0:02

Hey, welcome to Silent Sales Machine radio business building

0:04

warrior. So glad you're going to join us today

0:06

for a conversation with two of the great coaching

0:08

leaders on our team. I'm talking about, of course,

0:10

Brian and Robin Joy Olson. They're going to be

0:12

taking over the show here in just a moment.

0:14

A couple of announcements first, and then

0:17

a short overview of what you're about to hear. And we'll

0:19

jump into the great content that they have for us. First,

0:22

our proven conference is coming at us very fast,

0:24

May 23rd through 25th in Orlando, Florida.

0:27

You can join hundreds. It's 600 registered

0:30

as I'm recording this several

0:32

weeks out from the event, but it's getting

0:34

very close at this point. The

0:36

proven conference.com has details over 40

0:38

breakout sessions for every level of

0:41

experience from brand new clueless newbies

0:43

who are wanting to get into

0:45

e-commerce to some of the most

0:47

advanced Amazon and Walmart and eBay

0:49

and all kinds of other strategies

0:52

that we talk about around here.

0:54

There's going to be great sessions. It's a great

0:56

chance to get really connected with this community. Be

0:58

looking for live stream options if you can't join

1:01

us in Orlando as well. The

1:03

website, again, that has all the details is

1:05

three words, the proven

1:07

conference.com plan to join us there.

1:10

Also next announcement, if you haven't jumped on

1:13

our calendar yet and booked

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1:17

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anything. We normally charge hundreds of dollars

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free as a service to the listeners

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members of our free Facebook group. We

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out there. One of the biggest favors I think we

1:43

can do you for you is to keep you out

1:45

of a ditch that you may not even know

1:47

is there. You may be heading straight

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towards a cliff and you don't even realize it

1:52

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1:54

We've been coaching for over 20 years

1:56

in e-commerce. We've seen many, many ways

1:59

things can go. terribly wrong and we've

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2:19

to silentgym.com slash book

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a call. All one word

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book a call. To schedule a

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call that's convenient timed for you and we'll have

2:28

a conversation with someone on our team. We'd love

2:30

to hear from you. Well let's

2:32

get in today's program. Of course like I

2:34

mentioned Brian and Robin Joy, two great coaching

2:36

leaders on our team. We have about 60

2:38

coaches. They're divided into three teams and each

2:40

of them have a coaching team leader. Brian

2:42

and Robin Joy are two of the great

2:45

coaching team leaders in our community. They're gonna

2:47

be doing a lot of the content for

2:49

us as well at the proven conference which

2:51

I mentioned just a moment ago but on

2:53

today's episode they're talking about some of the

2:55

realities of some of the

2:58

perhaps more mundane tasks they go

3:00

into ramping up in Amazon business.

3:03

You hear us talk about the

3:05

Amazon Replens business all the time

3:07

around here because that is the

3:09

lowest risk, lowest learning curve, highest

3:11

odds of success business model that

3:13

we've identified in our

3:16

entire catalog of business opportunities that we

3:18

teach and offer around here. So we

3:20

tend to start most new sellers there

3:22

but as with anything in life that's

3:24

worth having it requires

3:27

time, effort, energy. There's

3:29

a learning curve there. There's blood

3:31

sweat, tears, risk, sacrifice, right? Anything

3:33

worth having and any business model

3:35

will always have those components. So

3:38

how do you get through those first

3:40

initial stages? That's what I really love

3:42

about Brian and Robin Joy's perspective is

3:44

because they've coached hundreds of students at

3:47

this point. They've overseen the coaching of

3:49

many many more and they've noticed those

3:51

trends, the things that people are running

3:53

into, the snags they're hitting, challenges they're

3:55

facing, the questions they ask and that's

3:57

what we put into these coaches.

3:59

corner episodes. So hopefully you're benefiting

4:01

from these and enjoying them in many ways.

4:04

And with no other announcements needed at this point, I'm

4:06

going to turn it over to Brian and Robin Joy.

4:09

Take it away, guys. Welcome

4:11

back to Silence Sales Machine Radio. We are

4:13

your co-hosts. I'm Brian. And I'm Robin Joy.

4:15

And this is Coach's Corner. So

4:18

this week. Yes. We're going

4:20

to kick off the topic, the session

4:22

here today around the questions, maybe complaints

4:25

more sometimes than we get from new

4:27

clients that we're working with who are

4:29

like, look, I'm putting in

4:31

the time, but I'm not getting the result.

