After steadily growing the business off an initial $9,000 investment, they went onto SharkTank and struck a deal with Mark Cuban. They have been exploding ever since…

Neither Rosie the Riveter nor their Army Ranger husbands can keep up with these lady’s work ethic and drive.

Please welcome our next badass to the stage, Cameron Cruse

He started Gravity Industries, an aeronautical innovation company that set to make the worlds first Jet Suit in 2017. After many variations and iterations over the years, it’s now a site worthy of being in the next futuristic James Bond movie with its modern and elite performance aesthetic.

Not to mention he was a Royal Marine Reservist, an ultra marathon runner, had a phenomenal TED Talk, and holds a Guinness Book of Wold Record to his name. His life portfolio is an A++.

He is the real life Tony Stark and I am certain that he’s going to be a historical innovative figure in the future that generations to come will learn about in school.

Please welcome our next guest, Richard Browning.

His journey could stop there and be tremendously badass, but he’s a savage and never quits. After retiring from a military career, he was drawn back into film and TV. Having roles in Patriots Day, American Sniper, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and many others, he then went on to star in two woldwide series on Discovery Channel, Manhunt (aka in the US Lonetarget) and Predators Up Close.

He is considered one of the world’s most well-respected escape and evasion experts and successfully put it to the test against the world’s best special operation teams where he’d drop into their country undetected and have to make it to an extract point before getting captured.

If you’re feeling like your dick is 2” smaller by this point, join the club. This man has lived life to the absolute fullest and I’m honored to call him a dear friend.

Please welcome this hard-bodied, hairy-chested, rootin’, tootin, shootin’, parachutin’, demolition double cap crimpin’ Frogman… Joel Lambert

Our next guest has most likely helped design, market and produce those very products and many more.

From being a Program Leader developing cookie and cracker products, to managing the global development and launch of new gum brands worth $100’s of MM for Kraft Foods Group, Senior Project Manager for Cadbury, and Global Project Manager/Director for Nestle - this man was destined to build the next big tasty food.

And that’s exactly what he’s doing.

He’s the Founder and CEO of Pnuff Crunch, a delicious bean based peanut puff snack that is one of the healthiest snacks on the market - which plays to the marketing genius = if you eat a whole bag, you won’t feel like a fatass.

With an outstanding appearance on Shark Tank last year, this doctor of food science from Rutgers negotiated a deal with Mark Cuban because of the impressive business he started. That and his absolutely shredded physique that you too can work towards, with the help of Pnuff Crunch ;)

Please welcome our next guest who’s clearly an underachiever, OH! Dr. Juan Salinas

Our next guest is doing just that with the thing you spend most of your time inside of - housing. He has lead his startup to raise nearly $4mill via crowdfunding and is completely changing the way housing is mass produced. It’s called Boxabl and in less than an hour after arrival, a new home owner can be enjoying a glass of wine inside of their Boxabl home. It’s so popular now that Elon Musk lives in one.

He’s also the founder of CoinHub, a popular crypto ATM service.

If he never told his neigh sayers to fuck off when telling him ‘you don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to home construction’, he wouldn’t be on the way to creating the Apple experience of the housing market with the efficiency of an Amazon fulfillment facility.

Please welcome the real life Bob the Builder and our next guest, Galiano Tiramani

He’s been a highly decorated LAPD Law Enforcement Consultant and Officer for over 25 years, specializing in Homelessness and Community Policing. The majority of those years spent in the famous downtown area of Los Angeles known as Skid Row.

He’s also a Public Speaker, having appeared on many major news networks, Universities and even earned the prestigious opportunity to have his own Tedx Talk.

He’s an author, haven written ‘Stepping Across The Line - A Skid Row Cop’s Story’

And most recently, you may have heard of the open invitation he wrote to educate Lebron Jame’s ignorant and deaf tone tweet towards an Ohio police officer who saved an unarmed young woman’s life a couple of months ago.

He’s the first person in history to carry two illegal conceal carry permits - one for the gun on his right arm and the other for the left - and if the next generation of young men and women accomplished just half of the things this man has for their communities, the world would be a much better place.

Please welcome the real life superhero to the stage, Mr. Deon Joseph

He went from zero experience in social media, branding and marketing to becoming the Senior Platform Strategy Producer for one of the biggest names in marketing and entrepreneurship - Gary Vaynerchuk - in under 2 years.

He is currently the Head of Community & Social Media for VeeFriends, an NFT-centric platform connecting Gary’s fans through his creative NFT art - and has become a household name attached to Team GaryVee.

He makes getting after it look easy and his positive attitude is said to have helped the Grinch love Christmas…

Please welcome our next guest, Zain Gaziani

He received his doctorate in physical therapy from Chapman University and has been helping patients ranging from Cirque du Soleil athletes to soccer moms move better and alleviate pain through his data and research driven approach.

He’s also CSCS certified, and for those who don’t know what that is, it’s the highest strength and conditioning certification you can get. So all of you Instagram fitness coaches… nows the time to shut up and listen.

