The Story and the Future of Electric Eye

Shawn is the Designer and Co-founder of Electric Eye. He brings over fifteen years of fashion retail experience to the table. His time in the retail industry, from digital experience to product design, has exposed him to many facets within the business that gives him an undeniable ability to identify his clients’ needs.

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Transcript

Shawn Khemsurov

Design has to serve a purpose. I think there's a way to do it where it looks great and it's functional. And so that's kind of what I try and do every day.

Chase Clymer

Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, where we're dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners.

I'm your host Chase Clymer, and I believe running an online business does not have to be complicated or a guessing game.

If you're struggling with scaling your sales, Electric Eye is here to help. To apply to work with us visit electriceye.io/connect to learn more. Now let's get on with the show.

Chase Clymer

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce. It's only taking me 100 episodes, but I finally have my business partner joining me on the call. Welcome to the show, Shawn.

Shawn Khemsurov

Oh, thank you. I hope it's worth the wait.

Chase Clymer

Yeah. You just wanted to wait for the cool number. So you're like, "That's the one I got my eye on."

Shawn Khemsurov

I wanted to make sure that you kept doing the podcast and stayed consistent with it before jumping on and you worked out all the kinks and all that stuff.

So, hopefully I sound better and all that good stuff.

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. All right. So for those listeners that only know me for my rants and raves with subject matter experts and founders, Shawn is my co-founder at our agency Electric Eye. Electric Eye is the sponsor of the podcast.

Obviously, this is pretty much a marketing angle for our agency, let's be real. But we're still giving value to the community. We're super excited about that. So Shawn, let's, I guess, let the people know your background and how you ended up at Electric Eye with me?

Shawn Khemsurov

Absolutely. Yeah, it's a long weaving road. But we're here and it's a lot of fun. But I started out actually in a completely different field doing environmental science at The Ohio State University, here in Columbus, Ohio.

So I was doing soil science and things like that. I maybe wanted to work for the EPA after college or something like that to save the world.

And I ended up moving to San Francisco, where, through a friend of a friend, I was just looking for any type of work. I became, randomly, a graphic design assistant at Old Navy headquarters in San Francisco. This is a little bit back in the day.

The buddy gave, he gave me a chance. He let me work my way up and just doing I was just doing whatever was necessary to assist him. He was managing about 14 freelance designers. So through that, this friend taught me how to use Illustrator and Adobe Suite.

I was not necessarily the most artistic, but I had done some demo tape layouts and stuff like that in college, and my friends were artists and things like that. So I was picking up on stuff artistically and creatively.

And so I started learning little by little, these little things with Adobe and shortcuts and how to do design essentially. And I realized that... I think my preconceived notion of getting into that was that design, you had to be artistic and you had to be an illustrator and had to know how to draw.

But what drew me to this field was that I figured out that it had more to do with layout, typography, color and different things that I didn't actually have to know how to draw.

And once that boundary was removed, I got more into it and learned more and more and then ended up... I was there for about a couple years before I was offered to come back to Columbus and work for Abercrombie and Fitch.

Again, [a] friend helped me out and got me in there. And I don't think I knew what I was doing. I don't know if I was qualified enough.

But I just observed what everyone else was doing and tried to do my best and put the hours in to become a better designer and I was doing graphic t-shirts for Ruehl which was an offshoot of Abercrombie.

This is back [in] 2007. And I was there again for a couple years before I was offered by another friend to help him start a company. And that this was... I was just doing graphic design help for him.

No thoughts of having it be a full-time job. I just was at Abercrombie, [that] was a juggernaut of retail back then.

And I thought "This little company or whatever... Anything that I start can never be successful or generate enough money that I could work full-time."

But little did I know things progressed at the back company. Just It was a local brand here in Columbus called Homage. And back then [I was] just helping out with some logos and designs and things like that.

And yeah, I was actually able to be brought on as a full-time employee. I was employee number 3, along with Annette Grant, who's a good friend of ours, and she was there before, helping out. And yeah, everybody became friends. And we built that business up.

And luck of the draw or scale or something like that, we built it up and it became fairly successful. So that was a really awesome experience to see things from start to finish in the industry, clothing industry, and online in particular.

