[Top Agency Series] The MMA Fighter Who Conquered Amazon With Mina Elias of Trivium

Mina Elias is a trailblazer in Amazon selling and PPC advertising. From launching his successful nutrition supplement brand on Amazon to becoming an internationally acclaimed expert, Mina’s journey has been marked by rapid sales growth and a reputation as the go-to Amazon PPC authority. Featured prominently in Forbes for his innovative strategies, Mina’s company, Trivium Group, was born out of a passion for helping eCommerce brands flourish on Amazon.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [4:05] How did Mina transition from a corporate engineering career to starting his supplement brand?
• [6:00] How did Mina leverage his engineering background to build a successful supplement company?
• [12:21] How MMA training has shaped Mina’s mindset and approach to business
• [16:16] The concept of “progress over perfection” and how it applies to entrepreneurship
• [20:25] How to effectively market your products on Amazon
• [20:49] How Trivium Group helps brands grow on Amazon
• [24:44] Strategies for creating winning ad campaigns on Amazon
• [26:06] The risks and rewards of being dependent on Amazon for your business
• [27:42] How to use split testing to improve click-through rates?
• [32:14] A case study on successful brand building with Neurogum

In this episode…

In a world where engineering meets entrepreneurship and MMA fuels business acumen, we sit down with Mina Elias to discuss his extraordinary journey. From crafting electrolyte powders for athletes to mastering Amazon PPC strategies, Mina’s story is a tapestry of determination and innovation.

Venturing from corporate engineering to supplement sensation, Mina Elias gained extensive experience in Amazon PPC. He emphasizes the need to balance discipline and network building. He also goes into the details of purpose-driven product creation, marketing mastery, and the boundless potential of strategic eCommerce.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz welcomes Mina Elias. They talk about how Mina’s synergy of engineering precision and MMA mindset fueled his success. From decoding the intricacies of Amazon PPC to crafting flavors that win hearts, Mina unveils his expert strategies. Learn about the essence of progress over perfection, the symphony of data-driven eCommerce, and the power of building remarkable networks.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Mina Elias on LinkedIn
• Dr. Jeremy Weisz on LinkedIn
• Trivium Group
• Inspired Insider
• Rise25

Special Mention(s):

• Craig Diamond
• Diamond MMA
• Medtronic
• Dan Faggella on LinkedIn
• MMA Nutrition
• Neurogum

Related episode(s):

• Building a Great Team and More Helpful Insights with Jason Swenk Host of The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast on Inspired Insider
• [Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech on Inspired Insider

Other Resources:

1. Dan Faggella vs. The Giant

2. Diamond MMA Groin Shot Montage

3. Joe Rogan Mentions Diamond MMA on the Joe Rogan Experience

Quotable Moments:

• “Your life is the sum of the decisions that you’ve made.”
• “You either win or you learn.”
• “Progress over perfection.”

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:01  

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz  0:22  

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today is no different. I have Mina Elias. He is, I don’t know how many companies you have at this point. But we have a Trivium group, which is Triviumco.com. He also has a nutrition brand. All right, that’s gohrdwrk.com. All right. And we’ll pull that up because it’s not with the vowels. Hard work. But you know, before I formally introduce you, Mina, I always like to point out other episodes, people should check out of the podcast. And let’s see here, since this is, last time I talked to Mina was maybe a couple years ago, he did not have an agency. He’s growing super fast. And so I like to mention some of the agency top agency interviews I’ve done, a Jason Swenk one, he had two interviews with him, you know, they’re interesting ones, he built his agency up to eight figures and sold it. And then the second one is he’s been buying up agencies, and he talks about the kind of evaluation process and how he’s been doing that. And also Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech, he’s had an agency since 1995.

So seeing the evolution of his company and his services, and the Internet and everything like that, it was fascinating to hear his journey through that, and many more on InspiredInsider.com. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their Dream100 relationships and partnerships, and how do we do that we actually help you run your podcast, we’re an easy button for a company to launch or on a podcast, we do the accountability, the strategy and the full execution, production of the show.

And I mean, we call ourselves the magic elves that work in the background and make sure it makes it look easy for the hosts so they can just have the conversation and run their business. We handle everything else. You know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking for ways to give to my best relationships. And I’ve found no better way over the past decade to profile the people in companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on.

So we’ve thought about podcasting, you should if you have questions, go to Rise25.com, to learn more, and I’m excited to introduce Mina Elias, he’s a multiple seven figure seller in the supplement industry, which we’ll talk about, and he’s an Amazon PPC expert. He’s learned by trial and error and in the trenches from his own brand and founder of Trivium group, and Trivium groups and Amazon advertising agency, and has developed supplements for different target audiences.

