leetch. good morning. coming up on "your business," how do entrepreneurs from other countries break into the american market? we tag along to see what we can learn from their successful strategies. the high flying ceo of the go-pro camera company tells business owners to be competitive and look towards the future. that, plus how to get inside of your customer's head. it's all coming up next on "your business."

hi, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg, and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. anyone who's ever tried it knows that bringing a product to the american marketplace is an unforgiving obstacle course of crazy details that make it extremely difficult to succeed. that's why we were so excited to meet these entrepreneurs who despite coming from as fares wad their products from niemen marcus to target. how did they do it? we caught up with a few of them

to find out. >> this wool and copper wire pillow was hand woven by artisans in el salvador. these horn inlaid vases were crafted by woodworkers outsi outsideporta prince, haiti. this was made by a tribe in tanzania. the artisans who made these items do not shop at pottery barn. they live nowhere near a pace's, and get no e-mail promotions from walmart. yet many of their products are available at those stores and others all across the usa. >> you want to sell their products. they're here to sell, sell, sell. >> and karen gibbs is here to help, help, help. >> you think this is one of the products that's attracted the most attention? >> this one. this is what people come in for because of the color. >> karen's the head of boulder, colorado, based by-hand consulting and a 20-plus year

veteran of the home industry. >> so tell me, what's doing well? >> the sleeping animals have been very popular. >> this week, she's at the new york now gift trade show, advising these entrepreneurs from these distant outposts. >> this is a really international and intensely competitive environment. >> keith is founder of hand-eye magazine, also a well known agent in the home furnishings industry. keith knows many of the hundreds of buyers prowling through here from places like crate and barrel, bloomingdale's and target, as well as smaller independent boutiques and he has a pretty good idea of what will catch their eye. >> and the fiber itself, that's hand spun wool? >> yeah, this is sheep wool. >> really an obvious draw into the booth. >> we wanted to know, how do these entrepreneurs do it, connect with buyers here and make sales at one of the most competitive markets on earth.

>> and then i think also the black with the gray. >> what do they understand about american retail that even many of us who live and work here don't know. keith says much of it boils down to three key decision points. >> first point is the product itself. does the product draw me into the booth with its visual attributes, with some sense of quality, with some sense of originality, with some sense of freshness? >> the first thing many of these regional entrepreneurs understand is the importance of researching the american market. >> what have people done before? what is coming? what is popular in the fashion world? >> one thing that really helps is magazines, is the internet itself, going on social media. >> some of the best information also comes directly from the buyers themselves. >> watch what they touch. listen to the questions they ask. watch their body language when they see certain products. >> we have to be able to listen

to ask questions, and be humble, because criticism is always constructive. >> karen says there's something else you can learn from the buyers. the buyers who don't stop at your booth. >> look at your customer list. what kind of customers are you attracting. is that the kind of customer you want to have? if not, how do you need to adapt your product collection to sell more to that customer that's coming into your booth. >> while you must have a great product, a great product alone isn't enough to seal the deal. according to keith and karen, if the price isn't right, the product won't sell. >> i asked about which will be your perfect price point. what would work for you. and i can adjust my designs to achieve that price point. for example, sometimes just adding another material or resizing it, i can achieve what the buyer wants. >> she's figured out how to

design and produce a product that meets a target price point that buyers will accept. >> once the basics are covered, then comes the emotional connection. that magical information about the product or the maker or the culture that gives the item its extra special identity. >> you can talk about all the value that exists behind the product. who's employed, what good does that income do to the people who are employed, is there some interesting traditional detail about the product itself. >> most people know they're from malawi? >> no, it's the product that attracts them, 100%, but when they hear the story, they engage in it more. >> it's always the product that has to draw them in. >> this pillow is decorated with a special kind of knot that's usually used for making hammocks, and this jewelry was woven from recycled copper wire, taken from demissioned electric mirrors. >> that story does not trump a

