33: Bringing a New Idea Into the Marketplace with Nick Bourdon of Artemis
Do you have an idea that you believe will transform your animal, equine or pet-based industry? On this week’s episode, Cara and Kim speak with Artemis Horse Match founder, Nick Bourdon, about his experience bringing a new product to the equine and equestrian marketplace. Nick shares his experience in getting to better know his ideal customer AND creating a product that, not only fits their unique needs but, is designed around consumer behavior as a solution to their pain point.
Our Big 3 Takeaways
Start with getting to know your customer.
It’s important to get to know your customer where they are — and how they work.
Deeply consider customer behavior.
Become the expert.
Be a leader in your industry. Also, automate mundane tasks as much as possible. Learn how to do things in house as much as possible.
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Show Notes
Nick Bourdon – Artemis Horse Match
Artemis is the first proactive email matching service to buy and sell horses. Artemis privately emails sale horses right to your inbox based on a rider’s specific buying criteria. Horse owners can list their horses for free to be matched with qualified leads while saving time & money. Once a match is made, Artemis Horse Match sends an email outlining the horse’s photo, video link, ID, characteristics and button to email the owner directly. This process radically saves hours of time for buyers in their search for a sale horse. We filter horses on your scope and budget all delivered to you. For sellers, Artemis offers free listings and provides discrete, private matching to sellers without disclosing the exact sale price. www.artehorsematch.com
Resources
Mentioned in the episode:
Artemis Horse Match
https://www.artemishorsematch.com
Equitana
http://equitana.com
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Transcript
Transcript
Transcripts are autogenerated and may contain typographical and grammar errors. This transcript is copyright©2021 Kimberly Beer and Cara Taylor Swift. DO NOT COPY in whole or part without written permission.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Kimberly Beer 0:00
Hey there business animals, it’s Kim here. And today, Cara, I have a really interesting interview to bring you with a very intriguing young man named Nick. Now Nick has a business named Artemis Horse Match. And basically, this is a really unique and interesting way for buyers of horses and sellers of horses, to get involved with each other. And to make that perfect match. Now we have some interesting tidbits around that that you’ll hear right at the beginning of the interview. So if you’re intrigued by artemis horse match, stay tuned, there’s going to be some really good information there. But as the interview goes on, Nick shares with us a lot of really interesting wisdom from bringing a brand new concept into the marketplace, something that probably the marketplace has not seen before, and has to get adjusted to. So in this episode, we would like for you to listen for the following big three points. And trust me, there’s going to be a lot of other little tidbits of wisdom along the way besides these three. But first of all, I would love for you to tune in when Nick is talking about how he took time to really get to know their customer and how he had to pivot a little bit. Because his guesses on customer behavior, were not exactly what the equestrian market handed back to him when he started really working on his product. So that’s really important when you’re bringing something that’s totally new into the marketplace. And you have to understand your customer and how they are currently doing whatever it is the problem that you’re solving happens to be the second of the Big Three that we’d like for you to tune in and listen for is how important it is to create your product or service around the consumers behavior. And so that really ties into the first of the Big Three, because Nick had to do some adjustments, and actually came out with a really interesting and unique product at the end of that, but it was co created in process with the customers based around that consumer behavior. And then the final bit of wisdom that I think Nick offers in a very big way, is a really important one for entrepreneurs. And that is no matter what you’re doing, learn how to be an expert at it. So really dive in and understand how everything works in whatever industry or business that you’re in. And really, really take some time to get to know all the ins and outs of how your business works, and how what you need to know what you need to learn and how that’s going to interact with your customers and the process of bringing your product into the marketplace, especially when it’s something new and different. So without further ado, here is Nick from Artemis Horse Match.
Jaz 2:58
Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. settle up for a gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you’ll learn how to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara Taylor Swift
Kimberly Beer 3:20
Hey there business animals. It’s Kim with Be More Business
Cara Taylor Swift 3:24
and Cara with Fast Horse Photography.
Kimberly Beer 3:26
And today we’re here with Nick Borden of Artemis Horse Match. And Nick has a really unique business and we’re excited to talk to Nick today. He’s brought some new ideas into the marketplace and done some really cutting edge innovative things with his new idea. And so we’re kind of focusing today on how to bring those new ideas into the marketplace. Cara, why don’t you tell everyone about Nick and Artemus?
