Podcasts about viral launch

In this insightful and engaging interview, Mayur sits down with Benjamin Guler from Evolve Lab, to delve into his professional journey and the innovative strides being made in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. The conversation begins with Ben sharing his transition from traditional architecture to a niche in BIM (Building Information Modeling) and coding, and how these skills coalesced to drive his decision to join Evolve Lab. The discussion highlights pivotal products developed by Evolve Lab, including their AI-powered plugin Veras, which leverages advanced technology to significantly enhance design processes. The interview then navigates through the challenges and opportunities in the AEC sector, particularly focusing on the integration of AI and the rapid advancements in computational design. Ben shares valuable insights on how Evolve Lab fosters a culture of experimentation and innovation, allowing the team to stay at the forefront of technological developments. The dialogue also explores the intricacies of product development, client relationships, and future trends in AEC tech. For anyone interested in the intersection of technology and architecture, this video offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration, illustrating how passion and cutting-edge tech can transform an industry. 01:59 - Ben's Background 04:21 - Evolving from Bim Manager to new role 06:55 - Rise of Bim Managers in Tech 09:01 - Joining Evolve Lab 11:07 - Evolve Lab's Service and Initial Steps 11:58 - Overview of Evolve Lab's Products 15:03 - Transitioning from Scripts to Production Apps 19:56 - Structuring Backend for Multiple Clients 21:56 - Gaining User Adoption for New Tools 25:16 - Simplifying UI for Machine Learning Models 28:16 - Vera's Viral Launch and Key Success Factors 31:12 - Competing Against Established Companies 35:02 - AI Innovation and Agility 39:56 - Handling AI Research Overflow 42:06 - Promoting AI Experimentation in Companies 44:24 - Building Client Relationships and Trust 48:02 - Final Thoughts and Excitement for AI in AEC 49:01 - Controversial Takes on AI in AEC 50:47 - Future Problems in AEC for Solving #BenjaminGuler #verasevolvelab #aiarchitectureplugin --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mayur-m-mistry/message

In the midst of meme stock craziness, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev shared his most eye-opening insights from running the company that transformed the game for retail investors. He talks about Robinhood's new Gold Card, his views on crypto, the media side, how artificial intelligence could change finance, and more. (00:00) Intro(03:27) The Origin of the Name 'Robinhood'(08:43) Navigating the GameStop and Meme Stock Saga(10:52) Rebuilding Trust and Brand Impact(19:10) Crisis Communication and Leadership Lessons(23:54) Industry Insights and Future of Trading(31:00) AI and Financial Services(33:34) Crypto and Regulatory Challenges(40:14) The Viral Launch of Robinhood(47:01) The Gold Card Launch and Customer Strategy(50:08) The Vision Behind Robinhood's Credit Card(53:50) Building vs. Buying: The X1 Acquisition(56:12) Integrating X1 into Robinhood(57:11) The GM Structure and Its Benefits(58:42) Challenges and Trade-offs of Decentralization(01:01:08) Financial Modeling and Customer Economics(01:04:48) Navigating Remote Work and Returning to the Office(01:09:14) Managing Stock Price Expectations(01:13:23) Hiring and Retaining Talent(01:17:11) Fundraising and Investor Relations(01:31:09) Launching Sherwood Media(01:38:56) Reflections and Future Aspirations Executive Producer: Rashad AssirProducer: Leah ClapperMixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

From the concealer everyone swears by to the best up & coming beauty brand & your favourite viral launch – this is the definitive need-to-know list in beauty. In this special episode, Lisa Potter-Dixon, Adeola Gboyega, Michaella Bolder & Georgia Day talk through the top products & brands in beauty; according to the 10,000 SheerLuxe readers who voted in the SheerLuxe Beauty Awards 2024. Sign Up to The FREE SheerLuxe Daily Email: https://sheerluxe.com/signupFollow Us On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheerluxe/?hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amazon Seller Roundtable -Strategies For Inventory Auction and Rising Fees   I'll be joined by an all-star line up of 7-8 figure sellers as we discuss some strategies around rising fees and Inventory Auction.   Leo Sgovio is an Amazon seller and innovative entrepreneur with a strong passion for digital marketing and technology. With over 15 years of experience in the e-commerce space, Leo has a wealth of knowledge and expertise to share with others. He started his career as an SEO and pay-per-click advertising specialist, working with companies such as Google and Adobe. In 2018 and 2019, Leo headed innovation at Viral Launch, a company that helps e-commerce businesses grow and scale on Amazon. After exiting one of his brands, Leo founded Convomat, an influencer marketing solution for Amazon sellers.   Leo is always looking for new and innovative ways to succeed on Amazon, and he loves sharing his strategies and growth hacks with others. Whether you're just getting started as an Amazon seller or looking to take your existing business to the next level, Leo is a valuable resource to have in your corner.   Benjamin Webber is a seasoned Amazon seller with a wealth of experience in the private labelling space. He has been selling on Amazon since 2015 and has built a successful 8-figure business with his partners, three friends from college. What started as a retail arbitrage operation run out of a house has now evolved into a thriving private label business, thanks to Benjamin's expertise and dedication.   Benjamin specialises in generating high conversions through listing optimisation and is skilled at building both internal and international teams.   Matt Altman is an experienced Amazon seller who has been successfully operating on the platform for the past 12 years. Over that time, he has sold a wide range of products and generated tens of millions of dollars in sales each year. Matt is always on the cutting edge when it comes to marketing on and off Amazon, and he is constantly seeking out new strategies to drive sales.   In recent years, Matt has focused mainly on the supplements space. He has a deep understanding of the Amazon marketplace and knows how to navigate the constantly evolving rules and regulations to achieve success. His team uses detailed data analysis, advanced algorithms, and high-level strategic planning to help sellers generate more sales from their existing traffic or come up with ideas for new products that can be sold profitably on Amazon. If you're looking to boost your sales on Amazon, Matt and his team are a valuable resource to have on your side. Also joining is James McConnel Jr one of the smartest people in the space when it comes to optimising logistics and 3PL costs. Seller Sessions Live is Back! Seller Sessions Live is back 13th May, bigger and better with a new home. With Seller Sessions Live 2022 being a sold out success, we want to go bigger and focus not just on bringing in the best 7 & 8 figure sellers but making sure you get multiple opportunities to network and have fun!   This years line up thus far... More to be added - [ ] Danny McMillan - [ ] Sharon Even - [ ] Leo Sgovio - [ ] Adam Heist - [ ] Jana Krekic - [ ] Tim Jordan - [ ] Ben Leonard - [ ] Ben Webber - [ ] Matt Altman   Would like to say a big thank you to our sponsors; Carbon6, Clearads, 8fig, Getida, Branded, VAA and AVASK   Get Tickets - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/.../seller-sessions-live...

What To Expect on Amazon in 2023 Roundtable   What if you could see the future?   What if you could know exactly what to do, and when to do it?   What if you could be prepared for whatever comes your way?   This show is all about that. It's about knowing the right path to take—and having the tools at hand to get there. Join me as I'm joined by Kevin King, Leo Sgovio, and Mina Elias as we discuss some of the possibilities of what can be expected selling on Amazon in 2023 and some of the of the pitfalls that Amazon sellers can avoid along the way.   Leo Sgovio   Leo is an Amazon seller and innovative entrepreneur with a strong passion for digital marketing and technology.   With over 15 years of experience in the e-commerce space, Leo started his career as an SEO and Pay-Per-Click advertising specialist.   Throughout his career, Leo worked with companies such as Google and Adobe and Headed innovation at Viral Launch in 2018 and 2019.   After exiting one of his brands he founded Convomat, an influencer marketing solution for Amazon Sellers and he continues to launch new products on Amazon. Leo loves sharing cutting-edge strategies and growth hacks on how to succeed on Amazon.   Mina Elias   Mina is a chemical engineer by trade and an Amazon PPC advertising expert. After working at a corporate 9-5 job for many years, Mina spent every spare moment developing a deep understanding of the "ins and outs" of Amazon PPC advertising. Through experience and trial and error, he developed successful methods and strategies—and in time, grew a highly profitable brand that still exists today.   Determined to help others the same way others helped him, when he first started out, he started sharing all his learnings regarding Amazon pay per click advertising and selling on Amazon, on his own YouTube channel, in Facebook groups and on Podcasts. His knowledge and unique strategies for Amazon PPC appealed to people—so much so that Amazon sellers from across the globe sought his help to manage their Amazon PPC advertising campaigns! And so with a passion for teaching and helping others succeed like himself, Trivium was born! Kevin King Kevin King is one of the most well-known figures in the Amazon community. He's been involved in the industry since 1995, and it's been over 30 years since he last received a pay-check from someone else. Kevin has traveled to all 7 continents and 90 countries. He was named one of the Top 40 Direct Marketers by Target Marketing magazine, has been featured on Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous and Entertainment Tonight national TV shows as well as the front pages of prestigious newspapers like USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. He's sold millions of dollars of products on Amazon and has been a recurring guest on over 30 FBA and e-commerce podcasts. He's also a highly sought-after speaker at Amazon conferences worldwide (he's spoken at over 30). He mentors sellers collectively doing over half a billion US dollars per year on Amazon.com in the Freedom Ticket and Helium 10 Elite Masterminds. He also organizes the Billion Dollar Seller Summit.

Ryan Cramer has worked with various companies in the eCommerce/Amazon space for 6+ years, including Evergreen Enterprises, Viral Launch and PingPong Payments. He spent years working with online sellers and service providers, sharing best practices in cross-border eCommerce, international growth and expansion, and how to work with industry influencers and brand ambassadors. Today, Ryan is the Head of Marketing & Growth at Frisbi (formerly First Choice Shipping), the leader in global expansion for Amazon and eCommerce brands.=====================Ryan Cramer

Today Leo Sgovio joins me as we talk about some tests he has done with URL's and the impact it has had on ranking and being penalised. “Leo is an Amazon seller and entrepreneur with a strong passion for digital marketing and technology innovation. With over 15 years of experience in the e-commerce space, Leo started his career as an SEO and Pay-Per-Click advertising specialist. In the years to follow, Leo spent most of his time ranking websites on Google and after entering the Amazon space he led Viral Launch as Head of Innovation. After exiting one brand he started Convomat, a marketing automation software for Amazon Sellers, which is what he is currently focused on together with his new Amazon brand. Leo loves sharing cutting-edge strategies on how to succeed on Amazon. “

Hannah Cleve and her President, Product Manager, and Developer at Viral Launch talk about what sellers should be aware of with Amazon updates and ads.  To connect with Viral Launch, click here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/viral-launch/?viewAsMember=true 

In today's episode we're talking with legendary producer, Gabe Schillinger and we'll be diving into Gabe's tips and tricks used to launch his music business into a million dollar company. We talk about the methods he used to leverage technology and the mindset-shift needed to finally take action. 

Mastering the viral launch strategy: Vacation by Poolside FM In April, Poolside FM, an app and internet radio station that transports you back in time with its 80's aesthetics and upbeat beachside music, crossed over to the physical product realm in the ... (Read more). 

In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA – Ryan Cramer - Partnerships Manager at PingPong Payments - A global payment processing platform, shares his personal journey into eCommerce. Ryan was born in Plano, Texas, but raised in Indiana and was very involved in sports while growing up. He graduated from the University of Evansville in Southern Indiana in 2009 and began his career in marketing in the newspaper publishing industry. In 2014 he moved to Virginia to work for a large company called Evergreen and launched their e-commerce business division to great success. He then moved on to work for the entertainment business of hosting major events in a major stadium back in Indiana. The next station for Ryan was working for Viral Launch which helped Amazon sellers launch new products on the marketplace. In 2020 Ryan has joined the PingPong Payments team which is a global payment processing platform. His main focus is on building partnerships and hosting a popular live podcast show called Crossover Commerce Find out more about PingPong Payments: https://bit.ly/3fVGnrk More about Crossover Commerce Podcast: https://usa.pingpongx.com/us/podcast Find out more about GETIDA: https://getida.com/​​​ Please subscribe to our channel and share your thoughts and comments below. Stay safe and healthy in the meantime! #AmazonPayments​ #AmazonCurrency​​​ #AmazonEU

¡Hola a todos y todas! Bienvenidos a un nuevo episodio del blog / podcast del Emprendedor Amazónico. Un podcast destinado a proporcionarte las herramientas y conocimientos que necesitas para crear tu propia marca de productos online, aprovechando el poder de Amazon, y con ello poder vivir tu vida tal y como tú desees. Por si eres nuevo en el podcast, mi nombre es Rafa Torrecillas. Y hoy te traigo la primera entrega del Proyecto 500. Una nueva serie de episodios en los que te voy a contar los pasos que voy dando para empezar a vender un producto en Amazon, desde cero, con un presupuesto total de 500 euros. En esta primera entrega aprenderás las distintas fases del proceso desde cero, y entraremos en más detalle sobre lo que yo llamo la Fase cero, en concreto: elección del modelo de negocio determinación del presupuesto establecimiento de expectativas correctas Siendo ésta la primera entrega, te estaré muy agradecido por tus comentarios/feedback. Los puedes dejar abajo, o enviármelos a rafa@elemprendedoramazonico.com Además, hoy quiero comentarte que las herramientas que usaré a lo largo de todo este proyecto son las de Helium 10. Tras años probando distintas herramientas y comparándolas con datos reales de mi cuenta y las de mis clientes, puedo decirte que Helium 10 tiene las herramientas más precisas del mercado. En los primeros episodios hablo también sobre Jungle Scout y Viral Launch, pero ahora mismo Helium 10 los supera. Para hacerte más fácil el acceso a Helium 10 puedes usar cualquiera de estos códigos de descuento: ELEMPRENDEDOR50 –> 50% DE DESCUENTO EN TU PRIMER MES ELEMPRENDEDOR10 –> 10% DE DESCUENTO CADA MES Al hacerlo, además estarás colaborando para mantener este podcast vivo y gratuito como lo ha sido hasta ahora. ¡GRACIAS!       ¡Nos vemos en el próximo episodio! ¡Que tengas un gran día y un fuerte abrazo!

On this episode we talk all about expanding into international marketplaces, plus great advice from Ryan Cramer from Ping Pong Payments. Ryan Cramer has worked for various companies in the ecommerce/Amazon space for 6+ years, specializing in partnerships, marketing, business development, and branding. He was introduced to the ecommerce/Amazon world in 2014 when he worked for Evergreen Enterprises under their B2C sector as their Affiliate/Partnership Manager working with deal sites, blogs and influencers. He grew a non-existent revenue channel to multiple years of 6 and 7 figure growth. After a few years working outside of ecommerce, he jumped back into the industry in 2019, working for Viral Launch in Indianapolis, IN and then PingPong Payments in 2020. His diverse background and expertise has allowed him to grow businesses of all kinds in the ecommerce and Amazon world. Currently, Ryan's focus is partnering with sellers and service providers, sharing best practices in cross border payments, cost saving techniques and the buyer psychology around deals. He started the podcast, "Crossover Commerce" in 2020 and has hosted over 90 episodes with industry leaders, bringing a unique perspective to the Amazon and ecommerce community. PingPong provides marketplace sellers and entrepreneurs global solutions for controlling their domestic and international funds. A PingPong account enables companies to significantly reduce their costs when receiving or making international payments - all on a platform that helps increase operational efficiencies, saves time and allows sellers to manage their business profits from a single source. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you are notified of new episodes!

