00:00.031 –> 00:18.985
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever I speak to people, it’s always, I’ve really suffering with this problem, so if we can help them with that problem and there’s a bit of trust there then they come back to us again and then it’s the people who have bought two or three times that we say here’s a subscription and then on your third order of a subscription here’s a free cleaner try that out.

00:21.175 –> 00:23.702
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast.

00:24.323 –> 00:28.815
[SPEAKER_02]: It has to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.

00:28.835 –> 00:36.957
[SPEAKER_02]: Cutting through the hive to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond, here’s your host, Chloe Thomas.

00:39.535 –> 00:40.857
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome.

00:40.877 –> 00:42.058
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s great to have you here.

00:42.159 –> 00:47.265
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing list to listen to another of our inspiring guests.

00:47.285 –> 00:49.128
[SPEAKER_01]: I have an intro thanks for this episode.

00:49.148 –> 00:54.936
[SPEAKER_01]: We would not have found this brilliant guest if it wasn’t for web designer Craig Thomas from Craig Thomas online.

00:55.156 –> 01:00.243
[SPEAKER_01]: No relation I should add and Craig put us in contact with this brilliant guest.

01:00.263 –> 01:03.227
[SPEAKER_01]: So huge thanks Craig for the recommendation and the intro.

01:03.928 –> 01:06.471
[SPEAKER_01]: In this episode we’re talking

01:06.451 –> 01:12.858
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of big picture strategy in and my guess would hate me for saying this, the supplement space, sorry Katie.

01:14.219 –> 01:15.821
[SPEAKER_01]: But we’re talking about that.

01:15.841 –> 01:21.146
[SPEAKER_01]: We’re talking about how to balance selling to different customer bases across different product lines.

01:21.727 –> 01:32.138
[SPEAKER_01]: We are getting into how you, how important it is to stick with the strategies that support your values and your mission and we will also be

01:32.118 –> 01:36.691
[SPEAKER_01]: send what messages to what customer to get them to increase their customer lifetime value.

01:36.751 –> 01:38.275
[SPEAKER_01]: Some really cool stuff in this episode.

01:38.295 –> 01:40.100
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a real treat to get to talk to Katie.

01:40.582 –> 01:45.435
[SPEAKER_01]: Please listen to the end so you don’t miss out on her top tips and my own take on this episode.

01:51.423 –> 01:53.546
[SPEAKER_01]: And now to introduce our special guest.

01:53.566 –> 01:59.094
[SPEAKER_01]: Katie Ward is the managing director at Mike Crobs, a natural microbial solutions business.

01:59.294 –> 02:09.610
[SPEAKER_01]: Founded in the 2000s and rebranded in 2024, they are on track for around £1 million in sales this year across their Shopify store and partner network.

02:09.690 –> 02:10.491
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Katie.

02:10.871 –> 02:12.574
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, thank you so much, Fabmy.

02:12.634 –> 02:13.575
[SPEAKER_00]: I really appreciate it.

02:14.236 –> 02:16.740
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s very cool to have you on the podcast.

02:17.541 –> 02:20.265
[SPEAKER_01]: So how did you get started in e-commerce?

02:20.701 –> 02:23.124
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I was kind of thrown into it, I guess.

02:23.164 –> 02:26.189
[SPEAKER_00]: So before I did this, I did a different kind of commerce.

02:26.209 –> 02:27.210
[SPEAKER_00]: I worked for charities.

02:27.270 –> 02:34.600
[SPEAKER_00]: So I worked for quite big NGOs in the UK trying to get people to, I was marketing manager for those.

02:35.281 –> 02:38.005
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I had my babies and I left that.

02:38.165 –> 02:41.650
[SPEAKER_00]: And my parents had this company and they really needed some help.

02:42.331 –> 02:50.202
[SPEAKER_00]: So I decided to get on board and that was my crib.

02:50.182 –> 02:57.087
[SPEAKER_00]: We started from the ground up, so built a website that actually worked and started just

02:57.303 –> 02:59.105
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the rebrand was a massive pop for us.

02:59.125 –> 03:01.887
[SPEAKER_00]: So the first kind of a couple of years, I was kind of gearing up for that.

03:01.907 –> 03:05.250
[SPEAKER_00]: And then since then, it’s just been doing better and better.

