Crafting Connections: The Power of Storytelling with Original Grain | EP. #179

Curious about how to turn your brand’s story into a game-changing marketing strategy? On this 179th episode of the E-Comm Show, Andrew Maff interviews Andrew Beltran, Co-Founder of Original Grain. Original Grain is more than just a watch company, it's a storytelling movement.

By using high-quality materials and carefully designing each product with an origin story in mind, they create connections deeper than functionality. And in a world full of watches, this connection is what keeps customers coming back for more. From leveraging the momentum from relevant product drops to crafting engaging influencer campaigns- Original Grain will show you how it's done.

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Crafting Connections: The Power of Storytelling with Original Grain

Andrew Maff and Andrew Beltran

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST: AndrewMaff.com  |  Twitter: @AndrewMaff | LinkedIn: @AndrewMaff 

Andrew Beltran

Andrew is a Marine Corps Veteran & Founder of Original Grain watches. Over the last 12 years OG has created one of a kind timepieces with globally recognized brands through their licensing initiative. Andrews efforts are primarily towards the business development & product design. He enjoys other entrepreneurial efforts such as real estate & building out his fly-in airport in the PNW - Black Sheep airport. Andrew has a passion for compassion & has continued his service through varies non-profits that are affiliated with the brand.

Andrew Beltran  00:03

It's to connect with an audience, and it's connect with people that value and appreciate the materials that are being used.

Andrew Maff  01:02

Hello. Everyone. As usual, I'm your host. Andrew Maff, welcome back to The E-Comm Show, and today I'm joined by another Andrew, Andrew Beltran, who is the co founder over at Original Grain. Andrew, how you doing, buddy? You ready for good show? 

Andrew Beltran  01:14

Hey, doing good brother. Thanks for having us here. Thank you, man. I am so excited to have

Andrew Maff  01:18

you on the show. I know you already gave me a little bit of a sneak peek about what we're gonna talk about today, but I won't ruin about today, but I won't ruin it. I'll let you do the fun part of that. But I do like starting these off relatively stereotypically. Just tell us a little bit about your background. How you got started with original grain. We're gonna take

Andrew Beltran  01:32

it from there, right? Boy, of course, yeah, we take it back 12 years or so, maybe even a little further. You know, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest small town outside of Eugene down called Creswell, a small, small town kid, I ended up joining the Marine Corps. Kind of opportunity to get out of town, also serve the country. It really meant a lot to me and my family, and kind of the history that my family holds. So I joined the Marines on the way back from actually deployment, we stopped for two days of R and R on our way home, and my brother was there with a few watch samples, and he kind of showed me these all kind of wood watches. And it just felt like there was, there was this natural connection, you know, growing up in the Northwest, and it was very simple at the time. It was just the idea of combining wood and steel, and it was just something about it that I could I just saw a lot of story in the wood and a lot of history in the wood. And growing up in the northwest, there's just there is a connection to handcrafted products. So I just really loved where that was currently at the stage, and essentially just invested kind of all my deployment money to get get this thing. It's kind of kicked off with custom molds, small production run to just kind of test the market. And, you know, 21 years old, really no experience on on direct to consumer e commerce, marketing, but really passion for product. And you know, my brother and I grew up working together teammates, you know, we we built a ton of trust when we were young. He's my older brother, two years older. It just felt like we get the team back, you know, let's get this you know, it was simple ideology to get this brand started. Did not know, 12 years later, you know, I'd be sitting in where I am currently as a brand. And it's funny, you know, there's still a lot of people who don't know Original Grain. And we always say that's a good thing. You know, really growing the company, you know, a few different stages of growth. And, you know, 2020, kind of level the tides, and then we able to, kind of take off, take off again. And there's still people, even in the E commerce world, that don't know us. And that's just, there's a ton of runway for us. And so we're really blessed to be where we are. A 12 year anniversary here this month, and so it's just been a journey

