S3E08: Jeremy Gryder - The Power of Connection

Welcome to Commerce Famous, a podcast that celebrates the celebrities of our industry. Join us for a conversation with the tastemakers in ecommerce. In their daily lives, these are just normal everyday people like you and me. But to us, they are commerce famous. Welcome to Commerce Famous episode eight season three.

And today is gonna be a doozy. I can already tell you. I've got a, a friend of mine named Jeremy Greider joining us here today. Jeremy, welcome to CommerceVentas. Hello.

Hello. It's it's nice to be here. It was really fun to see you a couple of weeks back and, see everybody from Shopware. What an exciting platform. So I'm really excited to be here with you.

Absolutely. Well, just as a reminder, Commerce Famous, there is no hall of fame for ecommerce, and so this is our ability to recognize some of the people that we think would be in the hall of fame someday as it relates to ecommerce. So commerce famous, and so kind of the tagline is, you know, we walk around these all all these events. We see all these people. It's like a it's like a reunion of these people, and you're no exception.

And then you go home and you're just some average guy. But in the ecommerce world, you're you're famous, and you're certainly not the best. Well, I appreciate that. Let's bust right into it. So why don't you introduce yourself to our audience, who you are, and maybe start with how you go from being a youth pastor into being a very influential ecommerce consultant in our industry.

Yeah. So I started out, you know, as a baby. No. I started out at a very young age. Yeah.

I I started out, you know, right out of college. I I actually have a theology degree. That is my background. But right out of college, it was kinda in that point in time where, you know, priests and stuff were having problems. I'll won't go any further into it, but nobody wanted to hire a single guy.

I got out of college, ended up getting into sales and figuring out that there's really a lot of crossover there between, you know, you're selling an idea when you're a pastor or you're in ministry. And so, you know, business, you're selling an idea again or a concept or a product. And so I feel like it's one of those things where, it plays well with what I ended up doing. But, yeah. So I ended up originally getting into ecommerce because, sales kinda drove me to learn how to do my own graphic design.

And I ended up getting hired at a firm, and they ended up getting into ecommerce, which led me seventeen years ago to, start working with a product called VertuCart, which is pretty much hilarious at this point. It was on Joomla, and it was bad. It was so bad. But, it was where I started, you know, and then I ended up going to work for BigCommerce. I was one of the OGs there, left in 2019 to create a supporting agency.

And, I've been doing that, as well as some other things since, but right really now I am a, consultant in ecommerce. And the last four and a half years I spent at BigCommerce, I taught growth. You know? And my biggest thing is taking small companies and making them big, making them a retirement business for somebody so they can actually get what they're wanting out of it. Love it.

Well, I actually really like your origin story around, being in and paying attention to the the power of a speaker. Not not talking about religion itself, but talking about the fact that a pastor or a minister of any type of of person standing in front has to command the audience. And I think Mhmm. The ability to be a good storyteller, to be relatable, and to really drive home meaning through a story is really impactful. And I and I really love those origin stories because I actually think in sales and even as a consultant, that's what we have to do.

And so Mhmm. I love that connection. You're the first person I've spoken to on this podcast who that's their origin. Well, I I will tell you, it drives how you do things, character and that sort of thing when it's based on that kind of a background. And so it's been nothing but helpful, having that background.

And even, you know, now I'm doing the ecommerce redneck podcast, and, you know, it's a a little plug there. It's, it's really, again, using some of those same things that I did when I was a youth pastor. And, man, I love being a youth pastor, but I just love helping people and, making their lives, turn out in a positive positive way, whether it's in business, personal, or otherwise. Commerce famous is proudly presented by Shopware, the leading open source ecommerce platform for mid market and lower enterprise merchants. More than 50,000 clients already process over 25,000,000,000 in annual GMV through Shopware.

Find out more about Shopware and the best value in ecommerce at shopware.com. Well, let's spend some time talking about your time at BigCommerce. Again, this yes. I work for Shopware and Shopware is it's really But it's real. We help.

Yeah. But but but the the reality of it is we're this is really about the industry and the people who shaped it. So talk let's talk a little bit about BigCommerce. They were an amazing force of change off of people moving off of Magento back in the late twenty tens to early twenty twenties. And and you were there for some of that.

So maybe talk a little bit about how you got into BigCommerce, talk a little bit about some of the experiences you had, customers you worked with. Well, I will send you a copy of my resume that I brought to BigCommerce and you you'll go, yeah. That was great, or that's that sounds about right. But I, basically created this insane resume. I'd started using them, became a partner.

