[Top Resource Series] Building Brands and Winning Teams

Anderson Schoenrock is the Co-founder and CEO of Memory Ventures, a fast-growing portfolio of direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands and services specializing in digitization, wall art, gifting, and 3PL/logistics solutions.

Paul Bigham is the President and Founder of Bigham Agency, a marketing, advertising, and strategic consulting firm specializing in nonprofit outreach, brand development, and omni-channel communications.

Dale Castro is the Co-founder and Chief Creative & Strategy Officer at Overlap Interactive, a full-service digital marketing and development agency specializing in creative strategy, web design, SEO/paid media, and holistic omnichannel digital experiences.

Esther Kiss is the Founder & CEO of Born To Influence, the go-to PR firm for entrepreneurs, founders, and brands that aim to challenge the status quo through their innovative approach, products, and services.

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

[2:38] Anderson explains Memory Ventures’ portfolio of e-commerce brands and 3PL services
[7:29] Anderson’s favorite business books
[13:33] Paul describes Bigham Agency’s direct-response work for faith-based humanitarian organizations
[19:12] Lessons from the Monkey Business Illusion — focus, perception, and selective attention
[24:49] Paul’s top copywriting and advertising books
[28:42] Dale introduces Overlap Interactive and their focus as a digital agency for physical spaces
[36:41] How to apply basketball coaching principles to company leadership
[38:07] Esther explains how Born to Influence helps experts build brands and gain media exposure
[42:55] New AI tools Esther uses for content creation and visual brand storytelling

In this episode…

Navigating the fast-paced, ever-changing world of business can feel overwhelming, especially when trying to stay ahead, grow sustainably, and make meaningful connections. What if there were smarter, more actionable ways to preserve memories, scale brands, enhance communication, and leverage cutting-edge tools — without the usual trial and error?

Anderson Schoenrock, Paul Bigham, Dale Castro, and Esther Kiss reveal how they’re redefining entrepreneurship, marketing, and personal branding with innovation, strategy, and practical insights. Anderson shares how Memory Ventures grows multiple direct-to-consumer brands and a 3PL business while introducing eco-friendly products like dissolvable wrapping paper and specialty coffee through Crema Coffee Products. Paul discusses mindset, communication, and strategies for raising funds for large-scale humanitarian initiatives. Dale highlights leadership lessons, agency growth strategies, and his favorite business books. Esther offers guidance on personal branding, media exposure, and using AI tools to create efficient, impactful content.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks with Anderson Schoenrock, Paul Bigham, Dale Castro, and Esther Kiss about building sustainable businesses and achieving long-term growth. They share practical insights on emotional intelligence, copywriting, productivity, and modern tech adoption to help listeners sharpen their skills, innovate, and strengthen relationships.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Special Mention(s):

Related episodes:

Quotable moments:

“As a business owner, it’s our job to stay curious and keep educating ourselves — the world’s moving fast.”
“We are our own jailer in our own jail; so many times we limit ourselves for non-physical barriers.”
“AI is just a tool — creativity and emotion still have to come from the individual.”
“Just because you know how to win doesn’t mean your people understand how you want to win.”
“If the message you send is not received, then there’s no message at all in that”

Action steps:

Commit to continuous learning: Read business books, newsletters, and listen to podcasts to stay current with trends and strategies in fast-moving industries.
Learn through stories and real examples: Study biographies, case studies, and insightful podcast episodes to gain perspective and actionable lessons from others’ successes and failures.
Use technology and AI to work smarter: Leverage tools like ChatGPT, Superhuman, and creative platforms to streamline tasks, reduce overload, and spark new ideas.
Develop self-awareness and a growth mindset: Practice techniques that reveal your motivations and limitations, helping you break past mental barriers and grow personally and professionally.
Build strong relationships and communicate intentionally: Nurture connections through authentic outreach, podcasting, and smart follow-up tools to unlock opportunities and collaborate effectively.

Sponsor for this episode

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Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…

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Episode Transcript

Intro 00:15

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

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, I am the Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Thanks for tuning in to this special best-of episode, where we’ll take a look back at some of our favorite moments from previous conversations. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help B2B businesses give to and connect to their dream 200 relationships and partnerships. We do this in two ways. Number one, we are an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast for ROI. We do the strategy, accountability and full execution and production. Number two, we are also an easy button for your company’s corporate gifting. We make gifting and staying top of mind to your clients, partners and prospects. Simple and seamless and affordable. Some companies even send gifts to staff. From a culture perspective, all you have to do is give us the list of people you want to follow up and keep in touch with, and we do everything else from there, from gift selection to the card to your branding on the box.

