On the 6th episode of The E-Comm Show, our host Andrew Maff is with Brian Bianchetti, the fourth-generation owner and operator of People's Choice Beef Jerky–a family business that has been handcrafting artisan beef jerky for 90+ years in the heart of Los Angeles.
If you’re curious to know the secrets to sustaining a multi-generational business and preserving the legacy of a family-run business, then tune in as Brian talks about how to successfully differentiate your brand in the market through effective storytelling, seizing opportunities for growth, and how you can add value to your customers beyond serving a really good and tasty beef jerky!
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Andrew Maff & Brian Bianchetti
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About Brian Bianchetti
Brian Bianchetti is fourth-generation owner and operator of People's Choice Beef Jerky. A family business that has been handcrafting beef jerky for 90+ years in the heart of Los Angeles. He oversees all aspects of the business from operations, marketing, sales, finance, and human resources with a focus on growth initiatives.
00:02
Launching new products itself is a really good marketing tactic like a week or two before we have it live we'll like blast out a ton of samples. This is Brian Bianchetti of People's Choice Beef Jerky. He says Andrew Tjernlund with Tjernlund products. This is Dan Kaplan of the game Steward, and you're listening and you're listening to then you're listening toThe E-comm Show.
00:30
Welcome to The E-comm Show, presented by BlueTuskr. The number one place to hear the inside scoop from other e-commerce experts share their secrets on how they scaled their business and are now living the dream. Now, here's your host, Andrew Maff. Hello,
00:51
everyone, and welcome to The E-comm Show. I'm your host Andrew Maff. And today I'm joined by Brian Brian Bianchetti of People's Choice Beef Jerky. And I am so excited for this one. Brian, you're a for good show.
01:03
Let's do it. Awesome.
01:05
So there's several reasons why I'm excited for this one. One being this is the first time that we've done an episode twice, I'm going to be fully transparent. We did this episode and I messed up and hit the wrong button. And it didn't record and so I I messed it up. So we're gonna do it again. And on top of that, obviously, People's Choice is a consumable and we have not had a consumable on the on the show yet and that is a very challenging area. So I'm gonna I'm gonna allow Brian to reintroduce himself. And we'll kick it off from there. Right, Brian?
01:41
Very good. Sounds good. You know, I thought you just enjoyed talking me so much the first time that you wanted to bring it back. So I guess you got me. Yeah, happy to be here. Happy to, to chat with you tell you a bit more about our business. So we are People's Choice beef jerky. We're a family business located in downtown Los Angeles. And we've been manufacturing handmade beef jerky since 1929. So my great grandfather started the company here our current location, and it's been passed down from generation generation and today we're one of the foremost makers of artisan high quality beef jerky. That's awesome. So
02:23
the question that obviously I kind of want to get to his consumables are our challenge it at least on direct to consumer, especially obviously, through e commerce, like you don't get to smell it, you don't get to taste it, you don't get to go through that whole process. So like, what is that? Like, on your end? How have you like kind of tackled that?
02:40
Yeah, you really keyed in on one of the main challenges with working with like you say to consumable food products in the e commerce space, because you don't have the opportunity for people to try your product. You know, there's, there's a reason why you see those sampling tables at Costco, right? Like people try a product, they find it, they like it and then they buy it but you know, we don't have that opportunity when selling direct to consumers. So you know, it really comes down to other ways of demonstrating our product benefits. And that comes out of things like having really, really high quality photography, really, that's just like table stakes. But there's opportunities to continue that process with video. You know, one of the things that we recently introduced is video of somebody holding our product touching it, moving it and giving a textural sense to customers to give us give them a sense of you know, what it what it looks like, in a more interactive way. And then things like product descriptions, you know, being honest and transparent with like, what your product is, one of the early lessons that I you know, I learned with our product is we make a very specific style jerky, it is traditional, it's old school, it's old fashioned, so texturally it's gonna be a little bit tougher, it's gonna have that to that people who like that really love it. So you know, in the beginning when we were writing product descriptions, we tried to appeal to you know, a range of people and the problem with that is that some people who weren't expecting that texture you know, were unhappy didn't have a great customer experience and you know, complained and then we had to deal with it on the customer service front. So to prevent those sort of issues we sort of very clearly upfront we're very clear on what that product is, what it tastes like and what sort of what it was the texture of it was and I think maybe we lost a few customers in the beginning that didn't want it but in the long run, it was much better so I think being very honest and transparent with like, what your product is, and the description of the photos is, is sort of the way to do it. So beef jerky
04:37
is obviously a competitive space and as you mentioned, you know, you guys really cater more towards like you know, kind of that old fashioned like traditional beef jerky as you said, it's a little bit tougher, is that kind of how you approach your branding to differentiate you between you and your competitors is like if you want like traditional beef jerky where your guy and if you want like New Age crap go to them like is that kind of the approach you take?
