February 19, 2025 • 35 mins
Join us for a captivating episode featuring Josh Marsden, a military veteran turned e-commerce powerhouse, as he recounts his extraordinary journey from a chaotic college life to establishing himself as a respected leader in the digital marketing sphere. Discover how his decision to join the Army National Guard was the turning point that instilled discipline and focus, setting him on a path to success. Josh reflects on his transition from corporate America, where roles at the University of Phoenix and Infusionsoft shaped his strategic mindset, ultimately guiding him to entrepreneurship. His story is a testament to the power of resilience, adaptability, and strategic thinking in overcoming life's hurdles.
Explore the intricacies of e-commerce marketing through Josh's lens as he unveils the secrets behind his thriving digital marketing agency, the RM5 Formula Company. With a passion for differentiation in a saturated market, Josh emphasizes the critical importance of follow-up marketing and building robust organizational leadership. Learn how his agency has become a beacon of performance-driven success, with an emphasis on creating meaningful brand relationships and consistent customer engagement. Josh's insights shed light on the necessity for e-commerce businesses to look beyond front-end acquisition and prioritize sustainable growth strategies.
In an enlightening discussion about entrepreneurial opportunities within the US e-commerce landscape, Josh shares his strategic approach to acquiring and scaling e-commerce businesses. Uncover his ideal acquisition criteria, emphasizing collaborations with US-based, direct-to-consumer brands. Delve into Josh's personal pursuits, from his favorite book to hobbies that recharge his entrepreneurial spirit. He shares how faith has been a cornerstone in his journey, fostering perseverance and a relentless work ethic. Stay tuned for Josh’s reflection on the boundless potential of entrepreneurship, and how faith and strategic foresight can guide entrepreneurs through their ventures’ inevitable challenges.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a
show for anyone who wants to betheir own boss.
If you sit in a cubicle everyday and know you are capable of
more, then join us.
This show will help you build abusiness and grow your passive
income streams in just a fewshort hours per day.
And now your hosts, serialentrepreneurs David Shomer and
(00:22):
Ken Wilson.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, the
show dedicated to helping youbreak free of the nine to five
grind and build a thrivinge-commerce business.
Whether you're just gettingstarted or scaling to new
heights, we have the strategies,insights and real world
experiences that you need.
Today we have a real powerhouseguest, josh Marsden, the
(00:46):
founder of Arm5 Formula and atrue expert in scaling and
selling e-commerce brands.
Josh is a military veteranturned entrepreneur, an
international bestselling authorand a marketing strategist
who's been featured in majormedia outlets like the
Huffington Post and DigitalMarketer.
In this episode, we'll dive deepinto his unique ARM5 formula, a
(01:09):
proven system for acquiring,optimizing and exiting
e-commerce businesses formaximum profit.
Plus, josh will share hisjourney, lesson learned and
actionable strategies that youcan apply to your own business
right now.
If you're looking to scale youre-commerce business, this is an
episode you are not going towant to miss.
(01:29):
Josh, welcome to the podcast.
Yeah, thank you for having me,absolutely.
So, to get things started, canyou share with our audience a
little bit about your backgroundand path to founding RM5
Formula?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, sure.
So you know, I was just likejust about anybody else.
The only difference is is thatI was a military brat for the
first 11 years of my life andlived in different places, was
born in Germany, but eventuallywe settled in Arizona and I was
raised by a blue collar dad, awhite collar mom, and was taught
(02:05):
to value education.
I was taught to go to college,was taught to focus on getting a
good career, and so I wentthrough the normal path that the
average person in the UnitedStates, at least you know, goes
through.
And you know I went to highschool, was an honor student,
started working when I was 14,graduated high school at 17,
(02:28):
went into college rightafterwards, and then, when I
first went into college, Iwasn't quite ready for being
independent, I think, and Ididn't have my priorities
straight, and I ended uppartying too much for about a
(02:51):
year and a half, dropping out ofschool, literally not earning
any credit for a year and a half.
So I just wasted a year and ahalf of my life, and also some
light student loans even, and itwas at that point that I was
like all right, well, you knowwhat?
I got to do?
Something here.
I got to get back on track here.
You know, I'm not where I wantto be, I'm not where I want to
go.
I got to get back on track here.
You know, I, I, um, I'm notwhere I want to be, I'm not
where I want to go, and um, andso at that point in time I
decided to join the army andsign up for the army national
(03:11):
guard.
Um, and that was the bestdecision at that point in time,
when I was 19, that I could make.
Um, because I dropped out ofhigh school or not, high school,
college, and um, I and I wasliterally working as a manager
at Taco Bell at the time.
And then I went in the militaryand the military really brought
(03:32):
me back, I think, to myfoundation, because I had always
had that pre-built discipline,work ethic due to the way my
parents raised me.
But that just got it backbecause I took it very seriously
, because the military was sucha big part of my life growing up
.
I mean it's funny, but wheneverI walk into a military building
(03:55):
, in a military installation,and I smell the musty smell that
these buildings have, I feelright at home.
It like relaxed me and it makesme feel nostalgic, and so it
was a great.
You know, it was a greatopportunity for me to grow up
and to get back on track, andthat's exactly what seven months
(04:15):
in Georgia and Alabama goingthrough basic, going through
advanced school for air trafficcontrol.
It's exactly what that did,because then, when I came back
to Arizona and I was in theNational Guard, I was a
different person.
I was focused on getting backinto school, getting my
education done.
I was focused on doing goodwork and making better decisions
, and that's what I did fromthat point on and then after
(04:38):
that, I got into.
Shortly after that, I got intocorporate America.
I worked at this company,university of Scenics, which was
a publicly traded company, avery successful company.
It was doing very, very wellback in the mid-2000s and I was
very successful at it.
I was the top manager in mydivision, which was Mountain
(05:08):
Plains, for the fiscal year 2010, for example, and then going
into 2012,.
I knew that things were notreally working very well with
University of Phoenix, becauseUniversity of Phoenix
unfortunately had changes to howthey had to do business that
were dictated by a newgovernment regulation and so,
(05:32):
because of that, compensationchanged and you couldn't get the
same increases in your salarythat you could get before.
As managers, we couldn't manageour team the same way we did
before as well.
It was a complete culturechange and it was also,
unfortunately, a change to theopportunity that University of
Phoenix was prior to that, andso, going into 2012, I was
(05:56):
becoming open to pivoting andleaving University of Phoenix
and going in a differentdirection.
And then I had some friends ofmine that had transitioned over
the years to Infusionsoft, whichis now known as Keep, and they
sold me on the idea of comingover and doing sales for Keep,
and so I did that in 2012.
(06:17):
And it was really humblingbecause I was a manager at
University of Phoenix, verysuccessful, had a great team,
had several great teams, and Ihad a very comfortable position
and I was making nearly sixfigures a year, which at the
time, was pretty good,considering where my bar was at
that point in time, which hasdrastically changed since.
