How to Scale your Affiliate Program with Michael Yewdell

We sat down with Michael Yewdell, Co-Founder of Campus Protein and BEAM Be Amazing. We learn about his journey and best practices on how he created affiliate programs for both Campus Protein and BEAM, which offers its own line of health/ fitness supplements, controlling the process, from farm to shaker.

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Meet Michael:

Michael Yewdell, Co- Founder of Campus Protein & BEAM Be Amazing – Michael has been an entrepreneur for the past 10 years building his legacy business Campus Protein along with his newest brand BEAM: Be Amazing.

The brand BEAM is based off of his battle with a rare form of cancer back in 2017. He failed 4 chemotherapies and ending up having to switch hospitals to try a rare form of chemotherapy that ended up saving his life.

BEAM has an incredible story, but the products and our impact is where we truly differentiate ourselves. BEAM controls 100% of the production process from sourcing the ingredients, to formulating, to flavoring, and manufacturing its product in-house. This allows us to put 100% of our resources into the product, but it does not stop there. Quality to us is of the utmost importance so we do in-house allergen, metal, and efficacy testing along with 3rd party testing.

BEAM has also been able to use its platform to raise close to $500,000 towards cancer research, plant 1000s of trees, gift 1000s of free hours of therapy, and contribute to so many other initiatives in just 2 years of business.

The past is where we gained perspective on making the present amazing and our future even better.

Highlights

• 1:58 – Mike shares how building BEAM Be Amazing has been one of the most interesting projects he’s been a part of
• 2:09 – The key ingredients of a successful affiliate program are discussed
• 2:44 – Mike shares some differences between community and affiliate programs
• 3:27 – Mike tells us his way on evaluating affiliate models
• 4:24 – BEAM’s story and mission are shared
• 5:37 – Mike tells us how he became interested in building a philanthropic affiliate program for BEAM Be Amazing
• 7:10 – Mike shares on surprising takeaways from his career.
• 7:40 – Mike suggests building the program brick by brick and don’t expect to hit a home run on your first go at an affiliate program. You’ll be able to refine along the way.

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Read the Full Transcript

Michael Yewdell (00:00):
Thank you so much for having me. My name is Mike Yewdell. I am the co-founder and owner of both campusprotein.com, which I started 10 years ago, and then also BEAM: Be Amazing Which I started March 4th, 10 days before COVID of last year. I’m so excited to be talking with you today and, and really discussing what makes BEAM and Campus Protein special through affiliate marketing.

Grace Portillo (00:22):
How did you end up where you are today?

Michael Yewdell (00:24):
Funny story. So I went to Indiana University and I was on track to go to the business school until this one class called Calculus came in front of me and didn’t do very well. I ended up switching my major from business to fashion, obsessed with fashion and the industry, and ended up realizing that there was an opportunity during my college years to sell supplements to my fraternity brothers. This then turned into the company now Campus Protein, where we provide an, ultimately give an incredible experience to college students throughout the country who are into fitness and a healthy lifestyle.

Grace Portillo (01:06):
Wonderful. What a great idea. What are some of the most interesting projects you’ve been a part of over the last couple years?

Michael Yewdell (01:14):
So a course, over the course of my career, I would say starting the affiliate program for Campus Protein was probably the most interesting project. I had no idea what I was doing. There was a local, now national, now probably the biggest energy drink company out there where I just applied to the affiliate program to learn more about it. Ended up seeing some really successful key aspects to it and then adding my own version to it, starting it with Campus Protein. But more specifically, I would say the most exciting projects that I’ve been a part of recently was with the, the new brand being the amazing, building a brand and, and, and launching new products has been ultimately the most rewarding experience.

Grace Portillo (02:02):
That’s wonderful. What do you think are some of the key ingredients for a successful affiliate program?

Michael Yewdell (02:08):
I think the key ingredient is community. so I think there needs to be a personal touch to everything that you do. There needs to be a reason and a connection to everything you do, whether it’s the story, whether it’s the result but building a family or a community with connection with relationships needs to be, needs to be in affiliate marketing in, in, in everything that you do.

Grace Portillo (02:32):
What are some of the differences between both of these that we’ve mentioned, community and affiliate?