He was the first college professor to ever fail me and if I’m ever wanting to feel more self-conscious about my follower count on Instagram, I just look at his page…

Please welcome our next guest and by far the smartest person in the room right now, Dr. Tom Walters

He runs Superstruct, an LA-based consultancy specializing in building in-house engineering teams for tech startups,

He’s the VP of engineering at Outlier, pivoting college education into an affordable, high quality online educational platform,

He’s worked and led teams at Disney and AT&T,

he’s a notable author of multiple books on software engineering,

Podcast host called Junior to Senior where he interviews tech professionals and dives deep into how CTO’s and devs in leadership roles operate and put together successful technologies,

AND the community organizer of JSLA (Javascript Los Angeles) a couple thousand member strong tribe surrounding one of the most effective internet technologies that powers many of the platforms we use in our everyday lives.

He’s the engineers engineer, an undeniably talented artist and his code is more beautiful than Dan Bilzerian’s 59 girlfriends… Ok, ok, maybe just as goregous. But regardless…

Please welcome our next guest, The Man, The Myth, The Legend, David Guttman

A Santa Barbara, CA native, he joined the Marine Corps after 9/11 and initially served in the Infantry, then as a PSD (Personal Security Detail) and then as an elite operator in the Marine Scout Sniper platoon deploying to Iraq in 2009 and 2010.

After retiring from the military, his desire to serve his country and humanity continued while working with a non-profit called Direct Relief International where he was deployed to Haiti twice in 2010 in efforts to help NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) and hospitals get medical supplies after the horrific earthquake that devastated the country.

Following his 5 year stint with the non-profit, he moved into private security for a year, doing executive protection for clients based in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Basically an overwhelmingly qualified baby sitter at times I would assume for some celebrities and big business personal, but I digress…

Now a days, he is the range master for the Santa Barbara Police Department for the past 8 years and in his spare time he runs a firearms training company, DEFEND, where he teaches professional firearms training and tactics derived from real world scenarios and experiences making the training from him the highest of quality, which is what separates him from some of the ‘Influencer firearms instructors’.

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, he’s a father of 2 daughters, a husband and has a Kinesiology degree from one of the most prestigious Kinesiology departments in the country, Westmont College, also my alma mater.

He’s a warrior, a pipe hitter built like a Brock, his favorite music artist is Lady Gaga, and he’s a man your kids should look up to be like when their older because he embodies what being a true American hero really is…

Give it up for our next guest to the show, Nate Brock!

He also has one major thing in common with Gary Vee - let us know in the comment section below when you hear it!

We’re coining the phrase #selfiestickssuck

PhoneQuad is a hands-free way of communication, pictures and videos using it’s compact, durable and foldable Drone-Phone Case. The Selfie Stick is soon to be a blip in the past… #selfiesticksucks

Aside from currently inventing one of the coolest ways for IG models to get perfect booty shots or simply capture a special family vacation photo, he is a serial entrepreneur, having developed and sold multiple retail businesses and has decades of I.T. experience in the Investment Banking sector.

With the pace of life going by like a new york minute this man is bringing the world the opportunity to capture those special moments hands-free with a freaking floating phone drone… he’s a mad scientist and boy are we excited to talk to him today…

Please welcome our next guest to the show, Neil Lesher!

We’re coining the phrase #selfiestickssuck

He is also a United States Air Force Veteran, expanding his information technology experience while serving his country. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE SIR!

As if this wasn’t enough to make you drool, he’s trilingual, speaking Italian and German alongside his native English. He’s an accomplished speaker, leading conversations around the country about Cybersecurity AND he’s even played semi-professional football (soccer) in Germany…

Basically, he’s Norton Antivirus meets Captain America, that can code, on steroids - you aren’t getting anything past his security systems. Even Mr. Robot tried and failed… as legend has it…

Please welcome our next guest to the show, Quincey Collins!

He is also a United States Air Force Veteran, expanding his information technology experience while serving his country. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE SIR!

As if this wasn’t enough to make you drool, he’s trilingual, speaking Italian and German alongside his native English. He’s an accomplished speaker, leading conversations around the country about Cybersecurity AND he’s even played semi-professional football (soccer) in Germany…

Basically, he’s Norton Antivirus meets Captain America, that can code, on steroids - you aren’t getting anything past his security systems. Even Mr. Robot tried and failed… as legend has it…

Please welcome our next guest to the show, Quincey Collins!

His entrepreneurial journey started when he founded the original Ticketmaster platform, the event and scheduling platform, and exited in the late 1990’s which was just one of the milestones his successful technology solutions business have produced of the last 30 years.

He is also the Executive Producer and CEO of BAM! Productions and hosted the Love & Sex TV and Radio Show where he would teach men how to approach, pickup and have more meaningful intimacy with women. He’s even written a book about it called ‘Being a Man in a Woman’s World’ available on Amazon.

He is the real life Hitch, just the sexual version, and as legend has it his famous saying “before you bag her, sheath your dagger” is tattooed on his mini Dr. D.

Please welcome our next guest and good friend, Dr. Dennis Neder.

His entrepreneurial journey started when he founded the original Ticketmaster platform, the event and scheduling platform, and exited in the late 1990’s which was just one of the milestones his successful technology solutions business have produced of the last 30 years.

