Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Interview at EcomBalance. At EcomBalance, we’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the ecommerce space.
In this exclusive interview, we have a conversation with Daniel Lindsey from Ecom Freedom Accelerator.
Connor: Hey Daniel, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. As a company, one of our goals is to highlight our partners so that our clients can benefit where it makes most sense. To get started, can you give us a high-level introduction to Ecom Freedom Accelerator and a little bit about how the company got started? 
Daniel: So Ecom Freedom Accelerator was built to help either those with an existing ecommerce brand, or those that have tried to and wanted to build an ecommerce brand. And it got started because of my ecommerce experience for the past 10 years.
In the past three years, I’ve gone over $8 million in revenue across many different brands. I’ve also built out a 3PL fulfillment warehouse now. And about a year ago, I just felt like this is where I needed to start moving. My focus was helping other people build their brands and do the same thing that I’ve been able to do. Connor: Thanks for sharing that! Can you dive a bit more into the ecommerce centered consulting services you offer? Our audience is always looking for reputable companies that they can lean on for specific parts of their eCommerce businesses. Daniel: What I offer is consulting backed up by me directly.
What I found is that for those with existing ecommerce brands, I’m typically able to add a lot more value than those who are brand new and starting out because they need help with everything – building a website, logo, etc., and I’m a little bit pricey for that level of mentorship in my opinion.
But if you already have an ecommerce business and you’re just looking how to grow to that next hump, whether it’s 10k per month, 100k per month or more, that’s where I feel like I can come in and really help lay out a plan and give some insight and help that growth happen.
So that’s my goal: to come in and help people actually take their product based ecommerce brand or business and turn it into real brand focus in terms of truly serving their customers, providing real high value and build a community around your brand and build something that’s going to be an asset that my clients can then sell down the road once they scale that up, if that’s what they want to do.Connor: Jumping off of that…when you’re thinking about your ideal customer, who is that? Where are they selling online? Where are they located in the world? How much sales do they typically have in a year? If there’s any other qualities, please include them as well. We’re all about making introductions where it benefits both parties. Daniel: The ideal customer will just be someone that already has an ecommerce business. Ideally, they already got some sales rolling in and they just can’t really seem to scale it or they can’t seem to get things dialed in just perfectly.
The reason that I like those clients particularly is because the learning curve is much quicker. I can tell them to make certain changes, and I don’t need to show them how to go make those changes on their website; they already know how to do that.
Realistically, I’d say if they’re earning at least 10k per month, that’s where it makes sense to invest in a mentor like myself to help them. Connor: For our audience to truly understand what makes you stand out from other companies providing products and services to ecommerce businesses, can you share a story of how Ecom Freedom Accelerator truly helped one of its customers?Daniel: One of my clients came to me, had a product, and had this plan on this idea. He had this product that he thought was really cool. After meeting with him and talking to him enough, I was able to help him realize that cool products can sell for a little bit, but it’s hard to build brands around products that are just cool but doesn’t really solve problems.
That really helped him pivot and I helped him identify experiences and knowledge he has from his own life to build a brand around a completely different audience, niche, and market and solve a completely different problem. And they’re already seeing a lot more progress, a lot more fulfillment and purpose behind their brand, and what they’re able to do for that community.
I think building a brand is more than just making money, it’s about building something that you’re passionate about.
Another quick example – when another of my clients already had an existing brand, but they only get a couple of sales and they feel pretty stagnant. So it will help them kind of pivot and realize what kind of marketing avenues they should go down versus where they haven’t trained so far.
And like I mentioned before, there’s so many options, being able to provide that clarity and path to follow. I was able to provide, help them see that and they were able to, start actually getting the traction, getting really positive feedback on their products and building that community around their story that they didn’t have before.
I want to help them develop this brand, community, and problem-solving focused strategy that’s a slower build than spending a ton of money on advertising and selling something that’s catchy, and with really good marketing words that aren’t actually even that good of a product.
But it is just the better option.
