Views from the Bus: Episode 8, Justin Gardner of BLDG Active

In this episode of the Views From The Bus podcast, Bob Rief is joined by his friend Justin Gardner, CEO and Founder of BLDG Active Skin Repair. BLDG Active Skin Repair is 99% effective against all bacteria, including the complex bacteria that you find in the ocean. And here’s the big news…it does not sting. BLDG Active uses the same molecule that your white blood cells produce and is able to replicate the same immune response that your body’s creating to help fight off bacteria and help heal. Justin is a very progressive thinker, very fast to pivot, and uses a very contemporary digital marketing plan that has allowed him to navigate the pandemic and come out with a stronger brand.

PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS

4:45 – How BLDG Skin Repair Works: “Is it using the same molecule that your white blood cells produce? So we’ve been able to replicate the same immune response that your body’s creating to help fight off bacteria and help heal that skin damage too. You’re killing off that tough to kill bacteria, but you’re also helping reduce the inflammatory response your body’s having. So it’s going to help heal that abrasion or irritation quicker. We are able to recreate that molecule through electoral insulation of salt and water.”

“You’ve got something that’s natural, non-toxic and much more safe for the environment and safe for use.”

9:30 – Why BLDG didn’t go to a ‘Big Box’ pharmacy and go into specialty retail: “Not only are you going into a dusty category, but you’re launching a new technology, which requires education. So we just didn’t think we could expect that consumer to understand and read a box and educate themselves. So we knew we needed to have an educational component to it.

We took, kind of a playbook from the GoPros of the world and we said, let’s go into specialty retail. Let’s educate the store employees and let’s go into the specialty retail where we’re authentic.”

13:40 – Financial benefits of selling direct to consumer: “We were very cognizant of cash flow and inventory. It allowed us to scale faster to be able to realize that cash and be able to see a return on investment so quickly. It allowed us to just significantly reinvest that capital quicker, which just is going to compound. And actually, in my opinion, allowed us to see a significant increase in sales because of how quickly we were able to realize that return on investment.”

15:40 – Launching products into Amazon and working on your reviews: “You really live and die with your reviews. So thankfully our product, because it does work so well, it reviewed really well. Getting those reviews to a meaningful number, only one to 2% of your customers are going to leave a review.”

18:00 – BLDG’s relationship with natural product influencers: “It really felt like a natural fit for these influencers to really educate their followers on our product and that significantly changed the volume that came into our website. So once we really started to understand that influencer model and be able to scale that traffic to our website, is really what built that e-commerce business for us.”

19:30 – How BLDG coordinated influencer marketing: “We just built a list and we went at it just by reaching out through Instagram to some of the influencers that we identified as being really authentic that had strong engagement. We would do meetings a lot and I would, as a CEO and founder, talk about how we started the company. I would give them a backstory on the brand. I’d also give them medical journals and I’d say, listen, this is way more complex than your followers want to know, but I want you to understand the science. You can feel very good about endorsing this product.”

25:00 – How BLDG handles influencer marketing: “So we have a hybrid model. Sometimes we’ll pay for the post itself. Sometimes we just do an affiliate so that there is a percentage of sale. We use a backend system called Refersion.”

33:51 – How Justin became nimble in business: “If you’re not embarrassed of your first product launch, you launched too late. We went out to market really naive.Our messaging has evolved a lot. We’ve gone through three different rebrands, we’ve taken paragraphs and now got them down to four bullet points. You know, we just keep cutting, cutting, cutting, and really figuring out what’s connecting.”