Serious Sellers Podcast: Learn How To Sell On Amazon FBA & Walmart

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#444 - Amazon Posts, Amazon Inspire, & More! Apr 18, 2023

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Welcome to episode #444 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, where Bradley and Lisett Lees of Orange Klik catch up on a lot of topics. Lisett shares insights into the best current strategies with Amazon Posts like the posting frequency, how Amazon Posts works with the Project X products, and other strategies you must be doing today. They also take a quick look into the new Amazon Inspire and how it would affect Amazon FBA brands in the future. Plus, if you’re in Europe this June, make sure to catch Bradley Sutton and Lisett Lees at the European Seller Conference in June! Also, don’t forget to check out the Lisett’s Amazon Posts modules in Freedom Ticket. Tune in until the end of this episode, where she shares more strategies and tips for Amazon sellers. In episode 444 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Lisett discuss: 01:10 – Catching Up With Lisett Lees 01:40 – S3 Event Experience & Meeting The Founders Of Helium 10 04:00 – What Are Amazon Posts? 07:20 – The Best Posting Frequency 09:30 – Amazon Post Results For Project X 13:45 – What Strategies Are Currently Working 16:21 – Check The Amazon Posts Modules In Freedom Ticket 3.0 17:00 – Lisett’s 60-Second Tip For Amazon Posts 18:40 – Talking About The New Amazon Inspire 22:30 – Lisett’s Hobbies & Heathy Habits Outside The Amazon Grind 27:20– Catch Bradley In Prague This June! 30:00 – More Strategies From Lisett 32:50 – How To Get In Touch With Lisett Lees And OrangeKlik 33:40 – How To Grab Pizza With Bradley In Europe ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today’s guest is gonna be giving us a deep dive into what’s working in Amazon Post, and we’re also gonna talk about a wide variety of subjects, including an invitation to have pizza with me in Europe this summer. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world We’ve got somebody from the opposite side of the world here. Lizette, welcome back to the show. How’s it going? Lisett: Thank you, Bradley. Great to be back here with you to record another episode for the podcast. Bradley Sutton: So if you guys wanna check out a lot of information from Lizette, especially about in regard to Amazon posts, which we’re definitely gonna follow up today. Check out episode 288. All right, so episode 288. You can find all about Lisett there, but let’s go ahead and just hop right into it. What have you been up to in the last year? Lisett: So, in the last year, actually, I have traveled quite a lot, attended quite a few events which are meant for Amazon sellers or e-commerce sellers. So I would say besides yeah, the regular work I do, it has been pretty interesting year. Definitely busy and definitely looking forward also to the rest of this year’s because some exciting things are coming up for me as well. Bradley Sutton: Okay, cool. Cool. Now it was good to see you at Sell and Scale event. Now. It was funny, you just shared a picture with me that I didn’t know you took, but did you recognize the founder of Helium 10 there? Or like you knew who he was before because a lot of people knew to this space they, they think what the Helium 10 they see now, that’s what they know, but like people like us who’ve been around for a while, it was kind of a big deal to see him there at the event. Lisett: Yeah, exactly. It was a great moment for me. So, yeah, I indeed went to your conference, which organized last Autumn Sell and Scale, and I had a chance to meet Manny Coats and Guillermo, who are both the founders of Helium 10. Of course, I recognized them, especially Manny because when I started out working with Amazon seller seven years ago I think that one of the first podcasts or ways I learned about Amazon at all was by listening to Manny’s podcasts. So for me, for a girl from Estonia who had never heard about like Amazon, or I didn’t order from Amazon anything, I’m listening to a podcast where a guy is trying to educate and teach me something. And now, many, many years later, I have a chance to meet him in person. Lisett: But yeah, I just ran into him in the conference and actually, what I did, I never do something like this. I basically froze in front of him and I said, Manny, you know what? I’m having a total fan-girl moment right now, but I really have to tell you my story real quick. So I kind of like explained all of the stories I just shared with you, and I was like, can we just have a picture? And they were so open to it, and yeah, we had the chats and it was awesome. Bradley Sutton: So cool. So cool. Yeah. It was kind of surreal for them too because like when you create something in the beginning and then to see what you know now, it turned into this you know, pretty much the most crazy Amazon event with Gary Vee speaking and just craziness. You know, so many were a thousand people, and it was kind of surreal for them too to kind of see. So that’s really cool that you had that moment. Now you are a big educator in our Freedom Ticket program about Amazon Post, and that was why I originally had you on it, was when the next version of Freedom Ticket had first come out and you did like one or two modules about Amazon Post. But we’re not gonna go completely deep into what is Amazon Post. Like, we took probably 30 minutes to do that on the last episode, but just a quick maybe one or two minute recap just to let people know what are Amazon Post? Lisett: Yeah, sure. So basically Amazon introduced this Amazon Post tool to brand-registered sellers, I think in 2020. If you have never used it, then think about it as it’s like an Instagram for Amazon sellers when it first launched, it basically as I said, it’s a way how you can make posts about your products to get in front of customers, and the tool is completely free. So basically it’s kind of a mix between like marketing and advertising. It kind of like, you can access it under the advertising console in Amazon. So we can think that Amazon considers it more like an advertising tool, but as I said, until now, it’s free, and it’s still embedded. So they haven’t done like a lot of changes to it lately, but let’s say when they first launched, there were a few changes in the policies and everything that’s went on a lot. So basically posting images and captions about your products to catch more attention of your customers and yeah, be in front of their eyes. Of course, make more sales. Bradley Sutton: Yeah. Let’s talk about some things that have changed in the last year and a half or so that you’ve been on the podcast. But I think Amazon is kind of building that ecosystem more for the brand followers, but isn’t Amazon Post one of the conduits where you can grow your following, right? Lisett: Exactly. So yeah, one of the things you can do with Post is that whenever you’re posting customers can actually start following you as a brand. They can also start following you through storefront. I think the follow button there wasn’t originally displayed, but nowadays, and how basically Amazon. How it works now is that through posts you are able to get followers. So now when you have followers, you are able to use the next tools that Amazon have, for example customer engagement tool, which is also relatively new. It’s basically a tool that allows you to send marketing emails to Amazon sellers. Initially, there were like a couple of different templates you could send out. Last Autumn, they introduced like, new ways you can reach out like to the most recent buyers, your repeat buyers, et cetera. Lisett: I must say I haven’t had success with those emails yet. The open rate is great, but I haven’t seen many sales coming out of those emails. But as with many new tools, I would say it doesn’t take much time to experiment with it, just try it out, because the faster you kind of understand how the tool works, what are the options, the faster you are in the end able to have some success with it, as we see with Amazon Post, because when you started posting, let’s say, in 2020, basically nobody was posting, you were basically the only one in most categories, and your post would show up everywhere. But now, two years, three years later, we see more brands are posting, you kind of have to compete with content a little bit more. So things are getting a little bit like more difficult. Bradley Sutton: Okay. Okay. Now with that in mind is now I think the first time you were on there was maybe 2021 or something now in 2023, is Amazon Post worth the effort to keep up? And if so, what would be your like, suggested cadence frequency that somebody a brand that’s building on Amazon should follow? Lisett: Yeah, that’s a good question. And actually it really like, yeah, a lot of experts like to say about a lot of things. It depends. First thing you have to be efficient. In the Freedom Ticket module, also explain how to set up very easy system, how you can kind of repeat the process all over again or delegate it to your va. So that’s the first step. You have to have some kind of steps to make it efficient. Now, the second thing is you just have to experiment. So you need to start posting and posting quite a lot to get some kind of insights. What kind of post work for your product and which not. Now, how much does it cost? And this word, the effort, it depends like who is basically managing the tool for you. So for example, if you use a virtual assistant with relatively low hourly rates, and let’s say you invest, like even if you start out by investing $50 in budgets for the management part every month. Let’s even not think about like how many posts it could be, because sometimes so posts, you know before, well sometimes some posts don’t perform at all. Lisett: So $50 per month. But now, if we would get 200 clicks, for example, which is like real cases, like 200 clicks, two product page per month. So it’s $50, 200 clicks. So basically like one click is I guess like less than half a dollar or something. So you kind of need to calculate those main things, like based on the results you get. But the thing is that the post kind of like has its life, not only when you post it, but it could perform or start performing later. So let’s say we posted something a few months back or six months back or something like this, and maybe the initial results weren’t that good, but now months later it’s somehow. Bradley Sutton: Hold on, hold on. You didn’t even know about this because you didn’t share this with me, but Shivali shared with me you were helping the Project X just to do an example like. And this was in looking here June of last year. So this was like almost a year ago. Take a look here, let me sh let me share my screen. But this was one that we had done like in June of last year. And this metrics is only from the last 90 days. So that means it’s only in the last three months. So that means it has to be six months later from when we posted this. And all of a sudden, like one of them just, it seems like it went viral or something. It had like 3000 impression. I mean, who unfortunately I didn’t take screenshots of when we were doing it so it could have been more, but it’s almost exactly what you just said, where six months later, looks like we were highlighting our purple coffin shelf here. Just started going create 140 engagement, 101 clicks to the store, 17 clicks 5,000 reach just completely out of the blue. So almost exactly with what you were saying, you were saying right there. Lisett: Exactly. And one of the reasons is actually what, what is also important to like notes, so the post, they can show up in different placements, right. But the main thing is that you as a seller, you can’t really influence where it is. We don’t have a lot of information like how Amazon decides where to and when displays the post you make. So it could be that now after a while, somehow Amazon kind of picked it up, or maybe it was showed somewhere, got some clicks, Amazon thought, okay, it must be relevant with some other things in Amazon. So it pushed it a little bit more to other placements. So that’s the thing, how kind of yeah, Amazon post work, because for example, one thing like we, I think we discussed last time as well, was like, doesn’t matter if you include a keyword to the caption, like, we don’t know. Amazon doesn’t say it it helps somehow, but it’s a good thing, I would recommend to do it. I mean, it doesn’t like yeah, take your time to add some keywords because yeah, as I said, Amazon hasn’t like, confirmed anything, but I think it could be somehow related also how posts show up in the end. Bradley Sutton: So then this thing that we’re looking at here is, is kind of like how a preview of how it looks on like a mobile browser similar to like almost Instagram feed or something. But that caption you’re talking about here, I think Alina said that she was doing some testing with, with Keyword Impact. She’s actually one of the ones talking in Prague, I’m not mistaken. We’ll talk about that a little bit later, but this is the I believe this, we’re looking here at the console of how you create your posts and, and this is that caption you’re talking about. Lisett: Exactly. Exactly. So when we first those made those initial posts with Shali as well, I told her to definitely include like a keyword and also make a note like what keyword you used to kind of later you’re able to kind of see whether it could have some impact. But I think I listened a bit of Alina’s podcast. So I think they have done some yeah bigger testing with it, so definitely worked to do that. Bradley Sutton: Okay. Yeah. I think actually because of the Amazon Post you had mentioned in the last podcast you’re like, Hey you can’t just paste this, your images from your listing just over and over again, but you gotta have some unique ones. So we actually did a photo shoot with AMZ One Step, and so we got some good coffin shelf pictures, and they, they had it scheduled. And now at the time they had. Shivali told me that you had given them like this spreadsheet of like how to like schedule out your post. So, so is that still similar with like the kind of frequency you think that people should be doing now or are there things that should happen that would change your cadence? You know, you talked a little bit about scheduling, but like, let’s say you have something, they’re not going really well, like as far as impressions go early, you just keep going. And on the flip side, let’s say that one that I showed where all of a sudden one went viral or more go viral, does that make you want to increase your frequency to take advantage of it? Or still you should just pick your schedule and just stick to it? Lisett: So what I have done most of the time is just keep going. I know some people, for example, go back and edit the post when they see it’s like not performing well within a week or two weeks or a month, they go back and edit. We haven’t done it. We rather try to post similar thing again. So one thing to note is that you can’t use the same image twice. It wasn’t an issue when the tool was first launched, but now, for example, if you want to post the same image twice, Amazon would just reject the post and say it’s a duplicate image. So we’ll work around it is just to slightly adjust the image by cropping it a little bit or editing or just trying a couple of small tricks to use and then just repost the same image with slightly updated caption as well. Lisett: So when it comes down to the frequen…

