eComFuel Podcast

What can eCommerce founders learn from lead generation, direct response marketing, and managing more than 1,000 people? In this episode, I sit down with Sean McGinnis, Co-Founder of The Manager Vault, to explore the very different worlds of outbound lead generation and direct response marketing. You'll hear why cold calling can work despite brutal rejection rates, how speed-to-lead can dramatically im...

What happens when an eCommerce owner stops asking, "How can I get more people to do this work?" and starts asking, "How can I redesign the work entirely?" In this episode, I'm joined by Eli Zauner, co-founder of Universal Yums, who is using AI, software, and automation to tackle the complexity of an eight-figure consumer business. Whether you're an eCommerce founder looking to automate repetitive work...

What if the goal of entrepreneurship wasn't to build the biggest business possible, but to build a business and a life you genuinely don't want to escape from? In this episode, I sit down with Evan Bryce Riddle, co-founder of Art of Mondays, a community for "lifestyle founders" who want to pursue entrepreneurship alongside health, wellness, travel, relationships, and personal growth. Evan shares how h...

What makes a marketing campaign so unforgettable that you'll go out of your way to visit the business behind it? In this episode, you'll hear the story of an unexpected roadside advertising campaign that transformed a long drive through rural Colorado into a masterclass in customer psychology. What began as a series of mysterious vintage-looking signs became a powerful lesson in how great marketing cr...

What happens when a successful eCommerce entrepreneur decides to walk away from it all? After spending more than a decade building eCommerce brands and co-founding one of the industry's best-known communities, Mike Jackness made the surprising decision to leave it all behind and start again from scratch. In this episode, he shares why he stepped away, the personal and professional factors behind his d...

What if getting stronger had less to do with motivation and more to do with building a routine that actually fits your life? In this episode, I'm sharing the practical lessons I have learned after nearly three years of consistent strength training. You'll discover why chasing the "perfect" workout is often the biggest obstacle to long-term success, how to create a sustainable routine around your sched...

How can you build an eCommerce business that lasts for decades, not just the next algorithm update? In this episode, Edward Wimmer IV, co-founder of ROAD iD, shares how a near-fatal accident inspired a business that's now helped save lives while growing into a thriving eight-figure brand. You'll hear how he and his father started the company from a basement with two credit cards, why purpose has been ...

How do you operate a business when things start to get tough? In this episode, Matt Snow, co-founder of Boredwalk.com, shares two hard-earned lessons from running a fast-growing eCommerce business with his wife. If you've struggled to delegate, scale operations, or find an integrator who can truly own the day-to-day, listen in to hear what worked, what didn't, and why relying on "good vibes" alone can...

What really separates eight- and nine-figure eCommerce businesses from everyone else? Today, we are revisiting one of my favorite episodes from earlier this year, where I unpack the biggest takeaways from eComm Camp, our annual gathering of founders running 8-figure businesses. Looking back, these lessons feel just as relevant today, and I wanted to bring them back for anyone who missed them the first...

If your eCommerce store shut down tomorrow, how long could you survive on everything else you've built? In this episode, Michael Jelliff, owner of Geekstands.com, reveals how he built one of the leanest, most profitable eCommerce operations around (an intentionally small, three-person team that throws off serious cash) and then did something most founders don't: pulled nearly all of it out and investe...

What does it take to build a manufacturing brand from scratch with your own machines, your own team, and your own two hands? In this episode, Liz Hilton, inventor, founder, and owner of Swaddelini, shares how she turned a sleepless night as a new mom into a US-made baby swaddle brand powered by 3D knit technology.

Listen in as Liz shares the wild ride of going vir...

Is YouTube the most underrated paid channel for eCommerce brands right now? In this episode, I sit down with Brett Curry, founder of OMG Commerce, to break down exactly how seven- and eight-figure brands should be thinking about YouTube ads. Brett has been running YouTube campaigns for top D2C brands for years, and he reveals why YouTube looks terrible in most reporting tools… and ...

What would happen if you woke up tomorrow and were suddenly taxed an extra 33% on every dollar of profit your business produced? In this rerun episode, I break down why that scenario isn't far off from what many founders are already doing, simply by failing to optimize their pricing, overhead, and after-tax income.

Listen in as I walk through the three profit leve...

What does it take to build a highly profitable software company without venture capital, a massive team, or endless scaling pressure? In this episode, Bryce Adams, founder of Metorik, unpacks how he built a successful business serving thousands of Shopify and WooCommerce stores… with a team of just four people.

Listen in as Bryce shares his philosophy aroun...

What happens when the systems and people you thought would solve your problems… stop fitting the season you're in? In this episode, I share an honest follow-up on hiring (and eventually parting ways with) my executive assistant after nearly two years. I break down what worked, what quietly fell apart over time, and why AI is starting to change the equation for founders trying to delegate effect...

What happens when a business owner spends 40 hours building their own AI-powered workflow system instead of hiring another employee? In this episode, I share what I learned after diving deep into Claude Code and building a custom content operations platform designed to streamline idea capture, content creation, scheduling, analytics, and workflow management. You'll learn how AI ...

Is SEO actually dead this time, or are we just watching it slowly lose relevance? In this episode, I'll share why I officially stopped investing in SEO after building multiple businesses on it for over a decade. You'll learn what's changed in the search landscape, why organic traffic is declining for even experienced operators, and how crowded search results have made it harder than ever to win meanin...