Ep. 14 Kurt Elster | Podcasting: The Ultimate Tool for Outreach and Networking in the Digital Age

Kurt Elster [00:00:00]:

I was, like, losing sleep, worried about this. I'd never been on a podcast. I really struggled with social anxiety disorder my whole life, and so, like, this is my worst nightmare. But I knew it was an opportunity. And so I did one shot of whiskey, then two, and I do the interview, and at the end they go, oh, you're really good at that. Good job. I was like, oh, my gosh. The brilliant thing I did, I said, hey, are there any other podcast hosts, you know, that would benefit from having me on their show? And he introduced me to one, and that person at the end goes, you know, you're a natural. What? You're a natural. You should host your own Pod cast.

Andres Sanchez [00:00:38]:

Welcome back to the Virtual Ventures Podcast. I'm your host, Andres Sanchez. Today we have Kurt Elster on the podcast. Super excited. Kurt is a shopify expert. He's the host of the Unofficial Shopify Podcast, owner of Ethercycle Agency and author of Kurt Elster's newsletter. Kurt, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Kurt Elster [00:00:59]:

No, my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Andres Sanchez [00:01:01]:

Yeah, that was a mouthful, man. You've accomplished so much. I love to kind of just start every episode. One, if you don't notice, we just get it rolling right off the bat. And then two, it's tell us who Kurt Elster is. Let us know a little bit more about you.

Kurt Elster [00:01:13]:

Sure. If you have someone, describe yourself who you are. I'm a 40 year old dad from the Chicago suburbs. But how people see me, I think probably number one. I'm best known for hosting that podcast, which I greatly enjoy. It's been, like, 500 episodes.

Andres Sanchez [00:01:28]:

That's amazing.

Kurt Elster [00:01:28]:

I learned a lot. You go back and listen to the early ones, I'm like, this is rough. You just get better over time. But no. I graduated into the 2008 recession, the housing crisis, and I couldn't get a job. It was a struggle. And so I knew my only option was like, all right, take a job. I'm not going to joy or grind it out myself, which is not easy going into a recession. But I knew what I was getting into, and so I said, there's a big advantage of being ignorant to how difficult something is. I just said, I got a friend, he knows development, and he's on fun employment. Why don't we just try and build an ecommerce platform together? Well, it turns out that's really hard. And then just, like, long way around, probably two, three years later, we end up developing for shopify shopify themes, because we knew web development and very quickly moving in, just saying, well, why are we doing anything else? Let's just do shopify theme work exclusively. And that was jeez, 1213 years ago. I just didn't look back after that.

Andres Sanchez [00:02:28]:

That's amazing. And I know the podcast is about shopify. You kind of have Shopify expert in your title as an entrepreneur who built businesses online, shopify was always a little bit of a black hole for me. I felt like the website portion of the business was hard, and how to have the right website and drive the traffic and all these little things. I would read posts about someone's like, I increased the size of my Buy Now button by three inches and my conversion is up 48%.

Kurt Elster [00:02:54]:

And I was like, man, how do.

Andres Sanchez [00:02:56]:

You maybe talk a little bit about Shopify? Some of your journey kind of creating on Shopify, and maybe some tips for someone like myself who it's like, man, this is really confusing. Maybe some basics.

Kurt Elster [00:03:08]:

Sure. For us, we had a friend who owned a bike shop locally. It's Ambling Cycle, which is if you're in the Chicago area and you want a recumbent bike, these are the guys, this is the place to go. And they had a he goes, Look, I got a website. I hate it. I know I have to have a website. I don't want to hate it. You know, websites just tell me what to do. I said, what's your number one purity? What do you want out of this? He goes, I just want it to be easy. And I had heard of shopify. We'd seen it. This is a long time ago. This was probably 2011 and maybe 2010. And we said we'll try Shopify. And again, there's power in ignorance because I said, well, we've done some WordPress work, we've built some websites. How tough could this be? We'll design and develop a custom theme for Shopify, a platform we'd never used before. And we'll migrate the store onto it, having never done that either. Because Shopify was so well documented and the support was good, we were able to get through it. And at the end we went, well, that was easy. At the same time, we were building these custom sites for small businesses, and we're doing brochure sites and like WordPress, and doing WordPress sites, fulfillment for creative agencies. And so we're comparing it to that experience. And we went, well, this is easy because it was well documented. And so, like, a few more experiences like that, we went, well, why are we doing anything else? But Shopify at that time was starting this thing called the Shopify Experts Program. And you said you have Shopify Expert your title, that's where it came from. And that got Sunset at the end of May, I believe. And that program, they said they reached out this man named Dan Evely in Ottawa, Ontario, at Shopify HQ, and he said, well, you built a custom shopify theme. Clearly know what you're doing. You should join our Experts program. So, okay, I'd love to. And it was all because he built a site. It said, like, sitebyethercycle.com somewhere in there. And so he found me, reached out, and I was like, yeah, why would I say no to that? Yeah, give me those leads. Because I knew, like, for sure we could sell this stuff. But how do you get the leads? How do you get them consistently? That's the struggle. And so, like any opportunity, I was willing to take a chance, so we said yes. And sure enough, the second lead I get through it is Band and Dunes Golf Course. If you're into golf, this is a big deal. It's in the Pacific Northwest in Oregon, and it's like Scottish style golf course. It's real cool. And they said, well, we got a new site. We need a merch store to match build it. This great brand drops in my lap, and it's just like one after another. And so there's a lot of advantage in being early to a platform. But when you're on a platform and it's growing, or you're on a platform and it is evolving, and shopify is doing both of those things because new features are changing constantly. And so if you're on the theme or if you're on the platform, you want the latest and greatest, well, maybe you got to upgrade to a new theme or you got to add these features. You need somebody there who can assist you some of the time. And so just the success of the platform creates work for people who know web development. And that's true today, and it is true ten years ago when we found that and we went like, all right, these are our people, because this stuff's well documented. Good. We just did look back.

Andres Sanchez [00:05:57]:

So you're saying the leads are kind of falling on your lap. How are you monetizing that? Do you have to go through Shopify to charge for the client's work? Or are you able to kind of just set your price? Or is it just pro bono work that you're doing to improve your brand at this time?

Kurt Elster [00:06:12]:

We build them directly. I love the idea of fixed price projects. I still do that for large projects, smaller stuff. We still sell hourly retainers. But for big fixed price projects, it takes a lot of the risk out of things. And, you know, like, I'm getting paid X, and I have to deliver y the very, very traditional transaction when you break it down that way. But if you bid too low or you get your stuff in the scope you missed, then, all right, you're going to start eating into that effective salary rate. So, no, everything was handled outside of Shopify. We billed the client directly. They pay us directly. Shopify doesn't set the rates for sure. You get enough people. There's kind of like market rates that happen, there's averages that occur, but the range is still huge. You could pay $1,000 for a shopify store. You could pay $50 to $100,000 for a shopify store. It depends on what you're doing, what you want, who you're hiring. Sort of how long is a piece of string question. And certainly it's not unique to Shopify like WordPress. It's the same deal. Any big platform with a lot of customization will do that.

Andres Sanchez [00:07:09]:

Yeah, I know web development is something tough because the price does vary like you just mentioned. And it's hard to as an outsider comprehend like what am I getting? So, I mean, this question might be complicated, but if I'm paying somebody $1,000 for a website and I'm paying somebody $50,000 for a website, what is that $50,000 person providing? That is so much more worth it, because in my head, it's just like, oh, you build the site and it looks really cool. And I've seen thousand dollar sites look amazing. What's that gap? What are some of the things that come from that?