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#443 - Influencer Marketing, Life After Exit, Selling Strategies, & More! Apr 15, 2023

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In episode #443 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, we welcome Tom Wang to share his valuable insights into successful influencer marketing campaigns, Amazon-selling strategies, and his effective health habits. Tom takes us through his Amazon selling journey, how he got started and how he exited his brand with a 7-figure pay day. He also talks about dealing with mental health issues and burnout after his exiting his brand, as well as his approach to getting back into the Amazon grind.Tom provides advice on influencer marketing, emphasizing the role it plays in how it can blow up your sales and stories to back it up as well. He also shares his product research strategy, highlighting the importance of understanding keywords and looking beyond demand when evaluating a product.Finally, Tom discusses his hobbies and healthy habits outside of work, as well as his FBA Masterclass 3.0 course. Make sure to tune in until the very end! In episode 443 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Tom discuss: 01:45 – Tom Wang’s Backstory 06:38 – How Tom Got Started In Amazon FBA 09:19 – His Amazon Selling Journey From Launch To Exit 10:31 – “An Amazon Business Is One Of The Best Businesses…” 11:53– More On His 7-Figure Amazon Exit 13:40 – Dealing With Mental Health Issues, Stress, & Burnout 18:14 – Getting Back Into The Amazon Grind 20:35 – Influencer Marketing Strategy 27:33 – Tom’s Product Research Strategy 31:06– No Demand Doesn’t Mean A Bad Product 34:36– You Need To Understand Your Keywords 38:05– Tom’s Hobbies And Healthy Habits Outside The Amazon Grind 41:51 – Talking About The FBA Masterclass 3.0 Course ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we’ve got a seller who had a seven figure exit from his Amazon business, and he’s got a crazy story about influencer marketing strategies, how to have an entrepreneurial mindset, and also how to have a healthy mind and body. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think. Bradley Sutton: Did you know that Amazon sometimes loses or damages some of your inventory? Usually they reimburse you for this, but sometimes they might miss things. That’s where Refund Genie comes in. What Helium Tends Refund Genie does is we go check out your reports and see if Amazon owes you any money, and then we give you the reports that you need to submit to Amazon so that you can get your money back. If you haven’t run this, you could have hundreds, if not thousands of dollars that Amazon might owe you, especially if you’ve never used this before and you sell a lot on Amazon. So to find out more information, go to h10.me/refundgenie. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we’ve got a serious seller on here today, Tom. Tom, welcome to the show. I believe this is your first appearance on the show, right? Tom: Yeah, yeah, I think I was actually on the AMPM back in the day. Bradley Sutton: Okay. Yeah, yeah. That’s OG days. Who was the host at the time? Was it Manny? Was it Tim? Was Kevin? Tom: I think it was Matt. I think I had a conversation with Matt. Bradley Sutton: Oh, Matt. We’re going back in the day. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, since this is your first time on the show, I’d love to get like your, backstory. So I know you’re in Canada now, but is that where you were born and raised? Tom: No, I was born and raised in China. I came to Canada Okay. At the age of 10. So in 2001 with my parents, they decided to immigrate to Canada. And yeah, I was basically we lived in Vancouver. I’ve been in Vancouver for the past 21 years now. Bradley Sutton: Awesome. Awesome. So did you go to university there or did you just graduate from high school and just go right into the job world? What was that like? Tom: Yeah. Funny story about that. So I was a really good student in China. In China, like education was everything. I, and I mean everything, right? Even at the age of six or seven, I remember going to school you know, summer vacations here, just as an example, as you’re a kid, there’s no homework, there’s no projects in China. You are actually bombarded with homework and projects. There’s no really a summer vacation. You maybe get the last week off if you’re lucky, if you finish everything on time. And I remember waking up really, really early. Go to school, stay there for the whole day, go to a tutor after, come back home, do more homework. Bradley Sutton: This is like elementary? Tom: Yeah. This is like, this is great. Like, this is seven year old. So I think I actually got, looking back in my life, I actually developed a lot of hard work ethic from that. I wasn’t scared to actually put in the work, do the hard work. So, but I came here, I did high school. I did okay. And then I went to university. I actually got kicked out of the first college that I went to. It’s called UVC. And the story behind that is because my grades were so low because my parents were super strict in high school. And then when I went to university, I could live on campus. And I just didn’t go to any classes. And I remember my grades were so low that the counselor is like, Hey, you actually can’t even continue on for the next semester. Bradley Sutton: I bet your parents were, were really thrilled with that. Tom: Yeah. That was a very interesting conversation. And went to another college. I got kicked out of there. I went to the third college. I got kicked, kicked out of there as well. And all due to the same reasons, and I honestly, like, I hated school, like the stuff that I was learning in school, I’m just like, what am I doing? Anyways, long story short, I finally graduated the fourth college that I went to because it was very practical. Like I remember for our English classes that were actually teaching us how to write cover letters and resumes for our finance classes that were teaching us, like, what is the PnL of a real business for marketing classes. We actually had to do a marketing case study on a real business. So a lot of things were very, very applicable to the real world, which I really, really enjoyed. And after that, I went into the job world, but I didn’t get my– Bradley Sutton: What was your degree in that? Tom: Sales and marketing. Bradley Sutton: All right. And so that was what you were looking for a job in then? Tom: Yeah, like sales, like account management. And then I got basically denied by like 15 different jobs, 50 different offers. Nobody wanted me, so up to this point, to be honest with you, I had a very, like, big a chip on my shoulder as for rightful reasons. I felt like my parents didn’t really approve of me. I felt like my friends all thought I was loser and for the rightful reasons too, right? Sure. But I’ve always like, believed in myself, and I don’t know where that belief comes from, because if a hundred people went through the same things that I went through. A lot of people would’ve taken a wrong, like a different path, you know? It would’ve been very easy to give up, but I always had that belief, and to this day, I still cannot explain to you where that belief came from. Tom: But having said that, I finally got a job at Yellow Pages selling, like advertising and yeah. Did really well there. I got a mentor, I learned everything about sales. I made like six figures after the first year of college. Wow. But I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. That’s like my life calling. My very first business was in grade three when my dad went to the us, brought back some like big pens, and then I sold them to my classmates because everything back then in China is like made in China stuff. Well, although big pens probably made in China too, but it’s like a US brand, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So that was like my first business, and I just remember like, feeling so rich and I was like, oh my God, I can like, sell stuff to people, without needing a job. Tom: I can set my own schedule, I can set my own freedom. So that’s really the first taste of entrepreneurship for me. And over the, you know, my teens, I’ve always had these site hustles selling stuff on like Craigslist and marketplaces and this and that. So first year of Yellow Pages I did well, but then I always wanted to start a business, and I accidentally came across Amazon FBA in 2015 or 16. Okay. When I was trying to sell Hoverboards online. And I couldn’t sell ’em. I just had a very, very hard time selling these hoverboards. And during that time, someone was like, Hey, I can sell these for you on Amazon. And for me, at the time, I was like, Amazon, like, isn’t that a place where people buy old textbooks from like, I didn’t know you can actually sell anything and everything on Amazon. Tom: So I watched them work, and the first day he sold three hoverboards. And that’s when I was like, whoa. Like, what is going on here? So that’s how I discovered Amazon. And then in 2017, January, me and my fiance, we launched our brand on Amazon called Sdara Skincare. And our first product was vitamin C Serum, earlier, you were talking about collagen peptides. I would say Vitamin C serum is right up there with collagen peptides in terms of competitiveness. But like, even in those days, it was competitive. Yeah. It was super com But here’s the funny story. So yes, it was competitive, but then during those days you can still buy reviews. It was perfectly legal. Yep. And I just thought, okay, well, I just need to buy a bunch of reviews, seems easy enough. And then literally, like the month before we were about to launch, Amazon was like, Hey, no more buy-in reviews. Tom: Yeah. So Mike Tyson says like, everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the face. And we just had to like, figure it out, you know? I mean, first month they did like $8,000 in sales, which is like enough for me. I was like, wow, people are actually buying this. And then we launched the second product that just completely flopped. It was a silicon makeup sponge. It was such a fad. We were 2,500 units, and by the time we launched, the entire market just basically died. And then the third product, actually at that time, I wanted to give up. I didn’t want to continue on with Amazon anymore. And then my fiance is like, Hey, no, like, we learned a lot. Why don’t we try one more time? And that time I came across like Anthony Bui-Tran. Tom: He made like a YouTube video on called like Balls to the Wall spreadsheet, where he took a very, like, numbers accounting, data driven approach to Amazon. Like, if you order this many units, if you gave away this many things, this is your cost, this is your, like, and then at the end there’s a net profit. I was like, that’s like, wow. Like everything makes so much more sense now. So I would basically just, yeah, meet a lot of sellers, go to some conferences, watch YouTube videos, learn more from my Mistakes. We launched the third product, and then the rest was history Bradley Sutton: All right. So fast Forward. I believe you exited that brand, right? . Tom: Correct. Yeah. Bradley Sutton: We so tell me about the progression there. Like, you know, you went to ex sales the first year or second year, and then, and then how did you start? When at what point did you decide like, Hey, let me see if I can exit this brand? Tom: Yeah. So first year we did like a hundred thousand dollars in sales, probably lost money. Second year we did 1.8 million. And then, sorry, one point, something like that. 1.6, 1.8, and then 3.2, and then four or something. And then we basically sold the brand at the end of December, 2020. Yeah. December, 2020 is when we sold the brand. Bradley Sutton: That was in one of the, some of the early you know, people that wasn’t selling brands wasn’t all the rage in 2020. So you’re maybe you’re kind of like a pioneer in that. Tom: Yeah, I would say it wasn’t all the rage yet, but there was definitely starting to have a lot of aggregators coming online. I would say we didn’t time it perfectly. Six months later, eight months later, if we sold outta the peak, we probably would’ve made some more money. But never a day goes by where I regret selling the brand. Not because I don’t love Amazon businesses. I actually have my hands in a few businesses, and I would say from my personal experience, Amazon business is one of the best businesses you can start for anybody offers you location freedom, time freedom. You can run a 10 million brand with like 5 VAs. You can travel the world, you can work from anywhere you want. It’s an awesome, awesome business. And one of the reasons why I launched the brand is because, sorry, I sold the brand is because, I always thought of kind of like business, like it’s a little bit of gambling because, you know, there are a lot of things that’s outta your control. And I just felt like if we were to sell the brand, it would be life changing money for us, and we can just pocket that money. It’s like going to the casino with $10 and you are up like $10,000. Like, shouldn’t you like take some money out and like walk away? You know what I mean? Bradley Sutton: Makes sense. Hey, cuz now I know you’re back in the game as far as, you know, doing a lot of coaching again and have some cool courses. So we’re gonna talk some strategy in a little bit, but I want, I wanna pause a little bit and talk about this exit. Like, I don’t know if you’re able to say like a approximately how much you know, what was did the, did the exit mean? Like, like what kind of money are we talking about here? Tom: Yeah, I can’t say about the money. It was seven figures. Bradley Sutton: Seven figures. That’s enough information I need. So seven figures. You know, somebody who’s been, you know, struggling early on, didn’t make even make money the, the first couple years and doesn’t sound like you, you were like extremely you know, wealthy throughout your life. Getting all of a sudden, seven figures. What did that mean to you and how did that change your life? Tom: Yeah, so yeah, it’s been a very interesting past couple years, I would say. It’s definitely one of those things where, how should I say this? I think there are, there, there’s so many things I can say about this subject, but I would just say that as human beings, we get used to things very quickly. So I’m sure that all of you that are listening right now, you’ve had some sort of accomplishment in your life, whether that’s a raise or you hit a goal or something that you are just like, man, one day when I do this, my life is gonna be perfect or whatever. And in my case was, Hey, one day when I become financially free, everything’s gonna be perfect. And I would say my life has, my life quality has definitely improved a lot. I would say that money is no longer a constraint when it comes to anything. Tom: I would say that it has given me access to a lot of really cool things like coaching and events and trips and experiences and you know, X, Y, and Z helping others, all these different things. So that’s been great. But I will say that money solves money related problems. It doesn’t really solve non-money related problems. And I think in life there are a lot of non-money related problems that people need to solve. For example health, right? I got really burned out to be honest with you. Right after I sold my business a few months later, I got terribly sick. I’ve never been that sick. And I actually still, you know, two years down the road, almost three, I’m still feeling the side effects from that. Bradley Sutton: What do you mean by burnt outlet? Like, was i…