Michael Yewdell (02:38):
Programs? So, so community is really building that like, team rah, rah spirit. You’re doing this together. and the relationship aspect of it is that one-on-one. So who’s ever you’re leader in affiliate marketing, who’s ever running the show needs to have a connection to, to the individuals that are building this brand with you. So there’s a macro and a micro with everything that you do, whether it’s the influencer themselves or the way that you approach the program. And I think from a macro perspective, you’re doing this as a team, but from a micro perspective, each individual brings their own role and their own value. And whether it’s a content creator or it’s a sales superstar, you need to understand that relationship and nurture it to, to maximize and optimize it.

Grace Portillo (03:22):
Totally. But what are some ways though, to evaluate affiliate models?

Michael Yewdell (03:28):
So I personally use the, the platform Dovetail. I think that it is an incredible platform to use the, I think it’s called Discover actually. I use that to, to look at analytics. And analytics is not the whole picture. You could look at at someone that looks perfect on paper through this platform, and they could be a total dud. understanding what your brand is understanding the influencer that you’re looking at and, and seeing if there’s a true connection there could be the ultimate, like key that unlocks that success. So know your demo know what’s successful, copy that in terms of data and understand certain, I guess attributes that aren’t on paper. And, and, and make sure that you know that that influencer affiliate will be able to bring that value to your company.

Grace Portillo (04:18):
Makes sense. Tell us a bit more about BEAM and its mission.

Michael Yewdell (04:23):
All right. So BEAM and its mission actually started in 2017 with me personally. So to start a brand new supplement company, I, I looked at the industry, I saw a lot of flaws in the industry, things that I wanted to correct, so I set out to start a brand. unfortunately six months into that process I developed a cough, which I eventually ended up being diagnosed as cancer. I was in chemotherapy by the end of July, early August. And that fight that was supposed to take six months ended up taking two more years. And I ended up having to go through three more chemos, two clinical trials, switching hospitals and trying a rare radiation followed by chemotherapy, followed by a stem cell transplant which went on to save my life. I’m now two years in remission done with scans and the name of that chemotherapy is Beam Be amazing.

(05:19):
So that is the d n a, that is the mission of, of this brand is, is our story. our products, like I said earlier, our products are set out to right the wrongs in the industry. Our third pillar is philanthropy. So we like to give back and we like to make this world a better place than when we started. And we started with a $275,000 donation to cancer research before we even started the company. We planted over a thousand trees on Earth Day. the BLM movement, we, we took a, a large stance in the Australian Fires, covid relief toys for Tots. The, the list goes on and on. So we’re extremely philanthropic there. So tying this to affiliate marketing we give our story and our mission purpose. So when you are part of this brand, you feel like you’re making a difference.

(06:14):
You feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself, and then you’re also, obviously that middle pillar is products. You’re also making sales and making commission as well. So it’s a really full experience when you become an affiliate or influencer for BEAM. BEAM offers workout supplements from whey protein to vegan protein. We also offer Super Greens, which is a healthy supplement for overall general health. We offer collagen, which is a beauty supplement hair, skin, and nails. and then we all also offer like sports nutrition, which is like pre-workout powder and, and new products every, pretty much every month. we’re growing so fast, which is so exciting. So we actually are introducing a new product in the next few weeks. So BEAM has been an incredible story starting 10 days before Covid and every day, every month is just getting more and more exciting.

(07:09):
I thought I understood what made influencers great, what made influencers bad. I thought I knew that if I had the right data, I would be able to make the right decisions. Data helps make decisions, but it’s not the ultimate deciding factor. And I think that when it comes to understanding your brand, nobody’s gonna understand your brand better than you. So being able to pair the data with your understanding of the brand will ultimately make your affiliate marketing program the most successful it possibly could be. I would suggest brick by brick. you are not going to hit a home run with your first influencer. Most likely you’re gonna mess up a lot. So understand that it’s a process, it’s a filter. And when you understand the what makes it successful versus what doesn’t, you will be able to replicate that and build on top of that. And, and being able to partner or pair macros with micros, with different influencers from different segments. Beauty whatever it me means to your brand, you will be able to build a program brick by brick. So it’s a process. Thank you so much for having me.