03:06.211 –> 03:11.276
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s a great time to be selling a, and you may win as I said it, a supplement brand.

03:12.136 –> 03:16.260
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we seem to be on this huge kind of health trip at the moment.

03:16.320 –> 03:20.124
[SPEAKER_01]: So did that factor into your decision to join the family business?

03:20.664 –> 03:22.646
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there’s a big opportunity here at the moment?

03:22.666 –> 03:23.887
[SPEAKER_01]: Was that a factor that went into it?

03:23.907 –> 03:27.310
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it just mum and dad need help?

03:27.290 –> 03:42.178
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I’ve always been passionate, so growing up around probiotics, I’ve seen the solutions that they offer and we’re a bit different, so we use our probiotics and every aspect of our lives, so we harvest them from our organic soil on the farmland and then we use them again in every area.

03:42.198 –> 03:45.163
[SPEAKER_00]: So, spring the land.

03:45.143 –> 03:49.488
[SPEAKER_00]: vegetable growing, also in our bodies in our houses with our animals.

03:49.849 –> 03:53.273
[SPEAKER_00]: So I’ve seen first hand just the benefits that come from using them.

03:53.893 –> 03:58.679
[SPEAKER_00]: I want the biggest one for me is the amount of wildlife that’s come back to our land.

03:58.759 –> 04:03.104
[SPEAKER_00]: So we now have just amazing dragonflies and butterflies and birds.

04:03.765 –> 04:07.309
[SPEAKER_00]: And then also in my body, you see those changes for my health.

04:07.570 –> 04:14.458
[SPEAKER_00]: So as more that I could see that it was a solution, I could see the difference that it made for me

04:14.438 –> 04:25.109
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do wits away from the kind of supplement arena because it is full of noise and it is full of products and are the way that we come at that is slightly different.

04:25.649 –> 04:41.205
[SPEAKER_00]: The main in the supplement industry most people are telling you which ones to get, you know, this probiotic strain versus that probiotic strain and our whole ethos is about going back to nature, so going back to soil and going back

04:41.185 –> 04:47.213
[SPEAKER_00]: of microbial life that lives in soil which kind of underpins all life animal and human life.

04:47.373 –> 05:08.020
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have a very different ethos and actually it’s been very hard to communicate that because people are so into you know which strain and the science behind which strain and the world of probiotics is so incredibly complex that one strain in my body will have a

05:08.000 –> 05:15.008
[SPEAKER_00]: So it’s a complicated picture and we offer something that is different, that hard to communicate.

05:16.349 –> 05:16.990
[SPEAKER_01]: Communication.

05:17.010 –> 05:18.852
[SPEAKER_01]: We may welcome back to that first off though.

05:18.872 –> 05:22.756
[SPEAKER_01]: Let’s explain a bit more about the business before we get into anything else.

05:22.796 –> 05:25.319
[SPEAKER_01]: So where in the world are you and where are you selling to?

05:25.840 –> 05:28.843
[SPEAKER_00]: We’re in the UK and we’re primarily selling to the UK.

05:29.844 –> 05:35.290
[SPEAKER_00]: We do sell a bit in Europe and we do get questions all the time from different places around the world.

05:35.270 –> 05:41.678
[SPEAKER_00]: but at the moment is you’re up partly because it is really hard to export a living probiotic with multiple strains.

05:42.099 –> 05:48.647
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why most people most global companies put them in a pill because that is very easy to transport.

05:49.248 –> 06:01.204
[SPEAKER_00]: So exporting is kind of on the agenda and I’m looking mainly at Ireland because it’s a wonderful market for us and it’s going to be a really high-income country and then it’s kind of a couple of years.

06:01.224 –> 06:03.707
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s where I’ve got my eye on

06:03.687 –> 06:11.775
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s always challenging when there’s a challenge like that against the business, but in some ways it kind of makes you make better decisions.

06:12.376 –> 06:15.880
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if it was easy to do it, you could accidentally end up selling everywhere badly.

06:17.161 –> 06:21.546
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it’s hard, you’ll end up selling in a couple of places really well, if that makes sense.

06:21.566 –> 06:26.371
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, because it’ll take us five years to get over the regulation once we get in and we’re going to really get in.

06:27.092 –> 06:28.513
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, less is more.