Andrew Maff  03:47

nice watches. I mean, what a wildly competitive and complicated space, right? Like, I mean, you've got dirt cheap watches. You have watches that are so incredibly expensive, it's amazing. Then, obviously, in the last 12 years, you've said, since you've started, you had the growth of, obviously, like smart watches and things like that. So, like, you've gone through the ringer over the past 12 years. What was kind of that process of, like, how you're differentiating and how you're still continuing to grow despite all of the noise. Yeah, we really

Andrew Beltran  04:19

don't get in the watches. You know, we're talking we're battling giants that have been around for 200 years. Yeah, twist and Italian, you know, not to mix kids from a small town, you know, expand Latino kids like this was not in the really, the cards for us. But, you know, we just, we come from a good place, and how we start our design process, you know, and it's to connect with an audience, and it's connect with people that value and appreciate the materials that are being used. And that's unlike any other company really out there. You're starting to see some of it, like with some of the space and the meteorite, like, sure, there is some material there that people are starting to starting to tell which I really applaud. You're seeing some of this. But, you know, it starts with the design process, and when we go out and we think about, we want to connect with whiskey lovers, you know, in Tennessee like we know we're going to go to Jack Daniels and we're going to grab we're going to get whiskey barrels. Obviously, there's a partnership and a licensing agreement that's in place for things of that nature, but it's all across the board. You know, our military collection, where we're taking authentic ammunition crate wood, you know, and, you know, we leave some of the wood even to have some of that tarnishing, you know, and that authenticity, like, it just comes down to that. And like, what we're what we're after when we when we start a design process, and I think our the consumers and the people that see our videos online, they they, they think of the memories that they've already shared, you know, with with people that they love, or, you know someone that they love. And I know my lot, you know, women purchasing for their husband who loves craft beer, you know. And we got our the craft beer collection, you know. So we're, we're tapping into affinities, and not just with unique design and Steve's and esthetic, it's through authentic materials. And that is a heck of a process. It's not the it's not a simple cut and paste and a mold, unless let's rock, you know. And they're limited in nature, you know. So we're going out and making these production runs, you know, sometimes 100 250 pieces, you know, which we found, you know, ways to scale certain collections, just by finding materials that there is an abundance and sustainably sourced this and that, but, and so I think that's how we've been able to really tap in and capture the eyeballs online. Is just really connecting with via material and design is designing right into that and telling that story via the marketing.

Andrew Maff  06:45

Yeah. I mean, it's a very interesting business model, right? Like, you think of companies that, you know, do partnerships with other businesses all the time, great. And they kind of find ways to sell each other's products, and that's it. And then you have, like, the licensing side, which tends to be like, Oh, how do I put Mickey's face on, you know, whatever product I'm selling and, like, that's it. But in your scenario, it's more about the the material of what these bigger brands are doing, I've done, and then you're kind of leveraging their existing brand awareness from that. It's a very interesting model. So what was it that kind of got you like, thinking about that. And I also got to ask, how complicated are those licensing agreements, considering that you're not really like you're using their stuff, but you're not always using, like, their logo and everything, all of the licenses

Andrew Beltran  07:31

agreements kind of feel a little different to some degree. Yeah. So there is some complexity. You know, sometimes the the owner of the wood, you know, Granville, Opry. You know, Grand Ole Opry. That wood is, you know, 100 years old. It's been through so much stage wood, like, there's actually $1 value on that wood that they have associated amazing. So we're buying, we got to buy that wood other companies like Jack Daniels, you know, they, they can, you know, I think it's Tennessee law. You can only use a barrel wants. So there is, like, these other partners where there is an abundance of barrels, we're able to kind of go in and get them, get the materials. And yeah, you know, when we original, originally started this company, we were kind of, like looking to kind of raise some money. It was, like our second year, we had an investor that we really wanted to get in front of. And so I remember, we purchased some New York Yankee Stadium chairs, and that was, like, our first kind of, like, dabble in, like, oh, Yankees, you know, like history, like, 100 years of history from the stadium, and making a watch for him to, kind of, like, get him very interested into the company. So we're able to kind of win him over, you know, to get some initial round of investment. I I say that honestly with a little bit of an asterisk, because, you know, two years ago, my brother and I were actually able to buy out the all the old investors, you know, just kind of grace of God, good opportunity. Brian and I found an opportunity to buy those investors out, but it was kind of, you know, to almost impress somebody. And he goes, Why don't we? Okay, I will invest. Why don't we kind of take this to the next level, contact the MLB and work through the licensing side of things. And so nice. The MLB was one of our first kind of big licenses. Jim Beam was kind of in there in that same era, and we've had to get smart with it. You know, it's, there's been different kind of agreements that have been put in place that we've tested the waters, and we kind of know what works nowadays, yeah, in the scale that we need to get to for it to really pencil.

