Creating Profitable Businesses with “Soul” (w/ Braxton Manley)

Braxton Manley is the founder Braxley Bands (a D2C Apple Watch bands company). The company started as a class project but now has scaled millions of dollars. Braxton shares his story, lessons learned, favorite resources, and much more. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:22 Origins of Braxley Bands 4:22 First customers and inflection points 07:30 DTC brand learns and restructures using Profit First 11:11 Design frameworks and philosophy 12:13 Scaling brand, facing MOQ challenges, shifted focus 14:18 E-commerce strategy and customer loyalty in marketing 17:50 Ways to drive traffic (and pitching Mark Cuban) 20:22 Riding big waves for product demand 23:30 Ways to reduce expenses and maximize revenue 25:43 Switch to Sendland for email and SMS 28:00 Hiring a fractional CMO, Tegan Gainan 28:52 Outside perspective is invaluable for growth 32:06 Adopting a flexible approach, learning from mistakes 35:49 New business of flavored mastic gum for facial structure 37:41 Soft launching under a beta brand for feedback 41:30 Braxton’s girlfriend and founder connections 43:05 Peace Love Hormones business 45:00 Shiny penny syndrome and multiple businesses 45:45 Businesses with family members 47:00 Communication frameworks to express needs 50:00 Final takeaways Guest Links: Braxley Bands https://braxleybands.com/ Braxton Manley X https://twitter.com/Braxtonmanley Braxton Manley IG https://www.instagram.com/braxtonmanley/ Other Links Mentioned: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Agency https://oddit.co/ Social Snowball https://socialsnowball.io/ Sendlane for email and SMS https://www.sendlane.com/ Fractional CMO for ecom brands https://tegangainan.com/ Peace Love Hormones https://www.peacelovehormones.com/ Mystic Gum https://mysticgum.com/ My Links: 🧠 3-minute Newsletter: https://making-connections.beehiiv.com/ 🎙️ Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mitchellcohen 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MitchellLandon 📸 IG: https://Instagram.com/mitchelllandon