Cara Taylor Swift 3:50
Absolutely. Nick, welcome to the show. We’re so happy to have you here folks. I’m going to tell you guys just a little bit about Artemis. Artemis is the first proactive email matching service to buy and sell horses Artemus privately email sale horses right to your inbox based on writer specific Buying Criteria. horse owners can list their horses for free to be matched with qualified leads while saving time and money. Once a match is made artemus horse match sends an email outlining the horses photo video link ID characteristics and button to email the owner directly. The process radically saves hours of time for buyers in their search for our sale horse we filter horses on your scope and budget all delivered to you for sellers Artemis offers free listings and provides discreet private matching to sellers without disclosing the exact sale price and we’ll let you guys know how to reach Nick at some point but Nick this sounds like a dating site for horses and humans. Is that what this is? Is this a dating site for horses and humans to find one another?
Nick Bourdon 4:49
Well it is an awake I like you know a dating service in the sense where you definitely window shopping, that’s for sure. And coming up with Artemus Horse Match word trying to think of it as you know is it going Via Tinder for equestrians, is that a way where they can match? And we’re like, Well, it seems that that could be, you know, definitely a really easy comparison to give to, you know, to write the same as what we offer, but the mechanics are a little bit different because you know, a questions always have different horses, they have different types, like Tinder, you’re like, I’m gonna be matching a, you know, a couple of different people. So I feel like it wouldn’t cross entirely like that might be a little bit messy if Tinder had that option. But But yeah, it’s it’s similar.
Cara Taylor Swift 5:29
I am, I’ve enjoyed getting to know you a little bit and learn about kind of like where this came from. Can you tell our audience like where did this idea of Artemis Horse Match come from?
Nick Bourdon 5:40
Yeah. So the idea came, actually from listening to other questions. And the closest ones to me, were a couple friends of mine in the hunter jumper, space and Polo, it was apparent after them approaching me that there is a problem with fragmented information in the equestrian world, and that this information is so fragmented that it’s really hard to aggregate it and the responsibilities on the writer to pretty much henpecked through the internet, and find all this information. So everyone was echoing this pretty loudly. And as I was qualifying these claims that this is a true problem. And from there, Artemus kept developing different solutions to deliver content directly to the client in an easy way. And throughout that process, Artemus had distilled it down to a really easy platform that matched the customer’s behavior, not necessarily just solve the problem. So that’s how it started in the beginning.
Kimberly Beer 6:32
That is so cool. I personally love the tender reference. I’ve done a little Tinder dating myself, and I’m going to be honest with you, I kind of ditched it for the men, but I really liked the idea of of window shopping for horses. Yeah, that sounds much more productive and far less problematic. I know that the horses out there, they eat some things, and I take care of them. But I have had far fewer problems from them than I have from the men in my life. So one of the things that we really want to talk with you today about Nick is that concept of bringing something that’s new and different to the marketplace. And you know, in the equestrian industry, there’s a lot of folks that probably aren’t even familiar with online dating, let alone this concept of of online matching with a horse or doing it, we’ve done it all old school, right? So we’ve kind of learned that we can go online, and we can look at a website, but what you’re doing is really different in that the information comes to the customers via email. There’s a lot of extra services that Artemis Horse Match offers, like with photographers, and all kinds of things. So talk to me about how you got started in this process of figuring out how to build this. I mean, what kind of research what did you What did you have to do and and kind of what pitfalls Did you fall into when you started out with this concept and bringing it into realization?
