#310 - Seller Hacks From Helium 10 Elite Members At The Sell And Scale Summit - Part 2

#310 - Seller Hacks From Helium 10 Elite Members At The Sell And Scale Summit - Part 2 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode 310 of the AM PM podcast. This week we're back again with more seller hacks from the Helium 10 elite workshop at the recent sale and scale summit in Las Vegas. I took all my recording equipment out there, set up a little table outside and as people were coming in and out of the event that was held on the first day before the big event started, we brought all the Helium 10 elite members that could make it out for like a four or five hour workshop. Had some great speakers, some great networking, and we got some great content for you here for the AM PM Podcast. So I hope you enjoy this part two. If you didn't listen to part one, be sure to go back and listen to last week's episode as well. It's some amazing stuff and some really interesting stories that were told by some of the Helium 10 elite members, as well as some really good tips and strategies that you might be able to use in your business. And don't forget on November 3rd, mark your calendars. We have a free webinar coming up for Helium 10 elite. I'll be sharing a whole bunch of hacks and tips and strategies with you. Carrie and I will be on that webinar. It's open to everybody. So mark your calendars for November 3rd. More announcements will be coming soon by email and you'll see some posts in the Facebook group on how to sign up on that. So 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: Look who just walked by here at Sell and Scale at the Helium 10 Elite. Ted and Loretta. How are you guys doing? Speaker 2: We're doing great, Kevin. Good to see you. It's been a long while. Speaker 1: It has been a while. Unknown Speaker: It's always great to see you. Speaker 1: So you guys, what's your story? You've been selling for a day or two. Speaker 2: We've been selling since 2015. We did really well. We basically created one brand. 84 ASINs and got it to multi-million and then we exited out last year. Speaker 1: Yeah, so what the hell are you doing here? Unknown Speaker: We were invited by you. Speaker 2: There you go. Well, hey, what happened actually was that I ended up being a co-founder of the company that actually bought us. Okay, so it's cool because we're still working on our brand and we're working on like, you know all the other brands to you know Optimize and doing whatever the aggregator does so you started you're part of starting an aggregator basically. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, basically Our brand ended up being the lead brand of all the other brands, yeah. So it's kind of like we're bringing you in and you want to be a co-founder. Speaker 1: So how does that work? Some people were going to start Aggregator and they came to you or you knew some people that had a bunch of money and said, hey, you know this Amazon, let's get together or how did that work? Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of like a buddy of mine said he was he came across another person who he knew and said, hey, they want to start aggregated business. Are you interested? I said, in what way? I mean, helping us out. And maybe we'll take a look at your brand. And one thing led to another and we exited out. It all worked out. Speaker 1: How was Happy multiple because the multiples were kind of crazy or were you because it was you're really on one of the owners you're like no we're not gonna pay this crazy multiple. Speaker 2: That was really weird. Speaker 1: How do you balance that? Speaker 2: Oh that was so weird both ways and at some point you just had to say this is for us rather than myself and that's for Emergent is the name of the company and it's like Now we have to figure out what's going to work well for both sides. And it was kind of a hard road because he said, we want to do a good multiple, but it's going to hurt us in this fashion for this company, but we still ended up doing well. I mean, the multiple is good. Speaker 1: And what kind of sales, what was your gross sales volume at the peak? Speaker 2: At the peak, approaching 8 million. Speaker 1: 8 million a year? And about how many SKUs was that? Speaker 2: 84. Is that 84? 84 ASINs and it was 5 products. Speaker 1: So 5 products with a lot of variations. Speaker 2: A lot of variations. Color, size. Speaker 1: In what space? Speaker 2: In the health and personal care. Speaker 1: So how many companies has this aggregate emerge, you said the name? Speaker 2: Emergent. Speaker 1: Emergent. How many have they aggregated so far? Speaker 2: We're the young guys on the block, so for five. Five companies. Speaker 1: What's the goal? Is it to keep going or is it to actually start? Speaker 2: The goal is to keep it going and see if we get to a point where at some point we can possibly, you know, as any aggregator, whatever the liquidity event is going to be. But right now it's all about optimizing growing. Speaker 1: So there's so many aggregators that have entered the space. What are you doing to differentiate that? Are you focusing on a very specific niche? Are you focusing on stuff that you can buy and then add brand new products to that, that are not just that you can launch new products of your own creation through it? Speaker 2: Launch within the same brand type, niche, be it socks, compression socks. That's what we were selling actually at the time. There's a lot of avenues that we can go and branch off to, so things that can actually grow the product line. That's just one area. There's other brands that we have that we've already added, color variations, multiple sets, just a lot of things that can expand the product line. We're also looking at just, you know, the traditional optimization, which would be like listing, because everything that we're looking at when it comes to a product, it's like, what can we do to move the needle? One of our biggest thing is, you know, we're finding a lot of people really don't spend a lot of time in the ads, PPC. They just don't know what they're doing. And we've got a pretty good crew that actually dives in deep. And we do things that really make a difference that moves the needle. Speaker 1: So did you bring like your crew into the aggregator? I mean, did y'all had some other people working with you as well, right? Speaker 2: So yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. So we brought in and you know, we've also got some other people from other brands that we brought in that are, again, are really good in some avenues that can really move the needle again. Speaker 1: So I mean, you guys are old school with like, you go back to the Illuminati days. Before it was called Helium 10 Elite, it was called Illuminati. Were you from the original when we launched it? When you mean beta test? The Helium 10? Helium 10 tools. Speaker 2: Yeah. I still remember we were having a happy hour and And man, he leans over to me and goes, hey, I think I'm building some tools. I go, what do you mean by tools? He goes, you know, tools that I use that I think are going to be good for some other people in the Amazon space scope. And I kind of went, great. And that was extended conversation because I like, I don't know. Speaker 1: So you were one of those guys like me that was up at 2 o'clock in the morning testing the index checker or something like that to see if... Speaker 2: Yeah, I was amazed when I'd be on Skype because we were actually Skyping and I'd go, hey Manny... and it's like I'd get an answer and it'd be like 1 AM or something. Unknown Speaker: But he literally lived 15 minutes from us too. Speaker 2: The good old days. I still remember we were sitting there. Unknown Speaker: You know we knew Manny from the app days. Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew something about that. He's going to be here. Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. Him and Guy are coming. And we also were seeing one of those happy hours and go, AM, PM. And we came up with what it really meant. Amazon Money Printing Machine. That was after a couple of beers. Speaker 1: I see. Amazon money printing machine. Speaker 2: I wonder if Manuel remembered that. Speaker 1: That's something. He's clever with all the words and the naming things. Speaker 2: He came up with that. It's like, what does AM, PM really mean? Unknown Speaker: But you know, we've put, we've, we've really enjoyed, you know, working with Manny all these years. And so when he started the bulls and apes, we're right there with them. Speaker 1: Are you in the bulls and apes? Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2: That whole NFT space is amazing. I've been listening to what you're planning on doing Isabella. Um, I, I, I think NFTs are going to be huge. I think we all put the two together. You're missing the boat. Speaker 1: I'm talking about it Wednesday here. That's my presentation and it's I think it's gonna open some eyes It's gonna scare some people and some people but the way I'm explaining it Did a test run of it at the billion-dollar seller summit and I got feedback Well, what was not what do you not understand what I need and so I've modified it and I think it's pretty good It's not for everybody I mean the brand new seller who has a couple grand I don't know they could pull this off But if you're an experienced seller and you're not at least looking at this and considering it you're making a huge mistake. Speaker 2: I I think anyone that doesn't understand the NFT space in about five years from now is going to be missing the bull period. Speaker 1: You know, bulls and apes, the apes are coming in November. Speaker 2: Is that common knowledge? Speaker 1: No, that's alpha knowledge. I love the alpha knowledge. Manny said I could share that here. They're coming in November and he's got some other huge announcements that's gonna be game-changing that he's like, it's driving him crazy to not be able to tell people this right now, but he's got some stuff that, that project is solid. Speaker 2: Anyway, like I said, it's going to be fascinating. It's good to see, and it's nice that we're in the beginning of all this. It really is, because it's kind of like, it's like, we're the people that are going to make a difference. I'm hoping down the road for other people to see how they can be successful with NFTs and Amazon, with a nice marriage between the two. I mean, building community, building, and not just Amazon, but any e-commerce space, any product that you might be selling. Speaker 1: Well, Ted and Loretta, I really appreciate you stopping by. We have an entire podcast here now. Bradley's going to be really upset now. Unknown Speaker: I will. Speaker 1: I'll give you a teacher's excuse. Hey, I really appreciate you stopping by and taking the time. It's always great to talk to you guys and see you guys. Speaker 2: Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, Kevin. Speaker 1: Appreciate it. All right, look who I have now. I have Tisa Blackburn with me. She's a Helium 10 elite member here. Just on a little break at the conference with a Helium 10 elite, a special event that's going on right before the conference gets rolling. How are you doing, Tisa? Speaker 4: I'm doing great. It's great to be here. It's great to see you. Speaker 1: It's great to see you in person. You know, I usually see you like on a little Zoom call, like a little window, sometimes with a little icon on there. Unknown Speaker: I'm like, this is the real person. Speaker 1: It's nice to meet you in person. Speaker 4: Yeah, it's great to be here. Speaker 1: So how did you get involved with the Helium 10 elite or Helium 10 at all? Speaker 4: Well, I, you know, the pandemic and I had to pivot and I went from a very thriving art workshop, art teaching. I've been a visual artist for 40 years and going out in person to teach classes and workshops and stuff. And boom, it went away. And so I had to pivot. And so I've done some online teaching and I started thinking, you know, what can I do? And that's going to be, you know, something where I'm not schlepping a lot of art supplies and things around. And what can I do? And maybe I should just start my fourth career at close to 70 now. Speaker 1: Wow. Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1: You're close to 70. I would say you're close to like 40 or something. Speaker 4: Oh, you can stick around. Speaker 1: I would not be guessing you're close to 70. Thank you, sir. Speaker 4: Yeah, oh yeah. I'll be 70 in two years, yeah. Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Well, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. So what, so how did you, so 2020, you said the pandemic. Speaker 4: Yeah. Speaker 1: You're like, what the heck am I going to do? How did you hear about this, even that you could sell that? Did you kind of know about it before? Or did you, and you're kind of on the back burner and you're like, maybe I should take this more seriously or how did that come about? Speaker 4: Well, I had tried having a handmade store on Amazon and selling my fine art paintings, you know, one-offs. That was a miserable failure. That was just, that's not going to happen. And so then I started thinking, what about reproductions? You know, how can I do that? So I had a little, I dabbled in that a little bit. On my handmade storefront. And then... Speaker 1: Were you doing Etsy also? Speaker 4: I wasn't. I was just doing Amazon. And so then I started thinking, you know what? Wait a minute. There's something else I need to do here. So I just jumped in and I got a trademark. I got brand registry. I started looking into all of that. And then, where was I? Oh, I was on, I was on a, um, I think it was a podcast and, uh, one of the Amazon influencers, I was doing some live streaming on Amazon. You know, I'm just like putting these bits of in income together, you know, doing Amazon live streaming. Speaker 1: And one of the webinars, you were selling on Amazon as a live streamer, pitching people's products. Speaker 4: Yeah. Other products. Exactly. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 4: And I'm just putting these little bits of, of income together and, um, And on one of the webinars, the guy said, yeah, he goes, you know, I'm getting a brand registry and the tool that I'm using is Helium 10 and it is amazing. And I immediately after the webinar went over Helium 10, you know, I'm like, boom, there it is. Joined right away and I never looked back. You know, it's... Speaker 1: So did you go through the freedom ticket? Speaker 4: You bet I did. Speaker 1: And Helium 10 Elite now as well. What are you getting the most out of the way those are set up? What's the value there for you? Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, it's like a master's degree in selling in Amazon. It's like if you get in there and do the Freedom Ticket, first of all, that is set up to make you successful. You get in there, you follow the videos and follow all of the information that you guys put together, which is deep and it's real. And if you do that, you're going to be successful. Speaker 1: And the Freedom Ticket is included in Helium 10, so it's not like some course that you have to buy if you just have the basic software. It's included. But some people, they say, hey, Freedom Ticket, it's too detailed. Or they say, it's, all I want is the checklist. I need to do these 10 things and I can make money. And that's not what Freedom Ticket is. It's to actually educate you with the mindset and then you got to go off and do it. It's not a check the boxes course, which most of those, there are those out there in YouTube videos and stuff, but those don't work for the most part. Speaker 4: And that's the thing about Freedom Ticket that I think is, for me, I think I spent the better part of 12 weeks going through that before I launched my product. And the thing about it, there are no shortcuts. You're not going to be successful if you're trying to shortcut it. You've got to understand PPC. You've got to understand launching. You've got to understand Maldives, you know, honeymoon. You've got to understand all of that, at least have that information. And before you get started, get rolling, you guys saved me. I'm sure you've saved me money, but you've saved me so much time because otherwise I would have to go to 15, 20 different places to try to patch all this together that you guys put in one place. I mean, it's, it's amazing. Speaker 1: So is this your first event to go to, Amazon or e-commerce oriented conference to go to, or have you been to any others before? Speaker 4: Yeah, no, this is my first big conference, but I've been to the elite workshops, you know. Speaker 1: The ones in Irvine that they do? Speaker 4: Yeah, the ones in Irvine. Yeah, because I live over in Orange County, so I'm just down the road. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 4: I told Bradley, I said, look out because I might be parked on your front steps. Speaker 1: What are you hoping to get? I mean, right now, this is like the advance to the conference. This is like a special Helium 10 elite thing that Helium 10 does this every quarter. Like you said, you've been to the ones in Irvine. They do them at their offices in Irvine once every three months or sometimes they go on the road and they're doing this one in Vegas. So this is like the precursor. But then the next three days, there's like, 50 some odd speakers are going to be speaking. How do you choose? You look in the little app and it's like, okay, this and this and this, and some of them cross over at the same time. So what process are you doing? What's your strategy of who you're going to listen to and what you're going to go to? Speaker 4: Well, you know, I'm not sourcing any products from China, and I'm not looking at product logistics or shipping or any of that stuff. I manufacture my own product. So all of those workshops, while I'm sure they're wonderful, don't apply to me. So I'm looking at PPC, and I'm looking at launching, and I'm looking at brand. And so I took those kind of as my, you know, basis for what I wanted to do. And then also the speakers, because I'm looking at Walmart, you know, going into Walmart eventually. So I looked at that as well. Speaker 1: And this is one of the only conferences, I've been doing this since, going to these conferences since 2015. And I spoke at, in 2018 I think I spoke at 35 of them. 2018. So I've done a few of these, but this is one of the very first ones where actually Walmart and Amazon and Alibaba, actually the real people, not just some flunky, you know, that they sent out, but the actual real people are actually here where they can, you can sit down and ask questions directly with them. And Helium 10 was able to pull that. Even Prosper, some of the other big shows don't do that. Speaker 4: That is huge. Speaker 1: That's really big. Plus some of the speakers they bring in here, Gary Vanderchuck. I mean, he's not an Amazon seller. He encourages people sometimes to go sell on Amazon, but he's more of an entrepreneur mindset, a little raunchy sometimes, which turns some people off. Other people love it, but he's straight to the point. And Neil Patel. And so they're pulling out all the stops. Speaker 4: That's right. Speaker 1: And it's going to be, those of you that are listening to this that weren't at the event, you missed a really good one. Speaker 4: Oh, you guys are missing out. If you're not here, you're missing out for sure. Yeah. And I have, I think, three one-to-ones with Walmart people. Speaker 1: Awesome. Speaker 4: And I've got, I think, two with Amazon people. Speaker 1: So how's it going right now? You said you've launched and you're in the arts and crafts space. Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm in the wall art space, posters. Speaker 1: How is that going for you so far? Speaker 4: Well, you know, I've had a few sales. I've really, it's been less than a month that I've launched. So I've had a handful of sales. I've gotten good reviews. And my PPC spend, I was just telling somebody in the room there, I said I'm trying really hard to follow Kevin and Bradley's suggestion, leave the PPC alone for a month. But I get up every morning and look at it. Speaker 1: And it's bleeding. Speaker 4: And I try not to touch it. But I'm on page one, my brand ad is on page one every day. Speaker 1: Are you doing any product targeting? Because if you're in the art niche, it's a poster and I'm sure it's some sort of theme that's a specific theme. Are you targeting with your PPC other complementary products, not just the keywords, but they actually did show up on their page? Speaker 4: I'm actually targeting, I'm actually, I'm coming after a brand. I'm going after a brand. So I'm actually, I'm actually targeting somebody. I'm, you know, because there's somebody that's selling posters at that. And I even ordered from my competitor. I ordered one and I was really, really disappointed. And I thought to myself, you know what, I've got a better mousetrap. So I'm, I'm, I've targeted there. Speaker 1: So you can have a better mousetrap on Amazon or in e-commerce, but if people don't believe that or you can't convey that through a listing, through a non-animate thing where they can't touch it, feel it, hold it and know that, they just have to trust it. What are you doing to actually say, look, I have a better mousetrap, go with mine. They may have a hundred reviews. I may only have six because I just started, but how are you, how, what are you doing? Speaker 4: Well, I've got video