Kayleigh Bendall has over 12+ years of global experience across Digital Marketing, Social Media, e-Commerce and Amazon in lead generation, strategic partnerships, events and community building. Started e-comm journey working for 8-figure D2C brand doing product inserts with e-comm merchants in Austalia 8 years ago. Networking played a huge part in opening the door to 8 and 9 figure brands.

Community Cultivator, Empowering Entrepreneurs Through Connection. Global Events Online and F2F. Reach New Heights & Grow With Our Community.

2023 Milestones: Hosted 4 global events, 10 digitals & 10 meetups.

Recently introduced and ran 2 $100M entrepreneur dinners in Austin.

Growing a 10k+ member community and are on a mission to cultivate best in class and a trusted community of 7, 8 and 9 figure entrepreneurs and mastermind experiences.

South Africa born moved in UK at 16 with family. The inability to fit in and integrate into a small town sparked the curiosity into the importance in like minded community and finding your tribe.

Last Nov I created a vision board and relocated to Austin. In 88 days I ran 1 mastermind event (you attended) 2 entrepreneur dinners, stayed in my dream house on the VB, drove the Ferrari with my initials and met my Codie Sanchez and Jen Gottlieb. Two female boss babes. Currently in talks to help Codie with her events! 

> Here’s a glimpse of what you would learn….

In this insightful episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough podcast, host Josh Hadley and guest Kayleigh Bendell dive into the transformative role of networking and strategic partnerships in scaling businesses. They explore Kayleigh's extensive background in empowering high-level entrepreneurs and her success with e-commerce brands. The discussion highlights the significance of attending industry events, embracing in-person connections, and utilizing innovative tools like the AI-powered web builder DG1. Listeners are encouraged to be open-minded and authentic in their networking efforts to unlock growth opportunities. Key takeaways include the value of networking, partnering with like-minded brands, and the power of sharing knowledge within the e-commerce community.

Here are the 3 action items that Josh identified from this episode:

Action Item #1: Attend Events and Network: The opportunities and knowledge unlocked through these avenues are unparalleled.
Action Item #2: Partner with Complementary Brands: Look for brands that share your customer demographic to create mutually beneficial partnerships.
Action Item #3: Embrace Openness and Transparency: Authenticity in business dealings fosters trust and opens doors to new possibilities.

Special Mention(s):

Related Episode(s):

This episode is brought to you by eComm Breakthrough Consulting where I help seven-figure e-commerce owners grow to eight figures. I started my business in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years. I made mistakes along the way that made the path to eight figures longer. At times I doubted whether our business could even survive and become a real brand. I wish I would have had a guide to help me grow faster and avoid the stumbling blocks. If you’ve hit a plateau and want to know the next steps to take your business to the next level, then email me at josh@ecommbreakthrough.com and in your subject line say “strategy audit” for the chance to win a $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audit at no cost!

Josh (00:00:00) - Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough podcast. I'm your host, Josh Hadley, where I interviewed the top business leaders in e-commerce. Past guests include Kevin King, Michael E Gerber, author of The E-myth, and Matt Clark of ASM. Today I am speaking with Kayleigh Bendell, the founder of KB connect and Eclimb, and we're going to be talking a lot about how knowing the right people can explode your net worth. This episode is brought to you by Ecomm Breakthrough Consulting, where I help take seven figure brands to eight figures and beyond. Listen, Kayleigh, I started my business back in 2015 and I grew it to an eight figure brand in seven years. But I made a lot of mistakes along the way. That made the path of getting to eight figures take a lot longer than it needed to. At times, I made bad hiring decisions. I had to take money from my personal bank account in order to fund payroll for our team. I had stressed about whether our brand could survive when Covid hit, and we experienced a 90% decline in sales.

Josh (00:00:59) - I remember wishing for a mentor that could guide me through that maze of scaling our business up. Somebody who had been there, done that and could share all the secrets to help me overcome those obstacles. That's why I've decided to offer one on one coaching and consulting, where I share the nitty gritty cash flow framework sales strategies in operating systems that I have used to help scale my own business. And because I believe in giving each entrepreneur my undivided attention. I only work with three clients at a time. But first, I want to make sure that anybody that I work with is a perfect fit. So I'm offering a completely free, no strings attached business strategy audit. It's valued at over $10,000, and I'm doing it complimentary before anybody decides to take that plunge. And this audit is my way of showing you just how committed I am to your success. So if to our listeners, if this sounds like something that you're interested in, email me at Josh at Ecomm Breakthrough dot com. That's e-comm with two M's and in the subject line say, I want to pick your brain and then let's chat about how we can take your brand to the next level.

Josh (00:02:07) - But today I am super excited to introduce you all to Kayleigh Bendel. She is the visionary founder of CWB connect, with over a decade dedicated to empowering 7 to 9 figure entrepreneurs in sales and partnerships, Kayleigh has become a trusted expert in her field. Her strong presence at various global events have enabled her to cultivate a vast network of digital, e-commerce and Amazon specialists. Through her leadership, eClimb Summit has experienced exponential growth, fostering a vibrant community of entrepreneurs who harness her network and expertise to drive their business towards success. So with that introduction, welcome to the show, Kayleigh.

Kayleigh (00:02:49) - Thanks, Josh. So excited to be here. And, wow, the audit sounds really interesting. I know Brad mentioned that he worked a little bit with you or wanted to work with you, and it sounds like you have just so many incredible skills. And obviously you spoke at our Austin event, and everyone is just so excited for you to come and share more about your hiring and firing top level talent overseas.

