In this Prime Talk Podcast Sponsored by GETIDA – Travis Zigler - Amazon Seller & CEO of Profitable Pineapple Ads talks about How an Eye Doctor Found Great Purpose and Success on Amazon, also more information about his life's journey. #benleonard #ecombroker
About Travis Zigler of Profitable Pineapple Ads -
Drs. Travis and Jenna Zigler are on a mission to help one million dry eye sufferers. "When you have that big of a mission, you can't let the struggles get in the way," explained Travis. "When something big hits, you'll want to shut down if you're only about the money."
The Zigler's work with a charity that provides eyeglasses and exams to people in underserved countries. They've taken 12 service trips so far. The trips keep them grounded and compel them to stay focused on their mission. Their ultimate goal is to build a sustainable clinic in an underserved area. The clinic will provide the resources to give people their first pair of glasses, so they can have the experience of seeing the blades of grass and leaves on the trees.
Yoni Mazor 0:06
Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of prime talk. Today I'm having a special guest. Today I'm having Travis Ziggler. Travis is an Amazon seller and owns a brand called I Love he's also the CEO of profitable pineapple ads, which is a leading advertising agency for Amazon sellers. So Travis, welcome to the show,
Travis Zigler 0:24
Yoni. Thanks for having me on.
Yoni Mazor 0:26
My pleasure. My pleasure. So, today's story and the episode are going to be all about you the story of Dr. Chavez Ziggler. I forgot to mention he's a doctor, we're going to get into that very soon. So today, he's going to share with us everything, you know, who are you? Where were you born? Where did you grow up? You know, how did you grow up in your professional career station to station until you reached the point where you are today in the world of E-commerce. So without further ado, let's jump right into it.
Travis Zigler 0:53
I mean, what entrepreneur doesn't like to talk about themselves? So this is like the best show in the history of the podcast. So thanks for having me on. This is great. I'm going to take you back to the beginning as you said. So I grew up in a little small town called Brian, Ohio. It's known in the United States for Dumb suckers. It makes, I think, 90% of the candy canes in the world, and then an etch a sketch. So everybody's played with an extra sketch from Toy Story.
Travis Zigler 1:19
That's what made the sketch famous. But that's from my little tiny town of Brian, Ohio. Always was an entrepreneur, a typical story. I had a lawn mowing business, when I was in high school, had about six lawns, I had a partner, a partner, I broke up, and we ended up splitting the lawns. 5050. So I got three, he got three. And that's how we kind of got our start with entrepreneurship. And I'd had the paper out, sold things that the school got in trouble for selling things, things at the school, I sold things from anywhere from beef jerky that I made at home in the dehydrator to necklaces and bracelets that I had other people making for me. So it's kind of embedded in me from birth, being an entrepreneur and I did eBay back then when it was
Yoni Mazor 1:58
Already jumping too soon. Hold back a little bit. Okay, this is all the stuff in school, I hope these sorts of Dum Dumps. It'll be cute and a good-sized cycle for you. But I want to touch base, I guess on the home environment, right. So like, let's say, for example, your parents work in industries where their involvement involved in, you know if you can touch a little bit about that.
Travis Zigler 2:16
My parents were like the most loyal employees you'll ever meet. My dad's been a car salesman to this day for 50 years. He's 71 years old. He's been doing it since he was about 21. For
Yoni Mazor 2:28
any browser, General Motors, okay, Ohio, Michigan, Detroit, Motor City, I guess, you know, the Rust Belt, or the iron Bill depends on when he talks about the times there. But yeah,
Travis Zigler 2:39
But he's been with the same dealership for 50 years. And that's the crazy part, my mom insurance salesman, and she's been with the same insurance company for probably 30 years, about the same age as I am. I'm not 30, but 37. But when I was seven, she went back to work. And she has been with them for 30 years. And the funny thing is, both of them have been longer with that company longer than that. Current owners have been with that company. So they've been loyal through and through with those two brands. They're both retired now, but they still work part-time for those brands. So loyalty was always a big thing. But my mom, and dad were also entrepreneurs. They had their own coffee company.
Travis Zigler 3:14
And they provided coffee pots and coffee for all the banks in the area. And then my dad always wanted to start a car dealership on his own, but he never really did it. And they also did Amway. And so Amway was big in multilevel marketing MLM. Yeah, yep. And so that was kind of the environment that I grew up in. And whenever I said I didn't want to do something, they'd support that. And whenever I did want to do something, they'd support that too. And if I wanted something, they'd always say, Okay, you figure out how to go by. And so I'd have to find a job or pick up more lawns, or shovel some sidewalks or racing leaves to make up the money to get that first PlayStation One, I still remember that day. And I bought an NFL game with it. And it was the most amazing thing in the world. And then I bought a PlayStation two, two years later. And so I had to work for all those, I never really got them as gifts. And my parents just made sure I had that working mindset when I was growing up.
Yoni Mazor 4:04
That's great. So it sounds like you know, a pretty stable home. You know, the work environment for your parents was also pretty stable, I guess the middle class, but the era of the spark of entrepreneurship, and they are doing business. And then you had early sparks of entrepreneurship growing up always trying to make money and carrier yourself on your own. Okay, so let's touch I guess the finishing high school and getting what would happen after high school for you.
Travis Zigler 4:27
In high school is the lawn mowing business, mostly selling things at the school. And then I was also doing eBay. This is when eBay just started.