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Helium 10 Buzz 4/12/23: Amazon Deleting Brand Names | New Walmart Initiative | Send To Amazon Goes Live Apr 12, 2023

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In this episode, we cover the latest breaking news on the Amazon and Walmart space. Let’s see what’s buzzing this week.

#442 - Amazon PPC Course & Tips From Vince Montero Apr 11, 2023

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In today’s episode, we caught up with Vince Montero to talk about the Amazon PPC Academy by Helium 10. Vince, who is an Amazon PPC expert and seasoned marketer, took us through all the chapters of this PPC course and shared valuable insights on how to you can improve your Amazon PPC skills.We discussed campaign setup and strategy, including streamlining campaign creation and optimizing PPC in Amazon. Vince shared what you can learn inside this course and answered all your PPC-related questions like, is it possible to use Chat GPT for your Amazon PPC Campaigns and more!If you’re interested in learning more about Amazon PPC or want to get in touch with Vince, be sure to tune in to this episode. You won’t want to miss out on the valuable insights and strategies shared by this Amazon PPC expert. In episode 442 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Carrie and Vince discuss: 02:08 – Catching Up With Vince Montero 05:07 – Talking About Helium 10’s Amazon PPC Academy 07:25 – Breaking Down All Chapters Of This PPC Course 09:14 – Tools & Processes For PPC Research 12:42 – Campaign Setup & Strategy 20:15 – Streamlining Campaign Creation 21:55 – PPC Optimization In Amazon 23:15 – How To Use Bulk Sheets For Amazon PPC 24:35 – Learn To Use Amazon DSP 25:48 – Do You Use Chat GPT In Amazon PPC? 27:13 – PPC Strategies On Scaling & Generating More Revenue & Profit 29:16 – How To Get In Touch With Vince 30:37 – Customizing Video Creatives & A/B Testing ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we’ve got a familiar face back on TACoS Tuesday. Vince Monte was back to answer all of your PPC related questions and to talk about some cool things that have to do with sponsored video. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think Bradley Sutton: If you’re like me, maybe you were intimidated about learning how to do Amazon PPC, or maybe you think you just don’t have the hours and hours that it takes to download and sort through all of those sponsored ads reports that Amazon produces for you. Adtomic for me allowed me to learn PPC for the first time, and now I’m managing over 150 PPC campaigns across all of my accounts in only two hours a week. Find out how Adtomic can help you level up your PPC game. Visit h10.me/adtomic for more information. That’s h10.me/adtomic. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I’m your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is our monthly TACoS Tuesday show, where we talk about any and all things PPC could be Adtomic related or just Walmart PPC, Amazon PPC. Bradley Sutton: We bring in experts every month to answer all of your questions live. And so this month we have a familiar guest coming on the show, the Originator of the TACoS Tuesday program. And that’s Vince Montero. And he’s gonna be talking about the PPC Academy that is available to Helium 10 members. He’s gonna talk a little bit about video advertising and basically answering some questions that you guys had out there as well. So this time Carrie was able to have him live on the show. So Carrie, take it away. Carrie: Hello everyone. Welcome to TACoS Tuesday. We have another great guest for you. And I think you all know this guest. He’s one of our favorites and he used to host TACoS Tuesday. So I’m gonna go ahead and just bring him on. Vince. Hello, Vince. Vince: Hello. Hello. How are you Carrie? Carrie: Good. I’m doing great. Yeah, so I’m just really excited that you’re here and I think maybe people are curious what you’re doing now, where you’re at Vince: Yeah. Well thanks for having me on. It was great seeing you at Prosper and we had an amazing dinner together with Yes. With Bradley. So I appreciate that so much. It was great to see all the Helium 10 Evangelist crew. But yeah, I think it was there we were talking about Hey, why don’t we have you come back to the show that you originated as an upcoming guest. And so it’s interesting cuz I’m now with Trivium Group, which is a PPC agency run by Mina Elias. And I’m one of the people that actually, I think when you first thought of the idea, I was like, yeah, you, you should do it. Totally do a PPC agency like two years ago. So, yeah, it’s interesting full circle now that I’m working with him and basically I’m kind of doing the same thing for him that I was doing with Helium 10 at least from the marketing and the training aspect. Not all the behind the scenes stuff as much. So yeah, so now I’m just continuing to do content marketing. You know, I started doing reels for the first time. Carrie: So fun. Vince: I know. I’m still avoiding TikTok, so they can put ’em there if they want. But yeah, I’m just doing YouTube videos for him at LinkedIn posts. And I actually did continue on TACoS Tuesday with Sir TACoS Tuesday with Vince Montero. So that Sir TACoS was a name that I originated, but from doing the show TACoS Tuesday that I started, what, a year and a half ago? Almost two years ago, I think. Carrie: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Vince: I kept hearing people, I’d go to conferences and stuff and people would say Mr. TACoS, right? Cause they would know me from TACoS Tuesday. And then I had to be like, no, that’s Sir TACoS to you, Right? So it kind of stuck. And yeah. So I was thinking about what could I do to keep that going Right? Kind of like my brand I guess. So yeah, so it’s been great. I’ve been able to kind of resurrect that as well and do it for Mina and you know, just looking to build that up and continue to put out educational content and hopefully that a lot of the sellers continue to value. Carrie: Yeah. That’s so awesome. Yeah. I know a lot of people will still follow you and we still follow you and are still in touch, so it’s really good. I’m so excited tore hear today too. So again for being here. All right. So we’ll go ahead and get into it cuz I wanted, we wanted to talk a little bit about the course that you put together that I think a lot of people don’t know about, which is a bummer because it’s so depth and really just great emotion. A lot of people you know, ask questions about PPC in particular and so you put together some things. So do you wanna tell a little bit about what you put together? Vince: Yeah, so when we were thinking about what I would talk about on this show, it kind of made sense to talk about Amazon PPC Academy, which is a full course that I created with Mina Elias, again, who I’m now working together with on content. You know, we created this full course, almost 40 videos, I think and launched it last September. But there was a lot of other things happening at that time. I think we launched something else in September there’s always big launches happening at Helium 10 which is awesome. Like, there’s so much content, so much stuff, but sometimes you know, things, if they’re not repeated enough times, they kind of get lost in the weeds. So I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about Amazon PPC Academy and show you guys where it’s at, and then kind of cover it and to let you know truly what’s in there and how valuable it is. Vince: Let’s pop into the dashboard and I can kind of show you guys where it’s at. And if you don’t see this in your Helium 10 dashboard, then obviously then you don’t have access to it. You need to upgrade. So I happen to be in Adtomic, obviously, this is a tool that I helped build at Helium 10. So I am pretty regularly in this in Adtomic, and I still manage you know, a handful of my personal clients through Adtomic, which has been great to continue to do. But anywhere you are within Helium 10, it’s really it’s the FBA training, Amazon