Write down your goals each day and surround yourself with the people who are going to support you on achieving your dream. It’s very important to always remind yourself why you started on this journey.
Kaivan Dave is an entrepreneur, growth marketer, and ecommerce expert. He helps brands up their game and take their ecommerce marketing to the next level.
Kaivan is the host of the Staying Uncomfortable show. The show features entrepreneurs, fitness professionals, and other experts who dive deep and share their vulnerabilities, and how they stay outside of their comfort zone in order to experience more success in business and in life. Past guests include professional bodybuilder and world-renowned Mark Bell, and Sean Riley of the Shark Tank Featured product Dude Wipes.
Kaivan also has a successful track record of working with other companies to help them develop better products, and marketing strategies in order to see more results. At Lifes2Good Kaivan was responsible for quadrupling their revenue and growing their Direct-to-Consumer business. During his time at Lifes2Good, he was the Director of E-commerce, and he grew his team from a one-man show to an in-house agency. His creative vision and expertise allowed the entire company (every brand under the Lifes2Good label) to benefit from his new strategic direction. Lifes2Good, brand Viviscal was recently sold to Church & Dwight for a reported €150m.
After his departure from Lifes2Good, he Joined RXBAR and within three months he was able to break the company’s B2C sales record in Jan 2017. Additionally, in May of 2017, he spearheaded the completion of an entire website redesign project that supports their direct-to-consumer channel.
In June 2017, Kaivan’s pursued his American Dream one more time with a personal care brand and is working hard to help inspire others through his new show Staying Uncomfortable.
Where did the idea for your company come from?
Glyder was born after I found myself clutching a piece of toilet paper at least once or twice a week. I have very sensitive skin, so every time I shaved my beard, I’d end up with cuts and nicks all over my face. I could never stop the bleeding, so Glyder was created as a solution to a problem that I was very familiar with!
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Most days my morning starts at 4:30 am. I like to wake up early to make sure that I attack the day. A morning workout is first each day–where I get my daily dose of pain. That gets me fired up to face the challenges of the day. From there, I work on three separate areas of my business.
Current Campaigns
Review & Optimize
Plan & Develop
This approach helps me make sure that I am paying attention to what’s happening currently with the company, how are we improving on things that we have active in our pipeline right now, and what are we planning and developing for the future to keep the company moving forward.
I try to write down each thing that I complete because it helps me with knowing what I’ve completed and gives me momentum heading into the next day.
In order to break this up, I usually take 10-min walks throughout the day to step away from my computer and unplug.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Any product that we bring to life, is used, and tested by me personally. Pat Flynn calls himself a crash-test dummy for online business, and I can definitely relate to that type of mindset. If the product doesn’t work well for me, I scrap it and go back to the drawing board. If I find myself using it, (and loving it) I get other opinions from trusted individuals and see where there’s room to really enhance the features and usability.
What’s one trend that excites you?
I am super excited about how trendy natural grooming care products are right now. There are so many people who are using products that are inundated with harmful ingredients, and they continue using them because they just don’t know any better. With Glyder, I’m hoping to educate the consumer on best practices within affordable and natural grooming products.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
You will not be able to out work me.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Stay focused and consistent. There are no shortcuts in life. Work hard and show-up every day.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
15 years ago, I could not say “hello,” or “hi,” in English. I couldn’t speak a word when I moved here with my parents from India.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Write down your goals each day and surround yourself with the people who are going to support you on achieving your dream. It’s very important to always remind yourself why you started on this journey.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
It’s 2018, you are one or two connections away from connecting with key influencers within your industry. Think about it, with social media being as powerful as it is today, you can get in touch with anyone. At Glyder, we use influencer marketing very heavily to connect with key partners to get our brand in front of their online community.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
The first company that I started in 2010, failed very successfully and I overcome that failure by focusing on what I learned and how I was able to advance my career.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I always thought what if there was a business where translators for non-native English speakers to help them learn to speak the language within 3-6 months. Like personal shoppers, but instead they follow you around and help you understand what people are saying, and work with you on communicating in public. Obviously, not everyone could afford this, but if it was reasonably priced per hour–I think that could be very helpful.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
It was a little less than $100, but I bought my niece a gift recently. Watching her eyes light up was priceless. I’d pay $100 just to see the joy on her face. Making other people happy, when it’s within your power to do so is so important.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Google Calendar: It’s my best friend. If it’s not on my calendar, it’s not getting done. In order for me to be very productive, I need to make sure I create a block on my Google Calendar so I get shit done and this helps me be more productive. Because I only work on that one thing during that time slot. It’s the only way I stay really focused.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni. I love this book because it shows you how to overcome lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of responsibility, and inattention to results.
What is your favorite quote?
“And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping? I’m working.” -Will Smith
You got a dream? You gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it. Period. -Will Smith
Key learnings:
- Solve problems that you understand the solutions to well, personally. As a founder your company should be working on things that you know intimately.
- Break up your day into three key categories to make sure that you are always on the ball. 1. Current Campaigns 2. Review & Optimize 3. Plan & Develop.
- Don’t let anything stop you. Keep working, even Kaivan’s inability to speak a single word of English hasn’t stopped him from running a successful company fifteen years later.
- Read the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni in order to learn how to create a better team dynamic that leads to real results.
Connect:
Instagram: @KaivanDave
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/KaivanDave
Twitter: @KaivanDave
Website: www.stayinguncomfortable.com
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.