Behind the Scenes: Blue Ribbon LIVE in Miami Beach (2019)

February 22, 2019

Remember the days before it was cool to have an online business? Back when your friends just thought it was… creepy?

That’s about the time I started dreaming up Blue Ribbon Mastermind.

I wanted my own community. I wanted to meet people who understood the good and bad parts of running an ecommerce business and who would help each other grow, as a group.

But that group didn’t exist.

Then, in 2014, we officially launched Blue Ribbon. Today we have almost 100 members, and together we represent one of the smartest masterminds on the planet for building and scaling ecommerce brands.

There’s no group like it in the world if you’re an ecommerce business owner. We go heavy on Facebooks ads, social media, money management, team management, infrastructure…

And then twice a year the group comes together to hang out and share what’s working in our businesses.

We call this Blue Ribbon LIVE, and we just returned from our last event in Miami Beach, Florida.

I flew in speakers from all around the industry. Some names you probably know — like Molly Pittman, who did a live critique of my 2018 Facebook ad performance (ouch)…

And some names you definitely should know but might not — like Bill D’Alessandro.
Bill knows more about acquiring ecommerce brands than just about anyone, and he’s also one of the best when it comes to hiring and building the right team.

Because every member of Blue Ribbon owns a 7- or 8-figure business (some own multiple), we all have skin in the game, and we’re all serious about learning from each other’s successes.

Want to find out what this elite group shared in Miami, and what major changes we’re focusing on in 2019?

Then watch this behind-the-scenes video of Blue Ribbon LIVE, Miami to find out:

My goal for Facebook ads in 2019
How to turn customers into fans
How to stay creative as CEO
How our social strategy is changing
And how awesome the Ribbon is!

Our next Blue Ribbon LIVE is this August. Want to join us? Apply here:

Apply to Blue Ribbon

Highlights:
0:05 My goal for Facebook ads in 2019
1:22 How to turn customers into fans
2:07 How to stay creative as CEO
2:40 How our social strategy is changing

Click Here For Video Transcript

Molly: I just got off stage here at Blue Ribbon Miami and it was a blast. So, I had the honor to take the stage with Mr. Ezra Firestone. And what we did was pretty unique, it was unlike those presentations that I give. We did a critique of Ezra’s ad account for his e-commerce company BOOM. And what we did is we looked at everything that they did in 2018, we looked at their click-through rate, we looked at their frequency, we looked at their average CPA, how much money they made, how much they spent. We also ranked their ads by social proof and also by success, which ad sold the most product last year? And based off of all of that data, we were able to craft a really exciting plan for 2019. Ezra’s goal is to double his ad spin next year, obviously, he’ll only do that if he’s breaking even. So, I’m really excited for 2016 and I’m excited to see how this ad plan plays out.

Man 1: I think you said 2016.

Molly: For 2016.

Man 2: Did I hear that right?

Molly: I said ’16. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out in 2019.

Peter: Hey, guys, my name is Peter Goodwin. I’m the owner of Groove Life and I’ve been a Blue Ribbon member for two years. And we’re here in Miami, and I’m giving a talk about how to build a brand in a commodity-driven marketplace. And what I mean by that is that Amazon has kind of commoditized everything that you look, see, feel, touch in the whole world. And how do you break through the clutter of connecting with a customer and actually making them a raving fan? After a customer purchases, right, it’s easy to get the first sale, it’s hard to make that customer into a fan. One way to do that is to really stand for something that you believe in that might be controversial and standing by that no matter if they’re mad or not. Search within, find something to believe in, stand on that and you will bring an audience to you that will never leave you and will buy everything that you produce.

John: I’m John O’Connor, we’re here at the Blue Ribbon Miami. What I talked about here was looking at three to five skills to work on over the next year to really help you grow and achieve results that you want. And one of the main ones we talked about was dropping your center. Having a lower center of gravity as a business owner is probably one of the most foundational key pieces and developing the ability to slow down to connect to what’s really happening. And from that place, connecting to that creative unconscious mind, that place that is really stable and rooted and where your certainty comes from.

Laura: I’m Laura Palladino, I’m the Social Media Strategist for BOOM by Cindy Joseph, and I talked all about what happened in 2018 and what we’re looking forward to in 2019 and changing our social media strategy. So, we’re gonna be bringing in some influencers and we’re gonna be adding more content to be able to give out to all of our subscribers. You know, what you can take away and do for your business in 2019 is really try to talk to your customers more, right, bring them in in a conversation and nurture that conversation and that relationship.