Entrepreneur Charles Mayfield Shares Growth Strategies From The Trenches (#238)

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Farrow Skincare founder, Charles Mayfield's interest in clean food began when, as a personal trainer, he began researching nutrition to help his clients reach their fitness goals and eventually coauthored Three Paleo Cookbooks. The more Charles learned, the more he realizes, not just the kinds of food we eat that impacts our health, but also the way that food is grown. He spent [00:02:00] years researching farming techniques that are better for the environment and for the welfare of the animals. 

 And when Charles learned about regenerative farming, he was hooked. Charles' vision for Farrow Skincare is to operate at a scale that's more human than machine and create jobs that support the community. Charles plans to leverage the success of both businesses to build awareness and support for regenerative farming and to create opportunities for other regenerative farmers to bring their sustainably grown products to market. 

 Through Farrow Skincare, Charles has seen thousands of customers dramatically improve their health by removing toxins and preservatives from their diets. Farrow Skincare is the next phase and highlighting the benefits of regenerative farming for both people and the planet. One small shift to clean and healthy skincare products is another step forward in removing toxins from our lives and healing our communities and our [00:03:00] environment.

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and we have our friend of the Deep Wealth community, his back. And if you don't remember the saying, then I don't know what was going on. You gotta re-listen to the episode, I'll put it in the show notes. But we have Charles Mayfield on who is growing his company, one handshake at a time.

And offline. Charles and I were talking how when we had that first episode, things just got warmed up and we had to bring it to a close. And we're talking offline about How is a startup going up and really beating and going up against these huge, gazillion dollar companies and what's that like from the trenches?

We're gonna hear all about that, but I'm gonna pause it there. Charles, welcome back to the Deep Wealth podcast. Really excited to have you with us. And since we last spoke, Charles, our community continues to thrive and grow all kinds of new members. So for their benefit, what's the story, Charles, what's the story behind the story of what got you to where you are today?

And give us some updates since we last spoke as well. Would love to hear that.

Charles Mayfield: Thank you, Jeffrey. It's wonderful to see you again and certainly an honor to be here. So the 30,000 foot view, we're [00:04:00] a skincare company. We launched in January of 22, and we have a little bit of a hyper niche situation. We're the first lard based skincare company at least that I'm aware of.

For your listeners that don't know, lard is rendered fat from a pig. So we'll just go ahead and get that out of the way. But yes we're handcrafted a highly artisanal company. And certainly you said it an extremely crowded marketplace. We do have some hyper niche in the fact that we're using this what I coined is the large works of mysterious ways.

We're using a highly effective fat most skincare is built on fat. And no chemicals, no preservatives. I have a background in nutrition and health and lifestyle coaching in addition to regenerative farming. All of those pieces of the puzzle fit together and coalesced in late '21.

And so we launched Farrow in January of '22. And it's a preservative toxin free, animal fat-based [00:05:00] skincare company, small SKUs. We actually we'll talk about it. We just debuted a new product that we've launched in Austin, Texas this past weekend at Keto Con.

We're still very much in the trenches and trying to figure things out but no things continue to move in the right direction.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so for our listeners, I hope you're taking this all in. So here's Charles. He's done a startup. It's toxin free, chemical free. It's completely natural. One of the healthiest things that you can do. And when most people don't realize, Charles, it's all about the skin being the largest organ in the body just absorbs everything.

So the question I know we spoke about on the last podcast, and again, I'll put that in the show notes, if you're putting it on your face. Would you eat it? Because it's really the one and the same thing of what you're doing. Charles, you know, it's interesting before we go on to the business side, because we'll straddle health and business.

We've had doctors and scientists and health thought leaders come through the Deep, Wealth Podcast, and they're really all saying the same thing. That the things that we do every day, little things we don't even really [00:06:00] acknowledge. Such as skincare products that we're putting on ourselves, filled with chemicals.

Maybe today, tomorrow, next week, next month, nothing really is gonna happen, but over time, that accumulation of the toxicity. That then goes into the whole body and the liver, the kidneys, the blood, and it just gets ugly from there of all kinds of diseases that happen from there. And again, so for our listeners, what was the aha moment, just as a reminder for everyone of when you said, okay, you know what, I'm gonna go into business on my own, do this startup.

It's something that no one has done before and oh, by the way, I'm up against multi-billion dollar with a B companies. No big deal. I'll figure it out. I'll handle it. What was that for you?