05:00
Yeah, you know, like I think we, we have, you know, a big piece of our brand is sort of our heritage is our tradition is our longevity, and the fact that we make everything in house and that's very connected to who we are as a brand. And so, you know, we found our niche and we're very successful in our niche is just a matter of communicating, you know, what it is that we do and what makes us so special. And so that's, you know, for us, one of the big opportunities with e commerce is all the different, you know, storytelling devices and vehicles that are available. And I think people really latch on to those types of stories when when they, when they shop online, they look for new brands, and especially jersey, which lends itself really well to sort that heritage and tradition. So yeah, for us, the biggest one of the biggest differentiators is Our Story. We've been doing this for, you know, 90 plus years, and so not many other companies can say that.
05:54
Nice. So you mentioned you have everything in house. So I assume, obviously, you have your warehouse? Well, I know that you have your warehouse there because we did this already. But so I know you have your warehouse there, you have, obviously the manufacturing side there, what's what's that like keeping that whole process in house?
06:13
Yeah, you know, there's definitely advantages and disadvantages to having the fulfillment capability in house. You know, one of the things that we've done over the years as we scaled as we've really scaled sort of strategically, like we've added on resources as we had opportunities come up. And so that means, you know, in the beginning, we're fulfilling orders and a tiny little, you know, best up on the front of our factory, and then that got upgraded to the back, you know, the back of the office. And then, you know, eventually we got to a place where we needed to expand to a full warehouse. And that's sort of where we're at now, where are all of our order fulfillment takes place. But you know, there's advantages to being able to do that, especially during the pandemic, when some other like, third party, you know, providers had a lot of problems and issues, whether it was, you know, with employees or laborers being getting stuff out, like we sort of control our own destiny by having the ability to fulfill our own orders. And there's a lot of resources available from the fulfillment and shipping side, that sort of expedites and makes that process a little easy. So right now we handle order fulfillment for our website, in house, okay,
07:18
to manufacturer you handle fulfillment you obviously you're sending it out on your own you have the whole process Do you also farm Are you Where do you get the cows from?
07:26
Yeah, so we work with, we work with suppliers on on the side back in the day, and when my grandfather and great grandfather were here, they would get you know full animals and break those down here at the shop. But you know, over the years that we've gotten a little bit more specialized into jerky we receive sort of whole cuts of meat that are practiced for our process. So from there we break that down, slice it, trim it and kind of make it fit our our process. But But yeah, we don't do any sort of slaughter or anything like that. But we do work with a few different suppliers, mostly small ranchers, small family businesses, we play like that connection. But we really source from all over the US and everything does come from from the US. Yeah. Nice.
08:11
So it's it's so cool that you're like generational because I mean, I you know, newer show, we haven't had anyone that's generational. But honestly, I can probably assume that I'm not going to have anyone that's generational because of the e commerce site is relatively new. What's what is your endgame? Since it's generational? Are you planning on handing it down to hopefully, uh, I guess it'd be a fourth generation?