Have questions? Go to https://www.10millionjourney.com/ Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/10millionjourney/ My guest today is Ryan Cramer. Ryan is the host of Cross Commerce podcast where he interviews entrepreneurs from the world of commerce, we had many same guests, and I am a big fan of his show. Ryan is also an affiliate marketing manager for ping pong payments, and he was an affiliate marketing manager for a popular amazon platform Viral Launch. Today we are going to cover Ryan’s journey and also discuss the latest trends in the world of marketing and podcasting. Resources mentioned in this episode: Books that were mentioned in this episode: President Obama's Background https://www.amazon.com/Promised-Land-Barack-Obama/dp/1524763160 Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Duckworth (https://www.amazon.com/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth/dp/1501111108) Podcasts Ryan Recommends: Tim Jordan - https://www.ampmpodcast.com/ Bradley Sutton - https://www.helium10.com/author/bradley-s/ LinkUp Leaders - https://www.facebook.com/linkupleaders Lunch with Norm - https://lunchwithnorm.com/ Quiet Light Podcast - https://quietlight.com/learn/ Danny McMillan - https://player.fm/series/seller-sessions-amazon-fba-and-private-label Two Amazon Sellers and a Microphone - https://anchor.fm/2amzsellersandamicrophone The Joe Rogan Experience - https://open.spotify.com/show/4rOoJ6Egrf8K2IrywzwOMk The Pat McAfee Show - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxcTeAKWJca6XyJ37_ZoKIQ   Podcasts Anatoly Mentioned: Joe Rogan Experience #1169 - Elon Musk -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPr5-27vSI Joe Rogan Experience #1470 - Elon Musk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcYjXbSJBN8 The Tim Ferris Show - https://tim.blog/podcast/ Ryan Moran’s Podcast - https://www.capitalism.com/   Connect with Ryan: LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancramer1/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ryan.J.Cramer Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PingPongPayments PingPong Payments Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/PingPongPaymentsGlobal PingPong Payments Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pingpongpayments/  Podcast: https://anchor.fm/crossover-commerce Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanCramer_ Website: https://usa.pingpongx.com/ Email: support@pingpongpayments.com Clubhouse - Ryan Kramer

Ryan Cramer has worked for various companies in the eCommerce/Amazon space for 6+ years, specializing in partnerships, marketing, business development, and branding. He was introduced to the eCommerce/Amazon world in 2014 when he worked for Evergreen Enterprises under their B2C sector as their Affiliate/Partnership Manager working with deal sites, blogs, and influencers. He grew a non-existent revenue channel to multiple years of 6 and 7 figure growth   After a few years working outside of eCommerce, he jumped back into the industry in 2019, working for Viral Launch in Indianapolis, IN and then PingPong Payments in 2020. His diverse background and expertise have allowed him to grow businesses of all kinds in the eCommerce and Amazon world. Currently, Ryan's focus is partnering with sellers and service providers, sharing best practices in cross-border payments, cost-saving techniques, and the buyer psychology around deals. He started the podcast, "Crossover Commerce" in 2020 and has hosted over 70 episodes with industry leaders, bringing a unique perspective to the Amazon and eCommerce community.   Questions for Ryan? Connect with him on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancramer1/   Tune into CrossoverCommerce LIVE each week! https://www.facebook.com/CrossoverCommerce   Connect with our hosts Lisa and Francois on LinkedIn   Francois Jaffres: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francois-jaffres/ Lisa Kinskey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakinskey/   Follow Link Up Leaders on social media!   Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/linkupleaders Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/link_up_leaders/ Like us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/link-up-leaders-podcast/ Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications!   Should you or someone you know be on the show? Let us know! Send us a DM through Facebook telling us why you would be a great guest for the show!   Start your eCommerce business by sourcing through Noviland, Inc. www.noviland.com

Darrian Mikkel is an entrepreneur and business leader.  He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Qualifi, an HR tech startup focused on taking the pain out of recruiting while creating meaningful, engaging experiences for candidates. Before Qualifi, Darrian served as the VP at Viral Launch, a data-driven market intelligence and optimization solutions for Amazon marketplace retailers, driving e-commerce revenue growth and more efficient marketing spend. Darrian Graduated from Indiana Wesleyan Univ. in 2013 with a Bachelor's Degree in Entrepreneurship and Finance, he is a former 2-sport athlete (Basketball and Track & Field) and was a national champion in the Long Jump. In this episode, Darrian brings a mix of Hoosier hospitality and West Coast vibes to the show and talks about the moment that he first experienced failure and how that experience gave him the momentum to go on to start Qualifi.  Connect with Darrian on LinkedIn  Find out more about Qualifi Sponsors: Talevation Ninety.io Straticos Buy your copy of Level-UP To Professional: Second Edition

Today we bring back Casey Gauss to talk about some of the strategies across the hundred or so brands under Thrasio. We will cover on page optimisation and some of the Google SEO they are implementing at the current time.   Founded and built Viral Launch at the age of 21 to help 10,000's of brands generate more than $10B in sales on Amazon. Casey is currently an executive at Thrasio, deep into the weeds on best practices for success on Amazon.

Branding is VITAL to the current and future success of any Amazon product (which is why we've been focusing so intently on covering the subject from all angles). Emma is here to give advice on principles to elevate the experience customers get from a product's branding, and how a listing plays a direct role in that experience. In addition to all of the incredible information Emma gives in this episode, she's providing the listeners of Follow The Data with a FREE listing analysis. Head here to get your listing analyzed and checked over from one of the top minds in the Amazon game: https://marketingbyemma.com/freeanalysis

Today I’m thrilled to have Casey Gauss back on the show. Casey is the founder of Viral Launch and he’s helped tens of thousands of eCommerce entrepreneurs drive billions of dollars in sales. He is an expert in all things Amazon and I’m happy to have him back on the show to talk about what he’s been up to (a lot has changed in the past year alone) and to discuss some high-level trends and strategies in the eCommerce space. What You’ll Learn Casey Gauss’ predictions in the ecommerce space The looming ecommerce disaster for Q4 How to prepare yourself […] The post 321: Why Ecommerce In Q4 Is Going To Be A Disaster With Casey Gauss appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