Yoni Mazor 4:34
Oh, so eBay at high school. I thought you already jumped a few years for I didn't realize that. I got it. Okay, good. I
Travis Zigler 4:41
Had an illegal PayPal account because I was under 18. And an illegal eBay account because I was under 18. And this is when you had to get mailed paper checks. And you'd have to wait for him to cash and then you ship them. So it'd be like a three-week transaction period for eBay. But I'd sell everything we had around the house people were starting to bring the items to sell as well. So that was kind of under my entrepreneur, absurd I didn't even know I was an entrepreneur. I just kind of did things that were fun. Isn't that what we all do?
Yoni Mazor 5:06
I love that. I love that. So okay, let's start stamping the US on this. So what were you start selling on eBay?
Travis Zigler 5:11
eBay was probably 96. And so your high school back then? No, I high school around 98. And so 99 this is middle school.
Yoni Mazor 5:23
So you started selling on eBay in middle school? Yeah. Oh, holy moly. Okay, that's young. And it's good. And it's not only that it's young. It's young, also, for the industry itself. Almost rooted in the industry, the e-Commerce Industry.
Travis Zigler 5:35
It was rough. Yeah, it was rough on how to do everything. That was Bernanke was great.
Yoni Mazor 5:39
So you're in the weeds. Alright. So you graduate high school? What's your next stage in life?
Travis Zigler 5:43
Yeah, so I went to Ohio State University College, or the Ohio State University and just started studying pre-health, I wanted to get into the medicine of some kind, I wanted to become either a doctor, I was going to become an OBGYN that was done in vitro, which is for those that don't know that, it's where you pretty much can't have kids, and you take the sperm out of the male, the egg out of the female, you connect it yourself, and then you put it back in the female. And so I wanted to get into that. It was 20 years after you graduated. So I decided that I didn't want to go that route.
Yoni Mazor 6:12
And what compelled you to go that route? In the first place? If I might ask,
Travis Zigler 6:16
There was an undergrad professor in my pre-health studies that did it. And he showed us, and we got to like, visualize it. And it was just cool to see the power that you could bring life into this world. And it was almost like a god complex almost. And that's not what I was going for. But it was just like you're playing creation. And I thought it was just really neat because he got he showed us one live in class. And so that was neat to see that kind of happen. And then
Yoni Mazor 6:41
It yeah, as you can say, is a noble cause of some kind. So definitely something worth pursuing, for the sake of humanity. Right.
Travis Zigler 6:48
Exactly. Exactly. And while I was an undergrad, I worked for my uncle who was an optometrist, and an eye doctor. And while I was working for him, my parents were just like, Well, why don't you go to optometry didn't give it much thought, but I loved the lifestyle and the practice, and there's not a lot of blood involved. And there's not a lot of stress involved. It's a very relaxed doctor, and you're giving vision. So again, going back to that, like giving back to humanity, and I love putting on a pair of glasses as somebody that's never seen, and just hearing their reaction for the first time. And so that's why I loved optometry and fell in love with it. Ended up getting into optometry school early. I did an undergrad for three years and then went to optometry school. And so that was the next four years of my life. So all at Ohio State. Got it. And
Yoni Mazor 7:29
So what year did you graduate?
Travis Zigler 7:31
Graduated from the Ohio State College of Optometry in 2010.
Yoni Mazor 7:36
All right, so until 2010 those years what are you doing to financially support yourself?
Travis Zigler 7:40
Student loans.
Yoni Mazor 7:42
Okay. Make sense again. So 2010 you graduated after all these years? Did you get some debt on your back? What's your next move? What do you do?
Travis Zigler 7:49
Yeah, so I started working for my uncle, and we were for Dr. Ziegler's in practice it was Dr. Ziggler, And we were
Yoni Mazor 7:59
Phenomenal. European German name or some kind, right? Or what does it mean? You know, what does it mean? It is meaning, as far as you know, no idea. Okay, good. Good. Why should I know that? I'm going to do it right now for your definition.
Travis Zigler 8:15
Sounds good. Well, so I started work for my uncle and my wife's brick maker. A grape maker.
Yoni Mazor 8:21
Yeah, I know. Breaking you Ziggler bricks. Yeah, like, I guess our work today. Yeah. How workers you can say, you know, like a carpenter. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good. For doctors. Yeah. For doctors. You know, the Zieglers are setting bricks and green. Putting vision in your eyes is it's amazing. It's pretty good.
Travis Zigler 8:38
But what I noticed after like a year or two, I was working my ass off and we're working about 70 hours a week. My wife and I both because she's an optometrist, as well, she was one of the doctors Ziegler's. And what we noticed is we're working 70 hours a week to make 100 grand. And this is like the goal of life was to make 100 grand a year. And we were working 70 hours a week miserable doing it. Every time I brought up an idea. It just was kind of like Nah, we've tried that before. We don't want to try it again. And
Yoni Mazor 9:04
Mar. Yan and optometry what a store shop clinic what was it?
Travis Zigler 9:09
We had to practice?
Yoni Mazor 9:12
Private, I own your hometown,
Travis Zigler 9:14
In Columbus, Ohio, where the Ohio State University is. So I never really left Columbus after I graduated. That's where my uncle was as well. And he's the one that owns the practices. Fairly large metro for Ohio, right? Yeah, it's probably approaching 3 million now.
