#309 - Seller Hacks From Helium 10 Elite Members At The Sell And Scale Summit

#309 - Seller Hacks From Helium 10 Elite Members At The Sell And Scale Summit Speaker 1: Welcome to episode 309 of the AM PM Podcast. Today we're coming to you from the Sell and Scale Summit that happened last week in Las Vegas. Amazing event over four days. You know, on the first day we had a Helium 10 Elite workshop. So before the summit began, we invited all the Helium 10 Elite members to come for a special afternoon. We had some awesome speakers, some great networking. And what I did is I just grabbed a handful of people As they were coming in and out of the room and did a quick little interview with them and asked them to share a quick little nugget and something of value with you. So that's what I want to share with you today. Enjoy this episode and don't forget if you are not a Helium 10 Elite member, there's going to be a webinar on November 3rd and there's going to be a webinar where we're going to be sharing a whole bunch of hacks totally for free. This is a free webinar. That'll be for everybody out there. So it's coming on November 3rd. Look for a promotion or a post in the Facebook groups about that. And I hope that you're able to join us on that free webinar where we're going to talk about Helium 10 Elite and share some really cool strategies. But in the meantime, enjoy this episode. Unknown Speaker: Welcome to the AM-PM Podcast. Welcome to the AM-PM Podcast. Where we explore opportunities in e-commerce. We dream big and we discover what's working right now. Plus, this is the podcast where money never sleeps. Working around the clock in the AM and the PM. Are you ready for today's episode? I said, are you ready? Let's do this. Here's your host, Kevin King. Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? I'm here with Alina Vlaik at the Sell and Scale Summit. She just came wandering by. We're getting ready to do the Helium 10 Elite training. It's like a four-hour training. You're speaking at this, right? Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Speaker 1: At the Helium 10 Elite thing? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: And are you speaking at the main event as well? Speaker 2: Yes, as well. Speaker 1: Awesome, awesome. So what are you hoping to see at this event? It looks like it's going to be a pretty big event. Speaker 2: I love it, the whole thing. I think it's going to be great. I love the fact that the booth hall is very small and compact so people can actually talk. I love the fact that I'm seeing a lot of sellers. I think it's going to be like very educational and a lot of people, beginners and advanced, are going to have a lot of stuff to learn and meet people. Networking is the most important thing. Speaker 1: Now, you've come a long way for this. You come all the way from Romania, right? Speaker 2: After just getting back three weeks ago. Speaker 1: Is this a direct flight to Las Vegas or you have to go through London or how do you usually go? Speaker 2: There was a direct flight, but I had some stuff to do in Chicago, so I landed in Chicago two days ago and then flew here. But from here, I'm going back home directly. Wow. Speaker 1: Awesome. So tell people what you do. I mean, you're a seller plus you do some services. Tell everybody, what's Alina all about? Speaker 2: So Alina is all about selling. We've been selling on Amazon and Walmart. We own multiple brands when I say it's me and my husband. And also... Speaker 1: You've been doing that for how long? Speaker 2: We started playing with it in 2017 but actually started doing it in 2018 beginning in Europe. And then we moved to Amazon.com, which is the real thing and got messed up big time. Our first product, which is how AZRank was born, actually. AZRank was my first agency, is, it's still there. It's my first agency. We used to do ranking. We still do ranking, but... Speaker 1: What do you mean by ranking? Unknown Speaker: That's a tricky question. Speaker 1: What do you mean by ranking? You can talk about the old and how things are having to change. Speaker 2: Yeah, things have changed a lot. So we used to do this search find buy and consulting sellers on what keywords to choose and stuff like that. Speaker 1: How did that work? So someone that's just listening, I've heard of this search find buy. How did that actually used to work? Speaker 2: So for your product to go high in ranks on Amazon or whatever other marketplace, you need to be on page one, right? So in order to be on page one, you need to create some demand and to show Amazon or whatever marketplace that your product is good. So then we'd have some people searching for a specific keyword, finding your product among everything else, and then choosing it to buy. And through those purchases, you got rent. It's basically what every person does when they go shopping, right? It's, it's the normal thing. Speaker 1: Now, so your company help people facilitate that. Speaker 2: Facilitate that through helping them choose what keywords to go for because a lot of people are uneducated for that and also we have the like the pool of people and the ways of doing that safely and nice with very good results. We had until now I have more than 5,000 launches. Speaker 1: You actually through that process you helped like Helium 10 actually come up with the formula that they use for how many you need. Speaker 2: Yes, the new CPR. Speaker 1: The new CPR. You helped do a big testing for like a year or something around that, right? Speaker 2: Almost two years. Speaker 1: Almost two years to figure out. Speaker 2: It was a lot of data. Speaker 1: This is the formula that is closest to what you really need. Speaker 2: Exactly. Yes. Speaker 1: And so then last year in 2021, Amazon said, uh, no more, no more. Speaker 2: It's kind of, yeah, let's, let's just say it's, they said no more because of certain specific things, not the whole process. That's the way I see it, but certain specific things like rebates, for example, you know, rebate key story is, um, It's gone. So yeah, they shut out a lot of stuff, including links and super URLs that people used to use. So because of that, we had to pivot and we had to change the whole thing the way we do it. So now we found a workaround, but I'm a very honest person. I'm not going to tell you we reinvented the wheel. We just found some workarounds to be safe. We're not doing rebates now. We're just paying people for their services. People are doing surveys, which is very complex and very good, for example. You are in my pool of people. I'm not telling you what keyword to go after. I'm letting you choose where I'm giving you no keyword at all. So it's not such a manipulation. I'm not directing you towards straight a specific keyword. And then after that, I'm going to ask you