And I learned so many different things at Homage from web design to store design and everything in-between. I was designing clothing, I was designing graphics that just opened my eyes to what's possible. And I was there for about 8 years full-time.

Before I decided to switch it up and do something else. And when I left, I really didn't know what exactly I was doing or going to do, I just had this idea maybe, one day down the line, I could do an agency of some sort.

So maybe graphic design agency or logo design or something like that. And I was freelancing for a little bit. I had known Chase for quite a long time. And we had worked together on some photography stuff with Homage and just some random projects here and there too.

I helped them with album art for his band, City Lights. It's how we met: Through mutual friends. And we're sitting in my house in Columbus and putting together these layouts for the City Light's albums and got to know each other [and] became good friends.

And I hit him up when I was doing this freelance thing. And he was really the only one... Well, I wouldn't say the only one. But only a few people I knew were really entrenched in that freelance world.

And so I was asking him advice, seeing what he was up to. And we just started tag teaming a couple of projects for some friends that needed web stores or little light design work and things like that. And he taught me a lot about the freelance world because he had been in it a little bit.

[He] showed me the resources he was using to learn more about freelancing and eventually how to run a business. That was my first real experience of running my own business. And we started by accident.

We realized at a certain point that it made more sense to just make it official and start Electric Eye, which had no name at that point. But we were just doing projects together and said "Let's register something." And [we] had to think of a name.

And we just started running through, I think, song titles we liked and bands, trying to figure out the name. And [we] landed on Electric Eye, which is a Judas Priest song. So we both have a love for heavy metal, metal, extreme metal, punk, hardcore... That whole genre of music and culture.

And so we landed on Electric Eye and never looked back. I was about... I'm thinking we're coming up on 4 or 5 years. So we're still in business. And it's a lot of fun to run your own business. It's a lot of stress.

But just an overview of how I started, I was a lowly graphic design assistant, printing things out and doing light design work and changing color ways at Old Navy, then through Abercrombie.

And then on to helping get Homage off the ground and then all the way up into doing this agency with Chase at Electric Eye. And so I've seen a lot and it's been a fun ride. I got a little bit far removed from my original goals and career, but that happens in life.

And I just embraced it rather than worrying about it too much. And I'm happy I did. So that's my history.

Chase Clymer

Awesome. Yeah. I took a bunch of notes because I didn't want to stop the flow...

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah

Chase Clymer

...so I'm gonna go back and ask you specific questions.

Shawn Khemsurov

Sorry for the monologue.

Chase Clymer

Oh. No, it's fine, man.

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Chase Clymer

Alright, so you worked at some juggernauts in the retail space which... That experience comes up so much with our clients. It's insane, but like what were some of the key takeaways that you took from working for Gap and for Abercrombie that you brought over to Homage as like an upstart?

So if someone's listening [that] is either an upstart retail brand or something, what were some of the things that you learned from the big guys? What [are] the big guys doing that are impactful for growing a small brand?

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. Absolutely. I learned a ton. I would like to think that I was a sponge in those years, and I was paying attention to everything that was going on with the business, I think.

When you are in the design field, you tend to close your eyes to whatever's going on around you. And this is... I guess for some people... And they just want to focus on the task at hand, whether it's designing a logo, or a t-shirt or website, whatever have you.

And this could be someone at an agency or at a bigger company, but I try my best to pay attention to what was going on with the merchant side, with the store side and just everything that has to do with the business.

And I think that comes from my skill set, which... I always thought in my head that I wasn't really necessarily really, really great at one thing and that I was okay or good at a lot of different things.

And so I think that that played into that acknowledgement of other areas of the business. And I was interested in all different types of aspects of the business. And I think that that helped me in a number of ways.

It helped me become a better designer because the biggest thing about design --and I've definitely carried this through to the agency side-- that people, I think, don't really recognize is that it can't just look good. Design is functional. It has to work well.

Usually you're designing something, not only for yourself, but you're designing for someone else. You're designing for a client, you're designing for a user, customer... Someone that's going to take what you've designed and use it in their everyday life.

And it has to work for them. And that... I infused that theory into my design and I paid attention to which graphics that Abercrombie did well. And I use that to influence my design [to] make it better and realize that it is a business. It's not just my personal tastes. We have to design things that sell.