sellers training. So it used to be called something differently, I think it was Freedom Ticket, but that’s when Freedom Ticket was the only thing available as a course. Yeah. Vince: So Freedom Tickets are still here. You can still see 2.0 and 3.01 is gone. And there is some PPC content in both of these that I actually did produce and create. But in doing that, it was the basics in both of these Freedom Tickets, it was just for beginners. So we actually do suggest again, if you have access to this, if this comes up on your screen when you click that button that you do actually watch the PPC for Beginners course in Freedom Ticket 3.0, I think it’s week 11 in Freedom Ticket. And that really does cover the basic basics. Whereas PPC Academy is kind of still covers the basics, but it does go into a lot more in detail. There’s, let’s see there’s 15, well, 14 different modules. Vince: So I just wanted to go over this really quickly with you guys. So the very beginning after the intro obviously, is tools and processes for PPC research. So obviously Helium 10 is still, in my opinion, the best solution for both keyword research and product targeting ASIN research. So I basically go over how to do, or maybe is it Mina? We actually toggle back and forth, like I do a video, he does a video. So we go back and forth. And the point of that really the premise of this whole course I will say up upfront is Mina kind of covers how to do PPC optimization manually in Seller Central or the Ads console. So everything that he teaches is things that you know, anybody can do if you’re running PPC and basically the things that he uses to manage his PPC clients in his agency which is what he says in this intro video. Vince: So, and then I cover kind of more of the Helium 10 focus tools but then also Adtomic. So we cover both things that you can do yourselves manually, which I highly recommend if you guys had not run your PPC campaigns manually. It’s really good to have a really strong understanding of PPC so that when you do start to use a tool like Adtomic, or you maybe go to an agency like Trivium, that you really kind of understand the metrics and what is being done to your PPC campaigns. If you don’t have that understanding, if you haven’t spent time in seller Central looking at your campaigns, managing your campaigns, then you really don’t have anything to compare it against and you kind of really don’t know what, what are your benchmarks for actually improving your campaigns, especially if they’re new. Vince: So after these modules, keyword research, product targeting, ASIN research, I basically just go into Cerebro and I go into Magnet and tell you the best practices on what parameters, what filters that we use to find the best keywords using Cerebro to cross-reference ASINs from your top competitors, and then really drill down into what are these top sellers for my most relevant keywords, what keywords are they using to make the most sales. And so having that knowledge and the ability to do that within Cerebro is just amazing. And you can do that and you should be doing that even before you launch PPC. Like, this is something you should be doing when you’re building out your listing. But then those same keywords can be used for PPC. Vince: And you know, that listing optimization is key. You know, Carrie, as a seller, you know that if you don’t have a good listing or if your listing isn’t fully optimized, PPC really isn’t gonna help you. So as a caveat to all this, what I really, really would’ve loved is at a beginning module, it was something I had in mind actually before the end of last year, was to create kind of a really quick listing optimization module. Because at the end of the day, if you’re a product detail page isn’t, this is what I say, if it isn’t as good as that means, looks as good, feels as good, or has a better price point to your closest competitor, especially if it’s a brand new product at launch, then you’re not ready for PPC, right? Make sure that even before all these steps that I’m going through, your product detail page looks better, or at least as good, and your price is competitive to your, to your closest competitor that you kind of want to maybe beat right in the marketplace. And then you dive into ppc, right? So Carrie: Can I say that that’s same processes for Walmart too, like I just use absolutely Cerebro for optimize my listing, but also my PPC campaigns at Walmart. And I had I started out with a 12 RoAS and now it’s about a five or six, but it’s real. It do, I just do exact campaigns with the, with the words I find on Cerebro and Magnet, and it’s just right to mean you should definitely do your spend that time to it takes me like a long time to do the keyword research, but a lot of people, and a lot of people don’t wanna do it, but it’s the most important, you can find so many golden keywords in Cerbro and Magnet and you can just make so much money off of them. Vince: Yeah. Well, it sounds like, Carrie, you just need to watch 2A in this video. Cause we teach you how to do it pretty quickly. Carrie: Yeah, well, I do a lot. Vince: But for people who aren’t familiar with Magnet or Cerebro, like let’s say they’re brand new, this is a great resource. You just come here and be like, okay, what’s the best practices to use these tools to get the best keywords out of it? And that’s what we cover in both these. And it’s important to do ASIN research. So not only when you launch PPC campaigns, yes, you’re targeting certain keywords to be seen on the search results page, but you also wanna be targeting particular detail pages, actual listings. So that means ASINs, you need to know the ASINs of your closest competitors. You might have an idea of some of them, but you know, we really teach you how to use Helium 10 tools to actually find the best ASINs. So you can create product targeting campaigns as well, so that your ads at launch are seen not only on the search results page, but also on the detail page of your competitors, which is a very powerful placement. Vince: So then we go into creating the auto campaigns. This is the foundation of kind of what we suggest as the basics for building out PPC you need to have an auto campaign. So we go into that. We go into all the different targeting levers and what they mean, the close match substitute matching loose matching and then how to rank all those different things. So taking the research you did in module two, actually building out the keyword campaigns, actually building out a product targeting campaign, and then actually building up branded and ranking campaigns too. So at a bare minimum, what this course suggests is an auto campaign, a keyword based campaign, an ASIN based campaign. You should have a branded keyword campaign that simply means a campaign that has your branded keywords in it. Vince: So you can start well, so that Amazon will know, hey, this is a brand, this is the keywords for this brand, and start linking them for you. And then your ranking campaigns are basically campaigns that you did your keyword research and you did find some keywords that you were like I really wanna rank for these. I’m gonna go ahead and create some campaigns. So it’s slightly a little bit more advanced. It’s not necessarily like a minimum suggested type of campaign, but we do go into it because this is the campaign setup section and we wanted to include that since that is a strategy that is used by a lot of a lot of sellers. And then chapter four is really me just going into Adtomic and saying showing how our campaign builder works. So by comparison to manually creating the campaigns in Seller Central, you, I go into like what the differences are for the different bidding algorithms that we have in Adtomic and those product lifecycle, product lifecycle stages. Vince: I always say product lifestyle stages. Product lifecycle stages are launch, scale or liquidate. So depending on where you are in your Amazon selling journey, if you’re launching, we, there’s an algorithm in Adtomic for that. If you’re just maintaining,…