06:28.493 –> 06:39.224
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the product, we know it’s probiotics and it’s microbes, but tell us a bit and it’s probably not a pill, give them what you just said, but tell us about the nuts and bolts of the product.

06:39.524 –> 06:39.744
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.

06:40.145 –> 06:43.528
[SPEAKER_00]: So we make everything in our farm and then in our factory.

06:43.908 –> 06:50.155
[SPEAKER_00]: So we harvest the microstrom soil by putting into the ground a starch supplement, a starch product, I guess.

06:50.635 –> 06:55.480
[SPEAKER_00]: We dig a big hole and we’re in a place with loads of worms and loads of organic matter.

06:55.460 –> 07:04.601
[SPEAKER_00]: And the microbes kind of come to that starch when we pull out the ground that has the most amazing kind of rainbow like color on it and it smells kind of like fresh earth.

07:05.102 –> 07:14.363
[SPEAKER_00]: So we take that starch and we ferment it four times that goes to a process of fermentation which each of which lasts about two to a half weeks.

07:14.697 –> 07:17.661
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s just to, we have that microbial population.

07:18.041 –> 07:28.094
[SPEAKER_00]: We test that, we’ve got at least 15 different kinds of microbes, but bearing in mind, we know that we only know 1% of soil microbes, we can safely assume there’s more than just there’s 15 in there.

07:28.615 –> 07:33.321
[SPEAKER_00]: So we take that, we’ve meant it four times, which is just to increase the number of microbes.

07:33.962 –> 07:38.608
[SPEAKER_00]: And then in the last stage, we add in traditional herbs and minerals based on different things.

07:39.189 –> 07:43.995
[SPEAKER_00]: So we’ve got a crazy amount of products because my dad loves to invent new products.

07:43.975 –> 07:49.622
[SPEAKER_00]: But we have one for women which has 18 different herbs which are really good for women’s health.

07:50.103 –> 07:56.551
[SPEAKER_00]: We have one for sleeping which has lots of different kind of herbs for calming the nervous system.

07:56.611 –> 08:03.379
[SPEAKER_00]: So that kind of last stage we work with a medical herb list who knows a lot about the herbs for different aspects.

08:03.399 –> 08:06.263
[SPEAKER_00]: And one which is our best cello is all about seeding the gut.

08:06.323 –> 08:10.388
[SPEAKER_00]: So making that gut lining really strong and not too permeable.

08:10.368 –> 08:19.694
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s our kind of human health range, but we also have a best-selling range in pet care, so horses, dogs, and cats, and then again, back for agriculture.

08:19.754 –> 08:24.647
[SPEAKER_00]: So we kind of do probiotics for everything, which is a bit of an Achilles heel.

08:25.589 –> 08:32.379
[SPEAKER_01]: So the probiotic bit is the same in everything but then with the herbs you tweak the impact.

08:33.020 –> 08:33.401
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

08:33.441 –> 08:40.271
[SPEAKER_00]: So the base culture is exactly the same for everything in the gardening and agriculture products.

08:40.291 –> 08:43.556
[SPEAKER_00]: We’ve heard a bit of a microrisal fungi and a bit of other stuff.

08:43.576 –> 08:48.464
[SPEAKER_00]: So the thinking behind that goes that the microbes are really good at communicating things.

08:48.504 –> 08:54.533
[SPEAKER_00]: They’re good at breaking things down and rebuilding things, but they need kind of ingredients with which

08:54.513 –> 08:55.795
[SPEAKER_00]: extract goodness.

08:56.315 –> 09:07.029
[SPEAKER_00]: So the herbs kind of give the microbes a lunchbox which they can that they can take the spirulino or whatever it is and make it by our available for your body to absorb and the same is true in the soil.

09:07.149 –> 09:16.521
[SPEAKER_00]: So you need lots of microbes but you also need a lot of organic matter, macros are fungi because the microbes need to be able to absorb something to create life, health.

09:16.501 –> 09:38.188
[SPEAKER_01]: got you and then you know you said it’s in a killies heel doing all these products I think a lot of lessons will be oh wow they do pets and humans and then and then like coming on the on the websites and all they do men stuff as well as women stuff you we’ve got into this space where everyone goes so niche that to be wider and then when you’re kind of wholesaling to other farmers to help them improve their soils.

09:38.168 –> 09:43.236
[SPEAKER_01]: That’s a lot of different business models to be dealing with in what I assume is a small team.