I'd actually started my own agency the month before, and, I found out that they were hiring. I wanted to move to Austin, so I came down here and went to their event. And this resume I had at the it it was all art done. You know? It had, Tesla at the bottom on both sides of a thing that said hire a genius.

I mean, it was really cocky. And then it had all my art and design stuff on the back end, and I used to do a lot of the art early on for the events for for BigCommerce because I'm an artist too. And, anyhow, went to that event, brought that in there, was the first guy hired. I was probably employee number 70 or so in or or in in the world, but in America, probably 40 or so. And, man, it was a good time.

And I was talking to somebody about it last night. You know? There was a lot of chaos there. There was people riding mini bikes through the hallways, the little electric mini bikes and stuff. We had swings, people playing video games, but people were working.

They were unified. We had a mission. We were trying to beat Shopify. We didn't do it, but but but I I will say we had the heart to do it back then. But it what it did for me really is gave me an incredible view of what it can be like when things are good in tech.

And, you know, one thing I wanted to relate to you real quick is something I see in you, and I have to do this. Maybe this is my pastor side coming out a little bit. But one of the things I love about Shopware is the spirit of how you do things. The fact that I don't see a lot of frowning people or people that don't enjoy where they're at, and that is in large part by how you cast things, Jason, and how you lead here in America for your team. So I I kudos to that.

I love that, and I think that is powerful, and I think that's also why you got that hockey stick thing going on on growth. So I'm excited about Shopware. And, you know, BigCommerce don't pay my paychecks anymore, so I I have an opinion now, and I definitely I definitely will say I Shopware, Shopify, and BigCommerce all have their place, but Shopware is in that conversation now, and it's it's awesome. Man, well, first of all, I'm embarrassed and humbled, so thank you for the nice words. That is now everyone can see why I invited you on the podcast.

It's probably the best things to me. Not at all. In all in all seriousness, I I do believe that, you know, commerce is a very, very complex industry, and the merchants that could serve by our industry, and you you touch some of them specifically, they all have really unique needs. And for some, they wanna fit in the box and and and Shopify is an amazing solution. For others, they don't, and that's where we fit in.

There are 18 vendors on the Gartner Magic Quadrant, all that have viable businesses. And so Mhmm. To think one size fits all is ever gonna work is a fool's errand. So, our goal, Jeremy, is to kinda capture some of that spark that you talked about of the early days in BC where you're starting to feel the growth. And so thank you for recognizing it.

I appreciate it. I I think it has a lot too about making the right decisions along the way. And then also, there's that element of luck a little bit, you know, where it's like the market changes on you. Can you adjust? Can you have you built the system that can adjust?

And I think so far, Shopware's had some, you know, checks on all of those, and and that's exciting. Yeah. Well, I'll I'll I'll tie a lot of that to luck, frankly. But let let's get back to you. Let's get back to you.

So let's talk a little bit about your time at BigCommerce. So tell me about some of the projects and merchants you worked on. Tell me about the problems that you guys solved. Kinda go back in the way back machine. So one of the things I I I personally get the most out of from these conversations is when can people can set the context of the day?

Like, what was it like when Amazon started doing Prime shipping? What was it like when mobile commerce became a thing? When marketplaces, and I know you've got a Thebanomics background, started to really matter for merchants. Like, take us back to a couple examples of your journey and and and what it was like in those moments. Well, I that's funny.

You're gonna love this. I had nine jobs in seven and a half years at BigCommerce, and the last four years were one job. So, I mean, it's insane, but the reason I was I was like that was not because I couldn't figure stuff out, it's because I figured a lot of things out as we went. And when I was initially hired there, they hired a group of 12 of us. I guess we were the disciples or something.

I don't know. We were called the shoguns, and we and the CEO and at the time and the, CRO mentored us. And we all had successful backgrounds. I built a massive pharma pharmaceutical long term care company, you know, and done other stuff in business. But they we all had certain disciplines and stuff, and most of what was built for the different areas of big commerce on the sell side was built off of those 12 guys.

You know? And so they were very smart about that, but I got a particular mission that I absolutely loved. I gotta work with all the c levels, all the sales executives, I mean, as far as, you know, directors and such. And for six months, we felt like we could move into a higher market, more of a mid market to enterprise type thing. And so we called up our top clients, which were called the well clients.

And, for six months, I got cussed out basically because I was calling up and saying, hey. You know, you're paying us $30. You're gonna pay us 3,000. Or you're paying us $300. You're gonna pay us 30,000 a month.

But it was all relative to their use, and you know as well as I do, that gets that use gets high really quick. But I we successfully kept 88% of those businesses and effectively moved big commerce up market. I got about 10,000 stock options out of that one, so I was pretty happy. But for a while there, they basically used us like SEAL Team six for big commerce. And so, really, you know, until I got into the growth thing, man, it it was just it was fun all the time because you had a new project.