on my A-plus content and I've got the video on all of my product listings and I made a real cute stop-motion video that shows all of the things that go into the package. You know, I put in an extra postcard, I put in hangers, my print goes out in a cellophane cover, all of this stuff that the other folks are not doing. Speaker 1: You show this in the video? Speaker 4: I show it in this real cute little stop motion video, yeah. Speaker 1: Awesome, cool. Speaker 4: So they see all of those details that go in there, yeah. Speaker 1: Have you gone out to any like art groups or anything to try to get them just to get the sales going to kind of just get a few people? Speaker 4: Yeah, I actually I haven't. I haven't. I did my own mailing to my own mailing list. Speaker 1: How big is your how big is your own mailing list? Speaker 4: It's about my core mailing was about 2000. That's good. Speaker 1: That's that's really that's way that's 2000 more than most people have. Speaker 4: Well, my open rate is 60%. Speaker 1: That's really, really good. Speaker 4: That's crazy good. Speaker 1: So how did that when you when you went out to them and said, Hey, I've got my my arts now on Amazon. Did you ask them to go buy it? Or did you? Speaker 4: I told him I said, Look, if you guys want to buy one, go for it. I'd love for you to get one. And I'm not asking for anything else. You know, I didn't ask him to leave reviews or anything like that. And I got sales. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Did you have to, have you tried any kind of incentives on that where like if you tell them, Hey, if you buy one of these, um, I'll send you a second one, a bonus one. If you, if you mess it, if you buy one on Amazon and email me your, uh, your order confirmation, I will send you a second print. Uh, you know, you'll have to do this yourself or second print that's hand signed. And that way a lot of them, it's like a free gift and a lot of them will go and buy and it's going to help you rank even better. Speaker 4: That's a great idea. See Kevin, every time the gold nuggets just fall out of your mouth. You should be like the man with the golden gun. You're the man with the golden mouth. Speaker 1: Someone told me once you should just put a machine and put a say drop a quarter and get something out. Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go. Speaker 1: Sometimes, you know, I got to be careful too much can get me in trouble. Sometimes I say something I shouldn't say. Oh, I'm a little too honest on something. It rubs people the wrong way, but I appreciate that. Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Speaker 4: I totally appreciate all your hard work and all of this stuff with Helium 10 and FBA. Oh, man. It's like I feel like I've got a master's degree in Amazon selling, you know, and I'm just just getting started, but I have I have really good feeling about it. Speaker 1: That's very sweet of you. Thank you for that. I know they've started back up again. I'm going to let you go in there and so you don't miss anything. I appreciate you stopping by. Speaker 4: Thank you, Kevin. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 4: I'll see you later. Speaker 1: All right. Take care. Awesome. So look who it is with me right now. I've got Mark Casey. Mark, how are you doing, man? Unknown Speaker: I'm doing well. It's very nice to see you after so long. Speaker 1: I know. When's the last time we saw each other? Was it like in New York at ASGTG? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, that's where everyone meets each other once a year or two. Speaker 1: You know, that's an amazing event. That event that happens next, I think the next one's in January, I believe. Unknown Speaker: Yeah, we're doing it twice a year now, I think. Speaker 1: Oh, is he doing it twice a year now? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, I think so. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's in Brooklyn, and that's a really, really cool event. It's got probably the best buffet of any event you could go to. Like, if you like to eat, just go for the eating. Speaker 2: Just for that alone. Speaker 1: Just for that alone. So true. It's like a one-day event. So what have you been up to lately, man? What's going on in the Mark Casey world? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, so much. And ever since we've met, a lot has changed. I mean, we focus more now on listing optimization and more ranking. And as ranking gets much harder and things are not allowed, we're trying to break through and figure out what works and what doesn't work. So that's been fun in itself, but that's mainly what we've been up to. Speaker 1: Did you start out as a seller? Unknown Speaker: I actually didn't. My background is in marketing and branding. I've been doing that for close to 10 years. I was working under a very large seller and doing just their marketing and branding. They were doing close to $100 million on Amazon. They asked me, like, hey, you want to do the Amazon? Back then, it was really a joke. I was laughing at it. I said no. Then I finally got on and that's how I picked up here and there all the Amazon. Knowledge, I would say. Speaker 1: So you run an agency right now? What's the name of it? Unknown Speaker: House of AMZ. Our website, our domain is amazonseo.com and people get a really big kick out of it. Speaker 1: And Amazon lets you get away with that? Speaker 3: I don't know. Unknown Speaker: That's why I say house of AMZ. But yeah, that's kind of where our agency came to life is because I know marketing and branding and I know Amazon. So when we make listings, we kind of combine both of that together. Speaker 1: So you're actually doing listing optimization and the launching process? Exactly. Unknown Speaker: So I say it's create, optimize and launch. Those are the three kind of steps that we do. So we create listings and like do all the infographics, the lifestyle images, A plus content or if your listings are already there, we optimize it and then we help you launch. So anywhere from like keyword ranking, outside traffic and like really just like pushing your list. Speaker 1: So what's the key to actually making a good listing? What's the mistake that when you take over someone's listing, you're like, gosh, dang it, here we go again. They did the same stupid mistake. What is it? Unknown Speaker: There's a couple of things I would say. One that I said, I did a thing with Bradley and I told him this and everyone was like literally going crazy about it, but they tried it out and like, oh my God, this works. What I always say is take away your brand name from your title, or at least put it in the end. And everyone's like, no, you need it or whatever. I said, no, try this. And if it doesn't work, you can always put it back. The first four or five keywords are very important for two reasons. One, for Amazon's algorithm, and the two is for the shopper. When they're searching, they don't want to see your brand name come up first. So if you take out your brand name and use the first four or five, you know, keywords as like your main keywords, your listing is going to pick up just from that alone. Speaker 1: Sometimes Amazon forces your hand though and they force you to put your brand name at the beginning. What's a workaround for when they force you? Unknown Speaker: Honestly, I've seen people do it or at least put it in the end and they got away with it and it works fine. But if they're going to force you, it's not worth to get in trouble for it. But a lot of people do it and it works really great. Speaker 1: I mean, because your brand name is still searchable anyway, because if you put your brand name in the brand name field, you're still going to come up. So I agree with you, it's a waste of valuable real estate. 