08:33
Yes. So I'm fourth. Oh,
08:35
yeah, you would be fourth? When you say yeah, so
08:37
my sister and I are both Sara, our fourth generation. So the next generation will be fifth. Yeah, and so you know, my main goal is just making it day to day I can't be the one the generation that messed this up. But yeah, but yeah, so I think that that is the goal, you know, like, you know, our business is so tied into our identity as a family. And for me, personally, you know, what we do is so important. And the fact that we work with a tangible physical product, you know, we're taking these inputs and we're transforming into something new, the fact that we're a food product and you know, we make something that we eat, it's just the whole business, the multi generational aspect of it. The fact that it's a place that my great grandfather and my grandfather and my dad have all been a part of, and that I'm now part of, and then hopefully can pass that on. It's just really important to me. So for us, you know, it's continuing this legacy and I know I speak for my sister as well as like we really see ourselves as you know, sort of stewards of the company and the brand and all we're just here to make sure that it keeps going on we pass it along.
09:38
Nice. And you so obviously, you'd mentioned you guys are over 90 years. You got a few years until you hit you know big 100 what's what are you going to do? What have you I know you've started to think about it what's what's the plan, like just some big beef jerky bash like, what do you think about doing?
09:55
Yeah, 100 am
09:57
I invited? Yeah,
09:59
exactly. We'll see how this recording goes super excited it's definitely on our radar and you still got a few years to go but you know 100 years is is something special and definitely something that we're proud of. And I also think from like a marketing perspective it's a really compelling you know, selling point a company it's been around for 100 years and you know, historically the business has been more on the wholesale side and the b2b side and manufacturing side we really haven't started to build our own brand you know until the last like eight years or so and so yeah, that's really the future of the company is building out you know, the People's Choice feature II brand getting our name out there and really driving a connection here in the local Los Angeles market because believe it or not, we're still sort of like a hidden gem here in downtown LA, we do sell out of our factory and we get a decent amount of foot traffic of people throughout the years that come in and buy so I think there's an opportunity for us to really promote that fact. And possibly explore like other avenues to promote that sort of local la history and sort of an institution of La Yeah, so
11:11
after after we did the last show I was telling my wife about how cool it was and then also how frustrated I was that it didn't matter and I felt bad I had to reach back out and one of her first questions before I told her that I messed it up was they have a location in downtown LA because it's not really what I would expect a beef jerky place to be so how does the whole brick and mortar side work there?
11:33
Yeah, no we are definitely a fish out of water down here we've been here for so long you know most of the meat and production in Los Angeles happens in Vernon which is just a little south of downtown so you know where the fashion district right off central Pico so all around us is you know clothing manufacturing and so yeah we're definitely trying to water down here but you know we're in this old brick building we have you know, an old hand painted sign on the on the front we really haven't changed the building itself so people drive by all the time and they literally do a double take will do a U turn and pop and be like you guys come here so yeah, so you know it's it's it's we've been here for so long and I think our billing itself is such an important piece of our business as well and our identity but the idea of your wife is not wrong like we're definitely not a lot of other d3 companies
12:27
I would assume not yeah and for those of you that are listening but not watching this on YouTube or wherever else he's he is physically in front of the entire brick building and you can tell like an older building it's it's pretty cool next time I go out in LA I have to come see this standalone beef jerky plays in downtown LA is fantastic
12:49
you're absolutely Welcome to stop by get a full to LA like Come Come visit us right off of pecan Central and to give you a real sense of the manufacturers This is Yeah, awesome as well so the full experience out here
13:05
I do the same but we're in my basement so um alright so one of my favorite questions I like asking because I know a lot of sellers who listen to this kind of always have relatively similar questions. There's kind of like those tiers of like revenue heights that kind of become issue right so to me it's like one 510 then it's usually like wanting 550 and then like 100 like those are the tough ones that to kind of break over I know you guys have passed eight figures what what do you think that what do you think was the thing that kind of helped you guys get to that point and finally be able to like break that I find that if you're at 5 million breaking that 10 you have to like kind of adjust your company to be able to scale it to that point so what do you think was was your trick?