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#441 - An Amazon Seller Who 10X’d Her Sales! Apr 08, 2023

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Looking to take your Amazon sales to the next level? In this SSP episode, we got Kseniia Reidel back on the show, and she reveals how she 10X’d her 2021 sales in 2022! Thanks to free Amazon-selling learning resources like Project X and Freedom Ticket, she was able to start her own Amazon FBA business.Kseniia also shared the tough challenges she had to face and the big wins she had along the way. Plus, you’ll get to hear about how she rewards herself and her family for growing her business to almost $1 Million in gross sales. Do you have the same goals of success for your Amazon FBA business? Make sure to tune in for some valuable advice and actionable strategies from a successful Amazon seller! In episode 441 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Kseniia discuss: 01:39 – Did Kseniia Reach Her Goals For 2022? 03:07– A 3PL’s Mistake Gave Her Challenges 09:17– Bradley’s Solution If This Happens To You 11:11 – How Did Kseniia Reach 2x Her Original 2022 Goal 13:08 – Talking About Patents And IP 15:39 – Finding Product Ideas In Facebook Groups 17:02 – How To Combine Project X Strats With The FB Group Strategy 23:55 – From $250K To $1M, What Has Changed? 25:44 – How Did Kseniia Reward Herself? 26:40 – Kseniia’s Hobbies & Recretion Outside The Amazon Grind? 27:14 – “I Almost Got Eaten By A Lion” 29:59 – How The New Insights Dashboard Can Help Her Business 33:50 – Launch Strategies That She Is Currently Using 35:46 – Kseniia’s 60-Second Tips 37:41 – Her Business Goals This 2023 ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we’ve got a seller back on the show who was able to 10x what she did in 2021 last year. And that’s thanks to using some Project X strategies, but also combining that with looking in Facebook groups for new products. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Bradley Sutton: Wanna check estimated sales for products you see on Amazon? Or maybe you want to instantly see how many listings on page one of a search term result? Have the actual search keyword in the title. You can find all of these things out and more with the Helium 10 Chrome extension tool Xray. More than 1 million people have used this tool. Find out what it can do for you by downloading it for free at h10.me/xray, h10.me/xray. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we’ve got serious seller back with us on the show. So if you guys want to check out her full backstory about how she started on eBay and failed with her first product and learned from Project X and Freedom Ticket after that, make sure go to h10.me/320. But Kseniia, it’s great to have you back here. How’s it going? Kseniia: Hi. Good, how are you Bradley Sutton: Now we were just talking offline about your recent travels to Africa where you almost got eaten by a lion. I heard lions like Russian food a lot over there, but we’ll get back to that a little bit because we also talk on this show nowadays about like what people do in their spare time. And actually my thing is travel, which is why I always include my intro, something about travel for the videos and stuff. But anyways, let’s first just talk about business anyways. And you know, it was about, I wanna say like a year, year and a half the last time you were on the show. So catch me up. How did you end 2022? I think you had given me a goal. Hold on. You probably don’t remember what you told me. Let me look at my notes here. What Mel said you were you were, you had launched your first product, you were looking for a second one or another one, and you were looking to try and get to half a million dollars last year. So were you able to reach that goal? Kseniia: Yes, almost doubled it. I think it was like 960,000 by the end of the year Bradley Sutton: So that goal, that was too conservative of a goal, I guess. Doubled it. Almost a million dollars for the year. All right. Talk to me about it. So like, was the, the second product also in the same niche? Did it sell more than your first product? Walk me through your 2022. Kseniia: Yes. Well all my products are in the same niche and I think last time when I talked to you was at the Prosper show last year, and then I told you a story when the 3PL messed up the shipment. Bradley Sutton: Tell me about that again or tell everybody about that. Kseniia: Yeah, so what happened is that well so my first product was successful. I found the second one, I just launched it. And that was around March when I launched the second product. And like a couple of weeks after I launched the second product, that was reason 3PL cause, there were still issues with the storage limits. So they send my second product to the shipping plan of the first product. I don’t know how they did that because it’s totally different packagings. It’s not even a variation it’s a different product. And I already had another shipment ready in China for that first product and I was like, what am I supposed? And that’s why I came to you and I was like, what am I supposed to be doing right now? Because I have no idea. Bradley Sutton: How did you find it out again? Like how did you realize what had happened? Kseniia: They realized after they shifted, I think before I got to Amazon, they emailed me. It’s like, oh, I think we made a mistake. And I was like, what mistake? Bradley Sutton: Okay. So that’s kind of good. It was before it went live. Okay. And they’re like our bad. How did you end up? What did you end up doing? Kseniia: Well, I first closed all the listings cuz I was like, okay, let me think about it cuz I don’t wanna I don’t want ’em started receiving cause it’s not even a different color variation, it’s a different product. So I was like, let me see what’s happening with it. And then I started talking to different people and know I talked to you. And that was like a week after that happened and I talked to other people and nobody knew exactly what Amazon was gonna do cause it’s not like it’s happens often. And so I just decide to remove all the first product from Amazon I decided to remove, I think it was around a thousand units cuz I wasn’t sure if they’re just gonna relabel it and send the wrong product. Bradley Sutton: So all the first product and the second product you had to remove because you didn’t? Kseniia: No, I knew that they shipped second product for the shipment plan of the first product. So I knew that the second product is fine, it’s not messed up. But the first one was, and I didn’t know what Amazon was gonna do with it. I didn’t know if, if they’re gonna relabel it or if they’re just gonna, and what ended up happening is that when I removed everything, cuz I removed some to my house, so I removed some 3PL and it de it was depending on the warehouse, so some of them treated it so scanned it right and put it on a right shelf. But then some boxes I received when they relabeled it. So on one product there was a FNSKU of another product. So they relabeled it the wrong way. So it wouldn’t been a mess if I wouldn’t remove it all. I’m glad I did it. Bradley Sutton: And at that point, how much was that first one selling that, one like per day that you had to stop it? Kseniia: I think it was doing 40,000 a month. So what was it? Bradley Sutton: So basically every day you’re losing over a thousand dollars because of this? Kseniia: Yeah. And I already had a shipment in China, a little being inspected that week for that first product. And I was like, well how am I supposed to be shipping it now cuz I have to remove everything? So I ended up creating a new listing, but then I merged them. I did it as a variation so I don’t lose the reviews. At the same time when I’m removing the first one already, like relaunched under a new listing with the new shipment that I got from China. So I was a total mess. You know me? Having the first success with second product and being so happy and there’s this huge thing comes in that literally like stops everything. Bradley Sutton: So then how long did it take for everything to get all right? You sent back the inventory. They checked one by one, relabeled it, got it back to Amazon. Like how long from the time that you realized this problem had happened to now product one and product two are back in Amazon and everything is going again. Kseniia: I think three to four months probably. I don’t remember. Bradley Sutton: Oh my goodness. Wow. Yeah. That took a long time. Kseniia: Well cause they don’t remove it by batches. They removed it by sometimes they would get one unit in a box, sometimes they would get two units in a box. Yeah. So, and in 3PL ended up even charge. They didn’t wanna redo it for free. They were like, well, we’re gonna have to charge you because we get like 2000 boxes here or more in that or whatever. We’re gonna have to charge you. Bradley Sutton: I hope you fought that right since it was their problem at the first place? Kseniia: Well, I did. It was so stressful. It lasted with them. I’ve been discussing I was talking to an owner for, for a long time because I was like, guys, you did this, you know how much money I lost because of you. So, and then you want me to pay more? And their point was, they wanted me just to wait. They’re like, oh, just wait until we remove everything and then you can start selling. I was like, it’s gonna take three or four months for me to wait. I can’t wait. I need to do a new listing and relaunch with the same boxes but under different listing. Bradley Sutton: So basically what you did was that one SKU you kind of had to permanently, or not permanently, but at least a hundred percent close since you never know how many was still left. And then you started another SKU for the same listing so that it would had a different so that it had a different fnSKU, right? Kseniia: Yes. And I merged them, so I would have the reviews, so that way it will technically, it’s a different SKU aslo. Bradley Sutton: So you actually made a new ASIN, not just a new SKU? Kseniia: Yeah, so I made a new ASIN and I made them as variations. Like I put it in like a size variation, so that way it still keeps all the reviews and now actually, because then I had another issue with the same product and now I’m actually using the first listing for the actual variation. So I’m still keeping all the reviews. Bradley Sutton: Okay, interesting. Because I think another option for people who something like that might happen is you did, you know what you did was right, you closed the listing because you don’t want any of , don’t know which one was contaminated units or, or units that, that had the wrong sticker on it. But another thing that somebody could do is under the same ASIN, just create a new SKU and then send an inventory because when you create a new SKU, it, it creates a new fnSKU. And then you don’t have to worry about merging or reviews or anything like that. And then you also don’t have to worry about you know, ones of that original you know, FNSKU getting out. Right. You know, the theoretically speaking. But the way you did it is probably a little bit safer, but just a little bit harder. So three, four months, were you able to regain that momentum on the first product or being out of stock for so long and having the listing closed? Did you lose ground to competitors or what happened? Kseniia: Oh, I never used that listing from the one I had to close since I started selling a couple of weeks after it happened under a new ASIN, I was still fine because I still didn’t have too much competition. And when I started, I was a second person selling that product and by the time it happened I was still like, I was still the second, still nobody showed up. Couple of months later though, I got a lot of Chinese sellers that copied exactly what I was selling, but at that point it was fine. So. Bradley Sutton: Okay. Now how was it that you were able to pretty much like four x what you did the previous year and even double your original goal, like which product took off so well that exceeded your expectation? Was it that first one or was it the second one? Or did you launch a third one? Kseniia: Well in total right now have four products with variations. So it’s eight SKUs in total, but one actually launched this year. So I ended up last year with six SKUs. It was the second product that took off more. But also what happened when I launched the second product and after I had to relaunch the first product, I got a bunch of the Chinese copycats. I covered exactly the same of my first product and you know, they just dropped the price. And so I started losing a lot of sales because of that. So I had to redesign it, I had to redesign the first product that way it’s a bit different. And I was able to file the design patent on both of those products. So I still don’t know how long it’s gonna take to get it, but I file it that way. Bradley Sutton: So did you put patent pending on the listing? Kseniia: Yes I did. It didn’t stop though. Some people because on my second product that ended up being like the best seller of all my products, by the end of the year, like by the end of the summer, I would say I got like two or three people who copied exactly the same, the product, even the pictures. And I think they just copied my listing, like the bullet points and everything. So I, the first time I was able to remove them because I copyright the listing. So Amazon removed them the first time, but then the second time they relaunched a couple of months later, they were a little smarter, so they just rephrased my listing. They didn’t copy it word per word, so they rephrased it a little bit. So now I can’t do anything about them. They’re still there and until I get a patent I can’t remove them. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Now how much did you pay for the patent? You said it’s two different patents you got or just one? Kseniia: Yeah, two. Bradley Sutton: Did you use Rich Goldstein or you had somebody else that you used for that? Kseniia: No, I had somebody else. My husband is a lawyer actually, and he recommended me an IP lawyer that he knew. So yeah, so we kind of knew him. I think the first one I did it actually had to do with before I launched the second product, so I was kind of a guess, I was hoping that it will be the main seller because you’re not allowed to file a patent if the product is already launched. So when I reached out to the lawyer, I’m glad, like it was already on Amazon, but I haven’t started selling it yet. And they told me, do not start selling it because you’re not allowed to until you file a patent. So I think the first patent was around I would say like 7,000, probably seven or eight, because they had to do search because the first product that they did, it was a bit like not too unique, I would say design. So they wanted to make sure that it’s, it will go through. So they had to pay an agency, couple of thousand for the search to make sure that there are no product, I knew there are no products like that with exact same design, but they just wanted to make sure for them Bradley Sutton: That. But then the way you calculated it was like, Hey, yeah, this is expensive, $7,000, but you know, you’re gonna make that up in more sales once you’re able to kick those other sellers off. Is that kind of like why you were okay with paying that much money? Kseniia: Yeah, well, because I already learned on my first product that three, four months later after I start selling in the Chinese copycats, they see that th…