They just would put us on new projects, and we would, you know, get her done. Well, I got, the first 100 Klaviyo clients on BigCommerce too, which was fun. But, yeah, I gotta work with a lot of big companies, gotta talk with companies like P and G and Natori and, you know, some of their bigger brands. Ben and Jerry's was a fun one that I gotta deal with, in the growth side of things. And, then, really but, you know, again, it came back to I like taking them from nothing or just starting out or just getting into that mid market to the next step.

That's that's what's fun to me, and that's really what I got from there. You're the, you're probably the only one in my LinkedIn with a title of ecommerce tech ninja. Now was that a title you got to pick, or is that actually a title that was in in inside their systems at BigCommerce? You know, it's really funny. Yeah.

We were ecommerce ninjas, the support team. And for a year, I went through a divorce and went and did support for a year. You know? And it was awesome because I'll tell you, again, it comes back to the character of the people, how people treated one another. But it was like family.

The ninja thing was great, but the funniest thing about that when we first start out, you know, there's some good ideas when you first get going, and then sometimes you kinda they turn bad as you get too big. And one of them was handing out samurai swords, as a thing, you know, as a award. And I'm everybody has, you know, three foot swords on top of their desk, and I'm like, guys, like, this could go bad. All you need is one idiot. You know?

And somebody gets an arm lobbed off playing around. You know? So it it was pretty funny. Had a good time with it, though. It sounds like an amazing culture to be part of.

I mean, I had Brett Bellum on the pod, actually, a month ago. Yeah. He was one of the guests. Give it a listen. It's it's really great to hear him from the details.

He's a he's a stud. And, he was kinda downplaying you know, BigCommerce is obviously a public company, gone through a big rebrand. The the Wall Street haven't been very kind to it. And and that's just a fact. But, he was kinda being down on where things ended at BigCommerce.

And I said, Brent, Brent, BigCommerce is probably a top three or four ever created revenue stream ecommerce business, pure play. Everybody else, it's a part of something else. And and and BigCommerce, for the most part, created this business, which isn't as connected to payments like a Shopify is. So in a lot of ways, there's a lot to be really proud of of the work that you and the team did over there at BC. It's, it's an amazing story.

Well and I'll tell you, you know, a lot of people, and I hope Brent hears this honestly because I love him to death. Had a lunch with him a a little while back. There's a lot of people that were down on him about how things went with the stock and stuff, and I'll tell you this right now. There's not many people that could have taken that company from where we were at to public, and and not many people that could handle it the way he did even after everything happened with COVID, and everybody got stretched. And I just you know, I ask people when they do that.

I ask them, have you never had a failure in your life? You know, I'm a part of a men's group called metal dot men. And, out of California originally, a lot of very successful men in it. Guess what? Every one of them have in common, it is failure.

All of them have failed, learn from those failures, and move forward. But I'll tell you right now, that was not a failure. You're right. BigCommerce was not a failure. Where they go from now and how they do from here is all on these guys that are there now.

There's not many of the originals there anymore. There's a few. You know? Sure. But it's on them.

But I'm proud of the work that we did, and I you know, I mean, at one point, we were kinda neck and neck with what was going on with Shopify, and they just they smoked us on marketing, man. Yep. That's really what happened. Yeah. But I do think it's important that we don't frame it as a failure because I it certainly wasn't.

Right. And and the impact that they had on the market is is really impactful. So totally totally agree with your assessment there. And, yeah, Brian's a great guy. Give it a listen.

Yeah. I will. And I'll tell you, you know, Shopify loves hiring ex BigCommerce employees. Yes. Yes.

Should tell you something. If they're not in it you know? I mean, there's some sharp guys, I'll tell you, over there. I got the pleasure of working. The guy that just left at, you know, running the director of, support was a guy I was on the floor with.

You know? And Sure. Nathan Booker that's had I think he's heading up some AI initiative. He dude, we were on the floor ninjas together. You know, we were at the bottom together, and that guy's at the top, like, helping guy in the company.

And, man, I wish him well. Travis is a great guy, the new CEO. I wish him well. And and that's the thing. You know, when we were there early on, it was like, you know, screw Shopify.

I can show you a shirt that says Stompify, you know, because we we hated them so bad. And to me, you know, being out of that now, you almost have to be agnostic when, about, platforms to a degree, as an agency owner or somebody that's a consultant. But what you really need to do is be there to guide them to the the type of platform that they need to be on that will meet their needs and help them grow. And guess what? Shopware's that sometimes, and sometimes that's gonna be Shopify or BigCommerce.