Kayleigh (00:03:17) - Like, your knowledge is just so great that you can now give back with all the mistakes you've learned.

Josh (00:03:24) - Well, I appreciate those kind words, Kayleigh. And yes, like you said, it's only because I've made a lot of mistakes that I can then, you know, share those things in hopes of helping other people avoid making a lot of those similar mistakes. Yeah. Kayleigh, here's what I think is interesting. I think our listeners are going to love this episode with you, and here's why. You're unique in the fact that most of the people that have come on to this podcast are all in the trenches. They're building their own brands, and they're sharing their wicked smart strategies of tactics that they've implemented in their own business. You're different in the aspect of you are not an active Amazon seller, but instead what is amazing about you and the amazing skill set that you have is I think you know about everybody in the world. It seems to be. And if anybody ever wants to be connected to somebody else, you are the person to go to.

Josh (00:04:21) - And I think that this is a message for all of this seven figure list,, seven figure sellers that are listening to this right now, that if there's something that's going to explode your net worth the most and help you grow and get to a state of financial freedom in your life, it's not what you know, but it's who you know. We've heard that, you know, analogy or saying a ton of times. But Kayleigh, I'm interested to hear, you know, how is it that you know so many people now at this point? And where did your kind of journey begin in entrepreneurship?

Kayleigh (00:04:58) - Yeah. So I. I think it's just,, it started with, like, when I was probably 16 and I. I left South Africa and moved to the UK, and I realized so quickly by being put in a really small environment, like a small town with people that didn't match your kind of morals and, and kind of that like drive, that little bit of electricity that exists if you've got that spring in your step.

Kayleigh (00:05:28) - It kind of led me to just. Think outside of the box, like what local events can attend. What jobs can I do? How can I just put myself out there? And embed myself in as many different pockets of networks as I can. And I think. Really, the entrepreneur journey was always in me since I was like maybe a kid selling chocolate at school or making jewelry for people. And, you know, it wasn't until like probably,, I was 26. I was like, you know what? I've done my degree. I've networked with so many different groups in the UK. I've studied digital marketing. I've had the 9 to 5 I set to move to Sydney, Australia. Now I knew one person and it was again like getting a job selling digital marketing for a Salesforce marketing cloud partner, where we didn't get the opportunity to actually help the client. Like they didn't sign the deal. They said they already saw something in me where I was curious.

Kayleigh (00:06:35) - And I was attending all these, like, meetups and events like Salesforce Breakfasts. And I was finding all these ways into opening doors with eight, nine figure ecomm brands. And at this time they also had shops. Right? It was this new world of how you can start to sell online and implement email marketing. And like within three years, I found myself running events across Australia as the chair in Facebook, Google, Telstra and from there ending up working for a big DTC company called Naked Wines and through,, just literally battering search and building, I guess a whole pipeline of ecommsellers within my network to get them to put those inserts into the orders and by meeting them, by going to events, I mean, we just at the time, the revenue was 70 million for, naked wines, and they'd only been in Australia five years, but they were in the US, they were in the UK. It was just such an eye opening experience to the e-commerce landscape, and how easy it was for someone to set up this online shop and make money.

Kayleigh (00:07:48) - And Amazon at that time wasn't even around. And that's kind of where it all started. And this was maybe ten years ago. And I think, having gone to all these events around the world and having met so many entrepreneurs, I just love the way they think., I love when they connect, how there's just so much more potential. And they almost sit there as quite introverted humans solving each other's problems. And like, I would go to these events and I would see someone talking and I'd just literally wait until they finish, hit them on the shoulder and say, hey, would you be interested in coming to talk?, at an event? And more often than not, I think people are always willing to give back and share what they know. And it's kind of weird. My mentors would say, you know, Kayleigh, I'm being selfish by helping you because I actually get something back from it. So I think it's just been great to have that curiosity and to put yourself out there because it's just opened endless doors and I'm just like, so pumped.

Josh (00:08:55) - But I love that now, Kayleigh, that's fascinating. And you've sparked my interest when you talked about when you were working for that e-commerce brand, the native wines and this is kind of where naked wines are. All right. Naked wines., okay. So I'm interested. This is where you see the power of life, working with other people, creating relationships and networking really come to fruition. You talked about that. You are partnering with other brands and other e-commerce owners to include an insert in their product packaging. Tell me a little bit more about that, because that sounds like a very powerful marketing strategy in and of itself. Tell me more about that.

Kayleigh (00:09:44) - Yeah. Like, honestly,, so it's so funny because Naked Wines at the time was the fastest online growing wine company, probably still is up there. And the business model as a whole is fascinating because essentially it's literally a marketing company. And the two biggest customer acquisition channels was membership member, which is basically a member refers another member or literally you would put an insert into another brand's order with whereby that brand and your brand have a similar demographic and a similar profile, which in this case with someone with a slightly higher disposable income and 45 years plus in age.