Yoni Mazor 9:29
Yeah. So what the biggest, I guess Metro is with the Cleveland area, and then it's Columbus with Cincinnati or something like that.
Travis Zigler 9:34
Probably Columbus or Cincinnati? No. Got it. Okay, interesting. Yep. So I just felt this urge to do something else. And that was that entrepreneur bug popping back up because I wasn't feeding it anymore. And so my wife and I did the three things you're not supposed to do. We quit our jobs. We moved across the country from Ohio to South Carolina. And then in South Carolina, or then we started two practices. So we started two clinics of our own, where we were the owners so we got to call the shots. And that was a lot more fun. And so
Yoni Mazor 10:04
What was it? You did that? So how long did you stay, I guess and you know that you know, in Ohio for those years,
Travis Zigler 10:09
So four years of practicing in Ohio, and then in 2015, we moved, or 2014 it was the day after Christmas. We moved to South Carolina and opened our practice in 2015. We bought a practice down there. I call it a negative practice because it was going downhill it did 300,000 a year 150. And the year we bought it, it did 80,000 that year, because the doctor was, unfortunately, an alcoholic. And he had lost that connection with the community wasn't showing up for his patients, and we bought him out for dirt cheap. And we bought his house too. So it was kind of like an all-inclusive deal. The house was a mess when we moved in. And it was always
Yoni Mazor 10:46
Part of South Carolina, if
Travis Zigler 10:47
I can ask Columbia, South Carolina, okay, it's just capital. Nice. It's not the mountains, and it's not the ocean, it's dead smack in the middle. And that's what people say is we're two hours from the mountains or two hours in the ocean. That's just to make you feel better for not being on either because it's better to be on either
Yoni Mazor 11:06
Smack in the middle of the Carolina got it.
Travis Zigler 11:09
It's hot. It's called Famously Hot for a reason. It's probably the hottest part of the state. And it's also the coldest part of the state. So it's an interesting place to be very great learning lessons were there from 2014. We'll get into it a little bit more. But they're from 2015, sorry, to about 2018. So three brief years. But what happened was, during the first six months of practicing since we were revitalizing this practice, patients were about one per hour. And I went from seeing five patients an hour at my old practice to one an hour here. So again, I got bored. And there's a course called Amazing Selling Machine. It's still available from amazing.com love those guys. Matt Clark, Jason Katzenback at the time now it's Matt Clark and Mike McCleary, and Ray lucky do. They're great individuals. It's a great organization. But their course came across my inbox about six months into South Carolina. And I was like,
Yoni Mazor 11:59
How did it come to his box? I want intervention.
Travis Zigler 12:03
I was on Robert Kiyosaki, email list. Rich Dad Poor Dad. And he teamed up with one of their affiliates. And that's how it came across her inbox. So it was great. We ended up buying it. We started a sunglass company in July of 2015. That was our first Amazon business quote, unquote. And we still sell sunglasses to this day, but we've morphed sense into a dry eye company, or I care and I Wellness Company. And we teach people how to naturally heal different diseases through diet and exercise. So we can get into that story a little bit more, as well. But the sunglass company started taking off faster than our practices to everything was growing like this. The sunglass and Amazon business is growing more at a
Yoni Mazor 12:42
Hockey stick. Yeah, more hockey stick than a gradual growth. Yeah, yeah, we're
Travis Zigler 12:46
Practices, they just grow in a straight line. So we were able to take the practice from about 100,000 a year when we took it over. And by the time we sold it, it was doing about 500,000 a year. So we grew that pretty well. In the meantime, the risk
Yoni Mazor 12:57
5x in three years is pretty great for such a conservative industry. But yeah,
Travis Zigler 13:02
Exactly. And it was just all about treating people well, and, you know, calling up following up with your customers. You know, we talked about influencer marketing so much in this community in the Amazon space. We did that in practice. And so we found the sneezes. We call them not influencers at the time but sneezes in the community. And we gave them free eye exams free glasses and free sunglasses. And
Yoni Mazor 13:24
We are as long as I mean,
Travis Zigler 13:27
They just like to talk to the gossipers
Yoni Mazor 13:31
Betters the loud ones, the influential ones, so to speak.
Travis Zigler 13:35
So you put a nice pair of sunglasses on a nice pair of glasses on him, send them out to the community, and they talk about how they got these at blah, blah, blah. And that's how we grew. We found about 10 of them. So the mayor was one of them. One of the head designers was another one. Some insurance agents were more the church leaders, the church that we went to was huge. So we went to barbers, barbers, and hairdressers, it would have been a good idea. I think we got one hairdresser, but we didn't know if we wanted to give, get her and she so but that's how we grew the practice. And then at night-time, and in the morning, before we went and saw patients, we were working on our Amazon business.
Travis Zigler 14:11
And at that time, it was all about getting reviews, paying for them, doing whatever you could to get as many as you could, and then ramping up getting more inventory. So we just kept releasing more and more sunglasses at that time. With our practice, we wanted it to be a pediatric practice, which means for kids, but God had other plans, and they threw elderly African American women at us. And so we're kind of on the North 20 minutes north of the capital of Colombia in a little town called Lightwood. Blythewood itself is a very wealthy community, with a lot of Caucasians white. And then all around us were poor African American communities. And so we got an influx from all that as well. And what we discovered is there was a ton of dry and so we went from wanting to open up a kid's practice to opening Have a dry eye clinic that focused primarily on African Americans and females. And a little bit on the
Yoni Mazor 15:07
Dry. I apologize for my ignorance. So what does this all mean? And what is that?