(06:39):
But that's the path we go on asentrepreneurs we keep raising
our bar, and so I went to keepstart selling and I did.
Okay, I was 108% to quota theentire year, but I wasn't happy.
I didn't want to get back intosales.
I was a leader.
I wanted to be a leader.
I wanted to get back intoleadership.
(07:00):
I wanted to get back intosomething that drove me,
something that challenged me,because I'm driven by challenges
.
I wanted to get back intosomething that drove me,
something that challenged me,because I'm driven by challenges
.
And I think that my manager, mysecond manager I had two
managers at Infusionsoft he knewthat I wasn't happy.
He could tell, and at the endof 2012, he actually let me go
and that was what pushed me intoentrepreneurship, because at
(07:24):
that point in time I dove intobecoming a freelancer, because I
had learned the software and Ihad a background in marketing
from my bachelor's degree and mymaster's degree that I was in
the middle of, and I also was insales for maybe 10, 15 years up
to that point in time.
So I dove into freelancing andmade my first money on my own.
(07:47):
I made 1700 bucks in like 30days, which isn't a lot, but it
was good.
It was just validation that Icould make money on my own, I
didn't have to depend on demand.
And then I did start at anotherjob in early 2013.
And right away they threw at methat I would have to change my
schedule with my three-year-oldson to be able to stay at the
(08:11):
company, because they wanted meto work until 7pm Monday through
Friday, and there was some dayswhere I had to go pick them up
from preschool and I had to bethere by 5.30.
And so, after stringing themalong for two weeks after they
gave me this ultimatum,basically I finally was like you
know what it's not going towork out.
I'm going to dive intoentrepreneurship.
(08:33):
I'm going to be successful atstarting up my own marketing
agency.
Actually, I didn't even think itwas going to be a marketing
agency at the time.
It was just going to be anagency and that was that.
And so from that point on iswhen I started my business.
I've now been in business for12 years.
It's been a blessed journey.
I've had lots of highs, I'vehad lots of challenges, lots of
stress as well, but no regrets.
(08:55):
And we've done some big thingsover the last 12 years and we're
on the verge of something very,very big as well.
So that's my background in anutshell of something very, very
big as well.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So that's my background in a nutshell.
Outstanding, I love that story.
I'm excited to dig into some ofthose big things that you got
going on Now.
The show is called Firing theman Podcast.
I'd like to dive into yourFiring the man day.
The day that you said I'm donewith this, I'm picking up my.
Tell me if it sounds like itwas the day that they won't let
you pick up your son is the day.
But what were you thinking andwhat advice would you give to
(09:29):
people who are in a similar spotwho are thinking I'm looking
over the fence and it looks goodover there and I would like to
try entrepreneurship, but I'mscared.
I'm scared, I'm worried.
What, if?
What advice would you give to?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
them.
Yeah well, I'll kind of work myway backwards.
I would tell that person thatthey need to have faith in
themselves and have faith in ahigher power, Because at the
time when I dove in, I had lotsof faith, but I didn't even
realize it was, you know, faithfrom a higher power at the time.
(10:04):
Um, because I had kind ofveered away a bit from my
Christianity.
Um, but now, looking back, youknow, in that decision that I
made and in putting my backagainst the wall to be
successful at that journey, Inow know that it was because I
had that faith from a higherpower.
You know, the faith from ahigher power is what drove me
(10:27):
into that and drove me tosuccess and has helped me
succeed since.
So I would tell anybodylistening or watching this that
you just have to believe inyourself and you have to go all
in and you have to have faith inyourself and you have to be
relentless, because it's notgoing to be easy but it's worth
it.
And and just to just to have arelentless work, ethic and and
(10:53):
perseverance, determination, um,and and just keep driving
forward and just believe thatyou can be successful at it.
Um, that's what I would tellsomeone that's considering
leaving the man.
Uh, because at the, at the timewhen I left the man, um, that
was the kick that I needed,hearing from my boss that I
(11:15):
would have to change my schedule.
And, um, and I and they, theydid leave it on a Friday.
It was like the third Friday Iwas there, they gave me the
ultimatum, they told me thatcoming into Monday, I had to
have this figured out and I waslike, okay, and so I took that
weekend to take a sheet of paper, create a table, two columns,
(11:36):
three rows, and I basically juststacked the two paths that I
could take staying at thecompany or diving in, starting
my agency and I had that on thetop of the columns and I went
over.
This is the positive of how wecould work out this and the
strengths of the decision.
Here's the weaknesses, here'sthe worst that can happen.
(11:58):
If I were to go down thesepaths.
And to me, that helped me gofrom emotional to logic and to
see that I really didn't haveanything to lose.
Because that's the fear thatpeople have when they're leaving
a full-time job.
They're like, how am I going tomake money?
How am I going to support mychildren?
How am I going to support mychildren?
(12:21):
How am I going to support myfamily?
How am I going to supportmyself?
But once you eliminate theemotion and you look at the
comparison logically, you'llprobably see the same thing.
I saw that you have nothing tolose and everything to gain
Because, in my case at least, Ihad a bachelor's degree, almost
a master's degree at the time.
I had prior successfulmanagement experience at a
Fortune 500 company.
I was a veteran and so, even ifbusiness didn't work out, I had
(12:45):
stuff to fall back on and Iwould figure it out.
So that's my background, that'show I pushed myself into
entrepreneurship and that's whatI would tell someone that's
considering doing the same.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I love how you physically wrote it out.
I think that's a step that alot of people would be surprised
if they went through.
The answer almost seems obviouswhen you have the pros and cons
column and you're absolutelyright the man's not going
anywhere.
If it doesn't work out inentrepreneurship, you can always
go back and you'll be in thesame spot you are now and so I
(13:19):
really like that story.
So let's chat eCommerce.
So you have put your eggs inthe eCommerce basket.
I think that's fair to say.
What drew you to eCommerce?
Can you share a little bitabout your journey in this world
?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, absolutely so.
As I mentioned, I started myagency in early 2013.
But when I started my agency,it was really based around
providing service for companiesthat were using Infusionsoft,
Because that's what I hadexperience with from 2012.
And so I started sellingmarketing services, business
(13:57):
automation services, anythingand everything that I could sell
to make some money aroundproviding Infusionsoft help,
some crazy phenomenalautomations that can get the
outcomes that companies want,because I was really good at
(14:20):
creating automations inInfusionsoft.
I was like, even though I likedoing this from a scientific
engineering perspective, I don'treally have the passion for
doing this.
I am a performance-drivenperson.
I am a results driven person.
I had been in sales and salesmanagement for the last you know
(14:40):
12 or so years, and so thatreally drew me towards marketing
.
And then, finally, at somepoint, I said I'm not selling
any more business automationservices.
I'm strictly selling marketingservices.
I even changed my agency namethis way.
I included marketing in myagency name, and that led me
down the path of becoming anexpert in digital marketing and
(15:02):
digital advertising.
I mean, I literally pour intobooks I probably have read or
listened to.