He is also the Executive Producer and CEO of BAM! Productions and hosted the Love & Sex TV and Radio Show where he would teach men how to approach, pickup and have more meaningful intimacy with women. He’s even written a book about it called ‘Being a Man in a Woman’s World’ available on Amazon.

He is the real life Hitch, just the sexual version, and as legend has it his famous saying “before you bag her, sheath your dagger” is tattooed on his mini Dr. D.

Please welcome our next guest and good friend, Dr. Dennis Neder.

Only 18 months after launching their coffee company from their youngest brother’s dorm room, they appeared on Shark Tank pitching straight fire on national television, instantly proving that they had the cojones, the endurance, the entrepreneurial whits to be successful, despite having Barbara break his heart in front of millions of people watching… but we’re focused on the positives here…

So just a few years later, their mission to mass produce positive energy in a bottle has completely changed the world of coffee for cracked-out caffein fein’s like myself.

His six pack abs and barreled chest Co-Captained the Colgate University football team playing Running Back & Wide Receiver, he’s a Board Member for Forbes Under 30 and…

Aside from being the 2011 recipient of the Anita Williams Peck Public Speaking Award, Netflix is doing a sequel called Caffein Cowboys starring The Three DeCicco Brother’s,

Please welcome the oldest, Jim DeCicco.

This COURAGEOUS, Gen-Mobile leader has been covered in articles by Rolling Stone, Forbes and TMZ.

If Shark Tank and MTV were to birth an entrepreneur, it would be our next guest, and oh… he’s 21 years old,

Please welcome Jacob Pace.

He is preparing for a much anticipated release of his latest feature film that he wrote produced and directed called GRACE AND GRIT, based on Ken Wilber’s acclaimed book. Trailer

You may have seen his roles on ABC’s Quantico, Hawaii Five-0, The Haves and Have Nots, CSI Miami, and Family Guy - just to name a few (No.Big.Deal.).

As a new online business owner, you might have heard industry experts or peers talk about optimizing your website. In the initial days of e-commerce, it was enough to just build your online store and watch as customers flocked in. However, with increasing competition, making your website stand out has become imperative for its success. This is where optimization comes in. It is a series of processes that maximize the chances of your website being indexed by search engines, thus making your business more visible to a larger audience. The processes involved are varied and address different aspects of your website.

Essentially, optimizing your online store is an exercise to increase and attract more traffic. Only when the number of unique visitors increases, will you be able to convert them into increased sales. Increased traffic also gives you more leads which can be used for future campaigns.

So, how do you go about optimizing your Shopify store? As mentioned before, optimization involves a series of processes that addresses various aspects of your website. Here, we discuss these different processes and how you can set your Shopify website up for maximum success.

Optimize your store for speed

As you continue to build, customize, and add new themes to your Shopify store, the speed of the store will fall. Numerous studies have shown that neither customers nor search engines like websites that have a low speed. You might feel like you are stuck – you do not want to give up on speed, but you also do not want to compromise on the functionality of your store. The good news is that there are several processes you can employ in order to boost the speed of your website.

1. Image Optimization

Using heavy images can drastically affect the speed of your website, particularly if your store depends on using product images. However, you can optimize the images before you upload them using one of the many free tools available for this exact process. This will help save a large amount of data.

2. Choose a Fast Theme Not all themes are made alike and there are some themes that are faster than others. If you are serious about reducing the load times on your website, then opt for a theme that is fast. You can test the theme with Google PageSpeed Insight and learn where and how it is lagging and choose one that is faster.

2.1. JavaScript and CSS files Optimization This step requires a little understanding of coding, but there are effective step-by-step guides available for you to follow. Use this process if the app you are set on needs to be optimized. All the stylesheets and JavaScript files of the app should be merged into one. Keep a back-up of your theme of an app before you do this, in case of any error.

2.2. Must be Device-Responsive Gone are the days when customers had only desktops to use for online shopping. With the proliferation of mobile devices, it is imperative that your theme is optimized accordingly. It should recognize the device being used and serve up the most appropriate image sizes.

3. Manage the Apps Installed One of the best features of the Shopify platform is the range and depth of apps available to increase the functionality of your store. It is tempting to go all out and install an app from every category. This will only slow your store down. However, it is important that you take a detached look at the apps you are using and remove the ones that do not add value. Here are some of the Best performing Shopify APPS:

1. Passwordless Social Login
2. Google Ads Conversion Tracking
3. Announcement Bar + Web Push
4. Shippo
5. SEO Booster ‑ SEO Marketing

4. Better Server Response Time Be sure to check the server response time. Ideally, it should be less than 200ms. There are a plethora of apps available online to check the same. You can gain insight into where and why you might be experiencing any lags.

5. Measure With Google PageSpeed Insights Google’s PageSpeed Insights measures and reports on the performance of websites on both mobile and desktop devices. The report can be used to improve areas that are causing a lag in your website. PSI’s report gives your website an overall performance score based on the lab data. A score of 90 and above is considered fast while 50 to 90 is moderate. Anything below 50 is slow.

