Episode #58: Bootstrapping a $3 Million Business in 12 Months and Empowering Female Entrepreneurs to Hit 7-Figures with Erin Young

Episode Summary

Erin Young shares her journey growing up in Australia and founding her first business, Zen Green Matcha. She opens up about the mistakes she made in building that company, including leaving her job too early and needing to go back to work until she landed the distribution contracts that enabled her business to fully sustain her lifestyle. She then shares her journey into the women’s fitness product space and explains how she navigated and reconciled her business aspirations with her core values in developing a brand-ethos focused on female empowerment. She pulls back the curtain and takes us on a detailed behind-the-scenes look at how she launched and scaled her female fitness brand “Arena Strength” to $3 million in revenue in the first 12 months. She goes into detail on her product development, collection of social proof, advertising research, marketing iterations, and community building strategy. She gives her #1 tip on competitor-proofing her product and shares her goal of passing the $10 million revenue mark in her second year. She then talks about her passion for supporting other female entrepreneurs in surpassing the 7-figure revenue mark. She shares her tips on navigating male-dominated business spaces, the importance of creating all-female entrepreneur spaces, and shares strategies for transcending the primary bottlenecks that prevent female founders from passing the 7-figure mark. Erin then takes us on her digital nomad journey, shares travel experiences, gives tips on how she has optimized her lifestyle design and shares her experience finding love and partnership as a Nomad. Erin then talks about her day structure, productivity habits, stress management techniques, and why she chooses to finish work at 12:30 pm every day, even in high-growth periods of the business. FULL SHOW NOTES AVAILABLE AT www.TheMaverickShow.com

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About the Guest

Erin Young

Erin Young is a location-independent serial entrepreneur and digital nomad originally from Australia. In 2012 Erin founded “Zen Green Matcha”, and was the first person to bring premium Japanese matcha green tea to Australia. Her sustainably-sourced brand is now stocked in over 700 health food stores across Australia and she has sold over one million cups of matcha. In 2018 Erin founded the female fitness brand “Arena Strength” and generated $3 million in revenue in its first year alone, with a staff of just 4 women. Arena Strength is a remote-first company, completely female-owned and operated, and its mission is to “Empower women in their strength training by creating Incredible products.” Erin can run both of her businesses completely remotely while traveling the world and has been to 68 countries. Today, Erin is passionate about inspiring and empowering more women to become location-independent entrepreneurs and push past the 7-Figure revenue mark.

What You'll Learn

The keys to rapidly scaling a business from zero to $3 million in 12 months
The #1 key to competitor-proofing your product and building a “brand”
How to transcend the primary bottleneck preventing female-founders from hitting the 7-figure revenue mark

Links From the Episode

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CHECK OUT ERIN’S ARENA STRENGTH BANDS

Arena Strength

WINE SHARED IN THIS EPISODE

Argentine Malbec from Mendoza

THE BOOKS ERIN RECOMMENDS

PRODUCTIVITY TOOL THAT ERIN RECOMMENDS

TRACKTION Planner (Get a $10 Discount By Using This Link)

THE PERSON WITH WHOM ERIN WOULD MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER

Tim Ferriss

PERSON ERIN RECOMMENDS TO FOLLOW

Ezra Firestone

INTERVIEW TOOK PLACE

Canggu, Bali, Indonesia

OTHER PLACES MENTIONED

TOP 3 FAVORITE TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

TOP 3 BUCKET LIST TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

CHECK FLIGHT PRICES TO ANY OF THESE LOCATIONS

CONTACT ERIN

Time Stamped Show Notes

[3:50] Matt and Erin talk about Bali

[6:10] Erin’s Entrepreneurial Journey

Erin’s first job in a chicken shop
Founding her “Zen Green Matcha” tea brand
Building a side hustle and quitting her Job
Learning entrepreneurial skills
The big boost that made Zen Green Matcha a sustainable business

[20:57] Founding Arena Strength and Selling $3 Million in the First 12 Months

Founding “Booty Co” as an Amazon-only fad brand
Pivoting to focus on empowering women as the ethos of her company
Launching the Arena Strength Brand
Strategies she used to bring Arena Strength to market
Building a community and selling most of her product from her website
The key leverage points to selling $3 million in the first 12 months
Erin’s top 2 marketing channels right now

[31:04] Scaling Arena Strength

Outsourcing and hiring
Intentionally maintaining a lean team
Setting a $10 million revenue goal by the end of year 2
Why Erin doesn’t want to lead the company beyond $30 million in revenue
The #1 key to defending the brand against competitors

[37:35] Empowering Female Entrepreneurs to Pass the 7-Figure Revenue Mark

Erin’s values, goals and entrepreneurial priorities
Building a women-owned and women-run company
Empowering women to achieve freedom, location independence and 7-figure revenue
Transcending the primary bottlenecks and obstacles faced by female entrepreneurs
The importance of living each day in accordance with your values

[46:00] Erin’s Travel Journey