09:43.296 –> 09:45.659
[SPEAKER_01]: As you before we get into the business models, what does the team look like?

09:45.719 –> 09:47.041
[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you are there?

09:47.061 –> 09:53.271
[SPEAKER_00]: So there’s 11 core members of the team and then we probably have another 10 freelancers.

09:53.511 –> 09:56.155
[SPEAKER_00]: So Amazon, my Amazon guy is amazing.

09:56.195 –> 09:57.477
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s freelance.

09:57.457 –> 10:09.717
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a marketing woman who’s kind of a whiz who comes in every now and against the port me, brand stuff, the design and stuff is all kind of external meta, of course, which is its own beast, yeah, and a handful of others.

10:09.777 –> 10:12.261
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have kind of extra people we can call on.

10:12.281 –> 10:14.925
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it’s such a

10:14.905 –> 10:31.007
[SPEAKER_00]: important part to have these kind of add-on pieces of people who are really specialist in their area, but my gosh, we’ve been to a lot of them because it’s hard to find people, I think they were really good at certain aspects, all that fit you and where you are in your business, well.

10:30.987 –> 10:55.240
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that’s so true that the fit part, you know, you could have three people who are equally good at, we’ll go and metarads for, for one of the better example, equally good at it, but what only one of them is the right fit for your size of business, your aspirations, the sort of stories you’re telling and all that, all that kind of jazz and it’s, it often the only way of actually finding them is by testing, which is frustrating.

10:55.220 –> 10:57.345
[SPEAKER_01]: time consuming, but.

10:57.947 –> 10:58.749
[SPEAKER_00]: And it’s hardening.

10:58.769 –> 10:59.290
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if you get it.

10:59.310 –> 10:59.631
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

10:59.811 –> 11:06.147
[SPEAKER_00]: But the matter ones, we got it wrong again and again and again and by the time, you know, you’re ready to go out and find somebody.

11:06.167 –> 11:12.202
[SPEAKER_00]: You’re so we’re warm wounded that the poor person you come across gets a list of questions, a size of a house.

11:12.222 –> 11:13.144
[SPEAKER_00]: You don’t it’s like,

11:13.124 –> 11:16.391
[SPEAKER_00]: keeping that kind of faith that there are people that are wonderful at this.

11:16.471 –> 11:25.790
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s just about finding that fit and and across whether they’re really good at the creative side or the or the numbers side or the, you know, strategic side.

11:25.850 –> 11:32.483
[SPEAKER_00]: So without hiring a big agency, it’s hard to get somebody who’s actually good at the range of aspects of it.

11:32.463 –> 11:52.172
[SPEAKER_01]: but at least you didn’t give up after the first failed attempt, which I think a lot of brands go, oh right, it must be that the platform isn’t for me, was actually it was the strategy, the approach and the manpower, it’s the problem and yeah, as a former agency owner, I could rant on this for quite some time, but let’s let’s spare, okay, to let’s bet you and the audience that.

11:52.192 –> 11:57.981
[SPEAKER_01]: I was gonna, so you’ve got a team of 11, plus your 10 super duper freelancers running everything.

11:57.961 –> 12:01.627
[SPEAKER_01]: and you’re managing essentially two different business models.

12:02.509 –> 12:14.429
[SPEAKER_01]: Plus, I guess actually you’ve got the Shopify store, you’ve got the Amazon store, you’ve got the partners, network of people who are selling your product to their clients, and then you’ve got the farming piece as well.

12:14.850 –> 12:17.134
[SPEAKER_01]: So most of all different business models, and then,

12:17.114 –> 12:22.060
[SPEAKER_01]: definitely three different customer groups, the people, the pets, and then the farmers.

12:23.381 –> 12:26.405
[SPEAKER_01]: I’m a farmer’s daughter, so I’m allowed to say the farmers are an odd bunch.

12:26.425 –> 12:29.749
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, everyone can play the way that I’m allowed to say this.

12:31.090 –> 12:34.314
[SPEAKER_01]: That’s a lot to be managing with just a team of 21.

12:34.874 –> 12:43.905
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you prioritize, as the MD, how do you prioritize where you’re focusing and what projects you’re working on to keep all those parts of the business developing?

12:44.766 –> 12:46.648
[SPEAKER_00]: Great question.