Optimise your store for trust / credibility

Your store is set up and your products are primed to be sold and shipped to whichever part of the world your customer is. But you notice that there are no sales on your site while your products may be moving on other third-party shopping platforms. The reason for this could be that customers vary of new businesses who may or may not deliver quality products on time, every time. New business owners around the world face the dilemma of being able to showcase their credibility.

1. Share the human side of your business latest ecommerce trends shows, Customers find it easier to trust a human rather than a faceless business. Take the opportunity to showcase the human side, the story of the people behind the brand, of your business. You can relegate this to the About Us page or incorporate it into the structure and marketing of your business.

2. Build relationships through content Leverage content marketing to create relationships with your loyal customers. Posting blogs centred around your products shows the audience that you are knowledgeable and are invested in your industry. Engaging with your audience also shows that you care about their experience.

3. Show customers that their security is your priority Protecting your customers’ private information is key to gaining trust. Use an added layer of protection in the form of a security app and display the security badge prominently.

4. Make yourself available for customer inquiries There is nothing more frustrating than having a customer service team that ignores a buyer’s queries. No matter how menial or obvious the answer, make sure that you have a system in place to answer any and all queries. Customers want to deal with a business that is responsible and on top of things.

5. Provide detailed product information Detailed product information leads to more sales. Customers like to know what they are buying exactly. This makes sense they do not have the opportunity to pick up and look at your products like they would be able to in a physical store. Mention the dimensions, the weight, ingredients, warranty information, and individual features.

6. Use an FAQ page to address buying concerns The FAQ page should be leveraged to continue telling the story of your brand through the lens of how you run your business. A good FAQ page will alleviate any qualms about purchasing while also giving an insight into the logistics of the business.

7. GDPR and user data/privacy policy

One of the biggest concerns potential customers have is that their data is being mined for other companies or usages. Placate these fears whenever you can and have a clear policy on data privacy that customers can access.

Optimize your store for customer delight

Gone are the days when businesses could get away by providing a customer experience that is just satisfactory. Customers are looking to be delighted, in that they want their needs, wishes and interests met almost perfectly. While it costs five times as much to get a new customer, most companies are not providing enough for existing customers to keep returning.

1. Customer delight doesn’t come from lower prices If you fall into the trap of lowering your prices over and over again in order to retain customers or provide delight, you will find yourself in a never-ending battle with bigger companies who can produce similar products or services for the fraction of the cost. Instead, you can try these options:

1.1. A free gift Who doesn’t love a free gift? Delight your customers by offering a small gift for free. You do not even have to advertise this. An unexpected gift is going to delight far more than something that might be mistaken for a marketing gimmick.

1.2. A thank you note A great way to establish a relationship with your customer is to send a well-worded thank you note. A personalised, hand-written note is the best way to do this.

1.3. Proactive customer service Customer service shouldn’t just be a method to fix issues. Get ahead of the curve and streamline a proactive customer service that puts the customer first.

2. Anticipate your customer’s needs before they even arise Letting customers know when their order has been shipped or if there are any delays in transit before they can reach out to you lets them know that their patronage is important. There are several other ways in which you can integrate your customers’ needs into your business:

2.1. Use analytics Use the data generated from other buyers or a customers’ particular purchasing history in order to make suggestions or recommendations.

2.2. Make sure customers can share their ideas with you Customers need to know that they are valued. This includes their opinions on your products and business. Have space where customers can share their ideas with you. This could be as simple as product reviews or a Contact Us form.

2.3. Provide self-help resources This is where a robust and well-constructed FAQ page comes into play. It can help customers find answers to any general queries they might have.

3. The turnaround time to customer queries/issues In the situation where a customer reaches out to your business with a query or issue, you should make sure that the turnaround time is as minimal as possible. There is nothing more frustrating than having to wait for days when there is an issue with an order.

Optimize your store for brand/personality

Creating a unique look and vibe is half the battle fought. Brand recollection is extremely important if you want to keep attracting repeat customers. Your brand needs to reflect the core values of the business.

1. Logo A powerful and memorable logo is one of the most basic requisites when you are creating a brand. Do not skimp on this step and compare your logo to the competition.

2. Design and User experience The UI/UX experience should continue the story or personality of your brand forward. A generic UI is not going to cut it if you want your business to turn into a brand.

3. Purchase experience Your business needs to tell a consistent story with a recognisable identity across all channels. This has to be present even during purchase which needs to be seamless and bug-free.

4. Brand storytelling The story of your brand should be presented such that it elicits a real and authentic emotional response. Just throwing out facts and numbers might, at best, be ignored, at worst, alienate your audience. Take the space and time to tell a story that interests people.

Optimize your store for average order value (AOV)

The average order value refers to the amount of money you spend each time an order is made on your online store. It is calculated by dividing your total revenue by the total number of customers. A lower average order value means that you are making more money per customer.

1. Provide product recommendations Big retailers like Amazon follow this module of recommending products which could result in higher purchase value. Optimize your site to offer recommendations either based on the product or data from other customers.

2. Upsell or cross-sell products Recommending products that are related to the product in the customer’s cart is known as cross-selling. For example, if a customer has added a notebook to their cart, you can recommend a pack of pens. Upselling refers to recommending a slightly more expensive product, with more value to the customer, that is similar to the product in the cart.

