Read the Transcript

Question

Read the Transcript

Accepted Answer

SE CLUB Yosef 2-12-21 RAW

 

 Colin Campbell: Welcome to serial entrepreneur club. It's pretty cool this week that we have a new website. So if you get a chance, jump on over there and check it out, but I'm also excited to see that on Google. We are ranking now on page one for the term serial entrepreneur space club.

 So you can see the real power of the indexing on Google and why we have a domain name that sits outside of clubhouse. Now we're still waiting to get a full-time club established, but we're optimistic. It will happen soon. Today we have Yosef Martin, a serial entrepreneur, and a good friend of mine who recently sold boxy charm for a half a billion dollars.

 Is that correct? Holy geez. 

 Yosef Martin: Um, I technically, um, sold the piece of it and the evaluation was 500 million, but, uh, I rolled it over to the combined entity, uh, whatever I didn't sell. 

 Colin Campbell: Who's counting. All right. I will also, uh, join in today with yourself and talk about why the opportunity to start a business today on clubhouse is the ideal time.

 And I will actually share with you some of my thoughts and what our team is doing here to launch. Some very large clubs on clubhouse and what that's going to take. Um, also joined by the author of everything I know about business and marketing. I learned from them toxic adventure in our co-host Jeffrey sass and the president of dark club, Michelle van Tilburg.

 Uh, today our lead moderator will be Rachel lash, Brooke, and she is of course the author of the se blog and co hosts over there over to the recap with Rachel. 

 Rachael Lashbrook: Thank you, Colin. Uh, good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be here with you again, I'm really enjoying these weekly sessions on Friday. Um, just to recap, last week, we talked about branding, uh, Brandon yourself on clubhouse specifically, and pretty much unanimously everyone who contributed to this, uh, conversation, you know, um, Such as Jeff and Gary Henderson.

 And additionally, everyone unanimously decided that yes, your authentic voice being authentic is one of the most important parts of building your brand. Uh, we also made mention of like the, having a meticulous profile and, and bio on clubhouse using a.club extension, offering your services, migrating the social media, especially that was a really big, big one that.

 Nearly everyone decided was important as well. Posting stories about yourself on Instagram and kind of capturing your viewers in order to follow up with them later and connect outside of clubhouse. So opened the door on clubhouse and then stepped through the door in a way to make your brand bigger. Um, And following with that, I really enjoyed what Gary had to say about having the right message to the right audience at the right time, with the right expectation in which case you'll deliver the right results.

 And I think that's really a sound mantra to keep in mind when you're thinking about your message and connecting with others. So thank you for that. That is our recap. And now to, uh, what we're all here for. We want to talk to Joseph, Joe, if I may, about his starting his business, uh, boxy charm. So I'm really curious, Joe.

 Uh, could you tell us how you started your business to begin 

 Yosef Martin: with? Um, so. I think in order to understand how I started boxy charm, uh, we have to, uh, go back to my first company called merchandise liquidators, because that was the, I guess, the foundation, um, of, of boxy trunk. So in a natural before I actually do it for those in the room that don't know what boxy charm is.

 It's a monthly beauty subscription box. I started the company in, um, In 2013, May, 2013, it was in beta. And I kind of like give it the real push early 2014, the, the concept was not new. I didn't invent the concept. Subscription boxes started around 2010 with Birchbox store to pioneers. But, um, the concept was a box gives, uh, five sample size items and which they go to a makeup brand out there and they said, look, And all those samples for free.

 Anyway, you're giving them away for free. Uh, give it to us and we're going to give it to members. And we're going to create more, um, uh, more buyers for you. That was the concept. So when I wanted to start a boxy charm, I heard of the concept and I'll get to how, uh, later on once I I'll go back in chronologically, I figured, well, I want to, I'm a second mover and what's going to be my advantage.

 And I figured, well, the subscription box is asking for free products. You cannot scale a business by. Picking up freestyle from people. Eventually it's going to have an issue, especially if I would show up and I would say, well, can I create economics in which I can pay the cost of goods for the brand? And.

 Then I also learned that sample size is kind of like attack time in 2013. When I get into this, it wasn't primarily given for Heron in, uh, in skincare products, not really for color cosmetics because of the nature of the beast and just like that. And also when you do sample sizes for color cosmetics, It would literally cost you the same, like a full size in many cases.

 So I said, why not doing a full sized product and just pay the cost of goods? Because the profit in, in beauty is just so high. So I decided to charge $21 and then. Pay $10 for the cost of goods, then add all the fulfillment costs, shipping costs that was really putting it into, uh, like I measured everything with, uh, with the needle, making sure that everything is going to be super precise so I can get the lowest cost of goods.

 Everything had to be under a pound and every penny counts and I figured. I'll get the cheapest packaging and cheapest fulfillment, cheapest, everything. And then the cheapest shipping rate, if I do it in a particular or, um, uh, process so I can put everything towards products and then the remainder is going to be my profit.

 So I came up with a proposition that was, I'll pay you the four on the cost of goods. For info, we do not have to do sample size. So now it opens my open doors to color cosmetics, which wasn't available at the time as much in a subscription box. And it was full, full size. So instead of charging $10 at the time we charged $21, but people receive full-size items, eyeshadow, palettes, things that they could never even dream of receiving and subscription boxes that would give them a smaller samples.

 Okay. So that was the process in which I entered this. Big reason about why I want to go back. Yeah, because you, you know, when I started my first company, I was a full-time international student and the first company was a liquidation business. And they'd always stop me if you have any questions. So feel free to interrupt with questions.

 But, uh, I came down and finished the military service in Israel. Which is trying to get into school. I went into a community college and then I got into FIU, Florida international university. Then my business degree over here, and I was trying to pay the out of state tuition. And, um, I had to eventually open a business to try and trade and get some, some cash to pay.

 And the company called merchandise liquidators, a long story short, and I don't want to dive into this one, the biggest factor behind building a business and learning how to be an entrepreneur. I learned marketing internet marketing precisely well around 20 2004, 2005. It was all around SEO. And there was a whole world different world back then, but I became pretty damn good.