12:46.628 –> 12:47.730
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to be realistic.

12:47.870 –> 12:55.484
[SPEAKER_00]: The part of the business that brings me in the money is our B2B website sales, so that makes me the most margin on every bottle.

12:55.584 –> 13:05.582
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I can sell 2003, 2004,000 bottles a month through the website, that is my kind of bread and butter income, which is just fantastic.

13:05.562 –> 13:09.671
[SPEAKER_00]: What we’ve always been passionate about is what we call a probiotic life.

13:10.131 –> 13:15.162
[SPEAKER_00]: So replacing the chemicals and antibiotics in our home environments with probiotics.

13:15.182 –> 13:19.411
[SPEAKER_00]: And I’ve seen those be so helpful for cleaning for animals for home.

13:19.471 –> 13:21.495
[SPEAKER_00]: So this idea of a probiotic life.

13:21.515 –> 13:25.343
[SPEAKER_00]: But we extend that into agriculture because

13:25.323 –> 13:29.853
[SPEAKER_00]: our food, the way that our food is grown, impacts our gut health directly.

13:30.314 –> 13:36.948
[SPEAKER_00]: If our food is grown in soils that are really healthy, it can be more nutritious, it can be better for our microbiome.

13:37.770 –> 13:43.382
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have to extend our lens out into this food and farming sphere which involves

13:43.362 –> 13:47.747
[SPEAKER_00]: talking to farmers who are already on their incredible regeneration journey.

13:47.787 –> 13:57.259
[SPEAKER_00]: Now there’s such a big movement in the UK to really look at soil health because it’s the foundation of their well-being and also their the how we grow our food.

13:57.319 –> 14:01.444
[SPEAKER_00]: So luckily that is a kind of on its own root.

14:01.804 –> 14:12.137
[SPEAKER_00]: But every brand person or marketing person we’ve ever spoken to has said, you’re mad, just cut back all of these ranges, concentrate on three of your top selling product and just go for them.

14:12.117 –> 14:19.003
[SPEAKER_00]: My heart always kind of sinks when that happens because we miss the kind of breath of the possibility to change the way that we live.

14:19.564 –> 14:25.369
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have the kind of probiotic life which is the website sales across those different channels.

14:25.429 –> 14:30.454
[SPEAKER_00]: And we work quite hard to try and understand what can help people go from gut health to cleaning.

14:30.594 –> 14:42.124
[SPEAKER_00]: If we give them a free cleaner, will they use it and like it and come back and then will they take in more.

14:42.104 –> 14:47.675
[SPEAKER_00]: And then on the agriculture side, you know, it’s a slow burner, but it’s a bigger, it’s a bigger sale.

14:48.316 –> 14:52.324
[SPEAKER_00]: So we’ve been kind of, you know, investing in that I’d say the last 18 months.

14:52.364 –> 14:55.751
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there’ll be another kind of two, three years of investment into it.

14:56.512 –> 14:58.296
[SPEAKER_00]: But it’s really exciting.

14:58.536 –> 15:03.606
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you see the, you don’t see the farmers in their land that you spread it on has changed.

15:03.586 –> 15:09.497
[SPEAKER_00]: One farmer got a 50% uphill in up increase in yield this last summer when it was very dry summer.

15:09.517 –> 15:11.080
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was a difficult summer for farmers.

15:11.120 –> 15:15.409
[SPEAKER_00]: So every time we do a little trial, things are really exciting.

15:15.509 –> 15:21.621
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess it goes back to our ambition, which isn’t necessary to make millions of pounds.

15:21.741 –> 15:24.987
[SPEAKER_00]: But to try and change the system for the healthier.

15:25.658 –> 15:32.528
[SPEAKER_01]: I suppose, what I mainly take, I’ll take a few things from your answer there, one of which is actually Chloe, it’s not that diverse.

15:33.068 –> 15:37.815
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s all, it all so fits with the value of the business and the mission that you’re on.

15:37.875 –> 15:41.500
[SPEAKER_01]: It will be crazy to drop any of those parts of the pie.

15:41.540 –> 15:47.048
[SPEAKER_01]: And I totally get that someone like me and a former life or other experts would come in.

15:47.068 –> 15:51.835
[SPEAKER_01]: And there immediately actually would be too many excuse, too complicated.