Kayleigh (00:10:35) - And honestly,, you can go to any market vertical from sporting outdoor to fashion to. Bikes., tents. I know that's outdoor, you name it. And literally you could use a tool like SimilarWeb and you could say, okay, I'm going to type in Ann Summers and you could almost see all the like my, like the similar companies. Or you could go and say buy now, pay later websites, and you could see all of the similar brands and case studies. And it's so easy, you literally just drop them an email and say, hey, do you guys want to do an insert? We'll pay you,, say $15 for anyone that goes on to accept the voucher, there's a unique code, you can track it. Boom., and in most cases we saw like a 4% conversion rate. And the brands like HelloFresh and Amazon bought a lot of the book companies at that time.. They were making like $10,000 extra revenue a month.

Kayleigh (00:11:42) - And the customers love it. So it's like a win-win for everybody. And it's funny because I think I've been attending a lot of conferences now in the past, like four years in the Amazon world, and people are talking about the value of inserting orders. And at the time we would try and look at brands that were selling on Amazon, but unless obviously they had their own warehouse, it was always quite difficult to get the insert into the order. But this is definitely true. It's such a great strategy. And what we did as well is like co-branding the voucher. So it almost looks like you could use it as a surprise and delight for your customers and a way for them to feel, oh wow, I've got something really special. Like there's a co-branded insert, there's a unique code that represents the brand's name with the naked women's branding. And yeah, like people loved it. I think the one thing that was a little bit difficult to mitigate in the beginning was it did put them into a subscription.

Kayleigh (00:12:46) - And at the time, subscriptions weren't like they are now where everyone's just subscribing to something. But we kind of got over that pretty quickly. Yeah.

Josh (00:12:58) - That's awesome. So your role was reaching out to those brands,, and saying, hey, would you mind including, you know, this insert in here will co-brand it and then you're going to make, you know, passive income from this when your customers get the order.

Kayleigh (00:13:13) - Pretty much. Yeah. So I did that for nearly three years in Australia and the UK. And, it was like from enterprise sort of seven, eight, nine figure brands,, up to smaller brands as well, because in Australia, the market was a bit behind too. You sometimes find that they weren't quite big enough. You, you, you kind of want to have at least 10,000 orders a month for it to really be worthwhile.

Josh (00:13:45) - Interesting. Fascinating. Well, Kayleigh, I love that. And I think that that's a perfect segue into, you know, how important it is to create partnerships and network with other people.

Josh (00:13:57) - So tell me more. What is CWB connected and what is it?.

Kayleigh (00:14:01) - Yeah. So basically CWB connects more about a fractional,, business development,, service, whether it's like helping service providers with their partnership strategy, whether it's attending events, whether it's actually co-hosting events, I've been co-hosting,, dinners with people like Nate Ginzburg., you know, it's just like leveraging the events for your business. And then,, I guess time is more a community that I'm building where we really bring in and qualify the sophisticated brand builders that are doing seven figures and above, in some cases where we've had incredible humans that are like, Kayleigh, I am six figures, can I join? I want to come to South Africa. I want to come in. Your mastermind, like Isaac at the time,, met him in Australia at the Southern Southern Fest. Such a great guy. I was like, you know, Isaac, come along, come on board. And he just took it on a storm, and he,, by the end of the trip, he was, like, on his way to seven figures.

Kayleigh (00:15:11) - So we're kind of, like, a little bit lenient if you're a good culture fit because, you know, if you're open, if you want to learn and if, if you want to also give back by sharing what you know. And you're not all like, I can't share anything then like we're like, yeah, come, come on board and let's just all win together. Because I don't believe there's something like competition. There's such a big market and opportunity everywhere. Like, let's all just help each other.

Josh (00:15:39) - Yeah. Oh, I love that, that's very impressive. And I was able to go speak at one of your E Climb Summit events that you hosted down in Austin. So you're gathering seven figure entrepreneurs and everybody was sharing strategies and it was great. There were a lot of people that I was able to connect with there. So Kaylie, maybe can you share some case studies or examples of, you know, what's the power of networking and showing up at events like, why should people take the time to leave, you know, the comfort of their home if they're working remotely, right? Why should they leave to go attend these events?

Kayleigh (00:16:20) - Yeah, I think like if you don't attend the events, you know, it's it's yeah, I get it.

Kayleigh (00:16:26) - You can be more focused, you can build. And it is all about that focus and taking the steps to actually succeed. But I think without these events you just wouldn't have the connections. And I mean, I was speaking to my friend Nick Erie the other day. We met at one of Danny McMillan's events selling sessions, and he doesn't really have time to network much any, any more. But if I ever have a question, and I myself have been toying with the idea of starting a brand and as an entrepreneur like you can't help but right? Like, there's always a golden nugget in front of you. And, you know, anytime I've needed help, it's just so valuable. I can jump on a call. And he just gives me real advice and we can feed back to him and connect him with anyone he needs help with, like he needed help connecting to a material manufacture the other day. And I could put him in touch with Nina, who's basically a supply chain expert.

Kayleigh (00:17:29) - But again, she'd never really networked until she went to China magic last year. And we were then. I was then put in touch with Brad Allen, who was at China magic with her. They're both part of Titan and like, you know, just again, like the connection working with her. We're now starting,, selling something in the TikTok shop together. You know, we've we've started to launch this, and it's just like, you just never know who you're going to meet that could help you with the skill gaps or with a partnership opportunity because, like, why try and learn a new skill when you can partner with someone and you have complementary skills, you know, why reinvent the wheel, so to speak?