 And not because I'm dumb, just smart or anything. I'm just pretty. Okay. But not genius. It just started was the only means for me to create awareness over my, my business in a world where high to compete with giant liquidation companies and wholesalers, I was working from my garage. I opened the company with couple hundred dollars.

 So I have to figure out how to promote myself. So SEO was the thing. None of them knew how to do it, or most of them didn't know how to do it. It was easy for me to create awareness and let on build the business. And, um, in, throughout the years I ended up. Graduating, uh, put more time and emphasis into the business.

 I grew the company to about 10 million in sales and I had already, uh, if you were into warehouses office space, uh, employees, and, um, I was really more mature as, as a, as an entrepreneur. I always a little bit more seasoned than I knew how to prioritize based on what's important and what's urgent and so on.

 And I saw an opportunity in 2012 around makeup. In a subscription space and that's how I decided to enter this space. And, um, my first question was when I heard about the subscription box, I mean, we got an order from a subscription box for a bunch of products and ask them who is this client? We had a staff meeting on a Friday and we would go over some odd sales and dollar colognes on each other.

 And, and every, every cell person would talk about this week. Um, And we heard about that order that we received from a company called Glossybox. So I asked him what's glossy box and they told me it's a subscription box with a subscription box. He told me what it is. And I was fascinated from the concept.

 And my first question was all right, so how do they promote themselves? And I just needed to hear one thing I wanted to hear. It's all online. It's all internet stuff, because if that was traditional media, I would, I would have lost focus if, if that person would say, I heard about this and the red is the cell person was saying, I heard about them in the radio or on billboards or something like this.

 I would probably, I wouldn't even care about this. And I would just move on with my day. But because he said it was all Instagram, I said, aha, I can do it. All right. So that's when I, I just get my mind into it. And once something gets into your head, you just proceed with this and you know what, between.

 Being a marketer, a marketing CEO, and eventually evolving the product and editing the product in a box and the understanding how to build everything. I was able to scale the company. Um, and just to give you an indication, it was, it was profitable really, literally since almost inception within few months.

 And we scale first year was, uh, let's just skip 2013 because it was all better. But 2014 was a 1.8 and then 10 20, 50, a hundred and change to a hundred and change millions. Right. Then eventually a 2020 was 400 and something million close to 500 million. And that's when, um, our biggest competitor actually, which, uh, came in and they were backed by Texas Pacific group.

 They, um, They came in, they acquired a big piece of the company and we roll over and do remainder into a combined entity called, uh, beautiful industries. And now we're obviously the largest subscription box service globally with over 4 million members all combined and grossing over a billion dollar in sales.

 Jeff Sass: Wow. You also, if I have a 

 Yosef Martin: question, um, real quick, since, since you asked, um, what was, you know, being a serial entrepreneur, what was something that you experienced or learned from merchandise liquidators that really helped you when you started boxy charm? What was something that really stood out as a lesson that you will either avoided something or did something differently because of the experience you had?

 You know, I'll tell you that there are plenty of tactical. Knowledge know-how that I learned. And a lot of things that I needed to see to, to actually go through to experience and to evolve your perspective change when you're on the company for about 10, 20 years? Well, not 20 years, but about 20 years into it, or nine years into it before I opened box the Trump.

 So you really see kinds of things, but if I have to pull one. Um, I think the, the growing camp that you're just thinking big, I mean, thinking big is not something that people would think about this first. Everyone said, I don't want to think big, but for me it was one particular moment in my, my time where I would remember.

 I remember that. Precisely. It was, it was a phone call. I was attacked time grossing, couple of hundred thousands in gross revenue, perhaps a million at most, but that, that was gross revenue. And I had quite a few colleagues that we, we used to buy and sell merchandise off of each other. And one of them may was on a call with me.

 And, uh, you know, it w it was a, you had a bigger company at the time, but no internet presence. Eh, he was just still a old school type. We had a, uh, who would just 20 years in business, I guess. And, and we were discussing, and he said something about the way I'm making my millions and that that's a quart.

 You actually said that words. So me, but you mean you gross millions, but you're not really taking home millions. No, no, no, no, no. I think three to 5 million a year. Depends how good the year was. And, uh, and so on. And Oh nine was my, my best year ever. And he was breaking down all the numbers for me and how and why and everything else.

 And, and I remembered that that did something to me. And that was from that day on, everything changed. I mean, that was literally like a hockey stick, like a parabola on the right side. Um, the growth for, for merchandise liquidators was like from one to two to five to 10, it was just growing fast. It was just, um, And, and it took me years to, to go back in time and understand why and why it was so significant because you see it all the time.

 You see people telling you about this all the time. You see millionaires multimillionaires on TV and everywhere, but you start associating with people. And eventually you find out that the person you associate with actually does that all the time. And it does exactly what you're doing. Not even. As good on the, on the internet sites, it doesn't even have internet yet.

 He does something about the buying and selling better than you, and you're not doing that. And the reason it was significant, it was because I guess if I had to take it all in all those years, I would see it, but I never humanized it. It was always being through an idealization idea where you see people making all that money.

 But when finally I'm dealing with a person on the day-to-day, perhaps for two, three years, and we finally find out that he does that. Yeah. It expands the limits in your head, your subconscious, what gives you all the motivation? All the emotions or motivation is an emotion. And suddenly he it's just, it never gives you the motivation to actually do things big.

 It was always giving me the motivation to do what's really available right now. Not the big, just, just do this one. Don't don't think too big because this is right now available, going into it. But once it actually hears, look, here's a human I'm human. And I think the person has been humanized for too long and I can do it and I can do it better.

 Now once your subconscious believe it, because your conscious believes that all the time. Your neocortex knows that, but not your subconscious, your subconscious doesn't re registered at once. It does. It goes to your new Yorker, your front end, your cortex, and said, here's all the motivation you need. Now go and get it here.

 It is. Now I believe in that we do see a proof of concept by a person that we totally humanize. Going to attend. It was literally a completely behavioral change, uh, habits and, and a discipline that changed. Everything changed in my performance as a person. I didn't need any, any lectures from Tony Robbins, which I've never heard of at that time.