Nick Bourdon 8:07
Yeah. So when doing the initial research and looking into this market, I’m not a question myself. So I had a little bit of a learning curve going into this market. So what I did starting out with this idea or any entrepreneur is to qualify the problem and to say, what is truly a problem based on culture on the market, or what is a problem based on true operations, you know, just the day to day life for a client. So the best way that I had found starting this was talking first, always qualifying every movement, every decision made to say, I’m making this decision as an entrepreneur, because XYZ anything And besides that, it’s a big pitfall that entrepreneurs fell into and myself included, where it’s, I have an idea of a solution just to a problem. And I think the solution may do it. And then it’s mostly a guess you just go in, you build the product, and you say, Okay, I built it, they will come. Unfortunately, it is just in the field of dreams that that concept does not exist outside of outside of that movie, you have to qualify asking the customer saying, Do you like this? Great. Would you buy this different? then would you use it even more different? It’s the same concept. Everyone’s at the gym on like, that’s my favorite example. Like January 1, everyone says, This is my year, I’m going to the gym, walking in May, I guarantee you about more than half are not there anymore. It’s a behavior. And it’s because you want to make it as easy as possible to give it to them. So in my case, when I was exploring Artemus, I built the platform and I said, Okay, this is what the clients want. Now I need to figure out how to deliver it to them. This is what they told me to build. So I went in and a lot of the things that are available on YouTube. So I went in taught myself but I already had some background already, technically so I was a little bit more comfortable than most but the amount of learning required any entrepreneur can do. Just go online and teach yourself and invest the time. Luckily it’s free. So when I built it made the initial MVP the minimum viable product and tested it See? Does it work? Have people read it and say absolutely. And I even gone as far as to go to barns and talk to other trainers, talk to other riders and have them tell me what the interface and the experience is to them did they like him, I made sure that it was always a customer’s data that was driving the build. Eventually, it went from a full scale platform online. But nobody wanted to change that behavior to go on that platform. But they still needed the information, though, which is interesting, they still needed that. But they didn’t want to go to it. They didn’t want to change their habit. So it then pivoted to saying, Well, perhaps an app, lots of apps are being created, Will that work? So that’s my second supposition that we considered building it, which we did had some downloads, it was great. They did improve from the prior one. But it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t enough to provide a mass scale solution. So from there, again, ask another 100 people in saying, Would you prefer it in an email? Would you prefer just putting in five minutes of your time, the same amount of time we’ve seen when they’re creating their initial accounts in the platform? Would you do it just to fill out one form on our site, and then you walk away, and they will just send you emails periodically. And that’s it would that be easy. And by far, you can’t get any simpler than that. And exactly like what you mentioned, some people just aren’t aware of online dating, like there’s some big voids in the market. And but at least a one thing everyone’s heard about it’s email like that, that is for sure. I could at least bank that they know about email and text, and you can’t distill it any further. And that’s where we found that that is the best way to distribute information. And as an entrepreneur, it’s always good to pivot. And it is in every entrepreneurs best interest to do it yourself, had I gone to a development firm, or like other entrepreneurs take that orthodox route, the business would have failed immediately, they wouldn’t have been a strong enough revenue model to support the initial investment into that construction. So it’s much better to do it yourself. And just to make it just enough to get in front of the clients, because honestly, they don’t really care how it was built, could have taken 1000 hours or 10 minutes, as long as it provides the value needed, they will use it, they’ll just some of the takeaways I’ve found. And that’s how I came into no email service, this seems to be the easiest way for them, it’s normal, very easy to explain it. And it’s all packaged in one mode, because honestly, if you’re gonna have any other platform, right on Facebook, there’s always a share button, you know, share it outside of the platform, and I’ll take the link, send it, but you’re probably going to send it via text, and you’re probably going to send it via email. So our logic was as a business, why not just have the whole value served in an email, you’re gonna send it to your event, you’re gonna send it to the trainer anyway. And it’s a lot easier to add other, you know, items into that email, including photography services, if you bought a horse, you’re probably going to be taking a picture of it.
So we hope so I
think that’s really interesting, Nick, because you talk about how you went about troubleshooting and some of those lessons that you learned, like some of the things that you started off doing that you realized after investing time and energy and money into building and researching that those things weren’t going to work? And it sounds like you had to really go out and talk to the potential consumer about what would work best for them. Did you do any work around trying to determine what people were doing already in that space?
Yes, absolutely. In the beginning, when I was looking at what are the initial what’s the tech landscape and an antiquated industry? Does such exist? If so, what is it? So I did look online, and there were a couple of good tech companies that already exist. And I stumbled upon I was barn manager last November. And from there, we actually went to the same college as a mobile martyr. And I said, Wow, that’s, that’s pretty uncanny. So that was helpful to get a first open door to understand the landscape. I just talked to other businesses, but I did look, there was also like Strider Pro other well established tech companies that are scaling. And there’s others that you’ve seen that have come up and gone. And that was important to know to make, and how would you call an autopsy, so to speak on those businesses to say, Well, I was thinking of building just that. And I see a large graveyard, those ideas. So let’s understand why I always wanted to, you know, just look at the history, that it’s existed to those businesses and make my own businesses as an entrepreneur, it’s really difficult. Most entrepreneurs don’t really have a history book. This is this is what everyone else has done. But that was really critical to make the foundational decisions for Artemis and say, Where shall we invest our time? What direction and what’s the closure to justify that decision?