13:57
Yeah you know I think we don't we haven't we haven't really thought about it in terms of like those milestones like for us growth has always been pretty linear. We're also different kind of because we've been around for so long that like for us you know it was really a matter of like how can we grow and how can we grow profitably You know, I think a lot of like new entrants especially into the food space whether they're like venture backed or have some sort of funding or like growth and growth at all costs. He sort of had a different approach and I think this is one of maybe is more applicable to like smaller businesses, smaller startups that are trying to build a business for their family legacy and those kinds of things like you know the things my dad has always preached is like you know, the end of the day you still have to make money so to be profitable and you know, there's I think opportunities to acquire customers may be you know, a not so profitable cost as long as you get that back in the long run, but we've always tried to stay profitable and so you know, that that really manifests in all of our you know, marketing tactics where, you know, we're not trying to make a quick buck. We're not trying to spend too much Certain growth numbers so I think for us always been trying to find value trying to find opportunity and if that means like you know doing some of that legwork ourselves like we're definitely open to that yeah so yeah so I think that would be sort of like the overall takeaway is like you know you you can grow at your own speed and you know the other day your bottom line is what's gonna be the most important
15:22
yeah largest the team in house
15:24
sort company across like all different departments production office and everything we're running around a little over 40 employees and then on the sort of the marketing team we have we have myself my sister, Sarah, who is also fourth generation who manages a lot of the day to day marketing and then we also have Cody who does a lot of the social media and blog content so shout out to Sarah and Cody
15:49
nice keeping up with their work yeah.
15:53
So I lost my train of thought Oh,
15:56
so you obviously keep it in house on the West Coast Do you have three pills anywhere across the country? How are you kind of dealing with being able to ship to the other side of the country here?
16:07
Yeah, it's a great question and one that's like super topical for us right now because as we ended we've started to look into you know, three pls to help us with order fulfillment. So one it would be to help sort of capacity constraints you know, like we are a smaller facility we are focused on manufacturing and so you know, we have the resources internally right now to be able to shed but you know, as that grows like you know, does it make sense to to you know, have somebody else do it the second piece I think the one that we're more interested in is having same next day delivery speeds so you know, it's so important for conversions and you know, the and the sonification of shopping online where everyone expects super fast and you lose out on a lot of sales because people go to the shipping get to the shipping stage and they say oh, it's gonna take five days seven days to get to me which in my mind is totally reasonable but you know, they're expecting it faster so you know, we have thought okay, should we add on a partner facility on the East Coast that could increase shipping speeds on that half the country and then maybe we do all the West Coast orders and that way we will deliver faster shipping speeds so for us it's not just capacity it's not just price which are both you know, important pieces but it's like are there you know, added value that we could gain by partnering so we're right there that point where we're kind of making that decision and exploring options?
17:32
Yeah. And so speaking of the Amazon ification of it, are you on any of the marketplaces Are you guys solely off you're on site? We are Yeah, so
17:40
we sell on our website which is Shopify and then we also sell on Amazon and then we're also in Wall Comm. And so yeah, Amazon has been I would say we're one of the success stories of Amazon we've we've really leveraged amazon for you know, growth and new customer acquisition. It comes with its own set of challenges but I think we went into with our eyes wide open but it's been a really great thing for our business it has allowed us to grow you know sort of outside of our own website Yeah,
18:13
that I mean that does explain looking into the three PL side because I always find like you know sellers I think sometimes don't realize like you're almost competing with yourself because even if your cost is the same they're getting it to you they're getting it to the consumer and you know a day or two so what what's your shipping threshold like on your website
18:31
so are 85 for free shipping or shipping up to 85 then anything over 85 is free standard shipping,
18:39
okay? And if you end up going to a three PL and you can get it to him quicker Are you thinking about tweaking that or what's the thought there?