Josh (00:18:18) - Yeah. No, I completely echo what you're saying here, because I've seen that even myself. As I look at my own brand, where have the breakthroughs really come through? And I would argue all of my big breakthroughs that have come from my brand have all come when I actually got out of my house and went and sat somewhere new, and I'm rubbing shoulders with other people and I'm seeing a what they're building and I'm getting additional ideas, and then a lot of them are willing to share their insights.

Josh (00:18:52) - And I'm sharing my insights. What's working for me, what's working for them? I want to go through maybe a few examples of why I think networking is so, so important. And like some big milestones that have happened in our own brand. I remember my journey into Amazon back in 2016, there were a lot of courses being preached, you know, at the time of how to sell on Amazon, how to make millions of dollars. And the first course that I stumbled upon was,, Jim Cockrum., he has his course, the silent sales machine. I joined his group. That was the very first group that I was ever introduced to this Amazon community in. And I went to one event and I was still working full time at the time. And so I took some days off of work to go attend this event. And I went to this event and one of the biggest breakthroughs that I had while I was meeting these people is that, hey, it's not just me selling products on Amazon.

Josh (00:19:57) - I actually have the opportunity to create a brand. Now, this sounds like a very simple, like, kind of like, well, duh, what else are you doing? But like, for me, I didn't ever really have that breakthrough because like, I had been like, hey, how do I make money on arbitrage on Amazon?, wholesaling. Here's some private label stuff. And we had already started to see some success with our own private label brand, but it wasn't until I started talking with other people and I put two and two together. I was like, oh, hold on, I can put all this other arbitrage and wholesale stuff to the side, because this brand opportunity, this is the most explosive thing. And at the time,, rifle,, what is it, black,, black rifle coffee. I want to say, they came from Jim Cockrum's community. Like, they helped him get, like, the Super Bowl ad and things like that. And so it wasn't until I got there that I was like, okay, holy cow.

Josh (00:21:00) - Like, here's the power of, like, I can actually build my own household name brand if I do this right. Very simple example, but it was a massive unlock.. Another mastermind community that I joined was the War Room community. Okay. So this was with Ryan Dice, Perry Belcher, Roland Frazier., now in this their war room mastermind group. I mean, this was like $40,000 just to join the group, but you had people from all sorts of businesses and industries working together. Okay. So they would join. We had real estate professionals. We had, in fact, John Gottlieb or she was part of that. Right? She's the one who does a lot of PR. And so it had this amazing group of individuals. And from that, that's where I met Rich Goldstein for the first time, which has been instrumental in helping us figure out our patent, our IP protection for our business.. We let so many overseas competitors cheat and knock us off for years.

Josh (00:22:12) - Yeah. And it wasn't until I met somebody that's like, you know, you don't have to just like, take it like you could actually defend yourself. And so it's those little meetings that have been just super instrumental. And I could go on. But Kayleigh, I'm interested in hearing kind of your thoughts and other similar studies or, you know, examples that you've seen with your other members.

Kayleigh (00:22:36) - Yeah. Like I think one of the things that was great was just,, I guess when I was still playing around with how I wanted to craft running my own events and obviously I've had to test is a mastermind better? Is dinner more effective? Is a one day event more effective with dinner? Like what actually works? Where does the stickiness happen? And, you know, it's also, I think what I've loved is to do and take a different spin on how I've selected people to come and talk. Like, I love that you know yourself, you're an eight figure brand builder, but like, you've got all that knowledge so you can naturally offer like a.

Kayleigh (00:23:18) - Service, but you're still coming with the brand hat on. You're not trying to come from the angle that you're pushing the service. So I mean, what I loved is,, the journey with Mike Kaufman,, who's a good friend and a loyal part of the community. Like, he really believes in what we're building and says a lot. He and his wife now live in Puerto Rico after the recent BDS. But, you know, like, he, I, we met in Austin, you and I, and that's where I met him as well. And I remember being at,, AMC innovate that fall in New York, having a call with him, saying, Mike, will you consider coming to South Africa and talk? And like, he didn't know who I was, he was a little bit skeptical. Like, what is it that you know, why would you want to ask me to talk? And, he obviously has built an incredible. He's aiming for eight figures this year, a pool brand, and he's one of the most, like, diligent, focused people I know.

Kayleigh (00:24:28) - And he came in and spoke in South Africa in the end. And like, lo and behold, he was a schoolteacher, before and like all this passion came through and this talk around,, offering his customers an unlimited warranty and,, he actually off the back of the talk was to start to develop, like a potential service. And like through the event, he partnered with Michal Špecián, who, you know, he built, like an eight figure brand with two members of staff and went from 7 to 8 figures in like a few months. And they were able to tighten up all of their operations using Michael and Michal's from the Czech Republic. He's a little bit more shy. So again, he came to South Africa like, really afraid to network. But once he got speaking to people, you could see his eyes light up and everyone was like, oh my word. This is invaluable. I think Mark from Canada, who's got a fitness brand, signed up as well.

Kayleigh (00:25:36) - And like they've all just been able to stay in touch and build these. This is like a family and everyone just trusts each other. And I remember Mark from Canada saying like Kaylie, like, I don't know how you brought these people together, but I mean, I would have handed over my Amazon login to the first five people I met. That's how much trust there is in the room. And like Mark at the time, he was actually licking his wounds with,, one of the partners he'd signed up to. That was the wrong fit and they'd like Nelly to basically destroy his entire business. And I won't mention names, but, like, this is the impact we've been able to make. It's like this trust and obviously bringing together the right people that genuinely want the best interest of you in your business. And like the long it's almost like a friendship as well, you know, because you can't talk to. I know your wife is your business partner as well, but like, sometimes you want to talk to a guy or someone else to get another opinion, you know?