Cara Taylor Swift 14:25
That’s interesting, because you also mentioned you know, that there can be some antiquated-ness to the equine industry around buying and selling horses. And one of the things that I think about in my photography business is I have an online print shop and that is that’s transferred to Facebook, and I can’t even there’s certain images, I can’t even post to Facebook that have a horse in them that Facebook flags it as selling an animal and they won’t even let me post a print of an item like an art piece into a shop. I can’t get it through approval. So I’m just wondering, you know, some of those kind of more traditional ways Buying and selling a horse, you know? Did you spend time doing some of that legwork as well. And when you’re developing your product, I’m just wondering how you went back with that?
Nick Bourdon 15:07
Yes. So I was looking at what are the initial items, and some of them included sponsoring shows, I said, Is this a, this seems a very traditional way to market to get in front of clients. That made sense, because the data suggested that 80% of the questions are extremely loyal to the products that they find. And I said, Okay, that that could be good. So we could, could we sponsor a horse show? Yes. Option two, could we go into printed media as a way to distribute? Sure. You know, could we do this at conferences? Yes. So Equitana is actually one of the marketing things that’s going to be occurring in October, that will be another one that was considering his Facebook ads, that seemed to work. But I also ran into the same issue that you did. And that was very frightening, but also very enlightening. At the same time, I’m like, Oh, the entire point industry on the biggest platform is at the whim of bots. That would means that someone’s sole source of income could be vanished overnight, and blocked their account there, it will take too long and it’s crippling. So when in my case, I was struggling to the same situation. I’m like, oh, click on this link and visit some photographers click on this link, upload a horse. And they have image recognition to determine those images and just flag it without context. Because who needs context, I guess, completely removed it. So I found that to be problematic initially, but there’s ways around it that I found you could put an image in a setting. And that was a good way to get around the bots. And just to provide a safer area and more like peace of mind. Honestly, for the riders to say, hey, you come on my platform, there’s not a chance there’s going to be any type of censorship or any, you know, lack of customer service, because who are you going to call when your account gets hacked, or your headcount gets blocked? No one’s coming on Facebook. That’s frightening. So look, I’m an uplifting, optimistic side, I went on Facebook, looking at Instagram ads, those have been a really good way because you could target clients by zip code on a very specific time at specific shows as to where they’re going to be. So that’s been really great. Those have been a good way to send media or send content out through those media channels. And email has also been showing to be a great way as well, because ultimately, that is the bedrock of the internet, the first form of communication is going to be through email and text. And that has been very useful and it’s much easier to track as well.
