Building the World’s Best Meditation Cushion and More with Eddie Cohen

Reef, DC Shoes, Sanuk & the Road to Becoming a CMO with Michael Minter

Michael Minter has had a very successful career as a creative marketer working with some of the world’s largest footwear brands. Michael is currently the CMO of Reef, a 40-year-old legendary sandal brand that has recently seen an expansion in its product catalog and growth in eCommerce sales. Prior to Reef, Michael was the Global Head of Marketing for DC Shoes, leading many of the company’s iconic collaborations with the likes of the Andy Warhol foundation and the Mandalorian.

Michael and I discuss how his upbringing in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea allowed him to approach brand marketing from a very unique perspective. We talk about his formal educational training first at SCAD followed by San Diego State University, and Michael provides his advice for anyone looking to become a CMO or creative director.

This podcast was a lot of fun for me, because I also got to geek out on skate, snow, and surf culture, and we debate the topic of keeping aging sponsored pros on the payroll or not. Both of us disagree slightly on the topic, but it makes for some interesting takeaways for brands.

If you are interested in creative, marketing, brand positioning, partnerships and collaborations, then you will enjoy this episode.

Discussion Topics:

(1:34) Growing up in Papua New Guinea.

(4:35) How an analog youth in a remote village led to a unique cultural perspective.

(8:20) Brands that Michael admires.

(12:19) The role good creative plays in marketing strategies.

(22:48) Creative education.

(26:28) Advice for trying to become a CMO at a major brand.

(31:06) The importance of collaborations for brand growth.

(43:51) Keeping legendary team riders on the payroll.

(51:29) Working with Ken Block.

(55:26) Growth potential for Reef.

(58:40) Rapid fire.

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition & Nomadic Business Ownership with Bakari Akil

Bakari Akil is a visiting lecturer at Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management teaching students how to buy a business. Bakari is also a successful search fund entrepreneur and independent sponsor.

Bakari recently sourced the acquisition of a burlap bag manufacturer, secured equity financing, closed the deal, then recruited and hired the CEO to operate the business. Bakari shares his inspirational story about growing up extremely poor and discovering Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition to provide generational wealth. We talk about how ETA is a great path for anyone, particularly if you don’t have an MBA or went to business school.

Bakari is currently traveling around the world as a digital nomad managing his numerous ventures remotely. He provides great advice for anyone looking to use entrepreneurship and a distributed support staff to live a dream lifestyle.

This podcast is for anyone looking at Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition as a career choice or for anyone who loves a great entrepreneur story.

Discussion Topics:

(2:10) World travel and advice for remote entrepreneurs.

(9:40) Not financial advice … the best financial advice.

(18:32) Going into ETA or Private Equity.

(26:05) The New York Times & Bakari’s entrepreneurship journey.

(32:29) Learning ETA without going to business school.

(40:22) Advice for searchers.

(50:00) Bakari’s NYP search deal and investment thesis.

(1:00:45) Rapid Fire.

The Entourage Effect & Plunge’s Parabolic Rise with Ryan Duey

Ryan Duey is the Co-Founder + Co-CEO of plunge.com. Plunge has seen fantastic growth with increases in demand for cold plunge and contrast therapy coming out of the pandemic. Ryan and I go deep into what caused the company’s parabolic rise and how he and his co-founder Michael Garrett were able to both help create and capitalize on the current cold plunge boom.

We talk about getting free organic exposure from Lebron James. Plunge’s origin story during COVID lockdowns. His appearance on SharkTank, goals for the future and his honest advice for young entrepreneurs. A really fascinating insight is Ryan’s concept of the entourage effect. I had never heard of the concept before, but I think it is a genius and a big reason why the company and cold plunges in general took off so quickly in the United States.

If you like health and wellness or a great founder story that involves taking risks and pivoting during adversity, then I think you will really like this episode.

Discussion Topics:

(1:17) Icebreaker: study abroad.

(3:16) Lebron James, Tony Hawk, Andrew Huberman and more. 

(14:37) Why did cold plunge go parabolic in December 2022?

(21:30) The entourage effect.

(24:09) Which celebrity has the coolest house?

(30:47) Plunge’s origin story - necessity is the mother of invention.

(38:12) Sharktank … was it worthwhile?

(43:00) Sauna launch.

(51:29) Advice for young entrepreneurs.

(53:33) Rapid fire.

Product Development, Market Fit & Minimum Viable Businesses with Chris McKleroy

Chris McKleroy is the founder and CEO of Nocs Provisions, a company which has reinvented binoculars. Chris is a successful entrepreneur with a proven track record of designing disruptive products and bringing them to market.

Prior to Nocs, Chris was the Head of Product and Co-Founder of Boombotix, one of the original Bluetooth personal speaker brands to enter the market. Chris helped scale the business from $200k to over $13 million in annual revenue. We discuss the lessons learned from massive growth, raising venture capital and what it was like partnering with Wu-Tang.

Chris and I discuss product development, prototyping and why product market fit is so critical. He shares his insights on how to bootstrap a business idea and talks about the importance of finding your MVB “Minimum Viable Business.” He shares his advice for overseas manufacturing and how to disrupt established markets with innovatively designed products.

If you like product development, direct-to-consumer marketing and design then I am sure you will love this episode.

Discussion Topics:

(1:28) Working with Wu-Tang.

(10:08) Business & design programs for Entrepreneurs.

(17:12) Scaling Boombotix to a $13 million business.

(24:12) Bootstrapping Nocs Provisions.

(30:51) Advice for Entrepreneurs.

(36:45) Product design process.

(44:46) Manufacturing products in China during COVID.

(58:10) Minimum Viable Business.

(59:00) Rapid fire questions.

Start-up Exits, Social Impact in Surf & Venture with Bradley Harris

Bradley Harris is the principal and CEO of A-Frame - a venture studio built for sustainable growth.  Brad and I met on acquire.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling startups. I was looking to purchase the surf and board sports business that he had founded. I loved what he had built and his focus on being a socially minded entrepreneur. Brad ultimately sold the business to someone else, but we have stayed in-contact and have helped each other on our respective entrepreneurial journeys.

Brad is a 3x founder and advisor with a deep understanding of go-to-market strategies, brand management and mobile technology. His super-power, however, is being able to position brands for social impact in ways that are authentic and resonate with consumers.

We talk about how he positioned his surf eCommerce business Good Wave to meet an underserved portion of the market, namely surf parents. We geek out hard on surf culture and board sports and how brands can be better leaders of social impact.

Brad is a great guy with a lot of wisdom to share.  I hope you enjoy.

Discussion Topics:

(1:14) Brand archetypes in action sports.

(6:18) The best winter ever and finding your why post-exit.

(11:42) Building a business for surfing parents and families.

(28:32) Product development process.

(37:40) Advice for selling on acquire.com.

(52:17) Vision for A-Frame ventures.

(54:40) Rapid fire.