On this episode of Quiet Light, we speak with Jon Elder, who had a seven-figure exit and now guides others on their startup journeys. We discuss the start of his Amazon career; his new business, Black Label Advisor; and how he guides his clients to success.   Topics:  Why he got into an Amazon business. How his conservative spending affected his start. What he negotiated in the sale of his business. Who his current business helps. How his methods have changed since he started. Why you should consistently innovate. Creating experiences for customers. Who his typical client is.   Resources: Black Label Advisor Jon@blacklabeladvisor.com Quiet Light Podcast@quietlightbrokerage.com   Transcription: Mark: Starting an online business and an Amazon business, that can be tough, right? There are a lot of mental challenges in that and especially those first couple of years; there are a lot of decisions you have to make in order to be successful. You have to think about how much inventory should I be buying in that first year, how much should I be investing, how many new products should I be launching, all while not seeing a lot of cash in your pocket, because any money that you bring in, you're typically reinvesting in that business to be able to help it grow. And so, there are a lot of challenges through those first few years and I think a lot of people get drowned down mentally during that time because there are just so many decisions to try and make as you're growing a business. Joe, you had Jon on the podcast to talk about that. He went through this. He went through a successful exit, and now he's training people on that startup process. How to start up an Amazon business, how to build brands and make those decisions a bit more clearly, have the right mindset as well going through this to make sure that you have some resiliency through that process. Joe: Yeah, Jon reminds me of us and what our website says which is a bunch of entrepreneurs with a bunch of crazy, been there, done that experience. That was a terrible quote from our own website. I should have had it up and read it. Mark: It's something like that. Joe: It's something like that; a bunch of people that have done something. Mark: We're just a bunch of guys and Amanda. Joe: And Amanda, she runs the show. Jon, he had a mid-seven figure exit and it was a substantial and life-changing one that will probably change a generation or two of his family. And he did it through building an Amazon business the right way with multiple brands in one Seller Account. Not that that's the only right way. There are many ways to do it. But he's sharing his direct experience. He's not the typical guru if you will. And I shouldn't say that because we have many friends who would be considered gurus that are actually really good at what they do. But he's been there, he's done it, and now he's going, okay, look, I can help people. I truly, truly can help people. And he set up a system and a process to help people understand how to identify the right product, not just from maximizing value and return on dollars but upon doing that, you're going to be happy and satisfied with working with you and your cash flow; how long the launch process really takes, how often you should launch. He never used any launch services or anything like that. There are a lot of steps that he's set up and he goes through and he's working with people one on one. And I thought it would be beneficial to have him on the podcast because he does have a crazy amount of done there and done that experience. Joe: Hey, folks, Joe Valley here from the Quiet Light Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Today we've got somebody that had an incredible exit, one in the mid-seven figure range. Jon Elder ran an Amazon business with multiple brands. Jon, welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast. Jon: Yeah, thanks for having me, Joe. Joe: That was a short but powerful introduction if I do say so myself. We don't read fancy intros here. Jon, can you give the audience listening a little bit of background on yourself so they understand who you are and why you're here? Jon: Yeah, of course. My story is kind of similar to a lot of people in the sense of I wanted to get more out of life and there is always an entrepreneurial spirit in me. And so, 2014 is when I started on Amazon and I was also working on a corker construction job and I honestly thought I was going to be in that type of career the rest of my life. I went to college for Construction Management and so it's a pretty high profile, very successful career. But the scaling of salaries is driving me a little crazy and so I wasn't okay with just getting the 5%, switching companies maybe down the line. So, I got into the Amazon world because I thought it was a really great opportunity. At the same time, I'm really conservative so I didn't go in with a large amount of capital. I started with roughly $5,000 and I got my feet wet in the golfing category. Some of that is due to just my general interest in sports and it was a product that there weren't a lot of competitors in that category. It was something I was interested in and something that I thought I could innovate a little bit in that category and become the leader. And within a year I actually did become the leader. I became the number one seller for that specific product. Joe: And you have a job the whole time, Jon, or did you quit? Jon: Yeah, actually I worked full time until 2016. Joe: Excellent. Okay, that's good to hear. Jon: Yeah. Joe: That's what I like to hear. It's a less risky path for people. Jon: Yeah, I'm married, I have a son and so their needs actually come first. I had to make sure that I wasn't putting my family in a bad financial position. So, yeah, I definitely worked with factories in eight. I spent a lot of hours. My wife was very sacrificial, allowing me to spend all that extra time. We used to have conversations about this that we're building a business in the future and there's some sacrifice that has to be made for that. And that's just part of life. Anyone who says that it's easy and it doesn't take that much time is a complete lie. It's a lot of work and very, very stressful but it definitely paid off. Joe: Yeah, you've got five brands over that time period as well, not that just one? Jon: Right and part of that story is just pursuing products that I had an interest in. And not all the brands were successful. Some of the brands were definitely not successful but thankfully the vast majority of my brands took off and became leaders in their respective categories. Joe: Okay, so just to review and just to understand fully who you are, what you've done, because we're going to talk about some of the nitty-gritty here. But in the last year that you sold the business, you did about six and a half million in revenue. You ran the business side by side with being a new dad and a full-time job for a couple of years before you exited. You had five brands and ultimately you sold for mid-seven figures. We're not going to give away the detail here, but an amount that is a life-changing figure that would have taken you 20 years in your construction business to earn probably maybe even more, right? Jon: Oh, yeah. Joe: Over the over the five years or so that you were running the Amazon business, I always love asking this question and it's a tough one because you haven't done the math yet but did you take and make more money as you were running the business; take more cash out of the business for you and your family during that five-year period, or did you get more when you sold the business? Jon: Oh, I definitely got more when I saw the business. One of the driving factors behind the success of my business was the vast majority of the money; any profits that we got were reinvested. That helped us launch products faster. It helped us launch new variations faster and so that allowed us to grow the business very, very quickly. Joe: You must have taken something out for yourself, though, I would assume. Jon: Oh, yeah, definitely. Joe: Just enough to live off of, was your wife working? Jon: No, my wife is a stay-at-home mom. In 2016 when I went full time with Amazon, the goal was to pay myself a salary that mimics my salary at my job and then as the business grew to continue to scale that up from there. And of course, at Christmas time because of the sales and the profits there, doing things like small bonuses and things like that. Yeah, the money that I paid myself definitely increased over time. In the first two years, I paid myself very little just because I was obsessed with growing the business. And honestly, from the very beginning of starting the business, I had a number in mind for my exit someday. A lot of people will say they have vision boards mine was a very specific number. It was in the multiple seven figures and everything I did in the business was geared towards that end goal. And so that's everything from having all my brands under one seller account, all my bookkeeping, just keeping everything clean, strong tax records. Joe: Preaching to the choir, I love that. I love all of it. That's great. It's a clean and easy deal. Did that enable you; was your buyer and SBA buyer or were they a cash buyer? Jon: He was an SBA buyer and the package deal for that was kind of interesting. Roughly 75% was upfront cash and then the rest was split between the seller note over five years and then an earn-out in perpetuity. And so that actually wasn't originally in the contract and with my lawyer at my side, we negotiated that to be perpetuity so I'll get the money eventually. Joe: Wow, that's fantastic. That part of it was probably outside the SBA guidelines though, yes? Jon: That's completely outside the contract. Joe: Good, good, good. Understood. Okay, so you learned an awful lot, you had five brands, some were successes, some were failures along the way, and you're now helping other people as well. What are some of the basic tips that you would give somebody if they're just starting out? So this podcast, even though you had a multiple seven-figure exit, even though you've operated five brands, you're really focused on helping people that are just starting out more than anything else. What are some of the basic things that somebody should look for if they're, let's say, either starting out or if they're buying a small Amazon business, that might be a couple of hundred thousand dollars in total value? Jon: So it sounds cliché but follow your passion. That's something that I tell my clients and friends and family who are interested in starting an Amazon business. Do something that you're generally interested in. And it doesn't have to be your ultimate passion. For example, golfing was never the ultimate sport. It was just a general interest in it. But go into something that you have some sort of interest in because at some point you will have hurdles and you will have issues with your business. So, for example, you might have to spend a couple of hours on a Friday night talking with one of your factories about resolving quality issues on a previous purchase order. You got to be invested in that product and if it's not a product that you're interested in, for example, I would never go into women's makeup because I have zero interest in it. I just don't know if I would be totally in it once I hit those bumps in the road. Joe: Yeah, and I've heard people say just the opposite, except for that part of the bumps in the road. So you could be product agnostic, but it helps, it's not an absolute requirement, it helps, as you're saying, to have some passion about the product. If you're going to end up on a call at 11 o'clock on a Friday night with a manufacturer on the other side of the world to work out some kinks in the detail, if you're not passionate about it, if you're not interested, if you hate it, you'd probably think about doing something else. Jon: Yeah, and I think along this subject too it's even deeper than that. I mean, so often, you're going to have other competitors for your product. There is so much innovation and improvement in your product that takes place over time. Personally, I wouldn't want to be looking at makeup and spending hours and hours and hours trying to get a better formula because I just don't care about it. One of my other product lines was an outdoor kid's product. The mission behind that brand was actually to encourage kids to rediscover the great outdoors. So many kids are on tech now and they spend hours and hours inside on the Switch and on iPads that; and this is how I parent as a dad, too is I encourage my son to go spend hours outside. Joe: How old is your son? Jon: He's five. Joe: Okay, wait until they're teenagers. It gets even worse, man. It gets even worse. They're playing with friends all the time it's just online I tell you. So, yeah, have some passion about what you do. There's no question about it. You started with 5,000 bucks. Are you helping people that haven't even picked a product yet or those that have a product idea and has sourced it and are really just trying to figure out how to how to get some traffic on? Jon: Yeah, obviously it depends. Some of my clients definitely have product ideas and they're already innovating and they want to go into a category where it's going to be truly unique and different. And then others are still in the brainstorming stage. My job is to just advise and help them along the journey all the way through sourcing and getting on to Amazon and launching. But there is so much that goes into the product research phase, and that's what I tell people, is just expect to spend hours and hours researching and researching because this is your money you're talking about. And some people take out loans. This is real stuff. You need to be 100% sure that you're in it for the long haul with your product. So, it comes down to researching the estimated revenues for that product. The thing that made me the most successful was innovating products that had some negative reviews. So I would harness all those reviews and fix all the problems. Joe: How do you do that with the manufacturer on the other side of the world? Jon: It's pretty incredible. I actually never visited any of my factories. I had four factories and it was all through phone calls, Skype, and emails. Joe: And it worked, not a problem. So are you working with a product innovation firm that's doing industrial design work for you or are you just sketching it out yourself and asking for innovations from the manufacturer? Jon: No, actually, the innovations were things that; again, because I was in product categories that I had a deep interest in, I was able to innovate myself. Joe: And do you then just put a drawing in front of that manufacturer and say can you do this? Jon: Exactly. Yeah, sketches are really useful, and then something that blew me away was how intellectual or sophisticated the Chinese factories were. They actually had 3D modeling engineering guys in-house. And I worked with some big boys. The factory for the golfing product that I sold, they actually supplied some products for the PGA Tour. One of the keys to my success was working with factories that were not starting out their journey as a factory. These were very established factories that sold products to Walmart and brick and mortar companies. Joe: Yeah. For those listening one of the additional options is Gembah, www.Gembah.com. We had Zach on the podcast here. It's a product innovation company, its industrial designers that can do that. If you're not good at drawing and innovating, they can do that work for you so that you present a more professional look to the manufacturer. Okay, so advise number one, spend a lot of time on deciding what product and product categories you're going to go into because this is where you're going to be spending all of your money in the future years, yes? Jon: 100%, and all your time. Joe: All right, let's just say we picked a great product. What's next? I mean, is it simple photography, put the listing up, look at basic stuff in terms of recommendations from Amazon? Are you using a launch service like Viral Launch or are you using some other launch service or a combination of different things? Jon: Yeah, for launching, I can get into that in a second. So, the next step that worked really well for me was doing a ton of screening with the factories. And then what I would do is I would do three final samples and we're dealing with weeks and weeks of communications here. Like this is a long process to make sure that my factory is the best of the best. So I would test the factories over email and I would ask oddball questions. I would also come across as the VP of Logistics or the VP of Product Innovation. So I would definitely present myself as an image of a large corporation. They never thought that I was a mom and pop shop in the States. But getting three samples from three strong factories was really successful for me. Joe: Three samples from each or one sample from each? Jon: Sorry, one sample from each factory. And then I would stress-test those products, use them, inspect them, see how they feel in my hand. I would do all those types of things. I ask friends and family what they thought of the products. That was a very common process. And then I ended up after taking in all that data, deciding on my final factory. Joe: This may be a basic question, but I assume you're paying for the sample and paying to have it shipped, right? They're not sending free samples and free shipping. Jon: Correct. Joe: So you're going to spend several hundred to a thousand dollars in just reviewing product samples I would assume, depending upon product cost of course? Jon: I would say a couple of hundred. Joe: Expected, and that's an incredible investment that you have to make, right? You can't just look at some stuff and get one sample and off you go. Jon: Yeah, so it's common to see that everywhere right now. It's like you can skip all those steps and you don't need to worry about that. There is some time and money upfront that is going to save your butt long term. 100%. Joe: So then if you've got the product samples; let's say you want to innovate on all three, let's say they're pretty close but you want a thicker grip on a handle or something like that, are you asking the manufacturers all three just to see how they respond and react and work with you in terms of innovation? Jon: 100% and part of that is also testing how flexible they are as a factory and how easy they are to work with. Joe: Okay. Jon: If they put up a big fight and complain about things, that's going to be a red flag for me. In the factories that I ended up working with, the answer was always yes. Their response was yes, we can do that. Yes, we want your business. Yes, yes, yes. Those are the guys that I ended up working with. The ones who caused issues for me and said, no, we can't do that, that's going to cost $5,000, I just got rid of those guys off the bat. Joe: All right, so what's next? You've tested three manufacturers. You chose a product, you innovated the product, and you're at the point where you've got the final decision on what you're going to invest your money in. What's next after that? Jon: So at that point, you have your final sample, and hopefully you have that in hand, typically production, depending on how many units. My test unit order was always 250 units, sometimes 500 units. So what I would do is while production is happening, whether that's two weeks or four weeks, I would have my final sample sent to a professional photography firm. In the very beginning, I actually took pictures myself and had a designer kind of edit my pictures and pump up the colors a little bit. But later down the road, when I was launching product after product, I'd send the products to a professional photography firm and have them do the enhanced brand content just to tie in the branding for my product. Because in the beginning, I sold a lot of random products, and then as time went on and I got more educated on it, I realized I need to be establishing my brand. I need people to come to Amazon for that specific golfing product. I want them to see my name and think quality and fantastic customer service. That's what I wanted them to remember about me. And so part of that is beautiful packaging, part of that is beautiful enhanced brand content. I had videos as my seventh picture on the listing. Joe: I was just going to ask that. How many of your listings had videos on them, all of them? Jon: The two largest brands had videos and that was kind of like a cost decision because the videos that I went with were extremely high production videos. And not everyone has to do fancy videos. The reason why we justified that was those brands were very, very large. We're talking big revenue numbers so it was something that I felt was needed. Joe: You didn't do that out of the gate on that first golfing product I assume, right? Plus, it was 2014. It probably wasn't an option for you. Jon: No. I don't remember the year that they allowed videos on the listing. I think it was maybe starting to happen in 2017-ish but yeah, in the very beginning you were locked out of everything. You had a paragraph for your description; you had bullet points, and then seven pictures. That was it. Joe: Yeah. Okay, so now you've ordered products, you ordered 250 units, spent a couple of hundred bucks on samples, you got another final sample you sent off to a photographer. It doesn't sound like you've got a whole lot of money left if you're starting out with five grand. I guess it depends on how much product cost is. Jon: That initial investment can range drastically. My first product in the golfing category, I sourced it for a dollar a unit. Joe: Well, that makes a difference, that it explains it right there. Jon: Yeah, exactly, it makes a huge difference. And I did that on purpose just because I'm so financially conservative that I wanted to learn the logistics process of Amazon and if I did screw something up along the way, whether that was customs or something at Amazon, I wanted that capital invested a tad small. Joe: And if you were in a competitive space that would have meant the barriers to entry in terms of cost are pretty low. A year later you said you wound up with the top listing, but did you start to see competitors come in pretty rapidly after that? Jon: Oh, yeah, 100%. And I think what drives that is people see a new seller take over that category and then they see all the revenue go to me and then they think, oh shoot, I'm going to mimic him and I'm going to come in and take some of the revenue. And that's part of life is you have to; and when I mentioned innovation, you have to be constantly innovating your products. So I ended up adding a special device to my golfing product that actually had a patent for it. No one else could do that but that was kind of like an additional tweak I did for the products that made my listing unique and different from all the other listings. That's just the harsh reality of Amazon is once you become a category leader, you will have a lot of other people come in and mimic you. Joe: And the way to fight that is to innovate. Jon: Innovate, be the best, and when you think your pictures are good just get even better pictures. Joe: Yeah, I hear you. All right, so now we've got the product. You've ordered it. You are starting to have your photos done. What's next? I had mentioned launches and systems and things of that nature, where are you helping your clients and advising them to go from there? Jon: I'm different in the world of Amazon because most of my products; actually all the products were done organically and so my strategy is a little slower than other sellers. Joe: Let's define what you mean there organically. Jon: So for example, never using services like Viral Launch or other services where you're paying discounted rates or using websites to launch your products. Joe: You simply put the listings up on Amazon use Amazon Sponsored Ads and off you went? Jon: It's a little more than that. Joe: It always is. I'd like to simplify things and dumb it down but I know it's a lot more complicated than that, yeah. But no launch services, nothing like that? Jon: Right and so what was really beneficial was really actually humorous autoresponder emails. So we use a service called Feedback that was really, really successful. Alongside that doing a little bit of a giveaway through the early reviewer program and then just pumping PPC, to be honest with you. And so typically we do like slightly reduced cost for the products to be priced a little lower; nothing too drastic because that can mess up your Lightning Deals down the road. So we would reduce it a little bit and just funnel a ton of money into PPC. And then we had an autoresponder series on average two to three emails. Joe: So explain the autoresponder part because you don't have control of the customer. This is after they buy the product? I'm confused on the autoresponder part. Jon: This is right after someone buys the product. So one email goes out three days after they receive the product and then another one goes out seven days and another one goes out 14 days. And those are all tweets specifically to be kind of funny. So many people open up emails and to be honest with you, most people don't open their emails very often. So having a really funny title for the email and then the actual body of the email being short and sweet and using a joke or something about the product was really, really helpful. Joe: I got you. So, you're not breaking even upfront, I assume, because you're spending a lot of money on Pay-Per-Click. Jon: No, I'm definitely in the red when I first started. Pretty much all my product launches started in the red. Joe: How long are they in the red for? Jon: Probably a minimum of six months because I'm doing it organically. Joe: So, how many products are you launching in the first year; two or are you going after more? Jon: The first year was two products actually. Joe: So, if somebody is coming to you with a little bit bigger of a budget and let's say they've got 20 grand and they're really needing your guidance to get launched and they've got an idea of the product. Are we still looking at losing money or breaking even for the first six months, eventually breaking and making a little bit? Jon: That is so dependent on the category that you're in. If you go into a category where you're competing with guys that have 500 reviews or a thousand reviews; let's say the top 10 sellers have a thousand reviews, it's going to take some time and you're going to have to burn through some cash. And the reason why is PPC gets more expensive every single day. That's just the reality of it. And everyone is competing for those keywords. And so, for example, with my products, I always outbid my competitors for the top search volume keywords, and the reason why is that that drove incredible sales to my listing. And PPC was actually the highest cost in terms of expenses for my business. Joe: Do you know what it was overall as a percentage of your revenue? Jon: Oh, man. Joe: I'm typically seeing anywhere between 10 and 20%. Jon: Yeah, I want to say was more like 25%. Joe: Okay. Jon: If we're dealing with the PPC costs alone my CPA would just look at me and be like, man, you guys are spending a lot of money on PPC. But that's just the reality of the business. Joe: But your CPA still has a day job? You get to do whatever the hell you want at this point in your life, right? Jon: Yes sir. Joe: Then who is right, you or the CPA? I think you were. Jon: Those expenses look kind of scary, but when you're looking at the percentage of revenue, it becomes a little less scary. Joe: Yeah. Now do all; I know the answer to this, but not all product launches are going to take six months to start to get traction and breakeven, did you have any in your five-year stretch where you would see some just home runs out of the gate or get some profitability within the first one to two months? Jon: The kid's product took off very fast and that was a very organic launch. And the reason why was there were maybe two or three sellers for that product and they had an inferior quality problem. So if you go look at the reviews, the actual liner of the material for the toy would just deteriorate like within a month under the sun. And so we innovated and we got the best liner possible, got UV-resistant liner and improved the product drastically and that took off with beautiful pictures. We actually hired some models; some family members actually took pictures with the product and just focused on quality for that product. People bought it and I realized, wow, this is like; it showed up in the reviews, your product is as lasting a long, long time. And that became very successful, very quick. Joe: And it was all from looking at other listings and the negative reviews that those had and innovating and improving the product? Jon: Correct. Joe: Yeah, pretty cool. How hard is it, though, to find a category where there are only two or three sellers? It seems like an impossible task these days, is it not? Jon: So Amazon is definitely; there's a lot more competition now. I think the secret's out about FBA. Joe: It might be, yeah. Jon: It's definitely harder now. I think that most categories are going to have far more than two to three sellers and so what I always recommend is even if there's seven sellers, you can break into those market segments as long as you're not dealing with sellers that have like a thousand reviews. If seven of them have 75 reviews or maybe 200 reviews, that's something that you can definitely go into and compete with. But there is always going to be a hole in the market. There's always going to be a chance to innovate and do something and spend the time to make the best product possible that lots of other people aren't going to do. And one example was actually the leather goods category that I was in. It was specifically for men. We drilled down all the way into the product packaging. A lot of people don't do that. They would get their leather goods products and they'd open it up from the box and it's in a polybag, right? That's not an experience. Joe: Right. Jon: So our idea was let's make it an experience for this person to open it up and sell everything down to the custom packaging for the box down to a branded tissue with branded tape. So whenever the person opened this product up, they knew that they were receiving a high end, high-quality product that was different from everyone else. So that's just like; it sounds kind of silly, but no one spends time with packaging and what does it feel like when you open up that product at home? Joe: It's because it's not sexy. They spend time on marketing and topline revenues and talk about it with their friends because it's sexy. But packaging and good bookkeeping and good branding and good photos and videos and the profit is actually what puts you in the best position possible, which is doing whatever you want at this point in your life. Jon: Yeah, definitely. What's interesting about that is the customers would actually talk about all the nitty-gritty details that I spent time on. That would come up as content and some of those reviews would be the top-rated reviews. Someone left a review on one of the leather goods products and it was this detailed long review with pictures and they went out of their way to be like, I've never opened a product from Amazon and the packaging was just stunning. So I was like, yes, it worked. And so other customers who are on Amazon obviously see the top-rated reviews and see that type of content and it definitely helps and it soon became a leader in that category. Joe: Cool. Jon, we're a little short on time, but I wanted to ask you, what are some of the biggest challenges you think folks are going to face? Jon: I think the biggest challenge is definitely just not getting swept up in sexy products. I've seen this online so much, just this huge push for going into supplements, for example. I tell my clients, do not do supplements. Don't go into that category. Don't do it. Don't do products that go on people's skin. Don't go into products where you're ingesting things. I'm always recommending kind of simpler products that are very, very low risk. And don't go into knives; things where people can get injured. So, just focusing on a product that you're interested in and it's low risk. And that's always tough because you see the revenues that other sexy products are bringing in and people get swept up in that. Joe: This is one of the first times I wish I just hadn't asked that question because I sold; my own company was a digestive wellness supplement company. I've got a good friend that's selling his makeup business for like 40 million dollars. We have, as a company supplement companies that are under contract for anywhere from two to 20 million dollars. And I think when they're when they're done right, they're done right. Jon: Exactly, and I would never want to give the impression that it's not possible. It's just my conservative nature kind of stays away from those types of product lines. And you have to be you definitely have to be a more sophisticated seller to… Joe: These guys are. These guys are all very, very smart, very good at what they do, have SOPs that'll pass on to the owners of the business, as did mine. And it's competitive, right? It's that they are low barriers to entry cost-wise. Jon: Extremely, you have to have big capital and that's one of the barriers for sure. Joe: Yeah. Well, I think it is a nice; it's a low barrier to entry to buy into the product category, but then you've got to rank and that's where the additional capital and expertise goes. It's very, very challenging. All right, so how do people reach out to you? I see its www.BlackLabelAdvisor.com, but ideally, let's talk about who your typical client would be and how they reach out to you. Jon: Yeah. So the easiest way to reach out is to go to my website, www.BlackLabelAdvisor.com or you can email me Jon@BlackLabelAdvisor.com. My passion is to help other people replicate my story. So many people I talk to you are they'll see my story and they'll say, oh my gosh, that's a dream, you know? And I used to think it was a dream too. And when I closed on the sale of the business, it was a dream come true to see the money come through. It was an unbelievable feeling that you just never think it's ever going to happen. I have recommendations and systems and third party companies I highly recommend. Along the way, I made mistakes myself and my passion is to help people avoid those mistakes and grow their business faster just because of all the experience I have and just help them along the journey with the end goal of selling someday. Joe: Yeah, I like it, folks. Jon is not somebody who can't so he teaches. He actually did it. He built an Amazon business with five brands, sold for a multiple seven figures, and now he's helping them. And that's what we do at Quiet Light, we help first. We want to help you succeed. Strangely enough, it actually helps us in the long run too, right? Somebody listening in the audience hire somebody like John who has real-life experience to give real-life advice to help them succeed in their online business. That person will come around at Quiet Light someday as well. So with that look around, who can you help? Help out your neighbor, help your friend that's in the online space and keep helping, it'll come back around too in time. Jon: Definitely. Joe: Jon, I appreciate your time. BlackLabelAdvisor.com folks, reach out and connect with Jon if you need some help to help get your Amazon business off the ground. Jon: Awesome. Thanks, Joe.