Actually, it's not evenprobably.
I know that I've read orlistened to hundreds of books
since 2013.
So I'd be the best that I couldbe, because that's just the way
I am.
When I commit to something, youknow I do whatever I can to be
successful at it.
(15:23):
And and that led me into um,building a marketing agency that
was performance driven.
That eventually became RM5Formula Company.
Um and the RM5 Formula is amarketing scaling methodology
that came out of thepredictability that we were
seeing in our client results byusing digital advertising
(15:45):
funnels, conversion rateoptimization, content marketing
and follow-up marketing withemail and SMS, basically.
But we productized our servicesinto two different packages.
We were charging $6,000 or$12,000 a month, depending on
which package, plus aperformance bonus based on
profit, versus how a lot ofagencies were doing, Because
(16:06):
agencies still do this, wherethey charge a percent on ad
spend, but that doesn'tnecessarily lead to results, and
I didn't want to do that.
So that's how I got intoe-commerce and digital marketing
.
Because in 2017, I decided thatI would niche down into
e-commerce because over the lastfew years, as I had different
clients selling different thingsthe e-commerce clients that I
(16:29):
had selling physical products Isaw that there was just a major
gap between what they're doingand what they could do, because
these people are not marketers.
Like, if you talk to an infoproduct seller, he's a marketer
typically he's a veryworld-class direct response
digital marketer but if you talkto an e-commerce business owner
(16:49):
, they're not necessarily verygood marketers in a lot of cases
.
And that's what I found and Isaw that I was delivering so
much value and so much impact toe-commerce clients and also I
wanted to create a name formyself.
I wanted to stand out in thecrowd.
So that's when I decided toniche down into e-commerce was
late 2017.
So since then, I've beenpassionate about e-com, I've
(17:12):
learned everything I can aboute-com and now I'm running an
e-commerce aggregator with somebig things on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Outstanding, outstanding and excited to get
into that Before we do, as wesit here recording this episode
in February 2025, what are somethings that you think e-commerce
entrepreneurs get wrong ontheir marketing efforts?
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah, I mean that's a really big, big question,
because there's probably a lotof things that I can really
identify that I've seen over theyears, but I think for one,
they really don't focus ontrying to differentiate
themselves.
They don't come up with a bigidea, for example, in their
marketing, that gets theirproduct line to stand out versus
competitors.
I also see many, many timesthat e-commerce business owners
(18:05):
always fail at follow-upmarketing and they focus too
much on front-end acquisition.
We've got this great businesswe're about to purchase and
partner up on with some of theowners and they are very smart
guys, they've done an incrediblejob with their business, but
(18:25):
they've only done new customeracquisition really and very
little follow-up marketing andtheir customer return rate is
literally 5%, but yet they net$1.8 to $3 million a year.
So I've seen that many timesover, where e-commerce
businesses fail at focusing onthe backend, where the money is
made, because any marketer knowsthat.
(18:47):
It's not about that front-endacquisition.
Yes, you do need it obviously togrow and ideally you're doing
it profitably.
That's where you're makingprofit on day one of your
customer journeys, but you'releaving a lot of money, a lot of
profit, on the table if youdon't focus on trying to deliver
more value and more impact toyour customers, and I see that
(19:08):
many, many times over.
Yeah, I mean.
Besides that, I think thebiggest thing is that e-commerce
business owners always try todo so much themselves too and
they don't take organizationalleadership as seriously as they
can to scale themselves out andto scale their business in the
process, because you can onlyscale your e-com business to a
(19:31):
certain point without having agood team.
You need a good team and youneed to take team building, team
management and everything thatgoes into building an actual
corporate organization veryseriously if you're going to
break into multi-seven, eightfigures and beyond.
A lot of times, I see a lot ofowners doing too much themselves
(19:53):
and not really being veryeffective at building a real
organization that can run thebusiness and grow the business
without them.
So those are probably the topthree things that I see.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I really like that.
I really like that, and you'respot on on all of those.
I agree with all of them.
One thing you mentioned is thefollow-up marketing right.
It's the classic case ofsomeone pushing a lot of Google
ads traffic to their website,not having a band and cart
sequence.
So that's what comes to mindfor me.
What are some ways thatfollow-up marketing can be
(20:30):
effective?
Or, on that list of follow-upmarketing, what is there?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, yeah, well, I think that you need to have like
a brand message.
You know your brain has tostand for something, because
your follow-up marketing isreally about building that
relationship, and so you have tohave something.
You stand on, a mission thatyour company stands on and that
just then dilutes down to whatsubject matter do you talk about
(20:59):
in your content, to offer valuein your content, in your
follow-up marketing?
And then you also need to havea plan.
You know, a promo calendar, forexample, that tells you when
you're promoting different offer, different products or maybe
different sales around holidays,you know, for example.
So you just have to have like agood blend of all that where
(21:20):
you're able to create anexperience and you're able to
create a relationship and buildtrust and come across as an
authority in your subject matterin your follow-up marketing.
The Arm platform really speaksto authority.
That's what A stands for, andauthority comes down to becoming
a trusted expert in the subjectmatter that your business
(21:42):
specializes in, and that's oneof the biggest things that we
focus on when we were runningour company as an agency years
ago with our clients.
Is we focus on driving reallygood top of the funnel content
or, if the eCommerce businessowner was recording content.
We made sure that everybody sawtop of the funnel, because what
(22:02):
that does is it builds brand,it builds trust and then direct
response marketing takes care ofthe rest.
So that's the advice that Iwould give to anybody that
really needs to do a better jobwith their follow-up marketing
is create trust, focus onsubject matter that's relevant
and related to your business andis also value for your audience
as well, and just be verystructured, very disciplined,
(22:25):
very consistent with yourapproach, so this way you can
continue to build that trust andsee that flywheel effect happen
as you're executing on yourfollow-up marketing strategy.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
That's really good advice For our listeners.
You ought to rewind and listento that again.
There is a ton of really goodvalue packed in there.
Now we've hinted at it a littlebit.
Arm 5 Formula has got somereally exciting stuff going on
this year.
What can you tell us?
What do you got going on?
Sure yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Well, I think it's no secret, because we've been
publicizing this, but it's nosecret that we're working on
going public and getting on apublic stock exchange.
We came pretty close to doingsomething at the end of 2024.
But I'm glad that we decidedagainst going down that path,
because we almost went down thepath where we became a penny
stock, which I don't think wouldhave been good, based on the
(23:19):
feedback that I was receivingfrom different people in my
network that have a lot moreexperience with the public
markets and the different stockexchanges.
And then, early 2025, weactually signed with
directipocom and now we're inthe process of pushing to get on
the NASDAQ.
It's most likely going to bethe NASDAQ in April or May, and
(23:43):
we actually have an excitingpending deal that I can't unpack
too much right now.
But we have an exciting pendingdeal right now with another
company that they're really goodat developing cutting edge
products.