Cara Taylor Swift 17:27
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Kimberly Beer 18:12
I love email marketing. I preach to people all the time, Cara knows, she’s sitting over there smiling. I see her face going, Oh, my God here counts Kim on her email. Soap box. But email does work. And I think that your business has proven that in in yet another facet in that when you’re communicating with people. Email is an effective route of communication when you’re marketing something to people, especially when it’s something new. And they they glance at something and they don’t quite register it on an ad. But if you can get them to kind of OPT it enough to give recognition to opt into an email, then you can get them to start to recognize what it is that you’re doing. And understand it from a deeper perspective. It just is a really good baseline of communication. I want to go back for a moment to some of the things that you said during the first part of when you were talking about how you went through building this process up. Obviously, one is getting to know your customer really, really well. But you also you came from a different background. So you brought innovation into this system because you didn’t come from you didn’t come at it from the equestrian standpoint, you brought your background in technology and ease of use and those kinds of things into the equation and really added that in to bring something new and different. So talk to me a little bit Nick about how you had to have conversations, or how the conversations went with the equestrians in like your beta testing. What What was that like to learn about how equestrians do things a little differently than maybe some easier Tech Community Solutions might be
Nick Bourdon 20:11
the experience going out into the space was definitely interesting. I went in with the mindset of saying, hey, Nick, keep your mouth closed and your ears open, we’re going to understand what their ops are. And we’re just going to listen, because that is by far the best way and everyone in the question community has been, I mean, literally, every single person I’ve spoken to, has been very open telling me about their business operations, verbalizing their pain points. I mean, it was great. And of course, I started those conversations, were saying, Hello, my name is Nick. You know, from Artemis, I’m trying to solve this problem. I’m sorry, in advance, I’m not as familiar. If I ask a basic question, just know, it’s from a position of curiosity. And I would love to learn more. My background is in tech, and business and operations. So if there’s any way I can help, let let me know, I’ll just love to pick your brain. And that was where it just started just coming in with deference and saying, If I could learn, and if you could lend an ear, I would appreciate it because I’m literally pursuing a business to help this industry. And if you do, I would love to offer you the services for free. Right as a thank you, if this takes off, you’ll be in my VIP client lists, you were there in the beginning, that’s was the relationship I’d like to establish, you know, with anybody I need that that’s helping, you know, giving their time and just continue that process. And make sure that when they’re giving their opinion and your time that you’re calculating it, and you’re showing that you’re actually executing on it. This is a lot of people ask for advice. They listen to like, Wow, that sounds great. And they do the exact opposite. So it makes the other person feel like Well, that was well, why why did you ask
Kimberly Beer 21:47
it was a waste of my time to give you that feedback. I love how you said, Okay, I invited them in, I made them a VIP, they gave me the information I needed to build a better product, then I gave them back some status to go with that. And what we’re really discussing here is when you’re bringing something new and different into a marketplace, what are some of the things you really need to think about, and now it’s one of them. Because building a network of people, it really is who you know, and those people that you invited in as VIPs, I’m sure that they talked about their experience and their input into your project to their fellow equestrians, which eventually will come on to be customers with you. So that’s an important piece of this too. Because when it comes from your peer, rather than the techie guy who says, I have this new way of doing things, will you listen to me? People tend to shut you out, right? But when it comes from their peers to say, hey, Nick really listened to me, he’s really developing a great product, I think you need to look into using this. Was that your experience? Did that network help to be able to grow your business?
Nick Bourdon 23:03
Yes. And another thing that has been helpful is when I was getting initial photographers onto the platform, I spoke with him on the phone. And I said, This is what Artemis is, you know, in the early days, like it’s it’s small, but we’re trying to make sure it’s a qualified, less having professional photographers, not other photographers that claim to be professional. So we’re gonna have this vetted list, check it out, tell me what you think. And literally on the call, I would say, Oh, that’s a great idea. And then I literally changed it. And I said, Please refresh your page. Is this what you mean, that experience what they’re saying? Oh, my gosh, I didn’t just send a request into a forum into the abyss. It’s I’m seeing my change my impact in real time. That was for them. It was great for me. It took me a second. I’m like, Oh, that’s right. There is the online experience for the question world. That doesn’t exist. We were both taken aback. I was confused. Like, I’m sorry, why are you shocked with this? And they said, this doesn’t happen. And I’m like, really? Okay. But yeah, getting them involved. And having people want to help, they generally want to be a part of a big project, be part of something big. And having them involved and engaged has been really helpful. And just just keeping them in the loop and say, hey, you’re relevant. You’re making an impact. I want to have you join along for the ride. That’s kind of how it’s been just keeping them engaged. And yes, as you mentioned, that is your also your initial network. And as people have a good experience, they’ll share it. They’ll post on Instagram, they said, Hey, guys, I’m on Artemus. Check it out. And then everyone asks, What is Artemis and they continue and then the whole cycle goes on. That’s been a really nice way to have a result and a performance based driven marketing approach. That seems to be a much better much better take and less management, which is good, good, good work. A lot of things percolate. like wow, what concepts of
Kimberly Beer 24:51
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Well in you’re also using your centers of influence, right, so not every site, or every person that’s concentrating on wanting to help people sell horses would make the leap to Hey, I need to befriend and really get to know the photographers, because the photographer’s already have the contacts of the people that are going to be wanting to market their horses, they’re actively involved in that process. And here, I’m going to I’m going to approach them with some ideas and use their center of influence. Because again, you have those people that are going to go out and talk about your business and bring other and more people into it. It’s a big giant connected, beautiful money making spiderweb of of joy and happiness around selling horses. So I could give you kudos for that. Nick, very, very complimentary around that.
