12/10/25

Episode Summary

🎙️ What the episode is about

• The episode is actually the host — Scott Austin of JadePuma — being interviewed on another podcast, where he reflects on running a Shopify-focused agency, his career journey, and what it takes to build a sustainable ecommerce business.
• Scott describes how JadePuma serves mostly smaller or early-stage Shopify stores — founders and small teams, rather than big brands. He emphasizes his preference to work directly with decision-makers.

🔎 Key Themes & Lessons

• Running a Shopify-only agency — Scott explains why he chose to focus exclusively on Shopify (vs. other platforms or marketplaces): because Shopify offers flexibility, control over your storefront, and strong infrastructure.
• Consistency and work ethic over “overnight success” — He warns against the “get-rich-quick” narratives. According to Scott, building a successful ecommerce business — or agency — takes persistent effort, long hours, and gradual progression.
• The hardest part is often customer acquisition and growth scaling — Scott says that while product creation or building the website/platform may seem hard, finding customers (and then retaining them) is the real, ongoing challenge.
• One flexible theme + repeatable processes = scalability across niches — He claims that using a single well-known theme (in his case a “Flex” theme) and mastering it lets him quickly deploy stores across various industries, without needing different themes for each niche.
• Growth comes from cumulative daily effort, not shortcuts — He shares a real client example whose revenue multiplied ~20× over a few years. The key: sticking with a plan, iterating consistently — even when progress seems slow — instead of chasing quick wins or marketing hype.

✅ Main Takeaway

Scott’s core message: building a Shopify-based business (or agency) is “hard work.” It’s not glamorous or immediate success. It requires discipline, consistency, honest effort over the long haul. There are no shortcuts — but with steady execution, small wins compound over time.

Show Links

- Badgezilla: https://apps.shopify.com/badgezilla

Transcript & Video

https://jadepuma.com/blogs/the-shopify-solutions-podcast/episode-174-this-shopify-stuff-is-hard-work