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154 | The Entrepreneurial Mindset of the Pop-Punk Lifestyle | with Sam Dean

Honest Ecommerce
Honest Ecommerce
Episode • Jan 3, 2022 • 26m

On the tail end of some major life changes, in 2006, at the age of 23, Sam Dean took every penny he and his wife had (and some they didn't) and bet it all on selling body jewelry to strangers on the internet. 

Fresh off the memories of the "dot com bubble" and unknowingly walking towards the '08 Financial Crisis, Sam was continuously warned by family and friends that the internet and body jewelry are fads and won't be around forever. 

15 years later it seems wild that anyone ever doubted the Ecommerce future, but Sam saw the writing on the wall. 

With hundreds of thousands of customers, Plug Your Holes now ships 8-12k orders per month and employs over 2 dozen people in their Kansas City headquarters. 

Sam is now looking to the future of PYH, his family and his other endeavors. 

In This Conversation We Discuss: 

  • [00:00] Intro
  • [00:59] Sam’s journey to Ecom
  • [02:33] The idea of selling body jewelry
  • [03:38] The genre and aesthetics are misaligned
  • [04:34] Inherent go-to-market strategy from bands
  • [06:14] The Vans Warped Tour Experience
  • [08:13] How the Tour helped Plug Your Holes
  • [09:39] 2000’s Ecom vs now
  • [11:47] Sponsor: Electric Eye electriceye.io
  • [12:07] Sponsor: Mesa apps.shopify.com/mesa
  • [12:58] Sponsor: Gorgias gorgias.grsm.io/honest
  • [14:18] Sponsor: Rewind rewind.io/honest
  • [14:51] Sponsor: Klaviyo klaviyo.com/honest
  • [15:38] Social media approach to awareness
  • [18:19] Mistakes Sam wants you to avoid
  • [20:26] What you start with doesn’t really matter
  • [21:10] Determining what you are really doing
  • [22:01] Concert goers and body jewelry customers
  • [23:19] Culture, acceptance, and employment crisis
  • [24:34] Take the first step
  • [25:25] Pushing your minimum viable product

Resources:

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