 I didn't need any of those stuff. I just needed to know. Subconsciously that it was real and you can actually do it. Then once, you know, it's available out, there you go, and you get it. So that was my most important moment as an entrepreneur. If I had to grasp it all in, because you can actually see it, there's actually data to back it up.

 That was before and after that conversation. And eventually when you enter a new business, your mind is already there. You, you you're, you're thinking bigger and, and nothing looks unachievable in your subconscious and that's how you can move on. 

 Rachael Lashbrook: Wow know, following that, um, getting into new business and opportunities.

 What, what do you think some of the opportunities are for startups? Here on clubhouse. 

 Yosef Martin: Well, I definitely see a different, uh, networking opportunities. I would say networking is a big deal. I do know some that are doing pretty well by, um, uh, by all means in, in, uh, in their, in their industry. So, but it really depends what you do.

 So. Without being tactical. I would tell you, look, if you basically are a motivational speaker or so on, you're going to jump on Columbia house and you can. Literally build your personal brand, but assuming that's not the case, because I want to go on and give it kind of a higher level view with what happened is with clubhouse.

 The good thing about that is that you have the ability to actually connect in a different level versus Instagram or Facebook. You can sit on stage with other people. You might perhaps go on stage to ask questions and it helps you connect with people that are actually doing something that you're trying to achieve.

 And you put your time with those people versus just looking at them virtually right through videos. And so, and I think that that makes a. Plays a big role and it can literally influence people in many, many ways. But if you want to look at that tactical level, it really comes down to what you do, right?

 If, if your particular business is going to be like mine, then you shouldn't spend too much time on clubhouse house. You should jump into house to hear some people. If there is an interesting topic, you can connect with friends, you might be able to build a little club around the, around your business. You can create communities, but it wouldn't be necessarily.

 For your personal safe, um, to be there. I think the other part in clubhouse building communities now. If you think of, let's just say you have, uh, again, uh, a business that needs, uh, it has a need of a community. The term community is being used a very active simply for the wrong reasons. Like why does the community right?

 The community is a group of people in the same space with the same interests activating together. Right. So if I go in, I want to build a community around my energy drink, and I'll just throw an example because they do not own an energy drink. Right. But people want to talk about your energy drink. You're going to say, well, on my Instagram, I have so many followers and daddy's a community.

 And I say, it's not a community. It's just a place where people look at you are mine. I need something deeper than that. Everyone has a page today. How can you do it better than your competition? So the way you can go in and see it is well, I'm going to go and create, um, a, a group on Facebook. Now that might turn into a community when you move them from one place to another.

 When you go and you give announcements around certain events you want to do, and they move from one page to another and you can communicate and you, you introduce the option for them to create their own fan group pages on Facebook. And then you have an organic creation of groups around your company, right?

 Backs, each arm, we have over a hundred of those on Facebook. Some of them have tens of thousands of people and all they do is talk about makeup and what they received and let's switch product among each other. Now we're clam house can come into play. He's just amplification of your community in which I can go and say, well, All the tremors, eh, well, we call our member Chalmers.

 Uh, we say, well, we're going to be having a room and we're going to be talking to say, Natasha Denona or a particular, um, makeup brand owner that is going to have her product in the box. And we're just going to ask her about her brand and we're going to let you know her story and so on now. We're going to announce that for an example, a for instance, on clubhouse, on, on, say, on our platforms, and now there's another point of connection between them.

 You just amplify that you moved them to another place and Mo moving from Instagram into Columbia house, it it's going to be called an act. It's a, it's an activation. Okay. They acted on something together. So now people are going to be connected a little bit more. And what's going to unify them is no longer just going to be on images.

 It's also going to be hearing their voice. They'll feel more connected. And the common denominator would be, say, boxy charm in that case. Okay. So it, for my opinion, it is the opportunity for many brands to use it, to amplify their communities. Where once it's going to open up to everyone, it's going to be already out there and it's going to be no, not new anymore.

 It would be easier to start now.

 Rachael Lashbrook: Yeah, I really liked how you mentioned activation and. Acting moving forward and the amplification of your brand or what you have going on. And these are things that I'm discovering now, as I am getting more used to clubhouse myself, um, speaking of amplification and clubhouse and activation, I think Collin has some really cool, um, ideas around clubhouse.

 Uh, he's the founder of.club. And he's a serial entrepreneur. He's got a lot of experience. So Colin, I've heard you talk about clubhouse being a paradigm shift. Can you expand on 

 Jeff Sass: that? 

 Colin Campbell: Absolutely. And, uh, I think you also have, and I have had very different paths. Um, he's built a much larger company than I've ever built.

 Um, in my case, I've done it a lot more companies. I tend to sell them off earlier and let others make the profit. Uh, you also, if you've been smart and you've held onto yours with Boston germ, and it's nice to see that you still continue to own part of the gypsy boxy charm looking for, and looking forward to seeing how that 

 Yosef Martin: progressives, let me tell you selling boxes is a really fun thing, especially when they're black boxes.

 It's really cool. 

 Colin Campbell: Well, it's not too different than.club. We sell a subscription. It's digital. You sell a subscription. It's a makeup product. So it's actually, we love, we both love the subscription business. That's where we're very similar. Um, I had the opportunity to talk, um, at MIT on the, on the topic of starting a company, scaling a company, exiting and repeating that process over and over and over again.

 And what I've seen through the times of, of the companies that I've done. And it's been about seven companies or so. Where we started them and built them up and sold them off is that there are a number of patterns that existed. And one of the patterns of the types of companies that I've started have been related to a change in technology or a change in regulation.

 Back in the early days of the nineties, it was dial up internet and we launched an internet service provider. Uh, we also launched two cows and that was a software download provider and a domain name provider. Moving to 2000, we did a company called Hostopia and we caught the broadband wave. Uh, we launched a SAS product, not a Geoffrey SAS, but a software as a service product, which is later application.

 We later called an application service provider. And today we know it as cloud computing. We really were pioneers in that space. And then to 2012, we saw the deregulation of the namespace and we applied for doc club domain extensions. Uh, later I invested in two companies , which are fairly large e-commerce sites on the internet and the pet space and the paradigm shift there.