And he combines his passion for supplements. His background is actually in chemical engineering and his expertise in PPC. And he does that all to win on Amazon and help his clients go on Amazon. And he’s consulted for over 400 brands. And he runs Trivium where they help brands actually scale ads and create winning strategies on Amazon. And you know, some of the things they do are sponsored products, sponsored brands, sponsored display, sponsored brand video, anything paid ads, call him, he knows what he’s doing. So Mina, thanks for joining me.

Mina Elias 3:36

Thanks for having me. What an introduction, man, I love it. And thank you for mentioning those episodes about other founders, because it’s very interesting, but I’m trying to learn as much as I can. So that’s gonna be pretty valuable. I’ll probably check those out. Today, I have a lot of you know, I have some time where I can listen to a couple of podcasts, there’s always some driving happening, you know, when you’re in LA. So, you know, it’s always good to have some episodes kind of saved for later, put it on two times speed and have at it.

Jeremy Weisz 4:05

Exactly. I mean, you know, I want to kind of start with your brand. I mean, you kind of cut your teeth on it, but I want to go back a little bit with the immigrant mindset. Okay, um, you came to the States in 2011, for college, right to study engineering. At that time, what was your thought of what you wanted to do?

Mina Elias  4:31  

Great question. Great, great question. And, you know, it’s a good question, because I was very adamant about what I wanted to do. But I grew up in Dubai, and I was born in Egypt grew up in Dubai and in Dubai, you’re taught I mean, it’s a little bit like racist it but in a different way of racist the were basically like, if you’re American or Canadian, you get paid a lot more and you get treated better. You can have better positions than if you’re, let’s say, Egyptian. So the goal was, I’m going to get really good grades. I’m gonna go to college in America or Canada, graduate, get a good job, get you know, and work up the corporate ladder, become a citizen and then move back.

And then, you know, like to live a very easy and happy life there. And so that was my plan. I came to America in 2011, got my Bachelor’s in chemical engineering and finished two bachelors in chemistry, and I got my master’s in industrial engineering. And when I graduated from my Bachelor’s, I got a job at Medtronic, which is surgical devices, very the biggest one, probably in the country, and worked in new product development and started working really, really hard. And my goal was, and I was like, anything else is, is not not good enough. My goal, my main or my mission, was to get into corporate and then work up the ladder until I became a you know, Vice President and President whatever, and do it very, very hard.

Jeremy Weisz  5:56  

So then, when did things change?

Mina Elias  6:00 

Things changed when I started working up the corporate ladder, right? Then I got my first job there and worked. Realize that is like, okay, you know, stick you’re in a cubicle, stay in your box, don’t do anything, a lot of politics involved. And I’m not like a not not a politician. I’m a very, like, honest, like, direct in, you know, just non politics guy. So, you know, then I moved to a different company, and I got a big pay raise. And I started working up the corporate ladder there. And, you know, it was wake up in the morning, go to work, you know, you know, wake up in the morning workout, commute, go to work, commute back, and then train MMA and sleep. And I’m like, Okay, it’s, you know, it’s all good. It’s all good. Like, this is what I want, right? This is the dream. And then I moved to another job. Another pay raise.

Again, working up. Same thing, I was waking up at 4:30 in the morning, commuting, 45 minutes to work, working for nine hours commuting back training, MMA sleeping, and then my boss calls me into her office and says, Hey, you know, you’ve shown the most potential I’ve ever seen in anyone we’ve ever had in our company. Do you see yourself running this company in the next five to 10 years? I said, Absolutely. That’s my goal. And my goal is to kind of, you know, work my way to the top. And then I was driving home. And I was like, dude, who am I to imagine if I became her, I would show up earlier than I show up, because I need to be everyone’s boss. Now show up later than I show up right now. What is this life? This is a horrible, horrible life, then that’s when it really clicked. I was like, What am I even signing up for? I’m signing up to wake up in the morning, every day at 4:30 to work out and then commute and then come back. And then I can, what am I going to do? Am I maybe wanting to have kids? When can I even have kids?