beautiful product at the right price, mind you, but it's the third component in selling. somebody who can incorporate that into how they sell their product are the ones that are really setting themselves apart. >> while a good story won't sell a weak product, these regional entrepreneurs are learning that an engaging story can turn an eye-catching product at a fair price into a love affair. but wait, there's one more thing. even an irresistible product at a great price with a wonderful story still won't sell, according to karen and keith, without a solid answer to one last buyer question. >> will i get my questions answered. will you be in dialogue with me through this whole process? >> unless the buyer is confident the seller can deliver the merchandise on time, in good condition, and packaged to meet industry standards, the deal may die. >> they know that they have to have a well designed product at

a competitive price that's delivered on time with good quality. and they understand what each of those means. >> gopro ceo nick woodsman helped revolutionize the way people see the world around them by creating a durable camera that can strap to your body. the company has now sold more than 21 million cameras making it the most popular camera of all time. he shares his business advice on being innovative and forward thinking with willie geist. >> whether swimming with whales in the deep blue sea, flying above the great wall of china, or capturing moments of family history. gopro has revolutionized the way we see the world. >> this is awesome. >> and the man behind the camera is ceo nick woodsman. before gopro, you and i couldn't have self-documented our float

down the river. we could have maybe gotten a friend to stand on the shore or on the bridge and film us as we go by. but it would have been impossible for us to capture that experience and take it home and share it with our friends and family. >> over the last decade, the ubiquitous gopro camera has turned us into amateur film directors. now with modern platforms to share our movies with the world. >> the nexus of your invention and the proliferation of social media, as you say, was pretty fortuitous. >> youtube and facebook and now instagram and others has just created this perfect storm, timing that has helped make gopro what it is today. >> since its debut in 2004, gopro has sold more than 21 million camera, making it the best-selling camera of all time. in 2014, gopro went public. almost overnight, woodsman became a billionaire. >> what was it like to be on the inside of that, you and your buddies watching all this happening, watching every ski

mountain in the world having people wearing your product, the thing you started sewing on your mother's sewing machine. >> it felt like and still feels like living in your own disney movie. now it's a gopro movie. >> aio had the same guys with you since high school, since college. these are guy whose have been at gopro since before it was gopro. >> we talk about it all the time, how we used to drive the penske moving truck to the trade shows. we would stay up all night building the trade show booth and working 24/7/365 but how it wasn't really work because we were friends doing it together. >> an avid surfer, woodsman was in the ocean when he had a thought, wouldn't it be cool to have a video to record what he was seeing in the wave. he began to build his company. >> i made the first prototypes with my mom's sewing machine. the originalide wasn't even tyke maa camera, it was to make a wrist trap that you could mound other cameras into. the problem was i would end up

breaking the camera. so i realized, yikes, i'm not just going to have to build a strap system. i'm going to have to go and build a camera. and i don't know how to build a camera. that's one of the most amazing aspects of gopro's success to me, how we pulled it off. >> woodsman and his company headline the gopro mountain games in vail, colorado. >> so check this out. that's where a lot of the strength of the brand comes from. we're in the scene. >> was there a pop culture moment for you where gopro was there and you thought, wow? >> never gets old, man. when you see astronauts leave the space station on a space walk with a gopro, and that is the exact same device that a father is taking to the park to film, is the same exact device that olympian skier ted ligety is using, the same camera that

ridley scott is using to help film "the martian" the sam camera, the same camera, that's something we're proes proud of, how gopro has woven through people's lives. >> since going public two years ago, gopro's stock has taken a nose dive, falling some 90%. so what happened? >> we weren't ready for it, and it was still too difficult to access your content and edit it. we didn't have as appealing of a solution for the mass market global customer. >> as gopro struggled, competitors moved in. offering simpler, often cheaper alternatives like the polaroid cube and the htc re. but it's the phone enyour pocket that may pose the greatest threat to gopro. >> do you view the iphone as a competitor. >> there's cases where a smartphone is better. it's in your pocket, where