 It was really the, the ease of use, ease of costs, or sorry, the low cost and ease of easy way to get your store set up with the Shopify store and also the acceptance of end users buying directly from the manufacturers. And I know that Amazon populated the concept of, of buying online, but now we're starting to see the rise of micro brands and that's very exciting.

 So clubhouse is blowing up. I believe it is the next paradigm shift. I think we have almost 10 million users up 10 X over two months. And I believe by the end of the year, we'll have over a hundred million on this platform. And I believe that entrepreneurs have a real opportunity here to seize the day.

 You know, why is it that Facebook a half trillion dollar company didn't start clubhouse? I was asking myself that the other day and thinking, you know what, they got a lot of money and they got a lot of smart people, but somehow these kids came out and they were able to manage, to launch a very successful social platform.

 That was very different. And the fact of the matter is innovation is innovation dries up in larger organizations. I, after I sold my. Um, hosting company Hostopia I worked for three years at a fortune 1000 company, and I have to say it, it's just the, the, the number of people there who would bring up ideas.

 If it failed, they were fired, empty, succeeded. You got a Pat on your back. The fact of the matter is if you're an entrepreneur, you want to, you want to be free. You want to get out there and you want to make things happen. And you're also taking not just financial risk, but you're taking a reputational risks.

 You're taking a lot of risks to be an entrepreneur. And you, you want that reward. If you do pull it off. So fundamentally big companies are risk averse. So what are the things you do you can do? We talked about becoming an influencer issues on stage right now. He's one of the top influencers in the world.

 And with a little bit from here and him in a minute, um, we also talked about other things like networking and, you know, working with brands to bring them on clubhouse. I think one of the more compelling ones for me. Um, is starting a club on club house. So what I'd like to do right now is just tell you a little bit about what we are thinking.

 We believe that in order to really make money, starting a club on club, as one, you got to get approved and we all know that's a challenge, but we believe that if you can establish a category killer in a particular industry and what I mean by category killer, think about single word space club. And I believe that industry has to spend billions and billions of dollars in advertising.

 And we think that's one of the keys. The second is we do believe it needs a great domain name. Um, and I believe that name, the most popular we have seen on clubhouse is a.club. We believe a name.club works perfectly. I have seen some named club dot coms and I've seen some named club.org as well. But we obviously, we know we're biased as you know, but we do believe that doc, club's the perfect name for that.

 And I think we saw that with serial entrepreneur club, how it got indexed in Google. So now you can find serial entrepreneur club on Google. You can't find it on club house yet. We're not approved yet, but when we are approved, if you type in serial entrepreneur on either of those two terms, you will be able to find us.

 I know in the past we've seen a lot of misspelt dot coms and that was very popular, but from an SEO perspective, Having a category killer word, domain, and a category killer name on clubhouse. It really will support your success. Now I've set up before it's all about the content stupid, right? And the fact of the matter is if you look at startup club, they have a great club, a great name, and they also have great content.

 The industry needs needs to be big, though. I do love by King Charles Spaniels. I would start. A King Charles spaniel club. I actually have the domain name, but the fact of the matter is I'm not going to have a lot of people show up to my club to make it financially viable. I do believe you also have to have a passion around your club because it takes a long time and a lot of energy.

 To put that club up. And lastly, I will say, I believe that it will require some money to establish these larger clubs as you need a lot of support from people. And although you can ask for volunteers to help and clubhouse has been great at that over time, those volunteers should not be taken advantage of and they should be compensated, but this is a very special time in history and I'm so honored and excited to be part of history.

 Once again, with the opportunity to start new businesses on clubhouse. Thank you. 

 Rachael Lashbrook: Thank you, Colin. I, what are, do you have any plans for clubhouse and um, what are you up to with propels and business? 

 Colin Campbell: Um, I'm new, I'm new, I'm new, like everybody else in this room. Uh, I think you also offense. And I started almost at the same time and the fact is for me, it's right now, it's just been visiting and learning and speaking and in different rooms.

 And yesterday I got pulled into a room from norm Farrar. He asked me to come in. It was pitched to the podcasters and then he threw me on stage and they actually literally had to do a pitch. So, so the number one thing is for me, it's learning and I'm really enjoying that. But I, again, I, I look at all of these opportunities and I see now is the time in history to make the moves.

 Yosef Martin: Think, uh, with global house, if, uh, if I had to ask myself or one thing that it contributed to me for the time it put in and I, and I'm a clubhouse now once every two, three days, I, I think, uh, it really depends what you're doing. Don't just sink yourself into it. If, if you're trying to grow your, anything, your business, you're just put the right amount of time.

 Don't, don't spend too much time on clubhouse. But, uh, my, my, my biggest thing is first, uh, new friends. New people that I learned from a great minds. And again, connecting with old friends, for example, we do this with colons hearing the stories sometimes it's, uh, it's that part, but the second part, when you go on stage and you start speaking, I'm not used to speak on stages or anything.

 And I feel like. While I do speak sometimes and people ask, how did you build the tefillin net? Not the story gets better. It's also in my mind, I figure it helps because I go back in time and ask myself things that it should have kind of like always remind myself, it's kinda career range, your, uh, your, uh, your library, all your, all your folders, put them into, into place.

 And it just gets you better. And you remember all the do's and don'ts that you had in the past, you kind of like forgotten and it was there because you go back and you think about it again. So it was definitely something that I liked. And also it gives you a new perspective. Uh, people would ask certain questions.

 You think you have an opinion, but in some rooms you have really good speakers and some speakers are going to go and put out there something that might change your perspective on things. And, uh, it would, it would help you. Think, uh, and make better decisions in the future. So I enjoyed Blumhouse. This is just the point is you cannot get this on Instagram.

 That's my bottom. You can get this on Instagram. It's a, it's very interactive. I enjoy this. And at the same time I can put it in the side while I do something else, because I don't have to look at this. It's just there on the side and I can write an email. I can do anything else, but, um, I can even drive and I don't have to worry about that.

 Again, something you usually do don't do when you watch a YouTube video or Instagram. 

 Rachael Lashbrook: Thank you USAA for your insight. Um, Michelle. Yeah. Sure. 