Nick Bourdon 26:48
Thank you. Yeah, and you hit a really good point with the photographer’s when doing the initial research, I thought who is the group of people that are literally creating content for the world to know what a question is, it’s the photographer’s hands down, who was there at the shows, standing out for 12 hours, making videos, making pictures, making sure all the riders look glamorous, perfect, and onpoint at all times to showcase that the broadcast that is the photographer’s hands now. So that’s why it made sense to say, Okay, if I’m a horse selling and matching business, who would benefit from my service the most? Well, a compliment would be the photographer’s there. You need horses in order for the photographers to take pictures of it. I can’t market horses with images that are you know, a potato doesn’t know if it’s grainy, no one’s gonna buy the horse. So that’s why I’m like, you know, let’s work closely with the photographers. They get to have a more effective matchmaking service, they get to have a bigger funnel, I get to say, here’s a horse that’s you’ve been matched to, here’s a shortlist of these photographers. It makes sense. It’s a very logical and everybody wins. I like working photographers. They’re my favorite group of people. They they keep experiencing the operational quirks, shall we say at a horse show? Like, oh, this is my timeframe. And then three hours later, like the horror show was organized like this. And I’m like, I understand. It’s a ton of fun, and just having that close relationship. But yeah, yeah, that’s been the take was working with photographers and any other peripheral products, even literal tack and saddles, you still need a photographer for for branding. It doesn’t it doesn’t matter what it is. It’s the photographer’s have been critical to the equestrian space and more. So now as we’re seeing everything is online, as more chosen. I think there’s a couple of shows even went for digital, they went to like a digital horror show. You’re now having horsetails sight unseen just buying from what they see. And I’m like, that’s a ton of leverage. Then photographers are market makers at that point, they say do you want to be anything relevant online, that you can pick your price at that point, and it’s been great to work with them because you could go on artists to shortlist and say here are the photographers across the US which one do I want? Let me look at their portfolio. Great. That’s one for me send Thank you spend more time riding horses less time online. That’s That’s all I’m offering.
Kimberly Beer 29:02
I think you’ve hit every equestrians dream right there less time online more time riding horses. And I think that is a little bit of why we’re backwards sometimes in in technology because we are in and for all of our animal based businesses out there we have that real thing outside our door with the connection and and with nature and with the animals. And sometimes I think we’re a little further away from the tech side of things. And again, kudos to you for pivoting your original ideas into something that really works for your customer because your business I say this often to people you know, they get really focused on me, me me, I’m the entrepreneur, I’m creating a business for me that really you’re creating a business for your customers. And I think you’ve done a really beautiful job of understanding your customers understanding their needs, and really pivoting what you needed and being flexible. To make a solution that works really, really well for them. And both Cara and I am sure Cara you can chime in on this love the fact that you’ve become a photographer fanboy
Cara Taylor Swift 30:15
Yeah, we’ll take that.
Nick Bourdon 30:17
I’ve never been called the photographer fanboy. I’m going to add that to my LinkedIn. Maybe I’ll do that. I’ll add it right there. Artemus co founder of Artemis Horse Match and photographer fanboy. We need
Cara Taylor Swift 30:30
to start a whole club. You’re not only a dating site for horses to find their humans and humans to find their horses, but for horses in human.
Nick Bourdon 30:42
Yeah. Oh, man. One of the points you mentioned. Earlier, I wanted to touch on I forgot, I guess one of the things that the entrepreneur could do with Facebook and reaching out to people, I think you could do it for literally $100 you could go on Facebook, make a form. And then say if this is a product you’d like, you know, type in your email down below and we’ll let you know if this is in stock. And then that’s what the entrepreneur runs and says, figure this out. Now, I feel like that’d be a good way to like a strategy to implement. It just reminded me because regardless if you’re a photographer or any, any entrepreneur, you could do this and then they could start a business who knows photographer fanboy.com. Find all the biggest photographer ambassadors where your tire out every horse show, subscribe here. Who knows?
Cara Taylor Swift 31:27
Nicks, putting a hold on the URL right now.