It's ran by a chief scienceofficer that's been around for
literally like 30, 40 years, andso they have a family of
(24:07):
cutting edge products that theyneed help selling, which is why
they're doing the deal, becausethey want access to our
marketing prowess.
We're a match made in heaven,as we've been saying, and so any
day now we should be finalizinga deal to merge with this
company and this company is inthe middle of an SEC audit to
get on the NASDAQ.
(24:28):
They're on target to be on theNASDAQ in March and we're about
to sign papers to merge withthem to then be inserted into
the audit process and then tofinalize that process over the
next month or so and uplist onthe NASDAQ and the ticker should
(24:49):
be RM5.
That's one of the requests thatI made, so I'm pretty excited
for it.
We just got to get through thisprocess right now and just
handle one domino at a time.
So that's what's happeningright now.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That's outstanding.
And congratulations on almostbeing in the major leagues.
I mean, when you get intobusiness, there's the grind, the
early entrepreneurship phase,and there's the more mature and
you're about to enter the majorleagues, which is outstanding.
So, you had mentioned workingwith some aggregators and making
(25:24):
some acquisitions.
Can you talk about that and, toour listeners that are business
owners, what's your strike zonefor acquisition?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, sure, between $1.2 million, which is
approximately anywhere between$400,000 to $600,000 EBITDA, and
all the way up to $10 million.
We're actually moving up thebuy box right now by going
public, because we'll haveaccess to more capital to be
(25:58):
able to buy bigger and betterbusinesses.
But that's been our buy boxover the last two years now,
throughout 2023 and 2024.
And typically we're looking fordirect-to-consumer brands, so
not just Amazon.
We want real brands that havetheir own marketing and they
control the entire marketingjourney and they have access to
(26:18):
all the contact details and allthe data.
That's what we're looking foras well.
And then, besides that, we'relooking for no dropshipping
companies companies that haveeffective, successful marketing
strategies that we can build on,companies that have a
dependable supply chain that canscale with us as we scale their
marketing results, and alsocompanies that are U US-based as
(26:41):
well.
We unfortunately found out latein 2022 that international
businesses were not in our bestinterest.
We bought one and it didn'twork out six or so months later.
So we now don't buyinternational businesses.
We focus on US-based businesses.
So that's our buy box and again, I do anticipate here in the
next few months that our buyBoxwill ship upwards a bit, and
(27:04):
we'll focus on buying evenbigger businesses, since we
won't have as much friction whenit comes to acquiring the
capital needed to be able to buybusinesses.
So that's our BuyBox and that'swhat we target.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Outstanding, outstanding.
If any of our listeners fitthat strike zone and are
thinking about selling, what'sthe best way to get in touch
with you?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Well, you could just shoot me an email at josh at
rm5formulacom.
And we actually do business twodifferent ways with e-com
business owners.
We can either buy the companyoutright or we can buy into the
company and partner up with youand give you the resources and
the experience that we have.
So we bring 800 million indirect marketing experience with
(27:48):
my team and I.
We also raise capital and canadd a lot of growth fuel to your
business to help you scalefaster and soon that's going to
be magnified.
Being a public company havingaccess to the capital markets,
uh, so we'll be able to excuseme, we'll be able to buy even
more cash resources when thathappens as well.
(28:10):
I think I need some water rightnow and um, and then on top of
that too, I mean, we have a veryexpansive network.
I personally have an expansivenetwork.
Uh, I'm known as a bit of asuper connector to people in the
industry, so I can bring indifferent people to help us with
different things.
So I bring a lot to the tableresource-wise to help e-commerce
(28:30):
businesses be able to growfaster and also with less
friction in the process.
So if anybody's interested inconnecting with me and talking,
just shoot me an email.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Outstanding.
We'll post a link to that inthe show notes.
Before we wrap up, we havesomething called the fire round.
This is four questions that weask every guest at the end of
the show.
Are you ready for the fireround?
Let's go Do it, all right.
What is your favorite book?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Um, so I wouldn't say this is my number one favorite,
because it's hard to say number, like it's hard to pick out one
book.
But I am currently reading thesurrender experiment and I'm
almost done with it and it's um,it's really relevant for me
because it's helping me to letgo more and to just trust the
(29:20):
process and uh, and give it you,it to the universe, and not try
to control everything.
So that's my current favoritebook.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Very nice.
What are your hobbies?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Hobbies outside of spending time with my family and
my 15-year-old teenage son, ormy two-year-old baby girl and my
fiance?
Um, it's, this is gonna makepeople laugh if they hear this,
but I like to build models andpaint models.
Um, you know it.
Just it ignites like anartistic side of me that I
(29:54):
didn't I haven't had since I wasa kid, and so that's why I like
doing it.
Um, plus, it's just completelydifferent.
It gets me off the computer too, which is nice.
I'm massive into fitness.
I work out four to six days aweek, and then, besides that, I
do like to play a video game ortwo here and there.
I mean, I grew up in theNintendo age back in the 80s, so
(30:16):
it's ingrained in me, and I'vealways been very good at video
games.
When it comes to competition, Imean, if I jump on call of duty
, I'm typically number one ornumber two, and I don't even
play that often, but I just am areally good first person
shooter.
So so I do that from time totime to just unwind and relax a
little bit.
So those are my hobbies rightnow.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Outstanding, outstanding.
Next question what is one thingyou do not miss about working
for the man?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
too bad, I can't say everything, um, uh, you know,
honestly, the the biggest thingthat I don't miss is is having
the ceiling.
Having the ceiling because,know, when you work for the man,
you have too many restrictions.
(31:07):
You have a ceiling, you haveother people that dictate that
ceiling, you have other peoplethat dictate your progress as
well and your rewards.
And when you're an entrepreneur, you have an open playing field
and you set your standard, youset your bar and you can really
make anything happen that youmanifest and you work towards.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
So that's the biggest thing that I love about
entrepreneurship versus workingfor the man, very nice, I like
that, I really like that, andit's a totally different mindset
, right when that ceiling isremoved and your upside is
unlimited.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So, yeah, I always felt like very trapped and
limited and, you know, a littlebit underserved and like I was
in the matrix, you know, as alot of people feel.
And you know, even though Ididn't grow up an entrepreneur
and I wasn't born toentrepreneur parents and I
didn't become an entrepreneuruntil my early thirties, I think
I always had it in me because Ialways just felt that I wasn't
(32:08):
being challenged enough.
And I wasn't because I haddreams.
I had big dreams growing up.
I wanted to be an astronautwhen I was a kid and you know, I
just was following the system.
You know I was following thesystem, I was in the system and
it just wasn't serving me andluckily, you know, the universe
led me to where I'm at now,today.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Very good, very good.
Now, final question what is onething that you think sets apart
successful e-commerceentrepreneurs from those who
give up, fail or never getstarted up, fail or never get
started.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I would say faith first and foremost.
I talked about faith on thisepisode today, but it's true,
you know you really have to havea lot of faith and you got to
stay grounded in your faith atall times because, as you and I
both know, you know it'schallenging.