4:33

What is going on? How do I change

4:35

this up? Yeah, we

4:37

do get that comment a lot. And

4:40

it's normal. It's understandable. It's frustrating. You

4:42

put in a couple hours and you

4:44

don't have anything that you can test

4:46

yet. So what do

4:48

we do about that, Brian? What's our

4:50

answer to that? Well, I think we need

4:52

to change the focus. So

4:54

change the focus from how many

4:57

goals do we score, how many touchdowns, how many home runs,

4:59

whatever it was. Change from that to

5:02

focusing on the time that

5:04

we're putting in. Because if we don't

5:06

put in the time, we're never going to

5:08

get the result. So initially, the wins need

5:11

to be the time and the efforts that

5:13

we go through. Right. So could I

5:15

say if we run the drills, we're

5:18

going to be prepared to make that touchdown when

5:21

the defense opens up to us and we

5:23

can do that. But if we don't put in

5:26

the drills, then we're not necessarily

5:28

going to be ready for that when it comes to

5:30

us. But that's what we

5:32

can control. The time we put in and how

5:34

many ASINs we look at, it

5:36

gives us a lot of other benefits as

5:38

well. Like if I look at enough ASINs,

5:41

I'm going to get good at looking

5:43

at ASINs. Right. I think

5:45

there's also a progression that happens with looking

5:47

at ASINs. Because the same reason we

5:50

wouldn't send in 20 tests and are for

5:52

a barrier for shipment in case there was

5:54

a systemic problem. We need to make incremental

5:57

improvements along the way. So this is part

5:59

of the... putting in the time because you're not gonna

6:01

know everything that you need to know the very

6:03

first hour that you go sourcing or the very first

6:05

week that you go sourcing, right? You

6:07

have to build on your skills. And so

6:09

in order to build on the skills, hey,

6:12

that sounds, that's gotta catch a thing to it, right?

6:14

Build on the skills. Here we go. Yeah. Making

6:18

up new words again. In

6:20

order to build on the skills, you gotta put in

6:22

the time. And the time is, and go through the

6:24

reps, right, as they say. So you go through the

6:26

cycles, you go through the reps, and then you learn

6:28

something every time that you go through them.

6:31

you're learning or progressing in there, then that's when

6:33

you reach out for help. And if you're a

6:35

coaching client, super easy. Because when we get together

6:37

and we say, tweak this a little bit, tweak

6:40

that a little bit, oh no, that's spot on,

6:42

you know, whatever it is, and we're able

6:44

to make progress in a very short amount

6:46

of time. Yeah. Other, alternatively, you

6:48

can go to the Facebook group if you're not a coaching

6:50

client, post your question out there, and

6:52

you can get some awesome responses that can help

6:54

you. Right, exactly. I'd

6:57

like to say that just because it

6:59

doesn't feel like you're making progress doesn't

7:01

necessarily mean you're not making progress. Yes.

7:04

How many times do we gradually

7:06

make progress? And we look back and

7:08

say, oh, I guess I did make

7:10

some progress. Sometimes we don't recognize it

7:12

in the time. So don't be discouraged

7:14

just because it's not common, obvious

7:17

to you that you're making progress. But

7:20

I think it is important to embrace

7:22

the process itself. If

7:24

that's what we can control, is

7:28

looking at ASINs, then let's look

7:30

at ASINs. We can't control whether

7:32

we are looking at the ASIN that's gonna

7:35

be test worthy or not. We can't control

7:38

whether we're gonna find that one next

7:40

or 10 down the road or 100

7:42

down the road. But what we can

7:44

control is how many ASINs we look

7:46

at. And that's going to, if we

7:48

look at enough ASINs, we're going to

7:50

find some that are test worthy. Some

7:53

people, they find a few right away. Some

7:55

people don't find any for a little while.

7:57

It's kind of like, you know, through

8:00

a forest, right? So if I decide I'm

8:02

gonna get through to the other side of

8:04

the forest, I need to pick a path

8:06

and start going down it. So

8:09

if I change my mind in the, you

8:11

know, when I'm just taking a few steps

8:13

in, because I haven't found anything yet, let's

8:15

say, you know, the trees are

8:18

asins, and they are possibly test

8:20

worthy asins, and I haven't found any test worthy yet.

8:22

So I go back out of the forest and go

8:24

in another path. And then

8:26

I still don't find any, so I go back out

8:28

of the forest and go into another path, right? I'm

8:30

trying to get to the other side, and

8:33

I'm trying to find all the trees that I can

8:35

that will be test worthy for me. But I'm only

8:37

finding one or two, because I keep, you

8:39

know, going in and going out and

8:41

potshutting this, these paths, and I never

8:43

go deeper into the forest. You

8:46

have to go deeper into the forest,

8:48

there are other kinds of trees in

8:50

that forest, other things that

8:52

may work for you that you hadn't thought

8:54

of before. And you will not get

8:56

to the other side of the forest or

8:58

break this barrier that's in front

9:00

of you, if you keep starting over

9:03

all the time, right? Right. Yeah. That

9:05

makes sense. Yeah, totally. Another thing I

9:07

was thinking about is, if you are

9:10

learning a new language, right, the first

9:12

multiple weeks of, of going to take

9:14

if you're taking lessons, personal lessons,

9:16

even, right, you don't come home

9:18

after the first week and become fluent in Spanish

9:21

or Italian or French, right? No, this takes a

9:23

long time to build up the skills. Now, fortunately,

9:25

we're in a business where it doesn't take that

9:27

long. Right feels like a long time,

9:30

because it's all new to us, right? It's like the first

9:32

time that you drive somewhere that you've

9:34

never gone before. It seems like it takes forever. It

9:36

does. It always seems like it takes longer the first

9:38

time. Yeah, the next time it takes shorter and shorter,

9:41

and pretty soon the horse is in control, you're subconscious

9:43

and you're not even paying attention anymore. Right. That's true.

9:45

But it doesn't actually take any longer to get there.

9:48

Right. It just feels like it takes

9:50

longer. Yeah. So keep that in mind.

9:52

Put that into your into your assessment

9:54

of how it's going. But yeah, I

9:57

think that if we if we focus

9:59

too. hard on what we want to

10:01

get out of this, then we're going to start

10:04

feeling like we're not winning. And

10:06

we don't want that because this

10:09

process itself should be

10:11

winning to you, getting

10:13

the, the process, the

10:15

task done, changing the focus from the, what

10:17

did I get out of this to just

10:20

doing it in the beginning

10:22

is what is necessary. Right? Yeah.

10:24

And it is difficult for all of

10:27

us to, you know, we're

10:29

adults, we're out of school. We're used

10:31

to like winning fast. Right. We've already

10:33

put in our 30 years to figure

10:35

out how to do this. So why

10:37

the heck on almost everything else we

10:39

do. So why the heck is this

10:41

giving us such a problem? Well, we

10:43

haven't put in years and years of

10:45

practice on this yet. Well, I think

10:47

there's also this like level of comfort.

10:49

We've, we've gotten to live with, we've

10:51

established our realm. Yes. That is this

10:53

comfort zone. And we're really good at

10:55

those things that are in our comfort

10:57

zone. And we don't tend to

10:59

take on a whole heck of a lot of

11:01

new things because it's uncomfortable. Right. So this is

11:03

going to be uncomfortable if you're just getting started.

11:06

If you haven't really ironed

11:08

out your process yet for how

11:11

you are sourcing, then

11:13

it's going to be uncomfortable. And there

11:15

may be days still, even when you have ironed it out,

11:17

you're going to have stretches where, where it still is going

11:19

to be uncomfortable. I like to tell the story all the

11:21

time that when I'm getting my butt kicked at work or

11:24

when I'm getting my butt kicked by Amazon, what I like

11:26

to do is just go sourcing for a couple of hours

11:28

because I know I'm going to get some wins. That

11:31

does happen the majority of the time for me at

11:33

this point, but this is because I've looked at tens

11:35

of thousands of bases. Oh, yeah. But there are

11:37

still stretches where that doesn't happen, where I can

11:40

go an hour and a half. I'm like, Oh,

11:42

gosh, that was a wild goose chase. I didn't

11:44

find right. Absolutely. Maybe I was trying a new

11:46

slightly tweak strategy or something like that. But even

11:48

if it's something that I've got, I've had dialed

11:50

in, there are times when I didn't get out

11:52

of that exactly what I was looking for, but

11:54

I still had to put in the time. That's

11:56

a good point, Brian. This does still happen us.

11:59

We've just gotten more comfortable with that happening

12:01

to us because we know if we do it

12:03

enough. But getting

12:05

all the way through a process

12:07

to fully test it is important.

12:09

I'm a kind of a methodical

12:11

kind of thinker, right? If

12:13

I'm going to go source, you know,

12:16

Dollar General, and I'm

12:18

going to exhaust that source and see everything in

12:20

there, I'm going to look at every item in

12:22

there before I quit. Now I'm not going to do

12:24

it all in one sitting. No, absolutely not. I'm

12:27

going to go all the way through that

12:29

process, all the way to the other side

12:31

of that forest before I decide

12:34

whether there are some trees in that forest that

12:36

are going to work for me or not. And

12:39

I might have to go through it two or three

12:41

times in different paths in

12:43

order to get that accomplishment that takes

12:45

hours and hours and hours. This reminds

12:47

me of when I was first trying

12:49

to diversify in our book of

12:51

business. So I had gotten pretty

12:54

good at like my honey pots, as I call them. The

12:57

grocery space. And then I'm trying to

12:59

expand and go find some different parts

13:01

of the stores for me to find

13:03

products in. And I was like, okay,

13:05

let me go check camping stuff. And

13:08

I looked at three or four tents and I didn't find anything.

13:10

And I was like, oh, yeah, camping doesn't work. Okay,

13:12

let me go try gardening. And I look at three

13:14

or four rakes. None of them would

13:16

work or whatever it was. Oh, yeah, well,

13:19

there's nothing in there's nothing in gardening. So

13:21

let me go over to automotive. Right. And

13:24

you know, if I'm only looking at

13:26

two or three things, exactly. Seeing

13:28

a few trees, changing your mind and going out

13:30

and going the other. So you're just bouncing around

13:32

the outside of this forest all the time. Exactly.

13:34

So if you really want to get in order

13:36

for me to get good at that, well, what

13:38

I had to do is be committed to go

13:40

through, like you said, every single

13:42

stinking product, try to find

13:44

a matching ASIN. And

13:47

then when I did, then I learned from that.

13:49

And I was like, okay, what is it about

13:52

this that made this successful? And

13:54

then I start to find some more like that. Right. And I

13:56

start taking that with me to the next one. Hey, does this

13:58

one have that? Or can I look for

14:00

more things like I found in the other one

14:02

and then pretty soon it's this land and expand

14:04

strategy. Okay I found one in this particular category

14:07

I'm going to expand in there based on what

14:09

I've learned for the ones that were the one

14:12

that I found that was successful. I

14:14

like it. This is a very good example

14:16

of why sometimes it feels

14:18

like we've done a lot of work but

14:20

we haven't got a lot of results. Yeah.