And yeah, I just carried that through and use it to this day. I just think that when we're designing Ecommerce websites, it's the same thing. You want it to look pretty. You want it to be revolutionary.

You want it to be cool. I enjoy that design. I'm passionate about that. Just making sure things are looking as cool as possible. But that's not the whole story. And Chase often reminds me, that's not the whole story.

You have to have the website convert where it is a business. And whether we like that or not, that's the reality of it. And design has to serve a purpose. I think there's a way to do it where it looks great and it's functional.

And so that's what I try and do every day of my work career and even outside on freelance projects or anything like that. It's just making it look good but having a purpose behind it.

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. So you definitely glossed over what happened at Homage there. So I'm gonna bring that back up. So you started employee #3 in a garage, essentially. And then it grew to 7 or 8 figures before you left.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. So I mean, Ryan Vesler, the founder started... It started as his idea. At the beginning in his parents basement, and that was over there. We had been friends for a long time. And since we were kids, and running around that same basement and skateboarding and listening to punk music and all kinds of stuff.

And he was an easy, great tech guy. He was always more advanced on computers, and he loved Apple and all that stuff. And yeah, he had a great idea with this t-shirt thing and he wanted to get the official licenses for Ohio State.

And along with my buddy Martin, we were in our house in downtown Columbus and building... Helping Ryan build the mood boards in physical form to present to Ohio State and try and get a licensing deal.

And so I was using what I learned at Abercrombie to create vintage style graphics and then use that at Homage to create similar style graphics for different sports teams and all these stories that Ryan has had in his head and was reading about and researching.

And so he would just come up with an idea and then just throw something together for this crazy story like Disco Demolition Night in Cleveland, I think it might have butchered that name because I haven't thought about it in a while.

But that was what was going on. We were just doing these cool vintage graphics and not really paying too much attention to the business and not worrying about it too much. And it was successful.

And so I think there's some luck involved. Right place, right time. And there weren't many Ecommerce stores back then, which is crazy to think about because it's so prevalent now. But back then, it wasn't like that.

We were up on the Zen Cart, which was an old Ecommerce platform that I don't even know if it still exists. We had a developer in Canada that probably hated me because I didn't know what I was doing and I was asking them to change all this stuff with the site design all the time.

And now I'm embarrassed to look back at how I probably treated him. (laughs) So yeah, we built the business up and learned a lot and had great success. And it's still going to this day.

It's very well known in Ohio but I think it's spread out fairly nationally and does fairly well. And it was a really, really interesting part of my life and learned a ton. So that's the story behind Homage.

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. Yeah. That's how we met a bit. I came in when they had their first warehouse. And I witnessed the tail end of that hockey stick growth that they were having.

And it's funny, because when you and I go to conferences all the time, people will be there from the Homage days you're like, "Oh, it's this is so and so from XYZ" and it's very hilarious.

So Homage had a pretty good impact on probably the start of this business if I'm going to be real.

Shawn Khemsurov

Oh, absolutely.

Chase Clymer

Yeah.

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Shawn Khemsurov

I learned so much there. Not just through doing websites, but just everything. And I mean, starting, I didn't start the business myself. But I was there from early days and watching Annette do operations stuff. And back then it was just 3 people, 4 people in the room.

And much like how some of our clients started and you pick up a lot on how to run the business and how to hire and how to do business and finances and how to talk to people and communicate.

And so yeah, you just learned so much. And I think I just took that with me to Electric Eye and wanted to keep the culture good around here and focus on that and make sure that everyone was having a good time at work.

And wanted to grow slow, because I saw that Homage grew pretty fast. And so [I was like] "Wow, that was really cool to be successful."

It was also just a little bit different because you start by doing a ton of different things at the beginning, because there's so few people and you're wearing all these different hats.

And then as things grow, you become more specialized and your role becomes maybe more focused. And some people like that, and some people don't.

And I think ultimately, myself --just going back to being interested in so many different things-- I just wanted a new challenge. And I think this Electric Eye, the agency, is a great challenge.

And it's not easy, stressful, but I can wear it... I'll put on a lot of different hats again, and do a lot of different things.

And I'm still learning. I'm taking classes. I'm Learning Design Technologies, and all kinds of different stuff. And it's just always about learning. We're always learning new stuff. Yep.

Chase Clymer

So after you left Homage... Well, I guess I would say like Homage is where you first got bit by the Shopify bug.

And that's because of you and I knew the platform existed. So also we probably gotta point that out [that] by the time you had a foot out the door that they were on Shopify, they were doing big things there.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

Chase Clymer

So that's where you got your familiarity with it.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. They were early on with Shopify. And Pommeau was there. John Pommeau. And he was facilitating the switch to Shopify --which was absolutely the move-- because Zen Cart, I don't think, was set up for enterprise business and had this thing hacked together and really needed a solution.

And I think if you were to think about it today, it'd be a no-brainer. But maybe back then, it just wasn't as prevalent. And he got everything switched over. And I didn't actually work that much for that project, or I wasn't really working on the site at that point. But I obviously knew what was going on.

And I became aware of Shopify and realized how cool it was. And when I started freelancing, I just kept crossing paths with old clients and old friends that were on the platform or needed to move to the platform and start their Ecommerce stores.

And by that time, it was a no-brainer. It's just such an easy platform to work with. I just fell in love with it. And tried my hand with designs and stuff like that. I'm not a web designer, per se. But the beauty of Shopify was it was just so easy to use.

And I could throw the site together with my limited knowledge of the admin side and the back end. And it's just so easy to pick a theme and customize it and add content that I was like, "This is really, really cool. I think it's going to be big, and I think it's going to be the best Ecommerce technology."

And as I started working with Chase, I think he realized that too. Right Chase? (laughs)

Chase Clymer

Yeah. You were tagging me in on these projects after you helped move people from various garbage solutions to something that worked. And you're like, "Hey, this thing's cool. Can you help market it?"

Because back when I was freelancing, I was just doing paid ads at that point. Some content curation. I wasn't doing anything for money. I was definitely a jack of all trades.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yep.

Chase Clymer

A renaissance man, as they say. I knew a lot about a lot. But I wasn't really focused on anything back then. And then he brought me in on a project to do some paid media for a cool client out in New York. And I was like, "Yeah, let's just give it a shot." And it worked.

So Shawn started asking his old clients and the other ones that we're working with about, "Hey, do you want help with Facebook ads for your Shopify store?"

And that's pretty much how the agency started. We had like 5 or 6 retainer clients that we were doing paid media for, and managing the websites.

And all this was in the Shopify ecosystem. And clients were getting confused. "So who do I pay money to? Do I pay Chase? Do I pay Shawn? What's going on here?" And it's when we were like, "Yeah. We probably should just need to make it easy for people."

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah, it was a nice synergy. Chase had the marketing side. I had a little bit of design. And it just made sense to build these stores, work with the clients, and also increase their sales. That's the backbone of the agency. It's what we do.

We're still doing the same formula where we're optimizing stores with design and development.

And then we are following up with smart marketing and investing in ads for the right channels, and also email and all kinds of cool stuff. And just helping clients live their dreams, so to speak.

Chase Clymer

So let's just jump forward 4 years in this story. So that was the beginning. We made a bunch of mistakes, everyone does.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

Chase Clymer

And then now we're here. We're 7 or 8 with some VA's now. It's the size of the team. And we're doing a lot of cool stuff these days. But again, like Shawn said, we're doing the same stuff. Back then, I refer to it as the one-two punch.

But nowadays, we kind of got a few more steps in the process. But it was (the one-two punch strategy), your website is probably not converting for very specific reasons might be your own bad technology or might be designed by someone that doesn't understand user experience, it's like, "Fix that. That's going to fix your conversion rate. Now that that's fixed, let's do more traffic through like paid media." So that was the process back then.

But now we've got a few more steps in it. And we're definitely working with a different caliber of client these days. It's definitely more like direct-to-consumer brands only these days. Not really taking anything on the side anymore.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah, absolutely. And [we're] still learning. Still making mistakes. It's interesting running a business that nobody really tells you how to do things. I don't think there's one single business book or course or something like that, that tells you how to run a business.

Chase Clymer

No. There's...