3. Set order minimums for a discount Everyone loves a discount and we are wired to look for steals. With a minimum order qualification for a discount, you will find that more customers will boost their order value in order to reach the threshold necessary for the discount.

4. Bundle products or create packages This strategy combines cross-selling and discounts to entice customers into spending more than they intended to. Recognise which products can be bundled together and offer it as a recommendation.

5. Abandoned cart recovery Many times, shoppers will decide against buying the products in their cart. A well-timed email reminder of their abandoned cart has time and time again resulted in a sale. You can use an app to optimize your abandoned cart recovery message and timing.

Optimize your store for SEO

Shopify already has many in-built features that make your website SEO friendly. However, there are several more steps you can take to ensure that your website is high up on the rankings of search engines.

1. Optimize Your Shopify Site Structure Your site structure should be simple and effective. When customers can easily find the products they are looking for, they will spend more time on your site. This makes your site climb up high on the rankings. The navigation on your site should be clean and not have too many categories.

2. Improve the User Experience A better UX with increased speed and responsive design will keep your visitors engaged for longer. The time spent on a website is an important factor that Google uses to assign value to a website.

3. Optimize Your Shopify Products Pages Once you are clear about which keywords are to be used, be sure to populate your most popular products page, homepage, and main products collections page with these keywords.

4. Build Links to Your Store Creating a network of backlinks signals to Google that your website is being talked about even off-page. You can use mentions, links with vendors and suppliers, or influencers to create such a network.

5. Rank Higher With Content Marketing Content marketing gives you an opportunity to create more backlinks and keywords. Original content will go a long way in improving your online store’s SEO ranking.

Conclusion

Optimizing your online store is an important step in ensuring its success. The optimization process is an ongoing one and you must stay on top of trends in order to keep your website high up on the search engine rankings. However, while it might involve several processes, optimization is not difficult or expensive if you make the right choices.

Additional resources on Shopify Success

Ultimate Guide to Selling on Shopify How to create your first Shopify Store? How to get more traffic to your Shopify store? How to get more loyal customers to your Shopify store? How to do Conversion Rate Optimization to your shopify store?

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His Rolodex of clients include some of the best athletes in the sport, celebrities, billionaires, and even professional luchadors (pro wrestlers).

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Don't skip a beat, download our Call To Action Podcast app in the Apple App Store! Link is above on our website.

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He’s a man that can turn your physical weaknesses into strengths, his holy methods defy the odds of muscle gains and performances. ENJOY!

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Don't miss an episode and download our Call To Action Podcast app in the Apple App Store! Link is above.

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Don't miss an episode and download our Call To Action Podcast app in the Apple App Store! Link is above.

Keith here with a super quick one: No Code is Sacred Code. Sacred code oftentimes is the sign of an engineer with too much influence. Maybe it's even someone who other engineers feel uncomfortable sharing feelings with.

Sometimes sacred code is a sign of a serious technology deficit: areas of code, maybe they moved real quickly early on in the lifecycle of a product and have become disaster. Unspoken words, no engineer will touch it...

How do we resolve this? At Dimension Software, every Friday is a day where we sit back and reflect-- Retro --to visit technology debt. This allows us to incrementally eliminate tech debt so there's never a point in the future where so many engineers working on a single project are so overwhelmed with the amount of sacred code that it's difficult to make forward progress.

We address this Weekly, Incrementally and on Fridays. This process allows us to move forward with rapid pace. Everyone feels groovy about the code being written and lighter on their toes. Personal health, team collaboration-- everything increases in qualilty.

Definitely take strides to eliminate sacred code in your codebase. Engineering becomes so much smoother. Your team will thank you.

-Keith

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Don't miss an episode and download our Call To Action Podcast app in the Apple App Store! Link is above.

If you are thinking about setting up your own Shopify store, already have a beginner-level Shopify account, or if you are running a Shopify account as your full-time gig, this article will provide some helpful security tips that you can use to secure your business operations. Nothing is worse that waking up in the morning to find that your data has been stolen, your accounts have been taken over, or your funds have been cleaned out. At a higher level, we aren’t just talking about securing your Shopify store, we’re talking about securing your livelihood. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read) Version

4 Tips to Secure your Shopify Store

1. Secure all Accounts with Strong Passwords & Two-Factor Authentication
   • Shopify
   • Email Accounts
   • Bank Accounts
   • Website Logins
   • Social Media Accounts
2. Update Underlying Website & Apps
3. Data Backup & Retention
4. Physical Security
   • Computer Systems
   • Confidential Documents
   • Your Inventory

Securing All Accounts with Strong Passwords and 2FA

You will undoubtedly have quite a few accounts that will need to be secured against unauthorized access. In fact, you probably have more accounts to secure than you are currently aware of. Make a list of accounts that might be associated with your Shopify store. Aside from the Shopify account, you’ll have an email, bank or PayPal account, social media accounts, and a branded website login. Every account that is used in connection with your Shopify store should have a strong & unique password and should also have a secondary factor for authentication. Having a strong password means:

1. Your password is long (use a passphrase)

2. Your password is complex (include numbers, special characters, capitals, lowercase)

3. Your password is not easily guessed – Don’t use your favorite baseball team or travel destination

4. Your password is unique – don’t use the same password for any of your accounts

   After you have confirmed that you have a strong password on all of your accounts, you will need to ensure that you have a secondary factor (2FA) enabled for every account that will support it. Enabling 2FA will afford your accounts much-needed protection against criminals that often use publicly available website data dumps to access your email and web accounts. With 2FA, you’ll have the option to use App-based authentication, SMS, phone call, or hardware token.