14:23

Again if we can control the work we

14:25

do, control the time we put in, control

14:27

the number of ASINs we look at and

14:30

call that a win because as a

14:32

large group of ASINs

14:35

it's going to find wins for

14:37

you sooner or later. Maybe not

14:39

in this set that you're looking at in

14:41

this couple of hours but you've

14:43

gotten some down, you've looked through

14:45

a few, you're going and looking at

14:47

some more and you're going deeper into the forest

14:50

instead of just quitting because those first few that

14:52

you looked at and I know it feels like

14:54

more than a few. It sounds like I'm really... Okay you look at

14:56

500 ASINs, you're still not finding

15:00

anything that's okay. That may be

15:02

the first 500 that you

15:04

look at and then you're gonna get

15:06

a much higher percent in the next 500

15:09

that you look at but you have

15:11

to look at those whether they have wins

15:13

in those or not so let's call that

15:15

a win. We got that down. So that

15:17

does bring up an interesting question and this

15:20

is totally off script. When someone in the

15:22

coaching scenario comes to you and says, hey

15:24

I looked at 200 ASINs and I found

15:27

one item or I found two items that

15:29

seem test-worthy, would you say

15:31

that's like the norm when you're first getting

15:33

started? I absolutely would. I would

15:35

say that is not unusual

15:37

and that's what I would... the first thing I would

15:40

say to the client. The one thing

15:42

that we don't know when we're new

15:44

to doing this is what it's like

15:46

for everybody else. What we've seen is,

15:48

oh yes I do this all the

15:50

time now, it's not a problem for

15:52

me anymore. We hear these stories after

15:54

people have found success but

15:56

we really don't talk about what it's like

15:58

in the beginning and... me.

16:00

My first 200 ASINs, I'm

16:03

not sure I found anything

16:05

that we could test in those first

16:07

two or three hundred ASINs for sure.

16:09

And then it was very sparse for

16:11

a while. It really, really was. And remember,

16:15

I was doing this all day long and

16:17

a lot of people that we're working with

16:19

are doing it in the hours,

16:21

you know, after work or in

16:24

between family responsibility. So

16:26

remember, it feels like a lot of

16:28

time because time has gone by, but

16:30

the hours that you put in are

16:33

not equaling necessarily some of the other

16:35

ones that are found more

16:37

ease in that and gotten experienced faster.

16:39

That's a great point. Don't confuse the

16:41

time invested with the time elapsed. You're

16:44

the one who went off script. All right,

16:46

let's go into that. I like it. Don't

16:49

confuse the time invested with the time elapsed.

16:51

That works in a couple of ways for

16:53

me. One is if I

16:55

need to put in 10 hours and I only have two hours

16:57

a week, it's going to take me five weeks to do that.

17:00

In your five weeks, someone else can put

17:02

in, you know, 80 hours and

17:05

they have a whole lot

17:08

more experience than you have.

17:10

Doesn't make a difference. We're not comparing with what

17:12

time I have with you have. What we're doing

17:15

is trying to find what, how can I make

17:17

the best out of the

17:19

time that I have to put in it. So

17:21

that tells me that it also tells me if

17:24

I am putting in the time, it

17:27

needs to be putting in the time achieving

17:29

my goal. My goal is how many ASINs

17:32

I need to look at. My

17:34

goal is not, you know, checking, you

17:36

know, how do you do KDP like you did? You're

17:38

the bad child here. How do I do KDP? Oh wait,

17:40

can I make a

17:44

bundle? Oh wait, and you never get your sourcing

17:46

done. So it feels like you're putting on all

17:48

this time, but he really didn't

17:51

put that much time into sourcing, right?

17:53

So those two things, what

17:55

you said, tell me those two things. And

17:58

I think that the time time

18:00

elapsed is does not

18:03

say it again. I say the

18:05

time invested doesn't equal time elapsed.

18:07

Right. I think I said invested.

18:09

Don't confuse time invested with time

18:12

elapsed. Timelapse with time invested. All

18:14

right. I think you guys get the point. Right.

18:16

I hope so. We do sidetrack

18:19

ourselves all the time. But I thought that

18:21

was a great point. I thank you very

18:23

much. I'll take the compliment. Well, one of

18:25

the things that makes the time invest invested,

18:27

right? Easier to accomplish is

18:29

the consistency with which you are

18:32

spending the time to complete that task, right, or

18:34

invest not to complete. But

18:36

I'm invested in the task. Yes. It's

18:38

much easier to build up your list

18:41

of ASINs that you've gone through if you've got the

18:43

schedule that you're doing. I got two hours on Monday.

18:46

I got three hours on Wednesday and I got

18:48

six hours on Saturday or whatever it is to

18:51

just start rolling that time all of a

18:53

sudden. You're going to get to time invested

18:56

pretty quickly. Yes. As long

18:58

as you give a job to each of those

19:00

hours and make sure you're doing what you need

19:02

to do during those hours, make sure you're putting

19:04

in those hours and it just didn't get on

19:06

your schedule and then you say,

19:09

well, I can't do it tonight. Make them up

19:11

if you can't do that. But I

19:13

think you're exactly right. How much

19:15

time you put in, if you

19:18

do it consistently, will grow quickly. Yeah. And

19:20

this brings me to something I wanted to

19:22

circle back to from a while back. We

19:24

had talked about the frequency

19:27

of your consistency is important. Yes. And I was

19:29

like, oh, maybe we can make up a word

19:31

there because we were talking about like making up

19:33

words that consistency is a

19:36

key to success. Right. Depending on

19:38

applies in a lot of different

19:40

places. Right. But if

19:43

the consistency of your frequency is

19:45

key, then maybe the

19:47

word is confrequent key. I

19:50

could. All

19:52

right, everybody. Confrequent ski.