Travis Zigler 15:10
So dryness is usually caused by hormonal changes in females. And so when women go through menopause, their hormones are all fluctuating, which there's no help here
Yoni Mazor 15:20
just to make sure it was so menopause is a time of you know, the ladies turned into their I guess 50s 60s and beyond, they start you know, they stopped getting, you know, their monthly cycles and PMS is and so menopause and then they start getting a little, you know, like I said, our monocles almost change. And then also dry, I guess, happens, oh, I didn't realize that.
Travis Zigler 15:38
Exactly. It dries off everything. And so, dries up eyes, especially dry mouth, dry everything else. And so that's what we were trying to solve. And so we were doing it with, you know, medications, of course, dry. And then we had all these things on our shelf. And I went to a conference in an Amazon seller conference. And they had a panel upon upfront with Doctor up there. And the doctor was talking to this panel, and the panel was drilling him with questions, why aren't you doing this? Why don't you do this? And he was a physician who taught holistic medicine, so like diet and exercise. And then he sold supplements to him. He was selling other people's supplements. And one of the doctors said, Well, you're a doctor, why don't you sell your own and make your brand. And that's when the light bulb went off in my moment, or in my mind, we were selling all sunglasses at the time. But we were selling other people's brands on supplements that we sold in practice, Island wipes, sprays all these things for dry eye drops. And then I was like, why don't we sell our own? And so that's when we kind of started having that idea. And one of the sprays
Yoni Mazor 16:45
So let me get this straight. So you went to the Amazon conference seller conference. You remember which one it was.
Travis Zigler 16:51
It's called the tribe summit by Ryan rain.
Yoni Mazor 16:53
Okay, what was it located in Austin? Right? This is the show still running around or something you recommend people resolve something different
Travis Zigler 17:00
Now? Yeah, it's called. It's more like a smaller it's backroom meatus, but they're called the capitalism conferences is a big one now.
Yoni Mazor 17:07
God and got it. So you're saying on stage you see a doctor you know is you get all the questions. And some of the somebody told the doctor to go away, reselling all these brands, once you make your boom, and you took action. Do you know if that doctor ever took action on that? Or?
Travis Zigler 17:21
Yeah, he's doing well. He's up in Boston. His name is Dr. Cabrera.
Yoni Mazor 17:25
Right. And so he's selling his brand on Amazon. This one. Okay, so two light bulbs, two doctors, doctors taking action. Very impressive.
Travis Zigler 17:33
Yeah, so it was just one of those light bulb moments. And then we didn't know what product to come out with first. So we decided that omega-three, but they are Omega three, we still have it and never really took off. But Omega three fish oil. Yep, just like fish oil for eyes. Essentially, it's just more formulated specifically for the eyes. And as everyone knows, the Omega market on Amazon is just incredibly competitive. So I don't recommend getting into that. It was very hard, we're still only selling about 30 A day of that product after five years now. And so it's not a big money-maker for us. But it's very useful. So fast forward a couple of months later, and there was a spray that we were selling called Abba Nova. And this spray, you just spray it on your eyelids, you rub it in, you just leave it on, and it helps make your eyelids healthier. And when you have healthier eyelids, you have less dry eye. And so that's we were probably selling 10 of these a day in our practice. And what the company did is they went from $30 for a month's supply to $300. So they are 10x the price. And you could imagine what that did to the people that were taking their product, they got pissed.
Yoni Mazor 18:38
How does that happen? I mean, that's a little is usual for I guess
Travis Zigler 18:41
They’re a pharmaceutical company. So they could they just did it. They didn't care. Okay, so you have to post the most what do you do? So a customer came into me a patient came into our practice. And this is a great lesson on listening to your customers and asking them what they want. Because when you listen to them, then you're going to know exactly what to come out with next. And so if you're struggling with product ideas, ask your customers, it's as simple as that. So this person comes in with the spray, and they say, hey, they just changed us from $30 to $300. I know you're an entrepreneur, figure this out. And I was like, oh,
Yoni Mazor 19:18
Getting the client to come in your patient is like you're smart. You're a boom, go do it. I love that. Yeah, that is they know you it's because they know you. They feel that they know you least they see potential in you. It's pretty unique. Yeah.
Travis Zigler 19:31
And so I googled the, you know, the name of the product and like manufacturing and just started looking through this list of manufacturers calling them up one by one. And finally one returned my phone call about three days later. And he's like, we've never done private label, but we have what the best product in the world. And we believe that and here's the testing to prove it. Let's see what we can do. And so we were the first private label they've ever done. And that's how to hydrate Lin lash cleanser was born. It's us it's our spray that you just spray Get your eyelids, you clean it off, or you can just leave it on. And it helps with your eyelids and keeps them healthier.
Yoni Mazor 20:06
So you're saying they already had the formula, they already had a terrier product. And so they had the product, you had the market, boom, you connected both. And let's say you're off to the races, that
Travis Zigler 20:18
Was our first hero product. So most of our products sold about 10 to 20 a day. And that's how we made our whole business was selling a lot of products that were selling 10 to 20 a day. This is our first product that hit over 100. And so right now we're selling about 200 of them a day. And that consistently kind of creeps up maybe about 5% every two months. And that's just because it's a recurring product number one, and you know, everybody starts to hear about it number two, so we're just trying to get shared grows. Yeah, right. Awareness. Yep, exactly. So that was kind of the lift-off for the hydrate brand.