Shawn Khemsurov

It's just trial and error. (laughs)

Chase Clymer

You gotta... Well, here's the thing. I think, I think with us, we read a bunch of books, and while some are boring, you'll get so much out of them. And we definitely wouldn't be where we are now without some books we read at the beginning of our growth phase.

Shawn Khemsurov

100%

Chase Clymer

So when it was just me and Shawn doing things to get money, back then it was whatever someone wants to pay us to do. We didn't really have any systems in place. We didn't have any processes. An SOP was like a foreign idea to us. And then we... I think we read Traction and a light went off.

And it was like, "Hey." Well, the biggest thing I got around that period as far as a golden nugget was 2 people cannot be responsible for one thing because then you just assume the other person would do it, which is terrible.

So things would get overlooked, things wouldn't get done, clients would get mad. And now it's just like, when you're a small business, you're like, "Oh yeah. Everyone's doing everything." But it's like no.

You need a clear delegation of who is doing what. So that was the first hurdle of growing our agency, I think. It was figuring that out.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. There's a ton of... I hated business books before starting the agency and never probably read one. Instead, I didn't think I was going to start a business. So I just didn't really partake in that activity.

But I think Chase convinced me to read a few things. And I did learn a lot. And if you take one thing out of a book, that's enough for it to be worth it. And so Profit First was huge. I didn't read it till we got a little bit further down the line, which is fine.

It wasn't too late. But I would say Profit First for anyone that's starting or running a business. It's a really, really cool book. We definitely did take it and put it into action. And that's... Reading it is one thing, but actually doing it as another And so...

Chase Clymer

Yeah.

Shawn Khemsurov

We did that. And then Built To Sell, my other favorite one, which Chase recommended and a very easy book to read. You can probably read in the afternoon, but...

Chase Clymer

It's written like an allegory. So it's like a...

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

Chase Clymer

...it's like a story. But you can... It's cool.

Shawn Khemsurov

Nice flow. It flows very nicely. It's my kind of book. Short and sweet. But it definitely, yeah, it runs you through how to build a business and build it to sell.

But even if you don't want to sell it down the line, you're building it the right way and how it should be built for efficiency.

Chase Clymer

It's enjoyable. Yeah.

Shawn Khemsurov

I love that. And then Traction, I think was good for the company and just how we run things and having an operating system.

Chase Clymer

Yep, we made all these systems our own, took what worked for us and left what didn't. But we definitely built a pretty decent system. What you're doing every day, who's responsible for what... It's a pretty good system, I guess. Now we've got going on here.

Shawn Khemsurov

It's... Yeah, it's fairly organized. So always a plus, I think, [is] we can always improve. And that's our attitude to everything. We know we can do better.

But we're trying, seeing what sticks, and we're okay to move past things if they don't work out. And yeah, we just keep rolling. Keep it rolling. (laughs) It's the best way I could describe it.

Chase Clymer

Everyone's gonna make mistakes. It's just to fail fast and learn from it and move on. Who cares? At the end of the day, it's never going to be anything super detrimental. So just make the choice, go with it, see what happens.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. It worked for us so far.

Chase Clymer

Yeah.

Shawn Khemsurov

See what happens.

Chase Clymer

Yeah,

Shawn Khemsurov

(laughs)

Chase Clymer

Exactly. We'll see what happens.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

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Chase Clymer

So moving on from that. The only other thing I want to just say about business books is they are dull sometimes. But you're literally reading a cheat sheet to get ahead. So it's someone else has been there, just take that advice and read it.

And then going back to what Shawn says, no one tells you what to do. We've been doing this for so long. And we're friends with agencies that are way further along than us.

And like way further behind us now at this point. And the people that are further in front of us still are like, wow, we don't know what we're doing. We just have been doing it a long time.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

Chase Clymer

So there isn't a secret success formula to build an agency. The same thing on the other side of the coin, which is where I'm gonna pivot, the conversation now. There's no secret to success for an Ecommerce agency or any... Sorry. For an Ecommerce brand.

Shawn Khemsurov

A brand.

Chase Clymer

Yeah, there's a million ways to do it. There's no right or wrong way. It just comes down to consistency which was what Shawn led with at the top of the hour. "Hey. Be consistent with the podcast and I'll be on it."