Josh (00:26:45) - Yeah.

Josh (00:26:46) - No, I 100% echo that. And, you know, Kayleigh, I just have more and more examples coming to my mind of, like, how impactful events have been. And here's what I would say, even for myself. So for myself, I have a very busy schedule. I have three children, ages eight, five and three right now, and there is something going on almost every day of the week. I coach my son's basketball team. I coach his hockey team. I also coach the baseball team, as well as my daughter's T-ball team. Oh my. So there's no shortage of things for me to do. And family is one of the most important things. But I do try to make an effort at least once a quarter to go out and attend a new event. And I'm going to share again just a few more examples of some of the events that I've been to and like how impactful they've been, like what it's led to. I remember going to another I think it was one of the camps.

Josh (00:27:51) - Com, things that Brandon Young puts together., but they people were this was back in November so it wasn't can't be com I think it was another,, eClimb summit was one of the other ones. And anyways, people had started talking about TikTok shops, and I had met Jamie and,, and he was talking about what I commerce was doing with TikTok shops, and it got. My wheels turning off like, ooh, this would be perfect for our brand because we're very visually based. And so we did. We got into a TikTok shop and we had a video go viral. We had over 1.3 million views, and we've generated over a thousand sales just on,, TikTok shop within the last 30 days., which is really exciting. You know. So that's it.

Kayleigh (00:28:46) - Go ahead. So that was a strategy that you learned from the conference that you can immediately implement. And then bang. That's amazing.

Josh (00:28:55) - Yeah. And people and they didn't necessarily share all the intimate strategies, but it was like the idea came to me, it's like, oh, this is how I could do this in my own brand, right? And so I was able to go, go do that.

Josh (00:29:09) - And then another connection came through. So from one of the Titan events that I had joined, they were talking about, like cash flow strategies, right. And how to negotiate with your suppliers that before you go take funding from Amazon lending, even though that's dead now, Amazon lending or any of those other eight figure, all the other people that want to give you money in return for their really high interest rates., what you should do is go and partner with your manufacturer of your products. They are your best financing partner above anybody else, and it's also going to be your cheapest. And so one of our overseas suppliers,, because of the things, the strategies and tips and just kind of the mindset shift that I learned at that Titan event, I was then able to implement that as I negotiated with the new supplier, where we now have 120 day net payment terms. Right? Like we are not paying anything for the product for 120 days after it's done being manufactured. And you can see how game changing that is.

Josh (00:30:24) - But like I didn't, I was not I would never have done that myself. Just sitting at my computer, watching YouTube videos, watching whatever, or listening to podcasts. Even though I'm a big, big podcast fan, obviously I want people to listen to podcasts, but that meeting in person, there's just something magical to it. And I like I don't even know what it is, but like, ideas will spark and get you outside of like your normal. Maybe it's just because you're sitting in a new place, a new mindset, and your mind's more receptive to ideas. What do you think Kayleigh likes? Why are in-person events so magical?

Kayleigh (00:31:05) - Well, like for example, my biggest objective reason is I wanted to meet Codie Sanchez, and,, I happen to be in Austin the last three months running some e-com dinners and my event, and I saw,, I got a message from Ray at flipper, and he was like, Kayleigh, come and join our event., which I think it was like three weeks ago.

Kayleigh (00:31:28) - Codie Sanchez is going to be the guest speaker. And I was like, oh my word, this is crazy. And, myself and David Gonzalez from Internet Marketing Party, we were just both of us walking around so excited because we're both like super connectors. How can we leverage this opportunity? And, she finished the talk and everyone was trying to get to her. There was a room filled with people, like maybe 80 people or more in this really confined bar in two rooms. And I just sat there like fangirling. And I waited and I waited and she had her like sort of Laurie around her, who's her AEA? And, I was like, please, can you take a picture of us? And then I gave her a big hug and I was like, I'm such a fan. And she was like, oh, what do you do? And I was like, yeah, I run events. And she's like, we need help with events.

Kayleigh (00:32:22) - So, please reach out to Laurie and reach out to Luke. I think his name was Luke. He was also in the room and I took both their numbers. And now I'm in email with them. And again, like as a goal, just to get into the mind of Codie Sanchez, who's building businesses, buying businesses. And she's a female, you know, it's so exciting.

Josh (00:32:46) - Yeah. You know, I love that. And I think that, you know, magic happens when you step outside your comfort zone, when you start to share with other people and you're really, like, just transparent,, and you share what's working with my business and you hear what's working in other people's businesses and, and that's really where some magic can happen.

Josh (00:33:06) - Now.

Josh (00:33:07) - Kayleigh, what are some events that people should have on their radar then if, if they've listened to us at this point and they're like, okay, I believe that networking is so important. What would be your advice or recommendations for, you know, what groups people should join or what conferences they should be attending in the e-commerce space?

Kayleigh (00:33:28) - The e-commerce space? Yeah.