It's a growth path like thiswhere there's ups, downs, ups,
downs, and you have to getthrough the downs, but the only
(33:08):
way you lose is if you quit, andthe first key to that is you
always got to have faith.
You got to have faith inyourself and you got to have
faith in a higher power, in myopinion, because that's going to
feed the relentlessness, that'sgoing to feed the work ethic
and the perseverance and it'salso going to feed the direction
(33:28):
and the ideas and the strategywhen you have that.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So I would say faith Outstanding From one Christian
business owner to another.
I love that answer.
So, josh, thank you so much forbeing a guest on the Firing
Demand Podcast.
If people are interested ingetting in touch, we'll put a
link to your email in the shownotes and on your IPO day or
shortly thereafter let's hopback on the pod and celebrate.
(33:53):
That's exciting.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
We'll definitely do a toast.
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a
show for anyone who wants to betheir own boss.
If you sit in a cubicle everyday and know you are capable of
more, then join us.
This show will help you build abusiness and grow your passive
income streams in just a fewshort hours per day.
And now your hosts, serialentrepreneurs David Shomer and
(00:22):
Ken Wilson.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, the
show dedicated to helping youbreak free of the nine to five
grind and build a thrivinge-commerce business.
Whether you're just gettingstarted or scaling to new
heights, we have the strategies,insights and real world
experiences that you need.
Today we have a real powerhouseguest, josh Marsden, the
(00:46):
founder of Arm5 Formula and atrue expert in scaling and
selling e-commerce brands.
Josh is a military veteranturned entrepreneur, an
international bestselling authorand a marketing strategist
who's been featured in majormedia outlets like the
Huffington Post and DigitalMarketer.
In this episode, we'll dive deepinto his unique ARM5 formula, a
(01:09):
proven system for acquiring,optimizing and exiting
e-commerce businesses formaximum profit.
Plus, josh will share hisjourney, lesson learned and
actionable strategies that youcan apply to your own business
right now.
If you're looking to scale youre-commerce business, this is an
episode you are not going towant to miss.
(01:29):
Josh, welcome to the podcast.
Yeah, thank you for having me,absolutely.
So, to get things started, canyou share with our audience a
little bit about your backgroundand path to founding RM5
Formula?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, sure.
So you know, I was just likejust about anybody else.
The only difference is is thatI was a military brat for the
first 11 years of my life andlived in different places, was
born in Germany, but eventuallywe settled in Arizona and I was
raised by a blue collar dad, awhite collar mom, and was taught
(02:05):
to value education.
I was taught to go to college,was taught to focus on getting a
good career, and so I wentthrough the normal path that the
average person in the UnitedStates, at least you know, goes
through.
And you know I went to highschool, was an honor student,
started working when I was 14,graduated high school at 17,
(02:28):
went into college rightafterwards, and then, when I
first went into college, Iwasn't quite ready for being
independent, I think, and Ididn't have my priorities
straight, and I ended uppartying too much for about a
(02:51):
year and a half, dropping out ofschool, literally not earning
any credit for a year and a half.
So I just wasted a year and ahalf of my life, and also some
light student loans even, and itwas at that point that I was
like all right, well, you knowwhat?
I got to do?
Something here.
I got to get back on track here.
You know, I'm not where I wantto be, I'm not where I want to
go.
I got to get back on track here.
You know, I, I, um, I'm notwhere I want to be, I'm not
where I want to go, and um, andso at that point in time I
decided to join the army andsign up for the army national
(03:11):
guard.
Um, and that was the bestdecision at that point in time,
when I was 19, that I could make.
Um, because I dropped out ofhigh school or not, high school,
college, and um, I and I wasliterally working as a manager
at Taco Bell at the time.
And then I went in the militaryand the military really brought
(03:32):
me back, I think, to myfoundation, because I had always
had that pre-built discipline,work ethic due to the way my
parents raised me.
But that just got it backbecause I took it very seriously
, because the military was sucha big part of my life growing up
.
I mean it's funny, but wheneverI walk into a military building
(03:55):
, in a military installation,and I smell the musty smell that
these buildings have, I feelright at home.
It like relaxed me and it makesme feel nostalgic, and so it
was a great.
You know, it was a greatopportunity for me to grow up
and to get back on track, andthat's exactly what seven months
(04:15):
in Georgia and Alabama goingthrough basic, going through
advanced school for air trafficcontrol.
It's exactly what that did,because then, when I came back
to Arizona and I was in theNational Guard, I was a
different person.
I was focused on getting backinto school, getting my
education done.
I was focused on doing goodwork and making better decisions
, and that's what I did fromthat point on and then after
(04:38):
that, I got into.
Shortly after that, I got intocorporate America.
I worked at this company,university of Scenics, which was
a publicly traded company, avery successful company.
It was doing very, very wellback in the mid-2000s and I was
very successful at it.
I was the top manager in mydivision, which was Mountain
(05:08):
Plains, for the fiscal year 2010, for example, and then going
into 2012,.
I knew that things were notreally working very well with
University of Phoenix, becauseUniversity of Phoenix
unfortunately had changes to howthey had to do business that
were dictated by a newgovernment regulation and so,
(05:32):
because of that, compensationchanged and you couldn't get the
same increases in your salarythat you could get before.
As managers, we couldn't manageour team the same way we did
before as well.
It was a complete culturechange and it was also,
unfortunately, a change to theopportunity that University of
Phoenix was prior to that, andso, going into 2012, I was
(05:56):
becoming open to pivoting andleaving University of Phoenix
and going in a differentdirection.
And then I had some friends ofmine that had transitioned over
the years to Infusionsoft, whichis now known as Keep, and they
sold me on the idea of comingover and doing sales for Keep,
and so I did that in 2012.
(06:17):
And it was really humblingbecause I was a manager at
University of Phoenix, verysuccessful, had a great team,
had several great teams, and Ihad a very comfortable position
and I was making nearly sixfigures a year, which at the
time, was pretty good,considering where my bar was at
that point in time, which hasdrastically changed since.
(06:39):
But that's the path we go on asentrepreneurs we keep raising
our bar, and so I went to keepstart selling and I did.
Okay, I was 108% to quota theentire year, but I wasn't happy.
I didn't want to get back intosales.
I was a leader.
I wanted to be a leader.
I wanted to get back intoleadership.
(07:00):
I wanted to get back intosomething that drove me,
something that challenged me,because I'm driven by challenges
.
I wanted to get back intosomething that drove me,
something that challenged me,because I'm driven by challenges
.
And I think that my manager, mysecond manager I had two
managers at Infusionsoft he knewthat I wasn't happy.
He could tell, and at the endof 2012, he actually let me go
and that was what pushed me intoentrepreneurship, because at
(07:24):
that point in time I dove intobecoming a freelancer, because I
had learned the software and Ihad a background in marketing
from my bachelor's degree and mymaster's degree that I was in
the middle of, and I also was insales for maybe 10, 15 years up
to that point in time.