Travis Zigler 20:51
And now every time we come out with a new product, we just ask our customers what they need, what they're having problems with, we come out with a solution. And so our latest product was an eye cream. And we came out with the eye cream because of the ingredient phenoxy. Ethanol is a lot different. Everything in the space face washes, body washes, eye creams, and phenoxyethanol has been shown to cause problems with her eyelids. And so we came out with an eye cream and a face wash that did not have phenoxyethanol on them. And so we're trying to come out with quality products without harmful ingredients made with organic ingredients. And we're doing this all because we listen to our customers, and what they use and what they want. So going back, like that was all from listening to that one initial customer, but also from going to an Amazon conference. So
Yoni Mazor 21:36
Yeah, I want to have one question. Sorry to coach on this one question about why we have dry water. What is that like? Annoying people? Why is it disrupting people? Just if you can explain to me a little bit. So I want to put a bit more into context. I don't think I experienced that. So that's why I'm asking. So when they get dry eyes, what does that feel? Like? What's the problem for them? Well, okay, Job is what's the problem?
Travis Zigler 21:56
So with dry, I think I'm going to take a couple of steps back and I'll forget about that question. So you're going to have to remind me, but when all this was happening in our practice, and we started coming out with the hydrate, Lin lash cleanser, something else happened in our lives. When we moved to South Carolina, we were going to start trying to have kids. And it wasn't happening. It wasn't working. And we were told that we couldn't have kids. So we tried everything under the western medicine Sun, which is IVF. Ironically, going back to my original story, that's what I wanted to do when I grew up. So we did not do IVF because we didn't feel like it was right for us. And we did everything else. We took every medication, we tried everything they suggested, and nothing worked for three years. And so after three years of trying Western medicine, we decided to explore Eastern medicine. And with Eastern medicine, we did acupuncture, some diet changes, and we were vegetarian for the most part. And we are pretty healthy, we run marathons and half marathons.
Travis Zigler 22:54
So we're a pretty healthy group are a pretty healthy couple. But we just changed a couple of things. And in three and a half months, we got pregnant. Man, that was with our first kid, and we have three sons now. So very, like three years of Western medicine, three months of Eastern medicine, and we changed. So that's when we took heart of what happened. And we converted it into dry. And so we're like if this works so well for infertility, why can't this work for dry. And what we discovered was we've since taken 10s of 1000s of people through this is we teach people simple things like drinking more water, replacing your breakfast with a green smoothie, decreasing your stress, sleeping better, getting off your phone and computer, and just taking breaks and how to eat a little better. We're not telling you to eliminate everything that you're eating. Now we're telling you how to just kind of shift a couple of things. And it will make a huge difference with your dry.
Travis Zigler 23:54
And so what we're seeing with dry eye going back to your question is that dry eye is a cause or a symptom of an overall inflammatory state of your body. So your body is inflamed. It's got problems such as arthritis, eczema, skin, rashes, acne, and blemishes. These are all problems that are inflammation in your body. So why is your body inflamed? It's usually due to what you're eating, what you're drinking your gut health. You guys have probably all heard this. But it's all about taking action on that now. And so that's what we're teaching people in the dry space, mostly these postmenopausal females, and it was making a big difference in their lives. People were coming back to us after going through our program. It's free. It's called the dry boot camp challenge. The name is changing soon, but the dry boot camp challenge is what it was called, or is called. And it's free. And we taught that and we did a survey before and afterward, and that survey showed that it was more effective than any prescription medication on the market for dry.
Yoni Mazor 24:55
I love that's amazing. I just salute you. It's an Uh, yeah, it's a great way to do things. Yeah,
Travis Zigler 25:03
The testimonials received are what make it up. So the funny thing is, this is an aside real quick, I have to go through all the reviews on our website, because the FDA is taking a look at our website, and we have to make sure that we take all disease claims off. And I thought it was going to be like, oh, my gosh, we have 3000 reviews to give you an idea. And so I have to go through all 3000 reviews and like, delete the ones that have any
Yoni Mazor 25:28
Disease claims or that made this claim just to clarify that
Travis Zigler 25:31
Thing dry, saying blepharitis saying sigh saying anything with a disease, and it just can't be on your website. Okay, and just saying, I didn't know that. You can't do anything about Amazon, Amazon will not take him down. But on your website. If it's on there, it's considered marketing, and you have control of your website. And so you have to take it down. But I thought this would suck.
Travis Zigler 25:51
And it cheered me up because I'm reading all these positive reviews of people that have been impacted by everything that we're doing. And it's put a smile on my face again, because it's like I forget, sometimes in the day to day trudge of business, what we're in this for, and when I'm reading those reviews, I'm going to probably make this weekly mission to actually go back and read reviews again, because it cheers you up, and you make such a big difference in people's lives. And that's what we're here for is to make that big difference, not just to sell widgets from China is we're here to make big differences in people's lives. And so just think of that, whenever you're coming out with a new product, don't just come out with a new product to come out with a new product. Think about how you can improve it and improve somebody else's life as a result of coming out with that product.