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Helium 10 Buzz 4/5/23: Amazon Frequently Returned Badge, New Walmart Website, Image Issue Reporting, & Summer Amazon Conferences Apr 05, 2023

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Stay up to date on the latest news on Amazon and Walmart. This week, we cover the frequently returned badge, Walmart's new digital store, image issue reporting, and summer events.

#440 - Advanced Amazon Market Tracking & Walmart Listings Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

In this exciting episode, Shivali Patel shares her personal Amazon-selling journey while working with Helium 10 and how she represented the USA at the Miss Supranational competition. She also shares valuable insights and tips on Amazon and Walmart selling. Learn how to sell books in Amazon KDP, her step-by-step product strategy, and how build your Walmart listings properly. Plus, she also walks us through Helium 10’s Market Tracker 360 tool and how it can be a big asset for large brands and agencies. Whether you’re an experienced seller or just starting out, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to succeed in this industry! In episode 440 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Shivali discuss: 01:25 – Shivali’s Highlights While Working In Helium 10 02:20 – Talking About Her Amazon Selling Journey 04:45 – Selling Books On Amazon KDP 05:30– How To Find Freelance Writers For Your Books 07:45 – Step-By-Step Product Research Tips From Shivali 09:21 – Finding Chinese Suppliers Here In The US? 11:01 – Representing The USA On A World Class Beauty Pageant 13:00 – Starting To Sell On Walmart.com 15:12 – How To Build Your Walmart Listings Properly 17:11 – New Walmart-Selling Content Series: Project Expansion 19:00 – The Difference Between Market Tracker & MT360 22:00 – A Walkthrough With Helium 10’s Market Tracker 360 Tool 32:30 – How To Get A Free Demo For MT360 32:45 – Shivali’s Healthy Habits & Hobbies Outside The E-commerce Grind 34:15 – Listen To Shivali’s Podcast ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley: Today Shivali’s back on to talk about her personal Amazon selling journey the last couple of years, what she learned working on a Walmart listing case study. Details on a cool tool that’s exclusively for very large brands and agencies, and even how she represented Helium 10 as Miss USA at an international beauty pageant. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think. Bradley: Are you an agency enterprise-level seller or an eight or nine-figure seller and need advanced analytics Market Tracker 360 might be the product for you to get a demo of Market Tracker 360, go to h10.me/360. That’s h10.me/360. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we’ve got somebody who’s been helping sellers around the world here for now, just two years, just past her two-year anniversary here at Helium 10. Shivali, how’s it going? Shivali: It’s going good. How are you? Bradley: I’m doing just delightful. Thank you. Now let’s just, first of all, before we hop into what we’re gonna talk about, which we got a wide variety of topics ranging from Walmart to advanced analytics for large brands and more let’s just catch up with you a little bit, two years you’ve been here. Like what are some highlights from your time here at Helium 10 now that you’ve been here A little bit? Shivali: It’s definitely hard to quantify my highlights, mostly because there’s been so many peak moments. I’ve had the opportunity to connect with amazing individuals in the industry, learn a lot about Helium 10 tools and then also just about scaling your business. So it’s been really neat to go from being somebody who was just getting into selling on Amazon all the way into connecting with really powerful people that have achieved incredible heights of their business or even exited. Bradley: Yeah, absolutely. Now, you yourself actually decided for a while at least to kind of like stop selling the product that you did have. So I think that’s important that some sellers are just like, Hey, I’m just gonna keep going even though it’s not working out this product got too competitive, but I’m just gonna go ahead and lose money. But what were some of your thoughts? Like what led you to say, you know what, I’m gonna stop selling this product or just sell out and then gonna regroup at a later time? Shivali: So when I was first getting into the product I was selling into the category I was selling, there was a really good profit margin. I think it was at about 40% to 45% profits. And that was with a gap kind of built-in case I needed to spend more on ads. And maybe there was some time for inventory storage because I wasn’t quite approved for Amazon selling on Amazon just yet at the time. But unfortunately for me, there were about nine or 10 months, and I think I had talked about this the last time I was on the podcast, but there were about nine or 10 months where I just had my inventory sitting in storage. And so by the time that I got into that field, it was a drastically different landscape. And so I had to make some business decisions of, okay, well, like, yes, I still have some profits left, but it’s not really as great as I want them to be. Shivali: And then the competitors, there were so many more competitors, and of course, that changes the entire outlook of your business. So looking at the numbers, and then by the time that I was really starting to sell out of that inventory, I decided that I didn’t want to stick in such a competitive field where I would be losing money day in and day out as much as I love the product, as much as I know it was a high-quality product. And of course, if I had continued throwing money at it, yes, maybe in the long run it would’ve become profitable. I have definitely talked to people in the industry that were like, oh, my product just became profitable and it’s been maybe two years that they’ve been in that season. Bradley: That season. Okay, now that’s a little extreme to wait to lose money for two years before profit. Shivali: I literally just heard this. Somebody was selling on Amazon and their product just became profitable after two years, which is a really long time. And for me, it’s just not what I wanted to do. So I made the executive decision to stop selling that product, not placing any more inventory for it, but I am in the process of relaunching and I’m quite excited about that. Bradley: Cool. You haven’t stopped selling books on Kindle this whole time. You’re still doing that, right? Shivali: Yes, correct. Yeah, so I do have a couple of books of my own, but I also publish Ghostwritten books, so books that I have hired writers to write because it’s very much similar to a physical product. Do you find a niche that you could do well in? You get a book written, you make it better, and then you of course get it posted, uploaded, and then advertise or drive traffic to it. Bradley: I don’t even know you did that. So like you have an idea of, of something that you think would be good, but since Bradley works you to death, then you don’t have enough time to write it yourself, I guess. So then you actually, like, what do you do? You find a writer and then you tell them your ideas and then they write it for you? Shivali: It’s very much like being an employer and finding somebody to do that job for you. So I usually post something on Upwork. You can use Fiverr, but Fiverr I typically use for maybe book covers. Upwork is where you make a job posting and you’ll have writers apply for it. You tell them what you’re looking for. Maybe you want a long-term relationship, which I definitely have had writers, I use time and time again. But also you can do maybe one-off projects and then just input in, you tell them what you want, maybe you provide an outline, you give them some milestones, say, Hey, like, I wanna check in with you after you’ve written X amount of numbers or X amount of pages, and then you’ll take a look, you’ll proofread it, or you can give them kind of input of what you wanna change and then work towards a second and the third milestone, depending on however many milestones you wanna have. Shivali: But yeah, that’s how you build out a book without necessarily taking all of your time. If you find someone who’s in a different country, of course, you can do it for a lot less and you’re still paying them the right amount for their work because they’re in a different country. So I do believe in the ethics of that business and making sure that these people are paid for the work that they’re doing. But it’s definitely a lot more affordable for us in the United States, maybe just to get that product out. It’s about the ROI, right? How fast you’re able to write that book and get it published Bradley: And impossible to lose money. Or at least I mean, in the production, cuz you’re not investing in any inventory. Shivali: Yeah. If it’s ghostwritten, yes, it will be maybe like $200-$300, depending on how long your book is really. But then after that, you can absolutely drive free traffic to it using Facebook groups. You can use websites that already exist. I’ve paid before like $25 just to have my book included in an email listing, or not an email listing, but an email forward that goes out all the time to readers that are constantly looking for new books and it pays off even more, especially if it’s a very niche audience. So maybe if I have a book that’s ins stress management, maybe somebody who caters directly to self-help to a self-help audience, it’s gonna pay off a lot better. Bradley: Okay. Now I remember you actually talking about your relaunch of products. You had actually shared some of your ideas with me. Now, what were some of the ways that you were doing your product research? Like how did you approach it? You’re like, Hey, I know I want to get restarted with some private label products on Amazon as well instead of just books. So how do you approach your product research? Shivali: One of the highlights at Helium 10 has been learning just how much, how many different ways you can do product research. We have a lot of various tools here at Helium 10. We have of course X-Ray, you have Black Box, you have your Pinterest Trends Finder, you have the reverse ASIN searches you can do on Etsy. Well, I kind of employed all of them, so I went in and it’s a really exciting part of your business, right? Trying to figure out what you really wanna build your foundation in. So I actually did go into Black Box, kind of played around with the filters, made a short list of items. I also went into Etsy, tried to find things that were unique that I think could have some demand on Amazon. I also went into Cerebro, tried to see related things based on what was really appearing inside Black Box. Shivali: Or maybe even if I had taken a word that I’d found on Etsy and put it inside Magnet. There was just, just a multitude of different things that I had employed. And as I went into the validation process, kind of took a look at what the competitors look like, how many reviews there were, are there actually ways to amplify or enhance the consumer experience. That’s when I started to really narrow things down. And then of course you have the profitability aspect where I was looking to see how much it would cost me to source and with all the customizations, would it actually end up being green in the long run? Not to mention I did also attend a show as well. So that was my first time ever going to a trade show and it was a really, really, really exciting experience for me. I remember I put you and Carrie in a group and I was texting you guys like photos of the event cuz I was so excited. But I got to meet a lot of the manufacturers. I actually got to meet one of the suppliers that I had placed a sample order with, which was really cool. Bradley: This was here in the United States. You didn’t have to go to China for this, huh? Shivali: No, no. Sorry for the lack of context there, but yes, this was in the United States. It was in Chicago. I ended up getting a message from a supplier I had placed in sample order with, and he was saying that their company was gonna be at this inspired home show in Chicago. Bradley: Oh, so that’s, that’s how you found out about it. Was from that supplier that you got. Oh, okay. Shivali: Yeah, so he mentioned he was gonna be there, and so I looked into it and I’ve been wanting to go to a Canton Fair in China, but I don’t believe that’s on the horizon for me at this moment. So the Inspired Home show was a little bit of a quicker trip for me where I could still experience what it might be like to be in the midst of a bunch of manufacturers and just really have that one-on-one contact. So it was an amazing experience to really sit down with my suppliers and just make that connection in person. I also got to find some additional factories that would be willing to work with me to build a brand new product. And that also comes with a lot of really exciting opportunities. Bradley: Okay. All right, cool. So people might think, Hey, to meet Chinese suppliers you have to go to China, but sometimes they come here at different shows and expos. So it’s to something to look into. Alright, now one last thing. You actually got to represent the United States in a world-class beauty pageant. So like, first of all, there’s like Miss Universe, there’s Miss World, and then there’s like, what are the Miss Supernational, which is the one you did, and there’s like one other, like Shivali: Miss Grand International, Bradley: Miss Grand International. Shivali: There are five. Yeah. Bradley: So what you did is kind of like Miss Universe, but it’s like a separate what group or something like that? Shivali: Separate organization. Yeah, it’s the same way. I always explain it with parallelism to banking systems. You have Wells Fargo, you have BB&T, you have all these different banking systems. They have sort of a similar intentions, but sometimes they’re just different organizations. So for Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss Supranational, Miss. Grant International, all do somewhat of a similar thing, which is to bring together, together really ambitious women and men and they can compete and be offered an assortment of different opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to. I mean, that’s a massive stage with a lot of eyes on it. So it’s really cool to take community work that maybe you’re doing a cause that you’re really inspired about or even just be maybe given modeling contracts if that’s what you choose to do, and just have that platform to really elevate you to the next place that you wanna go to. So yeah, I did Miss Supranational and their whole motto is to inspire and to aspire. And it was really neat. It wasn’t something that I had been working on. I really did wanna represent the United States at an international level, but I didn’t know when it was gonna happen. Bradley: It was actually cool. I saw one of your videos there, you had a shout-out to Helium 10. Now you didn’t end up winning, unfortunately, the competition. But anyways you did Helium 10 proudly. Now bringing it back to what we’re here to talk about today. I wanted to first talk about this project that you did with Carrie. We had there’s this hemp case study product that I’ve talked about on this podcast. And other times I’ve shown, I’ve used it as an example about listing optimization and things, but they had never sold on Walmart. And you yourself, your old product, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe you ever sold that at Walmart. So this was like your first kind of entry into selling on Walmart, this little mini case study you and Carrie did, right? Shivali: Yes, it was, I was actually interested when I was taking a look at all the numbers on Amazon, on selling it on Walmart at the time, but they had a very different threshold for selling on Walmart at the time. They were looking for study revenue and y…