So I dove into freelancing andmade my first money on my own.
(07:47):
I made 1700 bucks in like 30days, which isn't a lot, but it
was good.
It was just validation that Icould make money on my own, I
didn't have to depend on demand.
And then I did start at anotherjob in early 2013.
And right away they threw at methat I would have to change my
schedule with my three-year-oldson to be able to stay at the
(08:11):
company, because they wanted meto work until 7pm Monday through
Friday, and there was some dayswhere I had to go pick them up
from preschool and I had to bethere by 5.30.
And so, after stringing themalong for two weeks after they
gave me this ultimatum,basically I finally was like you
know what it's not going towork out.
I'm going to dive intoentrepreneurship.
(08:33):
I'm going to be successful atstarting up my own marketing
agency.
Actually, I didn't even think itwas going to be a marketing
agency at the time.
It was just going to be anagency and that was that.
And so from that point on iswhen I started my business.
I've now been in business for12 years.
It's been a blessed journey.
I've had lots of highs, I'vehad lots of challenges, lots of
stress as well, but no regrets.
(08:55):
And we've done some big thingsover the last 12 years and we're
on the verge of something very,very big as well.
So that's my background in anutshell of something very, very
big as well.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So that's my background in a nutshell.
Outstanding, I love that story.
I'm excited to dig into some ofthose big things that you got
going on Now.
The show is called Firing theman Podcast.
I'd like to dive into yourFiring the man day.
The day that you said I'm donewith this, I'm picking up my.
Tell me if it sounds like itwas the day that they won't let
you pick up your son is the day.
But what were you thinking andwhat advice would you give to
(09:29):
people who are in a similar spotwho are thinking I'm looking
over the fence and it looks goodover there and I would like to
try entrepreneurship, but I'mscared.
I'm scared, I'm worried.
What, if?
What advice would you give to?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
them.
Yeah well, I'll kind of work myway backwards.
I would tell that person thatthey need to have faith in
themselves and have faith in ahigher power, Because at the
time when I dove in, I had lotsof faith, but I didn't even
realize it was, you know, faithfrom a higher power at the time.
(10:04):
Um, because I had kind ofveered away a bit from my
Christianity.
Um, but now, looking back, youknow, in that decision that I
made and in putting my backagainst the wall to be
successful at that journey, Inow know that it was because I
had that faith from a higherpower.
You know, the faith from ahigher power is what drove me
(10:27):
into that and drove me tosuccess and has helped me
succeed since.
So I would tell anybodylistening or watching this that
you just have to believe inyourself and you have to go all
in and you have to have faith inyourself and you have to be
relentless, because it's notgoing to be easy but it's worth
it.
And and just to just to have arelentless work, ethic and and
(10:53):
perseverance, determination, um,and and just keep driving
forward and just believe thatyou can be successful at it.
Um, that's what I would tellsomeone that's considering
leaving the man.
Uh, because at the, at the timewhen I left the man, um, that
was the kick that I needed,hearing from my boss that I
(11:15):
would have to change my schedule.
And, um, and I and they, theydid leave it on a Friday.
It was like the third Friday Iwas there, they gave me the
ultimatum, they told me thatcoming into Monday, I had to
have this figured out and I waslike, okay, and so I took that
weekend to take a sheet of paper, create a table, two columns,
(11:36):
three rows, and I basically juststacked the two paths that I
could take staying at thecompany or diving in, starting
my agency and I had that on thetop of the columns and I went
over.
This is the positive of how wecould work out this and the
strengths of the decision.
Here's the weaknesses, here'sthe worst that can happen.
(11:58):
If I were to go down thesepaths.
And to me, that helped me gofrom emotional to logic and to
see that I really didn't haveanything to lose.
Because that's the fear thatpeople have when they're leaving
a full-time job.
They're like, how am I going tomake money?
How am I going to support mychildren?
How am I going to support mychildren?
(12:21):
How am I going to support myfamily?
How am I going to supportmyself?
But once you eliminate theemotion and you look at the
comparison logically, you'llprobably see the same thing.
I saw that you have nothing tolose and everything to gain
Because, in my case at least, Ihad a bachelor's degree, almost
a master's degree at the time.
I had prior successfulmanagement experience at a
Fortune 500 company.
I was a veteran and so, even ifbusiness didn't work out, I had
(12:45):
stuff to fall back on and Iwould figure it out.
So that's my background, that'show I pushed myself into
entrepreneurship and that's whatI would tell someone that's
considering doing the same.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I love how you physically wrote it out.
I think that's a step that alot of people would be surprised
if they went through.
The answer almost seems obviouswhen you have the pros and cons
column and you're absolutelyright the man's not going
anywhere.
If it doesn't work out inentrepreneurship, you can always
go back and you'll be in thesame spot you are now and so I
(13:19):
really like that story.
So let's chat eCommerce.
So you have put your eggs inthe eCommerce basket.
I think that's fair to say.
What drew you to eCommerce?
Can you share a little bitabout your journey in this world
?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, absolutely so.
As I mentioned, I started myagency in early 2013.
But when I started my agency,it was really based around
providing service for companiesthat were using Infusionsoft,
Because that's what I hadexperience with from 2012.
And so I started sellingmarketing services, business
(13:57):
automation services, anythingand everything that I could sell
to make some money aroundproviding Infusionsoft help,
some crazy phenomenalautomations that can get the
outcomes that companies want,because I was really good at
(14:20):
creating automations inInfusionsoft.
I was like, even though I likedoing this from a scientific
engineering perspective, I don'treally have the passion for
doing this.
I am a performance-drivenperson.
I am a results driven person.
I had been in sales and salesmanagement for the last you know
(14:40):
12 or so years, and so thatreally drew me towards marketing
.
And then, finally, at somepoint, I said I'm not selling
any more business automationservices.
I'm strictly selling marketingservices.
I even changed my agency namethis way.
I included marketing in myagency name, and that led me
down the path of becoming anexpert in digital marketing and
(15:02):
digital advertising.
I mean, I literally pour intobooks I probably have read or
listened to.
Actually, it's not evenprobably.
I know that I've read orlistened to hundreds of books
since 2013.
So I'd be the best that I couldbe, because that's just the way
I am.
When I commit to something, youknow I do whatever I can to be
successful at it.
(15:23):
And and that led me into um,building a marketing agency that
was performance driven.
That eventually became RM5Formula Company.
Um and the RM5 Formula is amarketing scaling methodology
that came out of thepredictability that we were
seeing in our client results byusing digital advertising
(15:45):
funnels, conversion rateoptimization, content marketing
and follow-up marketing withemail and SMS, basically.
But we productized our servicesinto two different packages.
We were charging $6,000 or$12,000 a month, depending on
which package, plus aperformance bonus based on
profit, versus how a lot ofagencies were doing, Because
(16:06):
agencies still do this, wherethey charge a percent on ad
spend, but that doesn'tnecessarily lead to results, and
I didn't want to do that.