We call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background to make it as stress-free as possible for companies so they can build relationships and run their business. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships, and I am always looking at how to give to my best relationships. And I’ve found no better way over the past decade than having them on my podcast, featuring what they are working on and sharing it with the world, and also sending delicious treats in the mail every few months for years. If you have thought about starting a podcast or gifting, do it. If you have questions, email us at [email protected] or go to Rise25.com to learn more. Now let’s look back at some of our favorite moments from past conversations.

Alright, Jeremy Weisz here. This is great people great resources I’m here with Anderson Schoenrock. He is definitely a great person. And Anderson, I’m happy to feature.

And this is part of the kind of Top Resource Series we talk about people’s favorite. It could be books, podcasts, newsletters. And we’re going to get into what Anderson’s favorite are. But before we get to it, we’ll hear a little bit about what he’s got several successful brands and businesses, Anderson, tell people about your companies and where they can check it out.

Anderson Schoenrock: 02:38

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. So my company is called Memory Ventures. We’re a holding company. We own four direct to consumer e-commerce brands. And then we also own a 3PL third party logistics company where we help other e-commerce sellers and brand owners do fulfillment and manage their direct to consumer orders as well as their Amazon store. So yeah, on our brands, we own a couple of companies in the consumer digitization space. So we take old photos, out of date videos, that sort of stuff and digitize it for people. Scan cafe is our primary brand there.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:22

Well, I’m gonna start recommending you because I always tell people like, what if you’re, you know what, if it floods? What if you have a fire? Even, like, I was talking to someone. And by the way, even if you don’t have those things, these VHS tapes, they just wear down, you’ll put them in and they will not play. So I got paranoid. I’ve used, you know, these services before because I wanted all of those things. So anyways, if you’re looking at your shelf or your or your. I just had a friend, his dad died and I’m like, you need to get all those things preserved? You know, just send them to a company. So. Yeah.

Anderson Schoenrock: 04:00

Absolutely. Yeah. We digitize all that stuff. We can put it up in the cloud. We’ve got an app that we offer where you can pull your memories in and also capture the stories behind them, because we think that’s important. But yeah, that stuff, you know.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:15

So if your memories aren’t worth $8, like, come on, like, give me a break.

Anderson Schoenrock: 04:19

Exactly, exactly. So that’s one of our brands. We own Crema Coffee Products, which is in the espresso space. We sell a variety of tools to basically soup up your home espresso maker, as well as a line of espresso beans and other products to help you keep your machines running optimally. So for the coffee espresso enthusiasts out there, I’d encourage them to check out that brand.

And then we own a brand in the consumer printing space called Waterloo Paper Company, where we produce an eco-friendly wrapping paper product. The paper is actually plant based and it dissolves relatively quickly after being in the landfill. You could actually put it in your sink and run water over it, and the paper will dissolve right before your eyes. So that’s kind of our main product there. And then we there.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:22

Needs to be like an infomercial for this, you know, like those infomercial like oxiclean, like.

Anderson Schoenrock: 05:27

It’s a.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:27

Very like you just swirl it and like, disappears.

Anderson Schoenrock: 05:31

Yeah. It’s a very demonstrated product for sure. So that’s that’s been a fun product to be involved in, kind of growing and developing because it’s, you know, not, you know, you get up Christmas morning and you’ve got the bag of.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:47

Exactly. Just put it in the sink.

Anderson Schoenrock: 05:50

Yeah. So even if you decide to put it in the garbage. At least you know that when it goes to landfill relatively quickly, it dissolves and it’s all plant based, so it’s safe for the environment. And then having that portfolio of direct to consumer brands, we had kind of built an internal function to manage all of our direct to consumer shipments and our Amazon stores. And so we ended up launching in 2017 a 3PL business.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:21

You weren’t busy enough with all those brands. You need another business, right?

Anderson Schoenrock: 06:24

Yeah, exactly. So that’s been a fun business. We’ve got two warehouses, one in Indianapolis and one in Nevada. And yeah, we love helping other e-commerce brands grow their businesses and take the weight of dealing with the logistics off their plate. And we because we own our own brands, we kind of understand more than many peoples kind of the unique nuances and challenges and pain points for brand owners. So yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:55

I love us. Yeah. Check out his victorylanesolutions.com. And then I want to give a shout out to Mark Hiddleson. He has a company Special Rack, so he actually supplies the like what we’re looking at if you’re watching the video. So the racks and they go in and they actually input them into warehouses, whether it’s Amazon, Walmart or three PL so he’s he’s an awesome guy. I’ll have to connect you with Mark Hiddleson. That’s what he’s been doing for for decades now at this point. So your favorite resources? Yeah. Anderson books, podcasts, newsletters. What do you what are you listening to?