You know, like all of this stuff. And so I’m like, This is not what I signed up for. And I didn’t even see an end in mind. I’m like this is the next 10 years of my life are the next 30 years of my life. And that’s when it hit me. I’m doing the wrong thing. Like, I’m, something’s wrong, something’s very, very wrong. And that’s when it all changed, then that’s when I started, like, looking into you know, I started talking to people saying, I don’t know, guys, like, I feel lost. I thought, this is what I wanted to do. And the problem is, I’m so good at it. I’m the best engineer you could ever hire. Because I work incredibly hard. I work incredibly fast. I have a lot of attention to detail. I’m very problem solving, you know, kind of person, like nothing stands in my way. The only issue is I hate being caged and being told what to do. But I’m a great intrapreneur you know, I’ll own anything. I mean, I was running $12 million in projects, they gave me like a $6 million watermain project.

And I ran that shit. Like, I saved them like $300,000 in one day, because I was on top of everything. And so I mean, like, I’m like, What do I do? I don’t even know and, but I’ve always loved loved loved supplements. Ever since I was a kid, my parents would leave me, they would go to the mall, and I would stand back. You’ll find me in GNC, finish all of your stuff. And I’ll be there. And I literally would spend, like just I read every single magazine, I looked at every single supplement. And so I don’t know, I was like maybe I should do something in supplements. And that’s kind of how the shift started from an engineer to let’s maybe try something different. And I’m like, let’s start a supplement brand. And I got the idea because I was on vacation in Egypt. It was September of 2018. And I was researching a lot of supplements, like I always do. And I know like every single supplement what it does, and if I don’t then I go look at clinical studies and all of this stuff and where it’s being used. And then I’m like, my dad’s like, why are you researching so many supplements? I’m like, Well, okay, I need to buy this product, but it’s not good enough on its own. So I want to come buy this and this and this and all of this stuff.

And he’s like, why don’t you just make your own supplements? I’m like, That’s what I do at home. He’s like, no, no, no, like, actually make your own products. And I was like, that’s out of reach, like, that costs like, hundreds of 1000s of dollars. He’s like, how much would it actually cost to start a business? And that was the trigger that I was like, Okay, how much does it actually cost? I looked into it. I’m like, Okay, you see these ingredients, sodium, magnesium, potassium. Before that, it was only taurine before the blend, but it’s like, okay, sodium, sodium, like bicarbonate, magnesium, citrate, potassium, bicarbonate and taurine. If I bought those raw ingredients in bulk on Amazon, and mixed up this product, how much would it cost? Then it was like, $4. And then I said, Okay, let’s add on, like, $1 for labor. So it’s gonna cost me $5. And it’s selling for, you know, $30 on Amazon, like the average supplement, electrolyte supplement. I said, maybe there’s something there. And I called a friend. I’m like, how do you, you know, have a company like, what do you do? He had a company he was in his name is PG sports, Paul Reno. And, you know, has this this merch brand. And he’s like, just go to legalzoom.com and sign up.

I’m like, Okay, I went to legalzoom.com $400 to sign up for an LLC, done, signed up for an LLC, you know, like, brought the wrong ingredients to my house, came back from Egypt after the vacation that was already there. I started mixing them and I started taking them. And I’m like, You know what, I feel a difference, but I might be biased. So I started giving them to my friends. And I told them that this was like a beta from from a different company. And there was no flavors or anything. It was just unflavored. And they started mixing it. I’m like, guys, like the best is just mix it with some meal water, or some pre workout. And they would mix it with meal water. And, you know, after like, a few days, they’re like, Dude, I feel like I have a lot more endurance in MMA. And I’m like, yeah, it’s probably the sodium. You know, the high amount of sodium and potassium, you’re losing because we all drink a gallon. A day in like MMA, everyone’s walking with their gallon with their name on it. And I’m like, You’re drinking a ton of water sweating out like crazy. And you’re never replenishing your electrolytes. And that’s it. That was me starting a supplement brand.

Jeremy Weisz  12:21  

I love it. I want to dig into this a little bit. But um, how did you get into MMA?

Mina Elias  12:30  

I mean, I’ve always liked to fight as a kid and 2013 I was on like, a gap year sort of thing. You know, where you like, intern and do like less college work. My friend from home was in Texas. He studied pre med in Waco, Texas. He’s like, I just joined an MMA gym and I love it, man. They’re teaching me all these cool things. And I’m like, damn, like, I can’t let someone else like learn how to fight better than me. And so I looked up MMA gyms near me. And then Oh, Gracie showed up like one mile from my house. It was one of the hens. Oh Gracie gyms. And so I call them. I’m like, hey, I want to come in for a trial. They’re like shirts. Come in today. 745 We can get you in for wrestling. I showed up. I did wrestling. And then they’re like, Okay. What do you think I’m like? I want to sign up. They’re like, okay, so when you’re winning your membership, I’m like, Sign me up. And I never looked back. 2013 I started to this day, I train for three or four times a week.