EP 395: Survival Frog Does $4.7M in 2015, 25% Gross Margin, 10% Net with Founder Byron Walker

Byron Walker, owner of Survival Frog. Byron is passionate about scaling businesses that will change the world. Hear the breakdown of Survival Frog and what launched this company into huge success. Famous Five:   Favorite Book? – Ready Aim Fire! What CEO do you follow? — No Favorite online tool? — Evernote Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—Yes. If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Welcome adversity.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:10 – Nathan introduces Byron 01:40 – Survival Frog 02:00 -- $4.7 million last year 02:20 – Started in 2009 02:30 – Info publishing company 03:00 – One product exploded in 2012 03:30 – 500000 purchases 03:50 – How they got the first sales 04:00 – Paid traffic 04:10 – Banner ads and paid email 04:20 – What is paid email 05:15 – Conversations are around 3 to 5 percent 05:20 – Split testing to find the right price 05:55 – Upsells make money for them 06:15 – Average profit is $5 06:30 – Over a million spent on paid marketing 07:00 – How to buy email lists 07:15 – List brokers 07:40 – Dedicated Emails, Bryan Litman 07:50 -- James R. Whalen 08:30 – Short emails get people to the landing page 08:55 – Now they are 100% physical products 09:50 – Gross margin is up to 35% this year 10:15 – 15 team members 10:40 – Products are sourced and bought in bulk 11:50 – Buying power with companies 12:10 – Forecasting the right amount of inventory 12:45 – LinkedIn or survivalfrog.com 14:40 – Discovery Channel on Blue Collar Backers 16:30 – Hundreds of thousands of units moved 17:00 – Profit in 2015 was $500k 17:35 – Valuation for the business 18:10 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Adjust your business model to improve your margins. Challenges in your life will put you on a better, more rewarding path. Continue doing what you are passionate about.   Resources Mentioned: Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. James R. Whalen and Dedicated Emails – Email list brokers Evernote – Byron’s favorite online tool Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives