With Akeem Shannon, CEO & Founder of Flipstik
Hosted by Kevin Mako, President of MAKO Design + Invent
Akeem Shannon is the mastermind behind Flipstik, a consumer product startup that started with a crowdfunding campaign and has achieved resounding success leveraging the immense power of authentic storytelling. In addition to achieving over a million units sold and robust partnerships with over 3,000 resellers, Flipstik has garnered substantial attention from millions of consumers across various social media platforms, including the legendary Snoop Dogg. Today, Akeem will take listeners through his journey in the hardware startup space and impart valuable anecdotes for inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers. He will delve into the significance of storytelling in consumer product promotion, emphasizing its dual utility: leveraging personal narrative as a founder and harnessing customer experiences. Moreover, Akeem will elaborate on how to strategically implement these storytelling techniques to propel the growth of your product business.
Here are the key takeaways from the episode:
- It always helps to have a genuine love for sales as you are always selling something as a hardware founder.
- You can recover from failure if you don’t give up!
- Akeem initially launched his product on Kickstarter and hit $15,000 in product sales in 30 days.
- Self-belief will take you further than anything!
- Most people don’t have big imaginations, so your biggest obstacle is convincing them to buy something they were previously content with living without.
- You need to convince your customers that they need your product, and the best way to do that is to tell a story.
- Show consumers how your customer’s lives were changed by using your product.
- Customers might buy your product just because your story is compelling.
- Sometimes, you are not the right messenger for a specific audience, so utilize the stories of others to get your message across.
- Find people who love your product and work with them to amplify your message!
- Authenticity is the most important thing when telling your own story.
- Don’t be afraid to show conflict in your story! No one watches a movie that doesn’t include any struggles or obstacles.
- Your story will get you into rooms and meetings that you may think you are too small for.
- Take down your walls by connecting authentically with your customers, investors, and partners.
Akeem Shannon Links:
The Product Startup Podcast Links:
Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube
MAKO Design + Invent Links:
YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter
Kevin Mako Links:
Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter
Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to the above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.
1-888-806-6256
info@makodesign.com