Full show notes at the publisher

#439 - An Amazon Seller’s Guide To Building Your Credit Apr 01, 2023

Show notes

Are you an Amazon seller looking to improve or repair your credit score? In this episode, Lyann Nguyen shares her expert strategies, tips, and success stories for building both personal and business credit. From common mistakes to actionable tips you can do today, this is a must-listen for anyone looking to take control of their credit.So why is credit important for Ecommerce entrepreneurs? As Lyann puts it, “dreams cost money.” Building a strong credit score can open up opportunities for funding and investment, allowing us to bring our dreams to life.Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve and repair your existing credit score, Lyann’s insights are sure to help. Tune in to this episode and start your journey to better credit. In episode 439 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Lyann discuss: 01:20 – Lyann’s Backstory 02:50 – How She Got Into The Technology & Finance Space 04:25 – “A lot of my clients are E-commerce sellers” 04:30 – How Lyann Met Melisa Vong 06:40 – Is Credit Important For Entrepreneurs? 07:44 – “Dreams Cost Money” 09:05 – Will Your Corporation’s Credit Be Based On EIN Or SSN? 11:05 – Strategies To Build Your Personal Credit And Business Credit 14:50 – Common Credit Mistakes E-commerce Sellers Make 17:20 – Success Stories From Lyann’s Followers 20:45 – What Are The Different Types Of Credit? 29:35 – How Can You Repair Your Credit Score? 29:30 – Piggybacking On Someone’s Credit 31:11 – Negotiating With Lending Companies In The Amazon World 33:35 – Lyann’s 60-Second Tips 37:10 – How To Get In Touch With Lyann Nguyen ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we’ve got the Credit Ninja who has helped hundreds of e-commerce sellers, celebrities, and other professionals have the best credit that they can. How cool is that? Pretty cool I think. Bradley Sutton: Did you know that just because you have a keyword in your listing, that does not mean that you are automatically guaranteed to be searchable or as we say, indexed for that keyword? Well, how can you know what you are indexed for and not? You can actually use Helium 10’s Index Checker to check any keywords you want. For more information, go to h10.me/indexchecker. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS free, unscripted, and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we’ve got somebody very relevant to the e-commerce world here. First time on the show. Lyann, how’s it going? Lyann: It’s going great. Yeah. So nice to meet you at the sellers’ event. Bradley Sutton: Yes. Sell and Scale, I think where we first met Melissa introduced us. And don’t me just a little bit about what you do, but I wanna get your, your whole back story. You know, I haven’t asked this before, so like this is your first time in the show, so let’s, let’s get to know you. I just found out a few days ago you actually live in Vegas, right? Lyann: That’s right. Yeah. Bradley Sutton: Is that where you were born and raised, or? Lyann: No, I was born in Vietnam. I’m an immigrant. Moved to California, so the fall of Saigon, which is the biggest war of all the Vietnam War. We immigrated to the US in Irvine. And from there we lived there. And then I went to school there. I was actually pre-med in school and then decided not to go that path. Bradley Sutton: Where was this also in Irvine? UC Irvine? Lyann: UC Irvine. Yeah. How’d you know? Bradley Sutton: That’s an eater> Lyann: Isn’t your headquarters in Irvine? Bradley Sutton: Yeah, our headquarters in Irvine. Lyann: That’s awesome. Bradley Sutton: I work from home now though, so I don’t have to drive at all from San Diego. I don’t have to drive all the way up to Irvine anymore. But very familiar with that local college. I referee sumo tournaments. They rent out what do you call it? The, no, that’s Long Beach, the pyramid. No, that’s, see, I’m gonna get confused. That’s the pyramid is at Long Beach at Irvine. I’m not sure what you guys got for sports center, but anyways, I’m very familiar with the college. You said you went pre-med, but then what happened? Lyann: Yeah, so I decided not to go that path cuz it’s such a tedious career. I was cutting up cadavers those dead people and I couldn’t talk to them and I got so frustrated cuz I’m such a social person. I decided to– Bradley Sutton: You could talk to them, but they just won’t talk back to you. Lyann: That’s true, that’s true. And I can’t help them anymore cuz they’re kind of dead. So I decided to pack up my bags and travel the world and what I found was money rule the world. Learning about how powerful money and access to capital is really intrigued me. So that journey of self finding and searching brought me back to the United States and I decided to get into the finance world that led me into the technology side of finance. So my background is actually technology after I decided not to go into med. And that technology company is a data technology company. You like the word data, right? Data technology company located in Fountain Valley, which is not too far from Irvine. Bradley Sutton: I was born in Fountain Valley Hospital. Believe that or not. Lyann: No way. I know what that said. Right next to Miles Square Park. Right? Bradley Sutton: Well, I don’t remember cuz I was a little bit young at the time, but I assume so. Lyann: Oh my God. So we’re like neighbors growing up. And so it’s a credit technology company that, it was during the.com 1998 and during the.com crash of 2000, that led me out to Las Vegas where I started another tech company that handles money transfers. So debit and credit transactions. So I’m in the technology finance space. That’s how I ended up in Vegas. Bradley Sutton: Interesting. Interesting. Okay. Now have you ever sold on Amazon yourself? Lyann: I have not. I have been buying on Amazon. Bradley Sutton: I think we all buy on Amazon. Yeah. Lyann: We all buy on Amazon, but a lot of my clients are e-commerce sellers. Bradley Sutton: I was gonna ask like how did you meet, like Melissa who’s been on this podcast before? She’s the one who introduced us. Yeah. How did you meet her then? This Lyann: Is a very interesting story. So I’m a, I’m the co-founder of Penthouse Mastermind. Penthouse Mastermind is a mastermind event for all young entrepreneurs. So whether they’re an e-com, a YouTuber, a forex trading or a business entrepreneur. We used to do these events in Las Vegas, Arizona, Beverly Hills, and Miami. It’s all over the place. And Melissa was one of the speakers at my event, but I happened to not be at those ones that she spoke at. But when we finally were speaking at the same event in Arizona, we spoke on different days. So I didn’t meet her, I just heard about her. And then we communicated via Instagram, this is what great thing about social media. And I told her, we were supposed to meet, but I spoke and I left, and you came the next day at my event. So we just bonded in that way. And then finding out that she’s an Amazon product developer, I’m like, that’s really like our audience right there. So we kept asking her back for more speaking engagements. But when I met her, I met her at 10x Growth Con, which is, I don’t know if you know Grant Cardone. Bradley Sutton: Yes, yes. I mean, I don’t know him personally, but I know who he is. Lyann: Yeah. So if you look right here, I’m on an app called Clubhouse, and I’m standing right next to Grant. So we’re speakers on that app. So I’m big influencer on an app right there. So we’re actually speaking on stage right now. And so I met Melissa in Miami at the 10X event. And we just, we just bonded. We just spent time together. And from there she spoke at my other events in Park City, Utah. And anytime there’s a big event like Build Your Empire or any of Dan Fleischmann’s deals, we always spoke at those events. So we’re keynote speakers at these e-commerce entrepreneurial events. That’s how we bonded. Bradley Sutton: Okay. And then your specialty, because I think it was say like your Instagram handle everything is, they call you the Credit Ninja, is it? Lyann: Yeah, the Credit Ninja. Bradley Sutton: Credit Ninja. All right. So let’s talk a little bit about that because sometimes I think everybody understands what credit is, and why it’s important in the real world. But then now like, Hey, I need good credit to buy a car, to buy a house, this and that. But now as people transfer from like working for the mankind of jobs, and then now being their own boss and, and running their own e-commerce business, then the need for credit is a little bit different. So first of all, is it as important, more important or what, like somebody who’s becoming their own boss? What kind of credit score? Because I bet you there are people out there like, oh, who cares about credit anymore? Cause now I’m just employed myself. Lyann: Yeah. It’s more important. Okay. When you work for somebody else, you still need credit. Cuz if you’re trying to buy a house or a car, which you need to get to work, right? You need to have a roof over your head. You still have to have that personal credit. Now, when you’re building a business, that’s even more important because it’s all about access. Access is my favorite word in the world because it’s access to, number one, knowledge, right? Access to capital. And I’m gonna make a statement that’s gonna really hit a lot of your viewers, dreams cost money. Dreams cost money. When people think about it, I have an idea to sell this stuff, I have an idea to build this, I have a so, so idea. They don’t have the money behind it. So it becomes what’s called a pipe dream. Lyann: So having credit is one of the core components that everyone on this podcast has right now, we have one thing that is a lottery ticket. Do you know what that is? It’s just Social Security Number. Everyone that is in the US and in Canada has some type of Social Security Number. And that’s the number that describes your behavior on how you use money. How do you use credit? And that number can either approve you or deny you Sure. For access to capital. That’s as simple as that. If I could say how important it is. So when you’re trying to build a business, you gotta have that foundation to start building it correctly and being really laser focused. Otherwise, you can’t start a business, you can’t scale a business, you can’t sell your business because we all look for exits, right? Bradley Sutton: Yeah. Now I have a question then. This is just something that it might be a dumb question. Lyann: Not a dumb question. Bradley Sutton: So I think most of us understand that like, hey, we’ve got credit scores, right? And it’s tied to our Social Security Number, like you said. And you know, the higher the number, the more people will be willing to give you a credit card or low-interest car or whatever. Actually, I’ve applied for loans, for example, that Amazon gives or, or lenders give for my businesses, and with Amazon, it’s registered as a business. I think I have a corporation or something. I didn’t handle the details, but yeah, I know I’ve had to give my Social Security Number, but also registered for my corporation is like my EIN number. Now, I’m assuming a company can be based on similar credit, where it’s based on the EIN number? Or it’s always based on the principle owner’s Social Security credit history? Lyann: So it’s both. Okay. So when you start out a business, you’re building up your EIN, but EIN doesn’t have anything yet. So the banks are gonna rely on your Social Security Number first. So after you establish some relationship with that Bank of America or Chase or whatnot, then they start what’s called EIN only, which is no personal guarantee. When it’s a personal guarantee, it’s gonna tie to your social. But when you start a business relationship or corporate credit, they want us to see what you are all about. If they can trust you as an individual, after a period of time they start to go, oh, we know who Bradley is, he’s good to go. We’re just gonna put that truck or that box truck or those supply or that line solely on like training wheels. So your training wheels are like your Social Security Number. After a period of time they kick that training wheel out and you are just riding your bike without the training wheel. That’s your EIN or you’re done in Bradstreet. Or it could be your Experian and your Equifax Business Scores. And that’s where you want to go eventually, cuz you can scale bigger. Bradley Sutton: Okay. Yeah. All right. I’m starting my own business. Start of the business on Amazon. I’ve got my corporation set up. I’m my own boss now. What are some strategies on how I can build, or continue to build my personal credit and then start to build my business credit? Lyann: That’s a great question. So, with your personal end, what you wanna do is awareness. You wanna be able to track your credit. So the first thing is to get into a subscription credit reporting agency. So experian.com, it’s a paid service. Remember, you’re running a business you need to invest in. The most important thing is your file, your data, right? Your data on credit. So experian.com, you can get all three reports. It’s like $30 a month, but it’s worth it. Remember, it’s a write off for your business because it is for your business. Or you can go to Identity IQ and get a link. I have links there if you guys wanna hit me up, that’s fine. That way you can track all three credit reports. That’s the first step because you wanna see what’s on there. Is your address is correct, is your employment correct? Lyann: You wanna clean it all up. This one address, this one name. Don’t have like 10 million names. The more names you have. Now when they pull that, they’re gonna go, why is this person doing aliases? You know, it’s bad. Are they trying to be Jason Bourne one day? And you know, like Frank Abil there next day. So you gotta make sure it’s one name, okay? One address. You don’t have to have your phone number. The less information they have on there, the less mess up they could be. Okay, now you wanna look at all your account. Are there any collections on there? Are there any charge offs? Any late payment? You wanna make sure what does it look like now as I’m starting the business? Then from there you start getting the right credit cards. There’s, you gotta hit the right bank. So hit up Chase first. Lyann: Make sure you get all your Chase relationships outta the way cuz they are the most difficult ones. So make sure you sequence these cards right, then you build good history. You gotta make sure the pay on time. Why is this important? When your score is optimized, you can now start getting what’s called business credit cards. So the bank that you’re at, say you’re at Chase or Bank of America, they, you can get business credit cards with those banks, but because your credit score is optimized here, you can start getting business credit card. But here’s the beauty part. Beauty of this is that once this line comes like 20,000 and you start using some of these lines for your Amazon or Walmart automation business, whatever it is, it doesn’t report on your personal. So you can always maintain that optimal 740 plus score because now it’s reported on your business side that debt doesn’t show up. So even though you’re buying supplies or equipment or advertising and all that, it’s on this end. So this was always preserved, you always look optimal. And why I say that is, I just pulled my credit last week. What does that say? Bradley Sutton: 850. Okay.…

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#438 - Writing High-Quality Walmart Listings With ChatGPT Mar 29, 2023

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Learn the attributes of a high-quality Walmart listing and how to streamline the content writing process using GPT with our expert guest Ryan King.

#437 - Strategies From A Million Dollar Etsy Seller Mar 28, 2023

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Looking to sell on Etsy? Tune in to this episode for tips, hacks, and insights from Dylan Jahraus, who has found success selling in this marketplace.