Charles Mayfield: The Aha moment really came in early product development. I like to tinker in the kitchen and so I had this on our website. I'm sure you'll have a link to it. I go into this story a little bit on the website, but the aha moment came when I first tried making some creams out of lard in my kitchen.

 When you have an idea, you go [00:07:00] to the Google, right? And I started emulsifying, distilled water with lard and making these absolutely, luscious creams, Jeffrey. But the problem was they would go rancid in a matter of days. I think the longest I ever had was maybe a week and a half of this cream.

And so I tell people this all the time. I had this background in nutrition. I was used to looking at people and saying, listen, if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. If it has preservatives in it, don't eat it. And when I, I call it my paleo lens. That was sort of my background when I shined my paleo lens on skincare.

 It was far worse than I could have imagined. And so here I am with something that was highly effective at treating a sunburn. So probably one of the most common acute skin conditions, certainly in the months ahead. And it resolved it. It was miraculous, really.

And so I'm staring at this, these results. I've got these young children, I think at the time my daughter was [00:08:00] maybe five and my son was seven. And I think about all the different things that we're gonna put on their skin for the next 20 or 30 years. And there was no one in the space really doing it the way that I wanted to do it. And so that was really the moment where, we've gotta give this a shot.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Right. And so Charles, it's a good news story on what you can do for people health wise. You're solving problems and as more people become aware of the toxicity, In skincare products of literally what their skin is eating. Maybe they're not physically eating it, but they are through the skin and they're looking for an alternative.

You have that. That said though, that's on its own is great, but you know that, and as I saying goes, you know, I guess a couple bucks these days will buy you some coffee, and that's about it. So you're now in the marketplace. You're not private equity backed, you're bootstrapping it, which is how I love to do my companies as well.

And so that puts a different kind of spin on how we operate the business. So you just came back from a major conference? You're in the trenches. [00:09:00] You're doing business, one handshake at a time. So what's been working for you, Charles? And I know it's still early days, and next time we talk you'll say, yeah, Jeffrey, I know I told you A, B, and C, I stopped doing that because D, E and F are even better.

But at the moment, what's working for you to get the name out there, build up those subscriptions, get the business going, what's that looking like for you?

Charles Mayfield: Yeah, great question. So we've got a couple of strategies we're employing. This past weekend was obviously a boots on the ground eye to eye situation with conferences and we will continue to do that, pick and choose sort of conferences that align with health and wellness.

This was Keto Con. If you're not familiar with the ketogenic diet, I would certainly encourage your listeners to sort of plug in and look at that, Health is Wealth. And so, a lot of people are seeing tremendous results from that. So that was the boots on the ground approach.

And then, while we're there, I was fortunate enough. I have brought on a, since the last time we spoke, I have brought on a marketing intern. She's working [00:10:00] in a limited capacity, 10 to 15 hours a week. But she's got a lot more wherewithal in the social media world and graphics world, which is something I fall quite short on.

But I brought her along with me and then leveraged into some relationships so that when we were there, you know, the booth was sort of managed without me although I spent quite a bit of time there. But the second prong in sort of our marketing approach is really just getting in front of other influencers, specifically people in the health and wellness space that have podcasts and you know, trying to establish a relationship, get them trying the product. And then ultimately making an appearance on their show or the good news about Farrow is you've got regenerative farming, I can speak to that sort of piece of the market. And then over here you've got just general health and wellness.

From a dietary standpoint, a lot of the ills that we face in dietary guidelines and food that we put in our mouth are very similar to the ills that we face in skincare. [00:11:00] And so I've got that skincare and then the regenerative farming piece. And obviously podcasts like yours, you know, we're a startup company.

We're bootstrapped and deepen the trenches. And so having conversations, our first conversation was so helpful for me and many of the other guests that you have on. And so, we've got a number of different avenues we can explore, and I feel like I can bring content to a listening audience, whether it's health or wealth.

And so that's really the big push right now is getting us in front of people physically through a presence at a conference. And then beyond that getting online or in person with various podcast hosts.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And you know what's interesting? We didn't plan it this way, Charles. That's how life happens. You know the old saying, if you want to make, and you can fill in the blank, God, the universe, the creator, laugh. Just share your plans, really what's been happening behind the scenes with yourself and myself and the Deep Wealth community.

This is really like a live case study as it's [00:12:00] taking place. We're checking in from time to time and what's interesting, I'd love for you to share with the listeners. Because in step two of our nine-step roadmap of Deep Wealth, we call that X-Factors to insanely grow the value of your business.