15:51.815 –> 16:12.912
[SPEAKER_01]: pick one, double down on it, get fast growth, but if the whole message is that, you know, the that all encompassing lifestyle approach to the microbes and everything else, then it would be madness if you were telling someone, you know, that you should be taking this, this probiotic, but at the same time,

16:12.892 –> 16:17.278
[SPEAKER_01]: continue using the hideous off the shelf cleaning products that are killing it at the same time.

16:17.619 –> 16:26.151
[SPEAKER_01]: Kill your microbes when you when you have the means and the product that are to sell them and then you’re making the pets healthier making the soil healthier and everything.

16:26.191 –> 16:38.950
[SPEAKER_01]: It would kind of be it would be so anti-values emission that it wouldn’t work but it’s just going to take you longer to get to that flywheel point at tipping point where it goes more boom I suppose.

16:39.267 –> 16:57.985
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, I feel like I’m at the bottom of a very big hill and and I also feel I wonder if everyone who was kind of climbed a big hill at this, I feel kind of bored of the sound of my voice, you know, because I keep on saying the same thing and I know that I if I could stand out of that bubble for a second, I would realize that I’m kind of on my own.

16:57.965 –> 17:07.212
[SPEAKER_00]: But there are more and more people coming, you know, more and more people understanding, you know, but you’ve just said that your microbiome is not just in your body, it’s related to the environment you live in in the home.

17:07.773 –> 17:13.189
[SPEAKER_00]: And with the care for ever chemicals, I think that that lens and you give us a new lens to look at.

17:13.169 –> 17:31.352
[SPEAKER_00]: how toxic our environments have become, and ways in which we can bring nature back in to those environments or bring microbes that we’ve always thought kill us and have to be killed back into these environments because actually they’re the foundation of resilience and they support us to be healthy.

17:31.392 –> 17:42.906
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah exactly that is going to take us a long time and I think I’m going to be very

17:42.886 –> 17:52.520
[SPEAKER_00]: keeps going and that people start to really think about how these systems linked together and how important our food is in that system.

17:53.301 –> 18:04.557
[SPEAKER_01]: So on the D to C side of things, the B to C probiotic sales, via the site, how are you going about getting that message across to people?

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, is it like, is it what’s in the first Facebook ad that they see or is it in the email welcome sequence or is it after they bought a couple of projects?

18:13.214 –> 18:25.077
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, hooking them in with the Perry menopause or the anti biotic gut nightmare and then trying to sell them the bigger dream or are you going out there with the bigger dream first and then converting after the fact

18:25.057 –> 18:28.620
[SPEAKER_00]: No, we did some an audience research before our rebrand.

18:29.000 –> 18:34.745
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we basically found out from that was our audience then were very well educated on probiotics.

18:34.765 –> 18:35.886
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew liquid was better.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They knew about the strains.

18:37.107 –> 18:38.669
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew some about soil health.

18:39.089 –> 18:44.654
[SPEAKER_00]: So we’ve never been able to talk to your kind of average Yakult user because they don’t understand.

18:45.174 –> 18:54.422
[SPEAKER_00]: So there’s a huge education piece and that cannot all be done in the first Facebook ad.

18:54.402 –> 18:58.233
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever I speak to people it’s always I’ve really suffering with this problem.

18:58.293 –> 19:06.115
[SPEAKER_00]: I’ve really I haven’t had a regular bowel movement for two years or I my daughter’s skin is just terrible or my dog won’t stop itching.

19:06.175 –> 19:09.745
[SPEAKER_00]: No, so it has to start with everybody’s

19:10.265 –> 19:18.038
[SPEAKER_00]: issue that they’re currently facing or, you know, our audiences, whichever we choose, as you say, menopause, what are the kind of main pain points?

19:18.619 –> 19:28.155
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we can prove to people, buying the product helps with that, and I’m not going to say it’s always going to do that for every for 100% of people, you know.

19:28.135 –> 19:52.742
[SPEAKER_00]: So if we can help them with that problem and there’s a bit of trust there then they come back to us again and then again and then it’s the people who have bought two or three times that we say Here’s a subscription and then on your third order of her subscription here’s a free cleaner try that out and then here’s a free plant boost so you can spray up indoor plants with it see what happens then so I think we have to take them on this journey

19:52.722 –> 20:05.462
[SPEAKER_00]: and hopefully we do it in kind of a warm style, you know, we want people to feel that it’s family made, we care, we care about how we produce them, we care about how we harvest them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: When we ferment them, we keep them warm.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We, you know, really appreciate them and that whole process also comes through.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I would hope in that story telling.

