How to Disrupt a Traditional Industry Right: An Interview with Dynamic Blending’s Jordan Erskine

Hey guys, what’s going on? I’m Shane Barker, and I’m back with the Marketing Growth Podcast. Today. I’m happy to welcome Jordan Erskine, who is an inc 500 entrepreneur, and also the co founder of Dynamic Blending, which is a lead contract manufacturing company that creates skin care products. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about disrupting a traditional industry the right way, and how Jordan did the same with the cosmetic manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for ways to get exposure for your products and services, feel free to reach out to me for results driven digital marketing campaigns. Check out my website. Shane barker.com, that’s S, H, A N, E, B, A R, K, E, R.com, to see what we have to offer when it comes to SEO, content marketing, online, PR and influencer marketing. Jordan, what’s going on? Man, how you doing?

Absolutely. Man, I was telling you this before we even jumped on. I’m excited to have you on here. You’re a little different than the typical guests that we have, but in a good way. I think the audience is going to love this one. You’ve got quite the background. I was joking around a little bit. People can’t see you, but I was looking—you look… We talked about 18-19 years of experience in what you’ve been doing. We’ll go into that here in a second. And I’m like, you don’t look like you. Probably you look like you’re in your 20s or something. So I don’t know if you started when you were seven or eight. I was kind of giving you a hard time. But I feel like, once again, either you use all your products and it’s the reason why you look like you do—which is a good thing that’ll come in handy in the next 15-20 years. But anyways, I’m excited about it. So I figure what we usually do is, before we jump in and talk about all the fun stuff, I want to get to know you a little bit as an individual. Who is Jordan? We always joke around that you’re probably Jordan 2.0 or 3.0—let’s talk about Jordan 1.0. Let’s go back a little bit. So, where did you grow up, man?

Yeah, you know you’re not. Do you, have you ever heard of Sigurd, Utah?

It’s called Sigurd. Sigurd.

That’s exactly it. That’s where I was born. That’s the reason why don’t tell a lot of people, because everybody’s like, we’ve never, never heard of Sigurd. And there’s, like, I think there’s…

Yeah, there. There were nine people, not really. There are probably hundreds of people there now, but that’s actually where I was born. I was in California. We went back to see my dad, and that’s where he was—originally in Sacramento, but he moved back there. My mom was there for about two weeks and said, “All right, this is not hippie California.” So then we ended up moving back, and the rest is history. But so, how big was your family growing up? How big was your family?

Got you. So you’re always looking out for your little sister, making sure nobody messed with her and stuff. Yeah, that was the goal. We know how guys are—you gotta protect the little sister. But she’s probably doing good now. I’m sure she’s happy that you protected her all through her life up to this point. Any fun, interesting facts growing up? Anything a little out of the ordinary, anything fun?

I love that. And this, part of the reason why I ask these types of questions is because I always want to know, you know, like in the same thing, we’ll talk about that in a second, but different, different, like, where you grew up and and, you know what college you went to? Because it’s always that story is always the intriguing part to me. And I think it’s always it helps to kind of set that foundation for, you know what we’re going to be talking about. So are you still in in Sandy, Utah? Where do you live now?

I went to a retreat about a month ago. It was actually the first time out since COVID. It was kind of a crazy little deal, just because I used to be on planes all the time. I was on a plane with everybody all messed up, and it was interesting. I have a buddy that lives out in Salt Lake, and he loves it. He couldn’t say enough good things about it, and I think you should be telling people that because I know people are going to move there now. We’re losing people in California at record rates, and all the other states—like Tennessee—and other friends are like, “We love you, Shane, but don’t come here.” Nothing personal. I’m okay with that. So, what did you go—yeah, one of those things. Where did you go to college? You go to college in Utah?

So you flew out to China, Hong Kong, to do your like, final presentation.

That is awesome. It’s so funny. I don’t have my MBA, but I’ve talked about going back and doing the online thing, and I’ve got a number of universities I’ve been looking at. And once again, I think yours sounds pretty interesting. I wouldn’t mind going to China or somewhere else to do my final project. That doesn’t sound bad to me. I’m a traveler. So, this last year or year and a half—no traveling, no speaking events, nothing on stage, to say the least. But alright, I’ll have to look into that. So what was your—obviously, you graduated, got your MBA. So what was your first job out of college? Were you already knee deep in manufacturing, huh?