Anderson Schoenrock: 07:29

Yeah. So I you know, try and as much as I can whether it’s when I’m, you know, working out or driving or whatever, just consume as much, whether it’s an audiobook, consume as much content. I feel like as a business owner, entrepreneur, the world’s moving fast, and it’s kind of one of our jobs to just continue to stay curious and educate ourselves. So I’d say, you know, on the on the book side for anyone. I know this is maybe a pretty basic fundamental, but for anybody who hasn’t read any of Jim Collins books, Good to Great, Great by Choice, those are like really good.

Kind of like core business books. I also think even though we don’t we don’t operate all of our businesses on EOS, I think some of the EOS, Traction stuff, even if you’re not going to implement EOS, a lot of the principles in terms of how to run an effective leadership team meeting and those things are are really good.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:22

You know, Traction is great. I had Gino Wickman on the podcast. And then I also had Mark Winters on who wrote Rocket Fuel. That’s a really good one.

Anderson Schoenrock: 08:30

To 1 to.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:31

As well.

Anderson Schoenrock: 08:32

Yeah. So those are great books. And then, you know, I’m always reading. I also, you know, just find this is less about like pure business learning and more just about I just tend to find lessons in other people’s business journeys. So some of the, you know, stories of other companies, like I think the book books called Shoe Dog talks about Nike.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:58

It’s one of my favorites.

Anderson Schoenrock: 08:59

Oh, yeah. So I always try and kind of read those sort of like business biography, you know, biography biographical books. So those are things that I am drawn to on the more kind of like current event, current business momentum. One of the things I’ve really been enjoying recently, I was recommended a newsletter called Superhuman, and it’s basically a daily digest sort of aggregation of everything that’s happening in the AI world. And and then they have other sub newsletters about robotics and other things that are happening. And that’s obviously a place that’s evolving and moving so fast.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:40

Is this it right here?

Anderson Schoenrock: 09:41

Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:42

Superhuman AI. Okay.

Anderson Schoenrock: 09:43

Yeah. So I’d encourage anybody to sign up for that. I that, you know, drops into my inbox every day and kind of and it’s a it’s an interesting combination of kind of news aggregation and stories of what’s happening with different companies in the AI space, but then they also get into some very specific tools. And, you know, even like some of the newsletters will have specific prompts for ChatGPT or Midjourney and it’ll show you the results. So I just find that, you know, running our brands and our portfolio brands, like, we’re very keenly aware that AI is something that we need to be thinking about and implementing in our business.

But there’s so much momentum and things that are happening that sometimes it’s hard to get your head around, like even what the possibilities are. So just having the different prompts and different examples of things that people are doing, I find to be a good source of kind of, you know, creating ideas and ideation within our team. And I actually had our marketing revenue team subscribe to this as well, so that they’re kind of.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:53

Getting their finger on the pulse of.

Anderson Schoenrock: 10:55

Their finger. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then in terms of podcasts and things like that, I don’t listen to every episode. But Diary Of A CEO, there are a lot of good interviews there. I’m part of a group called eCommerceFuel and they have a podcast, so they have good interviews and very e-commerce specific content. I was at a conference recently and a guy named Andrew Ferris spoke, and he sort of got an agency that’s focused on meta advertising. So they go deep into the weeds on his podcast. I was actually just kind of looking at my phone here to see what other stuff. I also listened to the PBD Podcast, which is Patrick Bet-David.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:39

Yeah. Oh, he’s got some good episodes for sure.

Anderson Schoenrock: 11:41

He’s got some good episodes, a combination of kind of current events, a little bit of politics, but really at the end of the day, really all about kind of like capitalism and business and strategy and, and, you know, really how to navigate the macro. I find it good to kind of get a view of the macro environment and think about what do I need to be doing in my business to to navigate the bigger picture. So, you know, obviously this year Chinese tariffs and things like that have been kind of things that as a business owner, you may not directly control, but understanding what’s happening and kind of where the winds are blowing is just, you know, very helpful in terms of making sure that we’re on track and thinking strategically about, you know, not only the short run but the long run as well.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:31

So here’s the eComFuel podcast. I’ve had Andrew on the show also, and he shared some of his favorite tips and journey there too. So that’s a great one.

Anderson Schoenrock: 12:41

Yeah. Andrew’s awesome. Just a genuine guy that wants to help people grow their businesses and lots of background and experience in the e-comm space. So definitely recommend that for anybody that’s doing e-commerce.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:56

Anderson, thank you so much. This was absolutely fantastic. Everyone could check out more episodes of the podcast. Thanks.

Anderson Schoenrock: 13:04

Great. Thank you.

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