20:17.765 –> 20:22.616
[SPEAKER_02]: The Ecommerce Masterplan is supported by some of the greatest companies in the Ecommerce sector.

20:22.757 –> 20:33.141
[SPEAKER_02]: Here’s a reminder of who they are.

20:35.551 –> 20:40.861
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I love this section, because it gives me and I’ll list us some really quick ideas for taking our businesses to the next level.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Katie, are you ready for the top tips?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm, I am.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, the book top tip.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If everyone listing to this podcast, I agreed to take Friday off and read a book to make their business better, which book would you recommend?

20:54.012 –> 20:55.915
[SPEAKER_00]: I’ve gone with finding the mother tree.

20:56.015 –> 20:57.998
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s all about how trees communicate.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I just love the way that it really puts us into nature.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The whole tree’s communicating thing is just mind blowing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But so new, yet also so obvious in retrospect.

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[SPEAKER_01]: How do we not think they are communicating?

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[SPEAKER_01]: So love that recommendation, thank you, Katie.

21:15.766 –> 21:21.775
[SPEAKER_01]: The traffic top tip, which marketing method do you either prize above all others or think doesn’t get the press it deserves?

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[SPEAKER_00]: in real life.

21:23.834 –> 21:32.166
[SPEAKER_00]: So we’ve our thing this year is just to go to every event we can speak at every up-speaker opportunity, force our way into every kind of event.

21:32.727 –> 21:35.651
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, getting back out, meeting people.

21:35.671 –> 21:45.906
[SPEAKER_01]: And are you doing that for all parts of the business from pets across or are you focusing that on the agricultural bit or the due to sea bit or

21:45.886 –> 21:52.854
[SPEAKER_00]: So we’ve got two big agricultural events this year, five or six big gut health events, and then one pet one.

21:52.974 –> 21:54.276
[SPEAKER_00]: So a little bit across everything.

21:54.296 –> 21:56.999
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice, get out there and actually talk to people.

21:57.400 –> 21:57.920
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

21:57.940 –> 22:01.084
[SPEAKER_01]: Never, never a bad move in the e-commerce space.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Real human beings, magical.

22:04.328 –> 22:14.340
[SPEAKER_01]: The tall top tip, maybe a collaboration told a social media plug in a phone app or just a way of working, is there a cool little tool you use that makes you and your team a more efficient

22:14.320 –> 22:23.007
[SPEAKER_00]: So we used this thing called Breeman, which is actually for brewers, people who make beer, and every time it was every now and again it pops up with which alcohol we’re using, there’s no alcohol.

22:23.408 –> 22:34.057
[SPEAKER_00]: But it’s the most incredible tool because we can put in all of our fermentations, text test the pHs and the temperatures and record everything, and the whole team can collaborate on it.

22:34.157 –> 22:35.338
[SPEAKER_00]: I just absolutely love it.

22:36.058 –> 22:43.905
[SPEAKER_01]: So brewing software for probiotic manufacturer?

22:44.847 –> 22:50.036
[SPEAKER_01]: One, one which arguably is not about wellness, being repurposed with one that is about wellness.

22:51.399 –> 22:53.583
[SPEAKER_01]: But let’s not get into the alcohol debate right now.

22:54.585 –> 22:57.069
[SPEAKER_01]: The carbon, the carbon top tip, Katie.

22:57.089 –> 23:01.337
[SPEAKER_01]: What’s your favorite way to reduce the carbon footprint of an e-commerce store?

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[SPEAKER_00]: So when things get delivered, we try and use as much of that as possible.

23:05.804 –> 23:10.632
[SPEAKER_00]: So we shred all of our cardboard thread deliveries to use within our packages that go out the door.

23:11.193 –> 23:13.877
[SPEAKER_00]: So kind of thinking is circularly as possible.

23:14.378 –> 23:22.591
[SPEAKER_00]: And we also use our microbes wherever we can to kind of help us break down staffs so composting and in the kind of cleaning areas.

23:22.651 –> 23:28.320
[SPEAKER_00]: So thinking circularly, I guess, would be my overarching carbon tip.