And at Deep Wealth, yes, we talk about a liquidity event, but our thesis is before you have your liquidity event, why not grow the company and enjoy the fruits of your labor? So have a thriving, profitable company forever. Once you've gone through the nine-step roadmap, you can then sell it tomorrow. Both are great choices, and the point is that you have a choice.

So when you look at what we would call your X-Factors, things you're world class in or your Rembrandt, not only are your world class, you're unique. So as an example, an X-Factor for you there's no toxins. It's completely healthy. It's regenerative farming. And the fact that there's no preservatives, that's a Rembrandt, you know, all those things come together.

Hey, you're in a blue ocean. You're creating the rules as you go along in that blue ocean. So you're talking about marketing now, and I know so many business owners. They are [00:13:00] terrific in a whole number of areas, but when it comes to marketing, they're the best kept secret. Jeffrey, what do I do? Where do we turn?

And no one has all the answers. I get that. And Charles, you're still figuring that out and you're very open and transparent and vulnerable. Thank you. So what's been working with you, because I'm hearing from you, hey, we're starting to meet influencers, we're getting onto podcasts. Where's the market right now?

How has that been for you as you begin to get the word out there? One handshake at a time.

Charles Mayfield: It's really moving in the right direction. We're a cosmetic skincare company and we try to stay committed to making certainly our flagship products as fresh as possible for the end consumer. And so, one thing we try to push people into is a subscription.

You can modify that anytime it's monthly, bimonthly or quarterly. And so just slowly but surely, the more people, we get this product in their hands I tell people not to subscribe when they first buy our product. Buy the product, try it because we're full fat, because we're no chemicals.

And everyone's skin's a little different. Everyone's the [00:14:00] ecology and environment around, Colorado's a little different than South Alabama. And so I give people permission to not go all in, but to just try our product and see how long it lasts for them. I'll tell you Jeffrey, one thing that is the most, probably the most exciting about this past weekend for me is we implemented about. I'm gonna say right at the beginning of the year I was using MailChimp I'm sure all of your listeners are familiar with MailChimp as far as our email capture from the website and all the various services wasn't leveraging it very well. I have a very good friend in the space that's a and this is not a commercial for them, it's just the one that I chose.

But Keap, I'm not sure. Are you familiar with Keap KEAP?

Jeffrey Feldberg: You know what? It rings a bell. I haven't personally had experience with that.

Charles Mayfield: Okay. So it's a fairly robust CRM. Obviously more expensive than what I was spending at MailChimp but way more robust in terms of the bells and whistles. And so I'm happy to say that in the last month and a half, [00:15:00] we have solidified what I call a client journey.

And so it's gonna constantly evolve and build, but more importantly, We've got various nurture funnels, so, coming into this conference, I've got a QR code that's specific to the conference. And so in the next six months, I know what we did this weekend. I've got the, I've got the numbers from the, cash sales and square sales and all that.

I know what we did this weekend but more importantly, I. Two things, or really three. One is I'll be able to tell in three months and six months, what did we really do this weekend? How many customers did we ultimately convert from either a sale at the booth or after the conference sale. There's the second layer. And then ultimately did we convert people to a subscription? And so that's the real big tool that I have deployed in the last month. And this is the first time we've been, in the public eye shaking hands and kissing babies and lathering people up.

[00:16:00] Where we'll have a lot of data after the fact.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And it's interesting, I love how you're approaching things and you're just completely transparent and open. So two things, Charles, and again, looking at this from a business side of things and for the business owners, Charles, you may not feel it, you may not realize it. You're so far ahead relative to, as an example, even where I started in business.

We'll put me under the microscope, get everyone else. I never had a subscription model at the beginning. It took me some time to figure it out. My business model sucked. You wrote a whole e-book about that, why your business model sucks, what you can do about it. But for listeners, Charles has a subscription.

That's what he promotes, and that's where it makes it easy for his community, for his clients. They know exactly what they're gonna be spending each month. It's predictable for the clients. It's predictable for your cash flow. I wonder around expectations because Charles, I remember. When I first got into the business and I went to trade shows and I was young naive and I had these delusions of grandeur, I'm gonna walk out with a book of business bigger than the state of California.