18:48
Good question. I think there's like two different ways that you can approach it you can either charge you know premium for the faster ship or you just you know, incorporate it into your standard shipping and then hopefully make up the difference in costs in you know, conversions and you know, maybe you convert a higher percentage more revenue and it sort of pays for itself so I'm not sure what that what the answer to that equation is for us. We are testing like a local same and next day delivery with a new carrier. You're in LA and like North Orange County. And and so our hypothesis with that is we're just making it the same as our standard shipping so it's five for same or next day or over 85 it's free. And we're testing to see that we know will we get an increase in orders and conversions and that builds to pay for itself. So we're running that right now. I think that will really inform our decision Okay, are we expanding? Do we want to bring on Yeah,
19:38
it's a smart idea. Like that's the benefit of being in LA is you get those cool little startups that kind of think of like, Well what if we just did same day like round here? Like that's basically doordash but for, you know, local stuff that's not food is all your food but still interesting?
19:53
Yeah, absolutely like and most of our business here is local too. So we're kind of like, you know, we're the best of both worlds. for serving most of our customers while also having a test to be able to take to other places so you know you know one of the things that I think we've always been really open to that I think is a good thing for most small businesses or sellers is like just being open to testing you know we're we're always very much open to taking advantage of opportunities like and we found that you know, we definitely have things that don't work out but we're always willing to take those chances and those strategic chances to see okay could this improve the business and that's like a good example of like, okay, let's let's see what this can do.
20:30
Yeah. Do you guys sell internationally as well? Right now
20:34
we're just in the domestic us like keeps us busy there's plenty of market opportunity here but we have explored Canada Mexico it's a little tricky with with meat and beef products just because there's like export requirements that you have to go through so there's an extra hurdle where it's kind of prevented us from exploring it but you know down the road I think looking at other other opportunities it's it's definitely something that's on our radar Yeah. So let's let's pivot to
21:00
marketing a little bit but then it's good under the hood what's your tech stack look like?
21:04
What are you guys using so I'll pull up my my bookmarks right here my you know, the list is like 37 apps deep I'll run run through it so we do klaviyo for email as well as SMS they haven't they've like incorporated SMS into one of their services and we've known SMS is like an emerging tactic channel so we really see it as a part of email in terms of our flows having a feature that we use let's see just you know for all of our pop ups and website messaging we use Shogun for like landing page design and building let's see me swell and Jaco for both our reviews and our loyalty program. We use hot jar for screen recordings use sem rush for all of our SEO and the list the list goes on.
22:05
Too many people don't use something I'm we're not sponsored by any of these people by the way. But too many people I find don't use hot jar something similar to it right? Like it's just to me that's like a no brainer tool like so many people will create a page and be like this looks good let's put it up and they're like I don't understand why isn't it converting? Shouldn't it be converting like well let's look into like, what's everyone doing? And they're like, I don't know I'm like well, then how are you supposed to react to that?
22:31
Yeah, yes it's yes it's such a good point. I mean, you know, literally today I was going through screen recordings you know, once a week I have an hour blocked on my calendar where I put headphones in I like lock in and I just watch an hour of screen recordings and just take notes take notes and try to focus in on like specific things so an example is we've focused very heavily in the last six months on content creation for our blog as a way of driving additional traffic to our website and so we have been very successful in driving all that traffic and now we're trying to optimize our blog for you know, email capture for versions for all those kinds of things for engagement so I was literally watching people land from search on our blog and how they interacted where are they clicking? Where are they going like how far are they scrolling? And you know, we always have the numbers on the backend whether it's through all the different you know, analytics tools, but to actually see the experience that people have is is so helpful you don't want to like wrote down three little insights of like okay, test this let's try that we have to fix that it's really a great way to find you know, mistakes and errors you know, formatting stuff just simple things that as a sum like some things you can test and be like okay, this is how much it resulted in you know, an increase in whatever you're you're looking at, but a lot of it i think is just a cumulative thing where like you just kind of all those little changes add up for your website experience and so it's important for us and it's something that like I literally put down my calendar once a week to go through and watch Yeah, yeah no like
24:03
sometimes you know the smaller sellers I'm like hey you know having a having something like that can be useful but like a really small percentage change isn't going to you know, make you rich overnight. But then like as you kind of scale like those little tiny small tweaks like you said, like they really start to add up and it can be like several percentage points on conversion rates which is like a lot of money and a lot of cases
24:25
Yeah, especially when you think about like rising costs it's just like expensive to get people on your site or wherever you're spending your money right so like if you're losing sales once people get on your site like that's something that's you know, pretty cheap to fix and will have such a huge benefit.