a ton of questions about the listing. Do you like the photos? What photo do you like? Why do you like the photos? Which photo do you like best? Do you think there's another photo? What do you improve about this product? But the listing itself. So each person spends a whole big amount of time and a different amount of time on the listing. Speaker 1: So it's a ton of feedback. Speaker 2: And a ton of feedback. I've got sellers completely changing their listings after that feedback because 90% of the people said your main photo sucks and your third one is the one I like best. So then he took the third photo, put it there and conversion like increases a lot of facts or Suggestion for colors, for variations. I don't like this. This pink sucks. You should do the other pink or you should do the green or, you know, stuff like that. So that's a ton of feedback they get along with the ranking. But the thing is, I was always an advocate for this, even when the classical search fund buy was in place. I don't do one keyword. I didn't like the campaigns with one keyword, you know, sellers going on the main keyword. I always recommend you do five keywords. Slower, lower volume maybe, or even all big. Once at the same time because with the same number of units because bringing more traffic to more bringing traffic and diversification to five keywords instead of one you're gonna get ranked on another 50 keywords, you know, so it's like what Amazon likes diversification not just I mean, in some niches, yeah, you need to go to certain keywords, but most of them, it works this way. So our campaigns actually work much better now after the TOS change because everybody, I don't take campaigns for one keyword, so it has to be minimum three. Speaker 1: So these are products that haven't been launched yet. So people have built their listing out and they're ready to launch it and they come to you. They come to AZ Rank and say, hey, I need some feedback. I want some people to give me some opinions on this. And then they do that and they go buy the product to get the product. And then they give the feedback and they give a big report and then it's up to the seller whether you change the listing. But because they're buying the product through the process, it starts the momentum going where you're not just down on page 300. Start to show up and start to move up. Speaker 2: And very naturally. Speaker 1: And I'm not leaving reviews or anything like that. So it's all completely terms of service. Speaker 2: I always stayed away. People who are listening and worked with me know that I am, I always say no to reviews. Speaker 1: Is that an expensive, is it expensive to do this? Is it like, depends on, how does it work? How does that work? Speaker 2: In terms of? Speaker 1: As a seller. Speaker 2: Cost for us? Speaker 1: If I'm a seller and I come to you and I say, I want to rank, I want some feedback on my new product and to help it get going, what's that going to cost me? Speaker 2: So for each? Each unit given away, because you're still giving it away, and the feedback gotten from it, and this whole process of ranking. So for each unit we charge, we start at $9. And this can go down depending on how many and how complex is the process, but usually starts at $9. So when you do your math for a campaign, you should take the cost of the product, which is $20, add $9, my fee, And then that's the actual cost. But you get some of that back, you know, because... Speaker 1: Yeah, you're getting it back as a sale. Speaker 2: As a sale, exactly. Yeah. Speaker 1: So how long does this whole process take typically? If I come to you and I say, OK, I got my product, I'm ready to go. Speaker 2: It's very different. I don't have a standard thing. Everything is custom. Each product, each campaign, everything is custom. So if your product is new, it might take 10 days. If your product is like two years old and you're trying to reboost, it might take... One month, four weeks, depends. Everything is custom per keyword, per product. So we don't have just like a pattern like take the CPR divided by eight and do that every day. No, everything is custom. That's included also. The consultants for this is including also in that fee. Speaker 1: You've been in Helium 10 Elite for a while, right? Speaker 2: Over a year. Speaker 1: Over a year? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And you're pretty active. I mean, you come into the weekly meetings and everything. Can you talk about what the value of that is? There's a lot of sellers that are in Helium 10 Elite, and there's a lot of people that are listening to this that are like, what is Helium 10 Elite? Well, Helium 10 Elite, as I explained at the beginning of the show, is for people who want that edge, that next level to help grow their business. And we provide a lot of stuff. But what do you get out of it when you come on? Like either the monthly trainings or when you come on the the weekly and the monthly one that I do the Q&A's and roundtables. Speaker 2: Well, I always like to say it. I get a lot of questions, a lot to this question, too. So I always say it's my favorite mastermind. It's every week, like our calls. But that's just one part of it. So it's a very strong community of sellers that actually help. It's a lot of content from you and Bradley and all the other people in there. So you have learning. You have networking. You can just like message everyone at every moment asking them a question and if they know I've seen that they're actually sharing so it's not like just yeah I don't care about this one like there are people out there doing that in other groups, but I didn't see that here and I don't know for me for me. It's I stopped looking at everything else. I mean, I didn't search for other masterminds or stuff when I found the Elite. I think it's what... And also you get all the new stuff and the good stuff from Helium 10 earlier than all the other people. And for example, for me personally, the sales per keyword, which I get now in Cerebro and all the other tools. So showing me the sales for each keyword is a lot of help as a seller and as a service provider too. I bet a lot of agencies doing PPC would be interested in that. Speaker 1: And you're speaking here, so Helium 10, the Elite does a quarterly workshop every three months, sometimes in Irvine. This one they're actually doing it here at Sell and Scale in Vegas. And you're speaking, have you spoken at a lot of other events? Speaker 2: I've spoken at a few, like not that many, but I've spoken at a few. This might be the My biggest audience so far though, because I see a lot of chairs in the room. But I'm a little bit nervous. But I'm wearing pink because it's a strong color and everybody is... I mean, they're saying they like it. Yeah, here we're speaking about