139. Achieving an Eight-Figure Ecommerce Business with Gary Nealon

If you’re ready to scale your e-commerce business all the way up to eight figures, this conversation with Gary Nealon is perfect for you! Gary is a serial entrepreneur who founded two multi-million dollar businesses, one of which landed on the Inc. 5000 list five years in a row. Seeing inefficiencies in other companies convinced him that he could do it himself, so he liquidated everything he had and bought a business in the dollar store niche. In our conversation, you’ll learn about his journey from bankruptcy all the way to $40 million in revenue.

Find Out More About Gary Here:

Gary Nealon
Gary Nealon on LinkedIn
Gary Nealon on Twitter
Gary Nealon on Facebook

In This Episode:

• [01:13] - Gary starts off the conversation by talking about how he got to where he is now, and how he ended up in a cabinet business.
• [03:41] - Is Gary still involved with the cabinet business?
• [04:18] - We hear about Gary’s experience with being on the Inc. 5000 list, what the list has brought him, and what inspired him to apply.
• [06:25] - Why did Gary use Craigslist as a primary marketing vehicle in the early days of his business?
• [08:02] - Gary talks about what inspired him to teach and coach others instead of just starting another business of his own.
• [10:49] - We hear Gary’s thoughts on content, and a way to get additional eyeballs on your content that you usually wouldn’t get.
• [14:22] - Gary discusses how he gets people who are going to offer lots of link equity to notice the content pieces he’s been talking about.
• [17:02] - How does Gary plan out content for the future?
• [18:09] - Gary talks about his VA team, how he built it up, how he trains his VAs, and more.
• [22:20] - Stephan talks about the 3 Lists to Freedom that Chris Ducker came up with.
• [25:30] - We hear about Gary’s Amazon presence, and how he feels about the site.
• [29:19] - Is Gary’s traffic from Facebook all from paid ads, or is some of it organic?
• [32:06] - Gary digs deeper into the Facebook communities he has been talking about.
• [34:33] - Stephan brings up the topic of chatbots, and Gary shares his experience with them.
• [37:09] - Gary doesn’t use 30-day challenges, but he does use contests successfully, he explains.
• [39:49] - Has Gary used a particular technology platform for doing contests, or is he creating them internally?
• [42:06] - We hear about what inspired Gary to write his book, Notes to a Young Entrepreneur.
• [45:12] - Gary speaks at both schools and conferences to get the message out.
• [47:21] - Does Gary have one last nugget of wisdom to share with listeners that they can implement right away?
• [49:09] - Gary talks about where listeners can find him to work with him or learn more about what he does.

Links and Resources:

• Gary Nealon
• Gary Nealon on LinkedIn
• Gary Nealon on Twitter
• Gary Nealon on Facebook
• Notes to a Young Entrepreneur by Gary Nealon
• Inc. 5000
• Craigslist
• Todd Herman
• 90 Day Year
• Marcus Sheridan on Marketing Speak
• They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan
• OnlineJobs.ph
• 3 Lists to Freedom
• Chris Ducker
• Sidekicks
• Priority VA
• Trivinia Barber on the Optimized Geek
• Amazon
• Rafflecopter
• Streamline CRM
• Infusionsoft
• B1G1