Kurt Elster [00:07:44]:

I think in the broadest sense when you pay the huge money up front, the thought is I'm paying them so much money to get the best and for them to worry about this instead of me. And I'm derisking the project and I'm derisking my business in the process. And so I think that's what those big agency hires represent for people is reduced risk. And with a business investment, of course that's what you want. All marketing is an investment and like any investment, it carries inherent risk. And so if I have someone that's like part of a team that has a proven track record where they could show me like we have done similar to what you want, we have done those things in the past and here are the results. You could see them for yourself firsthand. Do you like it? And if you do, then that's why you're willing to pay for it because you know they have a proven track record of success. And so the consultants, freelancers and agencies that could charge those eye watering rates generally it's going to be backed up by a ton of social proof and case studies and a portfolio and a work history where they feel confident in saying we're generating so much value here that the amount we're charging really is nominal relative to the class of work and the product we're producing and how it's used.

Andres Sanchez [00:09:01]:

Yeah, I love that. I always love different thought processes and way people look at things. And by you paying a significant amount more, you're derisking the experience from your end is very true because now it's on them to deliver at a value that makes up that ticket price of, let's say 50K. Hypothetically speaking, it's on them now to really show up and deliver that. And if you're a business that's ready for that and has that cash flow, that might be perfect for you. And then on the other end you have like a new creator or somebody new who doesn't have 50,000 and needs to go with the cheaper budget. And that kind of frames up a question I have. So for people listening, because I'm sure there's going to be people in the audience who are either on the fence of starting a business or have started a business. Do you recommend that individual play around with how to build a website, how to create a website, or just immediately outsource to somebody who knows what they're doing and can really help them?

Kurt Elster [00:09:55]:

I think always start with trying to do it yourself. Even if, you know, whatever the project is, if you plan on hiring out for it, plan it out and research it and get as far as you can with doing it because then you'll have a much better understanding of it. You'll be much more confident talking about it, and you'll be able to talk the talk. You will have an easier time talking it through, explaining it, and understanding what's going on with a professional that does it so much like they don't even realize anymore when they're being technical. Yeah, absolutely. And maybe when you take that pressure off of, like, I have to do this, and it becomes, I'm going to attempt this so that I know how to hire for it. Maybe you get lucky and you succeed, right. But now you've taken the pressure off, where you're going to be less frustrated because you've framed it in your head as like, I have an out here. If I get in over my head, once you're in it, maybe you get all the way to the end. Maybe you succeed. Maybe you're like, all right, I got a site up, and this is good enough to start with and launch with and validate the idea and reduce some of that capital outlay. And then you get one sale, then ten, then 100, and by then you go, all right, well, maybe I've got more experience. I know the things I don't like and the peak customers complain about. Now I'll hire for it. But by that point, you're going to be much more confident in what you're doing with your site.

Andres Sanchez [00:11:12]:

Yeah, I love that point because I think that's a mistake that a lot of people make up front. And I think, like, social media and Twitter especially plays into it, where everybody speaks on this amazingly automized business where they've got a million people working for them, and that seems to be the normal. But if you don't sit there and really get down into the weeds and learn these individual processes, whether you succeed or not, you're going to have a much tougher time hiring for those roles because you don't know what to look for. And you're also susceptible to getting ripped off because at the end of the day, we want everybody to be a good person, but we know that's not true. So you are derisking that experience. I know we're on the derisk topic here. You are derisking that experience by going in and learning the bare minimums about these tasks. And like you said, maybe you stumble upon it and you're great, and that's good, and that's overhead you don't need. But at the worst case scenario, you at least understand what's needed to fulfill that task, and then you can go higher effectively, which I love. So I think that's a great highlight there. I want to kind of shift gears to the podcast. We're on a podcast right now. I'm on my journey as a podcaster, something I've always been really passionate about. You mentioned at the beginning of the episode you've done over 500 episodes on your show. Talk to me about that journey, like, just how that's been from episode one to now, 500 plus.