something is happenic i'm going to document that or i'm going to take a picture of this to show my wife. but if i want to do something new and i want to capture it myself doing something, the only way to do that is with a gopro. >> is it frustrating or difficult to have to think about stock price and to hear from investors and what's going on with the price right snnow? >> it's motivating. gopro is a public company, is so much more fun than as a private company. >> really? >> as a private company, i always felt like we were playing in the minor leagues. playing a great game, winning championships, but we were in the minor leagues. going public, now, we're in the majors. it's the show. the whole world is watching. >> watching to see if woodman can innovate his way back. >> 2016 is the biggest year for new product innovations ever in the history of gopro. >> gopro is rolling out virch well reality, drones, a new line of cameras and software to edit and produce videos more easily.

>> now you start chronicling and sharing your experience that way. >> all to make gopro the camera of choice, not just for extreme athletes but for the re of us, too. >> why does he need such a big camera? should we tell him he should just get a gopro? >> if you wanted to be successful, you have to concentrate not on what you think your customer needs but what they actually need. in order to do that effectively, our next guest says you have to remove your ego from the equation. ryan holiday is a media strategist, founder of brass check, a marketing agency that advised a variety of clients, including goo google. also the former director of marketing for american apparel and author of the latest book "ego is the enemy." so good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> so important, right? we're entrepreneurs. and we're doing that because we think we have an idea. >> yes. >> and we hear all the time that you have to listen to your customer. i think it's harder for people.

>> i think to make something where something didn't exist, that requires a little bit of ego, but that ego can also destroy the thing you made or undo the success you had. it's a balance. >> so you have to -- we talk about hiring people smarter than you, but it's more than that. hiring people smarter than you and listening to them. >> listening to them and people who are better or more successful than you. if you go way back, there's a philosopher who says one cannot learn that when they think they already know. if you think you're as smart as you know, you know everything, you're going to stop learning, stop getting the benefits out of your employees because you're going to think you know everything. >> you have to stop yourself. if you're in a conversation saying do this, do this, have a mental check and say sit back, relax, and let someone else talk. >> i can't tell you the number of meetings when i left and said i sucked all the air out of that room. i could have been learning from that person but i was talking. there's that saying, two ears, one moulth for a reason.

>> it's true. we all had that experience. let's move on to your next point. interesting. follow purpose not passion. >> i think passion is a huge buzz word. find your passion, be passionate. ancient history, passions were considered sins, bad things. when i look at some of the biggest business failures, if you look at the segway, he's so passionate about the product, but he can't see whether people actually want it or not. politics aside, george bush very passionate about the invasion of iraq, but he misses critical intelligence issues. i dethink you want to make sure your passion isn't blinding you to flaws or problems or other people's opinions or feedback. >> we talk about this here, too. passion isn't enough. >> you want purpose. >> it's great if you're passionate about it, too. that makes it more fun to wake up in the morning and go to work, but it is not the thing that brings in revenue. >> yeah, kareem abdul-jabbar

scribed john wooden in one word, passionate. >> it's about execution. >> you don't make a successful business with an idea. you make a successful business with an idea plus a lot of work. a ton of work. >> most ideas aren't new. someone else has thought of most ideas. >> yes, yes. and no one wants to hear necessarily about your idea. they want to see what you're going to do with that idea. that's true for investors, true for crustmers. i don't just want the promise. i want the proof you're going to make this real. >> which is why investors often say we invest in people, not ideas. they want to know if something is wrong and they'll turn, pivot to create something people actually do want. >> a person can have multiple ideas. just an idea is static. an investor knows if this idea doesn't work out, i trust this person to tweak that idea and come up with new ideas to make this a success. >> so nice to meet you. good luck with your boorb. i know you have another one