They're all the niches and do certain things in ways that are, I mean, especially y'all. Y'all are completely different from the other two, basically. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, let's let's shift gears. So you and I met each other, when you were at an agency called Blazer, and I got to know you. Digital. Yep. Absolutely.

Brad and I love those guys. Oh, man. They're good dudes. So I hung out with all of us hung out in in, New York, Choptomastes. But, one of the things that I immediately, I liked about you is, how you're kind of an everyman, and and you you can you can meet with anybody about anything and have, you know, an hour long deep conversation.

And and it's just really interesting to me how you can do that. And I love the fact that you've created this brand called ecommerce redneck. Can you talk a little bit about why you did it? What's the origin story? And and why you keep going with it today?

I don't know if you can see. Yeah. I can see. Come up. But, yeah, I've got it behind me now.

Yeah. The ecommerce redneck, you know, it's funny. Believe it or not, you know, I'm six foot five. I'm two hundred and thirty pounds. I'm a big guy, you know, and, but I think a lot of people, because I'm so boisterous, would never believe, the level of, depression that I went into, after I was injured.

I got into into a, car accident right after I left BigCommerce a month later, and then I had one three weeks later after that, slipped a disc in my neck. I have actually the same scar that Elon Musk has, exact same spot. I had the same surgery. And I slipped a disc in my neck, and a bone spur grew into my to my spine, started to lose my left side of my body. And so I got really depressed, then my ex wife died of alcoholism, and I was just in a bad spot.

You know? And, I I came up with this idea, the ecommerce redneck. And, honestly, what it was for me was the catalyst to put myself out there as a persona or as somebody that is, you know, a a personality or or you know? So for me, it was stepping out in faith and then, you know, making the goofy little ecommerce redneck, you know, logo with me with the big hit bobblehead and all that, it just made it fun. And so I started showing up at events before I was even podcasting with the ecommerce redneck shirt on, and people would die laughing.

What is that? That's hilarious. Is that you? You know? And pretty soon, everybody's calling me the ecommerce redneck every time I go anywhere, ecommerce.

And I love it because, to be honest, when I go into a crowd and I don't know a lot of people, I will I'm really shy. But, like, if I know you, I'll I'll stick around with you till I meet other people, and I'm okay. But, you know, I that this made it where people talk to me, and I don't have to talk to them first because they're laughing. And so it really was an exercise to make myself get back out there, put myself out there. And I'll tell you, Robert Alvarez, if you haven't interviewed him, you definitely should.

He was the CFO of BigCommerce for twelve years. Big heart guy. Big, not just good at business, good at life. And, you know, he used to teach us to be ambitious, being both humble and ambitious. And, you know, I think that, honestly, that's what I'm trying to portray with the ecommerce redneck.

You know, blue the blue collar side of my background, start out doing construction when I was 14 full time. You know, I I just want people to understand I am nobody, but, this gives me something to have a voice. And so that's kinda it's it's an instrument, and I'm very thankful, that I've been able to get anybody liking it. You know? Oh, gotta tell you, I'm I probably have the coolest, intro song, though, of any podcast.

Tell us about it. Give us the story. Yeah. It was literally recorded by Bo Hodges, who's my best friend, went to Bible college with me. He ended up getting into music, was in a band called Theory of Flight and then the Bo Hodges band.

And the Bo Hodges band and Theory of Flight both, like, were huge bands out of Las Vegas. And, he toured with ZZ Top with Bo Hodges band and Train and a whole bunch of other big bands, Marcy's Playground. And, anyhow, he came up with this song called Country Boy, but he never released it. He recorded it in Sweetwater Studios, I believe, in Nashville with the Oak Ridge Boys guitar player and Earl Scruggs grandson on slide, my buddy Tyler on drums, and Bo singing and just absolutely murder. But that is an unreleased song that I am the only one that has permission to use.

And I I just absolutely love that I got that cool of a song. That is not just luck. That's like a blessing. That's huge. Yeah.

That's really cool. Well, we'll put in the in the show notes the link to your podcast, your LinkedIn profile, and that song Excellent. So people can, take advantage of of of your of your passion. Okay. So one of the things, again, we talked about it a little bit, but, you know, when we meet, Shopware obviously has a very large b to b business, and we deal with manufacturers and distributors.

And those people are unbelievable experts in their industry. They know part numbers and dimensions and weights and shipping restrictions and all of the things that make a business successful. But in a lot of ways, ecommerce is a different language. And one of the things I've seen you do, and I believe you probably did this at BigCommerce as well, is you know how to talk to the everyman. You know how to talk to the guy who knows how to be in plumbing and knows all those details and translate ecommerce and AI and some of the big scary stuff out there to someone who doesn't live ecommerce every day, but instead manages and understands distribution every day.