 Yosef Martin: So this is a question for Yosef. Um, obviously you've reached the upper echelons of hiring influence marketers, like Kardashians for your brand. I I'm curious on your thoughts of brands.

 Opening up clubs and how influencer marketing might work. 

 Jeff Sass: In this context, 

 Yosef Martin: you re you're referring to two clubs on clubhouse or just a 

 Jeff Sass: regular. 

 Yosef Martin: In clubhouse and office as well. I mean, we, we have, uh, we have thoughts on it where, you know, influencers could come and talk authentically, but you know, obviously you have a lot of experience here.

 I'd like to hear your thoughts. You need to do it fast. You need to do it fast. It would be, uh, within a minute. Within a minute, it's going to be already overwhelming. And their input of doing so is going to be too much. And then if you don't have already a relationship with them, then you wouldn't be doing that.

 So if you want to invite influencers right now, it's still there where they would be honored to go and come and speak in a panel. But it would be a minute until. The input for asking that a request would be coming from everywhere and then talk to my manager, pay me and so on. So you'll have to do it fast.

 Jeff Sass: Thank you. 

 Rachael Lashbrook: It sounds like you have to kind of get in while the is open. 

 Yosef Martin: Yeah, this is, this is why, this is why I love new platforms. And if it's going to die or not, I mean, I know that Facebook is literally, they actually said again to do their own version of clubhouse and so on which that was expected, um, to happen.

 But, um, but I mean, this is the new part because early adopters marketers that are early adopters would always win and, um, and would be able to get a head start. I always like to see it as. I want to go to work. I wake up at 5:00 AM. I have a whole traffic gym. If I get on a highway at seven but five, I'm just making it in 15 minutes and I take, it will take me 70 miles to drive in and I would do it really quick.

 But if I just miss the momentum now it's bumper to bumper and it's. It's a game for anybody. So it's not a say it's a bulk, the momentum that you come in and you can amplify the exposure very quickly and get a relationship. You can build a relationship with people that are unachievable through other platforms, because over here, you just don't have that, um, input of people coming in, knocking on the doors.

 Rachael Lashbrook: Thank you, Joe. I want to open up the floor to our speakers for any questions that we may have for, um, Joseph or Colin, or even ish as a, uh, influencer in the top echelon, as Michelle mentioned, um, just to reset the room, let everyone know who might've dropped off. And just now we are talking about starting a company on and off of clubhouse.

 It is recorded. We will be posting this audio clip on our blog@serialentrepreneur.club. If you want to go back and check that out, look at the recaps with Rachel that's me. Um, so for the remainder of the, of our session, I will open the floor up questions. 

 Ish Milly: Yeah. Hi, Rachel. Thank you for having me. Um, Good to listen to Yosef.

 You're nice to meet you. Um, just, I want you to just circle back on the question. Michelle asked about influencers on the platform. Um, there are a lot of influences on clubhouse, right? Um, I think, you know, everyone knows grant Cardone's on, on clubhouse and he's actively promoting, not just is. You know, brand, but also, you know, connecting with people and enjoying the app, like every one of us.

 Um, and in terms of brands utilizing influencers on clubhouse, what I've observed is you have to, um, calculate and figuring how insensitive it is to. Orchestrating a campaign on clubhouse, you know, influences are notorious for taking your money and charging you, you know, a high amount of money. And, you know, don't, don't definitely perform on the deliverables, still dimension your brand.

 But if it's not authentic, it's, it's literally a waste of money. Um, so you can pay a big name influencers to push any product, but if it's not offensive, that influence it, doesn't actually believe in that product. It's going to reflect. Um, in the way they present the brand. Um, and that's a very common mistake.

 A lot of brands make when, when they, you know, reach out to influencers or try to use 

 Jeff Sass: that channel.

 Yosef Martin: Yeah. I have to agree. I, you should. It's pleasure and glad to have you on, uh, on a group. Uh, the way I see, uh, working with influencers is anyone can play basketball, but can you play at the NBA? Can you truly be a LeBron James quality, right? And that's where you see the, the fashion over the boxy charm, the big brands that are making it it's because there's, it's, it's more than just playing with influencers.

 It's a lot more than that. It's no longer 2012, 2013, 2015, where there were few influencers out there and there wasn't a lot of traffic of advertisement going through them. So people, uh, believed everything they heard and they would. Crushed people, companies websites, once they said, Oh, I love this lipstick.

 But eventually people started seeing through the ads and then eventually it became more of. I would say awareness, builder and less a numbers game for the brands. It was coming down from there. So expect to have a waste when you work with influencers and do a lot of testing until you find while you're looking for the right ones and in it to have a bigger purpose.

 Get when you deal with an influencer, if you see influencers, influencers would make a brand relevant and famous, uh, today that that's going to be the, the biggest thing. And then if you want to make sure you grow the brand, you have to learn other means of marketing. You can, you can do it also in influencers, but it's going to be only in the beginning.

 Um, we'd box each time we grew to a hundred million, a little bit over a hundred million in sales, only on influencers marketing, but it was. Imminent to see the curve of effectiveness, a declining and a diminishing return. And we knew that. To turn into a billion dollar business. We have to continue working with influencers.

 We love working with them, but it comes down to just performance marketing. We have to learn paid and so on. So it's a, it's an evolution or great for the beginning to kick off your business. A great to keep it relevant. Great to keep it famous, but you need to know also performance. 

 Ish Milly: I think you said something about momentum usage.

 Um, I think influencer more influencer marketing will help you. Create a witness. That's what it's great for. Um, but at the end of the day, it's all about strategy, right? So whether you use license influence a market, I know you're not the strategies was what matters. So when you're utilizing that channel and you have momentum, especially in clubhouse, I think that it's important to have a blended strategy.

 Um, and as you know, case by case, but you know, if you have success on clubhouse, Um, it's it's it's to me, evidence that you can have success outside of clubhouse because you know, people, you know, resonate with the message deeper and clubhouse, but the other strategies that you can employ outside of clubhouse to get the same results.