And lo and behold, [00:17:00] sometimes I'd walk out with nothing. And that's just the way that it went. So how are you setting your expectations and what are you defining as, okay, this was worth my time and effort. So you just came back from a conference? Does it check the box of yeah, that was productive for us and that's gonna be a win for us, or, Hey, it's learning experience.

Better luck next time. Now we know where are you on that? How do you handle expectations?

Charles Mayfield: That's a fantastic question. So I'm a died in the wool optimist. So, it's almost, regardless of whatever I'm going into there's a piece of me , that's gonna set really high expectations going into it. And Jeffrey, we actually did an event back in January in Texas different event, different size. So not comparative in terms of what I thought was gonna happen at the event. But I will tell you that coming out of this past weekend, knowing we captured, this many emails, we talked to this many people we also did pretty well financially. We didn't cover the cost of the event.

I'll be candid. We got pretty [00:18:00] close. I'd say about 70% of our total budget for the weekend. We got covered with sales, which I consider that a success personally. And again, these aren't hard dollars but I'm excited about them. I've connected in the last five days, I connected with. At least three very affluent and influencers within the keto carnivore sort of diet space, right? So not, skincare, but health and wellness. So it's broader than just skincare. And, you know, I've got, of the three, I've got two of their cell phone numbers. We had a great conversation. They tried the product, they liked it.

And so at some point in the coming months I will make an appearance on their podcast. Those two, forget the money for a minute right? I consider a successful weekend because I do have metrics on previous podcast appearances in that space with certain influencers, with this many followers.

And so we do have some data to draw those [00:19:00] conclusions. And so for your listeners and for those entrepreneurs out there, I think it's helpful going into any situation, whether it's a conference or exhibiting or, doing a paid ad or, even going on a podcast, I think it's helpful to go into any of those situations with sort of two goals.

Give yourself more than one metric to measure success even our conversation today will be done at some point and I feel like I'm even better at articulating the vision for our company. I'm better at articulating where we are, where we're trying to go.

And so, everything is an opportunity to get better.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting and as you're out there, Charles, and if we're really honest about it and we are. Look, you're the startup and in many ways you're the underdog, which can be an advantage. Some people say it's a disadvantage. I feel it's always the advantage because oftentimes the competition don't, you know, they won't take you seriously, and lo and behold, you show up and you surprise everyone in a good way.

As you move the dial, you move that forward.[00:20:00] So really, as you look back at the journey from when you started until now, if you could go back to when you first began. And okay, I'm gonna go into business. I'm gonna get all this going. What would you be saying, Hey, forget about doing these things. Just focus on these things here.

What would be some lessons learned where you are today as of what you know right now?

Charles Mayfield: Yeah, Jeffrey. Well, you know, and again, for your listeners I'm a consumer based products company. We're not digital. I'm not typing things up and selling books. This is a handcrafted product so specific to me. I would grab myself by the shoulders and say, worry about generating sales, not filling orders.

I spent too much time but some of the time I spent early on in terms of time and motion. And again, when you're handcrafted and you've got a day job, this is a startup, I spent a little too much time worrying about a massive sales day or, oh my gosh, I've gotta come home and box up a hundred orders, and so again, I think there's a [00:21:00] part of that worry that's relevant and important in the journey. But I think I over overexerted myself in worrying about filling orders versus worrying about creating them.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, what a terrific saying. And you know what? As business owners type A personalities I'll just do everything No one does it as well as me. And you're right. Creating the orders is one thing that's gonna be especially, hey, you're the person, the founder, the visionary. You're the one in the trenches who figured it out.

And you can get very talented and skilled people on the backend, fill the orders, get that going. But you're right now the face of the company. And I'm sure at one point, and as we talk about at Deep Wealth, as you grow trials, as you expand, it'll move away from you. You'll have a team. The business will run without you.

Yes, you'll be there, but the business won't be reliant and dependent on you as it may be right now, in the early days as it should be. Because as business owners, we really, we need to be in there in the trenches knowing every nook and cranny of our business. So when it's time to expand and grow, we know the people we're looking for.

We know what shouldn't be happening, what [00:22:00] should be happening. Oftentimes, it's so easy to overlook. So again, mindset wise, you're probably doing some things now that you either don't like doing or you don't want to be doing. You're good at it. How do you get yourself through those times? So I get that.

Okay. I'm not filling the orders at this point. I have other people that are helping me do that now. But with the activities that you're do doing that maybe you're not comfortable with, how do you handle that mindset wise?

