Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Here’s the video footage taken from behind closed doors in the Skyloft at the MGM Grand in Vega, where Jeff Walker hosted the Product Launch Formula top partners networking event. Look for 30 second interviews with Brian Clark, Tom Beal and Michael Cheney, along with scenes from inside the Skyloft.

Back in February I received the fantastic news that I had just scrapped in as a top 25 affiliate for the release of Product Launch Formula (PLF) 2.0 by Jeff Walker (again, a really big thanks to everyone currently studying PLF who purchased through me and I hope you are enjoying the iRiver bonus I sent too!).

Jeff and his brother Jon decided to run a party/networking/mastermind event only for the top affiliates and this was the first time I qualified for such an invitation-only event. I was very excited at the prospect of meeting many of the guys I follow and look to as mentors in the Internet marketing world.

Prior to this event I had only been to one Internet marketing conference, Rich Schefren’s Strategic Profits seminar held February 2007 in Florida. There I met Rich and Mike Filsaime and many people like me, running Internet businesses. I had spoken to Jeff and Jon Walker on teleconference calls and through Skype, but this was my first face-to-face meeting.

Besides Rich, Mike, Jeff and John, I was excited to see that Brian Clark from Copyblogger.com would be coming too (the only other “pure” blogger) as well as Tom Ham, Tom Beal, Colette Marshall, Willie Crawford, Jeff Dedrick, Michael Cheney, John Carlton, Shawn Casey, Ray Edwards, Howie Schwartz and more experts from the Internet marketing world. My only disappointment was that Frank Kern was not making the trip down to Vegas as I’d really like to meet my fellow long haired Internet marketer.

The event started at 1pm and included an afternoon in a Skyloft, which is an uber-expensive ($1,000 a night) apartment style hotel room in the MGM Grand hotel on the Vegas Strip and concluded with dinner at Craftsteak, a fancy steak restaurant located inside the hotel.

I left my hotel room and went down to the VIP area where they have special private elevators to access the Skylofts and immediately bumped into Rich Schefren who was chatting to Colette Marshall, whom I had never met. Rich introduced me and we chatted briefly until Michael Cheney showed up. By then it was nearly 1pm so we headed upstairs to the Skyloft.

Jeff and Jon Walker greeted us at the door and gave us a tour around the Skyloft before we joined the main crowd that had already arrived. I started shaking hands with people I knew, some I didn’t know and some I didn’t realize I did know (don’t you hate it when someone’s Twitter profile photo doesn’t quite match their real life face - Hi Brian!).

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I came to know Mike Sonders through Blog Mastermind, after he joined my program to learn how to use a blog as part of his marketing mix. Mike recently launched a brand new start-up and asked if I would tell my readers about it. I responded with a suggestion that instead he tell us how he came up with his business idea and explain his start-up story.

Mike’s business is called Lootist, a site where you can discover the best products by hobby or interest with guidance from real-life specialists. Now here’s Mike explaining how his idea turned into a business…

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I’ve met two types of entrepreneurs. There are those who have always known that they wanted to start a company, but they just needed to find the right idea, and then there are the people who stumble upon an idea compelling enough to convince them to start a business. I happen to fall in the latter group.

Based on my experience, one type of entrepreneur is not preferable or superior to the other. Chances for success are much more dependent upon the quality of the idea, a little bit of luck, and a lot of spot-on execution.

A good business idea (or a bad one) can come from anywhere: the classifieds sections of magazines like Entrepreneur, trends in industry-related or mainstream news, or the recognition of some “pain” in your day-to-day life, whether it’s at your job, at play, or at home. Many pains have a remedy (that you can monetize) if you’re resourceful and creative enough.

In mid-2006, a couple of months after graduating with my MBA, I needed to buy a gift for my then-roommate for his birthday. He was (and is) a DJ, and I wanted to get him something really cool that he’d appreciate and enjoy… but I didn’t know the first thing about DJs or the stuff that they use.

Web sites like Amazon and Epinions weren’t much of a help. They’re very useful when you know what you’re buying, but all I knew was for whom (an amateur DJ) I was looking to buy. Since I do everything online, I wanted a Web site that would help me find a great gift for someone with a particular interest or hobby.

And that’s how a pain in my everyday life sprouted an idea. Through my frustrations as an average online consumer, I had identified a genuine market need which I thought I could address.

Things Change

I’d argue that there’s no bad source of ideas, just bad ideas. For instance, if the market you’re considering is saturated with competitors, and your idea isn’t significantly differentiated, then you probably have a not-great idea on your hands. But that’s not necessarily a sign to give up; it’s a cue to ask yourself whether another, better idea can address the pain you’re trying to solve.

Initially, I envisioned a site where users would tag product reviews with keywords describing a hobby or interest. For example, users might tag a camera lens or a tripod with “photography.” That way, a visitor could search by hobby or interest and find a variety of products related to that topic.

As I conducted a competitive analysis, however, I discovered several product review sites already taking a very similar approach.

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Kevin Plank’s unremarkable career as a college football player hardly ranks him with the greats of the gridiron. But Under Armour, a bright idea hatched during his days as a walk-on fullback at the University of Maryland, has taken Plank, 31, to the promised land in the sports apparel industry.

