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đ§ This episode of the DTC pod was straight money-talk with Sean Frank, the âEinstein of eCommâ and CEO of Ridge Wallet.
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Ridge helps its customers carry less and live more with minimalist wallets and other everyday essentials. Two Kickstarters, nine years, and over two million wallets later, Ridge surpassed the $50M mark in 2020 and shows no signs of slowing down.
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If youâre fascinated by financials, this is an episode you donât want to missâŚ
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Get Seanâs scalding-hot takes on the current recession, his advice for brands and agencies to survive the eCom crash, why SPACs are scams, and much more.
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âThe Takeaways đ
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đ How to weather the eCom crash:
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You heard it here first: eCom is officially in a decline.
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For the last 20 years, eCommerce has grown at least 1% YOY (during Covid, the industry experienced unprecedented 30% growth). But not this yearâŚ
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This is probably no surprise to you if youâve been following the markets, or even watched your own Q1 numbers roll in with disappointment. đ
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So what can brands and eCom services do to weather the storm? A few tips from Sean:
- Be maniacal about protecting your bottom line. Do what you can to cut costs now before youâre forced into it.
- Trim the fat where you can. Renegotiate SaaS contracts, call your credit card companies to lower fees, and ask providers for better deals. Every penny adds up.
- Agencies: get incredibly good, incredibly fast. Align yourselves with the most premium brands possible, because as investor money dries up, only the best will survive.
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âď¸ The most undervalued skill for CEOs:
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âNo one tells you this at CEO school or whatever⌠but 90% of your job is just going to be writing s#*! down.â
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Sean is a firm believer that CEOs (especially at remote companies) need to cultivate the skill of written communication.
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âBeing able to quickly and concisely get your point across in a way that everyone buys into is 100% a superpower â especially as the world gets more and more digital.â
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And he walks the talk! Just check out Seanâs Twitter for some solid word-spo.
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đ° What Sean would do with an extra $100K:
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A very large influencer deal.
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âThese deals are very risky from a cash-flow perspective â itâs really hard to get a direct ROI on them..so if I had âfree moneyâ thatâs what I would do, Iâd be sponsoring very large influencers on a one-off basis.â
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