24:42
So where are you spending your money paid advertising influencers? Like what's what's the route you guys have been taken? Yeah, we
24:48
have a pretty, a pretty healthy mix across so you know, we're in paid social, Facebook, Instagram, and then we have sem and really those are kind of split. The the social side is more like Discovery base, you know, like people will be like, Oh, that's cool, like a new trick you haven't tried. We're on we think of like sem and Google and being as like more specific searches, intent based searches, and I think jerky kind of lives in both spaces. So those would be like our two main channels are where we spend most of our money. But then we supplement that with like, we have, we managed like an in house influencer program and kind of gifting program where we have like a rotating list of 100 200 influencers that will send out two free products. You know, just with sort of like a handshake deal of like, here's a free product, try if you like it posted, you know, most times that relationship will lead to good organic posts, and then also good content, UGC content to then harvest and then reuse throughout our advertising. So influencers another, I think, good, good piece of our business. Like I mentioned, we're doing a lot of blog content, SEO, which has been a really rewarding experience, it's been a slow burn, like I'd say, six months plus, like, we're starting to see a really good return on that, in terms of traffic. And then testing, like I said, you know, like, as opportunities pop up, like whether it's like a podcast, or like, you know, an email list or whatever it might be,
26:13
so I'm just a test. Mine, I know my role, it's okay. So, how I'm gonna, I want to bounce back that influencer thing real quick, how often do you guys release new flavors?
26:29
Good question. So things that are back on new flavors. So launching new products itself is a really good marketing tactic. Like, obviously, you launch new products to like, sell and like have additional revenue streams, but like, it's also a really good marketing tactic. So like, I'm talking about engagement, right? Like you have a new product, take two people, like you're not just messaging them with like a recipe or like a user education, like it's a product. And so for us, like, it kind of took me a while to get there. But I realized like we shouldn't, we needed to have a healthy for new product launch program, because it was just the most compelling message marketing message there we have. So like, so I would say we tried to launch like three to four flavors a year, which is like way faster than a lot of companies. And I think one of the things that makes us a little bit different is because we're a smaller company, you know, we can be much more agile in sort of the speed in which we, you know, recipe tests, we r&d, we get packaging, and then we're able to launch something on our website. So I'd say somewhere between three and four products a years is where we'd like to be.
27:34
So the reason I asked which didn't tell me if you guys are already doing this, but years ago, I was at a show and this guy was talking about his tactic of like releasing his book or something. And what he did was he got a bunch of influencers that were in his market I can't remember I think it was a sales guy or something. And he got a bunch of influencers together and then what he did was the deal they struck out with them you know, whatever he paid them or however that worked out. They also he also said I you can only release it your post during this month. And that was when the book came out. And talking about how is a great snowball effect of like there was just a big push of like, hey, wait, everyone's got this book that just came out. And then it started snowballing. Have you guys ever tried and obviously, so we started doing that with products. I was like, why can't I do that with stuff like that? So like, have you guys tried that we just do like a big jump in like one week or a month or something?