So this is what I want to talk about, because I know in your history—and this is the reason we reached out to you for the interview—I want to talk to you about disrupting a traditional industry, which is obviously not easy to do because historically a lot of things are done a certain way, and then to go in and disrupt something. And that’s why I want to talk about Dynamic Blending, because your history of starting this—you were going to school, working for these manufacturers of cosmetic products, and then you kind of stumbled upon it when a neighbor said, “Hey, this is what I’m doing.” So talk to me a little bit about why you guys started and what the premise was behind that when you jumped off and did it on your own.

Yeah, that’s what I loved about it. From looking into the company and what you guys have done, you guys are really turnkey. I mean, you can come with a concept, an idea, and a logo, and by the end of that, your graphic design can have the blend put together. It really doesn’t get any better regarding the experience you guys have and what you’ve put together. So what were some of the major challenges when starting a company?

Never, never an easy task, man. I mean, usually that’s the hardest part—hey, we want to grow this thing, but it’s about being frugal and not spending too much money, especially when you’re not getting capital. When you get capital, great, then your burn rate can go up. And not that you don’t care, but it’s like, you have somebody else’s money; it’s a lot easier to not look at things as closely as you should. I do love that. I love the bootstrapping effect and what can happen there. And obviously, you guys have built this thing up to a huge company. So, in talking about that journey for the growth and what you guys have built, how long have you been around? Let me, let’s talk about that real quick. You guys been around for?

Yeah, well, you guys have a long history of doing it, though it’s just that you had the history, and now you’re saying, “Hey, now what we’re doing is looking to make this thing full turnkey.” I think it’s really interesting, especially with influencers and things going on these days, that you can have a product up and running in a hot market. I think your biggest selling point is that you don’t have to have 50,000 minimums or 100,000 minimums, which are huge upfront costs to figure out. You guys are saying, “Hey, we’ll take care of the small, medium-sized businesses,” because you never know who’s going to take off. There’s so many different opportunities for that. So I love that.

No, it makes total sense. I think it’s funny—we haven’t even worked 20 minutes into this thing, and what I love is you’re already talking about it. It’s the grind, man. Don’t expect to be an overnight success. I was working full time, and my wife was working full time. We were both going to school, it was hard, we got loans and did it. It’s that traditional entrepreneur spirit of, “Hey, don’t expect to get success instantly.” These days, people ask, “How do I get abs in seven seconds?” That’s just not realistic. At the end of the day, you gotta put in the time and work. And I think you’re someone who doesn’t have to be Mr. 4.0 in high school. That’s what I love about your story—some people are naturally talented, and that’s awesome, but if you’re not, it just shows that if you put in hard work, good things can happen. You’re a phenomenal example of that. So what I want to ask you, too, is: Do you have any tips for entrepreneurs who are looking to be business disruptors? Obviously, you’ve done that in your industry, and beyond just grinding hard—because the work you put in is the work you get out of it—do you have any other tips for entrepreneurs listening?

Yeah, I think that’s the key to the whole thing: you have to be passionate about what you’re doing. Anybody can call themselves an entrepreneur—it’s the same thing we hear in real estate. You’re like, “Oh, I’m a real estate investor.” But just because you bought a house doesn’t necessarily make you a real estate investor. Let’s be careful: you’re an entrepreneur if you have a logo and a website, but you haven’t driven sales yet. There’s a differentiator there. We all started somewhere—with a logo on a website and no money. So there’s nothing wrong with that, but be careful with the titles you’re using. You have to figure out what’s going on. And what took me a long time to realize is, what am I great at, what am I phenomenal at, and where do I need help? Do I take that on myself, or do I surround myself with people who are smarter in those areas? Like you said, your first business partner was great at web design and SEO. I asked him, “How can I learn from you?” And that’s really the key: having people around you who are smarter so you can grow your company with phenomenal talent. I love that.

Yeah, it’s never bad to have an attorney on the team as a partner. Last time I checked, it’s never a bad deal. I had an old business where one of my partners was an attorney, and it was nice because you weren’t paying three or four hundred bucks an hour for anything related to creating documents and such. Thanks, listeners, for joining us today. Now you know what it takes to become an awesome entrepreneur and how you can streamline your passion to make it big in a particular industry. On my next episode, we’ll talk about how to improve your value proposition and why it is important for your business. If you like what you hear, subscribe to the Marketing Growth Podcast. Stay updated about my latest conversations with top marketing experts.