coming up soon. hopefully we'll have have you back to talk about that one. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> you can't make money without spending money, but those expenses, as we all know, can really add up. small biz trends.com gives us five ways you can save your small business some cash. one, buy office supplies in bulk. you can get better deals when you purchase in larger quantities. so plan out what you need and stock up. two, skip the landlines. with all the communication tools available, setting one up may be unnecessar unnecessary. consider using a voice over ip service. three, go paperless. save money on paper, ink, printers, and storage by avoiding hard copies. four, sign up for loyalty programs from sores you regularly frequent. racking up points and rewards will help you save money on those things your small business needs. and five, buy used equipment and furniture. you can check nearby second-hand

stores or sites like ebay and craigslist. you might come across some really great deals and bargains that will free up some capital for other investments. >> if you can believe it, the holidays are fast approaching, which means that it's going to be time to celebrate. today's elevator pitchers want you to have a good time and watch your calories with their zero calorie cocktail mix. let's see if our judges toast their product. ryan feit is ceo of seed invest, and denise is the ceo of brand and marketing company the s3 agency. >> do you know how many calories are in a margarita? it can be up to 800. >> i'm jen. >> i'm christina. >> that's why we created be mix. >> it's the first all natural and zero calorie cocktail mixer. as simple as one bottle with one shot of alcohol or a soda water and you have the perfect cocktail or mock tail.

>> as a type i diabetic i was never able to endulge in delicious cocktails because they're chalk full of sugar. with the rise this goes way bey just me. >> last quarter we doubled same store sales. now we're getting approached by big box retailers. we have significant press coverage and great social media engagements so we know our inventive brand is resonating with our customers. >> sold in convenient four packs for $11, and with margins of 60%, we're looking for $5 million to expand distribution. join us in leading the clean drinking movement in the $2 billion plus premium cocktail mixer market and buy us online at be-mix.com. >> you have that down. who gets each part. nice job. this is for you two. denise, you're an old hat at this. two numbers. one to ten. first number is what do you think of the product, and then the second one is what do you

think of the pitch. okay. let's start with you, denise. >> i'm going high 9s on both. i think the product was delicious. that cucumber flavor is really nice. it feels very natural like someone had a few slices floating in there. that's unexpected. i haven't had that from a drink mix before. and i thought the pitch was really nice. it has been practiced, there is a lot of good to come of that. a little more i would like to hear. i hear doubling store sales, but i would like to know how many are there, one store last year and two stores this year, that's not going to be enough for me. >> we always talk about telling your traction, right. that's what investors want to know. you did a good job by mentioning all the stores you're in. >> so i was not as nice, but i'm always pretty critical. i had 7 for product. i thought it was delicious. i would actually -- i would replace a vodka soda with that. so great job with the product. the thing that i guess i have a question about is, a, is it different enough from things

like skinny girl and, b, is it defensible versus coke or pepsi or diaggio who might follow your lead. you have to build your brand. on the pitch, it was terrific. i like how you talked about your traction up front and explained the problem. the thing that was missing is i would straight out say, we are like skinny girl, but x, and talk more about who else is in the market and how you're different. i felt like that was missing, but overall great job. >> thank you. great feedback. good luck with everything. you had great success so far. i wish you the best of luck going forward and that you have more. >> thank you. >> you two stick around, you're coming back on the set with me in a moment. if any of you have a product or a service and you want feedback, like you just saw from our elevator pitch panel, on your chances of getting interested investors, send us an e-mail, yourbusiness@msnbc.com. your company does. we love reading the pitches and

we look feorward to seeing some of you on the show. when we come back, how to grow your company without losing your soul. and one of the most important people you should be pitching to, your grandmother. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com.