Casey has packed in a lifetime in the last two years with stepping down as CEO of Viral Launch. Last time, on his first In-Depth his hands were tied, this time we will pick up where we left off and go behind the scene, inlcuding his move the 1bn valued Thras.io. Make sure you tune in!

Casey Gauss is the founder of Viral Launch, VP at Thras.io and create of DigitalShelfLabs.com. Casey joins me to discuss why he stepped down from the company he founded, his thoughts on Amazon and Ecommerce and his latest creation of DigitalShelfLabs.com to give back to the Amazon seller community. This episode is brought to you by my Amazon ads agency IncrementumDigital.com Email Liran@Incrementumdigital.com to find out how we can grow your brand's sales using the power of Amazon Advertising! Join the E-commerce Mindset Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecommercemindsetgroup/ on facebook to continue the conversation and follow Liran on social media: https://www.facebook.com/lhirschkorn https://www.instagram.com/liranhirschkorn/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/liranhirschkorn/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/liran-hirschkorn0/message

We invited Casey Gauss to reveal his scouting and sourcing eCommerce secrets in Deliverr's first-ever podcast episode, Multi-Channel Millionaire.Find out: - the hottest categories to invest in next- top mistakes that his clients make and could have easily avoided- what to do when you're short on cash- myths about the Amazon Best Seller Ranking ===================

Today’s episode is all about our passive income experiment (P.I.E.), selling a home decor product exclusively through a website. We give an example of how this same model was wildly successful for another seller. We take you through how to determine which product will sell using a chrome extension like Viral Launch (https://viral-launch.com/), as well as how we created our funnel (https://www.clickfunnels.com/, with help from Marsha from https://www.onlinejobs.ph/) or website for this product. We explain how we are calculating profit based on customer acquisition cost, cost of product (find out how much it costs to source a product on https://www.alibaba.com/), and the cost of the other tools and resources mentioned above. We then recommend that before you buy all your inventory, you source your product through Amazon until you see your experiment works.Origin of Our Experiment -- Success Story 1:27How to Use Amazon to Research a Product 6:50Creating Your Website; Developing Facebook Ads; Upselling 11:25Source Through Amazon Until You Prove It Sells 16:24“In a prior episode, I talked about finding a product that is a relatively low price point (like maybe 30-50 bucks), and then, if you can confirm that there is demand for that -- and we’ll talk about how to do that in a minute -- then maybe you can just put that product on its own website and direct traffic there from Facebook ads and see if it will sell.” 1:42Reach Out To Keith, Get Help and Resources: https://dincpie.com/

How do you keep your customers? That’s a million dollar question for most businesses. There are other business providers who can offer better rates than yours or better services than yours, so what makes yours different?  In this episode, listen as Casey Gauss, Founder and CEO of Viral Launch, discusses how customer experience changes the game when it comes to retaining and expanding your customer base. Viral Launch offers innovative software and creative services to Amazon sellers.  Viral Launch originally catered to third party sellers on Amazon when it was launched in 2014. Now with 70 employees, they’ve expanded their scope of service and began providing a suite of tools, software, and services to Amazon first party sellers who serve Fortune 100 clients worldwide. The SaaS solution helps sellers figure out what market to after, optimize listings, and manage overall Amazon advertising to name a few. Viral Launch offers these services in monthly or annual terms, and customers can personalize which feature they want to have for their business.  Casey shared that while it’s good to initially bootstrap your business from ground up, nothing beats having access to capital to accelerate your business sooner. This allows you to have more resources allocated for the things that really matter for your company to grow. While Casey mentioned that having a long term goal is a great common practice, one also needs to pay attention to their company’s short term goals as it then has a ripple effect when it comes to measuring how far along are you on hitting your long term goals. In terms of marketing, Viral Launch were able to grow their customer base organically through word-of-mouth and sole website-sales conversions. Despite this, Casey recommends investing in a marketing team and a good marketing strategy to make sure that your team is developing products that are really needed and demanded by your chosen niche. This way, you’re sure that all your invested resources are well spent. Hiring people who can really do the job and those that are the best of the best in their fields is always a good practice as you strive to reach your goals. Taking a non-conventional approach to interviewing candidates can help you assess them as a person and not as a job-hunting individual. “I will walk into Starbucks. Which is like two blocks away. We'll grab coffee and we'll talk.. And you know, you get to learn a lot about the people that complain about having to walk two blocks.. And sometimes that's great because you really get to see, wow, this person isn't an amazing fit.”  Having a really good support team and customer success team who’s there to take care of your customers 24/7 can really make you stand among your competitors. Closely monitoring your customer service metrics and hiring the right people to lead your customer service team are two important factors to help a business keep their customers. There are many tools and solutions you can use out there for this. You can never go wrong with providing a great customer experience! Listen to the podcast to hear more tips. Resources links can be found at https://brightideas.co/308/

