Bill Ross: Today's guest is Ross Nelson, who is the founder of Smoothies, a San Diego-based company transforming how people prepare and enjoy smoothies through innovative, sustainable freezer trays. Drawing from a dynamic background in marketing and music production, including producing live albums for the Pixies. Ross blends creativity, product development, and community impact. Smoothies has achieved 6-figure sales within months, and donates 5% of profits to social and environmental causes Reflecting Ross's commitment to conscious business and local change.

Ross, welcome to our expert interview series.

Ross Nelson: Thank you so much for having me, Bill. I'm excited to chat.

Bill Ross: Yeah, likewise. So, I know we don't have a whole lot of time here, we want to give, you know, good, impactful information to our listeners real quick, so I'm going to jump straight in and ask you the question, which is, what is the most effective strategy you recommend for business owners to increase sales while also strengthening their company's reputation?

Ross Nelson: Well, for me, in a D2C e-commerce environment, the word has been authenticity, and I think this will mean something different for every business, and, you know, how you show that will look different, but it's been about, you know, leaning into what makes you uniquely you.

Not simply copying what others are doing, and really trying to effectively communicate the value you offer, and what makes you and your business special.

I've put a lot of work into the brand identity, the product positioning and messaging based on market research, and if I've done my job right, there will be a lot of people who will instantly get it and connect with that and buy the product.

But I found to take sales to the next level and get people who are kind of on the fence, or maybe they initially dismiss the idea.

I find it super critical to, you know, listen to what people are saying online, look at some of the negative comments or the questions that people have on some of the social media posts or the ads, you know, engage with them to ask more questions, and, you know, use that information to refine the selling points and product benefits.

And the thing that surprised me a little bit, you know, I just kind of assumed people would see the product and, you know, understand what it does and why they should buy it.

But I was a little surprised by the amount of distrust that there is on social media, and, you know, I kind of say that, and you think of, well, of course, you know, there is a lot of mistrust. But, you know, when you're in the mode of launching a product and a business, you know, you kind of know what you're…

What your mission is, or what you're about, but you really have to work extra hard these days in the world of social media to really effectively communicate that and connect with people. You know, a lot of people were, especially when I was launching this on Kickstarter, saying, you know, is this for real? Is this a scam? What is this? I don't get this process of crowdfunding.

And, you know, even to this day, when I'm… we've been in normal operations for about a year now, and, you know, still get some questions of, you know, is… are you a real business? Is this… you know, what is this? Can I find this on Amazon? It's kind of funny that people really see Amazon as sort of this… gold standard of trust. If you're a real business, you're on Amazon. And my thinking is, you know, no, you know, I'm a real small business, I… at this point, we're not on Amazon, because I really want to build that, you know, direct connection with customers through selling on our website. And so it's been really important to… to take a step back to say, okay, how do we really communicate to people, you know, who we are and what we're about?

And so that's, you know, using those opportunities to reply to comments, create videos, you know, demonstrating, you know, showing who we are, what our business is about, what the product is about, why we created it.

And we found that to be really effective to, you know, slowly but surely, you know, building kind of that idea of community, and really connecting with people to show that, you know, we are legit, you're gonna buy this product, you're going to get it. And, you know, we stand behind it. If there are any issues, we'll, you know, work with you, we'll refund if you're not happy. So there is, you know, no… concern of, of, am I gonna waste my money?

Bill Ross: Gotcha. So, it sounds like…

What you're telling me, and it makes a lot of sense, is that it's sort of this feedback loop, essentially. You, as an owner, apologize, somebody was trying to call in, but you as an owner, believe that, or I shouldn't say, when you put together a product.

In your mind, you obviously think. And I think this is a very true statement for pretty much anybody. You think, hey, this is an obvious solve to a clear problem. And you put it out there the way you see it in your mind, and you just assume that people are going to get it.

And the reality is, is that not everybody does. There's… there's all kinds of questions, and it can be very simple questions, it can be very complicated questions, I'm sure. But what you're telling me is what has helped accelerate your growth.

Is the ability to monitor what people are saying. have real conversations and interaction with them, and take that feedback and proactively come up with demonstrations, videos, answers, FAQs, whatever you want to call them.