100%. So how do I do that on Amazon and e-commerce? And I'm competing against, I'm launching my new product on Amazon and creating a listing, and I'm going up against some guy that's got a thousand reviews, another guy's got 2,500, another guy's got 500. And how do I... Position myself to actually get over that hump because nobody has had that experience yet. Nobody has done that. What do I do? Because you said you do, you help with the listing and you do the launch. So what's it's a work together. So what, how do I get over that hump? Okay. Unknown Speaker: Well, first of all, you need to make sure your listing, it looks very professional and good. And a lot of people say, Oh, you know, I'm going to use Fiverr for design. And that's great. If you want to go to Fiverr, you could go to Fiverr, but it's not just a listing and just a design. There's a lot of marketing and a lot of points that you have to think of that when someone's going on your listing and how you're going to sell it to them. No one's reading your bullet points or description anymore. It's a whole long paragraph. People are visual. You have to sell them within the first 5 to 10 seconds when they're on your listing. Your graphics need to be A++. They need to be the best quality for someone to understand and see that if you invest the money in your graphics and it looks professional, like it's a corporate product, someone will buy it because it looks good and it looks professional, as opposed to a white background image with words like you did on Microsoft. Speaker 1: Does that mean I have to spend a lot on my photography and my imagery? Unknown Speaker: I mean look, I know people who spend $5,000 to $10,000 on it. You don't have to, but if you gave me a budget and said what would you spend it on, one of the main things would be even just the graphics and the photography. Think of it like this, take a step back. Even before any infographics, if your main image is not good, you're not even getting the click. So don't even spend the dollar on EBC. There's no point in doing that. Your main image, your here image needs to be A++ like top. I met a seller, he spent $10,000 and three or four months on just perfecting his main image and once he aced it, he got the best seller and he was just selling organically. Speaker 1: So how do you perfect a main image? What do you do? Because I'm sitting here. I come to you with my product. Hey, I've got this great idea. This is my product. I want to put it this way with this angle and this and that. And it's going to look amazing. And what do you say to me? Unknown Speaker: You have to stand out. You know me. I'm always standing out with the ways that I do things, but that's really what it is. When I'm searching, there's 50 other search results, plus the ads and everything. Like if someone's ADHD, they're never going to even get to your product. No one's going to see anything. You need to be the one that stands out on the whole entire search results that catches your eye. Boom, I'm going to click on it. Even just that click alone in Amazon's eyes is worth so much because they're already relating the keyword to your product. Speaker 1: So what do I do? How do I, what do I do to know this guy that, you know, perfected his image? What did he do to perfect it? Was he constantly testing? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Was it with Amazon? Was he doing a pick food thing? Was he doing, what was he, what was he doing? Unknown Speaker: There was a couple of things he was doing, but it's, it's even, it got to a point where it's which shadow and highlight and angle that he was able to perfect. So, whenever he puts one shadow, the bottle, it was like a serum bottle. So, it looked longer, but once he moved it, it looked a little bit wider. So, he wanted to get the most real estate while the bottle looks, you know, proportionate and normal. So, until he was able to fix every single highlight and also the label. If you can make the label much lighter and brighter or you can make it darker and how it really looks. So, he did renderings and then he went to photography, then he combined the both. So, there's so much that you can do and just on the main image alone. Speaker 1: Okay, so I've done that with my main image and I've got a killer main image. Yeah that I've tested and I've done all the everything you just said I know this this is gonna work. So then how do I get people to my how do I launch my product? How do I I've got the right image that people are gonna click? How do I close that's how do I get people there? And then how do I close the sale? Speaker 4: Right. Speaker 1: So in today's world where you're not supposed to do search find buy or any of the old ways How do I get to that point? Unknown Speaker: Honestly, it's getting much, much harder, but what I found, and I said this like a year ago, and it works and still works is outside traffic. Nothing can compare to that outside traffic. Amazon loves it. When I say outside traffic, I don't mean many bots or whatever, many chatbots or Facebook ads. I mean like Google ads and like real outside traffic where people are coming organically and going to your product. I've literally seen things that were not even ranked or it was on the seventh page get ranked only to the first page without any PPC, without any Search find buys, but just by doing outside traffic alone. Speaker 1: What about if you have your own list of current customers? Unknown Speaker: That's 110 times better, obviously, yeah. Building your audience is the best you can get. You launch a product, all you need to do is just send an email out to everybody and they're already loyal. You don't even need to do a free giveaway. You could say 10% off coupon and you're already still making profit. Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the things I have one of my businesses is seasonal. I've talked about in the past, it's calendars. People buy calendars pretty much from about October to January. And they're like selling milk because they're dated. If I'm selling a 2023 calendar, come January, the value goes in half. You go to the stores and the malls, you know, everything's 50% off or 75% off. And by February or March, pretty much, even though there's still 75% of the year left, nobody wants to buy a calendar at full price. So when I launch these calendars, they're in a category where I cannot do PPC. It's not allowed in that category. And so I can't, I can't launch with PPC. So yeah, so this product that I have is in a category that we're not allowed to do PPC. So what do I do to launch this product is I actually go out to my current list of buyers and I say, Hey, this product is available on Amazon is the day it comes into stock actually before the day I ship in. So this just happened last two weeks ago. I shipped in my stock to Amazon. The next day while it's in transit, I actually message my list, and the listing is up, and it'll say coming soon, you know, on this date. I message the list, and then it gets in, I'm shipping from Austin to Dallas, so it's there in a day, usually checked in within 48 hours, or the process starts within 48 hours. You know, it takes a while for it to spread out. Message my list, and tell them to go, it's available. It's a simple text message, nothing fancy, simple little text message, says this product is available on Amazon, go buy it. I also sell it on my own web store, direct, and I do my own fulfillment on it. But I tell my customers to go buy it there and a percentage of them do. And so in the first four days we did about $8,000 on just from my current list. But what this does is these guys also buy a lot of other calendars, you know, Automotive calendars, they buy, you know, other types of calendars out there, you know, as gifts or for themselves, for their garage or whatever. And because I'm at the beginning of the season, so October, remember I said October on is the big season. We're recording this in September and this happened in September. Before things start selling really crazy, I'm ranked, I'm one of those calendars that are already number 43 in calendar category. There's 100,000 products or something in calendars. It's like number 43 already. And I'll be able to ride that wave now all the way to the busy season. And we'll be doing $5,000, $10,000 a day on that one title. Wow. And we have four of them come November, December time frame. And I never will do any PPC. I'll never do anything else. I'll never send another email to the list. But that plants the seed before the season starts. And I just ride the wave. And then I get in all the frequently bought togethers. And the customers review this, view that. And so that's... Speaker 3: Right on. Unknown Speaker: That's the best. Speaker 1: That's one of the best. Yeah, for sure. And this is a product that sells for $19.95 and my landing cost is $1.52. And Amazon fulfillments cost on it are $6.16, I think, with their commission and the fulfillment. Yeah. So you can see it's what's at 13 bucks profit on every single pure profit on every single one. It's totally on autopilot. Speaker 3: Wow. Speaker 1: And these things hardly take up any space, their calendars. It's paper. It's, yeah, it's 13 ounces. Not even a pound. And it doesn't take, you know, the boxes are 13 by 13 by 9, 13 inches by 13 inches by 9. And I always tell, you know, when the guys are offloading that from the ship, I'm like, everyone, be careful, everyone, those boxes, $1,000 bill. And they're like, holy, you know, $1,000 bill. So, but if you don't have that list, what do you do? Unknown Speaker: So that's what I was saying before is like, so the outside traffic is really important. Just by even getting clicks and without even a conversion. So this is another thing they said, which is very controversial. Everyone's like, oh, I'm gonna get a whole bunch of clicks, but they're not gonna convert and my listing is gonna go bad. I said that's false. If anything, Amazon likes that. They look at it as an estimated sale. So let's say, I would go on your product and I'll click on it and what happens 24 hours later I'm on another website and I'm getting retargeted within that. So that's what Amazon looks at as an estimated sale. They don't look at it as a lost out. So just by getting that you get relevancy and you get more ranking just for that keyword alone and just for your listing overall. Speaker 1: So what do you think the future is going to be for, how hard is it going to be to launch products? Are people that have a $2,500 budget to get into the Amazon business? Is it going to be possible for them to do that? I mean, are these the old methods, the old YouTube videos, the old, all you can start this with nothing. What do you think this is going? You think you're gonna have to have real money and real serious money and serious know-how to actually practice? Or is there still opportunity on the low end of, you know, left-handed bats for, uh, for, for, uh, challenge height challenge people or something. Uh, is there going to be something like. Unknown Speaker: Very niche, huh? Speaker 1: Very, very niched down. Unknown Speaker: People always ask me this question and I like to say is if you have a strategy, there's always possibility. If you're gonna go in and guess things and maybe it's gonna work, maybe not, your $2,500 budget is gonna be done in a day. So if you come in with a strategy, you know exactly what you're doing, then you should be good to go. Speaker 1: Mark, man, I really appreciate you stopping by. We're going to have to do this in a longer podcast because we can sit here and geek out about this. Unknown Speaker: A nice cigar and whiskey. Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly. That's a nice cigar and whiskey and do a much longer podcast in the future on this. But hey, thanks for stopping by here, man, at the Helium 10 Elite event. Speaker 3: For sure. Speaker 1: Thank you. Look who it is. Cary Miller stopping by the table. How are you doing, Cary? Speaker 3: I'm doing great. How are you doing, Kevin? Speaker 1: I'm awesome. So for those of you that don't know, Carrie Miller is one of the employees or one of the top employees, one of the faces actually of Helium 10. Her specialty is she wears about 20 different hats, but one of them is handling the Walmart stuff. She does some stuff with Helium 10 Elite. She does some stuff with some of the webinars, just a whole bunch. What do you do? Speaker 3: What do you do for Helium 10? Those are some of the things. Yeah, I help give ideas for product. I mean, there's all kinds of... I'm busy all day, every day. So every aspect I have a little bit of influence in. So that's pretty cool. Speaker 1: So, you actually have been doing this for a day or two. Before Helium 10, you were involved in this industry as well, right? Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. I've been selling since 2016. So, kind of by accident, my dad took over a company and I was like, well, I can probably figure out how to sell on Amazon and that's really how I started learning, just learned off of YouTube and went from there. Speaker 1: Really? You didn't learn off of Helium 10 or some other competing tool that's out there? Speaker 3: You mean how to sell on Amazon? Yeah. I learned on YouTube. Yeah. Speaker 1: What was your background? So before you joined your dad's business, what were you doing? Speaker 3: So I did, okay, so I was a teacher for five years. I taught Spanish. And then after that, I was working as a trainer for a skincare company. So I did, I basically was in sales and I trained other people how to sell skincare at high-end resorts like Ritz Carlton's, Fairmont's, all those high-end spas. So I would go and train those estheticians on how to sell the products and how to utilize them. And I also sold directly to customers. So I was a top salesperson at that company for a few years. And so I kind of have, I always had like the sales in me. I'm kind of motivated by that kind of competitive aspect of it. So I did that. And then I took a job at Clear Channel selling billboards. That was kind of rough because they really limited me because there were only 100 billboards in San Diego where I live. And they were all taken by Coca-Cola most months. So I just didn't see a future. And then I worked a very short amount at like a student loan forgiveness thing, and it was really, really miserable. So I just cold turkey quit it. And I was like, really just dogs. And that's what I was like, I have spare time, I can learn how to do this. So I just started learning with YouTube. I mean, I was sat I was in this kind of theater room in this mansion I was dog sitting at for a month and I watched YouTube videos over and over and over again and just took notes and just started optimizing our listings, transferred everything over from Vendor Central, started learning how to optimize and then I was a freelancer for a few years just working for different companies, individual sellers through free up. So I did optimization and stuff like that. Yeah, I've had like an interesting journey, I guess you could say. So when did you actually join Helium 10? I joined about a little over a year and a half ago. Speaker 1: So it's during the pandemic? Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Speaker 1: So in 2020, at some point in 2020, you came on. And what's your main role there? I mean, you seem to be running a lot of the Walmart initiative. Is that correct? Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm the Walmart brand evangelist, but because I also have a background selling on Amazon, and I also created a Shopify site as well, I kind of have a lot of different abilities that can be utilized for Helium 10. So I just, wherever is needed, I'm always kind of creating content for Helium 10 in any way possible. Speaker 1: So what do you think, a lot of people think of Helium 10 as just, it's an Amazon company, but it's becoming a lot more than just an Amazon software tool. Can you explain how it's kind of evolving and kind of what's going on there? Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have, we are expanding out to Walmart, which we have tools for Walmart specifically, you know, for keyword research and we have x-ray for Walmart to help you with, you know, sales and data analysis and keyword tracker and all that. We also are kind of a part of a bigger company called Assembly, which is, you know, we have Helium 10 and we also have Packview, which is a sister company and they do Walmart advertising, which I've been using their advertising platform. They do Amazon advertising. We have Refersion for influencer marketing, Pipe Candy. So it's like an umbrella of a bunch of different companies that we all are kind of starting to work together to improve the strategies that Amazon sellers can implement for their Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, all of their e-commerce platforms. Speaker 1: Now, how excited are you about being here at Sell and Scale? I mean, we're right now today, there's a Helium 10 elite workshop going on, which, you know, I've been talking to a bunch of different people here that have come in, but over the next few days, there's going to be some pretty cool stuff happening. There's like a Nelly concert, there's like Gary Vee's coming to speak, Neil Patel. I'm speaking, of course, and you're doing some stuff. What are you really stoked about? What are you really excited about over the next few days? Speaker 3: Well, I'm excited to do a Walmart presentation on the main stage. So I think I'm really excited about that. I'm sharing the stage with Michael Labar, who has a Walmart agency. I'm also really excited about Gary V to hear him and just also all the networking we're going to be doing to meet new people and I'm hosting some icebreaker sessions. To get people acquainted at the beginning so that, you know, they're not just at the end meeting people and like, oh, bummer. Well, see you later. It's like from the beginning, we're connecting everyone so that they can start, you know, just getting to know each other throughout the conference. Speaker 1: Well, what about the people that are shy, the people that are like, I don't want to meet anybody. I just want to go and learn, take some notes in the presentations and go back and make some money. Why is it important to actually come to a conference and actually meet people? Why is that important? Speaker 3: Just from making friends with other Amazon sellers, you can really collaborate and help each other out with different strategies or just, you know, oh, hey, I know this service provider. And you're really just giving each other help, you know, just Anecdotal evidence of whether a provider works even, I've been referred to. I actually met the person who does my ads at your event, BDSS, and it's just taken our account to the next level. I mean, I wouldn't have met him if I was just sitting alone and not wanting to talk to anybody. I also, even just myself. I've met people, you know, already that I know can help and, you know, just take me to the next level. And everyone's really kind of, not everyone's willing to share, but usually if people, if you want help with a strategy or something, people are willing to help you solve a problem or collaborate. And it's really important to not just be an island because it is really lonely when you're working on your business by yourself and in your office. Sometimes, you know, you need somebody else to bounce an idea off of or, you know, hey, I know this person had this issue, I can ask them or call them up or, hey, they worked with this, you know, service provider, I can go ask them. So yeah. Speaker 1: So if I'm out there and I'm choosing events to go to, because you and I were joking earlier, when we go to events, we always have to catch up when we get back, you know, gotta go through emails and catch up on everything. So it can add some extra work in some ways as well. So if I'm out there listening and I'm thinking about going to some events, and I haven't been to very many, how should I choose? I mean, you have a big event like Helium 10, and then you have an event like the Billion Dollar Seller Summit, which is a much smaller event. And then you have other events. There's ones in Florida. There's ones in the US. There's quite a few different ones. There's some that are sponsored by Amazon. There's some that are individual people do. And then you have some like Augustus does a bunch around in Europe and stuff. How do I choose? If I can only pick two or three events a year that I should go to, how should I choose where I should spend my time and money? Speaker 3: Usually, I like to look at the topics that are going to be presented, the speakers and who's going to be there and what kind of information they're going to be presenting. But I mean, I might be biased, but Helium 10 always is bringing the top-notch information to help level up. And Billion Dollar Seller Summit, obviously, is another one where you're