"If you put no effort into your stuff, like if you're really not contributing any value to whatever community you're in--you have crappy packaging, crappy products, crappy support--you're not going to get anywhere. So you have to make yourself stand out." - Nat Arem of Hookgrip Here at EcomCrew we put emphasis into how important it is to build a brand and not just sell a bunch of products. It's fine if you're just starting, but building your brand needs to be a part of your long-term strategy. Having a brand makes it easier to move off of Amazon if you decide to, or if, God forbid, Amazon suspends your account. Having a brand also makes it easier to establish a following of loyal customers. Today's guest, Nat Arem of Hookgrip, talks about how he built a brand around in a niche that is full of die-hard followers: CrossFit and weightlifting. Nat has been a friend of mine for 10 years now and has been around when I was still neck-deep in the online poker world. We both got out of that and went separate ways but surprisingly both found ourselves in ecommerce. In this episode Nat and I talk about our online poker days and how he turned his passion--weightlifting--into a solid brand with a loyal fanbase. Conversation points: The time we were living in Costa Rica doing online poker Why we both left the online poker business How photography became a big part of his business How Hookgrip started and how he developed a loyal fanbase What makes a good brand How his passion turned into a profitable business Resources mentioned: Stamped.io AsiaInspection Under The Hood Hookgrip</a