Design Pickle's Russ Perry Is The Sober Entrepreneur

Nov 29, 2017

Wes Schaeffer

The Sales Podcast Marketing Automation Entrepreneur

Read your prospects to sell how they want to buy

Stream below or right-click here to download the episode.

[ LISTEN NOW ON ITUNES ]

Business Launch Tips you'll learn in The Sales Podcast...

Founder and CEO of Design Pickle
- Had a creative and branding agency...but was bad at branding themselves
- He had tough companies he helped brand
- "You can't rename a baby"
- He hated boring names and names he can't share
- He hated acronyms
"Year of soul searching"
- Closed his business unceremoniously
- Had two partners in Buenos Aires
- Was doing consulting
- Spent time with two business coaches
- Two key questions
  - "What do you want?
  - "What kind of business will get you there?"
- He liked working with companies that needed simple, straightforward design
- He had an outsourced designer and a part-time project manager
- January 2015, he launched
  - Everyone is full-time with him regardless of where they are located
  - Guest blogging
  - Blasted his list via Gmail
  - Got MailChimp
  - Hustled
  - Landed about 20 clients in his first month and has been profitable
The journey
- Year one:
  - Defining the target audience and being confident in that
  - Tried personas and target audiences, but then they'd get a big influx of customers who weren't in that bucket
  - Shifted from an industry to a behavior of the customer
    - They have hired a designer before
    - They see the value
- Year two:
  - Growth in personnel
  - How do we organize/structure the team?
  - How do add management layers?
- Year three:
  - Honing in on the marketing strategy
  - Live events
  - Online ads
  - Partnerships
  - Affiliates
125 full time staff, $500k in recurring monthly revenue
His background prepared him for the launch of his company
- He saw the habits of his clients
- He knew their typical needs
- What's disruptive?
- What can I profit from?
- He was too low in the beginning
Rigorous hiring process
- About four weeks
- It boils down to communication
They screen their customers, too
- Weed out those who don't follow instructions
- Weed out the impatient
Releasing his first book, "The Sober Entrepreneur"
- Passion project
- Struggled with alcohol and addiction. Beat it in 2013.
- Gotten clarity across the board
- Was even addicted to a bad business
- Part personal memoir and part practical
Launching a same-day service tier