Andrew Maff  09:32

What about like, so when, when you're ready, once those products are in your hand, you're ready, like, all right, we're gonna start announcing these. We're gonna start, you know, pushing them out. You've just listed like, 15 different types of customer profiles, right? You've got the MLB lover, you have the whiskey lover, you have the beer lover. Like, where? How do you plan out? Like, okay, for this product line, here's how we're going to make this announcement. And I'm very aware some of those customers are going to have some overlap, but you're still going after net new people at the same. Time too. So What's that process like? Yeah,

Andrew Beltran  10:01

I know the creative direction is very important. Like, we spend a ton of time moveboard and making sure it's all cohesive. We like to, kind of, we like to feel like, well, it is the same guy, like, it's the guy who drives a Ford, which we got a license for, you know, sits on the back drinking a Coors, pulling maybe an Airstream, like, on his way to Jack, like, it feels like it's the same guy, you know, to some degree, yeah, and it's kind of this avatar, but, you know, it just comes down to just creating good content. You know, I hate to say that, like, I feel like good con good content can really sell anything, and quality edits and this and that. So it is semi the same avatar, but we just lean into the story as much as we can, you know. And, you know, we go to the locations like, we're, we're about to drop a partnership with cores, you know, we're going to go in Colorado, Gato, you know, and we're just out in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, like, We're just there. We're, we're telling these partner stories, you know, they're, they're celebrating an anniversary, 100 years. Like, let's try to capture all of that, and you got to be there for it. So we do a lot of traveling our team, like we just came back from Nash, like we're on our way to Golden Colorado next month. Like we're consistently, you know, going to the source, you know, and trying to just pull, pull in as much authenticity from that story and creative that we can and then let the marketing kind of take course, what do

Andrew Maff  11:25

you what's the approach for the marketing side to spread that message? You, I mean grand old Opry, I'd imagine, like, you've got all those artists you could lean in on from an influencer perspective, but I also know that they're not cheap artists if they play the grand old Opry. So like, what's the approach are you? Do you do you leverage the influencers that are relevant to those partners, or do you kind of have ones that you already work with? Yeah?

Andrew Beltran  11:45

Oh, yeah. We, do. We, you know, we're gonna go grab some military guys, you know, to really kind of tap to create content for us. You know, we're always gonna launch with whitelisted advertising coach. I hate that. Terry, everybody always collaborative. Everybody runs for the hills when they hear, what can white list with you? You know? So, yeah, it is dynamic, you know. And we're making sure we have two or three, you know, we got the red fair and kind of connect. He just did his Opry debut, Ryan Montgomery, like some smaller artists that are really like, setting their foot, on the stage and getting going like so, you know, we're thinking creatively on how we go get creative, you know. But let's not just use this. We rarely ever use just like the same influencers. It's kind of as authentic as the materials need to be. We're kind of getting at just as granular with those folks that we go getting creative from, and what kind of bit we bake it all in, you know, there's a, it's a, it's a package, you know, where it's going to be collaborative posts, creative, you know, working together, full access, obviously, to the content, and just making sure we have enough creative to kind of fill the funnels and and tell that story, you know? And so it's pretty dynamic on how we're going to go out and get creative and, oh yeah, by the way, don't forget about your best sellers. You know, we're just in, oh yeah, we got all this content of grand old Opry. It's great. You know, we have a huge forecast for this coming quarter, but we definitely do for all our best sellers. Let's not forget what pays the bills. So we're kind of, you know, it's just about, it's definitely a balancing act. It's hard to get excited on a skew that's been around for eight years. But our top 10 are kind of our tried and true, you know. And we have those quarterly bumps, you know, where it's like, okay, it's a new drop. You know, we did our Bob Marley release last year when, you know, Bob dropped in the movie, and it was incredible. And we're like, oh, we're, we're gonna, but then that slowly did die, you know, so it has begun to kind of go back to reality. When the movie was hot, that collection was just flying, you know, tons of presets and just getting that thing into the market,

