Leighton started his first ecommerce business on Etsy while teaching English in China, then found Shopify in 2012 and turned freelance work into Envision. He ran the Shopify agency from Mexico, Ecuador, and Southeast Asia, then sold the house in 2020 and spent five and a half years working from a sailboat.

Patrick and Leighton dig into all of it, plus the hiring mistakes, QA systems, and priority questions that came with growing a Shopify agency remotely.

Links Mentioned

• Tropical MBA Podcast: https://tropicalmba.com/
• Dynamite Circle: https://dynamitecircle.com/
• Upwork (formerly oDesk): https://www.upwork.com/
• Notion: https://www.notion.com/
• The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060833459
• Leighton's weekly planning questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIWzT0jesjhDvOLUpdMlLrD8lhgCEbrj31cl9jv1B_g/edit?usp=sharing

Watch This Episode on YouTube

• https://youtu.be/jCofHzKUavQ

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:48 Two Years Teaching in China
• 1:26 Wedding Invitations on Etsy
• 4:29 Discovering Shopify in 2012
• 6:13 Landing First Clients on Upwork
• 7:47 Why the Name Envision
• 9:32 Going Nomad: Mexico to Asia
• 12:00 Hiring Contractors and Scaling Pain
• 15:10 Documenting Systems and QA
• 20:47 Perfectionism or High Standards?
• 21:47 The Highest Leverage Task
• 24:27 The Monday Planning Ritual
• 28:46 Client Unit Economics and NCCM3
• 31:17 Becoming a Business Advisor
• 35:09 From Nursing School to a Sailboat
• 36:33 A Home Base in Florida
• 38:06 Wrapping Up

Book a Call

• Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call
• Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast

Work with Us

• Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/
• Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io

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