Your Website, Apps and APIs

If you are using Shopify as your web storefront within your main website, you will need depend on Shopify to provide security services within their platform. But don’t forget, you will still have to ensure that you have adequate security associated with main website as well. If you are using WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, it is vitally important that you update the content management system (CMS) on a regular basis. There are a multitude of threats that could aid in the utter destruction of your website if you do not update your website and all of its components on a regular basis. Remote code execution, cross site scripting, and other vulnerabilities can get your business into trouble pretty fast if the right (or wrong) person decides to take aim at your website. Using all the tips in this article, along with updating your components that make up your Shopify store will prevent you from having to Google “My site got hacked, what do I do?”

Backup, Recovery, & Data Retention

The technology that you have selected to utilize in your business operations is not guaranteed to work without a bump in the road from time to time. In the event that an individual component in your tech stack becomes unstable, comes offline, becomes inoperable, you will want to recover from that event as quickly as possible. Downtime will be translated to a decrease in revenue, which will undoubtedly get in the way of your worldwide Shopify store domination plans! Schedule a regular back up your website configurations, mobile devices, and laptops on a regular basis. In case you have a total technology-related meltdown, having a current backup will ease your recovery efforts. A bit of planning from a disaster recovery standpoint will go a long way. Consider storing your backups in a cloud repository like Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive. If you’d rather back up your data locally, use an external hard drive that is only connected to systems during the data backup process. If you leave your external hard drive connected to your computer or laptop, your backup will be toast if you are hit with ransomware.

Physical Security

Physical security is another topic that you must take into consideration when you are running a Shopify store. You will need to tally the physical assets and inventory, then you should identify any security precautions that should be taken to secure your identified assets and inventory. Remember, you should secure your inventory in-line with the value of the inventory. Avoid putting a $1000 lock on a $100 bicycle!

Inventory – Where is the inventory stored? How is your inventory being delivered? Are you tracking your inventory? Is your inventory vulnerable? Could someone just walk into your garage or onto your porch and steal your inventory? Is it locked away? Do you have/need CCTV? Do you have/need an alarm system? If your annual revenue is $5,000 or less you probably won’t have the capital to invest in a robust security system, but as your business grows, you will want to do everything you can to protect your investment.

Laptops – Are your laptops vulnerable to theft? Keep your laptops secured at all times. Do not store laptops in places that they might be stolen. Criminals often liberate laptops from their rightful owners when they are being stored in a personal automobile or when an individual is traveling. Avoid the following situations:

• Storing in the underbody compartment of a bus
• Storing in the trunk of a taxi
• Storing in an Airplane seat front pocket
• Storing under the seat or in the trunk of your car
• Bringing laptop to restaurants and social gatherings

Bonus Tip

Hire a Consultant

If you have achieved a significant amount of revenue from your Shopify store, you should consider hiring a security consultant on a contract basis. The security consultant will examine the technology that you utilize, the business processes that are in place, and will recommend specific security controls that will reduce your information security risk profile. For a small business making less than $100,000 a year in revenue, a one to two-day engagement should be sufficient.

--

Connect with Quincey Collins

Chief Security Officer Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

He is currently the founder and CEO of Famous, a design software platform that allows the average Joe to create stunning mobile, tablet and website experiences without any code.

Aside from being a superior talent scout and having an innate ability to build high-functioning teams, his career has revolved around bridging the way people experience software and simplifying business models into one platform. He has grit, bold visions to change the world and the skills to pull it off.

And as it is written in scripture that upon the 7th day, God asked one man to re-design Silicon Valley into the Famous city that it is now by hand, one iteration at a time.

This man is our next guest, please welcome Steve Newcomb.

How-NOT-to Set Up Your Camera for Podcasting

First mistake was recording RAW to my Memory Card

30 minutes before our first Call To Action Podcast interview, that we were also recording on my Sony a6300 4K for our YouTubechannel, the memory card took a dump on me. To say the least, I was sweating profusely and extremely nervous at this point. Our guest was 15 minutes from arriving to the office and I felt as if I had already blown my podcasting career. I know dramatic, but Ben (that's me) was off to a bad start.

Luckily my co-host, Keith, who is also my business partner and an award winning software engineer, had a last second idea. He literally hacked my memory card and within 2 minutes we were back in business. Not 5 minutes later our guest showed up and although the interview went really well, the video only captured 60% of it...

I needed a better solution.