And so here we are. So getting into that, most of our audience might have been alienated by the first part of this conversation. But maybe you guys want to know my background and what me and Shawn do at the agency.

But now we're going to talk about Ecommerce brands. And we're just going to get into the weeds there. We're working with a dozen brands at a time now. What would you say is like the most common, not mistake, but hurdle that we're encountering with brands?

These brands aren't startups anymore. They found product-market fit and they're moving along. What's the most common issues or hurdles that they're having when they come to us? Or probably, other agencies are experiencing the same thing?

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. I'd say [the] most common that maybe is a pain point for us, and maybe a pain point for them as well is just content creation. So I'd say like, just creating great content constantly is a huge need in Ecommerce.

And I think people underestimate it. And especially maybe when someone gets started, maybe they have some success. And people want their product at the beginning. And they have some luck there and also have thought of a product that people need. And that's great. But where do you go from there?

You have to keep things fresh. If you're running ads, you need content produced, you need lifestyle photography, you need video, and you have all this other stuff going on. At the same time, you have a life.

Now you have people doing home schooling, and it's difficult to balance everything. You may have employees, you may have supply chain issues, you might have production issues.

All kinds of different stuff going on in an Ecommerce business, it's not as easy as YouTube videos make it seem like it is. So yeah. Just finding time, I think, and finding the right partners to create content to keep the machine rolling is really important.

And I think it's sometimes something people struggle with, just to balance everything and keep content fresh and bring in new products and continue to grow the business.

Because if you don't do that, you're gonna get stagnant. You're gonna get the same customers coming back. And it's just gonna stunt the growth, I think.

Chase Clymer

Yeah.

Shawn Khemsurov

That's maybe one thing that I noticed is to have sure there's a million. (laugh)

Chase Clymer

I preach that all the time. It's like, "Hey, like, get a content production system built within your business or you're gonna have a bad time." That's going to be... People are going to be asking for that left and right.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

Chase Clymer

Not only on your organic social stuff, but now in your emails, you need content. Now on your website, to refresh it. For this new sale, you need content. Now on all your paid media efforts, you're going to need content.

If you don't have a system to make that content, you're not going to be able to refresh that stuff. And all that stuff's going to go stale. And everyone's already seen it. So they're not going to pay attention to what the message is.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah. And I think a lot of people or some clients will come to us and they want a website design in their references or inspirations are the most beautiful well designed sites in the world, Ecommerce wise.

And that's awesome. I love to see the great inspiration. And I'm inspired by cool websites all the time, but a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of effort went into creating content in photography for those websites, that's part of the reason why they look so great.

So you have to have that as a backbone, in order for us to put it all together in a nice package. So that's definitely what I'd say, for brands starting out or more established is to invest in great content.

Finding photographers and videographers and copywriters to set your brand apart and have a unique spin on things that brings attention to your brand.

Chase Clymer

Yeah. Setting expectations is just kind of the right way to approach any larger project with a brand. It's like, when you're talking about the Bonobos and Nikes, and Allbirds of the Ecommerce world, you better have a Ferrari budget.

If you only have a Honda budget, you need to look at some options down there. Not even just working with [but] just in general, you need to have clear expectations on what you can actually afford, what's gonna be the best solution for your money, what's going to be the best ROI for your investment.

Shawn Khemsurov

And you can still do great things with a Honda budget. And Honda's are great cars. So... (laughs)

Chase Clymer

Yeah.

Shawn Khemsurov

But it's just... Yeah, you're in a different playing field. But yeah, it's just about making the right decisions, looking at people's work and what they produced in the past. And you can still find good partners for cheap, for more affordable pricing and work with someone in your budget.

Don't be afraid to give your budget up front and find someone that can work with you and that you jive with. And then as things grow, you can always increase your budget and make your designers and photographers and content producers happy. But get them to take a chance on you and then build a relationship.

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. So in the Ecommerce conversation here. Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you think would be like worthwhile sharing before we kind of button up?

Shawn Khemsurov

Hmm. That's a horrible question. Because I don't know. No, I don't think so. I think we went through a lot of different things and talked about agency and how it was built. My guess. Where do you see the agency going? I'll ask you a question.

Chase Clymer

Oh a question for me?