Charles Mayfield: You make sure to exercise every day.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah.

Charles Mayfield: Health is Wealth, I know you've had our good friend Dr. Ovadia on your show. And so that's a challenging question, Jeffrey. I'm still trying to learn how to address that now. I have this coaching background.

Again the fitness background. I really enjoyed training people and so what used to be very difficult for me, which was delegation. I've wrapped my brain around I'm training, right? It's I'm wrapping this up in something that makes sense to me. And so recently, so I was just out of town for a week, I took [00:23:00] with me a marketing intern that has been working with us now for a couple of months. And I left behind another young lady here locally in town, she's a freshman in college. I've known her family for a very long time. She's been interning with me sort of part-time on the manufacturing side of the house. And so in the weeks leading up to this Exit from, this is the longest break I've had from the hands on of my business in some time at least here at ground zero, if you will.

And so, you know, teaching her how to pull up orders, print labels, you know, all the fulfillment side of the house. And so when I got back literally about two and a half hours ago from being gone a week I don't have a mountain of orders to go through and fill. So that was incredibly helpful.

 As far as the stuff, you don't want to, you know, the dirty work, it's all sort of dirty at this stage still. But there are certainly things, I mean, the social media it's not a gift of mine. You could see it if you were there this weekend. [00:24:00] Everyone's got their phone out and they're recording and they're videoing and my phone's in my pocket and I'm like staring someone in their eyes and it's like pulling teeth to build content. That's the piece I love. People are always like, it's all about content. You gotta create content in them. I always look and I say, the content I'm creating are these products like that's content. I know it's not the content you're talking about.

That's the content I'm really good at creating. But we're slowly but surely I'm exposing myself to those things, getting a little bit more comfortable with them and also candidly it's nice having a couple other bodies around because they can give me feedback, they can nudge me towards something I might need to be doing. And being the guy with the company or the girl or whatever. You'll have a tendency to point your attention somewhere that it may, maybe doesn't need to be pointed. That's one of the nice things about delegating something, [00:25:00] anything is it, frees your brain up to take your attention off of that particular piece of the business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And what's interesting, and for our listeners, I hope you're picking up on this, and Charles, what I really respect is, number one, you're open, transparent, and vulnerable. You know what? Social media, technology, content, Hey, that's not my thing. That's not gonna happen with me. My phone's gonna be not in sight.

It's in my pocket or left behind. And maybe you're doing that, but that's not what I'm about. And one of the things that we talk about, Charles, in step three, future buyer in the nine-step roadmap of Deep Wealth, and it's not just for the future buyer. Your future buyer could be for your company, but it could be also a client who's also a future buyer, as an example. Today more so than ever, people just don't trust people, particularly in a sales role. And so from Harvard University, if I'm not mistaken, it was Paul Zack who did all kinds of experiments when you're vulnerable, it takes a strong person to be vulnerable, people now can relate to you, and I'm sure some of our listeners took a [00:26:00] sigh relief.

Oh, it's not just me. Here's someone else who feels the exact same way that I do, and it becomes more believable. You are more relatable to people and then they trust you because of that. And so I admire how you're just taking yourself into, even at the conference, sure you had a background in the health area, but there's people out there, they've been at it longer than you have, and they have these names and these large followings, and here you are showing up.

You're putting your shingle out the door. Okay, world here I am, that it can be unsettling at the best of times, but you're showing up as you, so what's the mindset? How are you doing that, Charles? I know for myself, looking back, I don't think I was as good as you at certain points in time in terms of what you're doing.

So what's going on with that?

Charles Mayfield: You gotta believe in your product. I would even say you gotta have a good product. I can't wrap my brain around having a bad product and believing in it. So, feel like the two go hand in hand but those are two different things. Believing you have a good product and also having a good product that really helps. Jeffrey, I'll give you one funny story from the weekend. So [00:27:00] we, this is our first big, booth exhibit, right? And so I had a curtain designed, a backdrop curtain to our backdrop.

 It's a wonderful curtain. And I was I've got some folks in the brand and PR development graphics that helped me to put it together. But, I gave the final sign off on. It's good. Order it, so we've got it in time. And one of the ethos, we call it gather and lather.