Yoni Mazor 26:36
Right? How Can you solve problems and challenges that people are facing and solve them through the products that you want to sell? So you're helpful, there's a mission, there's a purpose, obviously, economically viable. And it's a tremendous, beautiful cycle of doing good things, you know, on a day to day, even when it's a grind, even if you're working hard, at the end of the day, you read those reviews. And again, I'll keep saying give you that energy to keep marching on.
Travis Zigler 26:57
Yeah, exactly. And that's, I mean, that's, that's why we got into this is to help more and more people. And we get to see it every day. And so going back to everything, the dry boot camp challenge has been the single biggest change. And that was a result of our infertility journey. And so there's always going to be challenges along the way in your life. And how you deal with those is huge, because we could have accepted infertility or we kept exploring, and then we turned it into a positive by helping other people impact their lives. And going back to the results of the dry boot camp challenge. People not only mentioned that it helped their dry eye, but like people said they had arthritis in their neck for 40 years, and it's gone.
Yoni Mazor 27:42
Because you've got hearing the root cause you're saying the inflammation, inflammation is creating all these side effects, including GI, so you're trying to take care of, you know, the root cause and all of a sudden, all these other side effects get alleviated one way or another. So that's a great impact
Travis Zigler 27:56
100%. And so that's, that's how the DRI company was born. And now we just continue to come out with new products we have next six new products coming out next year. And we're coming out with a proline, which is going to be directed towards physicians only we have about 100 wholesalers right now in our and we're trying to get up to like over 1000 Because we teamed up we'll probably get into this a little bit later. But we recently sold our business in June of 2021. But we're staying on until the end of 2023. And so that was kind of a unique structure that we set up that I'm sure the people that like quite light or some exit place will love to hear about because it was a very unique setup that we had with them.
Yoni Mazor 28:38
I think I just got a gift as a gift if I'm not mistaken. Look into this. Now I got a dry eye thing. It's called Huron. I've heard of that brown Huron Barwon anyway, so I got that as a gift. It's funny suddenly dry. Why is it like rubbing my eyes like that? And I realized that a few days ago, I got a gift for the holiday. Like, you know, no parabens and sand and stuff like that. So it's called the brand as you run age URL. And but I don't mind we can. If not familiar, we can move on. Or I want to go back to I guess 2018 Or you said it. That's why I guess we shifted from South Carolina. Yeah. And you were you sold the shop, right the clinic. And then.
Travis Zigler 29:19
So 2017 It was kind of this crossroads where we're just like, okay, everything's taking off, everything's taking a lot of time, my wife finally got pregnant. And I was like, we have nine months to figure out what we need to do. And so we sold one of the practices first, and that was in June of 2017. And then we sold the second one in December of 2017. We decided to go all-in on the online space. It gave us the flexibility, of course, it was taking off faster hockey stick growth versus linear growth. And we didn't have to be somewhere we didn't have to be in an office and our team was virtual. And so we sold both the practices. We sold our home and we packed up everything into a Storage Cube and we took off and we just kind of hit the road with our newborn son. And so he was one month old. And before his first birthday, he had seen 33 states and four countries. And so to
Yoni Mazor 30:10
Say hit the road, he means hit the road. And what do you do? Yeah, you got an RV, or what was the setup?
Travis Zigler 30:14
We had a night, Tierra 2017 Chevrolet Volt, which is a little tiny, compact electric car. And we drove that thing everywhere. So we put 1000s 10s of 1000s of miles on it. And he pretty much grew up in that car,
Yoni Mazor 30:28
I finally got the volt three father with GM and Chevrolet, something to that fact.
Travis Zigler 30:32
It was our 1 million when we hit 1 million in the online business. That was our goal was to get the Chevrolet Volt.
Yoni Mazor 30:40
Nice, very noble, very cool.
Travis Zigler 30:42
So 2018, we moved back in with our parents as like the home base, and just traveled from there. So we were gone most of the time. But we'd go back and live with them every once in a while for a week or two or three, just to kind of settle back in a little bit. And then we go back out and hit the road. And so that was 2018. And then at the end of 2018, we moved to Columbus, Ohio again, because it was comfortable. And so the comforting kind of kicked in. And we stayed there for about a year and a half. And then Austin called us. And so we've been in Austin since the end of 2019. And we've Yeah, we don't see ourselves leaving here. And then you
Yoni Mazor 31:18
Moved to Austin before the pandemic.
Travis Zigler 31:21
One month before? Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 31:23
Okay. That's good sense is now its boom, boom, it was one back then. But now it's even more but yeah, it's a great time to be in. Okay, so once again to 18 you can relocate and become a digital nomad with the kid, which is impressive. But you kind of hover around, you know, Ohio as your kind of your hub. And then 2010 right towards the end, you move into Austin, Texas. And today, you, you know, not only that you're an Amazon seller, you created the agency. So let's talk a little bit about that, you know, the evolution of you having the agency and helping sellers.
Travis Zigler 31:57
Yes, so the agency came about around 2018, as well. And so when we're on the road a lot, I already had, like one brand under management. And that was just me kind of doing it as a part-time job just to make a little extra cash. So we didn't have to take so much money out of the business. And, you know, people kept referring people to us, and I was just like, you know, I don't have time to do this, but let me consider it. And I had a friend that was down in Mexico teaching English. And he was my best man at my wedding best friend throughout college. And you know, he's just struggling, you know, teaching English pays nothing. And especially in
Yoni Mazor 32:29
Mexico. I mean, come on. I mean, exactly. Even in America, it's hard. But Mexico, what are you going to get out of it, you know.