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

Chase Clymer

Yeah. Well, I guess you can ask me some. I see the agency dive in even further down the Ecommerce rabbit hole. We're definitely only doing Shopify these days, we're probably going to get to the point where it's only going to be Shopify Plus clients, most of the time.

I think we've got some ideas in the back of our head for maybe some app solutions, eventually. But we're really out here grinding out beautiful websites that are built to sell, and some amazing strategic marketing initiatives. And just keep that going.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah, I think we're in a really lucky fortunate position. With the state of Ecommerce right now, I think there's a lot of opportunity there to chip away at Amazon a little bit, maybe. I think through great experiences, people will be able to have awesome websites and great customer service.

There's a wide open world out there for commerce online. I just fell in love with it throughout the years and just blended my retail knowledge in with the Ecommerce side. And I think it makes a lot of sense to be in industry, regardless of where I first started from. But I do love it.

And I think the agency is poised to do great things. I love working with great web designers. And that's really what I'm excited about. Now as we get into bigger projects, bigger budgets, and more resources and things like that, I love just that opportunity to make the sites that we're working on look beautiful, and also perform well for the client.

And so they keep coming back. And we just want to provide really amazing service for all of our clients. I think that one of the plus sides of working with an agency like ours is we're a little smaller. We don't have 50 people in an office or remote as other agencies do.

But I think that benefits us a little bit. We can speak often freely with the clients and communicate directly with them and the shareholders, their stakeholders with those brands. And that's what's really fun to us. We're passionate about it. And we love producing results for our clients. And that's the future I think of the agencies: Just increasing the quality of our work and increasing sales for the clients.

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. I got 2 things to end on, I guess.

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

The first one being is he said. You mentioned something about Amazon and it reminded me of this article I read this morning where Amazon is launching podcasts and their music thing.

But if you talk bad about Amazon, you won't get listed. (laughs) So I don't think this podcast is getting listed on the Amazon podcast app.

Shawn Khemsurov

Oh, I mean...

Chase Clymer

So if you are listening to this on the Amazon podcast app, please email me and let me know that we're still there. But I definitely have said some choice words about Amazon on here before.

Shawn Khemsurov

Okay, so it wasn't just me. It's really hard to stop shopping with Amazon. So good luck to anybody. If anyone has tips on how to do that, let me know. I still have my Prime account. It's... They have a ton of crap on there. And it's great.

But you know, I do appreciate like small business. We're a small team. So I respect that on the Ecommerce side. And people just starting out and creating a really great product and having great customer service is going to take you really, really far in Ecommerce. And Amazon has robots. It's cool, but it's not really personalized. So I'd say...

Chase Clymer

Yeah. Your edge to win against Amazon is making a better experience.

Shawn Khemsurov

I don't know if anyone's really listened to podcasts on Amazon. So do we care? (laughs)

Chase Clymer

Yeah.

Shawn Khemsurov

I'm a Spotify guy.

Chase Clymer

Yes. All right after that, like Shawn said, we're growing. And this is the first time I've thrown this out here. If you're like a freelance designer in Ecommerce or freelance developer in e commerce, and you're looking for some more contract work, hit us up.

We are always having overflow work at the agency. The best person to annoy would be my partner, Shawn. So shawn@electriceye.io...

Shawn Khemsurov

Yeah.

Chase Clymer

...if you're looking to maybe help us out on some of these projects that we're doing. You got any parting words before we go?

Shawn Khemsurov

Keep in meta. Stay sick. Horns up. Let's keep it rolling. Keep this agency rocking and rolling. That's all I have.

Chase Clymer

Oh. All right.

Shawn Khemsurov

(laughs)

Chase Clymer

Awesome. Thanks everyone for listening. Shawn. I know I'll have you back in a few weeks.

Shawn Khemsurov

All right. Thanks, Chase.

Chase Clymer

I cannot thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their journey and knowledge with us today. We've got a lot to think about and potentially add to our businesses. Links and more information will be available in the show notes as well.

If anything in this podcast resonated with you and your business, feel free to reach out and learn more at electriceye.io/connect. Also, make sure you subscribe and leave an amazing review. Thank you!

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100 | The Story and the Future of Electric Eye | with Shawn Khemsurov

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