GE 176: How Half-Priced Paddle Boards & 5-Hour Workdays Grew Tower Paddle Boards’ Revenues 42% within 1 Year (podcast)

In this episode, Eric shares the mic with Stephan Aarstol, founder and CEO of Tower Paddle Boards, an online, manufacturer-direct brand in stand up paddle boarding which attracted an investment from billionaire Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. Tower Paddle Boards has been named as one of the top 10 success stories in Shark Tank history by Entrepreneur Magazine.

Listen as Stephan shares how he choked on ‘Shark Tank’ but still got a deal for $150K, how they grew even without spending a dime on advertising in the first three years, and how his book, The Five Hour Workday, helped his company double its revenues.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Half-Priced Paddle Boards & 5-Hour Workdays Grew Tower Paddle Boards’ Revenues 42% within 1 Year TRANSCRIPT

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:51 – Eric introduces Stephan to the podcast
• 01:17 – Tower Paddle Boards is a beach lifestyle company founded in 2010
• 01:28 – Stephan started a high-end poker chip company and transitioned to selling boards
• 01:44 – Boards cost about $1,200-1,500 but Tower Paddle Boards sell only for $600-$1,000
  • 01:54 – Selling directly to consumers
  • 02:15 – The same board at a much better deal
• 02:24 – Stephan still has his poker chip business
  • 02:33 – Stephan created the top high-end poker chip site, BuyPokerChips.com
• 02:57 – Stephan was able to reduce his work week down and founded other businesses
  • 03:33 – Read Tim Ferris’ The 4-Hour Work Week book
  • 03:55 – The poker chip company was a one-person company
  • 04:01 – Stephan stopped working on Tuesdays and Thursdays
• 04:35 – The poker chip business couldn’t grow anymore so Stephan carved out another business
• 05:07 – Stephan hired employees after 9 months of Tower Paddle Boards
  • 05:13 – Featured on Shark Tank in 6 months
  • 05:44 – They were able to grow the company quickly
  • 06:01 – The 4-Hour Work Week principle has been formalized in Tower Paddle Boards
  • 06:17 – Living your brand
  • 06:39 – Net effect was doubling everyone’s per-hour earnings
• 07:18 – How Stephan holds people accountable
• 08:08 – The information age opened a revolution of productivity
  • 08:16 – Not an incremental change but exponential change
  • 09:04 – All kinds of productivity tools are now available
• 09:08 – The Five Hour Workday
  • 09:14 – Check out the website to get the first 50 pages of the book for FREE
  • 09:38 – By constraining your workday, you’re forced to go out and find productivity tools
• 10:19 – The real amount of work getting done is just 2-3 hours/day
• 10:37 – Dropbox makes you productive
  • 11:07 – Frees you up to work anywhere
  • 11:43 – The faster the information flows, the faster the productivity
• 12:03 – In the first 3 years, Tower Paddle Boards didn’t spend a dime on advertising
  • 12:20 – We wanted to figure out how to get the traffic for free
  • 12:30 – Constraints breed productivity
• 13:53 – Have a compelling value proposition
  • 14:25 – The marketing does itself
  • 14:37 – Cutting out chains and directly selling to consumers
• 14:57 – Create content about your value
• 15:11 – The Five-Hour Work Day as an example
  • 16:24 – Writing a book on a topic explains what you’re doing
• 17:11- The Shark Tank experience
  • 17:19 – Shark Tank called Tower Paddle Boards
  • 18:15 – Stephan went up to L.A. for the interview
  • 18:27 – Mark Cuban was going to be on Shark Tank
  • 18:51 – Stephan freezes up while presenting and tried starting again
  • 19:32 – Stephan ended up getting a deal from Mark Cuban for $150K
  • 20:27 – Since his pitch, Tower Paddle Boards already made $20M
• 22:49 – Working with Mark Cuban
  • 22:59 – Less about getting $150K but getting a free celebrity investment
  • 24:02 – Mark has a team but Stephan doesn’t use them
• 24:38 – What’s one tool that added a lot of value to your business? HR tools like Recruiterbox and Zenefits
• 26:18 – Panjiva: A sourcing tool
  • 26:38 – Alibaba vs Panjiva
  • 27:24 – What 9/11 did to imports
  • 28:43 – Sourcing 2-3 hours vs years and trips to China
• 29:07 – What’s one must-read book you recommend for everyone? The 4-Hour Work Week
• 30:49 – Connect with Stephan on Tower Paddle Boards or on The Five Hour Work Day

3 Key Points:

1. Cutting out work hours doesn’t mean cutting out revenues.
2. Constraints help bring out productivity.
3. Products can sell at a lower price by just cutting off supply chains.

Resources From This Interview:

• LinkedIn – Stephan Aarstol
• Tower Paddle Boards
• The Five Hour Workday by Stephan Aarstol
• Five Hour Workday (get the first 48 pages of The Five Hour Workday free plus a bonus list of 38 amazing productivity tools)
• BuyPokerChips.com
• Shark Tank
• Favorite productivity tools:
  • Dropbox
  • Recruiterbox
  • Zenefits
  • Panjiva
  • Alibaba
• Must-read book: The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
• Twitter @StephanAarstol

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.
• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here.
• Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes.
• Get the non-iTunes RSS feed

Connect with Eric Siu:

• Growth Everywhere
• Single Grain
• Twitter @ericosiu