Travis Zigler 32:34
And so it took me forever to convince them. I was like, let's start an agency. I said, if we get one more client, that would make it to clients. I said it will more than pay for what you're getting paid in Mexico. And he didn't believe this. So I got the second client and brought him on board for him to work nights. And he saw it and he's like, okay, I get it now. So he quit his job down to Mexico and went all-in with me. That wasn't the end of 2018. And we had by the end of 2018. We had four clients at that time.
Yoni Mazor 33:03
Did you go through relocated United States? Are you still in Mexico?
Travis Zigler 33:06
He's still in Mexico. Yeah. God, okay. And so we still didn't take it that seriously until probably the middle to end of 2019, we still only have like four to five clients. And then by the end of 2019, I think we hit we're up to nine. And then in 2020, we're like, let's take this seriously and see what we can do. And so throughout 2020 and 2021, we've just been growing the agency slowly, we don't like to take on a lot of people we'd like to take we're very focused on who we take on
Yoni Mazor 33:33
What people mean brands, if I would kind of more than one that right and
Travis Zigler 33:38
What we've kind of taken on as more healthcare brands we take on anybody we interview you first to see if we're a good fit together. But most of the people that we've taken on our healthcare brands, food brands, those are kind of our two main niches but we have other brands as well. But those are kind of what we focus on. So we have an OB-GYN, ironically enough, she focuses on post-menopause females, we have another OBGYN that focuses on you know, very specific niches in I'll say private areas, it's weird how many private brands we have, but it's just a result of where doctors that started a brand their doctors that started a brand
Yoni Mazor 34:19
Yeah, professionals from the industry professionals who are trying to make an impact through you know, some of the products they believe they can be of help you know for consumers and you know, solving their problems. But a small question I guess on the name that you gave the agency profitable pineapple ads so pineapple even though it's a new logo very cute pineapple with I guess sunglasses, right? If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. May want to maybe touch on that if there's any significance to that or at all.
Travis Zigler 34:45
I wish I could say yes, but I will say so. We do a lot of missionary work my wife and I do and if you work for us, either in the agency or in I love we take you on the missions and we pay for you to go because
Yoni Mazor 34:55
It’s like a missionary work is a missionary. Yeah, missionary work, or church or
Travis Zigler 34:59
It's It's nondenominational. It's not part of a church, but we work with churches in the countries. So what will happen is we'll organize it over here. And that isn't a religious organization, but we usually organize it down in those countries with religious organizations. And it's great because we go in my wife and I did this first in 2006. But we've done probably 15 missions since then. And we go down and we give exams we get glasses, sunglasses, and hats.
Yoni Mazor 35:28
It sounds a little bit like, you know, Doctors without Borders kind of style.
Travis Zigler 35:32
Exactly. Focused on eye care. Got it? Okay, nice. And so we do cataract surgery, diabetic surgery, glaucoma surgery, and we do pretty much everything you can down in Jamaica. Jamaica has been our focus because the first time we went on a mission trip there we fell in love with the island.
Yoni Mazor 35:46
The island, not Jamaica, Queens. Yeah, just to make sure. Not Jamaica, Queens. Oh, my God, that's wrong. That's all I'm asking. Okay.
Travis Zigler 35:54
Now, Jamaica, the island, and we go down there every October. And then we try to go somewhere in either Central or South America every spring. And then another Caribbean island in the summer. And so fingers crossed, we're hopefully going to make it to the Yucatan, Mexico. We're Cancun is that's our main mission trip. And then Jamaica, unfortunately, isn't letting anybody in so and so we won't be able to do it.
Yoni Mazor 36:16
Your friend, the English teacher, where's the state? Where is he? Are you based out of New Mexico?
Travis Zigler 36:20
He's in collateral, which is Mexico City?
Yoni Mazor 36:22
Right there on the left? Okay, Mexico City got it?
Travis Zigler 36:25
Yep. So it's about two and a half hours, three hours northwest of Mexico City. And that's where his wife is from. And so that's, that's where they decided to raise their kid and everything. So
Yoni Mazor 36:34
Right, so all these missions all the purposes, how does that connect to the pineapple story,
Travis Zigler 36:38
That um, that was my hope is that we do it mostly in the Caribbean. So that's where there's a lot of coconuts, the pineapples, but it all honestly, we just wanted to do something a little different. And there's a lot of, you know, scaling names in the advertising agencies. So we just wanted to get a little different and have a little fun with it. And just like, you know, we can wear fun pineapple stuff, and, or, you know, Hawaiian shirts when we go to conferences, and if we want to advertise our channels all around the pineapple, and we're going to Hawaii for our executive meeting, because there are lots of pineapples, we're going to the Dole Plantation farm for a pineapple tour. And we did that in Hawaii. And that's our executive meeting. So we're just doing it because it was fun. And you know, that's the main reason behind the name. And we had like a list of 10 names, we pulled our audience and they picked that one.
Yoni Mazor 37:26
I love it. It's very refreshing, very original authentic off the beaten path. I love it. I think it's great. Okay, so let me start packaging everything together to see if it all makes sense right? So one reason Ohio you know, parents, your mother with insurance your father with GM very loyal, all sorts of businesses selling coffee in the area. Then you went to Howard University and you got your degree and became a doctor and a doctor. Yeah, it also you know, originally a little bit of an interest in being an OBGYN and helping with fertility.
