IAM967- CEO Helps Brands Create and Sustain Customer Relationships

For as long as the commercial internet has been around. CEO and co-founder of Healthy-Finds, Pete Meyer, has worked in the online marketing industry. In that time, Pete and his business partner Scott Black have generated over $100 million in online sales through their company, BCM Direct. Pete has poured his wealth of knowledge into Healthy-Finds with the vision of helping brands create and sustain customer relationships in a digitized world. Pete and his wife Elisabeth also have 5 wonderful children who keep him (almost!) as busy as his unwavering work ethic and commitment to innovation.

• CEO Hack: (i) Focus on what you learn (ii) Setting up a period to work then walk away
• CEO Nugget: Focus on execution and the task, not the idea
• CEO Defined: Ultimate responsibility

Website: http://www.healthy-finds.com/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peter-meyer-bcm
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/team_healthy_finds

Full Interview:

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[00:00:22.89] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

[00:00:50.39] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today, Pete Meyer of Healthy Finds. Pete, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:58.79] – Pete Meyer

It's great to be here, Gresh.

[00:01:00.60] – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Pete so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And for as long as the commercial Internet has been around, CEO and co-founder of Healthy Finds, Pete Meyer, has worked in the online marketing industry. In that time, Pete and his business partner, Scott Black, have generated over one hundred million dollars in online sales through their company, BCM Direct. Pete has poured his wealth of knowledge into healthy finds with the vision of helping brands create and sustain cons customer relationships in a digitized world. Pete and his wife Elizabeth also have five wonderful children who keep him almost as busy as his unwavering work ethic and commitment to innovation. Pete, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:00.60] – Pete Meyer

I'm ready.

[00:01:00.60] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here, here, but a little bit more of how you got started. Could you take us through your CEO story? Let me get started with all the awesome work you do.

[00:01:50.90] – Pete Meyer

Yeah. So, I mean, I'll focus on healthy finds. I've been running businesses for teeny tiny ones sometimes but for most of my professional career. So, I've been running BCM Direct for about sixteen and a half years. So, that's something that has run wellness programs predominantly for the last 10:12 years. As part of that, we go to the natural expo shows, Expo East and Expo West. They're these huge trade shows filled with natural health companies. Companies that are trying to create the healthiest version of whatever you can think of. Expo West will have three thousand five hundred, four thousand companies there.

And every year we go, we would see all these amazing companies that we had never heard of. And if we hadn't heard of them, we knew that almost no consumer out there who was interested would know these companies. And they're the ones that are doing the coolest things out there. I have nothing against big corporations. But they're focused on their profitability, their marketability, and their cost.

And if you can sell more by putting a buzzword on your package, then that's what you're gonna do. But these small companies are they're started, they're driven by people who are passionate about creating the greatest, and it could be anything. I mean, it's barred. There are a thousand bars in there. There are protein powders. But there's, we work with a company that makes brownies out of chickpeas. I was totally like, no, that couldn't possibly work, and it's pretty good.

[00:03:17.90] – Gresham Harkless

Nice.

[00:03:18.19] – Pete Meyer

So, there's all of these out there. So we were like, there has to be something we can do to help solve this problem. So we started playing around with some ideas about three years ago, just throwing things against the wall, and seeing what would stick. We're in the direct response space. Our business is reaching out directly to consumers and getting them to sign up for, usually our wellness programs. And, eventually, in March of last year, we launched Healthy Finds in its current state, and we've signed up over, I don't know if so. We're within a few hundred of, forty thousand paying subscribers that we signed up in March.

And they try us for free for thirty days, and then they pay us either sixty bucks a year, nine ninety-five a month. And they do this to find great brands. And we work with dozens of great brands that help them get their product right into consumers' hands, and then we connect the two of them. We're not a store where know, we don't want you to know who our customers are. We don't want you to be able to get in touch with the manufacturer. We're trying to connect the two. And, it's going well, and and we're having lots of fun.

[00:04:27.19] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah. It sounds like a very exciting thing if you're able to bridge that gap, so to speak. Because I so often say, and I'm sure you would probably say the same thing, is the name of the game is sometimes just being found in these brands that are doing phenomenal things and trying to create a ding in the universe and, the spirit that innovation that I spoke to in your bio is trying to do that, but sometimes they aren't able to get into the hands of the people that can use their products and services and the things that they're doing. So I love that you're you're helping that happen.