Andrew Maff  13:57

yeah, you know, it's interesting to do, like, that concept of drops, where you're you're almost like building a ton of press around a very specific product line. But you also kind of have to know that there's a good chance that, in most scenarios, that product line is going to die off, and it's still your tried and true that's actually what you're trying to feed. So it's kind of an interesting like, how you're using different product lines for different product margins. 12 years ago, you know, your your brother came to you with this sample, and you decided to do this. Was this the direction that you thought the business would go in, that you would do these partnerships? Or were you like, now, we're just gonna make some cool wood watches, and that's, that's what the directions gonna be like. How many times did you pivot?

Andrew Beltran  14:37

Yeah, I just did it. I didn't have the experience. I didn't know what that I didn't even know the term licensing, right from, you know, the Marines. Like I didn't even understand, but I just, I 100% saw the vision of recycling materials that told the story. And I just kind of, kind of like, just pull way back whenever, when I saw this company, and I was like, this, is this? This is this? Is made. Are the guys that were on the front lines. Let's go, let's pull in that story, like how, and we can do that through a material like, you know, wood. And we've, we've since been able to actually use wood out outside of what materials outside of wood, you know, by using like resin, which you see in a lot of table tops and this and that furniture. And so we've been using a lot of resin, where we're taking even, like forest fire wood, you know, from all the fires that have happened. And, you know, far as a license, like, I didn't even know what that word was, you know, so that that is kind of funny, but been able to just, just adjust, you know, and take a look at the market and see the lot of the, you know, I don't want to reference the supreme model, because there's some other companies that do it better. But, you know, they had a run to where they would just, they're just, they're in front of all these different brand collaborations, and it's just such a good tactic to acquiring new customers. And then, sure enough, those customers are coming in and buying all the old stuff. That's, yeah, you know. So it's just, it's a good marketing, you know, to go get some something fresh, keeping things fresh in the market. And we've been,

Andrew Maff  16:06

do you? Are you selling anywhere else besides your own website?

Andrew Beltran  16:08

You know, we back in 2017 18, we had a decent retailer, you know, 300 plus stores. It was a disaster. In 2020 when everybody decided, are we going to be open or not? I still am licking my wounds from some of that, just, you know, realizing how not important I am to some of the retailers. There is some that treated us with kindness, but there was many that did not. And you know, hundreds and 1000s of watches sent back in boxes that were, you know, because they weren't, they weren't sure if their doors were going to open. You know, we are, we are looking for some key retailers currently, but as of right now, we're just, we just got hyper focused after 2020 and we just said, Let's just focus on what we do, what we can control with the smaller team. And just just like, let's get real deep into our P L and make this thing look and be as profitable as possible. And this, we kind of shrunk to grow again, you know. And it's a scary time, you know, 2020 was, you know, a lot of question marks, and nobody really needs a watch. Everyone's at home. There's companies, there's some darlings, COVID darlings out there that just place right time. And ran it up. We actually really kind of pull their way back. And we probably shrunk by 50 plus percent and intentionally. And my brother, Ryan, I just had to take a look at, just like our overhead, what we were doing, you know, what we're doing it for, who we're doing it with, and you know, it's just, you know, we were immature in a lot of aspects too, on why we were doing the cup like our why was in the wrong place? Like, I really gave a damn, how much, how many employees we had, and the big office thing right next to the ballpark in San Diego, and it was, it meant a lot, you know, it felt like it, but it wasn't doing jack for the company, you know? And, yeah, and we got, we had to mature and kind of get, get, kind of go through the war zone there of 2020, and now we're, we're, we got such a lean team, such a slick team, that's everyone's incentivized that's on the team through, you know, whether it be bonuses, you know, high salary, and we just got killed with, I hate to say it, and some people might hear this and be like, kind of, maybe goosebumps or pissed, but like, middle management kind of killed us, like we, we tried to grow, we tried to grow a company like how we thought it should look for, you know, we're talking about that, you know, 500 fortune, 500 like, you know, we need a director. We need somebody, a manager. We need somebody. We had all this, like rank structure in order which, if it feels when you read a textbook, that's how you do build, that's how you build the company. And it's just, honestly, middle management, just like, killed the aura around our company. I hate using words. It killed us. Man, yeah, no one's doing anything. Or was looking for like, oh so. But we were paying all these people decent salaries, but we're gonna have the junior guy do it and it's like, and then they're gonna oversee it. Now everything was clunky and slow, and now I got four or five people in our team that are just like, willing and able and fired up, and we're back above where we had ever been back in 17 and 18 clearly way more profitable. And it's just it was a necessary evil for us. I know 2020, was terrible on so many aspects, but from, like, our business siloing that, you know, we were able to, kind of like, course correct and kind of grow up a bit. You