Kayleigh (00:33:29) - Like I think there's, I've heard that the traffic and conversion summit is really good. I haven't personally been, but I heard this from a lot of e-commerce ecommsellers. There's a really good conference that I attended in Australia called the I media Conference on, on in the Gold Coast and brands get to go for free and, the service providers like to put significant investment in and it's like a three day conference on the Gold Coast. I mean, that's one of the best conferences I think I've ever been to. And I think like one, Ultimate Networker where over three days you can scan all the brands and think I managed to get like 98,, brands details. And this is all like significant, brand names that you would like L'Oreal and etc., etc.. So, you know, just,, finding events like that, I think there's a lot of,, saturation in the Amazon space. So I think, like looking outside of that, where you can meet these sophisticated brand builders is really interesting, because what I'm seeing in the Amazon world is there's a lot of like-minded people, and that's great.

Kayleigh (00:34:50) - But I think, like you, you only have so much you can learn from the same people., and of course, I think what I'm trying to do with time is just,, I'm going to Dubai in a few weeks and we're going to be doing an event. Then it's we're trying to, like, have leverage where we're going outside of the comfort zone and saying, who else can we meet? Who else can we bring into the community that is a bit like the original mastermind you mentioned that you joined? Like we've met people in real estate like JP Neumann, who is, you know, who like worked with Ryan Moran, like just that content contact,, alone, like, I mean, I think it's game changing when you meet someone who's built that amount of wealth., so again, he he's a member of Baby Bathwater., I would highly recommend checking out their events. They've got. They have like, they had one in Cabo,,, a few weeks ago. And, some people I know went to that and they said it was incredible.

Kayleigh (00:35:58) - , and then also these the four rooms mastermind in this, there's various of those across,, the US as well. And again, it's just,, a level of sophistication and entrepreneurs that I admire. And I cannot wait to just continue meeting people like this and bringing them together.

Josh (00:36:20) - Yeah. No, I love that, Kayleigh. I'm going to press you for even more because I know you're super well connected. What are other events in masterminds that people can join similar to, you know, like the Four Rooms, mastermind, baby, bathwater,, groups. And while you think of that,, you know, I'll share. You know, another thing that I gained from the War Room mastermind event,, because I think what you hit upon is, like, really important. A lot of Amazon sellers just go to Amazon specific conferences. Right? And it's like, oh, I want to learn from Amazon Live. I'm going to go to Amazon's Accelerate. I'm going to go to you know, the list goes on and on.

Josh (00:37:05) - There's lots of Amazon specific events. But as soon as you branch out into even a more broader term, right, just in e-commerce in general,,, mastermind event or conference, you start to rub shoulders with different people and it unlocks new insights for you that you might not have uncovered. Because I would argue that probably nobody in the Amazon space is talking about partnering with other brands and putting in insert cards, because everybody in the Amazon space is super concerned about insert cards and toes compliance, and they're all worried about that, but they shouldn't be. And the other thing is, you know, we met in the War Room mastermind group again, because there were so many different people. We met our wealth advisor, we're using Du wealth, and the tax strategies they've been able to implement in our business has allowed us to pay drastically, a lot less in taxes and keep more of it for ourselves. Not that we're evading taxes or anything like that, but we're using what's allowed to us in the law, and it's having an understanding that I personally would never be able to do.

Josh (00:38:21) - And again, had I not gone to those events, I would still be trying to do things on my own, trying to learn the latest tax strategy and how do I save money and filing my taxes correctly. So I think that's the value when you just open up your mind and perspective. So yeah. Hailey, any other events or masterminds?

Kayleigh (00:38:45) - So I know that,, we used to as we're in my naked one's hat, it was very much e-commerce focused networking., and there was a shoptalk event in Vegas that we would attend, and that's like shortly after prosper. So I think that was like a few weeks ago. And then,, another one that was good is just looking at meetup.com., I know in Austin there is a networking event every night. I'm not even kidding. And for 88 days of me being there recently, I went to an event every night. And what's so fantastic is it's not like, let's go and have a drink and party. It's like, I'm it's a Thursday night.

Kayleigh (00:39:31) - I'm at a small, intimate gathering. No one's drinking. And whereas it would be like, okay, I'm gonna go meet a friend and she's going to sit there and moan about her life. I'm talking to a dynamic 28 year old driven entrepreneur who is sharing some sort of strategy for giving me ideas like you got for your business. And it's like, hey, oh my word, am I alive? Where am I? So I think it's just get curious It's a bit more difficult if you're in some sort of small towns or whatever. But look in your city, look what events are out there, whether it's meetup, whether it's Eventbrite, I mean, there's an influx of events. And as for masterminds, I think,, that's something I haven't dived into as much, but I've heard like entrepreneurship organization EO, like a lot of people are made a part of that. And I know Norm Farrar is a member. And he told me single handedly, it's the best group he's had in his life for connections and opportunities.

Kayleigh (00:40:35) - And I know when I ran my mastermind in Cape Town,, I was still at my networking hat on because I did some meetups to try and attract anyone else I'd missed., that was local or visiting. And there's a huge nomad community there as well. And I met a guy who was a seven figure seller who was there for the Nomad conference and I think,, small world again., Kevin King's business partner, Mark, was actually consulting under his events business for the same group. So it's like everyone is somehow connected. So just get out there and get curious like a kid and be your authentic self. And the doors will just open like it's. It's beautiful. And this is what I think it's about.

Josh (00:41:24) - Yeah. No, I love that, Kayleigh. Those are excellent words of wisdom. And I think you gave us all some great leads there. Now, Kayleigh, before we wrap up, I want to ask you, are there any other e-commerce specific tips that you feel like you've learned along the way because you have been in the e-commerce space for a long time? What tips could you share with our listeners to help them grow their own brand?