How-TO Set Up a Sony Camera for Direct Capture to Your Laptop

I asked myself later than night probably the same questions you are having right now like:

*"How can I record my Sony camera directly to my computer?"* 

*"How do I get more than 30 minutes of recording out of my Sony a6300?" *

*"What free software programs can I use to direct capture from the camera to my laptop?" * 

Don't you worry, I hit the interweazle hard and here's an all inclusive Step-by-Step guide on how to correctly set up your Sony a6300 camera for success. It's not difficult and should only take you 30 minutes or less.

Step 1: Maximize Your Sony's Record Time

The Sony a6300 4K, as many of the other Sony cameras, are great for photography and for short-form content creation under 25-30 minutes. Anything past that 30 minute limit and the Sony starts to overheat and has an automatic shut-off feature to protect the integrity of the internal hardware. This is really frustrating when you want to record a podcast or live-stream.

I found a way to unlock your Sony's default settings to allow me to record my hour and a half to two hour podcast recordings. That1CameraGuy has a surprisingly easy step-by-step process to unlocking the record limit. As I had to do, you will need to install an app onto the camera called OpenMemories Tweak and follow his easy guide. Then come on back here and we'll get you set up for your live stream or podcasting recordings to your camera.

Side note, his website says unlimited record time, but I've tested this many times and I've only been able to get 1.5 hours straight at 1080p and about 35 minutes at 4K before it stops because of overheating. So far what we’ve been able to do is take a 30 second break, restart the recording and can get another 30-45 minutes of recording before it overheats again. #nbd

Quick Overheating Tip: leave all of the doors and latches open on the camera to allow as much heat to escape and act as natural cooling. This would include the battery door, the digital screen pulled out away from the camera body, the flash component up and the charging/HDMI port door open (although this will already need to be open for your cables).

Step 2: Camera Settings For Long Podcasting or Live Streaming

Now that you have unlocked your camera for long record times, you need to set the camera's settings for the best video quality.

If you are going to upload to YouTube, it only accepts standard 1080p quality videos so here are the maximum quality settings. There is a way 'apparently' to get around this, but I haven't tried it. Here’s the Call To Action Podcast settings:

Go to Menu button > Camera Icon > 2 > File Format and set to XAVC S HD >

then right below is the Record Setting > Set to 30p 50M (1080p at 30p is sufficient for a standstill podcast or live stream - this stands for Progressive and represents the number of frames per second - at 50M, which is the bitrate and essentially is they quality that your camera is capturing and storing your video. The higher the bitrate, the higher quality video. You could go lower to 24p 50M, but Call To Action is all about effective premium experience!)

If you are recording for YouTube, you’ll also want to switch the aspect ratio:

Go to Menu button > Camera Icon > 1 > Aspect Ratio 16:9

Step 3: Connect Sony a6300 4K Camera for Direct Capture to Laptop

Direct capture is wonderful for saving storage to your laptop rather than a hard drive. It’s more reliable and the better choice for podcasting and live-streaming. You are going to need a few pieces of hardware.

  1. We use a Magewell to USB Capture Dongle ($299) - the Magewell is a vital component to getting the video onto your laptop computer. Th video signal needs to be converted to a format acceptable to your laptop. There are cheaper options like the Elgato Cam Link ($110), but we use a much higher quality Dongle
  2. ‘Micro’ (NOT ‘Mini’) HDMI to full HDMI cable that will run from the Magewell to your Sony camera
  3. MacBook Pro (or whatever laptop you’ll be using)

Optional Hardware for the Professional Look

  1. Zomei Tripod Q555 ($65)
  2. Gobe Neutral Density Filter ($53)
  3. Neewer 660 2- Pack LED Panel Lights ($158)

__Optional Audio Equipment for Professional Sound __ (we will be posting a blog on audio engineering for podcasting or live streaming like a pro)

  1. Rode Anniversary Condenser Microphone ($212)
  2. Blue Compass Boom Arm ($99)
  3. Behringer Audio Interface 4 Channel ($135) - even if you have one host and one guest, just get the 4 channel ‘incase’ you get a third or forth person. 

Simply connect the Micro HDMI into the Sony a6300, the full HDMI side into the Magewell Dongle, the USB that comes with the Magewell from the Dongle to your computer (if you have a new MacBook with a USB C - thanks Tim Cook - you’ll need to but USB 3 to USB C converters for $3), and this leads to the last step…

Step 4: Quicktime or Skype To Video Capture

Now that you have your camera connected, turned on and ready for recording the final step is to use the free software you already have on you MacBook Pro, Air, etc. All you need to do is open Quicktime or Skype:

Go to File > New Movie Recording >

Then click the arrow to the right of the ‘Red Record’ button and set Camera to the HDMI Capture, which is your Sony a6300 input and you’re good to go!

It is that easy. We are going to be posting a YouTube video with a step-by-step visual how to do all of this and will be uploading that soon. For now, you’re all set and if you have any questions, feel free to email us at hello@dimensionsoftware.com.

A little bit of technique and preparedness goes a long way. I've made all of these mistakes so you don't have to.

Happy Podcasting!

Drum roll please...

He is a brand strategist, an award-winning designer, an expert in user experience. He is the Chief Operating Officer of The Future, an educational platform where creative professionals learn business principles, and the Digital Creative Director at Blind, a brand strategy design consultancy.