[00:04:59.10] – Pete Meyer

Yeah. And there's no way for them to. I mean, they could work with box companies, and they can get their products. So now they can send out all these products to consumers. Consumers might try it, they might like it. But now what are they gonna do? These, are great for a big brand where they're in every grocery store where you're like, oh, this is cool. And you walk into the store and there it is. But for a small brand that's in a thousand stores across the country, which sounds like a lot, but it's not.

And there are tens of thousands of stores out there. Then if they can't do that they'd have to send out twenty thousand items, and then five hundred people or two thousand people will be close to a store where they can buy their product. So with us, we can target exactly who gets it. There's no cost to the brand. They just provide us with the product. And so no cost to the consumer. Well, they pay us the monthly fee, but they get tons of savings in return. And the brand gets a person who pays a few bucks to try their brand, which is important because anyone will take something for free.

But even if it's like a ten or fifteen-dollar product, you're not gonna pay four bucks to have it shipped to you, unless you're interested. So that's what we do, and then we share all the leads with the brands, then the brand can email the person, and the person can go and buy directly. We give them codes so they get discounts. And, it's going well. And the brands love it so far, and obviously, the consumers kinda like it too.

[00:06:22.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And I imagine just because you're creating so many win-win scenarios where the brand gets the opportunity to get their brand out there in front of the people that can use it. And, also, the people that are looking for maybe the chickpea brownies can be able to find those or innovative opportunities that can continue to kinda grow and build and be a Raven fan.

[00:06:45.80] – Pete Meyer

Yep. No. As a consumer, it's great because you get to so we're not like a box, we just get whatever. You can go and say, I want this one, and that cost me four bucks. I want that, it cost me four bucks. So you might go and spend forty dollars Get ten products, it costs one hundred and twenty or one hundred and fifty bucks if you were gonna buy them separately. But then you'll also get one hundred dollars in savings once you try that small portion to go back and buy so, I mean, we're we're doing what we can to bridge that gap between the two.

[00:07:16.30] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah. Absolutely. Appreciate that. And so I know you touched on a little bit. Could you take us through a little bit more on how it works from a brand standpoint, but also from a consumer standpoint? I know you touched on that as well, on how you created this and how it serves the clients that you work with.

[00:07:29.69] – Pete Meyer

Sure. So, for the brand, it's it's super simple. All they do is provide us with products. We have our warehouse, so they send it to us in bulk. We break it up. We create our own little custom variety mechanics. We can't work with beverages right now just because they're too expensive to ship. And some are like little shots, so they've been way less than twelve ounces, we can ship them. But we can't ship 02:12-ounce cans for four bucks because it costs you ten bucks to ship it. So that's their only cost. Then when we get the product, we'll promote this to our members. And then we also have Facebook advertising, we have different media partners that we work with. So consumers will see a page where they get to try this for free. Excuse me. They register.

And then after people register, about twenty percent, twenty-five percent of them pay the three ninety-five. And we share all of that with the brand. So now the brand can put them into their email chain, they can follow-up, they say, Hey, come back, buy your product, and we of course try to get them to come back as well. So, it's super easy for them. We start small we can, we like to start with about five hundred giveaways, but again, in Stack Nation, it's like forty-five thousand. But we can even go as small as three hundred giveaways. And we can target regional. Because some brands, they're trying to get in their local stores. They're in their local neighborhood stores, they get in the local Whole Foods just in their state.

So if we do giveaways and they're in Oregon and we get someone to sign up in Florida, it's really expensive to ship to Florida for them if they come back and buy. And b, they're probably not gonna be in retail in Florida for a while. So we can target by state. We can't do one state, but we could do the whole Northwest, or the whole Northwest in New York because they have a lot of people in New York. So they can target to get it where they already are in stores, so they get more awareness so that they have more people back in stores, and they get more stores, and one thing leads to another.

[00:09:28.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. Absolutely love, that motto. And so what would you consider to be what I call your secret sauce? And this could be for yourself or the business or a combo of both. But what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:09:41.29] – Pete Meyer

So I would say, I've said this before and it sort of comes off wrong, but we don't put too much we don't assess in the planning. We plan. We try to come up with every scenario. But the one thing I can guarantee you is whatever I plan, that's not what's gonna happen. No matter how good and maybe other people have better plans. I don't know. So we are looking for an opportunity. We say, okay. We have this need. We're gonna try this. Oh, that didn't work. But hey, I learned something here. So you take a little bit of what you learned, and then you try that. And that didn't entirely work either, but now I learned even more.