Kayleigh (00:41:50) - Yeah, so I think,, you were going to ask or you asked me something earlier which,, you said maybe like a software or,, like a product that is potentially kind of a game changer for anyone.

Kayleigh (00:42:13) - That's a million plus selling online. And so I'd like to share that now., as a tip,, if you're paying a lot,, particularly with a DTC agency, Shopify agency, like, there's just so many costs involved. And I think what I'm seeing is if you are an Amazon seller, you know, the e-commerce world is you may have ignored it or your, your you've opened up,, your Shopify. But like, it's, there's so much sort of involved to actually get your e-commerce site working like a singing, dancing Shopify Plus site. And there's so much cost involved. And you may find that because you were so heavily involved in Amazon, you have to change things 100 times and like but at the time you know it, you've just got huge development and design costs and you've changed things, colors and whatever 100 times. So what I would like to share is,, I recently came across an AI powered web builder tool called DG1. So DG1.com, and, essentially it's sort of really targeting or helping,, the sophisticated brand builder that once had Shopify Plus,, website.

Kayleigh (00:43:34) - But,, you know, you are that sort of you're, you don't really know which way you're going yet. And this literally will just help you build a singing, dancing website at the I mean, it's very quick and easy. There's no coding, there's no design. And, it's got all the email capability built into it. So there's no need for your Klaviyo, which I know is the iPod and it's I've not had the best impact for certain brands that are having a lot of trouble. And Klaviyo obviously gets super expensive. The bigger you scale, the more you start to nurture your database and get. This allows you to do all within the same platform and you can get super segmented as well., and then it also has integration to your Instagram. So you can then automatically use AI to create blogs for you. And it's got all the SEO and everything powered with AI. So there's a lot of shortcuts. And I think if someone is ready to get their hands dirty, this could be a real game changer and save you a lot of money and time.

Josh (00:44:47) - I love that, Kayleigh. That's an amazing share. And again, it's one of those things that's like, you don't know what you don't know. I had never heard of that one until you had mentioned it previously. So that's the level of like unlocks that you can experience, you know, when you attend events like this., yeah. Kayleigh, what else? I, I know that you're hearing you, you run a lot of e-commerce events. So I'm going to ask you for even more what other fun tips or strategies have you heard that you think you could share here?

Kayleigh (00:45:20) - Well, obviously your strategy. I'm really excited for your next strategy on hiring and firing., top level talent., because I think everyone I'm speaking to at the moment is finding a sticking point with this. And like, I think what you did in Austin, it's just phenomenal to break it down the way that you do to give people like the steps to take away any ambiguity., I'm running a little bit of a blank for some reason right now, but yeah.

Kayleigh (00:45:54) - What do you think? I know what to say. Yeah.

Josh (00:45:58) - Yeah, I've got the. So what Caleb's referencing is I've got a seven step process to hire a level talent management level staff overseas., so it's things like that. It's learning from other people. And that's how I, you know, going back, I'll, I'll call out another war room event where, again, part of my hiring strategy was developed by going to these conferences. And again, as I heard, what was working for other people, the types of questions that they asked and their interviews, the way they conducted interviews all kind of helped me build my own process. So again, all of this was done from taking bits and pieces from other people's best strategies until I built my own.

Kayleigh (00:46:44) - I love it and I just thought of another tip. So,, another thing that was really cool about,, my landing event was,, we had, for example,, an eight figure brand,, by ticket.

Kayleigh (00:47:01) - And I could have easily asked him to speak. And,, the person that had helped him build his brand from 3 to 20 million, who I knew was remarkable., he was now working for another eight figure brand builder. And I was like, you know what? I'm not going to ask the brand owner. I'm going to ask the person that was the pivotal, like glue that made the magic happen. And he'd never spoken before and like it was. So it actually, like, cost me more because I had to, like, pay for him, do all this to get him to come and speak. But it was so magic to see how that paid off. And he was a bit like, oh my, my old boss, who I'm still close with, he's in the room and I'm going to like, talk and I'm a bit nervous. And in the end he left me like this glowing review to say thank you so much for asking me to speak. And he blew everyone away with his PPC tricks.

Kayleigh (00:48:03) - But by the end of the talk, people were like saying, oh my goodness,, do you consult like when you do anything? And he's like, I can't really do that. I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm actually just the person that does the work, but it just sparks something in him. And that's another thing I try and look for, is how can you kind of bring unique people that don't, that haven't had the opportunity to speak and share and push them to speak? Because, yeah, I've got the recording actually, which,, I would love to actually share because he was phenomenal. Like it was so cool.

Josh (00:48:46) - Awesome. Well, Kayleigh, if you share it, maybe we could link the YouTube video or Vimeo video here within the show notes.

Kayleigh (00:48:54) - Yeah, definitely.

Kayleigh (00:48:55) - So I'll check with him that he minds. He's going to be like, okay.

Josh (00:49:02) - I love it. Well, Kayleigh, as we wrap up, I love to leave our audience with three actionable takeaways from every episode.