Nike, EA, Google, Snapchat, X-Box, Sony, Riot Games, Honda, NFL, MLB, Audi, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, Wells Fargo, AMC, TBS, The Olympic Team USA, Laika, and Hyatt are just a few of their clients…

It’s no wonder why he’s a top social media influencer, co-host of a major YouTube channel and Father of the year because aside from his proven leadership, major successes, and pissing creative excellence day-in and day-out, The Dude from the Big Labowski, Gandalf, Abraham Lincoln nor James Harden have SHIT on this glorious beard.

Please welcome our guest to the show, Mr. Ben Burns.

Drum roll please...

She is crowned the Godmother of Silicon Beach. An Entrepreneur and a 3 time founder. She’s a highly sought after transformational and mindset coach, an Expert Speaker with US State Department. She’s worked with over 4000 Entrepreneurs and over 700 startups. Named by Inc Magazine as ‘one of thirty “Inspirational Women in Tech” and was featured with, LinkedIn on International Women’s Day this year in 2019 and with Delta Sky Magazine.

Her career as an entrepreneur has revolved around breaking down barriers and rebuilding people into BADASSES and is why she is such a sought after speaker and profound Executive Transformation Coach.

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, she’s a single mother of twin boys. And as legend has it, she turned down the role to star in the movie Wonder Woman because human optimization takes no days off.

My name is Ben and my co-pilot is Keith. We lead a tight-knit software engineer and design firm in sunny Santa Monica, CA.

Join the Call To Action Family weekly as we dive in deep with our guests, which will range from leaders in Tech, Sports, Entertainment and everything in between to give you, the listeners, a real and raw perspective on what drives human’s to success. We will not hold back on this podcast and everything is game. We are not PC Warriors nor do we condemn the occasional F*%k bomb.

So SMASH that subscribe button and get pumped-up with these incredible people who heard the call.... Now, it's your turn.

Ben and Keith set the tone for what's to come on our new podcast, Call To Action! Look for new CTAP episodes every week and follow us on all major podcast platforms, the YouTube Channel and on our website:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjMd7aCtMkwOFeo9mNYZZPw

Installation problems can prevent your Shopify app from being accepted into the Shopify app store, and the turnaround between the time you submit and the time you get a response can take many days. Furthermore, if you go through more than 3 iterations with them, they make you wait a month before you can submit the app again. It's frustrating and time consuming, and you don't want to go through that.

Learn from our mistakes, and save yourself a lot of time.

Using the correct Shopify App URL

When you configure your app, there's an input field that asks for your app's URL. If you have built a public landing page for your app, you might be tempted to put the URL for that there. Unfortunately, that would be wrong.

What's not immediately obvious is that this has to be the URL that accepts the POST request that initiates the installation sequence. If you use @shopify/koa-shopify-auth, the URL typically ends with /shopify/auth.

TODO: Add screenshot

Working around a bug in koa-shopify-auth

Even if you get that right, you might be thwarted by something more insidious if you happen to be using @shopify/koa-shopify-auth. It has a bug that makes it fail on the first installation attempt, but it'll be fine on every subsequent attempt thereafter. The QA people will only try once, though, and that failure is an automatic rejection.

We have submitted a pull request to get this fixed, but in the meanwhile, you can use our forked version to get a version that has this bug fixed.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@dimensionsoftware/koa-shopify-auth

For the curious, koa-shopify-auth has a route that tests to see if your browser supports cookies. If it does, it redirects to window.shopOrigin + "/admin/apps/" + window.apiKey which is your app's URL within the Shopify admin. Unfortunately, before the first install, that URL is invalid. Instead, our fork redirects to https://${host}/${inlineOAuthPath}?${queryString} which goes back to your app's koa-shopify-auth routes and continues the OAuth sequence as intended.

This was really hard to find, because we couldn't even replicate the error until we cleared our cookies and tried an app installation. It also felt unjust to be penalized for a bug in Shopify's own software, but life is like that sometimes. We fixed it and resubmitted.

Automating Setup

After their QA team was able to install the app on the first try, they had a long list of complaints about our app. One of those complaints was related to installation.

4. The primary method of installation needs to be automated and cannot require manual processes. Manual instructions should be included as a backup but the primary method needs to be automated. With proper documentation, merchants should be able to install and set up apps on their own.

We were faced with a tough dilemna. In the interest of not making destructive and potentially fragile changes to a theme, we intentionally chose to not modify a shop's theme during app installation. What now?

Our app, Passwordless Social Login was intended to provide a dialog box for logging in to a store. To set it up, we wanted store owners to add one CSS class to their theme. It's seriously a one-line change, but there's no safe way to programmatically make that change in a way that would work for all themes out there. Therefore, we still refuse to make theme edits, because we refuse to break a store's theme.

What we chose to do instead was hijack some content on the /account/login page via JavaScript and replace the stock login dialog with our own dialog. This will also not work for every store, but it will work for a lot of stores, and it won't break a store's theme by doing fragile and error-prone text editing. It's not ideal, but it seemed like the best course of action under the circumstances.

TODO: Add screenshot

Going through this approval process has taken months, and we're still not done. Honestly, it sucks, but you don't have to go through this pain if you learn from our mistakes.