Nick Bourdon 31:31
Trademark on godaddy.com for photographer fanboy
Kimberly Beer 31:38
where you got to be an equine photographer fanboy, not just any photographer. It’s those of us. That’s true horses equine photographer fanboy? Well, Nick, this has been a super enlightening conversation. And Cara do you have anything else that you want to add? Or ask from Nick?
Cara Taylor Swift 31:55
Not really, I think the big thing I’d like to do, because we do have so many just animal pet and equine based business owners out there and that listen to this show, and also people that are kind of in the early stages of forming their business and their ideas? And do you have any just kind of takeaway tips that you’d like to leave for the audience? For people that are maybe thinking about putting a new product out creating a product or service? Just anything that you want to leave our listeners with?
Nick Bourdon 32:18
Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I would say for those entrepreneurs that are considering making an idea, I would say start now, if it’s an online business, just look at a YouTube video and just watch and don’t get stuck on not having all the answers. Don’t fall victim to analysis paralysis. And it’s really easy to explain this to an entrepreneur, if a business always had all of the answers at all times, then you would never see an FAQ page on business sites, you would never see a help but you would never see a contact us. But because that exists from the biggest of companies, then you know that it’s unrealistic for an entrepreneur to hold themselves to that expectation. So I would say start now learn and research as much as possible text other businesses that are maybe not necessarily your competitors. But you could look at peripheral uncomplimentary businesses that may do business with a competitor. And you could understand where did they fall short of just listen and do the due diligence and think critically. And if you find critics on your business, bring them as close to you as possible you want them next to you is that their critical is because they’re asking the questions that everyone else is thinking that especially when you’re giving that pitch. So I would I would encourage that establish relationships with those not necessarily naysayers, but those that give it a hard look and says I’m seriously considering your offering, but can’t do this, keep them close solve their needs. Because if you could make that sale with you know, the hardest of people, then for the most part, you’re going to be in a pretty good position. If you fail to plan plan to fail. That’s that’s the logic and the mantra that I’ve been working with.
Cara Taylor Swift 33:50
That’s fantastic. And perfectly put thank you so much for that. I just Yeah, I love that. And I think there are people out there that are you know, Kim we talk about it sitting on your butt all the time, you know, just, you’ve got one more thing you need to learn, you know, but but I’ll do this. But first, I need to, you know, we have all these different different ways. And we can always send you guys to that episode if folks want to find it. But I really appreciate that. Nick, can you tell folks that are listening? Where can they find you online, and then this episode should be coming out right before a big event that you’re going to be out as well. So if you want to just share a little bit about how folks can find you and connect with you, we’d love that
Nick Bourdon 34:25
short so you could find me at Artemishorsematch.com. That’s where you could add in your sales horse for free or have a horse request search. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook at Artemus Horse Match as well. You could either speak with me or one of my team members. And we’re always happy to chat with anybody if you even if you want to talk about entrepreneurial things. This is great, but not every business is 100% perfect, but we’d love to talk to people who put in 100% effort so I’ll
Kimberly Beer 34:51
help them nice and don’t forget to look for him at hashtag equine photographer fanboy as well. And also what Carawas also getting out was, Nick is going to be at Equitana. Are you going to have a booth at Equitana
Nick Bourdon 35:08
won’t have a booth this year. definitely looking forward to having one next year. Oh, this can be the first year that Equitana is going to be at the Kentucky Horse Park. So I’m really eager to be meeting all the other booths, the breed associations, looking at the shows, I’m really excited to do that. And if anyone’s going to be there,
Kimberly Beer 35:22
looking up, yeah, watch for it. He has a really nice logo with a horse’s head and it says Artemus under it, and he’s been logoed up at every conversation we’ve had. So if you see a guy wandering around Equitana with a black shirt that says Artemus on it, by all means stop and talk to him and say you heard about him on The Business Animal podcast and ask him questions about I think he’s he’s very approachable young man and very much on the right track. And I can’t wait to see what you do next, and how successful you’re going to be with Artemis horse match and how many beautiful relationships are going to be formed from your business idea. I appreciate that. Thank you take. I try to be approachable. Very nice, very much.
Nick Bourdon 36:10
Awesome. I’m looking forward to it. All right. Thank
Kimberly Beer 36:12
you, Nick.
Jaz 36:13
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