So we have a skincare company. We lather somebody's skin up. And so across the top of our banner, if you can imagine, you walk up to our booth, the colors, everything's great, and across the top it says gather and lather. Okay. Now the name of our company is Not gather and lather. The name of our company is Farrow and it's down here in the bottom right. And the way we set the booth up, it was hard to see. And for three days I had to hear people say, they told me to come to the Farrow booth and I couldn't see Farrow anywhere. I just [00:28:00] saw this gather and lather. And this is one of those moments where you absolutely have to laugh at yourself. You have to give yourself a little bit of a break. So, it's a little bit of back to the drawing board. Okay, well I gotta put Farrow on the curtain. We gotta figure out a way to do that. But you've said this a couple times, like competing against the big guys and, I'm not the best at social media.

Do I need to be better at it? Am I working with an intern? Absolutely. But I think it's important in startup and especially hyper niche, like you're never gonna be able to compete with a billion dollar skincare company or a billion dollar beverage company, or, you know, just list the industry. And so, I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. In that, first of all, it's not a skill set and second of all, I've got this strategy over here when I can talk eloquently about our company. We've got an intriguing and compelling story, so let's just make sure we keep our eye on the ball right now, I don't need to [00:29:00] be a billion dollar skincare company. That would be kind of wild and crazy, but, just blocking and tackling and staying mission focused in terms of just meeting and talking to as many people as possible.

Jeffrey Feldberg: One handshake at a time, Charles, that's your model that really stuck with me when we last spoke and you said the one handshake at a time. I said, wow, that's really. If you break it down to the simple narrative, not confusing, simple with simplicity, that is business one handshake at a time.

It doesn't just happen all at once. Eventually you'll build up a following large enough that the word of mouth starts getting out and it's more than a handshake at a time. It's happening simultaneously. But in the beginning, what a great way to put things in perspective. Hey, we're gonna do this one handshake at a time and the craftsmanship that goes into it, and just your focus on excellence and nothing but that really shines through in everything that you do as part of your culture, which is just tremendous, Charles.

So congratulations with that.

Charles Mayfield: Thank you. And this chatgpt stuff, this is all the rage now I believe we're on a front end of the dissolution of [00:30:00] authenticity when it comes to online content, right? Because as fast as things are changing in less than 12 months, pick a number.

90% of the stuff you read online is going to be AI generated. Okay. And so as a startup, our company is all about culture and our message. And I think most companies should be built on culture and it's, AI does not know culture. It cannot communicate culture. We're getting closer, but I will contend that the handshake at a time, the interpersonal relationships, the building consumer trust, I think it's going to become harder to build consumer trust in the coming years digitally. Just because I think the rhetoric's gonna be just so diluted, and so I'm not saying that a presence online, and I'm not saying those things aren't important.

But in terms of building brand loyalty, it may it will be important. It's a cog in the wheel to [00:31:00] getting someone to try your stuff right?, but then back to, am I gonna do it again? What was my experience? This gets into, again, these CRMs and it's not a transaction. You're building a relationship with somebody.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You know, it's interesting and Charles, I'm glad you brought up AI artificial Intelligence. And we'll take that from a few different levels. So firstly, forget AI and I agree with you, it's gonna get worse, not better in terms of authenticity as it stands today. So this is before AI has really infiltrated society as it's going to, and there's no judgment on that, if that's a good thing or negative thing.

It's just a fact that, hey, life as we know it is changing from AI and some fascinating stats. Here they are. I believe it was from ad age or ad week, and it may be off a little bit, but not far off on the percentages. 92% of people do not trust advertising. End of story. Full stop. So these are our customers that we're talking about.

I don't care if it's b2b, [00:32:00] b2c, whatever it is, 92% of your prospects don't trust you. Not you personally, but the advertising that you're doing as well as your competitors and everyone else. And then work with me on this. It was somewhere between a huge number. I'm gonna say 60% to 75% of people know somebody who they were violated in the sense that they had misinformation.

So they got ripped off in one way or another from misinformation from the internet. So when you throw those two together, it's staggering. And then the other side of this that I'll put in there, into your response of AI and what's going on. We speak with a Deep Wealth, a lot of thought leaders, and we've been speaking to people that are authors and in the space, and marketers, digital marketers, and they're all coming back and they're saying the same thing.

AI in a specific way or role can be terrific on the backend to do some heavy lifting, to do some idea generation [00:33:00] to give you a roadmap of what to do to analyze a particular situation. And it's an equalizer, which has both a good side and a challenging side. So the equalizer is this, Charles as a skincare company, if you ask AI to write you some articles, And it does that, and you post that and now your competition asks AI to write articles.