For anyone involved in athletics, you know that perspiration can be the pits (no pun intended). Kevin Plank set out to capitalize on the perspiration that goes hand-in-hand with sports by creating clothing that wouldn’t become saturated with the stinky stuff. After playing fullback for the Terrapins, Plank knew what just about any other football player knows… pads, clothing, and shoes flat out STINK after games.

From this simple concept a multi-million dollar a year business was born. Under Armour was the brainchild of Kevin and Scott plank and those humble beginnings have now led to a full-fledged sporting craze.

For those that are unfamiliar with the product, you can find it at any sporting goods store. Under Armour is thinly layered - tight-fitting clothing that doesn’t hold moisture. For athletes, this idea was better than sliced bread. The clothing (since it doesn’t retain moisture) not only doesn’t weigh you down with sweat, but it actually helps to cool you! The science behind it is similar to that of perspiration itself. The clothing doesn’t hold moisture so it forces it to the top layer. It sits on top of the top layer and when you catch a breeze, it can actually cool your body by up to 35%. Amazing!

Under Armour was started with a twenty thousand dollar budget, and a lot of legwork. The company never spent a dime on print or media advertising (until much later), but instead, relied on word of mouth. They passed out samples of their clothing to football players from Georgia Tech. The players fell in love with it almost instantly, and Under Armour received it’s first order… for $15,000.00. This was just the beginning though. Still relying on word of mouth advertising, what happens next is what really catapulted this fledgling business into the limelight.

The equipment manager for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons just so happened to be close friends with the Georgia Tech head coach that just made the first Under Armour order of any sports team. After a weekly lunch visit, Kevin Plank received a call asking if he could make the shirts long-sleeved as well. Kevin, without an advertising budget, nor a well-recognized brand… made his first sale to a professional sports team.

This was really all it took for Under Armour to shine. Before he knew it, Plank was receiving orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise from professional sports teams and apparel shops all over the world.

It didn’t take long for the Under Armour idea to be emulated though. Bigger companies such as Nike, Adidas, and Reebok started developing entire product lines that they called “dry fit” clothing. It seems that although Under Armour may be the under dog in this fight… that it never really turned into much of a fight. By the time the “big 3″ released their products, Under Armour already had established a firm grasp on the industry by signing contracts to provide athletic apparel to all major pro sports, and most college sporting programs as well.

How’s that for an under dog story?

- Bryan Clark

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After doing my profile of the business team behind the lightweight slippers known to the world as Crocs, I managed to stumble across this brilliant accessory. Jibbitz are tiny decorative snaps that fit into the holes on top of Crocs.

Just like Jonathan Hall, Sheri Schmelzer was able to leverage an already successful market, and breathe some new life into it with a complimentary accessory. Filling a need, or more likely a want is what separates a good invention (and the entrepreneur) from a bad invention, or at least one that isn’t likely to catch on. This is where so many entrepreneurs fail… they try to create a market instead of leveraging an existing one. But I’ll let Yaro tell that story. Back to Jibbitz.

Jibbitz come in all sorts of designs from flowers to smiley faces and they make sense when you figure the available real estate (the holes) that are available on Crocs. Sheri Schmelzer started this operation selling Jibbitz from her basement. It didn’t take long before she was selling out every batch of the $2.49 accessory. Orders got to the point where Sheri could no longer handle the demand. A good problem to have, but a problem all the same. Looking for an easy fix, Sheri brought her husband Rich into the mix.

Rich was an experienced businessman and he quickly set up a deal with a company that agreed to manufacture Jibbitz in bulk. Not long after, they signed their first distribution deal with the popular mall fixture “Clare’s”, the Schmelzers had sold an estimated 750 thousand Jibbitz at $2.49 a piece.

The success didn’t go unnoticed either. The actual company that she was selling Jibbitz for (Crocs) purchased the small operation for a tidy sum of 10 million dollars. The contract also states that Sheri Schmelzer is entitled to another 10 million if Jibbitz meets initial projections set forth by the number junkies at Crocs. Not bad for a business that had been around all of 4 years.

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Remember the distinction you made between an iPod and any other MP3 player based on the uber-cool white headphones? Throw that out the window and check out what Jonathan Hall has to offer.

Jonathan saw an opening to create a product that has really never seen the light of day. I can’t recall ever seeing earbuds that were THAT different from the standard ones you see everyday. This is where Emotibles were born.

These are an insanely easy idea for a product if you think about it. These aren’t even ear buds… these are just earbud covers. And you can market them to fit any demographic of buyer.

Jonathan entered his invention into a contest held by Fred Flare’s “Next Big Thing” contest. After placing second in the contest, the momentum had pretty much faded and Hall had placed his idea on the back burner. “Way back there,” he says. The invention could have stayed there forever because Hall was unable to find anybody that shared interest in his designs.

Fast forward to the present. Just recently Johnathan decided to post a picture of his idea on a website (which no longer exists) and start collecting names and email addresses of interested buyers. As you can imagine, this list grew to be pretty huge and Jonathan was in business again. But there had to be an easier way to market and distribute his product right? Right!

The company that judged his product to be unworthy of winning their contest (Fred Flare), actually offered to buy large quantities and distribute them through their website. Fred Flare began selling so many “emotibles” that they couldn’t keep them on the shelf.

The rest, as they say… is history!

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