So that people can see and identify, oh, okay, this is the answer that I was missing, this is the piece I didn't understand, and it's that process that all of a sudden creates clarity and that open buying environment. Is that what I'm getting?

Ross Nelson: Yeah, absolutely. I think… in, you know, a product business that you're trying to sell to, you know, selling a product to people, obviously you need to talk about the features and benefits and why they should buy it. But having in that mix those kind of founder stories, or sharing what the company is about.

you know, why you created this product. You know, after realizing that, you know, I went back and created some different videos, and, you know, one of our videos, it's kind of this founder perspective of.

you know, the problem we had, why we created this product, you know, how it's changed our daily smoothie routine, and, you know, why that can have that same impact for you. That's ended up being our best performing video in terms of performance in social media ads.

Bill Ross: So give me a… okay, so… and I think that's great, because I… we talked to another expert a while back about specific advertising or whatnot, and how to use testimonials and different things to actually generate real good returns on your ad spend, but give me that specific, because I think what… what we can help people with here is giving us your business-specific case

Just explain, what happened, what was the feedback, what did you do, and what were the results from that?

Ross Nelson: Yeah, well, as I mentioned, there are, you know, some comments about, is this business legit? Will I actually get my product? You know, where are you located? You know, I think there's so many companies that, you know, maybe they're, you know, a US-based business, technically, but there's a lot of dropshipping directly from overseas, and issues with shipping times and all that, and, what's the customer support gonna be like?

So hearing all that, that feedback, and then really addressing all those things up front, so what that's looked like for us is. you know, coming out and directly saying, like, you know, hi, I'm Ross, you know, I'm literally the person, I own this business, I run this business.

It's me and my wife who started this to solve one of our own problems in our daily lives, and, you know, here's the journey we took to launch this business, and, you know, here's what the product does. But, you know, initially I was a little bit hesitant to… you know, make it about me, or, you know, talk about me so much as the person behind the business. I was thinking, I'll just… we'll talk about the product and what it does.

But, you know, it's, I think, literally, you know, putting yourself in some of these videos or social media content, things that end up being used in ads, you know, introducing yourself, saying who you are, and some of the things you believe in, and how you want to run this business. I've been… you know, when I started, I was, in my mind, pretty clear on, you know, the type of business I wanted to run in terms of how I would treat customers. I've always looked at it as, I'm gonna run the business that I would expect to interact with, so I want to give the customer… the type of customer service that I would expect to receive.

You know, everyone gets annoyed with the interactive business, maybe they're not totally happy, or something happens with the product, and, you know, you're out of luck, you can't get a refund.

I don't want to do that. I want people to be 100% happy. If they're not happy, I'll give them their money back. And so it's just little things like that to making sure that there's, you know, there's no second-guessing making this purchase, that if you're a little bit on the fence.

you know, that it can be returned. But yeah, I think the big thing to kind of answer your question is really just putting yourself as a business owner in the messaging and content that you're putting out there to say, you know, who you are, what you're about, and, you know, why this product adds value to, you know, people's lives.

Bill Ross: Sure, and I think what you've just identified is a big trend that we're seeing sort of across the board, in the sense that

People don't form relationships with companies, they form relationships with other people, and so…

Ross Nelson: Yeah.

Bill Ross: you being… you being out there in front of it is obviously making that difference, and then proactively addressing the objections and concerns is obviously making a difference. Well, I think the information you've… you've shared is unbelievably valuable and can really help a lot of people out there. So go implement it. If you're listening to this, you make sure you go implement it. But my next question for you real quick is if people want to get to know you know, more about you, they want to find out about your products, smoothies, and that kind of stuff. How can they reach you?

Ross Nelson: Yeah, you can find us at our website, smoothies.co. I'm sure there'll be a link here on this page. You can check out our products, there's a contact page on there to drop me a message if you have any questions about entrepreneurship or launching a business, crowdfunding, anything like that. You can also find us on all the social media channels, like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. And if you're on LinkedIn and want to connect that way as a business owner, feel free to find me there, Ross Nelson, and I would be happy to connect and chat.

Bill Ross: Fantastic. Well, listen, I appreciate your time. I know you're very busy. It's been a pleasure having you, and we look forward to catching up with you sometime soon.

Ross Nelson: Yeah, thank you so much.

Bill Ross: Take care.