23:28.638 –> 23:29.560
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I like that.

23:29.920 –> 23:35.470
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s so easy just to think of one thing and think we’re done, but actually it’s a bit of big-old mindset change to do it properly.

23:35.851 –> 23:38.676
[SPEAKER_01]: So that definitely qualifies as a quality tip.

23:38.816 –> 23:45.769
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, Katie, before we say goodbye, could you please let the listeners know where they can find you and your business on the web and social media?

23:45.749 –> 23:53.343
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure, please come and check us out where at www.microbs.mi-c-r-o-b-z.co.uk.

23:54.224 –> 23:56.729
[SPEAKER_00]: We have an agriculture site there as well, which you can check out.

23:57.089 –> 24:01.277
[SPEAKER_00]: We’re on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So just search Micro’s Probite, and you’ll be able to find us on all of those platforms.

24:05.324 –> 24:16.619
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a question, we have a registered nutritionist on our website, you can email them with a question about which product to take or if you have something you’re suffering with right now and you’d like a specific response.

24:17.480 –> 24:18.962
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, we’d love to hear from you.

24:19.002 –> 24:20.284
[SPEAKER_00]: We’d love to feed to check us out.

24:21.065 –> 24:21.385
[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome.

24:21.405 –> 24:22.006
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Katie.

24:22.026 –> 24:24.229
[SPEAKER_01]: And thank you so much, being such a fascinating guest.

24:24.349 –> 24:25.972
[SPEAKER_01]: Really love chatting with you today.

24:26.052 –> 24:27.053
[SPEAKER_01]: So thanks for being on the show.

24:27.674 –> 24:28.615
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.

24:34.450 –> 24:40.657
[SPEAKER_01]: always a pleasure to chat with a business owner who’s on such a mission and values driven journey.

24:41.478 –> 24:57.555
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, the big takeaways there were around structuring your business to suit your desires, not necessarily the playbook that everyone else is following, in terms of their products selection and who they’re serving and the messaging they’re putting out there.

24:57.535 –> 25:08.391
[SPEAKER_01]: If you can do that and you can grow at a level that keeps you happy and you’re making a profit, that makes you happy, then you don’t have to follow any of the standard advice if it’s wrong for your values and the mission of your business.

25:08.932 –> 25:20.269
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other part about why she was talking about how they get the message to the audience at what point they, you know, what they used to hook them in and then at what point they deliver various bits and pieces and the

25:20.249 –> 25:22.812
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, as they order a few, then we get them onto the subscription.

25:22.832 –> 25:34.007
[SPEAKER_01]: And when they’ve had a few subscriptions, only then do we start introducing them to the cleaning products as well, really fascinating to chat to Katie there, really fascinating to see where they are in a few more years time.

25:34.508 –> 25:41.397
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get your hands on our notes from this episode, including those top tips and links to what we mentioned by heading over to ecommercemasterplanned.com.

25:41.377 –> 25:44.701
[SPEAKER_01]: You could also use our direct episode short links that’s ECMP.

25:44.961 –> 25:47.424
[SPEAKER_01]: Info4sash the number of this episode.

25:47.944 –> 25:51.428
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you get to the website, please do add yourself to the email list.

25:52.149 –> 26:00.198
[SPEAKER_01]: If you liked this episode, then why not check out episode 512 with Judith Harvey from Natural Skincare Products Business Nitrune.

26:00.218 –> 26:00.999
[SPEAKER_01]: Naturalismo.

26:02.180 –> 26:06.025
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you want more on Shopify businesses, then head to ECMP.

26:06.245 –> 26:08.127
[SPEAKER_01]: Info4sash Shopify.

26:08.107 –> 26:11.991
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for tuning in to this and every episode of the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.

26:12.372 –> 26:20.841
[SPEAKER_01]: We bring you a new interview every week so we can inspire and help you to succeed and thrive with your business, including becoming more sustainable.

26:21.262 –> 26:27.468
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you know someone this show can help and inspire, please tell them to listen to the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.

26:27.809 –> 26:30.672
[SPEAKER_01]: Hope you have a great week and don’t forget to keep optimizing.

26:33.706 –> 26:37.097
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to the e-commerce Master Plan podcast.

26:37.578 –> 26:42.855
[SPEAKER_02]: Find out more at e-commercemasterplanned.com slash podcast.