Kurt Elster [00:12:29]:

Certainly today there's so many tools that make it so much easier to do a podcast interview. We used to have to record on Skype with an app called it was a third party app called Call Recorder. Oh, it was disaster. It was so compressed and nasty, and there was no chance of doing video. Like, it just wasn't going to happen. But now I started with someone said, hey, it was on this podcast. It's for agencies. They wanted referrals. You want to do it? I said, sure. And then I was terrified, and I was, like, worried about, like, losing sleep, worried about this. I'd never been on a podcast. I really struggled with social anxiety disorder my whole life. And so, like, this is my worst nightmare. But I knew it was an opportunity. And so I did one shot of whiskey, then two. Why not get, like, extra drunk for this, right? I'm a genius covered in flop sweat. And I do the interview, and at the end they go, oh, you're really good at that. Good job. I was like, oh, my gosh. So the brilliant thing I did, I said, hey, is there anyone else? I just assumed all podcast hosts knew each other. And I was like, are there any other podcast hosts, you know, that would benefit from having me on their show? And he introduced me to one, and that person at the end goes, you're a natural. What? You're a natural. You should host your own podcast. And this is like before Serial, before NPR blew up podcasting for us. And I was like, no way. You're just saying that. Third person says same thing to me. I said all right. What they're hearing is nervousness, and they're misinterpreting is, like, confidence, I guess. I don't know. And so I was like, all right, I want to do a podcast. But editing it seems really hard. And my business partner at the time goes, hey, dummy. You know, my first gig, I used to edit the Onions AV Club podcast, which was their first podcast. I was like, no, I did not know that. And once I had that, now I don't have any excuses. Now I just have to go buy. And I spent $30 on the cheapest USB mic off Amazon I could find because I didn't know if this was going to work. And I committed to, like, going to publish, like, six episodes and I published them and then I ignored it and I looked back and they were getting downloads, and I said, okay, what happens if we just do this regularly? What if we do once a week? And I bought a slightly better mic and then that was it? I mean, just committed. We're going to publish every weekly and we like, we miss a few. And then I got sponsors. Now it's a client deliverable. Now there is no option to not publish, right? Like Lord Michael's talking about SNL is this great quote he says, the show doesn't go on because it's done. It goes on because it's Saturday at ten or Saturday at eleven, whatever SNL is. And that really, really changed things for us because it turns out publishing consistently is absolutely critical. And to the point where that became part of the description of the show, which is the new episodes every Tuesday. That doesn't seem like a crazy thing to say, but it immediately demonstrates you as committed. And people are, I think, more likely to give it a shot, more likely to subscribe when they know you are serious about it. And so once I got that figured out, all right, there's some lessons and there's some learning, but it was just keep producing, keep booking guests, and not everything works and not everything was a winner, but you get better at it, just progressively better.

Andres Sanchez [00:15:15]:

What are some highlights, looking back from that, like some high points and then also what are some low points? Because I feel like people don't like to talk about the times when they're tough, but that's very important for people listening, deciding if they want to jump in and do something. So what are some of the highlights from your experience interviewing over 500 people, or if there's double episodes, 300 people, which is an amazing accomplishment. And then what are some of the low points or tough parts about that journey?

Kurt Elster [00:15:40]:

So, for sure, there was a big advantage early on because I had think of it as like a Trojan horse. But when you're doing outreach and you're trying to get people to talk to you and you have nothing to offer them, it's tough. Whereas the podcast gives you that opportunity where you go, hey, I host this podcast and I really want to hear your story. I'd love to talk to you for 30, 40 minutes and just hear your story, same as to how you pitched me. And everybody's favorite topic is themselves, and everyone is the hero in their own story, right? It's just such an easy, universal pitch. And then you get to we don't know each other, and yet you get to ask me all kinds of deeply personal questions, and I will open up and share them to you if I'm a decent guest. Is this incredible? A podcast is an incredible tool for getting to know whoever will join you and come on. And so doing that really it's just for someone like me where I don't necessarily want to go to conferences and I don't want to cold email or cold call people. This was a great way to handle it where now I can expand my network. If I see someone interesting, I'm like, hey, will you do my show? And a lot of people just ignore me. They don't necessarily say no. They just ignore me. Maybe they're busy, but they didn't say no. So I could always follow up later. And plenty of people are thrilled by the opportunity to do it. So I'm like, yeah, please come on. And we just have a normal conversation. As far as the low lights, eventually I got enough guests where I was able to build a back catalog. Like, typically I have four to eight episodes recorded, and that way I'm comfortable and I'm not worried about like, well, we have to put something up Tuesday early. There were definitely several weeks where it's like, it's Friday and I need something for Tuesday. What are we going to do? You don't have a choice. You got to scramble. You got to come up with something. And occasionally those would like that forced creativity. You'd come up with some cool stuff that you might not have done otherwise. And other times you're just like, well, I put someone on who essentially just performed a 40 minutes infomercial on my podcast. I'm not thrilled about it, but what were we going to do? And occasionally I go back and delete those, like, total published episodes. Right now is like 400 something, but in reality the show had over 500. But over time I go once they and I let them sit for years and then I'll go back, delete a few. I just want higher quality, want to curate my collection for people because there's like, maniacs will start from the beginning. Like, don't do it, don't do it. I didn't know what I was doing. Don't start until start in 2020. That's when things are really rocking. But no, and then not now, but I started it. And then like 2015 I got married. And so there's lot of transition and upheaval in my life. And at that time, emotional issues. I was like, fighting with my family. And there was one episode where you could hear, I'm just on edge. I'm annoyed. Eventually deleted it years later. But yeah, you could tell there was something not right. At least I could people had listened enough, were like, that guy. They didn't know, but they don't know the reason. They just assumed, like, this guy's pissed at the guest. It wasn't that guest fault. It was like a family member said something horrible to me. Oh, good. Now that's how I get when you get those awful messages, it's always like, oh, it's five minutes before you have a meeting. Five minutes before you record. Now today, with experience, I know that you'd go, hey, what I do now is I take the call, I go, look, it's not a great day for me to record. We're not going to be able to do our best work together, but instead, let's do a pre interview, let's work out an outline together. And then those episodes end up often, I think, having a better result. The few times there's a handful of episodes where there's like three where we lost the recording and we had to rerecord. And so I knew generally the rerecording is like a dramatic recreation, but it's often better than the other one. And so I knew like, all right, if there's pre interview episodes oftentimes, that could be beneficial.

Andres Sanchez [00:18:59]:

Yeah. And I think for me, we share a little bit of similarity from I'm doing this because of the fact that I get to interview people like you and ask them questions as a complete stranger. And I've mentioned it on multiple episodes before this. It's like before I start to ask something, I'll say, this is a super selfish question, but I have you here and it's truly amazing. And the little phrase that I've been using is podcasting is networking at scale. Networking. You just want to meet people, but I get to do it at scale and create content from it and hopefully create lasting relationships. And I think that was really what pushed me to finally go do it. I was always a consumer of podcast, and when I built my businesses in college, my biggest regret, looking back was that I didn't use social media the right way. The businesses were very successful without social media. They didn't need it. They were built all on discord. And that was fine. But I had so many followers and people using my service coming in and out for years that I didn't capitalize on. And now I'm looking back and I was like, you know what, I need to stop being shy and put myself out there. Podcast is the way I'm going to force myself to do it. And then now we're here and I think it's been such an amazing ride. And to touch on something that you mentioned, the commitment to your audience, to where you're like, I need to put out that episode every week. I love that because I do agree. Like, when I click on a podcast that I might have not heard of or it might have been a recommendation, and I go in and I'm like, man, this person's been uploading every week for a year and a half. They're taking this really serious. Like, this isn't just something they're doing for fun. They must be putting a lot of time and effort in the episode. Let me listen and try and gain some value. So I love you kind of calling out those little things like that where it shows your commitment to the audience because they're putting time into listening to us here talk. And I appreciate that because they could be using that time for a bunch of other things, but they committed to listening to us, so we must be talking about something good.

Kurt Elster [00:20:50]:

Look, shout out to the people who are, like, mowing their lawn, doing their dishes, walking the dog right now.

Andres Sanchez [00:20:55]:

Exactly.

Kurt Elster [00:20:56]:

At least somebody's like, oh, they're watching us.