And you just keep taking the information of what didn't work, or what didn't work as well as you liked, or what portion didn't work. And then you evolve into that. And that's why I'm sure we'll be in a different place a year from now than I think we'll be in a year from now. Because we wanna go, we're small. We wanna go where the market needs us to go. And, people get too fixated on, was my idea right? Did it work out? Does this make me does this make me the smartest guy in the room? Which is a big problem I had for a long time. But, you know, what's important is what I learn and what works. And that's that's our motto.

[00:10:57.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:11:08.79] – Pete Meyer

God, beats me. Okay. Let me think about that. So, I mean, the last thing I said is probably something, some part of that. Mhmm. The other thing that I think allows me to stay focused, longer than, you know, maybe someone else might be is that I know when to walk away. So, I run a small business. I could work twenty-four hours a day, and I still wouldn't be able to have done everything I wanna get done. And as you mentioned, hey, I've got five kids, and I love spending every possible moment I can with them.

So I set a period where I'm gonna do everything I can until this time, and then I'm getting up, and I'm walking away, and it doesn't matter. And that helped provide the focus because it's like, well, I had to have this done by now. And I was always one of those procrastinators who couldn't study until the day before. I couldn't you know? So now that's just always because there's always something to do that day. But by being able to say, hey. I'm done. I'm walking away. I'm going and hanging out with my family. I'm cooking dinner. I'm doing whatever. That allows me to be more focused and more efficient when I'm dialed into work.

[00:12:26.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yes. And so, I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're all gonna have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:12:37.70] – Pete Meyer

Two or three. I mean, one, you're ultimately responsible. And you have to think of that in everything. If you set something up or you hire someone, you give someone a pass, you have to give them the power to do it. But if they fail, then you fail in giving them the right resources, or we're making them comfortable enough to come to you to ask questions.

And that, and I think making it okay, I guess is what I just said, making it okay for people to come in and say, hey, fail, didn't work. Because if people can't trust us, if we don't provide our loyalty to them, they're not gonna provide their loyalty to us. So, that's always the first thing you have to do. You have to find some way to show that I'm here for you, and okay, you made a mistake, but we learned something out of it, right? I think that's probably the most important part for me.

[00:13:35.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. I think you don't realize, like, the environment that you create, but as you said so well in that example, like, if you create a culture that it's okay to try things and learn from those things, You can't be the one to slam the hammer, I guess you can say when someone says I tried this and it didn't work. And we don't realize that sometimes the way that we take those actions also creates that culture that we're trying to have within our businesses and organizations.

[00:14:02.70] – Pete Meyer

Yeah. Absolutely. And you learn from different people. For some people you gotta push, and for some people you have to be like it's okay. I want you to make a mistake. Like, if you don't make a mistake in this amount of period, then something's wrong.

[00:14:15.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. So giving people exactly what they need to be successful so that the the organization as a whole can succeed as well. So, Pete, I truly have fun doing it. Exactly. That's always a great thing. Well, Pete, truly appreciate that perspective, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

[00:14:43.29] – Pete Meyer

Yeah. I would just I would encourage anyone in the natural health space, to reach out. I mean, you can find me on LinkedIn, Peter Meyer, and Bethesda. You can find Healthy Finds. It's helping fines dot com because, you know, we couldn't get Healthy Finds. If you're in the space, we'd love to talk to you because we're all about working together, and, you know, one of the coolest things about this space, more than anything else I've worked in, is everyone wants to help each other. In a lot of spaces, it's like, Oh, here's sort of competition, I wanna get you. The natural health space it's not. I mean, I guess if you're like head to head, but for the most part it's like, Let's all work together and we can do more. I am not overcome by that, but it's a cool culture for you guys.

[00:15:26.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense, and we'll have the links and information show notes as well too. But I love, you know, of course, we talked about creating the culture within the organization and how that manifests itself and sometimes the things that we create. So I love that you have, maybe even created an even stronger culture, you know, within that healthy space that allows those people to be able to collaborate, to co-create, to join forces, so to speak, to be able to help people out. So, I truly appreciate you for taking time out and reminding us of that, and of course, they're doing that in their business as well.

[00:15:59.60] – Pete Meyer

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you having me on. I've let you notice, that I like talking about healthy science. I'm excited about what we're doing and and always looking for new people to to do it.

[00:16:10.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Yes. We will have the information in the show notes just so that everybody can sign up and also, send some products and everything over to you too to create that partnership. So appreciate you again, Pete, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:16:21.50] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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