, Nate felt compelled to start to bring his network together for get-togethers and mastermind events to accelerate everyone’s business and make meaningful connections with other entrepreneurs. Sharing what is working and what isn’t is a MASSIVELY beneficial reason to get together with other entrepreneurs in the same industry (which is also why I created eCommerce Rockstars!). One small perspective can change your entire business.
Something I’ve experienced in many events is the “Imposter Syndrome” which seems to creep in when you are in the room with a bunch of high-level entrepreneurs. Getting over this can be a bit tough, but it is really important to sustained success in networking an in business. Many times on the other side of this is also the ability to be vulnerable with other entrepreneurs that are extremely successful and get the validation that sometimes it is totally fine to feel like you might be in over your head, or not know what you’re doing!
Something that all successful entrepreneurs share is an appetite for personal development and advancement. The opportunity to sit in the room with a ton of high-level people is a great way to achieve this and is the reason both Nate and I run our programs…to make this accelerated learning and development accessible to more people.
Nate is a very passionate individual in inspiring more marketers to move from black hat marketing techniques (forced continuity offers, using celebrity endorsements that aren’t legitimate, shady products, etc). Part of his personal mission is helping people make this transition
Building businesses that you are very disconnected from sometimes make it difficult to connect with a deeper passion. When Nate made a switch from beauty products for women to products he would use himself he discovered the power of linking that kind of passion into product development and customer care. He started to invest heavily in product development and customer experience.
Right now is a tipping point in eCommerce where so many marketers with skill and experience in selling products, but aren’t building brands or truly sellable businesses. There is a lot of activity going on in the M&A space in eCommerce, but if you only have 1 sales channel it is very difficult to sell a business. Channels like Amazon & Shopify can shut down your business overnight with little or no warning, which is a huge risk as a business owner. Having a multi-channel business in eCommerce is absolutely critical if you want to build something truly scalable and sellable.
Critical to success in eCommerce is really understanding the big picture and how all the pieces fit together. If you have any blind spots in the big picture model for your business, it’s really difficult to avoid scaling all of a businesses problems as the sales grow. It’s not about trying to do everything yourself and wearing all the hats, it’s about knowing how to put the hats on the right people and partners to get it done properly.
With so many people from the CPA space now transitioning to building a brand, and so many Amazon sellers and drop-shippers building more legitimate brands, its a tremendous time to be in the industry. eCommerce Entrepreneurs can sometimes forget the incredible power we have to really positively impact the lives of their customers with their products, content, and touchpoints. It’s a big responsibility and more companies are waking up to this and excelling at doing the right thing in order to stand out.
In order to build a real brand, you’ve got to build a real business.
Like many entrepreneurs, Nate balances a busy work life with spending time with his amazing wife and children. Nate had a massive personal and business breakthrough from a relationship book called The 5 love languages. We all express affection differently and building this level of self-awareness and awareness of how you interact with others is an amazing way to excel at your personal and business relationships.
Check out www.natelind.com to find out more about Nate, and definitely check out www.sellerscruise.com. For those of on the more experienced side of eCommerce, legendsmastermind.com is an amazing group of high-level eCommerce entrepreneurs!
Great interview with a great guy
He’s a beauty!