So that's how I got intoe-commerce and digital marketing
.
Because in 2017, I decided thatI would niche down into
e-commerce because over the lastfew years, as I had different
clients selling different thingsthe e-commerce clients that I
(16:29):
had selling physical products Isaw that there was just a major
gap between what they're doingand what they could do, because
these people are not marketers.
Like, if you talk to an infoproduct seller, he's a marketer
typically he's a veryworld-class direct response
digital marketer but if you talkto an e-commerce business owner
(16:49):
, they're not necessarily verygood marketers in a lot of cases
.
And that's what I found and Isaw that I was delivering so
much value and so much impact toe-commerce clients and also I
wanted to create a name formyself.
I wanted to stand out in thecrowd.
So that's when I decided toniche down into e-commerce was
late 2017.
So since then, I've beenpassionate about e-com, I've
(17:12):
learned everything I can aboute-com and now I'm running an
e-commerce aggregator with somebig things on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Outstanding, outstanding and excited to get
into that Before we do, as wesit here recording this episode
in February 2025, what are somethings that you think e-commerce
entrepreneurs get wrong ontheir marketing efforts?
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah, I mean that's a really big, big question,
because there's probably a lotof things that I can really
identify that I've seen over theyears, but I think for one,
they really don't focus ontrying to differentiate
themselves.
They don't come up with a bigidea, for example, in their
marketing, that gets theirproduct line to stand out versus
competitors.
I also see many, many timesthat e-commerce business owners
(18:05):
always fail at follow-upmarketing and they focus too
much on front-end acquisition.
We've got this great businesswe're about to purchase and
partner up on with some of theowners and they are very smart
guys, they've done an incrediblejob with their business, but
(18:25):
they've only done new customeracquisition really and very
little follow-up marketing andtheir customer return rate is
literally 5%, but yet they net$1.8 to $3 million a year.
So I've seen that many timesover, where e-commerce
businesses fail at focusing onthe backend, where the money is
made, because any marketer knowsthat.
(18:47):
It's not about that front-endacquisition.
Yes, you do need it obviously togrow and ideally you're doing
it profitably.
That's where you're makingprofit on day one of your
customer journeys, but you'releaving a lot of money, a lot of
profit, on the table if youdon't focus on trying to deliver
more value and more impact toyour customers, and I see that
(19:08):
many, many times over.
Yeah, I mean.
Besides that, I think thebiggest thing is that e-commerce
business owners always try todo so much themselves too and
they don't take organizationalleadership as seriously as they
can to scale themselves out andto scale their business in the
process, because you can onlyscale your e-com business to a
(19:31):
certain point without having agood team.
You need a good team and youneed to take team building, team
management and everything thatgoes into building an actual
corporate organization veryseriously if you're going to
break into multi-seven, eightfigures and beyond.
A lot of times, I see a lot ofowners doing too much themselves
(19:53):
and not really being veryeffective at building a real
organization that can run thebusiness and grow the business
without them.
So those are probably the topthree things that I see.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I really like that.
I really like that, and you'respot on on all of those.
I agree with all of them.
One thing you mentioned is thefollow-up marketing right.
It's the classic case ofsomeone pushing a lot of Google
ads traffic to their website,not having a band and cart
sequence.
So that's what comes to mindfor me.
What are some ways thatfollow-up marketing can be
(20:30):
effective?
Or, on that list of follow-upmarketing, what is there?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, yeah, well, I think that you need to have like
a brand message.
You know your brain has tostand for something, because
your follow-up marketing isreally about building that
relationship, and so you have tohave something.
You stand on, a mission thatyour company stands on and that
just then dilutes down to whatsubject matter do you talk about
(20:59):
in your content, to offer valuein your content, in your
follow-up marketing?
And then you also need to havea plan.
You know, a promo calendar, forexample, that tells you when
you're promoting different offer, different products or maybe
different sales around holidays,you know, for example.
So you just have to have like agood blend of all that where
(21:20):
you're able to create anexperience and you're able to
create a relationship and buildtrust and come across as an
authority in your subject matterin your follow-up marketing.
The Arm platform really speaksto authority.
That's what A stands for, andauthority comes down to becoming
a trusted expert in the subjectmatter that your business
(21:42):
specializes in, and that's oneof the biggest things that we
focus on when we were runningour company as an agency years
ago with our clients.
Is we focus on driving reallygood top of the funnel content
or, if the eCommerce businessowner was recording content.
We made sure that everybody sawtop of the funnel, because what
(22:02):
that does is it builds brand,it builds trust and then direct
response marketing takes care ofthe rest.
So that's the advice that Iwould give to anybody that
really needs to do a better jobwith their follow-up marketing
is create trust, focus onsubject matter that's relevant
and related to your business andis also value for your audience
as well, and just be verystructured, very disciplined,
(22:25):
very consistent with yourapproach, so this way you can
continue to build that trust andsee that flywheel effect happen
as you're executing on yourfollow-up marketing strategy.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
That's really good advice For our listeners.
You ought to rewind and listento that again.
There is a ton of really goodvalue packed in there.
Now we've hinted at it a littlebit.
Arm 5 Formula has got somereally exciting stuff going on
this year.
What can you tell us?
What do you got going on?
Sure yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Well, I think it's no secret, because we've been
publicizing this, but it's nosecret that we're working on
going public and getting on apublic stock exchange.
We came pretty close to doingsomething at the end of 2024.
But I'm glad that we decidedagainst going down that path,
because we almost went down thepath where we became a penny
stock, which I don't think wouldhave been good, based on the
(23:19):
feedback that I was receivingfrom different people in my
network that have a lot moreexperience with the public
markets and the different stockexchanges.
And then, early 2025, weactually signed with
directipocom and now we're inthe process of pushing to get on
the NASDAQ.
It's most likely going to bethe NASDAQ in April or May, and
(23:43):
we actually have an excitingpending deal that I can't unpack
too much right now.
But we have an exciting pendingdeal right now with another
company that they're really goodat developing cutting edge
products.
It's ran by a chief scienceofficer that's been around for
literally like 30, 40 years, andso they have a family of
(24:07):
cutting edge products that theyneed help selling, which is why
they're doing the deal, becausethey want access to our
marketing prowess.
We're a match made in heaven,as we've been saying, and so any
day now we should be finalizinga deal to merge with this
company and this company is inthe middle of an SEC audit to
get on the NASDAQ.
(24:28):
They're on target to be on theNASDAQ in March and we're about
to sign papers to merge withthem to then be inserted into
the audit process and then tofinalize that process over the
next month or so and uplist onthe NASDAQ and the ticker should
(24:49):
be RM5.
That's one of the requests thatI made, so I'm pretty excited
for it.
We just got to get through thisprocess right now and just
handle one domino at a time.
So that's what's happeningright now.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That's outstanding.
And congratulations on almostbeing in the major leagues.