something else, which is really cool. It's in regards with press articles, but I won't give up too much. So for the content to be here, but BDSS next year. Speaker 1: That's right. You're speaking at BDSS next year in Puerto Rico as well. Speaker 2: And we have one more very, very cool thing I want to share with you. We've been starting to doing user generated content in AZRank. I've seen like the most beautiful photos and video from this like normal people. I don't know what... This is just an advice. I don't tell... I'm not telling you this just to have people come to me to do that. Just go to regular people, do your user-generated content. Don't necessarily go to influencer because they're so amazing, so genuine. It's incredible. Speaker 1: I just saw that I was just watching American football just yesterday on professional American football and some of the commercials that people are paying half a million dollars or a million dollars for a 30-second spot. Now some of these big brands are using user-generated content as their commercial, their entire commercial. So they're realizing that, hey, we don't need to go out and spend $50,000, $100,000, $1 million shooting this fancy commercial. Let's just get it from our users. And some of them are really, really good. And it resonates better. And it's a big thing right now. And it's going to become a lot bigger. So that's cool that you're starting to get into some of that. Well, Lena, I really appreciate you stopping by here at the little table. Unknown Speaker: Yes, thank you for having me. Speaker 1: To give us a little bit of an insight. Before you go, what's one quick little hack you could give the audience here? One quick little nugget of information that sellers out there should know. Speaker 2: There's a new way of doing A+. And I'm not talking about the A-plus premium, which is on everybody's lips right now. Go check Goli. Everybody knows who Goli is, like apple cider gummies from Goli. Check how their A-plus is done right now. It's not like all kind of blocks. It's just five big blocks with everything in those blocks. It looks so much better. It's so much more natural for the human eye. And apparently, smarter people than me say that converts a lot better. So that can be actually done like now. Speaker 1: Awesome. Appreciate it. Thanks again for taking a few minutes here. Good luck on your talk today. Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Speaker 1: Thanks. What's up? Next, just walking by, I just grabbed Abe Shamali. Abe just walked by and said, dude, you got to come on. You got to come on. Because this guy is one of the smartest guys out there. He runs an agency. He does a lot of stuff in the space. Abe, super happy to see you here, man. Unknown Speaker: Well, thanks for having me. I've been here for about an hour. I've seen five different people that I haven't seen in a year. And every conversation has been, like, great. Speaker 1: Do you get out to a lot of conferences or do you pick and choose or how do you pick and choose what to go to? Unknown Speaker: So I try to be in the room. I like to go, I try to go to most conferences. My business is helping sellers with advertising. So I want to be in the rooms where sellers are at. I like to learn things from the speakers because there's always a little bit extra something I can use to make my work run better. And I like to speak to sellers to see what things are affecting them, what things I might be able to help with. What things nobody can help with like it's interesting to learn about sellers and selling from the viewpoint of the sellers. Speaker 1: So you get more from listening to the presentations or do you get more from the networking or is it a combination of both? It's a combination of both and some events the sellers are the networking is much better some events the speakers are off the charts. What are you expecting here at Sell and Scale? What do you think? They're organizing this show a little bit differently than a normal show with all the yoga and all the way they've got the scheduling and everything. What are you thinking? How is this going to go? Unknown Speaker: So I've been playing with the app. They have that Whova app, if I pronounced it correctly. And part of what I did is try to build an agenda of the things to do. And I kept running into the error where the session I want is bumping into a session I already registered for. So that tells you a lot about the quality of the content. Um, the speakers are great and there are definitely speakers I haven't seen every other place. So that also says a lot. Speaker 1: And today this is the first day. So the event actually hasn't started officially yet, but right before we're doing this, the Helium 10 elite like workshop and how many of these have you been to in the past? So this is actually going to be my first Helium 10 elite. Um, I became an elite member a month ago. The trainings have been interesting. This in-person session promises to be excellent and just overall it's been a step up. Just like I try to be in every room, I try to learn from every resource and Helium 10 Elite has been great for that. Now, are you a seller as well or are you just providing services through the agency? Unknown Speaker: So I only provide services for sellers. That said, I have about 30 years of selling experience. So I sold from 1991 all the way up through about 2018. On Amazon, well Amazon e-commerce and even before e-commerce in 1991 there was no e-commerce. We used to advertise in the back of camera magazines with a big phone number and a list of items and people would call us to have us send things to them. Speaker 1: So you've been doing direct response, basically, for a long time, the old way. Unknown Speaker: We call it mail order. Speaker 1: Yeah, mail order, direct response. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Exactly. That's my background, too. I've been doing it since college. Since, I think, 1988, I put my first ad in the back of a computer magazine or something to sell a bar team program. Computer shopper magazine. Exactly. That was it. Every month, the mailman would complain at the people who had to carry that five-pound thing around. It was huge. Oh, yeah, but that thing generated, you know, that's still to this day. People still don't understand that that business still exists. You know, people think all these young people think everything is on the Internet. Everything's on Amazon. But I have a business I've talked about before that I still get six figures a year. It's seasonal every holiday season with checks and money orders in envelopes. People write out an envelope, put a stamp on it and send it through the mail. It just boggles people's minds. No, it still exists. One of my businesses, I sell a crapload on Amazon and we sell a crapload by sending out a flyer through the mail to a mailing list and those people send checks and money orders and envelopes. Oh yeah, back. It's big. Unknown Speaker: Yeah, the direct mail people are still in business and they are still doing plenty of business. They're essentially what holds up the USPS at this point. Speaker 1: It is. It's even better than it used to be because you and I know 30 years ago it got flooded, you know, with running list and people started calling it junk mail and stuff. But now a lot of people backed off of it and now it's much more wide open and you can stand out even easier than you could in the past if you know what you're doing. Are you still doing any of that at all? Unknown Speaker: I don't do it at all simply because it has become so niche. That I don't have the bandwidth to work on it. Amazon advertising is complex. There's a lot going on and there's a lot connected to it and that takes up my whole day from morning to night. When people want to talk to me about Google ads, I have a guy for Google ads. People want to talk to me about printing inserts, here's a guy for inserts. I know about all the things just like I know about direct mail, but Amazon ads fills up my whole day. Speaker 1: So you're running, you're doing ads for like big companies, small companies. Is there a certain threshold they got to be at to actually work with you or what, what, uh, where do you specialize there? Unknown Speaker: So I have, I work with sellers from small to large. Um, I, I, I work with top hundred sellers and I work with people just getting their products off the ground. You know, we have, it takes a different skill set in each situation and I have a built out team that can help different sellers. The most common price point or the most common selling point is typically people doing about $100,000 to $300,000 a month in sales. Those sellers are typically the ones who have grown to the point where they might have been doing ads themselves. They've built up a nice business. They've built up enough traffic that there are things to optimize. Where as somebody who's very tiny, somebody who's very tiny, we're just starting at a point where Amazon doesn't even understand what their product is and it's going to take a lot of spend for Amazon to figure that out. Speaker 1: Is it just Amazon or you also do Walmart and some other platforms as well? Unknown Speaker: I do Walmart. Walmart is definitely in its early stages and we're feeling it out. I've had conversations about this before with my team. I've had conversations with Walmart staff in which we try to figure out the things that are working and build on them, try to figure out the things which are not working and fix them. And it's still sort of everybody's figuring it out, if that makes sense. Speaker 1: So, if someone wants to find out more about your agency, how would they do that? Unknown Speaker: So, the name of my company is XP Strategy. X like x-ray, P like Peter, Strategy. You can find me at xpstrategy.com. I'm on all the social media places, you know, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. You can message me in any of those places. You know, I'll be happy to talk about ads or troubleshoot or see if we're a fit. Speaker 1: So what's one thing that the audience listening that they're messing up in their PPC right now? And one thing that you see over and over like, man, people just keep screwing this up. If they could just get this one thing right, it would make a huge difference whether they use an agency or not. What's one little trick or tip that you could share that would really help some people out there? I'll actually give you two. Awesome. Unknown Speaker: So the first thing is there isn't a clear organization. I go into lots of accounts that don't have portfolios set up, that don't have a clear naming structure set up so that you can easily tell all the campaigns associated with the product. Doing that first step of cleaning things up just so you can view how your account is doing makes an enormous difference right off the bat. The second thing is Lots of companies who will have close variations of a product will all chase the same keywords instead of choosing which really is their hero product. In a lot of cases, there's only one product which is really going to take top search or really have the best conversion rates among your six different SKUs that are similar. And they know which SKU that is, but they keep adding extra similar products. They keep adding a 4-pack and a 6-pack and an 8-pack. And they throw the same amount of money into advertising all those extra versions when really the 1-pack will do best because it's the lowest priced and it's what customers need the most. But to bring that example a little bit further, they'll say, wait, the 1-pack I make a dollar after all my costs. The 6-pack I make $14. Throw all the ad money at the 6-pack. The problem is that although they see some sales for a six pack, they won't get clicks for a six pack because it's $79 while every other competitor is $14.95. You've got to bring the shopper to the page and then encourage them to spend more. Speaker 1: Awesome. Now I'm going to see you again in just a few weeks. Something that Norm and I are doing, Collective Mind Society. We're doing an experiential Mastermind at the F1 track and you and your son are coming out. You were just telling me a little bit about something just a second ago. I said, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's talk about it on the AM PM podcast. So that's going to be a really cool event. It's like 12 of us. We got this private cabana right on the top of turn one. It's like first class all the way at the big F1 event. What are you looking forward to on that? Oh boy. Unknown Speaker: I'm looking, honestly, the biggest thing I'm looking forward to is bonding with my son over the past year or so. Him and tons of other people have become big fans of F1. And because he turned 21 around COVID, we didn't really have a chance to do a big age 21 thing. So this is our chance to do that. And he's been over the moon about it. Speaker 1: Oh, he's going to have a blast. I mean, we're going to like, he's going to have the best meal he's ever had. We're sitting in this kitchen at this one restaurant, literally in the kitchen. They're serving us like a nine course meal one night. The cabana is like totally first class with like amazing breakfast and lunch and it's got Wi-Fi and couches and everything. There's no better way to do an event than F1 than this. It's first class all the way. It's going to be amazing. Unknown Speaker: Listen, we are so excited. I mean, I've known you for years. I know that you do things the right way. You know, I, I enjoy going to nice restaurants and I know that I've seen you talk about the, the