We often discuss is the importance of the person behind the business. When leaders learn the value of their business and set goals for success they are positioning themselves to profit, whether they plan to stay in or sell. Today we are discussing standard operating procedures for leaders that run different types of ecommerce businesses. Our guest realized from day zero of being in business that creating SOPs helps business owners stay in the game longer with a focus on working on the business rather than in it. Trent Dyrsmid is the founder of BrightIdeas.co and host of the BrightIdeas podcast, where he has interviewed numerous CEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs and has gotten them to share the processes they use to achieve results. Trent is also the owner of an Amazon ecommerce business and creator of a SAAS tool called Flowster, an app that helps business owners track, manage, and delegate business processes. Episode Highlights: How Trent got his start and how Bright Ideas got an INC 5000 254th fastest growing business ranking. The Amazon reseller model and how Trent makes it work via SOP. Trent's mantra of “document and delegate” and when he realized this was the key to success. Feedback loops he employs to optimize the procedures. Hiring challenges and how he's affronted them. How Trent's app Flowster was born and how it works. Ways to introduce new elements in the existing SOP for any workflow. Flexibility in the SOP templates. Implementing SOP with a team not accustomed to this type of work culture. Advantages of SOPs for sellers and buyers Transcription: Joe: So Mark one of the things we always talk about is how important the person behind the business is when they do eventually sell. And the fact that when they learn to value their business it actually becomes much more fun to operate and run because they've got some goals set out in the future. And one of the things that helps them are SOPs and above that, we had Norm for our own podcast, it was quickly shot up to the top 10 podcasts that we've done. And I understand you've got back to that and had Trent, and I'm going to get his name wrong, Trent Dyrsmid, is that how you pronounce it? Mark: Dyrsmid; yeah. Joe: On the podcast and he's got some great SOP stuff both for people that run SaaS, content, Amazon businesses, all sorts of different aspects. What was the general call about? Mark: Yeah. I saw the Norm for our episode and that was one of the ones that we did early on that really took off because Norm was running an eight-figure business largely on the backs of SOPs and virtual assistants; VAs which is really cool to see somebody be able to do that. Well, Trent Dyrsmid is very similar in that regard. His company was ranked on Forbes 5000 as the 254th fastest-growing company in the US. Joe: Wow. Mark: Amazon based business, reselling other people's products and just exploded and I asked him and I said when did you start to realize that you need to put SOPs in place? Day 0; it's like I don't have any special talents other than being the big idea guy and picking the direction but as far as executing those things that's on my team to do and my job is to give them the processes to be able to do that and to give them the tools to be able to execute on these ideas and this general direction. A really, really disciplined entrepreneur in this regard. He's not just an Amazon seller either he's got his own podcast. I was actually a guest on his podcast BrightIdeas.co. He's got a SaaS company Flowster.app which is an SOP software. I've played around with Flowster, a pretty cool SaaS product here where you can develop and roll out to your team a complete operating procedure for pretty much anything. So you can create this nice collaboration but what really sets it apart is there's this entire marketplace what he found was happening among both when he started his company and also once he started coaching some other people is they're asking how do you do this part of your business? What's the process that you use here? And instead of writing it down in word and all that sort of thing and trying to transport over he said well there should actually be a marketplace where people can collaborate and sell their best processes to each other or give them away for free. Most of the stuff in this marketplace is free so it's kind of cool on that. But what we focused on Joe is not a pitch for a Flowster; I think there's a lot of ways, you and I talked about just put a video together as just kind of a minimum type of SOP. We talked a lot about how do you write an SOP that is specific enough to really tell people how to do things, will be adopted by your team. How do you make it adopted by your team, and how do you create it general enough so that it can absorb differences when people are seeing maybe exceptions to what the standard process would be. Why is this so important in the process of building a company and can you actually scale a business to eight figures like he did very quickly without them and the answer is no. Joe: Yeah, and that's why so many people sell because they take it as far as they can and then they have to bring on staff and get into areas they're not as comfortable with and I think these SOPs will help those folks hold on longer and get a higher value. I think SOPs will help buyers as well when they buy a business and take it over and if there's no SOPs in place they can do that and instill more confidence in the next buyer and grow that business to the next level. So let's get to it. Mark: Trent, thank you so much for coming on the Quiet Light Podcast. I'm super excited to have you on. I recently appeared on your podcast. Somebody actually reached out to me recently about that episode as well so that's always an encouraging sign when people contact you after appearing on some of these podcasts. But I'm excited to have you on today because you've got so much experience in the world of online business and you cover a lot of materials. We're going to be looking at just one area that you covered pretty heavily and that would be SOPs; procedures and operating procedures to implement things. But you cover a ton of territory and a lot of the bases of what you do is based on your success with your company. And congratulations on Inc 5000 ranking that you had recently. Why don't we start; just give us a little bit of background on yourself and also where your company was ranked recently in Inc 5000? Trent: Sure. So the company was ranked number 254 which was a very pleasant surprise. And as you might guess it's a wonderful bit of social proof to kind of reinforce what my whole brand message is about which is systematizing your business so that you can delegate a lot of the work that you really shouldn't be doing to other people on your team. And the net result of that, of course, is an accelerating growth rate. So how did all this start for me? I've been an entrepreneur for two years now. When I started my first company back in ‘01 I really had no idea what I was doing. I knew how to sell but that was it. And I figured everything else out over an eight-year period. And it was pretty painful but thankfully I was able to get a seven-figure exit out of that business. And that put me on a track to have a bit of time and bandwidth and so forth to figure out this online business thing and I've been making my living online now for about nine years and roughly just over three years ago I switched from being a service business; I'd been running a digital agency for a number of years because my podcast built an audience and people would reach out and can you help me with this and can you help me with that and we were making a decent living doing that. But the last couple of years have been just a stratospheric kind of change up the hockey stick and it started with this e-commerce business. So we started a business three years ago where we would partner with US manufacturers to sell their products on Amazon ideally as one of their exclusive sellers. So in doing so, we were able to avoid all of the risk of launching our own brands and the time that it takes to do that and I like low risk. I love Warren Buffet's number one rule Don't lose the money and rule number two is see rule number one. And so the reseller model is a very, very low-risk model because you're buying proven products. But the problem with the reseller model is there's lots of sellers on each product and so oftentimes the margin can go away. So instead of making money you just end up kind of getting your money back which is pointless, so by forming these relationships with the brands directly and getting them to kick off all the other sellers or having a very small list of approved sellers that actually can be a very profitable model. The challenge is finding these suppliers require a great deal of grunt work; massive, like you, can't automate it all. There's just a bunch of labor because you need to send hundreds of emails a week to hundreds of suppliers. And what made me a little bit for lack of a better word famous in this particular industry was just how quickly we were able to scale the business. We went from doing 0 to over $100,000 a month in five months. We did at one point one million in the first year and we grew at 20% per quarter for eight consecutive quarters which was a huge contributing factor obviously to being 5000 at Ford. And how did I do all that? Well, that's the secret sauce. And essentially what I did was I realized I can't be the one doing all this labor. So when I launched the business rather than sitting down to do I sit down to document. And as soon as I'd created documents for all these; like I would do it one time or maybe two times and I would make my operating procedure while I was doing the thing and we would delegate the thing and never ever do it again. And that was a huge, huge advantage over everyone else in the space who was really kind of trying to do it all themselves. Mark: Yeah and I know we've got an episode a while ago with Norm Farrar. I don't know if you know Norm but the entire episode was how he grew an e-commerce business to over 10 million dollars on the strength of doing exactly what you're talking about; hiring the VA's and putting in strong SOPs in place so that the procedures are what you're working on rather than trying to master every little aspect of your business yourself and run the day-to-day. And I think procedures; in my world, in my opinion, I think a lot of entrepreneurs see procedures as important but they don't necessarily put the time into the procedures with a business so I want to delve into that a little bit. When you're growing this business when was the moment where you switched over and thought I should really be putting my time into writing awesome procedures for people to follow? Trent: Day 0 because I'm not a first time CEO, I had started to drink the Kool-Aid back in my very first business that I started in '01, somewhere in maybe '03 or '04 or it could have been '05, somewhere in that period of time I read E-Myth by Michael Gerber and my life as an entrepreneur was transformed at that moment. And I said to my co-founder at the time; I said I want a written procedure for absolutely everything our engineering team does. And then I handled writing procedures for what I was doing on the sales and marketing side and that business was twice ranked as a Profit 100 fastest growing company in Canada. And so I got a decent exit out of it for a relatively small business. And so for me having documented procedures was just kind of normal. So when I started my business on Amazon I never thought well I'm just going to go and do this and get really proficient at it and then maybe I'll make a training video or maybe I'll have a training session for somebody else. I don't think that's an efficient way to eliminate and delegate it all for a whole bunch of different reasons and so procedures were written literally from Day 1. Mark: So tell me how you go about writing your procedures and starting this and my first question is if you're not proficient in it how do you write it? Trent: So thankfully I did have a bit of a mentor in really a bit of a mentor; not really a bit of a mentor, I had a mentor in that business. I'd interviewed a guy by the name of named Dan Matters on my show and that's how I discovered this whole wholesale model and he has a training course which is a really high-quality course for me. So I had access to his material and I also had access to Dan because he'd been a guest on the show. And so I foundationally understood what I needed to do. And so as I mentioned before I would just start doing what his training told me to do and then I would document it as I was doing it. Mark: So when you're developing a procedure for a new task I mean you obviously we're staying off somebody else's work to some extent; I mean you were taking some inspiration but if you come across something that you haven't dealt with before especially like in the Amazon world I'm sure there are elements there that you needed to come up with, what sort of feedback loops do you employ or do you employ feedback loops to be able to maximize and optimize some procedures? Trent: Yeah absolutely we do. So a perfect example of that is I recently for my software company, a content marketing SEO is a huge focus as a part of our growth. And I've never been an SEO expert and so I wasn't really a keyword research expert and I had never used this tool called Ahrefs before; Ahrefs is a wonderful tool. And they provide training videos. So I would watch these videos but rather than just kind of sit and consume it and take sort of random notes over the period of the video I kept hitting the pause button, pause button, pause button and I would take screenshots of what they were explaining in the video. And at the same time in my Flowster software which is where I create all my standard operating procedures, I'm literally typing out the instructions that they're giving me and then I'm taking screenshots from the videos. Because my goal is this I want to; I don't about you but I can't watch a ten-minute training video and remember all the details, it's just too much. Not only that I only want to do it once or maybe twice and then I want to delegate it. So what am I going to do; ask somebody else to watch the training video and they have the same problem as me and what if they interpret the video differently than me? Because the training videos they kind of give you guidelines and I have to choose of those guidelines well how exactly do we want to do it? So by the time; a 10-minute training video would probably take me an hour and a half to turn that, to repurpose that content into my standard operating procedure which is a checklist essentially, it's a step by step by step do this, here's how you do this and do this, here's how you do that, do this, here's how you do that. And by the time I was done now I had a way that I never had to watch the training video again. Anyone that I was going to delegate that task to never has to watch the training video because the procedure is broken out so clearly in the document. And so that's how you can create a standard operating procedure for something you've literally never done before. Mark: Right. So you would start with somebody else's training video. Break that up into basically an outline and a step by step process in order to do that. When you're delegating procedures how do you identify who you're delegating something to? For example, I've talked to entrepreneurs who want to delegate a task but it just doesn't seem to fit the current team member and hiring somebody new for that doesn't really make sense. What have you done in the past when you've run into these smaller jobs and tasks that should be delegated but maybe they don't have a great home? Trent: It's an interesting question and I don't know that I've really run into that scenario because I live my life every single day thinking about what can I eliminate from my workflow and in order to eliminate it I need to document it and delegate it so I don't really think; I don't see anything in my business aside from; so as a CEO I see my job as working on the business. I'm the one who's supposed to go get the Big Ideas. I'm supposed to come up with the big vision. I'm supposed to build the team and help them to define and execute on a strategy. So that's the high-value activity and the minute I get sucked down into working in the business that high-value activity suffers. So I'm a delegating theme. So you said well what happens if I can't find somebody? I'll find somebody. I'll hire another virtual assistant or I'll hire an employee or I'll give it to an existing employee; like for most of the day to day, repetitive processes that are part of working in the business somebody else can do it. Like I'm not the genius of the universe that oh I'm the only guy that can do this; I don't really see it that way. Now, are there occasionally tasks that are somewhat non-repetitive, like they only happen every once in a while and they require judgment that comes from experience in addition to following a process? Well, I'm less likely to delegate those to somebody else because the return on investment of doing so is going to be slim. But for those highly repetitive tasks that are every day or every week if you spend that; in my case, I spend an hour and a half making a video for how to use and do keyword research on Ahrefs, well guess what? How many times is that going to get done for every single blog post that my software company publishes which is three a week? Just think of how much time I saved myself. Mark: Yeah. Oh absolutely. I mean that makes a lot of sense. That makes complete sense. You mentioned earlier; I want to go back a little bit to what you mentioned with Flowster and also how you got started. You leveraged knowledge of your mentor and some of the procedures that he put together to be able to scale up pretty quickly. And this is kind of the idea behind Flowster and I know this is a full disclosure, this is your business, this is something that you're growing right now a really cool software that really focuses on workflow especially in the e-commerce realm. Can you tell us a little bit about Flowster and how you can use Flowster to be able to leverage other people's experience? Trent: Sure. So the thing about like when I very first started out to create my procedures they were in a Google Doc because I didn't know any better. I thought well that would be a great place for them. They're easy to update and I can share them and so forth. And then over time we realized that that wasn't terribly efficient and so we moved our content into a competitor software application. And then as a result of speaking at an event I ended up becoming someone that sells SOPs. I was speaking to one of Dan's events and there was hundreds of people in the audience and I'm talking about SOPs and they all say hey I love it, I don't want to make them though can I buy yours? So we started selling ours and that's why Flowster got created. And the functionality of the software is really; because really you have two pieces when it comes to workflow process management. You have your content which is the set of instructions. Think of it like the recipe book. You want to bake a chocolate cake it's on page 68, flip to page 68, bake the cake. But what happens when you have multiple cake bakers baking cakes and they all have different due dates and they all work in different places so you have some issues about workflow management. And so what the software does is it allows you to say; so we have in our vernacular we have what we call an SOP template and then we have a [inaudible 00:19:02.3]. So the SOP template is like the master copy of how to do the thing. So we'll call it in my world one of the things I produce a lot of these podcast episodes; like this SOP template for podcast episodes well in the week that I recorded episodes, I might record 4 or 6ix episodes. So now that's 4 or 6 workflows each workflow being for one episode. Well if I have; and I have various people on my team who are involved in the post-production process of taking those raw recordings like you and I are doing right now and then turning it into an episode and then getting it on social media and running ads for it and do all of the things that we've got to do. So that's all defined in the workflow and then various portions of that workflow get assigned out to various people on my team with differing due dates. So the software provides you the ability to do all of that delegation and give deadlines and so forth and everybody gets notifications in their inbox or they can just look at the calendar and see what to do. Because the more people that you have on your team and the more concurrent workflows that you have going like how do you manage all that? How do I know Mark if I've delegated something to you and I've told you I need it done by Thursday; if I just sent you an email saying hey reference the Google Doc, see the instructions, make sure it's done by Thursday if you don't finish it by Thursday I'm not going to remember that by any stretch of the imagination. So I need us closing the loop system. So that is one of the primary pieces of value that the software does. But aside from that I actually have one thing that I like even better and I call it the magic button but it's really the edit button. So remember I mentioned how my job's to go and get the big ideas etcetera, etcetera? So I'm not a mastermind weekend this past weekend in San Diego and I'm getting a lot of big ideas and some of those ideas I realized I need to implement those in my workflow because they're really great ideas. I don't want to forget them. Without the software and without the standard operating procedures I would be faced with the challenge of having to change the hardest thing in the world and that's people's habits. I'd have to sit down. I'd have to explain to them and have meetings and tell people that this is the way they need to do it now and then hope and pray that they actually make that happen which as you well know the human habit is really hard to change; that would be difficult. Thankfully in the software so I learned that I wanted to create; I'll give you a specific example, for my podcast I want to now create a little 1-minute ad and I want to retarget my audience on Facebook to say hey I just recorded this episode with Mark and it was really awesome because of this, this, this, this, and this. So I fire up my SOP template for producing a podcast, I hit the edit button, I go and I make those changes, I hit save, the software says would you like to update all the active workflows based upon this change? I say yes. Well, guess what? That new idea is now going to get implemented in every single workflow that is active at that point in time. So with essentially no effort on my part this new idea or the strategy of this process has literally been pushed out to everybody in my organization just like that. And for me, it's the best part of the software because you're able to have your team collectively get more efficient, smarter, and more effective over time. Those ideas that you pick up don't get lost. They don't just stay in the notebook they actually become reality. Mark: When implementing a new idea like that do you find it ever causes confusion among your team? Or let's say that they've been doing the blog production workflow for the past two years and they know the steps that they may not even need to consult the software because they've done it. They know that I do keyword research and then I do this and then I do step 3 and step 4 and so maybe they're doing this independent of the software. Have you ever run into a situation where your team trips up on something like that? Trent: They're going to have questions. So it's a part of our culture and it's a part of our DNA. People know that the workflows are always changing and they're always being updated and it's just like in our company no one would go and try and drink a glass of water without a cup of water. You'd just be weird. The same thing with our workflows; everybody understands that everything happens by logging into the software first. Looking at the workflow, following the workflow, you're not supposed to do anything by memory. Now does that mean that you're not going to get questions? No, you're absolutely going to get questions. And all questions means that you didn't provide clear enough instructions. So when I get questions I then think okay well how can I update my workflow or my SOP template and in turn the workflows so that that particular question doesn't get asked again. And if you've written great procedures and you've provided enough detail you really won't get very many questions. I like to think of it like the mom tests or all of our moms are not particularly tech-savvy when I'm writing workflow I think to myself is there sufficient detail not only in the what to do but how to do each of those what's that my mom go through this and probably get it all right without asking me any questions. Mark: You answered my next question a little bit here but maybe we can expand in that a little bit. In the world of programming there is this idea of coupling, right? You can be either loosely coupled or tightly coupled. And what it basically means is a program can either be loosely coupled; it's very broad and allows for a lot of different possibilities and tight coupling is very specific as to how you do things. And there's benefits and drawbacks to both. You want to be somewhere in the middle in the world of programming probably my old days when I used to write code here. But I love these kinds of; writing and SOP I would imagine that there's something similar there, right? If you're too specific and they run across an exception they're going to wonder what should happen here because the SOP is specific. If it's too broad then you end up getting people doing things all sorts of different ways. Do you have any tips to find that sweet spot in the middle of where you can be nicely of both sides there? Trent: So the SOPs themselves are pretty tightly coupled. However now we go back to the whole hiring aspect. Ideally, I'm looking to hire people especially in the more senior roles who have a higher level of expertise in a given topic than I do. And the loose coupling as I say to them look you now own these SOP templates in your department. It is your job to improve them over time so that the people who report to you when they are doing these workflows that they're able to follow them and you're able to improve them over time and that has worked very well for us. And it also, of course, frees me up from having to be the guy that writes every single SOP. Because there's lots of stuff like for example in my e-commerce business that my wife runs on a day to day basis, there's lots of stuff I've never done but we have SOPs for it all because somebody else wrote them. Mark: Yeah well on that one of the things; so I've played around with Flowster app and one of the things I love about it is the marketplace that you have. The ability for people to contribute in SOPs that have worked well and for somebody else to come in and say you know what I really need right now what I could really use well right now but let's go use an example, how to use Ahrefs for keyword research. This is one of the SOPs with new marketplace. So if you've never done this before and don't want to sit there and write your own procedure or you don't know where to start you can use this marketplace. In your past, growing the businesses that you've grown; I mean you've grown e-commerce businesses, Amazon businesses, SaaS businesses, a podcast, I mean you've got a really wide range of online experience here, how much have you been able to draw on other people's materials? What role has that played would you say in the growth of some of these properties? Trent: Oh massive. Honestly, my secret of being a podcaster is yes it is nice to have an audience and as I'm sure you're already well aware it's the world's best networking tool and it also allows me to get free advice from really smart people in other areas. So yesterday was a perfect example. Yesterday I interviewed a woman by the name of Erin Corn. Erin worked for Facebook. She worked for Instagram and she worked for Amazon. So do you think she's got some skills? Absolutely she does. And particularly in the area of online advertising which is one of my big focuses for 2020. So at the end of that interview, I'm saying to Erin, hey Erin I think we should collaborate. And I think you should develop a whole bunch of SOPs around advertising on Facebook and Instagram; something I am not an expert in. We'll figure out how we can monetize that knowledge to your benefit and to my benefit going forward. So the whole idea of the marketplace is when people come to Flowster nobody wants to build an SOP from scratch. It's just a lot of work. And I was willing to suffer through it but not too many other people are. So the marketplace allows to come in to buy; so there's free ones you can download and then you can edit them to your heart's content. If you're a creator like me you can put your own in the marketplace and you can sell them to other people. And I've generated millions of dollars in the last two years in sales of SOPs for Amazon sellers. So there is a huge market for pre-made standard operating procedures and that's the big reason why we created the marketplace. I thought to myself there's all these other experts, there's all these other companies who would benefit from having SOPs that they could either give away or sell to their audience like a software company. We've formed partnerships with software companies for example. We've got one happening with a major player in the Amazon space by the name of Viral Launch because I said to them; I said look if you're only providing training videos to your new users you're putting a pretty significant burden on them because much like me with Ahrefs I had to watch the videos over and over again and I got to take notes and it just sucks. It's not an efficient way to learn highly detailed processes. So we're now collaborating with them to create standard operating procedures for how to get the most out of their software. And they're going to tell their 200,000 email subscribers about those. So how does that benefit us? Well it benefits their users, it benefits them as a company, and it benefits me as a platform. And so if anyone is listening to this who runs or owns a software company or you're an expert in a particular niche I definitely invite you to reach out and talk to me about some type of collaboration because that's a huge part of our growth strategy going forward. And for everyone who comes to Flowster the more and more content that's there; think of it a few years down the road like the Amazon of SOPs. No matter what business that you're in you can come there and you could SOPs that they might not be perfect but they're 80% good enough and you can hit the edit button and tweak the areas that aren't exactly the way you want and you're off to the races and it's so much better than creating it from scratch. Mark: Yeah I mean especially if you've never written it before and don't know. We talked about the idea of this loose and tight coupling; how do you find that sweet spot, well, follow somebody else's lead like somebody who's written one that's really successful. And I think for the audience listening here I know a lot of you guys have SOPs in place, why not share some of these and also use it as a revenue-generating aspect to your business especially if it's something that's tried and true. Of course, unless you think the SOP is something where you want to keep it proprietary but there's a lot of common SOPs that would be really good to share. Trent: There really is and if someone's running an agency as an example let's say your minimum retainer is $5,000 a month and you're on a classic line or like well we can't really afford that. Well if you don't have a down-sell they're gone; you generated zero. But if you say well you can't really afford that I'll tell you what we have a collection of SOPs and you can buy those for 2,500 bucks or we'll pick a number out of the air. At least you're giving the opportunity for A. to capture some revenue that's going to be 100% gross margin because it's kind of like selling software, build it once sell it a thousand times and B. more than likely as that buyer or that customer starts using your stuff you're at least giving them the opportunity to come back to the trough later on and say well actually now we're ready to put you on retainer because these are great but I don't actually want to do all this work and I want to hire people to do this work and you're opening a door that wasn't necessarily previously open to you. Mark: Right. Just a couple more questions for you. And this one here I think would apply to a lot of the people that are listening. You said that you were SOP heavy from Day 0; I'm sorry not Day 1, Day 0. How do you implement in your experience and maybe you haven't had to do this; maybe this can be difficult to answer but how would you implement SOPs with a team that is not used to following SOPs especially when you have a step by step software and you want them to live in that SOP on a day to day basis? Trent: So yes that will be more of a challenge because there is a cultural shift and I think the way to do that; there's a couple of ways, first and most when the SOPs, so you got to get the SOPs created. So as the boss I mean maybe you could create them all yourself but that wouldn't necessarily be the most efficient. But you might start off with creating SOPs for your direct reports and you're just saying hey look this is how it's done. I'm going to start assigning you these things; this weekly recurring thing or whatever and you're ingraining your direct reports into using and becoming dependent upon the software. And then you tell them alright so now for your subordinates who have to do this, this, and this over the next 30 days you have to develop 8 SOPs or 10 SOPs and if you don't you're just not going to fit in the company and you're going to get fired. That would be the way I would do it because I'm a pretty direct leader. If I have my culture and you're not in my culture then you're not on my team. Other folks are probably going to take maybe a softer approach to it and I don't know that I'm the best; I know then I am not the best expert on leading cultural change because I didn't do this with 50 people on staff already and then saying okay guys we're going to start drinking this SOP Kool-Aid. Mark: Yeah I just like to wrap up here and then ask you one final question but you mentioned early on that a big influence for you was Michael Gerber's book E-myth and I read that book and I can; everything you're talking about stems from what he wrote in that book and so it makes complete sense. So if you want to delve deeper into why SOPs and really I think sort of a philosophical look at how you build and scale a business and the hiring models that you would follow there, that would be a good foundation for anyone that's really going into this world. I think the product itself is fantastic. We preach a lot at Quiet Light Brokerage when talking about building value in an online business. One of the key pillars that we talk about is transferability. What's really important with transferability? Well having procedures written out. And for a lot of people it's intimidating so we just say just do a video recording if nothing else; just kind of a minimum [inaudible 00:34:21.6] product but how much greater would it be if you actually had everything written down in steps with timelines, with due dates and you could apply it to a team and literally just plug and play. A fantastic product and something that would really increase the value of a business just based on the fact that that you have all these procedures written and a buyer doesn't have to come in and try and figure out processes on their own. They already exist. If somebody wants to check out Flowster what recommendations or do you have anything for them to check out first? Trent: I do. I put together a page just for your audience. They can get to it at BrightIdeas.co/quietlight and on that page, I will put a promotional code and along with a couple of links. So there's one of our products that we sell in the marketplace, we sell it for $299 and it's what I call it the blogger content production pack. So any company that is producing blog content or video content or podcast content would highly value this collection of SOPs because there's my SOP for podcast production, there's my SOP for video production, there's my SOP for text blog post-production, for webinars and for email and obviously, the email is specific to one particular application. So if you don't use that same application you would obviously have to make some edits and so forth. But if you go to BrightIdeas.co/quietlight all that good free stuff which we normally sell for 300 bucks we'll be there for you. Mark: Yeah and just disclosure I actually have that workflow because I was checking out Flowster. It is so detailed. Like the SOP that you have here is great. It really does; when you're talking about being a little bit more towards the tightly coupled sort of SOPs, it is. I mean there's just on the weekly broadcast email I'm seeing 29 steps here labeled out which is fantastic. I mean that that level of detail makes sure that nothing is getting dropped. Trent, thank you so much for coming on. It's definitely a pleasure to have you on the podcast here and thank you for the offer. That's really really generous for our clients. I appreciate you offering that over to them. So we'll link to that in the show notes everybody so that you can take a look at it. I'd highly recommend you check out the app, it's really cool. And if you haven't implemented SOPs now's the time to do it. If you don't know whether or not you want to, read E-myth by Michael Gerber first and then you can build up from there and start implementing some SOPs. Trent: Yeah and I think mentioning the E-myth you asked me how would I transform the culture? I would hand E-myth to everybody on my management team and I would say you got two weeks to read this thing and we're going to sit down on our future. I think that because that way you're using that third party reference. You're not saying hey I'm the expert. I'm saying this has been proven to work in every industry on planet Earth. This book has been a bestseller for years etcetera, etcetera. Mark: Absolutely. Okay Trent, thanks for coming on. Trent: Thanks very much for having me, Mark. Links and Resources: Bright Ideas Flowster QL Listener Offer The E Myth by Michael Gerber  

