hey everyone this is stefan from
projectlifemastery.com and today i'm
excited to introduce you guys to michael
st who is a super successful Amazon
seller half he has a pretty incredible
story to share with you guys about his
journey to give you guys some context
he started off doing sales and selling
products at trade shows he's eventually
got into selling products on Amazon and
joined the amazing selling machine he
was able to build his Amazon account to
thirty thousand dollars a month in sales
in two months and then in this first
year he build that to eighty nine
thousand dollars a month in sales the
second year he went on to a hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a month in sales
and it just kept doubling every single
year eventually built it to five hundred
thousand dollars a month in sales and
now he has 15 Amazon accounts selling
products internationally with 22 virtual
assistants full time 24 full time staff
and he's now merged his business with
other businesses and now built up a
fifteen million dollar physical product
empire so michael thank you for joining
me
i'm excited to hear your story and
audience yeah thanks for having me
when you put it that way it definitely
sounds really good and really fun and
easy it was definitely a journey I could
say getting there to tell you a
background of how I actually got there I
actually started selling products one on
one when I was 18 so I was a one-on-one
salesman and that's how I got into
learning how people buy products from me
directly so then obviously from there I
got really militant industry and that's
sort of how I started out when I was an
eighteen year old trying to make a quick
buck and trying to get my rent paid you
know so but from there definitely as I
selling products at trade shows one on
one I did that for eight years I was a
giver seen the movie up in the air with
George Clooney like he's an airplane
three times a week that was my life
hotels and airplanes was home a few
weeks a year I had a small apartment and
I did that for so long and it took me
eight years to figure out that the
company that I was working for was
taking 75% of the money while I was
getting 25% of the money so I thought
that's just how it worked right so then
eventually yeah starting my own business
I thought well they're getting all this
money I can do that myself so I got a
manufacturer and private labeled some
products start doing my own trade shows
and I realized I was not making any
money because I know how to purchase the
booth of the trade show pay for the
staff pay for the product and I was
getting quite less than my original 25%
I need to keep reinvesting and booking
more trade shows to a point where I was
just going more into debt and not making
that money so that's when all mine sales
obviously hit my radar and my interest
so that's how I actually got interested
in selling and Amazon the first place
yes so how did you discover Amazon and
how long ago was this this was I think
it was four years ago it was actually
yes 25 29 now so it was 25 and one of
the papen was I just had worked at a
trade show we didn't we didn't do very
well it was for my own one of my first
trade shows for my own brand that I
started and then so I had to go to
compensate for us out doing very long
really needed income I need to pay my
rent right so then I had to go in work
read trade show for a different company
and then someone there was mentioning
something about something on Amazon and
it was actually a friend of mine in my
local community and then they basically
told me put the amazing selling machine
course and now at that point I had
listed one of my products on Amazon just
because I wanted to see what happened I
also listed on eBay right so to see if I
can get some extra sales whatever I just
threw it up there listed it was making
maybe a sale a day or something on
itself and I was like but I did not know
how to get it to make five sales a day I
did not know there was advertising I did
not know anything about my seller
central account so when I learned that
there was a course that actually taught
you all that stuff and it was extensive
and it was eight week long course you
know amazing
machine that's what I heard about it I
didn't have any money and I was already
in dad and I had a a very small credit
card only only two credit cards in time
so I took that and I was like I'm in so
I axed out my credit card puts it with
some cash and figured out how to buy it
was an expense of course right so I
figure how to buy I just went in all-in
so then after I finished that about that
at the trade show that I was at midday
so then when I got back I think it was
in Minneapolis and when I got back to my
home I logged into course and started
whatever parts of it I could and then
had to go back to work and all the
modules were released yet so the course
but as much as I could I went back to
work for a little bit another trade show
and then as the advertising part of the
modules were released that was like I
already had a product listed that I just
had so me usually people didn't have
that already right but I did and so I
put I literally stayed up sometimes I
think it's helped 4:00 in the morning
setting the course trying to play with
Amazon seller account trying to play
with Google trying to play with anything