19:57

OK, yes, I know. We really are just in this

19:59

to entertain ourselves. I'll

20:02

give an extra five minutes of

20:04

conversation to anybody who walks up

20:06

to me at the proven conference

20:08

and can say, confrequency five times.

20:10

No. Confrequent ski.

20:13

Confrequent ski. I can't even say. All

20:15

right. Confrequent ski. Yeah.

20:18

All right. We're never

20:20

going to forget that term. Okay.

20:25

So anyway, it is basically this. We need to

20:27

put in the time. The

20:29

reason that we do want to check

20:32

in on occasion, like I would be cautious

20:34

about telling anyone to go look at a

20:36

thousand ASINs before coming back for some check-in.

20:39

Right. Great. Because

20:41

I think that's a lot to go through. If you've

20:43

got a systemic problem, there could be some wasted

20:45

time and effort in there. The

20:48

bottom line is you're never going to be as efficient in the beginning

20:50

as you will be eventually. So there's always going

20:52

to be some inefficiencies in there.

20:55

How many would you say that you

20:58

should look through before and find absolutely,

21:00

get goose egged on it before you

21:02

look for a check-in? Well,

21:06

I mean, obviously you have a

21:08

number in mind, but I would say that... I don't. I

21:11

don't. No? Okay.

21:15

No. I would say there are a lot

21:17

of other things involved, meaning how much are you doing at a

21:19

time? What are you

21:21

using for sources? Where

21:24

are you getting the ASINs that you're

21:26

looking through? I mean, there's a whole

21:29

lot to that. However, generally speaking, I

21:31

would say most of

21:33

the people I work with... Now,

21:37

remember, I'm giving them a way to find

21:39

the ASINs that they're looking through, but usually

21:43

within about 500 ASINs, 400

21:45

to 600, I'd say, they usually come back

21:47

with two or three

21:49

that have sources and have passed

21:52

the test-worthy assessment. So I was going

21:54

to say, and maybe I did

21:56

have a number, but it only came to mind as you were

21:58

talking. Instead of looking at

22:00

a few, oh, I've looked at a few

22:03

and I came up with nothing like the example I was

22:05

giving about camping supplies or gardening or whatever. A

22:07

few hundred might be a

22:09

better gauge of that. Just to help

22:11

set expectations. Now remember, there are

22:13

a billion ASINs just in the US platform.

22:17

So it's not like there aren't a

22:19

lot to get through over the next

22:21

however long you're looking at ASINs. Impossible.

22:23

Impossible. It is absolutely impossible. And they're

22:25

always changing, moving in and out, things

22:27

are happening to them, they're going up

22:29

and down. So they may

22:31

be test worthy today, but not tomorrow and

22:33

vice versa. So yeah, setting

22:36

the expectation of a few hundred

22:38

instead of a few

22:40

might make a difference. I also

22:42

wanna just address quickly, setting

22:45

the expectation of how many hours that's going

22:47

to take. If you say I've

22:50

looked for eight hours and

22:52

I haven't found anything, I still wanna know

22:54

how many ASINs were you able to look

22:57

at during that eight hours. So

23:00

that makes a difference. And then if

23:02

you say I've looked at 800 ASINs and

23:04

I haven't found anything, then I

23:06

wanna know, then we wanna dig in

23:08

a little bit deeper. Are you looking

23:10

at them all in one sitting? What

23:12

kind of sources are available to you? What

23:15

kind of ASINs are you looking at? How

23:17

have you decided what you're gonna... So there

23:20

are many things that go into

23:22

that, but adjusting the expectation of

23:24

what normal is sometimes helps a

23:27

lot. And this is the benefit

23:29

of working with a personal guide. If

23:31

you're in the coaching program is we can

23:33

make those corrections a lot faster. Sure. And

23:36

you could use the group as well,

23:38

use the Facebook group for your questions

23:40

that could help you make

23:42

adjustments a lot faster, not after

23:44

three or five or 20 even. I

23:47

still think if you haven't looked at a

23:50

few hundred ASINs in a particular category

23:52

or from a particular source, then

23:54

you're probably not going deep enough. Yeah,

23:57

I think that's probably true. If

24:00

you're going in and out, in and out, in

24:02

and out because trash bags didn't work, and then

24:04

so that I'm going to try tools, and then

24:07

I would expect that you look at a lot

24:09

of ASINs that did not work. Right. That would

24:11

be normal. Okay. All right. So if we're shifting

24:13

the focus from how many test-worthy

24:16

ASINs that I get for the time that I invested

24:18

to, the time invested and the

24:20

number of ASINs that I looked at, knowing

24:22

that that's eventually going to produce results, then

24:24

we need to redefine how

24:28

we're celebrating those wins. What we're celebrating.

24:30

What we're celebrating. Yeah, maybe not how

24:32

we're celebrating, but what we're celebrating. Yes.

24:34

So we go from, hey, I found my

24:36

batch of five tests this week to, hey,

24:39

I looked through 200 ASINs in sporting goods

24:41

that is a whole new category for me.