28:23
Yeah, totally. I think that's a really good way like the snowball, like sort of this the fact of it. Because, you know, again, it's like, it's a little bit harder to like, measure influencer in some way. Yeah. They're different. Like, you got to sort of look at like, you know, okay, like, to your point, if you're launching in a very specific window, you seem like a lift, if you know, but yes, so I think to answer your question, it's definitely something that we do. So like, for example, when we launched a new flavor, like a week or two before we have it live, we'll like blast out a ton of samples, and especially like some of the segments that we're working in, like the keto audience, right? Like they are very local, very active, very, you know, tight knit community. And so if we can get our product into 100 influencers in that space, like I'm talking to small influencers, like 1000 followers, 10,000 followers, the most 50,000 followers, it just I think people that are in that community see it and then they see it again, and they see somebody else posting And to your point has that sort of effect where it could really good groundswell, you know, through through that influencer outreach and doing a targeted window for it. Yeah.
29:30
So back on the paid advertising side, if you don't mind sharing, which channels your leader right now.
29:38
It's still paid social, and there's like total volume. It Yeah, it's still is it's just it's sort of one of those things and we're like still looking for other ways to spend their money that might work a little bit harder for especially with all the challenges out there, but like, features like total spend, it's still paid social.
29:56
Have you tried tik tok
29:57
yet? So we're on there. And we're posting like, you know, videos and that kind of stuff. We haven't tested out the advertising side of it. We're more trying to build a presence. But it's something on our radar as it's grown. And, you know, I think the demographics have shifted a bit with who's on tik tok. Those emerging channels, there's always opportunity there because it's so new. Yeah, we've done a
30:23
good amount of them for advertising, excuse me, and the tracking on there like, like, sometimes you can't really there's not really like revenue tracking or anything. But it can do pretty well, especially obviously now if you start leveraging the influencer side of that, yeah. So with your, your apps and stuff that you're mentioning, have you guys tried any of the chatbot stuff
30:44
we were, we use some of the like the Facebook Messenger tools in the beginning. And for whatever reason, I don't know, I just didn't really like work all that well for us. So it was something that we tested for a bit. And then just it was one of the things that kind of fell off our radar. So
31:06
since the last time you and I spoke. And the reason I had to wait to do this one is a price this past week, I was at traffic and conversions on your side of the countries in San Diego. And many chat had kind of had a thing about, they finally released the Instagram automation stuff. And before I go into this not sponsored by many chat, they're not paying me to say this. But the they now have the Instagram automation, and I was diving into it right before this call. It's pretty cool. And I actually think it'd be really cool for you guys, because it's basically like, I agree, I did the chatbot stuff with a bunch of clients. And it didn't, it didn't work the way I wanted it to on Facebook. But the Instagram stuff, the interesting thing is like you can have it now where if someone makes a specific comment on your post, it will automatically dm them. So if you do like a contest and you just say hey, comment below like jerky, you can automatically dm them. And then you can also do it where if like an influencer just out of blue tags you in something you can automatically dm them like a discount is like a thank you or something like that. It's very interesting. And I've been looking into it for someone that's relative in this consumable space. Yeah. And I was like, you probably pretty cool for you guys to be able to leverage some of that stuff.
32:20
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we would definitely be interested in checking that engagement piece on social i think is one it's like, it's very time intensive. bonding. But like, I think it definitely has a benefit. So there's a tool that sort of, does that automatically for you at that point. Yeah. So you're the marketing guy.
32:42
What's your like, what's your day to day look like? Cuz you're also obviously an owner, so still have other stuff to do. But like, what is what's a day like in Brian's world?
32:51
Yeah, it's good question. Every day, like, you know, it sounds a little bit trite, but everyday truly is differently. Because while marketing i think is my is my focus and my passion, because I think it's where a company can grow is through marketing. And that's where I like to spend my time, I ultimately get pulled into many different directions. And so that could be, you know, like, hiring, it could be human resource, it could be like, sourcing r&d. So everybody's a little bit different. But I have my sister Sarah Cody on the team. So I like to set sort of high level strategy and goals and let them run with it. So for my guidance and direction, and then get my feet wet in a few different things here and there. But, but yeah, I think I think for me, it's been, like a really good learning experience is like giving, you know, control away and letting the team do what they need to do, and being able to step back and focus on some, like larger picture stuff. So yeah, so everyday is truly different, like an important piece of I think what I try to incorporate into every day, or at least every week is learning. Like I'm constantly you know, I signed up for, you know, every company's, you know, email resources, all that stuff, and I'm constantly reading constantly watching videos. So I think it really adds up, you know, like, you can pick up a little insight here and there and incorporate it and can have make a pretty big impact. So I really tried to building like learning and research into my day to day. Nice, do
34:20
you so you have a big team and you obviously have a lot on your plate? Do you guys outsource anything at all?