 So Gino, just keeping a blended strategy is very important, would influence 

 Yosef Martin: Yosef. I just want to add one thing when, when you think about influencers and influence. Influencer is a business term influence is a human term. And just because someone has a lot of followers and calls himself an influencer doesn't mean they actually have influence.

 They don't have people that actually listen and follow. And that goes back to what was saying about. There has to be that organic, authentic connection between who you choose to represent your brand. And your brand itself then they'll have influence regardless of whether they call themselves an influencer.

 So it's not always the numbers. It's also that it's more important to have that connection and that human influence, not just the business term influencer. Yeah, you're absolutely right in the public domain. It was just registered influencer because you don't want to say Instagram or YouTube, or you just want to use one word and they, they determined already in the public domain, but absolutely some are not influential, at least not in every category.

 I mean, bodybuilder would probably. Be more influential in their field versus if one day you tell him, use my teeth whitening and uh, let's see, you're probably not going to influence anyone to go and buy it, but it's nothing less than a brand builder, like you said, and it is, it is absolutely right. I mean, you have to.

 Use multi-channel you have to use clubhouse because if, if in the future we're going to stay in a clubhouse 250,000 people listening to one person. And in the panel discussion though, the term that club keeps coming up or, or fashion over or boxy charm or any other term, those people would have that in their mind.

 And if you believe still in the rule of seven, which you hear the name seven times, it registers as, as a legitimate. Brand then you just build a name, you just build a brand and now you might not be, I know you just warm up yourself, a whole funnel of people that heard about your brand. It's kind of a warming up to the audience.

 And then eventually as they see something on perhaps an ad on Facebook or perhaps in other texts on, uh, on Twitter. Coming in. They might go in and subscribe. So it's, it's great additional because if you, if you want to be relevant, you can't have to be everywhere. If not, you're not relevant. You're just advertising yourselves.

 If I only hear about boxy champ on Pinterest, nowhere else. I understand it's it's, it's a marketing tactic and that's it. It's just, but if you hear about this everywhere, your, your brain is being spent. Food is this will be fed with the name everywhere. It, it looks like a legitimate brand, large company, all that.

 And it's easier for your subconscious to say, let me make a transaction. Now, let me look into it. So clubhouse definitely needs to be another in additional, uh, eh, Social media platform that needs to be, you want to have your brand heard over there? 

 Ish Milly: Yeah, I think a good use case was what Gary did last week and what Rachel is doing right now.

 She's taken the content and recorded it. So it's getting amplified, you know, the, the that's that's the best practice in my opinion of how to utilize, you know, clubhouse, just taking that content, amplifying it. Now people were wearing a, was to be. In the session can, you know, be part of the conversation, um, and you can, you know, do whatever you want with it.

 So I think just understanding that anything that happens in clubhouse has its limitations in terms of, you know, content evaporating. Um, that's a good way to seal that leak, um, and amplify the concept. So I love when I see people doing that, because I feel like there's so much powerful. Conversations that happen here on this platform that unfortunately we don't record it.

 So hopefully, you know, that becomes a more prevalent trend. 

 Jeff Sass: Great.

 Yosef Martin: hooked up with Colin's um, what Collins was discussing. So, you know, many times the conversation were around, um, kinda like, uh, motivating entrepreneurs. And I think Elon Musk was, uh, saying, well, if I need to motivate you to be wealthy or successful, then I don't think I need to do it. But there is something to say about that.

 How do you talk about this with people? And they're like, W, how is it that, uh, someone like Collins and many others keep building companies and taking them again and again, and again, and succeeding again. And you might hear about people that had a success story, then lost everything, but came back again.

 So they lost all their money, but somehow they came back again, think, um, we all evolve when we build our first company. Right. And, um, and we, we evolve mentally and we get better at that. So you might lose your money one day. Well, you might not, but you want to start again? One thing you never lose is what's in your head, right.

 You never lose what's in your head. So instead of thinking of going to school, and I personally went to the FIU, I got my degree as an obligation to stay legal in the United States. I didn't really think I need any of this, but, uh, it was, it was me starting over there, but yeah. Couple of years into my company, I evolve.

 Right. And no one can take it away. Can I ever use any of the tools I learned at my university to open anything? No. Can I do anything with the snow? It was the years that I spent as an entrepreneur, the time I spent as an entrepreneur. So when someone asks, give me a motivation, I said, well, you probably want to try opening a business.

 You really want to be an entrepreneur. You really think it's for you. Try opening a business because that would give you more value. Mentally in your head and experience then, and university would ever give you. And if the first one doesn't work, it doesn't matter. I didn't my first one didn't work. My second one didn't work, but eventually you hit it, you hit it.

 Then every time you learn, so what'd you want to do with it? Put your time and money. Into a couple of good years, uh, at university or trying to make it in the entrepreneurial world. And that would just give you an, a different set of skill to study and learn. And the bets are you'll always fall on your feet.

 Once you made it. After the first time, you're always fall on your feet. And your second or third business,

 Ish Milly: you also have a question for you. Sure. Sure. And that was, that was great advice. Um, but you know, so one thing I've noticed Corbell so people that have enjoyed the level of success for you calling Jeffrey Michelle, uh, is, is something called masterminds. Have you, have you ever been part of any masterminds and if so, have they been helpful in your.

 In your 

 Yosef Martin: success. So I have never been in any master I've been invited to, uh, um, but I have not done any of this neither listening to or performed in any of them. Um, just time obligation and doing other things. But, uh, I'm probably going to be joining in some, I have not been to one though. I have not. 

 Jeff Sass: All right.

 I think 

 Rachael Lashbrook: soar had a question and then Edna. 

 Jeff Sass: Followed by Ricky. 

 Yosef Martin: Oh yeah. Thanks so much guys. Uh, I've been, uh, 

 Thor: I forgot what my question is, but I did want to say with the, uh, follow-up, 

 Yosef Martin: you 

 Thor: know, of, um, a Facebook wants to replicate this. I'm not worried at all about that. And I don't think clubhouse should be worried either because they tried to replicate a cryptocurrency and we saw how that went.