24:44

I didn't know anything about sporting goods, but I'm

24:46

starting to get better about how to store sporting

24:49

goods. Yes. That's a win. Let's

24:51

celebrate. So in the mornings, instead of saying

24:53

how many did I find when we get

24:55

together in the mornings and go over what

24:57

happened yesterday, instead of saying how many did

24:59

I find, let's say, how many did I

25:01

look through, did I do a

25:03

good job of that, and

25:05

what can I do to make that number

25:07

better? The census. That's all. I

25:10

like it. Let's celebrate. This goes back to what

25:13

my coach had asked me to do when

25:15

I was all over the place.

25:17

Yes. We started talking about

25:19

what I was tracking and I was giving her

25:21

these my daily journal

25:24

entries basically, not every single day, but for

25:26

the days that I had dedicated to the

25:28

business, or the times that I did, I

25:30

was following up. What was so cool about

25:32

that, looking back, you know what my superpower

25:35

is? What's your superpower hindsight? No,

25:42

but in hindsight, I'm

25:45

able to look back and go, okay, that was very

25:48

valuable for me because not only was I taking

25:50

the notes, but then I was

25:53

sending those to my coach and getting them

25:55

evaluated not only by her, but then I

25:57

would, of course, reevaluate while I was sending

25:59

them out. I got them back from her and

26:01

I was learning from those sessions in

26:03

depth. Not just, I looked at

26:05

200 ASINs and these brands and here's what I

26:08

found, but more so like, okay, I looked

26:10

in this category, I looked at these brands and I came up

26:12

with something or I came up with nothing. Taking

26:14

those lessons that I learned

26:16

in applying them in future sessions is really

26:18

where the magic happened. I

26:21

like it. There's just value

26:23

in getting comfortable looking at

26:25

ASINs and it takes some

26:27

time. It makes me think

26:29

of when I was a kid and

26:31

I was on a softball team. My

26:33

coach told me, take this softball

26:36

and carry it around everywhere. Every time

26:38

I see you, I want you to have this softball

26:40

in your hand. I had to convince my mom that my coach

26:42

really did say this and I could bring it to the dinner

26:44

table. She made me keep it under the table, but she let

26:46

me do it. But the

26:48

more I carried around that softball, the

26:51

more comfortable I was with the softball.

26:53

Then when I played in the outfield,

26:55

of course, and when a

26:57

ball came, I was comfortable with what it

26:59

felt like to get that ball, to throw

27:02

that ball, to touch that ball. This

27:04

is what we need to get comfortable with ASINs.

27:07

Be in the middle of the

27:09

ASINs all the time. I know Brad and I,

27:12

we said it before, everything's an ASIN to

27:14

us because we do so much with ASINs. We're

27:16

very comfortable in the space

27:18

of what an ASIN is, how I

27:20

relate to an ASIN, what an ASIN

27:22

can do for me, which ones can,

27:24

which ones can't, what's the difference between

27:26

them? Because we've been swimming in ASINs

27:28

for years, you will get there.

27:31

But just because you do it the

27:34

first time, like learning Italian, it's

27:36

not gonna, you're not gonna be fluent for

27:38

a while. You gotta keep going through the

27:41

motions and feeling

27:43

that feeling of what ASINs are.

27:46

And just, I wanna like, I

27:48

don't know Italian. We did, during

27:51

COVID times, we were

27:53

doing some Italian studying and

27:55

that obviously didn't last because

27:57

I know that I could even say a sentence anymore.

28:01

The point of this is that, you

28:03

know, learning Amazon is not maybe as

28:05

challenging as learning Italian or any new

28:07

language for that matter. Although there are

28:09

some definitely some new words and new

28:11

lingo and all that technical

28:13

techno babble that exists here in this

28:16

space, there is a new language that

28:18

we are learning. But to be proficient,

28:20

to become proficient with Amazon, I don't

28:22

think is as quite as lofty

28:25

of a task as

28:27

is learning a new language. So,

28:31

what we're getting to here is

28:34

put the time in, control the things

28:36

you can control, call

28:38

those wins when you do what you said you were going to

28:40

do. That's a win. Yeah. That's

28:43

a win. How many times have we seen and

28:46

done ourselves, not done what we said we were going to

28:48

do? That's not a win. It doesn't even

28:50

look even resemble

28:52

a win. But it does

28:54

resemble a win. It is a win when you

28:57

say, I'm going to do this. You're true

28:59

to yourself and you do it. Even

29:02

if it doesn't give you what you wanted, it is

29:05

bringing you closer to what you

29:07

want. And if you keep

29:09

doing it, you will get what you want.

29:12

It's like someone who's training, you know, for a

29:14

race, a marathon or something like that.

29:17

They're not out to break the world record every time they practice

29:20

or even set a new PR, personal record. They're doing

29:22

the drills. They're doing the drills. They're doing the practice.

29:24

They're doing these things that don't, you know, it doesn't

29:27

win them a medal or they're

29:29

not getting anything for it, but it's all in

29:31

preparation for when race day comes. Right?

29:34

Yeah. And I think that's a

29:36

big shift that we can make to make it

29:38

feel more like it's,

29:40

you know, we're winning. We want to

29:43

win. We want to be winning and we can be

29:45

winning from the beginning. And in the early days, the

29:47

win is the work. The work is the win. The

29:50

work is the win. Yeah. Right.