as a small company, how do you go about scaling up and away that is manageable, but also allows you to not lose traction with your brand? >> this is one of the hottest things that you have to do as a small business owner is scaling up manageably but also keeping touch with your brand. the first thing i would say here is getting really clear on what your brand means, and not only from a values and culture sta standpoi standpoint, but actually embedded into your process as you scale. you'll be adding people, you'll be adding quickly. you may not be able to touch all of the pieces of your business as you scale, so you need to embed what you mean exactly into how you get things done. for example, if you believe that your customer centric, note down exactly what that means in terms of how everyone needs to deal with your customers, don't leave it to chance or to the individual discretion of people because that's where things start to get disconnected and

you can lose touch with your brand very, very quickly. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help your small business grow. ryan and denise have joined us once again. hi there. back on the set. okay. denise, one tip. >> giving back is a big thing these days with companies which i love. it says great things about what is going on in our nation, which is nice to hear. but, you know there are ways we can give back better that are more unique to our organizations and part of our dna. one way is to find a kind of common cause that we can all rally around. so if someone in your organization is sick, i know a law firm that had a lawyer who had leukemia, everyone got together, they did a huge walk, all wore t-shirts, had families involved and made that person and their family feel like family. that can be something very special about working at a small business. >> you know what is interesting, a lot of times when companies talk about giving back, they talk about csr and talk about consumer face and giving back. but really, giving back is just

as if not more important for your employees. >> it is. >> makes them feel happy about working some place and part of a family as you said. >> absolutely. you can go to the other extreme, what we have done, you know, the name of our company is s-3, we started s-free and largely in part because of the work we have done with you guys, marketing makeover for small businesses. our clients are big names so we don't get to work with small businesses but it has been so much fun, we feel like we made a difference for some of the people on the show, that we started something that allows people who are too small, or too new or too nonprofit to aplay f apply for our services and it is free. we just chose our first winner. whole agency rallies around and they vote on it. we're about to announce it so i can't tell you who it is. but it is inspiring, it is a great thing for us. it can be public facing because we'll tell the world what we're doing. >> i'm happy that we inspired that. that's nice to know. that's great, denise. >> ryan? >> my top tip is to try pitching

your grandmother when you're working on perfecting your investor pitch and i say that because you would be surprised how many entrepreneurs pitch an investor, talk for a few minutes and at the end of it, the investor has no idea what the company does. that's because entrepreneurs are subject matter experts and they get into the weeds when they talk about their business. and use jargon and unfortunately, if you pitch an investor, an investor doesn't know what you did at the end of it, guess what they're moving on to the next thing. you need to focus on simplifying your pitch as much as possible. and if you want to simplify your pitch as much as possible, pitch your friends and family and pitch your grandmother. i guarantee you if at the end of the pitch, she can recite back to you what your company does you're ready for the big leagues. >> it is the best advice. and, by the way, not just to investors, to everyone, we used to do something at my company and actually haven't done it in a while but we should, we had one person, scott, we said,

would scott's mother understand this. would scott's mother. we did a story a bunch of years ago who had something called zimple. if something started saying something too complicated, they would throw something at them and say that's too complicated. make it more simple. this week's your biz selfie comes from cassie rice who owns gym cats in henderson, nevada. they have been teaching kids gym and dance for years and many have gone on to the national championships. very impressive. thank you for sending that in, cassie. we love seeing your photos from around the country. take a moment. pick up your cell phone and take a selfie of you and your business. remember, no professional photos. and send it to your business at msnbc.com. use the #yourbisselfie.

thank you for joining us today. we would love to hear from you. if you have any questions or comments about the show, just e-mail us at your business@msnbc.com or head to our website, openforum.com/yourbusiness. we posted all the segments from today's show and a whole lot more. you can connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. we look forward to seeing you next time. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg, remember, we make your business our business. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order

or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. the trump meltdown. lashing out at his accusers. >> they're horrible, horrible liers. >> and facing questions of basic decency. >> the men in my life do not talk about women like this. >> with the final debate just three days away, how low will he go? how should clinton respond? >> when they go low, we go high. >> and why a republican leader still is standing by trump, the election just 23 days away. from rockefeller center in new york, this is "politicsnation" with al sharpton.