In today’s episode, we discuss online tools that are useful for research and scheduling for E Commerce business. We break down the model for selling on Amazon, and how much one actually makes from the products they sell there. We discuss software subscriptions to services such as Helium 10, Viral Launch, and Keepa which tell you how much each product sells on Amazon, and talk about some of the differences of each. We also discuss an extension called How Many, which tells you how much inventory anyone is carrying. We talk about the benefits of using Live Plan for putting business plans together, as well as using Gusto and Homebase to simplify payroll and employee scheduling. -Intro, Fulfillment by Amazon, and Helpful Chrome Extensions 0:52 -Tools for Business Plans: Live Plan 8:23-Warnings About Google 9:51-Using Gusto and Homebase Together for Payroll and Employee Scheduling 12:13-Finding Customers Within Any Market Or industry Using nextmark.com 17:10“Growing your business is about finding new customers, making your employees awesome, contributing to their livelihood and their professional development, their personal development, right? Go spend your time on that! And where you’re spending your time chasing your tail trying to figure out how to do payroll, go use technology, don’t be dumb!” 19:33

¡Hola a todos y todas! Bienvenidos a un nuevo episodio del blog del Emprendedor Amazónico. Un blog destinado a proporcionarte las herramientas y conocimientos que necesitas para crear tu propia marca online, aprovechando el poder de Amazon, y con ello poder vivir tu vida tal y como tú desees. ¿Te gustaría despertarte un martes, quedarte con tu pareja en la cama, y levantaros, por ejemplo a las 11? Pues con un negocio online lo puedes hacer. ¿Quieres aprender cómo? No dejes de seguir los episodios del blog del Emprendedor Amazónico. En el episodio 30 te voy a aclarar un reciente cambio de Amazon respecto a las secuencias de emails y responderé tres preguntas de seguidores del podcast. Así que, ¡empezamos!     ¿Qué Hay De Nuevo Jeff? Hoy empezamos con una nueva entrega de esta sección. Tal vez lo echaras de menos, pero no te preocupes porque el bueno de Jeff vuelve a lo grande. En el episodio anterior hablamos sobre las secuencias de emails, y en concreto sobre las secuencias de emails para tus ventas a través de Amazon. Te conté los motivos por los que creo que es importante usarlas, así como qué pongo yo en mis emails y cómo los organizo. Además de proporcionarte una secuencia completa de emails que puedes descargar de forma gratuita. Si formas parte de la comunidad del Emprendedor Amazónico, habrás recibido el email que envié al día siguiente de la publicación del episodio 29, el episodio en el que te hablé sobre las secuencias de emails. Pues bien en ese email te informé, como sabrás, sobre un nuevo cambio en la política de comunicaciones vendedor-comprador de Amazon. Básicamente este cambio, que entra en vigor el 3 de diciembre, dice que: “De forma general se puede contactar a un comprador que haya comprado alguno de tus productos en Amazon SOLO para completar un pedido o para responder a una pregunta del comprador. No se podrá contactar a un comprador de ninguna forma por motivos de promocionales o de marketing, incluyendo email, correo ordinario, teléfono, o cualquier otro medio”. Esto también incluye la prohibición de solicitar que los compradores dejen su opinión acerca de tu producto. Es decir, parece que este cambio en la política de Amazon viene a dilapidar todo lo que te conté que yo hago, y que tú deberías hacer, en el episodio 29. Pero por ahora yo me inclino más a pensar que solo lo parece, y te voy a explicar porqué pienso esto. Bueno antes de nada quiero decirte que por ahora esta nueva política solo va a entrar en vigor en Estados Unidos. Para los que vendemos en Europa, por ahora no hay que preocuparse de nada. Antes de trabajar en este episodio, he llevado a cabo una pequeña investigación para ver cuáles han sido las reacciones de las distintas partes implicadas en este cambio, que de llevarse a cabo de la forma que el anuncio indica supondría un cambio en nuestra estrategia como vendedores.     Reacción de Amazon Por un lado ya conocemos la opinión de Amazon. Sin embargo, en sus propios foros de vendedores, el propio Amazon dice que la política no ha cambiado. Según ellos, lo único que han hecho ha sido aclarar los puntos de esa política a raíz de las múltiples peticiones que han recibido de los vendedores. Sinceramente, esto me lo tomo como Amazon jugando a la ambigüedad que tanto les caracteriza. Ya lo sabes, lo he repetido hasta aburrir, y lo seguiré haciendo: Amazon es una plataforma de venta, pero no puedes dejar que sea crítica para tu negocio, porque tienen el poder de suspender tu cuenta cuando quieran. Aún así, es el marketplace con mayor tráfico y merece mucho la pena estar en él.     ¿Qué Dicen Los Vendedores? Pues…de todo, como era de esperar. Los hay que dicen que nunca han contactado a sus compradores, a no ser que estos les contactasen a ellos antes, y los hay que dicen que van a seguir haciéndolo. La mayoría están aún más confusos. Consideran que no hacen nada malo al ofrecer cercanía y humanidad, así como proactividad o anticipación en la resolución de posibles problemas. Sinceramente yo estoy de acuerdo con estos últimos, y además mi experiencia así me lo ha demostrado. He recibido opiniones públicas en mis listings de Amazon en los que los compradores agradecen y valoran positivamente los emails de atención al cliente que reciben de nosotros. Los porcentajes de apertura de los emails que enviamos son bastante altos, por encima del 30%. También es cierto que hay muchísimos compradores que han optado por no recibir ninguno de estos emails. Ahora yo pienso lo siguiente. Si Amazon proporciona la libertad al comprador de decidir si quiere recibir esos emails, y el comprador libremente decide que sí o que no, ¿por qué ahora autoritariamente Amazon decide que ningún comprador puede recibir esos emails? Nosotros, con nuestras marcas, dedicamos mucho tiempo y esfuerzo a la creación de las secuencias de emails para hacerlas útiles, entretenidas e interesantes para nuestros compradores. Si el comprador decide libremente que quiere recibir esos emails, ¿por qué ahora Amazon decide que no? Pues bueno, porque tienen miedo de que con nuestra atención al cliente y nuestro marketing humano nos llevemos a los clientes lejos de su plataforma porque son sus clientes y no los nuestros…o no? Sobre este último punto he descubierto que Amazon tiene procesos legales abiertos tanto en Estados Unidos como en Europa. Amazon se enfrenta a acusaciones muy serias por parte de los gobiernos estadounidense y europeo por prácticas monopolísticas. En resumidas cuentas, parece ser que según la ley los compradores no son los clientes de la plataforma sino de los vendedores a los que les compran. Por lo tanto, prácticas de Amazon como esta de controlar las comunicaciones entre compradores y vendedores están siendo consideras como prácticas monopolísticas y de abuso de poder. ¿Qué conclusión saco yo de esto? Pues que puede que dentro de un tiempo, Amazon se vea obligado a recular en este sentido, y puede incluso que tenga que compartir la información de contacto de compradores con vendedores. Pero si eso llegara a suceder, aún falta bastante.     Software Para Envío de Secuencias de Emails Aún nos queda un actor más por analizar: las aplicaciones externas que se encargan de enviar estas secuencias de emails. Estas aplicaciones, como Helium 10 por ejemplo, usan la API de Amazon para acceder a los datos que necesitan para que sus aplicaciones funcionen. Por ejemplo, Jungle Scout accede a datos para crear un catálogo de productos que tú como vendedor puedes filtrar a través de su aplicación web. Del mismo modo, aplicaciones de gestión de emails, como Feedbackz o el propio Helium10, acceden a los datos de los compradores para enviar los emails a través de la plataforma de comunicación de Amazon. Pues bien Amazon no ha retirado los permisos a estas plataformas, y estas plataformas no han emitido comunicados diciendo que dejan de ofrecer estos servicios. Esto puede significar que este nuevo cambio en la política de Amazon no es realmente tal cambio. De cualquier modo, estos son los hechos más actualizados que puedo ofrecerte.     ¿Qué Voy A Hacer Yo? Yo no voy a dejar de enviar mis emails por ahora. Lo que sí que también estoy haciendo es enviar una secuencia de emails parecida a la que uso en Amazon a través de canales que yo controlo. Es decir, he creado una email sequence parecida que envío a aquellas personas que se suscriben a mi lista tras comprar alguno de mis productos. De esta manera me protejo de posibles futuros cambios de Amazon, o de los efectos de este cambio que entra en vigor el 3 de diciembre en Estados Unidos. Además, voy a permanecer atento a todo lo que suceda al respecto y te lo iré contando a través de los emails que envío a los Emprendedores suscritos a la Comunidad del Emprendedor Amazónico, y en futuros episodios del podcast. Así terminamos esta nueva entrega de ¿Qué hay de nuevo Jeff? Y ahora pasamos a esta primera entrega de Tú Preguntas, Yo Respondo.     Tú Preguntas, Yo Respondo En esta nueva sección del blog del Emprendedor Amazónico os presentaré con 3 preguntas, y mis respuestas, de seguidores del blog/podcast como tú. De esta forma podrás aprender de las dudas y experiencias de otros. Si tú quieres que tu pregunta aparezca en una próxima entrega del blog, o si simplemente quieres que te responda tu pregunta, puedes enviarla a rafa@elemprendedoramazonico.com Vamos con la primera pregunta.     Pregunta de Jose: ¿Cuáles serían las cualidades de un buen vendedor y qué se necesita para empezar a ponerse en marcha? Para ser un buen vendedor tienes que estar dispuesto a trabajar desde el momento cero. Es decir, tienes que tener ganas de poner el trabajo por adelantado sin recibir ninguna retribución económica. Además debes estar mentalizado de que esta retribución, si llega, llegará pasados unos cuantos meses. Por eso siempre digo que elijas nichos de mercado que te interesan, para que sientes que dedicas el tiempo a un hobby y que de esa manera lo disfrutes aún más y no lo veas como trabajo. Tienes que tener paciencia y constancia, y no arriesgar lo que hayas conseguido. Por ejemplo, no uses dinero que necesitas para pagar comida para empezar un negocio de ningún tipo. Además necesitas buena información de personas que hayan pasado por donde tú estás pasando ahora para que simplemente te ahorres cometer los errores que ellos cometieron y ser capaz de desarrollar tu proyecto más rápidamente y sobre mejores cimientos. Por último, son fundamentales tus ganas de aprender y tu capacidad para cambiar y aceptar el cambio. No necesitas tener un máster ni un doctorado, ni experiencia previa en creación o gestión de empresas ni online ni offline. Para ponerte en marcha te recomiendo que empieces por repasas los episodios sobre búsqueda de producto y búsqueda de mercado o nicho de mercado. En concreto te recomiendo el episodio 6. Cuando tengas tus listas de productos, evalúa qué ideas tienen más potencial económico a largo plazo, y de esas ideas, quédate con el mercado/nicho/audiencia que más te motive o te guste.     Pregunta de Ana: «Tengo una gran duda, si vivo en Guatemala, y deseo comercializar en Amazon Canadá un producto producido en Guatemala, ¿se puede hacer?» Pues la verdad es que en términos generales, la respuesta a esta pregunta es que por supuesto que se puede hacer. No serías ni la primera ni la última persona en hacerlo. Ahora bien, es importante que antes que nada compruebes los requisitos legales para la importación de tu producto a Canadá, ya que este sería el único inconveniente que te haría tener que cambiar de producto. Esta misma situación aplica a cualquier otra combinación de países, por ejemplo vivo en España y quiero vender un producto fabricado en España en Estados Unidos. O como en mi caso, vivo en España, y quiero vender un producto fabricado en China, o en un país X, y quiero importarlo a Estados Unidos, Reino Unido, etc. Siempre hay que comprobar los requisitos al importación de los productos los cuales varían según el país al que importamos. Una forma de aprender sobre estos requisitos es realizando una búsqueda en Google, y comprobando las información de fuentes oficiales. También puedes contactar directamente a los organismos oficiales de aduanas y preguntarles por los requisitos. Según de dónde sea tu proveedor, y la confianza que te inspire, puedes preguntarle también, o a la compañía de transporte. Pero ten cuidado porque las compañías de transporte no son responsables, así que pueden que no tengan toda la información actualizada, o solo estén interesados en conseguir la venta y no en ayudarte. Lo mismo aplica a tus proveedores. Por eso mi primera recomendación son las fuentes oficiales.     Pregunta de Carlos: «Quería preguntarte, ya que en uno de tus primeros podcasts hablas de ello, sobre la categoría de productos grandes de Amazon, si existe alguna manera de encontrar esta categoría ya que, desde mi corta experiencia, al menos yo no la encuentro.» Esta es una buena pregunta. No existe una categoría de productos grandes (oversize) como tal que puedas buscar dentro de Amazon. En la web de Amazon tú puedes buscar dentro de su catálogo, y una de las opciones de búsqueda es la búsqueda por categorías o departamentos. La categoría de productos grandes no se puede buscar así directamente. Sin embargo, si usas aplicaciones como la aplicación web de Jungle Scout o Viral Launch, sí que puedes filtrar el catálogo de Amazon para que te muestre sólo productos grandes (oversize) que cumplan tus otros criterios de búsqueda. Como he dicho en  episodios anteriores, crear una marca con productos oversize es muy interesante. Por un lado, estos productos tienen comisiones más altas y el envío es más caro, lo que así sin más reduce muchísimo la competencia. Por otro lado, puedes hacer cambios en el diseño, tú mismo o alguien que contrates, para que el producto deje de ser oversize. Si consigues hacer esto tendrás una gran ventaja frente a tus competidores ya que ahorrarás en comisiones y gastos de envío, lo que te permitirá ofrece precios más competitivos al principio o tener mejores márgenes para hacer crecer tu marca y tu catálogo de productos. Pero es que además conseguirás diferenciarte de tus competidores de cara a tus compradores. Nuevamente, creo que es muy recomendable vender productos oversize.     Con esta última pregunta terminamos el episodio 30. Si tú tienes alguna pregunta que quieres que responda me la puedes enviar a rafa@elemprendedoramazonico.com o dímelo abajo en los comentarios del episodio. Si te preocupa que alguien te reconozca, no te preocupes, solo diré tu nombre, o incluso puedo cambiarlo si así te quedas más cómodo. ¡Lo importante es que no te quedes con las dudas! Muchas gracias por estar ahí un día más. Y prestarme un poquito de tu tiempo. Ya sabes Amazónico, saca ese pedazo de emprendedor que llevas dentro y ¡no dejes de soñar, pero no pares de actuar! ¡Nos vemos en el próximo episodio! ¡Que tengas un gran día y un fuerte abrazo!