They're the identical, same article, same structure, same everything. And so to your point, culture, and we're speaking the same language, different worlds step two, X-Factor, a Rembrandt. It's unique to you. And so I, again, I salute you, Charles, in terms of saying, Hey, we'll figure out a role for AI with us, but you're not gonna come to our website and have an article by AI.

Maybe it'll help us with the outline of the article, but it's gonna be written by a human because that's what we're about relationships and trust and transparency, and that's really where we need to get our heads wrapped around, okay, let's use it as a tool, but let's not have it lead the way and do everything for us on the creative side and trust and branding side of things.

Charles Mayfield: I completely agree. And you'll be happy to know that I have already asked [00:34:00] chatgpt why I should use lard for skincare. It was quick to tell me that lard clogs your pores and it's not good for your skin, which is for your listeners and any of our customers, they already know.

That is absolutely not the case. And so, there's, yeah, I liked what you said. Let's be clear. It's an amazingly powerful tool.

On the back end of things, idea generation organizationally and I have played with it very little, but I do think the application, again, back to sort of one of my, weaker points is like the social media.

And so, for on Twitter, it's about threads. If we're on Instagram, it's about reels. If we're on TikTok, it's about X, Y, and Z. And so, leaning into the technology to give you sort of a framework and to sort of set some boundaries. I believe it's a great tool. Don't get too reliant on it. As a business owner, there is no AI for growing a business, right? You've gotta be nimble and you've gotta be able to pivot and shift very quickly and recognize [00:35:00] things in real time. And I'm not saying AI can't do that but, what's the word I'm looking for here?

It's more opaque. AI is more 30,000 foot view and sometimes some that's important, but at startup and even early growth phase I feel like you have to be so granular on a moment's notice. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. No, you're so spot on with that. And the technology changes, and it'll be different names, it'll be different technology, but what doesn't change? It's us, it's people, the way that we're wired and business, regardless if you're going direct to consumer, direct to business. It's about trust. You have trust. People will buy from you, people will refer you. And so perhaps that's old school, but that's just the way that it's always been. And that's a whole other episode in and of itself, Charles, that we can do. So Charles, before we start wrapping up here, as you look at your business journey and your growth, and you've been incredibly transparent with us, any words of encouragement that you can share with our [00:36:00] listeners from where you've been, where you are, where you're going in terms of a strategy, a business strategy, or a growth strategy that our community could follow? No pressure there, Charles.

Charles Mayfield: Again, we're over here in consumer products, so I do think keeping your current audience engaged is very important. One of the ways you can do that is, bringing new products to market. The big guys are actually really good at this. But, being strategic about that, we've got, Jeffrey, we've got if you want to be really technical about it, we have four SKUs. Four, that's not a lot of SKUs. But this most recent SKUs this one we added we were very intentional about when we added it, I could have launched it sooner than this past weekend and it's still up for pre-order on our website.

We're not even shipping it yet. Just trying to be creative in how you choose to bring your customer along for the journey. You've said it a couple times in our interview, and I do try and be [00:37:00] as transparent and vulnerable and talk about this business and my own personal, highs and lows as possible, that's the authenticity.

That and candidly, I'm shocked those numbers were that high that you spouted off earlier in terms of consumer confidence and advertising. That's scary actually. People want to go on an adventure. We are adventurous by nature. And so to whatever degree you can bring your customer, bring your prospect along for the journey, whether that's through a product launch or just whatever's drumming around in your head on a Saturday afternoon.

I think all of those things are incredibly important to developing that long-term, engaged satisfied customer.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific advice. And Charles, you're at four SKUs now, possibly five. I wouldn't feel bad about that. Again, looking to Pareto's Law 80 20. I suspect if we were to look at [00:38:00] other cosmetic companies, skincare companies, that they have hundreds of SKUs, I would not be the least bit surprised if I have the hundreds of SKUs 80% of their profits are coming from a mere 10 to 20% of all the SKUs that they have.

Charles Mayfield: And I would say if you're willing to put a whole bunch of preservatives and junk in your products that give them a two to three year shelf life in a warehouse and aren't good for human biology, then you can have all the skus you on. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: There you go and sometimes that the bigger competitors we know as a strategy, they'll just fill up the shelf space to crowd everyone else out and. 