I mean, when you get intobusiness, there's the grind, the
early entrepreneurship phase,and there's the more mature and
you're about to enter the majorleagues, which is outstanding.
So, you had mentioned workingwith some aggregators and making
(25:24):
some acquisitions.
Can you talk about that and, toour listeners that are business
owners, what's your strike zonefor acquisition?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, sure, between $1.2 million, which is
approximately anywhere between$400,000 to $600,000 EBITDA, and
all the way up to $10 million.
We're actually moving up thebuy box right now by going
public, because we'll haveaccess to more capital to be
(25:58):
able to buy bigger and betterbusinesses.
But that's been our buy boxover the last two years now,
throughout 2023 and 2024.
And typically we're looking fordirect-to-consumer brands, so
not just Amazon.
We want real brands that havetheir own marketing and they
control the entire marketingjourney and they have access to
(26:18):
all the contact details and allthe data.
That's what we're looking foras well.
And then, besides that, we'relooking for no dropshipping
companies companies that haveeffective, successful marketing
strategies that we can build on,companies that have a
dependable supply chain that canscale with us as we scale their
marketing results, and alsocompanies that are U US-based as
(26:41):
well.
We unfortunately found out latein 2022 that international
businesses were not in our bestinterest.
We bought one and it didn'twork out six or so months later.
So we now don't buyinternational businesses.
We focus on US-based businesses.
So that's our buy box and again, I do anticipate here in the
next few months that our buyBoxwill ship upwards a bit, and
(27:04):
we'll focus on buying evenbigger businesses, since we
won't have as much friction whenit comes to acquiring the
capital needed to be able to buybusinesses.
So that's our BuyBox and that'swhat we target.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Outstanding, outstanding.
If any of our listeners fitthat strike zone and are
thinking about selling, what'sthe best way to get in touch
with you?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Well, you could just shoot me an email at josh at
rm5formulacom.
And we actually do business twodifferent ways with e-com
business owners.
We can either buy the companyoutright or we can buy into the
company and partner up with youand give you the resources and
the experience that we have.
So we bring 800 million indirect marketing experience with
(27:48):
my team and I.
We also raise capital and canadd a lot of growth fuel to your
business to help you scalefaster and soon that's going to
be magnified.
Being a public company havingaccess to the capital markets,
uh, so we'll be able to excuseme, we'll be able to buy even
more cash resources when thathappens as well.
(28:10):
I think I need some water rightnow and um, and then on top of
that too, I mean, we have a veryexpansive network.
I personally have an expansivenetwork.
Uh, I'm known as a bit of asuper connector to people in the
industry, so I can bring indifferent people to help us with
different things.
So I bring a lot to the tableresource-wise to help e-commerce
(28:30):
businesses be able to growfaster and also with less
friction in the process.
So if anybody's interested inconnecting with me and talking,
just shoot me an email.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Outstanding.
We'll post a link to that inthe show notes.
Before we wrap up, we havesomething called the fire round.
This is four questions that weask every guest at the end of
the show.
Are you ready for the fireround?
Let's go Do it, all right.
What is your favorite book?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Um, so I wouldn't say this is my number one favorite,
because it's hard to say number, like it's hard to pick out one
book.
But I am currently reading thesurrender experiment and I'm
almost done with it and it's um,it's really relevant for me
because it's helping me to letgo more and to just trust the
(29:20):
process and uh, and give it you,it to the universe, and not try
to control everything.
So that's my current favoritebook.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Very nice.
What are your hobbies?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Hobbies outside of spending time with my family and
my 15-year-old teenage son, ormy two-year-old baby girl and my
fiance?
Um, it's, this is gonna makepeople laugh if they hear this,
but I like to build models andpaint models.
Um, you know it.
Just it ignites like anartistic side of me that I
(29:54):
didn't I haven't had since I wasa kid, and so that's why I like
doing it.
Um, plus, it's just completelydifferent.
It gets me off the computer too, which is nice.
I'm massive into fitness.
I work out four to six days aweek, and then, besides that, I
do like to play a video game ortwo here and there.
I mean, I grew up in theNintendo age back in the 80s, so
(30:16):
it's ingrained in me, and I'vealways been very good at video
games.
When it comes to competition, Imean, if I jump on call of duty
, I'm typically number one ornumber two, and I don't even
play that often, but I just am areally good first person
shooter.
So so I do that from time totime to just unwind and relax a
little bit.
So those are my hobbies rightnow.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Outstanding, outstanding.
Next question what is one thingyou do not miss about working
for the man?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
too bad, I can't say everything, um, uh, you know,
honestly, the the biggest thingthat I don't miss is is having
the ceiling.
Having the ceiling because,know, when you work for the man,
you have too many restrictions.
(31:07):
You have a ceiling, you haveother people that dictate that
ceiling, you have other peoplethat dictate your progress as
well and your rewards.
And when you're an entrepreneur, you have an open playing field
and you set your standard, youset your bar and you can really
make anything happen that youmanifest and you work towards.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
So that's the biggest thing that I love about
entrepreneurship versus workingfor the man, very nice, I like
that, I really like that, andit's a totally different mindset
, right when that ceiling isremoved and your upside is
unlimited.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So, yeah, I always felt like very trapped and
limited and, you know, a littlebit underserved and like I was
in the matrix, you know, as alot of people feel.
And you know, even though Ididn't grow up an entrepreneur
and I wasn't born toentrepreneur parents and I
didn't become an entrepreneuruntil my early thirties, I think
I always had it in me because Ialways just felt that I wasn't
(32:08):
being challenged enough.
And I wasn't because I haddreams.
I had big dreams growing up.
I wanted to be an astronautwhen I was a kid and you know, I
just was following the system.
You know I was following thesystem, I was in the system and
it just wasn't serving me andluckily, you know, the universe
led me to where I'm at now,today.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Very good, very good.
Now, final question what is onething that you think sets apart
successful e-commerceentrepreneurs from those who
give up, fail or never getstarted up, fail or never get
started.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I would say faith first and foremost.
I talked about faith on thisepisode today, but it's true,
you know you really have to havea lot of faith and you got to
stay grounded in your faith atall times because, as you and I
both know, you know it'schallenging.
It's a growth path like thiswhere there's ups, downs, ups,
downs, and you have to getthrough the downs, but the only
(33:08):
way you lose is if you quit, andthe first key to that is you
always got to have faith.
You got to have faith inyourself and you got to have
faith in a higher power, in myopinion, because that's going to
feed the relentlessness, that'sgoing to feed the work ethic
and the perseverance and it'salso going to feed the direction
(33:28):
and the ideas and the strategywhen you have that.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So I would say faith Outstanding From one Christian
business owner to another.
I love that answer.
So, josh, thank you so much forbeing a guest on the Firing
Demand Podcast.
If people are interested ingetting in touch, we'll put a
link to your email in the shownotes and on your IPO day or
shortly thereafter let's hopback on the pod and celebrate.
(33:53):
That's exciting.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
We'll definitely do a toast.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!