Andres Sanchez [00:20:58]:

Exactly. That is what I do it for. And early on, we're not getting these hundreds of thousands of views per episode, but even with the couple of views that trickle in and they've been growing, every episode, I get messages from people saying, hey, thank you. That was an amazing episode. That really made my day more exciting. Or like, wow, I learned so many great things from this person who I've been struggling to get in contact with or haven't been able to reach out to, and I just learned so much about them. This is super impressive. Thank you. So those are the little things that I really enjoy. But enough about me. Back to you, the agency. Tell us a little bit about that. How did the agency come about? What does the agency offer now? Let's hear a little bit about that business.

Kurt Elster [00:21:36]:

2009, my plan was they just called Ethercycle. It was a portman, two of Ethernet and bicycle because we said we're going to build an ecommerce platform. And even then, I knew the importance of, like, you needed a niche audience. And so I said, it's going to be just bike shops because that's underserved. And I had worked in a bike shop. I'm a SRAM certified bike mechanic. That felt familiar to me. But I also knew I built websites. I'd been involved in the Internet because I'm 40. I watched it when I was a kid. We didn't have the Internet. And then all of a sudden, by the time I'm a teenager, everybody is online. So I witnessed that. I grew up with it, but building an ecommerce platform turns out way too difficult. But we knew web development. And so this is out of desperation because straight up, I just had to pay the rent and keep the lights on or was I going to lose this office that I got? I walked around. We were in Park Ridge, Illinois, and it's like an uptown area. It's cute, it's quaint. We walked around and I wrote down all the businesses that I'm like, that's a cool shop. That's a cool shop. I'd work with them. I wrote them all down. And then I went online and I figured out the owner's first name for all these businesses. And then I wrote a letter of introduction. I said, hey, I'm Kurt. We moved into the Pickwick building. We're on the second floor, and we do web development. And I grew up at Park Ridge. I love it here. I just wanted to introduce myself. And I included my business card as a magnet in there. And then I hand wrote every business owner's. Name on the envelope in marker. And that was it, just their first name. I got up at 05:00 A.m. Because I did not want anyone to see me doing this. I walked around and I stuck those handmarked envelopes. I slid it under each person's door. And I got leads from that for two years. People being like, oh, hey, I got your card. I think, can you help us with our website? And at that time, it was people like, we need a website. They never had one before. And so we're just like building brochure websites, and I'd sell them, and then I was like, slowly ratcheting up the cost. So when I sold one for 2000 or seven, like a few thousand dollars for the first time, I was like, is this even legal? Am I even allowed to do this? Should I tell the IRS? How does this work? Right? I think when you're early in the business, you're looking for someone to give you permission because you were trained to be an employee, right? To be like, part of some larger organization where all your experiences now you're on your own, and you are responsible for everything. And so that's a little weird. And once I got those people, I said, I wonder if that same trick will work with bigger clients. And so I found we were 15 miles from downtown Chicago, and so I looked up the big creative agencies at downtown Chicago, and I did the same thing and lower hit rate, but it worked. And so we worked with a marketing agency. We got to design and build a site for Verizon for a marketing campaign. Okay, sweet. So now I have Verizon in my portfolio.

Andres Sanchez [00:24:14]:

That's amazing.

Kurt Elster [00:24:14]:

I got another one. We built a site for a Hilton Hotel. They had like a boutique hotel. We did dev on this site. So now I get to stick that in there. And those projects were grueling. And that was immediately I'm already in like, the 50 grand to build these things, and they don't even think twice about it. But also, it's like your project manager quits or gets fired every six weeks. There's always something at those places going on that messes with you, and you're low man on the totem pole. And so, you know, at that same time that we'd gotten that far, that's when that Shopify business was starting to take off and develop. And one stressed me out, and I didn't have a ton of control, but it was high dollar. The other, I had way more control. I'm working with entrepreneurs and small business owners, and I'm like, these are my people. These are who I'm comfortable with. And shopify is well documented. And I like this. So why don't we try just doing only this for a while? And we were like, let's do ecommerce. And so just for the sake of it, try some others. I sold, get this, Google AdWords worked so well at that time that I built a landing page that was like, hey, we'll develop a website for you. And I would just swap out the name of the platform and then run Google Ads to it. And we got leads that converted and closed. And so it's like, all right, I'm going to build a site on Lemon Stand. I'm going to build a site on I don't even think that's around anymore. BigCommerce Magento just ran through all of them. And so I had the experience in all of them. And I was like, no, still like Shopify the best. And they said, let's just do exclusively that. And so that's where the podcast came from, was born out of that because I'm like, I need I can't be sticking envelopes under people's doors. But we were getting leads from Shopify through the Shopify Experts program now ended this year, sadly. And that podcast where it's like, all right, we're just going to do content marketing. Just going to document what we do and share what we do and talk like we'd have a client. And then I'd be like, hey, this is a cool project. You want to talk about it with me on the podcast? And it was a cool project, and I was proud of it. And you get to hear their story, which I may or may not have known in sharing that, obviously you attract similar people with similar problems because they find that content. And so it becomes a flywheel, which that's the thing. Once you have that, that hustle and Grind is just like, you're trying things in the dark. You've got a candle in a cave, and you're just like, trying stuff, trying stuff, trying stuff. And then we found something. And I'm like, now you can see a little more. And you just keep going. And then suddenly you develop this marketing flywheel where it's like, all right, as long as you keep to the process and you keep publishing and you keep doing the work and you keep going through it, you'll refine it and get better at it. And it progresses and accelerates.

Andres Sanchez [00:26:39]:

And I love when businesses work. You've got this beautiful thing built here where not only does your podcast drive you leads because it's all about what your agency does, but when you get leads from your agency, you can turn a successful project into an episode of the podcast, and it's just nonstop. And then you're able to write about it on the Internet and post that as a newsletter, and you're able to reach more people. And it's like, you don't have to go out and find all of these different ways to make yourself entertaining to the public. You're kind of just getting all of them within that little ecosystem that you built. And like you said, it's like a flywheel. They just keeps turning. And you get a lead, have a successful project, film an episode about it, I mean, that's just amazing. So I want to commend you for that because I think that's super awesome and what a goal of mine is. And then I think it's a good segue to talk about your newsletter. The last kind of venture we had on that list in that intro talk about the newsletter, how has that been? How is being the author of a newsletter maybe because I just opened up my newsletter for the podcast. So Selfishly here would love to hear about your experience.

Kurt Elster [00:27:46]:

You know what's weird about the newsletter is it's so tough to get anybody to reply to it. And if you think about like, when was the last time you replied to a newsletter, it's pretty rare. Like that format just doesn't encourage people to reply to it. And so that has always disappointed me, always bothered me about having a newsletter is but so much of content marketing really is just you are screaming into the void. It feels like there's no one there and no one listening. Maybe 1000 people hear it or 5000 people read it, like whatever it is, but you don't see it, you don't feel it. And so newsletter I think is a little strange. What I like about it, I used to write, write, and I don't love writing. I don't think I'm a great writer. And that's what got me to the podcast is I'm like, well, it's easier than blogging. Pick the format that you like and excites you and you're good at. Like I like video, I like audio writing's rough. But I force myself to do it. I'm like, I'm going to grind it out. And so I got way better. I developed a voice and that helped a lot. And so I'd encourage people. If you're like what's my voice writing is, how you work that out. But with the newsletter, when it really started to work for me was when I had a format to it. When I branded it, I call it Ecom Recon weekly newsletter, same deal. It's like every Tuesday and it just came out of like I would announce that this episode is live. Here's the link, here's what it's about. That was it. And it was every Tuesday, and then I was like, I would get I'm sure everybody subscribes to newsletters, but I'd get, like, one about electric vehicles from, I think, Bloomberg, and it had this format where they'd say, like, news briefs and it'd be like, three recaps and then, like, a longer article. And I thought, Wait, why don't I could do that. Why not? And so I format it nicely. And then once I had that template, now it's a lot easier. And I have a text file on my desktop that I just add throughout the week. I see stuff that's interesting and I just stick the link or note in there. And then on every Friday in the morning, I sit down and I'm like, okay, this is what I want to include and do a little summary, rewrite it or note what's important and then put the newsletter together and what's great about it. The newsletters is a reflection of my continuing education. I'm like, all right, here's what was important to me this week, right? That's what you're doing. You're curating it because at the start of this episode, you're like, you start to build a Shopify store, and you see people online, and there's just all this advice. What do I do? Well, you experience one of the problems with what we do. You drink from the fire hose, right? There is so much good info out there that how do you sift through it? And then there are not enough hours in the day, hands, money, time to be able to implement all of the advice you get, and many of it conflicts, and so you have to figure that out and commit. And so for me, that newsletter is just kind of curating, like, all right, these are like, the three things that I think will appeal to the audience, the majority. But this is all stuff that was interesting to me in the last seven days.