People are becoming more in-tune to those “scammy” products. So having a truly high-quality premium product to help people is the way to go.Connor: As you and your company think about the next year ahead, what does it look like? Are there any specific initiatives that you’re working on as a team to better your products and services for your customers?Daniel: Potentially, by the end of ’23, we’ll actually have an agency service built out to help with email marketing, paid ads on social media platforms, graphic design, or web development. So kind of a full service agency that if the client wants to do more of a done-for-you service, or a very intensive done-with-you service where we do a lot of it.
And that’s what we’re looking to potentially build out on the back end, because I have a lot built out for my own brands. We’re just looking at how to turn that into more of an agency-style service.Connor: How about this…everyone loves a company’s growth story. We all naturally go through ups and downs as a company. What was one of the biggest challenges that the company faced in its growing stages? Daniel: Honestly, Ecom Freedom Accelerator is not my main company/source of income — my ecommerce brands are.
In the past, I’d started seven or eight different ecommerce brands that did okay, some did 10 grand, some did 150 grand. But then I lost all the money trying to scale them again. Plenty of failures but I just kept pushing. Then finally I hired a mentor in 2019, and once I worked with him, I was able to do 2.3 million in six months while I was still working a full-time day job, which is pretty wild.
And so from failure to failure, having my back up against the wall, I was able to make that huge breakthrough with the mentor I hired. It’s been pretty crazy.Connor: Thanks! Let’s talk some eCommerce! Where do you see the industry heading in the next 1–2 years? Any big changes that you’re predicting for the industry? How can eCommerce companies prepare for it?Daniel: I think I touched on a lot of it already. I’m 100% confident we’ll be focused on extremely high quality products, premium brands, and brands that are building communities around them.
The days of getting some cheap private label product from China, throwing it on Amazon or your website and selling it are pretty much gone. It can still be done, but it’s not as easy, and you’re not building a long-term asset. People are starting to see through those type of sub brands and want to be parts of brands that they feel are speaking to them directly.
People nowadays enjoy the community that comes with the brand.Connor: Changing gears a little bit…When it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, what do you think the biggest pain points for eCommerce business owners are? Feel free to speak from personal experience as well. Daniel: A lot of us, my clients and myself, are doing ecommerce all on their own. Bookkeeping isn’t always something that has to be done in order to keep getting sales or to keep shipping out orders, which makes it feel like it’s not a huge priority.
When it comes down to it, knowing your numbers accurately is very important to be able to scale up properly. And on of the biggest problems there is just we don’t have the time, and so we put it off and then we just don’t have that data in front of us to make the decisions like we should.
I think it’s just the time right now, and it is nicer to have people do that for you.
Connor: Okay, here’s an open mic opportunity. If there’s one thing that you’d want the EcomBalance community to hear from you, what would it be?Daniel: The biggest thing that comes to mind is that there isn’t one specific part of ecommerce and building an ecommerce brand that’s particularly hard. There’s nothing that requires an insane amount of intelligence work, but it’s just there’s so many different things.
So it just comes down to being consistent and constantly learning from your mistakes, even more than from your successes. Just keep trying over and over and over again. Because, I can tell you: between me and other brands I’ve helped work with, you only truly fail if you stop trying to push forward. Just take it one day at a time and focus on the things you’re trying to accomplish now.
And of course I’m a huge proponent of finding people that have done what you want to do and work with them.
Whether that’s me or a different mentor, finding someone that’s already at a place where you want to be, and then having them help you get there as well, is a huge shortcut to doing so.Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today? Daniel: The best place to follow me is through my personal profile on Facebook. That’ll be the best place to stay in touch with what I’m doing with my brands and with Ecom Freedom Accelerator.
For your community, they can book a 30 minute strategy session with me. Within that 30 minutes I really just try to learn as much as I can about the brand, what they need, where they’re struggling, and really try to give them the quickest action plan.
Because what I found is that if I can just prove my knowledge and my value by just giving as much value as possible, it helps me as well too, right? So we can all win.
There’s plenty of money out there for everyone to be making. Hopefully I can help you do the same thing.
I really love ecommerce. It’s a fun, fun game to continue to figure out and roll with. Looking forward to seeing you guys do the same!