food experiences you've had. So I know that we have, we're on the same wavelength with some of those things and I'm really looking forward to experiencing it with you. Speaker 1: And I bet your son knows who Marshmello is. Do you know who Marshmello is? Unknown Speaker: So I know who Marshmello is. He has seen Marshmello. And when he saw the social media post that you put about, you know, sitting up close and personal with him, my son said, this is going to be lit. Speaker 1: Yeah, we have a VIP table with model servers right in front of the stage, you know, 10, 15 feet in front of the stage of this VIP event. So it's collectivemindsociety.com if anybody wants to check that out. I think there's one or two spots left as of this recording, but it's going to be an amazing time. But Abe, hey, I appreciate you stopping by my little table here at Sell and Scale. I appreciate it, man. Awesome. Thanks, man. Speaker 3: Thanks. Speaker 1: Hey, look who it is. It's Edgar Hurtado. Edgar, how are you doing, man? Speaker 4: Good, good. How are you doing, Kevin? Speaker 1: All right, man. So what are you here doing? What's going on, man? Speaker 4: Look, I'm out here helping out actually a friend, Alina, but I actually love Helium 10 and came out here to learn and network. Speaker 1: Awesome. Are you selling on Amazon? Speaker 4: I've been selling about six years. Speaker 1: About six years. How's it going for you? Speaker 4: It's going very well. Actually, it was something we didn't plan on, but actually turned out to be a blessing. Speaker 1: What do you mean something you didn't plan on? Speaker 4: Well my wife owns a dog rescue and every month I was dishing a thousand two thousand dollars trying to you know help the dogs and save dogs out of my own pocket. Friend of mine said why don't you combine her story and create a product for for Amazon. I was like Amazon? And next you know we started off with one product and It's been life changing ever since. Speaker 1: So let me back up a second. So you were running a dog rescue. Yes, we still are. And you still are. Speaker 4: Absolutely. Speaker 1: Just taking dogs that might have been in an accident or stray dogs. Speaker 4: Or out of the shelter. Speaker 1: Out of the shelters. And then rehabilitating them. Speaker 4: Yes. Speaker 1: If you have to and then finding them new homes. Speaker 4: Correct. Speaker 1: And then to do that you were robbing Peter to pay Paul to help fund some of that. Speaker 4: Yeah, well actually it was us who were funding it and sometimes we get donations or things like that but most of the time We'd have to come out of pocket every month. Speaker 1: And then someone said, Hey, you know, if you just do this e-commerce little thing, you could probably find this whole thing and make some real money and really take this to the next level. So how did you, uh, what was your first product that you actually came up with? Speaker 4: It was just a dog toy, right? And, uh, I didn't know anything about Amazon. So I started doing a little research, a friend of mine helped us and we just made some dog toy a little bit better. And, um, and we started in, uh, I'll never forget this. We ordered our first product in August, got it sometime late October. We were sold out by December. This was like 2016, 2017? 2017. 2017. Which was a great problem and then we ordered a lot more and sold out again and just kept adding different products, different SKUs and we're up to like 15 SKUs and growing. Speaker 1: All dog toys or have you expanded? Speaker 4: All dog toys and now we're branding out different lanes. Speaker 1: Awesome. Do you mind sharing the name of the brand or do you want to keep? Speaker 4: I don't care. It's Pacific Pups Products. Speaker 1: Pacific Pups Products. Pacific Pups Products. That's awesome, man. So do you actually use that in the marketing and stuff or the prop, the portion or all the profits or what percentage goes back to the... Speaker 4: A big percentage goes back to our rescue to fund it. And ever since we've been doing that, we've been growing also with The Rescue, which is called Pacific Pups Rescue, and we've been like tied up with BuzzFeed now. We got a lot of celebrity actors that are helping out with what we're doing now. And yeah, so just to answer your question, most of the products that we sell, we give a big chunk back to The Rescue. Speaker 1: That's awesome, man. I think that's an important thing that a lot of sellers miss. A lot of sellers get into this business, especially on Amazon, thinking, I'm just going to make a bunch of money for myself. And they don't really care. But if you come up with a cause that people believe in, and by people buying a product that they need for their own purposes, like people are buying your toys for their dog, But at the same time, they're doing good for some, some other dogs. It just, it resonates with a lot of people and a lot of people just love the fact that they can be part of a community or part of making a difference. And that's something that a lot of people when they're developing their products and their ideas that they just, they don't think about. And I think you kind of just fell into it in a way, but a lot of people should be thinking about how can my product really give back and help. And it can make a huge difference and people will support it and get behind it. And it can really take it to the next level. Speaker 4: And it has, you know, since the story came out and that's how I was saying, so BuzzFeed, like we do a lot of things with BuzzFeed through the rescue because of the donations, because of the story. We, my wife had a little show on Hallmark because of the rescue, but yeah, you know, we, she's a huge animal rescuer. So she always, it was her thing, like, We have to get back. We have to get back. And like I said, a large, large sum goes back for every purchase that we make monthly. Speaker 1: So you're doing seven figures? Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. Speaker 1: Eight figures? Speaker 4: Close. Mid six, seven million a year last year. Speaker 1: That's incredible, man. That's really awesome. How big of a team do you have now? Speaker 4: Just my wife and myself and one employee. Speaker 1: That's awesome. And everything made overseas? Everything overseas. Speaker 4: We're looking into Mexico as we speak. Yeah, but right now everything is in China. We're looking to expand housework because we're a little nervous about that in China, trying to get products. Like last year with the whole supply chain and things like that killed us. I mean, absolutely destroyed us. But right now, yeah, to answer your question, everything's in China. Speaker 1: So when your buddy said, hey, you should look into this Amazon thing six, seven years ago, did you take a course or did you just throw something up? Just threw it up. Speaker 4: Spaghetti in a wall and it stuck. Speaker 1: Yeah? Speaker 4: Yeah, and it stuck. And then after that, just kept going and going and going. We didn't know what we were doing. I mean, we didn't run a PPC campaign for the first three. I didn't know what PPC was. For three years, I didn't run one PPC campaign and our number one, first, second, third product were first and second best sellers. For like two and a half years. Speaker 1: So you literally just took the product. You found, hey, let's do this one toy. You found a supplier in China or wherever. You brought over 500,000 of them, something like that. Speaker 4: Yeah. Speaker 1: And just stuck it up there. Speaker 4: Absolutely. Speaker 1: And did nothing to launch it. Nothing. And just the story itself. Enough people found the story. And one or two people stumbled on it somehow. And then they said, this is really cool. And they probably told somebody else. And then it kind of probably just organically expanded. And now you're crushing it. Speaker 4: Yeah, we're doing very well. And you know, I now I know Amazon and I'm learning and I love the community and like I've learned from you and other people. And I just love this community at the same time we now we're trying to take this into being a real business last few years, you know, like, oh, we got to learn this, you know, retired my wife, retired myself, and this is what we do now. But at the same time, it was amazing. Honestly, it's amazing. Speaker 1: That's incredible, man. That's awesome. That's a good job on that. I appreciate that. It's a good cause. I'm a big dog lover myself and big into the dogs. I have some dog products myself, and that's awesome. So once you decided, wait, you threw the spaghetti on the wall, as you said, and it worked. And then you're like, holy shit, I need to actually learn this. What did you do? Start going to conventions? You start watching YouTube videos? Speaker 4: YouTube videos, all of it. Podcasts, listening to you, listening to everybody. If you associate yourself with people that already know what they're doing, then just copy what they're doing. That's what it is. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. And if you have, you know, my whole thing in life is always just, everything's based on relationships. So as I got into the community, I, you know, I got accepted a little bit more and I learned a little bit more. And now I can say a lot of these people are actually my friends. A lot of them are. And so you get bits and pieces from everybody, you know, and if they see that you're putting the effort forward and you really want to learn a business, that's what happened. So I, you know, we actually learned it and you keep learning, you know. Speaker 1: So what made you decide to come to this event? Speaker 4: Oh, Helium 10. Helium 10. Come on now, right? Come on, it's Helium 10. That's it, you know. And just meet people and like I said, help my friend Alina, but just learn and network. There's always a good community around Helium 10. I think one of their, one of the best tools out there. We use them tremendously all the time for everything that we do. And you know, there's some good people around here. I'm just looking at all these faces out here. I'm like, man. Speaker 1: What do you hope to take this? What do you hope to take this? Do you hope to sell this at some point? Speaker 4: Last year we had like many, many offers on the table from aggregators. I was like, what's an aggregator, right? But we decided not to sell. We decided to expand a little bit more of the business and Create different avenues, different lanes and different products, not just toys. So who knows? Speaker 1: We'll see. Why did you decide to do that when you could have taken a bunch of money off the table when, especially when the aggregators last, right now it's down, but 2020 and 2021, it was like crazy multiples and you could have taken some serious cash off the table and even reinvested that and done, done this again, maybe. But why did you decide, Hey, we're just going to stay the course. And what was that? Speaker 4: I'll tell you what it was. I think in October, September, there was a couple of offers on the table actually written and I got a little bit greedy. I said, look, I want to run through Christmas and see if I can get the, you know, the crisp money. That's when we sell the most. And that's when we had an issue with our supply chain. So we didn't have any product for three months. Oh yeah. It killed us, Kevin. Speaker 1: So that'll kill your numbers. It'll kill, they'll scare them. Speaker 4: It didn't scare them, but they still offered us. But now they wanted to take it over the last 12 months. I'm like, you know, the big company's not worth that. It's worth a lot more than that. But just because we didn't have supplies in for three months, the numbers dropped. And it's funny you even ask that question, because I actually got a text from them about an hour ago. They still want to meet. I met with them in New York as well, too. They're always on. Are you willing to see? Are you guys ready? I'm like, it doesn't make sense for us now, because if they're going to go over the last 12 years without making an exception, then why sell? Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 4: So it was a little bit of greed, to answer your question. Should have sold. Speaker 1: Well, you never know. You always saw us sell when you're on that. When you win the Super Bowl, that's when you retire. Speaker 4: That's when you retire. You don't keep coming back. Speaker 1: You don't keep coming back. Well, some people do. Some people, if you're the GOAT, you keep coming back and then you get divorced. Speaker 4: There you go. Almost. Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, man, that's awesome, man. I really appreciate you stopping by and telling your story, man. So what's something out there that you think people that maybe they're listening to this that haven't started yet that or maybe they were kind of in your place six, seven years ago. What's one little piece of advice you could give them? Speaker 4: Join a community that's already doing what you want to do and just copy. You know, get a lot of lessons from them. You know, the thing I found is that This Amazon community is, it's amazing. They're willing to share their information. Just get along, get around somebody, join meetups, come to these, you know, these conferences and just, just meet people, shake their hand, say, look, this is what I want to do. And some people will help you, you know, get the right information. Don't, you know, there's a lot of bad information out there, but there's also a lot of good information. You just got to get it from the right people. So that's pretty much it. Speaker 1: Congratulations. Good job, man. Keep up the good work. Appreciate it. Speaker 4: I appreciate it. Speaker 1: Thanks, man. Speaker 4: All right. Speaker 1: All right, I'm here right now with Martin Botero. Martin, you came in from Colombia, is that correct? Speaker 3: Yes, sir. I'm from Colombia. Speaker 1: Which part of Colombia are you from? Speaker 3: It's a small city, really beautiful city with an awesome landscape. You can Google it. We have the best sunsets in the world. It's called Manizales. Speaker 1: Now, a lot of people always run into this problem because my wife is Colombian, as I've told you before. And she's from Colombia. So I've been to Colombia like 20-something times. I'm pretty familiar with Colombia. But the first thing that always comes to people's mind when you say Colombia is not coffee. It's something else. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I understand. Speaker 1: Doesn't that just get frustrating? I mean, because Colombia is a beautiful place with beautiful people. And a lot of people just totally misunderstand what the whole culture and the whole people of Colombia. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I understand. Speaker 1: No, no. Speaker 3: It's a really beautiful thing to see your country prospering. Colombia is not the same today as what it was in the 90s. You can go and visit Colombia, and you will find an awesome country with incredible cities like Cartagena, Medellin, Manizales, Bogota. And people are really welcoming. And that's what makes a country great, how heartwarming are the people, how well they receive you. And it's a country that has a lot to show to the world, to export. A lot of people I know that in the Amazon business are going to Alibaba to source their products from China or from Asian countries. But there's a lot of opportunities in South America, and Colombia for sure is one of them. Speaker 1: And Colombia has a lot of manufacturing. And they have a Medellin, for example. Some people don't know how to pronounce that. They say Medellin or something, but it's pronounced Medellin. That's a huge, a lot of people in e-commerce are based there. Americans and Europeans and Colombians, they go there. It's a huge city for like tech and for e-commerce. It's like a whole community there that people don't realize that are just working from their apartments or working from cafes and stuff doing e-commerce. Speaker 3: Yeah, Medellín is a great place to be, probably one of the best cities for me in Colombia. It was actually awarded as one of the most innovative city in the world a few years ago. It has had a huge progress and it's a great place to live in. For example, my city is really close to Medellín. Where I live, and I have, there's a lot of, a big community of people from the US and Canada who go to teach there in schools. And it amazes me how they all buy houses because they say, OK, I want to stay here, living here because it's one of the best places. And they've lived all over the world because they've been teaching like in the Middle Eastern countries and in Asian countries. And they come to Colombia, and they want to stay living there. Speaker 1: You know, they say the, what's that slogan? They say the only risk of going to Colombia is wanting to stay. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: That's like the big slogan. Your only risk is wanting to stay. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: So how did you get involved in e-commerce from? Speaker 3: OK, so that's a great question. Thank you. Well, back in Colombia, I have an apparel brand. So I'm used to selling online. That's because it only sells online. But it's something that I have only for Colombia. It only sells in Colombia. Speaker 1: So we have a little online. What's the big e-commerce marketplace in Colombia? Speaker 3: It's growing. It's growing. Amazon is going to, um, Amazon's going to be expanding their expanding right now. Speaker 1: Right now it's MercadoLibre, right? Speaker 3: Mercado Libre is the main website to buy online. Lineo is another one. And it's growing. People are getting accustomed to buying online. That means it requires a lot of customer service online, like WhatsApp and these kind of channels of communication in order for you to help people feel confident about buying online. Because they feel it's a little bit shady. Sometimes they're not as used to as the Americans are to the e-commerce, but it's growing and people are getting more accustomed to it. And I have this support brand back there, but I had a spare time, so I started Googling and I found the Project X in YouTube. And I said, OK, no, I really have this background in e-commerce back in Colombia. I'm going to apply it in the US, and I'm going to get into the Amazon business. Speaker 1: And now, then you did Freedom Ticket. You said you've been methodically going through everything. And now you're here at the Helium 10 Elite. Speaker 3: Exactly. Speaker 1: And the Sell and Scale event. So tell me, how's it been going for you? Are you still in the learning phase? Have you launched yet on Amazon? Speaker 3: Yeah, OK. Speaker 1: Where are you at? Speaker 3: So I've been doing the Helium X and the Freedom Ticket step by step. There's different points of view between how you approach business and the way Bradley. Speaker 1: There's no one right way. Speaker 3: There's no one right way. I feel like your way of doing, of your advice. I'm pulling more of your advice in the Freedom Ticket. Right now I'm in the process of, I already have the brand. I already have the photos and the videos and everything. I have the listing ready, the listing builder in Helium X. And I'm waiting for my supplier to send the first batch of products to Amazon to ship them. I had to create an LLC here in the US, in Wyoming, as you recommended, with the Wyoming agents. It was really easy. It was awesome for me doing that from Columbia online. It was really easy. So I'm in the starting phase. I'm in the starting learning phase yet. Speaker 1: So what are you hoping to get from an event like this? You're here to network. You're here to learn. What's your main goal out of this event? Speaker 3: My main, main goal is to find a mentor. Someone who's already really into this business, who's been in a lot of years selling through Amazon, who can help me out because I'm starting. That's one main goal that I have. Another goal that I have is to do a lot of network. I've already met a couple of people that are doing the line in the registry. I had the chance to say hello to a couple of people that are coming to Helium X, to the event, to Sell and Scale. So networking, finding a mentor, and I'm really invested in doing this right. Because I'm not thinking of doing some spare money. I want to build something in the long term. So I want to do things right. So I'm investing. This is a lot of money for me, actually. Because when you're with the currency exchange, back from Colombia, it's really hard. Speaker 1: It's bad right now. I mean, when I was dating my wife, 10 years ago when I first met her, the exchange rate was like 1600 pesos to a dollar and now it's like 4000 something. Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy. Speaker 1: The dollar is so strong compared to the Colombian peso right now. It's insane. Speaker 3: Yeah, it's insane. So yes, but you gotta invest. I'm dreaming of this. I want to build something great. I want to make a living out of it. So I thought that I had to invest in this in order to I need to get to know the people that are in this business in order to understand it better. Speaker 1: So what do you think the big challenge is for people that aren't from the United States to sell in the United States? English is not your first language. You speak good English, but English is not your first language. Speaker 3: No, it's not my first language. Speaker 1: So what is the big challenge for a lot of people that when they decide, hey, this looks like an awesome opportunity, but it scares the pants off of me because I'm going to have to invest my whole $5,000 savings or I don't quite understand the culture in the U.S. or how the things work. What are some recommendations you would give to people that might be thinking that? Speaker 3: Yeah, so basically, Language Barrier, it's quite of a challenge. But Helium already has the Spanish version. And there's also the podcast, the Broadway podcast in Spanish that will help you understand better this. Speaker 1: And Freedom Ticket, subtitled in Spanish, too. Speaker 3: Yes, it's subtitled in Spanish, yeah. You're right. But I think one of the main things is that if you're in Colombia in your office, and it's like, OK, I'm going to start selling Managing everything in the US, like how do I create a company? How do I manage my accounting? I know how to do that in Colombia, but it seems like the taxes and everything, it's a little bit overwhelming, everything that you will have to manage in a country that's not your country. You don't have anyone there to ask a question to directly. That's the part that I feel is more overwhelming. But I've been doing your Freedom Tickets step by step. And that's why it feels like I've been able to manage everything so far, right? So as I told you before, I managed to form my LLC company in Wyoming. That feels so bizarre for me, like I'm from Columbia, Wyoming. I had to Google, in Maps, Google where is Wyoming, you know? It's it's it's kind of bizarre, but you're giving everything so so How do you say like? Easy, you know, let's step by step. So if you follow the the courses the film ticket courses You're going to find out the answer for all these steps and that's been really a relief for me. So for me, it's kind of take the time to follow the courses, take notes, go back. If you remember something, go back to it and you will remember and they will give you the answer. You will give them the answer. Speaker 1: And the thing about Freedom Ticket too is it's free. So this is not some course for charging $5,000 or something for. If you have a Helium 10 membership at any level, It's included at no extra charge. It's like 60 hours of training. It's me plus a lot of extra other people that know a lot more about than me on certain subjects are coming in and doing stuff as well. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: And then we have the Helium 10 Elite, which is the next step up. So you, you decided to really go in. You decided to do the beginning course. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: And let me go to the advanced level at this, which is the Helium 10 Elite, which is what the event you're, the conference you're about to go in for three hours here, where they're going to be talking at advanced level. Speaker 3: Exactly. Speaker 1: Is that, do you understand everything that they're talking about since you haven't fully launched yet? Or, or is that just like, okay, now I'm seeing the big picture. Some of this other basic stuff is now making sense. And now I'm understanding the path I have to take. Is that what it's Helping you with? Speaker 3: Yeah, like sometimes when I'm going through courses, I know this is important. I pay attention to it. But I kind of take notes because I know I'm going to have to get back to it in the future. I'm not in that stage yet, but I will have to get. But it's good to know that there's to know where you can find information, where you can find in which part of the courses you can find something you're going to need in the future. Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, I wish you the best of luck with everything, man. And keep working hard. You're going to get a great chance of doing really well. Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. It's really, really, really cool to meet you. Speaker 1: Awesome, man. Enjoy the rest of the conference. We got so much amazing stuff at the Helium 10 Elite Workshop at Sell and Scale that we're going to actually do a second part of this. So next week, make sure you come back and check out part two of our hacks from seller sessions and the Helium 10 Elite Workshop. It's going to be another great episode next week with some brand new guests. There was just too much to cram it all into one episode. So hopefully I'll see you then. And don't forget to mark your calendars again for November 3rd. That's when we'll be doing a free webinar for everybody. We're going to be sharing a lot of hacks and tips and strategies from the Helium 10 Elite. And so hopefully we'll see you on that webinar on November 3rd. It's a totally free webinar open to everybody. Look for a post in the Facebook group soon or look for an email coming your way with a link to sign up for that. So I hope to see you next week. But before we go, just a little quote to remind you, like I'd like to do at the end of every single episode. You know, right now is a bad time out there is a recession going on. Prices are going up. There's a lot of people having trouble in their business. Business is going out of business. But sometimes these are the times when fortunes are made. The rich know that down times are some of the best opportunities and the best times. And so I hope you're able to take advantage of that as well. But as Warren Buffett once famously said, it's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked. These are the times when you really find out who's got a core business and who is strong and who is weak and was just limping along and kind of faking it. So as Warren said, it's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked. See you again next week.