What's up everyone we have a special treat for you! Have you ever had struggle marketing with social media? We have the beautiful genius today by the name of Lindsey Tod! She has coached Amazon sellers to grow their sales, built educational resources viewed over 1 million times, online course and had over 2,000 students in the first week with Viral Launch! You don't want to miss this! Viral Launch: https://viral-launch.com/ Soul Productions: https://www.yourvoiceissoulproductions.com/free-business-information

Join us this week as we learn from Viral Launch's Cameron Yoder.  He introduces us to the new FREE PPC Playbook and how it all came about!  You don't want to miss this episode!

Join us this week as we learn from Viral Launch's Cameron Yoder.  He introduces us to the new FREE PPC Playbook and how it all came about!  You don't want to miss this episode!

Learn from an experienced Director of Sales Operations & Research to become successful in a sales ops role with our special guest, Randall Fees of Viral Launch...

Make a Killer Listing Revisit your Target Customer Avatar Exactly who are you selling to? As well as demographics (age, sex, location, income), try to define psychographics (values, drivers, etc.) Precisely what Pain are you solving? Solving arthritis? Which kind? What location? Brought on by what activity? What is the “Ultimate Pain” you're solving? Mobility? Thus freedom? Revisit your Market Research Keywords: Exactly which top 5 keywords are both winnable and worth winning (in terms of ranking ie where your listing appears in the search results)? What are your 15-20 long-tail keywords? (lower search volume but very relevant - low-hanging fruit) Differentiate: Exactly how is your product different from what is out there? Why is this important to your target customer?  Craft your listing Craft your words: Tone of voice matters. On Amazon, so does energy (especially in the USA). Give your listing punch and personality. Fantastic Photos: Engage an exceptional product photographer. Collect product images you like into a virtual scrapbook (Pinterest is excellent) Make a clear brief for your photographer based on your other work above. Include “lifestyle” shots (product in context) and use models if you can.   Plan Your Launch Like a Pro Revisit your Target Keywords Exactly which top 5 keywords are both winnable and worth winning (in terms of ranking ie where your listing appears in the search results)? What are your 15-20 long-tail keywords? (lower search volume but very relevant - low-hanging fruit) Plan your Traffic channels Amazon Ads? (this is the mainstay) Launch Services (JumpSend, Viral Launch)? Facebook Ads to Chatbot? Plan your Budget If you're selling below breakeven, how much will each sale cost you? Plan your ad costs - assuming that most of your sales will come via Amazon ads to start with. Set up your Keyword tracking Use software (like CashCowPro, Zonguru, etc.) to track your ranking for all keywords you think might be important. DO THIS BEFORE YOU RUN TRAFFIC!! Set your price REALLY low Know your numbers - what is your breakeven price without ads? Set your price to breakeven to start (below breakeven if you can bear it!) Gradually raise your price to when you start to achieve your target keyword rankings (see below) Set your Amazon sponsored ads Set an auto campaign with an aggressive bid per click (say $2-5) and strong daily budget (say $20-100/day) Set up a manual campaign with your top 5 keywords and 20 long-tail keywords. If in doubt: exact match only. Monitor but Don't Mess Monitor the numbers every couple of days (see next step) RESIST THE URGE TO FIDDLE. You will want to mess with your settings daily. Listing words, price, ad spend, etc.. RESIST. Change something only once every 4 days maximum. That way, you will have meaningful data. Click here for our free Guide on Listing Watch my full discussion of Private Label Launch - Private Label Strategy (step 7 of 10)

Casey Guass started Viral Launch as a broke 24-year-old college drop out.  The rest is history. It's now one of the most beloved SaaS platforms for Amazon sellers.  Like most great companies it's gone through some serious product evolutions. But, the core has remained the same - helping Amazon Sellers rank better on Amazon.   In this podcast, we cover a lot…and get pretty nerdy with data.  Here's a quick look at what we discuss.  3 Amazon ranking factors you might be overlooking including considering your canonical url for better ranking on Google (we explain what this means in the podcast).  How conversion rate factors into organic rankings and what to do about it. Why you're likely focusing on the wrong keywords and how to shift your approach. Casey's 6-step road map for ranking a product on Amazon - this is pure gold.   Casey's advice that he would NOT give to clients, but might try for selling his own products. Why you're thinking about Amazon PPC is probably off a bit and how you should adjust.  How to use brand analytics data for some “blow your mind” insights.   Plus more!

AMAZON SELLER PODCAST EXCLUSIVE discount on Viral Launch's Kinetic PPC tool with code 'LHKINETIC19'. We're talking Sponsored ads with special guest Casey Gauss of Viral Launch.  

AMAZON SELLER PODCAST EXCLUSIVE discount on Viral Launch's Kinetic PPC tool with code 'LHKINETIC19'. We're talking Sponsored ads with special guest Casey Gauss of Viral Launch.  

Casey Gauss from viral-launch.com talks Amazon strategic launch tips with Henson Wu from FeedbackWhiz. They also cover Amazon Keyword research prior to sourcing a product. Casey suggests to find keyword that people are ranking for and which they are not ranking for on amazon to have a good understanding of what keywords you will need once your product launches on amazon. This can also help you when it comes to amazon PPC as most of the keywords you find will also need to have an amazon campaign behind them when launching. Visit FeedbackWhiz: http://bit.ly/2X3Yi32 - Use Promo Code Whiz50 and get 30 day Free Trial and 50% off your first month paid subscription. Viral Launch - Market Intelligence Chrome Extension - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/viral-launch-market-intel/ncbhkghndhoddmbfgddpgafhbnijdadj?hl=en-US Market Intelligence provides in-depth Amazon analytics. Viral Launch Market Intelligence helps you find profitable products that you can source and sell on Amazon. See historical trends, monthly sales, monthly revenue, number of sales for the past 12 months, and much more. Simply install this extension, open Amazon, and sign in to your Market Intelligence subscription. If you find a 5 star product, you may have uncovered a goldmine.

Adam Hudson Co-founder of Reliable Education and a seven-figure Amazon seller Adam Hudson is the co-founder of Reliable Education and a seven-figure Amazon seller. His companies have funded over 7,000 interest-free micro-loans to entrepreneurs in third world countries and they have also funded thousands of free eye surgeries for the blind in Indonesia, a country where more than 4 million people are blind because of curable eye diseases. What was your start with Amazon? Why micro-loans? Interest-Free loans?What are the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs mistake?How to start selling online?How does Reliable Education grow?there are over 3 million sellers on Amazon right now, does this mean its too late to start?How easy or hard is it for a US company to launch on Amazon Australia?What are some things we need to know when sending our products to AUI don't sell in Australia yet, but I hear that the pick and pack fees are even higher than Canada, is this correct?Do all the tools we use here work in the AU market, Like JS, Helium 10, Viral Launch? https://www.facebook.com/ReliableEducationAcademy/https://reliable.education

Young entrepreneur Casey Gauss shares his in-depth knowledge about the micro and macro data operations on Amazon. As founder and CEO of Viral Launch, a company aimed at providing entrepreneurs with the insight, tools, and partnerships needed for lasting success, Casey often launches hundreds of products daily. Take this opportunity to learn from one of the most experienced Amazon gurus out there today! 1:46 - Casey’s experience transitioning from a small company into large business 2:51 - Casey’s Youtube channel 4:01 - Witnessing large scale Amazon changes from the inside 11:37 - What precautions should new Amazon sellers take in regards to promotions? 15:25 - What to expect running a new PPC campaign 20:20 - How long does it reasonably take to get a profitable campaign set up? 22.40 - Amazon PPC metrics 26:26 - The effects of black hat tactics on conversion rates 28:08 - Casey’s predictions for near-future changes on Amazon 35:26 - Are there ways to elicit positive reviews within Amazon’s terms of use? 40:00 - Where to find Casey online

1:46 - Casey’s experience transitioning from a small company into large business2:51 - Casey’s Youtube channel4:01 - Witnessing large scale Amazon changes from the inside11:37 - What precautions should new Amazon sellers take in regards to promotions?15:25 - What to expect running a new PPC campaign20:20 - How long does it reasonably take to get a profitable campaign set up?22.40 - Amazon PPC metrics26:26 - The effects of black hat tactics on conversion rates28:08 - Casey’s predictions for near-future changes on Amazon35:26 - Are there ways to elicit positive reviews within Amazon’s terms of use?40:00 - Where to find Casey online

Casey Gauss, Founder and CEO of Viral Launch, joins us for a special guest podcast episode to explain some amazing new data reporting from Viral Launch.

