Who doesn't love a bit of unconventional business wisdom! Ben Leonard has no business training. In fact, his background is in Ecology. Oh, and he’s a whale and dolphin nerd, who had no interest in fitness, until his mid 20s, when he decided to build a successful online fitness brand called Beast Gear which, in its third year, turned over six million large ones! It’s an unbelievable episode 654 of The (14 year-old, award-winning) Small Business Big Marketing podcast. A little more about this episode First and foremost Ben Leonard is an ecologist by trade, and a self-confessed whale and dolphin nerd. Thanks to a health scare, he’s also the founder of Beast Gear, an online business, built on a laptop, in a cupboard, in his spare time, with an initial £1,000 investment.  Three years later, Beast Gear was turning over more than £4 million at which point Ben achieved business’s Holy Grail …. and exited for life on a hammock. Well, that’s not exactly true … whilst he did exit with a nice little earn, he’s already in the throes of at least two more online business ideas … one which I absolutely love. Oh, and he’s also written a book titled Quit Stalling & Build Your Online Brand. What is it with these millennials?! In this chat, Ben generously shares where the idea for Beast Gear came from, how he scaled using chatbots and Instagram, why a huge fitness brand tried to sue him and failed, plus he’s a big fan of the business learnings from Sonic the Hedgehog! With all this success, and with so many eCommerce stores out there, I started off by asking Ben whether it’s too late for the average Joe to start one.   Links Mentioned Grab a copy (plus some free goodies) of Ben Leonard's book Quit Stalling And Build Your Online Brand.   Businesses that make this podcast possible StudioHawk - No generalists, just a damn good SEO agency (award-winning actually!).   Patreon - Join Timbo's Business Owner Membership and take control of your marketing.   Book Tim Reid - Keynote or conference emceeing.   As always, thanks for your support. May your marketing be the best marketing. Timbo ReidSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/marketingpodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.