29:52

What did you call them? The drills. The

29:54

drills are the win. Yeah. All

29:57

right. So do you have a quote for us today, Brian? I do

29:59

have a quote for us. I don't

30:01

know how this comes about. Like we talk about

30:04

loosely the topics that we're

30:06

going to cover when we sit down and hit the record

30:08

button. Sometimes I have a quote in

30:10

advance and sometimes I don't. Today was one of those days where

30:12

I didn't, but the very first place

30:14

I go to look for a quote turned up

30:16

exactly. It was like so apropos for this. This

30:22

quote comes to us from Davy Greenberg and

30:24

it goes like this. If I

30:26

do a job in 30 minutes, it's because I

30:28

spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes.

30:31

So you owe me for the years

30:33

and not for the minutes. Yeah. Usually

30:35

people consider this when they're paying their

30:37

doctor bill. Right. Their lawyer bill. Exactly.

30:41

But in this case, we're applying it to, I

30:44

look at enough ASINs for enough years and then

30:46

I can do it in 30 minutes. Just like

30:48

you do when the clients come to you and

30:50

you source in front of them and you go,

30:52

look, there's one, look, there's one. They're like, how

30:55

are you doing that? Well, you've put

30:57

in hours and hours and hours looking at

30:59

thousands and thousands of ASINs. We've talked about

31:01

how many hours does it take to become

31:03

an expert? 10,000 hours. Maybe

31:06

it takes 10,000. Is the going rate. Right. I

31:08

think we've certainly put in way more than 10,000 hours each into

31:10

this so far. Well,

31:14

maybe not. I know we've looked at at least 10,000 ASINs.

31:16

Oh, yeah, way more than 10,000. You're sure of that.

31:19

Yes. So yeah. That's how it gets easier. Anyway, remember,

31:21

one of these days you are just going to be

31:23

able to spot them or

31:25

very quickly discern what's a test-worthy

31:28

ASIN and what's not a test-worthy ASIN.

31:30

Or at least be comfortable with what

31:32

you're getting. And you're

31:34

not going to be paid for the amount

31:37

of time that you spent just finding that one ASIN. I

31:39

mean, you're paying for all of the

31:41

experience and all the 10 years of

31:43

learning about that in order for

31:46

you to make that come to fruition in a

31:48

very short amount of time. That's right. That's right.

31:50

All right. So the most important

31:52

part of what we've been talking about today

31:54

is what? Finding ASINs.

31:56

Finding ASINs. So we

31:58

need finding yourself. Grace You need

32:01

a when put in the time.

32:03

Look at more a sense and you'll

32:06

find more a since to test risk

32:08

of like of Maurice. it's. Fair.

32:10

A better one says. Hey,

32:13

thanks for joining us for today show. Before

32:15

that you go, I've brought my friend Jeff

32:17

sick on the program once again. he always

32:19

brings this great Amazon legal and policy tips

32:21

and pointers us has some information that you're

32:23

not going here anywhere else. It's worth hanging

32:25

out to. The Glenn Wednesday at the says

32:27

we'll have to drop us on, you know.

32:30

Got Jeff Juergen today. Welcome back buddy! Face.

32:32

Pressure of Israeli on here. So. Yeah.

32:35

Today we're going to talk about

32:37

everyone's least favorite topic once again,

32:39

which is generic and misbranded A

32:41

suspension so. I know we

32:43

mention of into this a couple times on the

32:45

podcast back in October when we first started seeing

32:47

this and fourth set. The first time we saw

32:49

people. Suspended. For boosting

32:51

on generic and misbranded A

32:54

Sons. And since then it's

32:56

been a growing trend. So back in October

32:58

we had five sellers suspended for of the

33:00

five were reinstated one of them was not.

33:03

I. Will talk about why that happened a little bit

33:05

and well, but. But. Sit. Then we

33:07

saw that we would amazon with Dark

33:09

and we didn't see any more the

33:11

suspensions until June and around June first

33:13

as we saw another five or so

33:15

sellers get suspended for it. On

33:18

and then on July first about

33:20

another five to seven suspended as

33:22

well. So they are actively enforcing

33:24

edited something that they do really

33:26

and to care about because. Unlike.

33:28

Other suspensions where it's a

33:30

big said suspension. And

33:32

this bread at a suspensions fall under the fraud. So.

33:35

They hit you with the book right off the bat

33:37

and they say your accounts been deactivated. Under

33:40

section three, Whereas. A normal suspension

33:42

That's like what I'd call effects of suspension

33:44

as a your account maybe deactivated if you

33:46

don't fix this issue and you gotta be

33:49

charged, right? A plan of action. So.

33:51

These are actual account the activations their

33:53

deactivate in people ride out the big

33:56

A there's no Saudis are warning and

33:58

their same You know. It. believe

34:00

your account's been used to engage in fraudulent

34:02

or deceptive conduct. And it's because

34:04

you're selling on ASINs on the wrong, on

34:06

the wrong brand. So what

34:09

does that look like from a seller

34:11

perspective? Well, so far what we're

34:13

seeing is people are selling on ASINs branded

34:16

generic and these are branded

34:18

products. So again, you know, you

34:20

know, I'll give an example. I've got this, this box here of

34:22

something I wanted to sell on Amazon. And

34:24

of course my little blurring thing. It's a, it is

34:26

a, uh, you will a wall plug

34:28

charger thing. Yeah. It's an outlet as smart wifi plug, you

34:30

know, you plug a lamp into it and that way you

34:32

can use the wifi to turn it on and off. Well,

34:35

the brand on it is actually TP link.