34:25
Um, we do. Yeah, I mean, like on the on the paid social side, we partner with an agency that does all the management, creative development. So you know, I'm saying things where, you know, we know enough to be dangerous, but we know that we're not experts and and that there's a lot of value in working with an agency partner, because it's at the end of the day going to pay for itself when they're able to get a better return better performance, and there's just two more for you. And then I think the second piece of that, too, is even even in the early stages like working with a consultant or is that To list on, you know, more one on one basis can be really powerful. You know, like, for example, we've been working with an SEO consultant. His name's Dan evolving SEO shout out, Dan, he is, has brought a tremendous amount of, you know, value to our business in terms of like his recommendations and ways that he's, you know, encouraged us to optimize our website and SEO, but also like, we've learned a tremendous amount and that's something that's moving forward, like we know how to do certain things. And so as a business owner, like that's a really powerful thing. So, you know, I think there's that benefit of being able to learn from an expert and then be able to take those skills on is is very powerful as
35:38
well. Yeah, freelancers vs. Anything like that.
35:41
Not a little bit less like we do some freelance, like design work and, and no creative work, but no, most most of their stuff is always on out. Nice. That's good to hear. Usually,
35:55
that's not the case. What uh, so what's gonna, what's gonna take you guys to like that next step? What are you guys thinking about? Obviously, expand the product line is clear. Have you thought about this, you wouldn't really acquire competitors? But like, what, like, what what do you think's going to help you guys get to like that next level?
36:13
Yeah, it's a really great question. So we like from a from a jerky standpoint and production standpoint, like we did, it's a very good problem to have like, we're really at a capacity of the manager that we can make which we're so lucky to be at that place. And so for us now, it's really looking at like, revenue streams outside of our core products, you know, portfolio jerky. And so, you know, we've been exploring a few other options, you know, maybe getting into like more like March, also looking into get like doing like, Do It Yourself jerky products. So whether that's like jerky seasoning or drum kits, there's like a lot of content opportunity around that. So Ross is just exploring, I think, product segments, target audiences and you know, different areas that are tangential, related to jerky that we have relevance and authority and, but are sort of outside of where our core product mixes. So yeah, I think that's, you know, looking at kind of grown in different ways. Nice. Alright,
37:13
I don't want to take up too much more of your time, I've already taken up twice as much as I should have. So this is that stereotypical time where I let you kind of tell everyone where they can find out more about you more about people's choice, and feel free to take as much time as you want. As you deserve it. This is sponsored by you now.
37:30
It's an amazing Well, thank you for having me. Truly, it's been a pleasure speaking with you both times. So like, like the things that we've talked about, the best way to find this is peopleschoicebeefjerky.com. And if you're here, local and Southern California, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, we are in downtown LA. And we sell from our factory. So combined Say hello. We'll let you peek into the production facility and see what we do. But yeah, peopleschoicebeefjerky.com. Nice to give tours. We do on occasion. Right here like the window. Looking out right here is on the production floor. So you know when you come down here you'll you'll smell the jerky. It's plastic. And so you really get a sense of our experience and what we got going on here.
38:20
I'll definitely have to do that when I come by. Yeah, of course obviously Brian really appreciate having you on the show everyone who tuned in. Obviously really appreciate having you guys listen, make sure to subscribe to wherever you choose to listen to podcast or on our YouTube or just head over to eecom show.com to learn more, but until next time, keep on selling and we'll see you guys next episode. I'm going
38:41
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