Charles Mayfield: Oh yeah. Listen, don't hate the player. Hate the game. Isn't that what they say? 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. But you know what you're doing. You're going direct to really the people to your community and bypassing all the costs and the markups that you'd have to get retail wise and playing by your own rules, which is for the health of us, which unfortunately has been overlooked for. Far too long, so this is a story that needs to be continued and I [00:39:00] would love to have you back, consider this a formal invitation where we will, jump forward sometime in the future where you can look back, okay, since we last spoke, here's some new strategies, or here's what's been going on.

We would love to have that. But let's do this. Charles, as we start to wrap things up, you're now an old pro. You know my favorite question I ask at the end, and perhaps you'll give us the same answer. Perhaps your vantage point has changed. That's what I love about life is where we are today isn't necessarily how we're gonna view things tomorrow.

Life happens, we grow with it, and things change. So as a review for you and for our listeners, imagine now Charles, it's tomorrow morning and that magical DeLorean car from the movie Back to the Future. It's not only curbside. It's door open waiting for you to hop on in. And you know, with that DeLorean car, it'll take you to any point in time.

Charles, so you hop on in and you're gonna go to maybe Charles as a toddler, a teenager, a young adult, whatever point in time. It would be even a week ago, Charles, what? Whatever that is. What are you telling your younger self in terms of life [00:40:00] wisdom or life lessons, or Charles, do this but don't do that?

What would that sound like?

Charles Mayfield: Jeffrey? Well, the funny answer is I would go back about two months and I would change the curtain design we had at the conference. No, in all seriousness I've turned 49 since we last spoke. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Happy Birthday.

Charles Mayfield: Thank you. And this was a health conference. It was the first one I've been at since, sometime last year. I don't know how far back I would go in that time machine Jeffrey, but I would just continue to emphasize, moving, picking up some weights getting outside, just staying active every day, just doing something every day.

There was a couple at the conference this weekend. This man's name was Stormy Fox.

Now that's his Instagram handle that was on his name badge. The minute and I saw we connected, I said, we're gonna be friends. That's the coolest name here. He and his wife he was about six four and he [00:41:00] and his wife collectively between the two of them, have lost about 300 pounds of weight.

And just an amazing story. There's countless stories there. But as a young business person, myself I have had various stages, certainly right outta college where I personally let my health go on the back burner. Let's go have fun. Let's dive into business. I disassociated work with working out that has become so much more real to me in the last few years, certainly as I get a little older.

But at being a little older and later stages of life and early stages of business, It is absolutely critical to put your brain and your body through its paces physically, so that then when your curtain design doesn't look so good, or the sails don't hit the way they, that you anticipated, that you can slough it off and say, you know what?

I've been here before. We can handle it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific advice and also true, really going back to how we started. Our health is our first wealth [00:42:00] without our health. What's it all for? Because you can't enjoy life. You're not gonna be able to grow that business and enjoy the fruits of your labor. So Absolutely. And on the movement side, Charles, I couldn't agree with you more.

Share a quick little antidote. It's a data point of one, but the science is now coming out saying that the version of cigarette smoking today, In addition to cell phones, it's going to be what we're all doing too much of sitting at a desk. And so for people who meet with me, and I'll put myself out there, I'll be vulnerable now.

It feels scary, but I'll throw that out there. So, Charles, when we met today, it was at five after the hour. And so people are saying, Jeffrey, why is it five after the hour? Why isn't it on the hour? And the honest answer is because I sit down so much, the first five minutes of every hour I'm up, I'm moving around and it's just carving out my time.

So I'm not at the desk for however many hours a day straight and always ensuring that every hour I'm walking, you know, two to five minutes just to keep it active, keep it real and keep healthy. So, I'm with you, [00:43:00] Charles. Health is our Wealth. What a terrific way to wrap up this episode. And so there you have it.

It's official, and as we say here at Deep Wealth, thank you so much, Charles, for your insights, your wisdom. May you continue to thrive and prosper while you stay healthy and safe. Thank you so much, Charles, for all of your insights today. Really appreciate it.

Charles Mayfield: Jeffrey, thank you. I look forward to future talks and continued progress, and I am very grateful for all the different guests that you have on, and this is a, an incredible wealth of information for me.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You're too kind. Thank you my friend. Really appreciate that. Take care. 

Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me. 

Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions. 

Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity 

Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

Lyn M.: Compared to when we first [00:44:00] began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix. 

Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately. 

Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended. 

Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

Kam H.: [00:45:00] I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even. 

Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

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Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an [00:46:00] experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table? 

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