Can you talk a little bit about your mindset and how you do that and how you've been successful? Well, you know, my grandfather had an eighth grade education but was a genius. You know? I never look at people in whatever industry they are, and think of them as lesser in any way because they don't understand my my what I understand, that would be stupid if they did. If I'm talking to somebody that, for instance, you know, makes beer, you know, and they wanna sell their beer online, why would they know everything about a ecommerce?

Because if they do, they're probably not as good at making their beer. Right? You know? They're probably not gonna be able to, you know, the thing is, sure, you can learn these things, but when people from a different expertise come to you, you have to listen. You have to absorb it.

You have to understand and make sure you understand what they're talking about. If you know, repeat it back to them, ask them questions. And once you can relate it, man, that's really when that pastoral thing comes in and you start, you know, speaking in parables, basically. The parables of ecommerce. So I I love you.

And, actually, that should be I'm trying to give you an idea for the ecommerce redneck. You could do the the parables of ecommerce, and you could pick and make lessons out of brands or partners or whatever. Yeah. Connecting your two things. Very good.

Yeah. And and I've got a new partner coming out that's gonna start doing we're gonna start doing some Twitch stream stuff. Another thing we're gonna do, Jason, and I hope we can do it, alongside one of your events too or have y'all at one of these as we're gonna start doing, ecommerce parties, you know, outside of some of these big events that are going on in ecommerce, where we're trying to get I I'm connecting, with the ecommerce goat who is connected across, Instagram socials and stuff and has a really good network of bringing, store owners in. You know? So I, we kinda wanna create these ecommerce parties that bring people together from both the outside and the inside.

You know? So, again, it comes back to translating sometimes those people getting them to talk and getting the right people in front of the right people. Well, that's a little bit of the Shoptoberfest story. It's just about building community. Fest was awesome, man.

And that community concept, like, let people have a good time because guess what? They're gonna skip after your stuff anyhow. You know? Yeah. Just constant, you know, I I mean, I go to some summits, and I'm like, I I cannot go to all these classes.

I can't hear this again for the fiftieth time. You know? So, I've read this already. You know? So I think it's a brilliant idea because it also builds the culture around what you're doing.

You know? Yep. Yep. Well, now you're in. So now now once you've been a part of it, it, you're you're, you get the permanent invite.

So for Shoptoberfest. But I'm Who's your, when you said the ecommerce, what was your word? Guru or something? I don't know. I don't You you're working with somebody for your for your event?

So you got the first Goat. The ecommerce goat. Yeah. It. Yeah.

Her her, it's her name's Brianna Kinsey. She's over at Checkout Champ and, absolute brilliant, person about, like, marketing and funnels and website building and, has, between me and her, just consulting for somebody. Yeah. We bring a ton to the table with our connections, our teams. So we're gonna partner with that and, you know, build a, awesome Twitch channel together and start trying to monetize some of this, hopefully.

Fabulous. Well, count us in. We're happy to be a beta customer for you as you get this thing off the ground, and, you know, we'd love to be a part of it. Absolutely. Thank you, Jason.

Yep. Well okay. So we're right around the the half hour mark, so we should probably wrap up. If folks wanna get in touch with you, Jeremy, what would be the best way to do it? All you have to do is either find me, Jeremy Greider, on LinkedIn, or you can get ahold of me at the ecommerceredneck.com.

And that's pretty pretty simple. All the stuff's there, including that song if you wanna hear it. Now why would people reach out? Would they want would they want consulting help? Would they wanna understand partnership?

Would they wanna be a media partner? Like, give us the reasons people would wanna connect with Ecommerce Redneck. Yeah. So the Ecommerce Redneck, I'm I'm doing a couple of things where I am both doing consulting around growth. So, you know, if you have a a website that you're looking to take to the next level, you know, I one of my claims to fame is that, I, helped, launch and exit, basically, not launch, but exit twice, kettlebellkings.com.

I actually helped them for seven years, doubled their their, conversion rate right away, you know, and and my counterpart at Kettlebell Kings is now GameStop's ecommerce director. So I got a lot of really good experience. I know how to grow from the ground up. I know, how to help you with your tech stack, stack, your marketing people, and, have the connections and, the collective to actually answer basically any ecommerce question that you're gonna have. Fabulous.

Love it. Well, Jeremy, I love how authentic you are. You're one of my favorite people to to bump into in the real world. So thanks for being Commerce famous, and thanks for joining us on the pod. No problem.

We'll see you soon.