and get my hands on whether it's
Facebook Ads
I know anything about anything I was not
internet savvy but I just played I was
playing her with my playground right so
I was playing around with it sometimes
till four or five o'clock in the morning
get up at 9:00 a.m. the next day do it
all over again and learning stuff as I
you know by trial and error a lot of it
and by using the tools in the course
that were given to me so but yeah I
built that first product up to ten
thousand a month and by doing a lot of
random things I mean it was sort of I
mean I was doing everything from press
releases to Google ads to that seller
accounts to Facebook ads that was just
creating myself trying to figure out
they can drive traffic should I started
playing with Amazon PPC a little bit
pay-per-click advertising anything I can
get my hands on basically so I got that
count to ten grand that's how I then I
saw that was a golden ticket wait a
minute I got one product selling ten
thousand dollars a month by not even
knowing what the hell I was doing
so of course yeah I thought that was it
still digging much list of the Berlin I
trade shows tear right it must have been
it he totally did
experience then go on some products
individually one at a time
oh yeah I mean I obviously for me I was
trying so hard for so long to get out of
the exhausting one-on-one sales that I
was doing for with that it was
exhausting you're talking to people for
sometimes 10 minutes 20 minutes all day
every day sometimes for 16 hours a day
at these trade shows and you're just
going and going and going and hustling
and hustling and hustling so getting one
single product sold sometimes took
forever and I'm just rying to sell one
at a time or sometimes I'd sell you know
kits or packages which was I love those
but the second I learned that this was
selling by itself automatically with a
few button clicks on a computer while
I'm having coffee like whoa that was
eye-opening Wow
so um you already I love to hear
actually just run your mindset around
this because a lot of people in that
situation that you're in that are broke
that are struggling they they don't
invest in the course they're not
committed to doing whatever it takes
like like you did what what fuel do you
like what was your motivator that
allowed you to do whatever it took
because I know part of your story man
you worked like 18 hours a day you you
found a way to come up with the money to
pay for my credit what you would do
whatever it took and I think that
mentality is what has allowed you to
become so successful today so what would
you say around that mindset did you have
to develop that or were you just like
desperate and willing to try anything or
what would you say that was um I mean it
was definitely a lot of necessity in
there not only that I mean I lived in a
little tiny apartment I did have Drive
and I did think that I had the
capability to make it big or make
something big happen I mean when I was a
Salesman I was alway usually 99% of the
time the top salesman for the company so
I had but even at the top salesman you
wouldn't make much money because you
know you're only really working three
four days a week and you have weeks off
because there's no trade show so him
kind of cap at like maybe 50 grand a
year
so you know as your personal income so I
was like so but I started my own company
and one
my own thing put me in a debt and
because I guess I had that debt and was
accumulating more debt and then also the
debt of the course and then also I guess
you could sum it up to just financial
necessity and drive to be something
bigger right I wanted to be a bigger man
a bigger person I wanted to grow right
so I mean there's that there's that
drive to but I guess more the the
keyword at the time and I could say the
key with the key phrase that I would say
that was the most driving things to
success was I was interested I was
interested in the business I was
interested and I would play with the
mouse and the keyboard and I'd play with
the computer and I play with Facebook
and I play with Google and I immediately
see a spike in sales it's like for me to
press buttons listen i'ma tell you at
the time for me to press buttons and do
that got me really interested in it it's
kind of like and of course if you're so
interested in something that is excites
you and gives you that kind of butterfly
your stomach type feeling you can't do
anything but think about right and
that's kind of I guess the mentality
behind pretty much all my growth is
there's a combination of necessity drive
and interest and those I think were the
three main factors that kind of got me
always work in those 18-hour days
because I couldn't think about watching
TV there's sales to be made on the
Internet right yeah
that's interesting oh is that dollar for
sure now you were already kind of
selling on Amazon you're getting some
sales but you decided to join the
amazing selling machine because you
wanted you didn't know how to market
your products you didn't know how to I
guess make more money from that was a
lot of it like what you learned from ASM
like how helpful was it for you because
like I know like a lot of people might
think think ASM is more for you know
newbies because you know the first few
modules or maybe teaching you how to get
a product up there so was a lot of that