34:38

Now, anyone that's familiar with TP

34:40

link knows that they actually do sell Sue

34:42

sellers. So you have to be careful with

34:44

selling their products. But if I

34:46

was going to sell it on Amazon that,

34:48

you know, the brand would be TP dash

34:50

link. It would not be generic. Even if

34:53

I'm not authorized to sell TP link, I

34:56

don't go create an ASIN that says generic. I

34:58

don't find somebody else who's created an ASIN that

35:00

says generic. Similarly, the

35:02

brand is TP dash link. I wouldn't do

35:04

TP link. All is one word. I

35:07

wouldn't do T dash P link. I

35:10

wouldn't do T dot P dot link or

35:12

anything of that nature. It has to be

35:14

correct or else Amazon considers

35:16

that a misbranded ASIN. Even

35:19

if you're not the one setting up the ASIN

35:21

and this is what we want to emphasize, especially

35:23

for our new sellers in our community, we're teaching

35:25

them the replans model, go sell against existing listings.

35:28

They're already set up and have good momentum. Well,

35:30

some of them, even though they

35:32

look great on Rev seller and they look great on

35:34

Kipa and you're excited, you're going to make some money,

35:37

check the brand and

35:39

make sure that the brand

35:41

matches. And for 98% of

35:43

the time it does, but there are some hot

35:45

sellers out there that have been misbranded and it's

35:47

a ticking time bomb to where Amazon comes in,

35:50

finds everyone who's selling against, it could be 50

35:52

or 70 sellers and you're thinking, Oh, this is

35:54

great. Look, we're all doing it. What

35:56

could be wrong? Well, the brand

35:58

complains and says they've. got our brand

36:00

wrong and Amazon comes in swinging

36:03

the hammer pretty heavy, it sounds like. They

36:05

do. There's no rhyme or reason.

36:08

One of the sellers brought us my attention that

36:10

he's suspended now. He's been suspended for a month

36:13

for selling on the wrong brand, Ayson. For his,

36:15

it was a paint product and the brand was

36:17

listed as paint instead of the brand

36:19

of the actual paint itself. He's

36:22

like, why is this happening? There's 80 sellers

36:24

on the listing right now. I said,

36:26

I can't tell you why they didn't

36:28

go after those other 80 sellers, but I

36:31

can tell you that those sellers are definitely not in

36:33

the clear because you know how they're going to handle

36:35

it when they get caught. It

36:37

is a matter of time before 80 more sellers

36:39

get deactivated for that very same Ayson that

36:42

our seller was on. The

36:45

good news is that back in

36:47

October, we did get everyone, all

36:49

but one person back up. There

36:52

was, it did take a range from about

36:54

one to six months for people to come

36:57

back up. It just, Amazon works

36:59

at their own timeline as to what they

37:01

feel when they feel like they've given enough

37:03

punishment to somebody is my impression. There's

37:06

really no rhyme or reason why they take as long

37:08

as they do or as short as they do, but

37:11

it's, and every case manager is different

37:13

for who the investigators that are reading

37:15

those appeals. But I can say that

37:17

the one positive thing is that if

37:20

you have good sourcing methods and you

37:22

have a good supply chain verification, then

37:24

it makes the chances of reinstatement significantly

37:26

better. The seller who has shown the

37:28

door was buying from bad wholesalers.

37:31

And so he was buying from bad wholesalers

37:33

and Amazon's attorneys basically came in and they

37:35

said, not only was he on the wrong

37:37

listings, but he was buying

37:39

from bad sources. So two strikes,

37:41

we have no confidence that your seller will

37:43

add value to our platform in the future.

37:46

And so they decided to keep his account deactivated.

37:49

They did release his money. So there was a semi

37:52

happy ending there because under

37:54

the section three suspensions, Amazon can hold

37:56

your funds indefinitely. But we

37:59

did. at least get him his money back.

38:01

But yeah, they did say, we

38:04

don't want you on our platform. And that's the

38:06

sad reality is that, a

38:08

little five minutes extra due diligence when

38:11

listing these products would have prevented a

38:13

lifetime ban on Amazon. Make

38:16

sure you're selling against good ASINs. Make sure

38:18

you're buying from legitimate sources that the distributor

38:20

would say, yeah, those guys are legit. The

38:22

brand would be happy to hear that you're

38:24

buying it from that source. You wanna stay

38:26

legit. There's so much legitimate opportunity. I hate

38:28

to see people kind of playing in these

38:30

gray areas and getting burned. It's

38:32

just not necessary. So, well, thank you for the

38:35

great advice, man. We're gonna do this again

38:37

next week, right? Sounds good. Awesome, always appreciate you,

38:39

Jeff. Talk to you soon. All

38:41

right, thank you. See ya. Thank

38:45

you for listening to Silent Sales

38:47

Machine Radio. Visit silentjim.com for a

38:49

link to our free newsletter, our

38:51

free Facebook group, and all of

38:53

our resources mentioned on today's show.