 And, um, my friend Abe on Twitter said, okay, Text doesn't provide the social fix that our voices do. Clubhouse is closer to real human connection. It's so much more satisfying on a deeper level, regardless of the content. And I think not only are these public rooms have been great. And like Ash said where you record it and then you can put it on other platforms.

 But I think a lot of private rooms are going to spark up to in the future where it's just like, almost like a party. Like a, uh, you know, where three or four people can get a room in a room and that could be our own mastermind. And a lot of serendipitous moments and magic is happening on this app because, you know, on Twitter or Facebook or even Instagram, you can't really get that.

 Like, That that feel for who someone is, like, someone could comment on your tweet and they could be the Mo the most successful person, but you just overlook it for whatever reason. And I'm here. You really can't do that. Like the cream rises to the top, and there's, it's almost like a podcast on steroids where people are in a competition with each other, but the competition is who can provide the most value.

 And like everyone benefits from that. Because if you provide value. You're getting a following for all your audience, but just everybody wins in the end. And, uh, thanks Joe Yosef for, you know, I came in late, but I heard your story and it's just remarkable and motivational. And, um, got me thinking about subscription services and, uh, I would love to learn more about that and how you did that, the whole story.

 Yosef Martin: Thank you both. Um, And both the clubhouse. I actually do think that you have to be very worried. I'm thinking if I was to be American right now, and I want to compete with clubhouse, how can I slice it and chop their head off and take it away from them simply by prioritize. So assuming I go and I do the same exact functionality that you see over here and now someone has.

 Multiple and multiple followers. And they're obviously all trying to stay relevant. Anyone that's an influencer now I would say, well, you know, if you're doing a clubhouse, you can literally do the clubhouse with the functionality of video, if you want to. Not, it doesn't matter, but I will prioritize the views or the, or the yeah.

 The views or the listening and in your platform, if you were to use it. So. In that case, the mega one say the grandkid dawns or, um, or I don't know any celebrities, they would say, well, if I'm going to do it on clubhouse, That's assuming collab house, uh, is still in beta and don't too many people are going to do the same thing on my Instagram and on Facebook.

 And I will have a room with 250,000 people right away. And then my entire account gets prioritized and I would make sure that my agent would actually tell him if you use your. Collab house platform, your actual platform on Facebook and Instagram will be prioritized. So you're going to go viral more often and everything else.

 Then you're going to see the big ones are throwing good quality content or on the new platform. You would see the cause what's going to drive. It is necessarily content, right? Content is King. So now you're going to have good, valuable content right away, starting over there and new and so well. I have to make a choice.

 I would actually go back to Facebook because everything else is going to be amplified. That's just the way I see it. And I think it's a matter of how long until it takes Facebook to do it. If Facebook waits too long, then there's already a critical mass on clamp house. And it's going to be kind of like a Snapchat or tic-tacs Snapchat gets hurt, but it didn't kill Snapchat.

 Uh, tic-tac didn't even get hurt. It took them way too long to come up with reels. But at the same time fines, they died. You know, it, it was, it sort of, it really, it's a, it's a momentum before you have before the critical mass and after the critical mass and or the mega, one's gonna move to the other place and forget about you because we have seen platforms die and it was sudden, and it was quick and people forgot about it and it was silence.

 And that just happened. So it really it's a momentum thing, how long it will take them. And then the execution. 

 Rachael Lashbrook: Yeah. There's always a lot of opportunity when a new platforms pop up. Yeah. Um, so in the vein of starting a company on and off flip house, I think Edna had a question. Yeah, 

 Edna Bibb: I just more of a comment and a little bit of a question for use of, um, I just, you said something that was, that just really resonated with me.

 And, and part of that is, you know, failure is, is your greatest teacher, right? Like you learn far more from failure than you do from success. And just to hear someone like yourself, um, openly and outwardly say, Hey, you know, my first go around, didn't go off the way it was supposed to. Neither did the second round, but when you finally hit it, it clicks and then things start to come together.

 Um, the second thing that you mentioned that I thought was really fascinating and, you know, it's the speed of the leader, right? The speed of the leader, the speed of the team, how quick you are to take action and be the first one, you know, out of the gate to come out and do things, you know, right now, Um, you know, there is a paradigm shift and you're seeing a huge influx of people coming on to clubhouse and, and, you know, there's been a, it's been equated to like the, the, the gold rush.

 Right. And, and something that was, that was interesting to me when I was reading about the gold rush and how people, you know, flock to California to make money off of gold. And a lot of people left empty handed. They actually didn't, you know, get a lot of gold, but the people that made money were the people that we're selling the picks and the shovels.

 And so w clubhouse provides a phenomenal opportunity and platform for those people that are quick to adapt and quick to take action. And so if you can do those two things, um, then you will end up leading the pack in, in, in, in a way that. Others will not be able to catch up. And part of that is also creating, you know, um, w a term that's been coined, you know, culture, currency, where you're creating a culture and you're giving to others.

 And that is really where. Your brand building is, is taking off. And so that's kind of what I've seen here on clubhouse. And so, um, now here comes to my question. My question to you is when you first got started, you said, you know, the idea came to you, you put it forward, you acted and then launched, right.

 How long did it take you before you were. You know, I guess, I don't know if there's such a thing as an overnight success, right? There's a lot of pain that goes along to getting there, but from inception to launching and then getting everything up and running and hitting the numbers that you did, what was that trajectory like?

 Like how long did it take you? 

 Yosef Martin: Not in that much. I mean, my biggest factor was I need to figure out how to ship the boxes. Eh, in, in large scale and then to get, uh, packaging, that was the only thing that stops me. I was actually I'm, I'm always worried about momentum. I, uh, I was worried about momentum at that time because, uh, Instagram was a new platform and being very experienced with new platforms.

 I mean, doing SEO, but then. Yeah, big Reddit stumble upon used to be major tools for me, for SEO while I was going viral. At the time, you need to hit a popular front page. And if you hit the, the front page on whatever you post on, say, dig ready to or stumble upon you would have thousands of links into that page.

 So the way. I would always position it. I would go and create those pages that would get massive amount of links with capital terms that would resonate with the liquidation business, but it was just nothing less than a leak debate at clickbait. I'm sorry. And eventually I would do a three Oh one redirect to my pages and into my liquidation sites and kind of like rank within a day into the most competitive terms you ever want to do it.