Yoni Mazor 37:56
That cycled back later on once you guys were you know, you got you already got married and you want to you know, bring kids to the world but 2010 you graduate you start working with your your uncle you’re the four Ziegler Zig Ziegler is in and in Ohio and then he worked there for about four years you and your wife included that 2015 You decide to relocate you got to start Carolina smack in the middle and then you buy a practice it was kind of almost defunct and you're able to kind of revive it and 5x or within three years all along the way yeah, the fertility you know, challenges were able to resolve you know, after trying you know, for a few years Western medicine you hit the the Orient approach of a wellbeing and that worked out you able to, you know, have your children, but also your client you really attended to the clients or the community, you're saying, you know, it was around you know, African American communities, especially with the ladies and you were very attentive to their needs and their their challenges, especially with the dry scenario.
Yoni Mazor 38:57
So because it was less of a pace than it wasn't on Ohio. So you said you were only been watching, seeing one patient now instead of five, less intense you're able to kind of dive into eCommerce with the ASM right Amazing Selling Machine course, which you go with the Robert Kiyosaki email by chance you went to the convention, and you tag along, you start selling on Amazon. And then another convention with Ryan Moran, you said somebody on stage another doctor gave you the idea of hey, I can actually sell my brands and especially with the dry I see where you did it and then you know you're able to kind of hone in on your hero product. Then in 2013, you had your children, your first child and then you decided you know you're doing very really well on Amazon. You become a kind of digital nomad online the way you also were able to partner with your friend in Mexico is an English teacher. You created pineapple the agency and I don't base in Austin, Texas, and veteran in the community and industry. We have new missions all-purpose out. So, you Michigan online seller retailer, you got your agency, you got missions, helping community also have you know, being a doctor under your belt, that we get everything together, you know, the right way.
Travis Zigler 40:13
I'm just going to say that with it for those that are listening and not just not watching the video, he didn't take one note. He just did that all from memory. So that's good to hear it is spot on. I think he missed one thing. We did sell I love in June of 2021. That's about all you missed.
Yoni Mazor 40:28
Oh, congratulations, June 21. I was so this is a few was very fresh a few months ago. Yeah, I missed that. So that was your brand, your Amazon brand. So you sold it to an aggregator or somebody from the industry. It was a strategic
Travis Zigler 40:39
And eye care aggregator, and it was very strategic. And we're still on until the end of 2023.
Yoni Mazor 40:45
Guys, so we got there in that period. Yeah, congratulations. Good. So but you have other brands that you carry on? And as a seller, are you cast out of retail?
Travis Zigler 40:53
No, this is I'm still I love is still my brand. And we're still trying to grow that completely coming out with six new products just next year. And so it's still the main focus. And I'm not going to start another brand until I'm completely out of that.
Yoni Mazor 41:06
Garden. Okay, so it's still in the game as a retailer now with the new a new alignment of you know, with the aggregator strategic, very, very good. Okay, so thank you so much for sharing. Everything has been very insightful, very original, authentic, and refreshing. So I appreciate that. I want to finish up the episode with two points. The first one will be if somebody wants to reach out and connect, where can they find you? And the last thing would be is, what is your message of hope and inspiration for entrepreneurs listening out there?
Travis Zigler 41:28
Yeah, it's great to questions to reach out and find me. Thanks for letting me do this. By the way. On Facebook, we have a group called Amazon PPC pros. And that's just where we share Amazon PPC tips, we try to keep the spammers out. Facebook's made that harder and harder to keep spammers out, believe it or not. But we're constantly monitoring that we come out with videos usually about once a week on different tips and tricks for dealing with PPC. And so Amazon PPC pros, if you put Amazon PPC on Facebook, you'll get there, I'm active in there. So that's the easiest way to find me. My email is Dr. Travis at profitable pineapple.com Dr. Travis at profitable pineapple.com.
Travis Zigler 42:06
And then our website, of course, is profitable pineapple.com for the inspiration of hope that you know, throughout my journey, the thing I've learned the most is the more you serve the customer, the more you're going to make because when you focus on sales and just trying to make another dollar, it doesn't lead to more money, it leads usually to less. But when you focus on service, either serving your customer serving your team, serving anything serving your manufacturers, when you focus on serving other people, that's when the real growth, that's when the real opportunity comes. And that's where people go to bat for you. Because if you treat everyone with respect, whether it be your manufacturing, your trading, or your trading partner or your whatever they are your team, and especially your customers, they will support you no matter what if you make a mistake, they'll have your back for it and just own up to that mistake. But the constant thing that we always focus on is service and just keep going persistence is what's going to make you successful service and persistence.
Yoni Mazor 43:12
Love that. So yeah, you know keep service in mind to all the stakeholders involved in the organization and deal with the mission with purpose with attention and love and you'll see growth and success sooner than later. They're going to be challenged, you're going to get scratched, you're going to get hurt, but by having people you're you know, having your back and so having the right support system, you'll find you know, you're you'll, you'll win with all the challenges and hopefully find great success. Beautiful stuff. Dr. Travis Ziggler. Thank you so much again, I hope everybody else enjoyed Stay safe out there next time.