Andres Sanchez [00:30:26]:

Awesome. And then for anybody listening, I'll have that newsletter, the sign up sheet in the description for you guys to be able to sign up for that. If you thought any of this was interesting, two questions I have for you asking for the audience. One, if what they heard today about the agency kind of fits what they're looking for, how do they go about getting in contact with you and maybe what are some requirements? And then two, if there's somebody listening who's a huge ecom person who's been really successful on Shopify, how do they go about being a guest on your podcast?

Kurt Elster [00:30:56]:

All right, so for the agency, if your site is or will be on Shopify, there you go. That's the big requirement. We do Shopify exclusively, and if you go to Eatercycle.com, the big get started button or client application form, just fill that out. It's got a few questions, and it goes to me and then reply to it. We talk for 30 minutes and see if it makes sense to work together for the podcast. If you go to the site unofficial Shopifypodcast.com, there's a guest application link, as if you fill it out, stick your info that will send it to me as well. And as long as you go like, hey, here's my brand, and I want to share my story or my journey, or like, here's what I want to teach people. They'll probably say yes to it. When we say no, it's like someone who's like, here's what I want to try to sell your audience. They don't say it that way, but we know that's what's going on. So those are the ones we say no to.

Andres Sanchez [00:31:44]:

Got it? All right, awesome. So for anybody listening, go through, check out the agency website, book a call, see if it works for you. And then if you have an amazing shopify story, make sure to get on Kurt's podcast and tell more people about it as we come kind of to that tail end. I always like to ask one question at the end of every episode, and for multiple time viewers, you know where we're at here and you know the variety of answers we've received. If you're new here, this is something that is at the end of every episode, and that is Kurt. What are you excited about in the near future?

Kurt Elster [00:32:18]:

I am. Next month, I'm going to go to the Bahamas and swim with pigs.

Andres Sanchez [00:32:22]:

Okay.

Kurt Elster [00:32:23]:

A year ago, maybe it was like two years ago, I met a dolphin in the Bahamas, and his name was Sean. And my kids still talk about the time they met a dolphin named Sean. I'm hoping that we have a similar experience with swimming pigs.

Andres Sanchez [00:32:36]:

That's awesome. You got to come down here in Miami. We see dolphins about every time we take the boat out or get out on the water. So if you're ever lacking some dolphin, just come through here to Miami and you will be able to see a ton of them. But I love that answer. I love when people give me something personal. We talk business for 35 minutes here, and it helps me learn a little bit more about you and let the audience learn a little bit more about you as well. That's something super exciting. I've not been to that part of the Bahamas, so I am looking forward to seeing pictures or anything that you upload when you do this, and I'm excited for you to kind of go have that experience. I want to say thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been an absolute pleasure. So many amazing nuggets of information for anybody listening. And then also, where can people follow you? Where are you most active? All that will be linked below, but I have to cater to the lazy people that won't even click the description and are probably just listening.

Kurt Elster [00:33:27]:

If you're a Twitter person, I'm probably most active on Twitter. Kurt inc inckrtinc. And then, of course, LinkedIn, and we have a Facebook group as well.

Andres Sanchez [00:33:35]:

Awesome. Kurt, thank you so much. Again, it has been an absolute pleasure. I look forward to this continued relationship and your growth, and I am super for this episode to come out.

Kurt Elster [00:33:46]:

Thank you for having me. My honor and pleasure.