What does Casey Gauss of Viral Launch have to say about recent search volume changes? And about ranking and launching new products on Amazon? You're about to find out in this Special Guest episode.

Hey, qué tal va tu día? ¡Bienvenido a un nuevo episodio del podcast del Emprendedor Amazónico! Episodio 8. Una vez que ya hemos aprendido a buscar producto de la forma más eficiente posible usando una de las dos mejores aplicaciones que hay actualmente en el mercado, Jungle Scout o Viral Launch (si aún no has escuchado ese episodio del podcast pulsa aquí para escucharlo), lo natural sería pensar que tenemos que buscar fabricantes para nuestro producto y empezar a crear nuestra propia marca privada, ¿no? Pues no. ¿Qué venderías? ¿Exactamente lo mismo que están vendiendo todos tus competidores? No, ¿verdad? Y ¿cómo sabes qué tienes que hacer para diferenciarte de la competencia? Si vendes exactamente lo mismo que tus competidores, entras en una guerra de precios. Sólo hay un final, y es la canibalización del producto y el fin del mismo. Lo que tienes que hacer es INVESTIGAR, tanto a tu público objetivo como a tus competidores. En este nuevo episodio del podcast del Emprendedor Amazónico, aprenderás a: Investigar a tu audiencia objetivo para conocer qué quieren en realidad. Utilizar la información disponible dentro de Amazon para aprender a diferenciarte de tus competidores. Analizar la competencia para aprender de su experiencia sin que ellos lo sepan, ni puedan hacer nada por evitarlo. Identificar problemas generalizados de un producto y poder decidir si quieres seguir adelante o no. Éste es un episodio crítico para el éxito a largo plazo de tu marca privada. Aplicar estos conceptos puede determinar en gran medida que tu primer producto sea un éxito o un fracaso. Ve más abajo para escuchar el episodio de hoy.

Hey, espero que estés teniendo un día magnífico. ¡Bienvenido al Episodio 7 del podcast del Emprendedor Amazónico! Las cosas se ponen más serias en este episodio ya que nos adentramos en el mundo real de la búsqueda de productos. Una vez que tienes asimilados los conceptos básicos, explicados en detalle en los episodios anteriores, es hora de que subamos de nivel y empecemos a utilizar las herramientas web disponibles ya que son un verdadero salvavidas. En este episodio te cuento sobre mis dos aplicaciones favoritas para buscar productos para vender en Amazon: Jungle Scout y Viral Launch. Ambas tienen un extensión de chrome y una aplicación web que permite buscar en el catálogo de productos de Amazon pero desde el punto de vista de lo que somos: vendedores. Por reducido que sea tu presupuesto para empezar este negocio, no puedes permitirte no adquirir una de estas dos herramientas. El tiempo que ahorran y la IMPORTANCIA CRÍTICA de la información que proporcionan las convierten en algo indispensable para garantizar tu éxito. NO PUEDES PERDERTE ESTE EPISODIO, ve hacia abajo para escuchar el episodio y aprender sobre: las diferencias entre la extensión de chrome y la aplicación web: porqué necesitas las dos. qué es Jungle Scout y qué es Viral Launch: diferencias, similitudes, y porqué no debes usar ambas a la vez. cómo usar estas aplicaciones para generar ideas de productos. cómo usar Viral Launch para estimar tu inversión inicial. la importancia del "Sales per Review" (número de ventas estimadas por número de opiniones).

Casey Gauss gave brilliant talk about HOW brands are currently crushing it selling products on Amazon at the Capitalism Conference this past winter. The CEO of Viral Launch, he's all about sourcing, launching, and dominating your way to success. If you missed CapCon, now's your chance to catch up on his awesome tips, including:   Killer hack: Be the best at everything Source the best materials. Have the best branding. Write the best ad copy. Engage the best influencers. If you can come out of the gate with the best possible product and the best possible marketing you can give it, you'll stun the marketplace. Watch out for crowded spaces If there are a number of established players in a product space with 4.5 star ratings, you might be in for a rough time if you try to go up against them. Sure, you might be able to craft a product worth at least 4.7 stars, but that's not going to make a difference in the eyes of your average consumer.   Split testing can be your best friend Why go all-in on one marketing strategy if another one might be just as good, or better? Take advantage of split testing to see what the market responds to better, so you can make more effective use of your marketing spend.   It was great hearing Casey Gauss's talk!   Key takeaways: Being the best at everything is one way to win Avoid crowded markets, and Use split testing   Connect with Ryan Find more amazing podcast discussions on FreedomFastLane.com.   On Facebook On YouTube On LinkedIn On Twitter   Connect with Casey FInd out more about Casey's company at https://viral-launch.com/.   On Twitter

Amazon is full of entrepreneurs looking to take their physical product brand to the next level. For business owners entering the market, it can be daunting to see so many products dominating so many niches. Is it even possible to compete anymore? Casey Gauss founded Viral Launch to help Amazon sellers find what's possible and has helped physical product brands make huge profits. They've worked with 5,500 brands, and have an incredible perspective on the space which gives them their biggest advantage. Potential Amazon sellers are often intimidated by the perceived market domination of competitors. Casey talks about why the perception isn't the same as the reality. On this episode of Freedom Fast Lane, Casey explains how he helps brands to source products understand what markets look like and how profitable they are, and how to optimize listings for maximum conversions. Having helped on over 20,000 product launches on Amazon, Casey knows how to drive sales as quickly as possible. If you're a business making six figures a month, you will also learn how to take the next step to seven figures in this episode. Casey is still in his 20s and has a team of 30 people at Viral Launch. Here he shares what he learned when growing his business to the next level, and the tips for how you can do the same. Key takeaways: Is there still room for new businesses to make a profit on Amazon? How physical product owners can make the pivot from six to seven figures a month Going after overlooked niches for success on Amazon Connect with Casey Gauss Take a look at Viral Launch and check out their new Market Intelligence tool to help you make the best decisions with your next Amazon market. On Twitter On LinkedIn On YouTube Connect with Ryan On YouTube On Facebook On Twitter On Google Plus On LinkedIn On Instagram Subscribe to Freedom Fast Lane -->Subscribe to the Freedom Fast Lane Podcast with Ryan Daniel Moran

 Casey Gauss, the smartest person that no one talks about, is a genius when it comes to creating success as an Amazon seller. His company Viral Launch has more data than anyone else in the same space, and are able to track Amazon trends and profitable niche markets effectively for their users. The main demographic who are struggling to boost their Amazon sales are the ones who had success early on. They think the same tactics will carry them forward without needing to reevaluate their product range and process. Casey tells us how the competition is heating up and how tactics are changing every day. So if you're not willing to be a student of what's working on Amazon right now, then your success is going to take a hit. Market Intelligence is the data tool every Amazon seller needs to be able to identify what untapped niches there are. There's still so much opportunity for huge success on Amazon, but you have to know where to look and you need the data to back it up. Market Intelligence does that for you, letting you focus your time on selling great products while they stay ahead of the curve for you. Key takeaways: How Amazon sellers can grow and continue their success The biggest make or break decision when selling on Amazon Using Market Intelligence to find your next profitable product Connect with Casey Gauss Take a look at Viral Launch and check out their new Market Intelligence tool to help you make the best decisions with your next Amazon market. On Twitter On LinkedIn On YouTube Connect with Ryan On Youtube On Facebook On Twitter On Google Plus On LinkedIn On Instagram Subscribe to Freedom Fast Lane Subscribe to the Freedom Fast Lane Podcast with Ryan Daniel Moran

Every Amazon private label seller wants to find that product that is the next big thing… and they want to be the one to benefit from the buying frenzy. But it doesn't just happen. Ever. There are intentional and carefully contrived organic sales strategies and product promotions that have to happen in order for those big things to become big. You can take the trial and error route and figure it out on your own over time (if you have the time and money to walk that road). Or, you can learn from the people who have done that work themselves. Casey Gauss of Viral Launch is one of those people. He's Ryan's guest on this episode of Freedom Fast Lane and shares his view of the road to product success. What does it really take to rank your private label product for keywords on Amazon? If you've ever looked into the backend of the Amazon seller dashboard you know that there are a couple of places and ways that you can attempt to optimize your listing for keywords. But you probably also know that there's more to it than simply entering your keywords in those places. Casey Gauss says that the main thing that drives a product to rank in Amazon's organic search is organic sales. If you think about that for a minute you'll see that it's almost a chicken and egg scenario. If you need organic sales to rank, then how are you going to get them if you aren't ranking? Casey shares what he's seen working in terms of promotions and marketing to push the organic sales of a product on Amazon. What do top Amazon sellers do that is different than everyone else? In any business, there are thousands of things you COULD focus on - and when it comes to private label product sales on Amazon, sometimes it feels like there are even more things to consider. Product images, item descriptions, keyword optimization, product improvement and development - you know the pain, right? In this conversation, Ryan asked Casey Gauss of Viral Launch what the top selling Amazon companies are doing that is different than everyone else. His answer was simple: They discover the 20% of things they are currently doing that are bringing 80% of their results and they do more of those things. You can get all the details on what Casey most commonly sees those things to be, on this episode of Freedom Fast Lane. Do you really need to build your product brand off of Amazon? Ryan and many others have long been insisting that it's vital for Amazon private label sellers to put their eggs into baskets other than Amazon. Primarily that means establishing your own product website with the ability to capture customer email addresses and getting more and more of your customers to purchase their products directly from you. It's a difficult task but offers benefits far beyond what Amazon is willing to offer sellers. While Casey Gauss, founder of Viral Launch doesn't disagree with that approach he doesn't feel that it's as vital as Ryan and others have insisted. His belief is that Amazon is always going to want good quality products to sell and over time is going to make it easier and easier for successful private label sellers to be even more successful on its platform. You can hear the entire thrust of what Casey has to share, on this episode. Basic things every Amazon seller must master to achieve success. On this episode, Casey Gauss of Viral Launch was asked what advice he has for Amazon seller. His advice was pretty basic. Once you find a great product at a great price and establish it on the Amazon sales platform, don't be afraid to push it aggressively. You have got to be the one to make your product move. Organic sales are up to you, nobody else. Educate yourself about how to make your product listings and messaging sing in a way that your ideal customers will respond. And invest the time and money in learning how to do effective promotions. It's not rocket science but it does take the willingness to educate yourself, test your efforts, and tweak things until you hit your sweet spot. Find out more on this episode. Outline Of This Great Episode [0:22] Ryan's introduction to this episode with his guest, Casey Gauss. [3:22] What is working to promote sales on Amazon right now? [9:05] Ranking for keywords these days on Amazon (early 2017). [15:05] What are the top sellers doing different than everyone else? [22:07] What Casey suggests in the way of product marketing strategies. [26:20] Do you really need a brand that is bigger than Amazon sales? [35:10] What Casey's transition from one-man show to team has been like. [41:29] Casey's thoughts about where sales are headed for private label brands. [48:02] Advice for sellers from Casey's experience working with Viral Launch clients. Action Steps From This Episode FOR GETTING STARTED: Once you get a great product at a great price established, don't be afraid to push your products aggressively. You have got to be the one to make your product move. Educate yourself about how to make your product listings and messaging sing so it will appeal to your ideal customers. FOR GREATER SUCCESS: Sellers who are more successful are putting their focus on the 20% of things that get 80% of their sales results. Discover what parts of your system actually drive sales the most and do those more. Connect With Today's guest: Casey Gauss Website: Viral-Launch On Twitter On Facebook On LinkedIn Resources Mentioned On This Episode www.FreedomFastLane.com/bootcamp www.FreedomFastLane.com/tribe Connect With Freedom Fast Lane Live Website: www.FreedomFastLane.com On Youtube On Facebook On Twitter On Google Plus On LinkedIn On Instagram Subscribe to Freedom Fast Lane Subscribe to the Freedom Fast Lane Podcast with Ryan Daniel Moran

Get the step by step sequence Bram used to get 35k website visitors upon launch in just 48 hours!  Overnight success takes ten years in the making, but it sure as hell peaks its head out a little early on some occasions. Bram Kanstein is in the aftermath of one of the most successful Product Hunt launches of all time, and he's here to tell you exactly how he did it. Bram is the founder of StartupStash.com, a website of goodies for startups and entrepreneurs that hit 290 up votes on ProductHunt.com and 2.6k unique visitors within the first four hours. At one point, Business Insider wrote a story about Startup Stash and it triggered over 300 views/minute. All of this didn't just happen by chance. Bram used his mastermind to devise a plan for his launch with a relentless pursuit of any success. Hold onto your boxers and panties because he's dropping value bombs left and right in this episode. (free-ballers.. we've got love for you too :) ) Cheers, Bram. To defeat Godzilla with his talents... "Do something with his short hands. Take him down with his handicap." Advice... Some people spend too much time looking for something when that something is right below their noses. Anyone looking to build an app should really understand how to do it because it is simply expanding one's own solution. The best way to get feedback is by leveraging your own possibilities. Don't be afraid to ask; you never know what that person may know or who he knows You don't want to build an app that resembles a big app and you know you will never be bigger than that app. Be involved so you know the people and you have a base. Most ideas start when you are not behind your computer. Bram's personal favorite tools: MailChimp.com, Twitter.com, Slack.com, Trello.com and Marvelapp.com Interview Links StartupStash Website Bram's Twitter Account Bram's Website Bram's Product Hunt Account Bram's LinkedIn Account Highlights  9:40: What Startup Stashis: an for app builders to use when starting an app and initially conceived as an app that anyone can basically click with 10 suggestions on what to use, 12:01: How Startup Stash came about including that it was a result of an idea for a directory that would make information more manageable, very much like a list of tools and resources, 14:15: How Startup Stash started by outlining 50 categories for its tools and filling out 40 categories with 10 products per category, 15:50: WhatBetaList.com was used for including sending out feelers through the use of excel sheets and though time consuming, why it was worthwhile because data can be imported to the website and it got them 700 subscribers, 17:02: The way Startup Stash was made, which was mainly through focusing on its content and then creating a landing page for it, when it was launched and how it immediately went viral, 22:40: The unexpected reaction of companies and sites which brought about a surprise bonus of adding companies and sites to the tool list in Startup Stash (The companies thought it was great being featured in Startup Stash and Tweeted the app to their members and their members tweeted it to their friends), 24:33: The amazing numbers Startup Stash garnered after 4 hours of launching: 290 uploads, 26,000 unique visitors and 60,000 page visitors, 26:00: The press Bram was able to garner including Business Insider and ProductHunt.com, 32:08: The best ways to get feedback, why timing is a big part of launching a product and mistakes people make when starting to make an app, and 39:28: Why Twitter is the best starting point for anyone looking to build a course.