 So that was nothing less than a tool for me to grow my, my liquidation business and. Going through this, you understand that there are engineers that keep improving their algorithm. So I was paranoid over getting into it quickly before you have too many advertisers, too many people like me coming into polluting it.

 And so I was just. Moving fast and, um, about, about speed to market fluke. Think of a, and I don't want to give my own examples. I'll just stick you on Musk and look how many times you'll see, um, NASA or the European state space agency or, or the Russians blowing up rockets. They haven't why? Because they're the one pushing the envelope fast enough.

 Okay. Elon Musk blowing them every day, all the time. Why? Because he doesn't mind it. So it's part of his testing and he understand that if I'll do it, I will. I will be a hundred years ahead of everybody else, because I was able to get into that an imaginable scenario where I can send a missile and it's going to explode.

 That was the biggest fear. It, people would always worry about that. So in his case, it's part of his equations and he sends those rockets. They explode. But now before you know, it. You can bring them back to earth. And he basically cut the cost in 90% in a pudding, satellite orbit. So it was the same thing.

 I didn't mind failing. I'm too small to even be noticed. I will fail as much as I can. And by the time I'm big, I would have all those. Experiences in the past and I needed them. Those are my stepping stone into the future. So I pushed everything. I had lots of mistakes. And when people talk about failures, I think that the point of failure don't think of failure of return of, I started a business.

 I failed, I moved on to another business within the business, as it grows, you have multiple failures, but you need to have those failures. You need that. Right. So it was in the beginning, felt fairly it's okay. Because I'm testing myself until I, I, I do course corrections and then I move on. And then eventually when you grow.

 You had all those experiences, you can be much more efficient than everybody else. You can grow a business with about 150 employees that grows close to half a billion dollar in sales, and you distribute more than a million boxes and nobody understand how the heck did you do get there with, with such a small group, because you know what you get to be so efficient.

 And you keep running forward with this and you didn't mind in the beginning doing all those things experiments, and now your experience is different than someone else. And the mindset of your competition is mostly corporate. So they're not going to do it because they're afraid of being fired and so on.

 And so you don't, you don't have that. Political parts. So speed to market is a key, obviously not with blindfolds, but it is important to be fast. So I would always be that person that you would see blowing rockets in the air and then eventually making the impossible. Well, I make everything possible, but people were, yeah, for me, 

 Thor: that's a great point.

 And Elan is so fast that he actually sells his product before he even makes it. That's one great thing we can implement. Like, if you're worried about selling, have people pre-order your product, you know, sell it before you even make it. That's one thing he's brilliant at. 

 Jeff Sass: Yeah. 

 Edna Bibb: Yeah, he is. He's very masterful.

 Like we're, we're, I'm in the solar space and, um, we're, we're just about to start taking our courses to be able to become certified installers for their roof panels. Now how they're going to work? I don't know, but he made roof shingles. So now your entire roof is solar instead of just the solar panels. So it's, and there's a back order.

 Like if you buy it today, you're lucky if you get it in nine months. So, yeah, he is. He is, he is a mastermind. I, I, I very much love what he does. 

 Rachael Lashbrook: We are over time. I want to extend the opportunity for Ricky and his question. And then we'll, uh, lead into closing. 

 Yosef Martin: Thank you for having me on just quickly. I love what Edna said about the picks and the axis.

 That's my all time. Favorite business lesson. Uh, my mentor taught me that five years ago and I've been selling picks and axes to startups ever since. But my question is for yourself. Um, I'm a storyteller at heart and that's my profession. You need to tell us how to tell the story in three steps. You still owe me that.

 I do I do. I do all you and I will pay you that debt soon, very soon. Um, but my, my question is going back to your story. So, um, where do you get your entrepreneurial spirit from? You mentioned your military experience, uh, when you were younger, I'm wondering, do you get your drive and your tenacity from there or is it somewhere else?

 What do you put it down to? Necessity. I wasn't legally allowed to get a job here. Uh, us, uh, so eventually I ran out of money and out of state tuition for international students, you know, uh, very cheap and I didn't have any money. So, you know, you get tired of living on rice and ketchup and you don't want to go back to Israel and the middle of Europe.

 Studies and then started everything all over again over there. So eventually you figure it out and you do it that wasn't, uh, the entrepreneur that started at the age of 12 doing some things. And so I was not a that kid. I was actually, I would have, if I was, if I, if I had my green card during my years, I probably would have had a job somewhere, I assume.

 Maybe not, but it, I would have been going, applying for jobs. So that's how I got it. 

 Jeff Sass: Thank you very much. Thank you.

 Rachael Lashbrook: Thank you everybody. Um, this was a surprise for me. I really enjoyed, we touched on a lot of topics, a lot of elements to the topic. Um, I learned a lot. I'm really looking forward to going back, listening to what we've recorded today and providing you all with a recap. Later next week on our S e.club blog.

 I will let Collin take the floor from here and see you next 

 Colin Campbell: time, I guess. Very good. Rachel, I think that was your first time actually doing, being lead moderator and did a great job. Uh, next week, we're talking about scaling your business, using clubhouse, you know, what are the techniques that business owners can do to help them scale their business?

 Make their business grows, grow faster. Thank you very much. Great job. And I'm really enjoyed, uh, you also finish and hearing everybody else. Thank you. 

 Yosef Martin: Bye. 

 Colin Campbell: Thank you.

Startup Club’s Best 25 Must-Read Books for Aspiring Entrepreneurs in 2025

Business Mindset: Starting vs Scaling

Minor Majors for Maximum Impact

Startup Secrets: Scale with AI

Boss vs. Coach: Leadership Balance

Timing the Sale of Your Company

December Newsletter – Startup Club Edge

EP174: Business Mindset: Starting vs Scaling

EP173: Minor Majors for Maximum Impact

EP172: Startup Secrets: Scale with AI

EP171: Boss vs. Coach: Leadership Balance

EP170: Timing the Sale of Your Company

Read the Transcript

LEAVE A REPLY Cancel reply

Stay in the Loop

Tags