Josh (00:49:10) - So here are the actionable takeaways that I noted. So number one, if you are not attending events,, or networking with other either Amazon sellers or e-commerce business owners or just other entrepreneurs, you should do that. Make it a priority, and I would encourage you at least once a quarter to go out and to network, because these are going to be where you experience all the unlocks that Kayleigh and I,, we just rattled off a bunch of experiences of where had we not gone to events or networked with people? We would not be, we would not know what we know. Now, I know our brand, and I wouldn't have the hiring process that I have now. I wouldn't have the suppliers that I have now. I wouldn't have a TikTok shop like we have now, like I could rattle off all the things I would not have if I just continued to just sit behind my computer and do my own thing. Yeah. So that's my encouragement to get out there and to go join those.

Josh (00:50:11) - And Kayleigh referenced a good amount of events or memberships that you could join. Action item number two is to implement what I would say is something similar to a strategy that you talked about at the beginning when you were working with Naked Wines, which is to start connecting and partnering with other brands that share your same customer demographic. Right, because there's a lot of collaboration that can happen. And I've heard of something like the Shopify Collective, which is where you're kind of like partnering with all these different brands and you're all selling each other's products. Wow. That is where again, more magic happens. So that would be my second action item is to go partner with other people who already have your audience create win win situations for you and them. And that can really be a big unlock. And then last but not least, my third encouragement for you is to be open and share with others. Because here's what I would say. If you are closed off and you're not willing to admit, hey, when you make a mistake, right? Or that you're struggling, if you're unwilling to do that, then guess what? The help will not come to you.

Josh (00:51:27) - I'm a big believer that the universe is going to give to you what you are asking it for. Yeah, and so if you're going to be tight lipped and act as though business is running perfectly smoothly, then guess what? Then you're probably not going to receive the help that you need. Yeah., one thing I admire about Brandon Young at the last camp ecomm event, he's been scaling his business very, very well. Well guess what? He shared his actual revenue number, and he actually took a step back slightly in revenue for this previous year. They and profitability took a big hit as well. He was open and transparent here. He is the leader of the community. Everybody puts him up on the pedestal is like, oh, he's perfect. He's the one we're taking advice from. Yet he's admitting, like, we didn't do as well as we had hoped last year. We did not grow. We lost a lot of money in different areas. Right. And that transparency goes a lot further than most people believe.

Josh (00:52:29) - So I think those are my three action items. Kayleigh, anything else that you feel like I missed?

Kayleigh (00:52:34) - No, I think you're spot on with all of those. And I, I think a friend of mine said the same thing. He kind of, like, will write to me and ask in a way that he thinks I'm going to share like kind of the, the private intricacies of brands like where they say, you know, what is everyone doing right now? What are people saying to you? And I think a lot of the established, bigger brands that I've noted or seen like they are, they have seen a dip like. And sadly, I think it's very easy to see what people's revenue is and stuff. So you can't really lie like you just there's this certain person who just knows. And so I think it's really honorable of him to step up and just own it. And I mean, there's other brands that I've seen that are like new and they are just like crushing it.

Kayleigh (00:53:29) - So the market does seem to be, for one, doing super well. And for others I just like really not where they were,, a few years back.

Josh (00:53:39) - Yeah.

Josh (00:53:42) - Awesome. Well, Kayleigh, as we wrap things up, I'm going to ask you the final three questions. Which is this? What has been the most influential book that you've read and why?

Kayleigh (00:53:54) - So the most influential book that I've read and why? There's a number of them, but I would say,, the one that I always go back to is The Secret. And the reason why is because of the art of manifesting. And,, you know, I kind of like, I'm a big believer in whatever you kind of want. You have to obviously know what that is first, but once you're super clear and you can build that in a visual form like a vision board or whatever, it is incredible how it comes true. If you put behind it the action and the drive and all the other magic to make that come true, it just shows up in abundance.

Kayleigh (00:54:38) - So that's my number one book.

Josh (00:54:42) - I love it. Great recommendation. I already asked you or asked you for your favorite or game changing software tool you shared with DG1.Com. Yeah, so we'll skip to the third and final question, which is who is somebody that you admire or respect the most in the e-commerce space that other people should be following and why?

Kayleigh (00:55:01) - Yeah. So the two people that I admire most and funnily enough,, I've been again, they've been on my vision board and I've been lucky enough to be in. I've been lucky enough to speak and meet both in the last month. It's Codie Sanchez who I mentioned already. And Jen, I can't say her name. Gottlieb. Jen Gottlieb. How do you actually say that? Josh?

Josh (00:55:29) - Yeah. Jen Gottlieb.

Kayleigh (00:55:30) - Yeah.

Kayleigh (00:55:31) - She was your original mastermind as well. So what are the chances?

Josh (00:55:36) - Correct?

Kayleigh (00:55:37) - Yes.

Josh (00:55:38) - Yeah, I like that those are great people to be following., Kayleigh, this has been amazing.

Josh (00:55:44) - If people want to learn more about you, they want to follow. They want to connect with you. They want to join some of those eclimb events. Where could people follow you?

Kayleigh (00:55:54) - Yeah, like literally just Kayleigh Bendell on Facebook on Instagram E! Climb summit on Instagram., YouTube. I have a website eclimb summit. Com, literally., LinkedIn. Caleb Kendall I'm always open to connecting and helping any brand builder. Like we actually recently helped Brad find a new brand manager. Like he came to me and my door is always open and I will respond to any of those channels should you or anyone wants to reach out.

Josh (00:56:32) - Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time, Kayleigh, and we will be talking with you again soon.

Kayleigh (00:56:38) - Thank you Josh, I appreciate your time and having me on your podcast.