just going to level up. I mean, if you want me to pick two exact ones, I could say the two that I would choose. But usually, I look at who's going to be speaking and what kind of things they're going to offer. And Janelle Page actually said something at one of our elite workshops last year that really stuck out to me. And that's, if she's going to go to an event, that she has to implement at least one thing. Otherwise, she's not allowed to go to another event. And that's really true because sometimes you go to events and you're like, oh, that's great. And then you come back and you're like, I don't know, I'll do it later or something. You don't implement it right away. So she kind of makes herself do that. And I've done that too now. I've started to implement at least one thing from any event that I'm going to, to try to take it to the next level. Speaker 1: That's good advice. And speaking of implementing or going to events, Helium 10 Elite actually has, we're doing one right here, right now. next to us on this table, right inside this little room here, we got about 50 or 60 some odd folks that have come in early, maybe it's a little more than that, that have come in early and doing like a four hour intensive workshop, more advanced topics, got some cool speakers speaking, but we do that with Helium 10 Elite every month where we do a training online, we do round tables, we've just done one recently, every month where I come on and we do these two hour, Sometimes two and a half hour just sessions, no agenda, no presentations, just talk and help people. Like people were talking at the last one we did about, hey, I've got a problem with a shipment, you know, on Amazon and anybody here have any experience on how to help me solve this problem? It's like, oh yeah, you just email this address or just do this. So it's really, really cool, cool, cool stuff. And then we do in-person events. And we have one coming up in November in Irvine at the Helium 10 headquarters. And you get to go to these for free if you're in the Helium 10 Elite. You know, and Helium 10 Elite's only open at certain times. And besides all the training, you get, you know, extra salt, you get special software tools, you get a whole, there's a whole litany of things that, that are included. And you and I are actually hosting a webinar coming up on November 3rd, about four Helium 10 elite, and I'm going to be sharing a ton of hacks. On this, some of the stuff that we only share with the Helium 10 Elite members, I'm going to be sharing just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, because, you know, when I present, people always say, hey, Kevin, you know, we like some of your presentations, they're good, but we really like it when you do like these ninja hacks. And I do those every single month on Helium 10 Elite at the end after we have our normal speakers. And I'm going to be bringing some of those to everybody out there for free. On November 3rd, and you and I are doing that webinar. There's going to be information coming soon on how to actually sign up for that. So look for an email if you're on the Helium 10 list or look in the Facebook group. There should be, or you can go to helium10elite.com, I believe, as well. So I'm excited about that. And that's, I think we did, we've done one other webinar together, didn't we? Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was for Freedom Ticket. Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a Freedom Ticket one, right? Speaker 3: Freedom Ticket one, yep. Yeah, that was a good one too. Speaker 1: This is going to be fun. I'm really looking forward to that. Speaker 3: I want to say something too about the elite, like your hacks that you give. That gives it the value in itself because some of the, I'm not going to name the hack that I'm talking about, but it saved me quite a bit of money. So it really pays for itself when you implement the hacks. I've seen other people post about things that you've mentioned that have either boosted their sales or Save them money. So once you get to taking these trainings and listening to your hacks and actually implementing them, you're going to be gaining money in my opinion. So I think it's $3.99 a month, but you're going to just gain so much more than that. Usually people are diamond and go up to elite. It's not that much more. That's true. Speaker 1: It's just a small jump up. And this webinar is totally free. So you don't have to pay anything to come to the webinar. We're just going to be sharing a whole bunch of cool stuff. And, you know, at the end, there'll be a little offer if you want to join us for elite, or maybe not. You just come in and learn. So hope to see everybody there. Well, Carrie, I know you got to get back in. You got a lot of stuff going on here with the event and you running around. And so I really thank you for stopping by the table and, and sharing with us. Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited that I'm finally on the AM PM podcast. Speaker 1: There you go. We'll have to do it again another time in a longer session. Speaker 3: Yes, I would love that. Speaker 1: Awesome. We'll talk to you soon. Speaker 3: Thanks. Bye. Speaker 1: Man, I really enjoy doing this type of episode because you get to bring in a lot of different people and you just get a lot of amazing stories and a lot of amazing strategies rather than just focusing on one person on one episode, which I like doing as well because we can go really in depth. But when we do these, you just get some really cool stuff. And we did want the Billion Dollar Seller Summit and we've done this one and part one. Make sure you go back and listen to part one that came out last week if you missed it. And you know, it's just, it's just a lot of fun. Next week, we've got another really great episode talking about money, raising money, how to get money for your Amazon business, how to scale your Amazon business. If you're struggling, make sure you check out this episode, or even if you're not struggling, you're just crushing it out there. We're going to have some really good tips and strategies on cashflow, on Your Amazon business is going to be a really great episode, so don't miss that one. And also make sure November 3rd, Helium 10 Elite free webinar. It's going to be free for everybody, going to be sharing a lot of ninja hacks and strategies. So don't miss that webinar. Mark your calendars for November 3rd. Details will be posted in the Facebook group, and I'm sure you'll be getting an email announcing that soon as well. Before we go this week, I just want to share you with a little words of advice, a little nugget that I like to end every episode with. Remember the purpose of your business is to serve your life. The purpose of your business is to serve your life. It's not for your life to be your business. So much as entrepreneurs, that's what happens is your life becomes your business. It's actually the other way around. The freedom to choose is the ultimate luxury there is. The purpose of your business is to serve your life. It's not life to be your business. And remember, the freedom to choose is the ultimate luxury. Take care, and we'll see you next week for episode 311.