#14 BOOTSTRAPPING, CONTENT STRATEGY, AND BRANDING | Eric Bandholz, CEO BeardBrand

Remember when the beard wasn’t a thing? That is when Eric Bandholz, along with his kickass cofounders Lindsey Reinders and Jeremy McGee, started Beardbrand.

It started off as his solo project, one of many, then became a collaborative side-hustle, and then a full-time business that is now a prominent name in the men's grooming space.

It’s been quite a journey for Eric, his team, and BeardBrand, from starting this up in Spokane with $30, to finding his co-founders, being featured on NY times, to being on Shark Tank, and amassing more than 58M views on YouTube.

I met Eric at a conference in the summer, and wanted to learn more about how he and his team used content, bootstrapping, and community engagement to build a successful brand. In this episode, we discuss:

--The value of content when it comes to a brand, since BeardBrand has more than $58M views on their YouTube channel
--How he met his co founders at a startup weekend
--How influencer marketing works and what to do / not do
--How relationships should be long-term. Don’t always try to make the sale
--The value of a distributed marketing strategy
--What he would tell himself when he started his entrepreneurship journey

My biggest Lesson: Surround yourself with people who get it - your wins and failures. And I don’t mean, the dumb Rick and Morty circle-jerk in which people tell each other how great they are because they do XYZ when they’re the same as everyone else, but because you want people who understand what you went through to get that one small win.

Find Eric at:
Twitter: @bandholz

Find Beardbrand at
Beardbrand.com
Twitter, YouTube, Instagram: @beardbrand