Andrew Maff  19:40

know, it's very it's very interesting to hear you say that there is not a lot of businesses that will do that right, like they would rather keep hammering at the same thing, because the idea of taking a step back in order to take a step forward is is just something that no one wants to do. Do, and they're looking at the vanity metrics, like people are looking at revenue, when, in reality, who cares if you're not profitable or, to your point, a big one is, how many employees do you have? So many people will ask business owners like, Oh, your business owner like, Oh, I'm curious how big your business is. How many employees do you have? That means nothing. If you're in a service based business, you have wildly more employees than someone who could be way more successful than you. So it means nothing. So it's interesting to hear that you guys had the wherewithal to be like, no, no, this is all vanity. This is all BS stuff that we don't need. Let's, let's tear it back. And it seems it correct me, we're wrong, but it seems like you're in a much better position now,

Andrew Beltran  20:40

such a better place and really control of our destiny. Had couple incredible back to back years, you know, stacking some chips. They got the war chest full, and we're like, Okay, now we can actually maybe go make these specific hires and kind of build that team up a bit more. We've already hired two people this year and just, you know, but do it very intentionally, and someone who's going to come in and just really make an impact. And not, not so, not so they can sit underneath somebody and then take workload, workload off of this guy's back. It's like, all the the system is, is fluent right now. We don't want to go muddy the waters. It's like, let's or can they can actually make an impact. This is kind of how we've been hiring and culture, like, we just went through hiring thing, we had so many good applicants. There's and it was like, but this guy who's a little under qualified, he's, he's definitely one of the crew, like, and he's a little young, he's, like, the younger version of us, like, where we and we can, we can actually, like, teach this guy something. And he came in and, you know, it's just, it's just funny how we're even hiring a little differently, just culture, it can't, can't come in and mess up what we got going right here, right now. So, yes, Andrew, this was awesome. Always

Andrew Maff  21:53

pleasure talking to another. Andrew, I don't want to take up too much. Here's how many are super busy, but I would love to give you the opportunity let everyone know they can find out more about you. And, of course, more of course, more about Original Grain. Yeah, Original

Speaker 1  22:04

Grain, originalgrain.com Original Grain on social. Visit us. Up and Andrew@originalgrain.com I'm always open to other business owners. Feel free. Love to love to get back to anybody who's got something. Love

Andrew Maff  22:16

it really appreciate your time. Obviously, everyone that joined us. Thank you as well. Please make sure you do the usual thing, rate review, subscribe all that fun stuff on whichever podcast platform you prefer, or head over to the ecommshow.com to check out all of our previous episodes. But as usual, thank you all for joining us. We'll see you all next time.

Narrator  22:34

Thank you for tuning in to The E-Comm Show head over to theecommshow.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on the BlueTuskr YouTube channel. The E-Comm Show is brought to you by BlueTuskr, a full service digital marketing company specifically for e-commerce sellers looking to accelerate their growth. Go to bluetuskr.com Now for more information. Make sure to tune in next week for another amazing episode of The E-Comm Show.