kind of repetitive for you or did you
learn a lot just about that process
because I know you have many other
products that you sell now different
Amazon accounts and whatnot so how
beneficial was the course for you I mean
I would say very beneficial
in the first few modules because yeah I
mean for sure I threw products up I
threw a product up and I figure out how
to do that after a few hours but it
doesn't mean I did it right I mean I
kind of again that was all trial and
error when I before I did the amazing
selling machine course it was definitely
a trial and error thing so I threw a
product up I figured out how to do that
was very proud of myself for just
figuring out a you know with the UPC
code and all the product coding and all
that stuff do you have to put into there
which is actually very simple it's just
the time it was like what does that mean
what's the UPC code oh wait people oh
that's the barcode II I'm the grocery
store you know so figure that out and
then actually doing the course opened my
eyes to oh the right way to do you know
putting a product in Amazon also in
finding a product so you know a lot of a
lot of creative ideas came from that the
first he modules of finding apart in the
course so and that's actually how I got
my second product was from doing those
first few modules so yes I had a product
up already but and I already had niche
the product a little bit so it wasn't
just like a broad category it was very
particular niche that I found and so but
doing the course though it opened my
eyes like wait a minute there's all
these other opportunities for other
products too so I obviously going
through that in the beginning I was able
to month modify my current product to be
better and then to write down the next
products that I wanted to launch or
things that I was interested in
launching etc so and then of course then
optimizing the listing the correct way
with you know the words in the front and
the bullet points and images and all
that stuff too yeah I think one image up
when I first started so that was a very
helpful as well you know I I can
definitely relate a lot of people that I
see they try to go about this but I have
no idea what they're doing and so sure
enough to make mistakes along the way
you they have no idea how to actually
optimize her listing or how to launch
their product or its sales for it or you
know they make so many mistakes I think
and especially around the research phase
and just identifying the right markets
the right keywords the right products
because you make that mistake and it's
gonna be very hard to sell a mark that
product if you don't identify the right
market
for it I'd love to hear more of the
story like you join TSM your first
product you built it up to 10,000 a
month how did you what was the kind of
the growth that you had from there to
getting to where you are now I'll tell
you so this is uh what God this is where
it got really exciting for me I mean
it's already exciting but this is where
I got definitely I'm more interesting so
it was actually in December I think 2014
December 2014 I was actually sort of on
or was it late November actually it was
on a crew sort of Christmas month-long
travel vacation type thing with some
family and stuff and I couldn't help but
always do my laptop and just playing
around with things and checking things
out so I found and then I found I think
I'm the bestseller list or I was
actually using a tool from a software
program that helped me kind of like
jungle Scouts
back then it was something else they
were I was using and then I found this
niche of product and I actually didn't
necessarily do like a ton of research
into how the calculation of the sales of
that niche or anything I just said I
know how to make this and I know how to
make this product into a real thing but
I know how to make it better right so I
just had an idea while I was sitting on
a couch I can make this same product but
even better and and then and hit it to a
target audience that no one's ever done
before so it's technically a product
that's already existing but it's ever
been done like this before so at that
point I just scrambled and figured out
how to put that product together from my
existing supplier and they didn't make
it yet so I did just kind of and I just
push them to make it I just pimp with a
name for real quick on the spot and that
was a shoot first ask questions later
type guy absolutely like I was just boom
boom boom and so I put that so I finally
in and that was in November and in like
two weeks in December I got that product
live I just hustled that product on
Amazon got the inventory shipped etc and
then I did all the same things in terms
of
strategy of getting that product to make
sales you know advertising it the social
media advertising on etc and and then
that product took off so it was and this
was what was so great about this about
Amazon I mean I saw like my daily sales
there at like you know three for two
bucks
sometimes then they all of a sudden
chopped to $1200 right and this little
Mina in a quick period 1000 1200 I was
like whoa from the second product right
so obviously I was like okay so the
second product was way more successful
than the first and then I kept of course
with those two products I kept there's
more tactics that I found to keep
growing them so which I did and so the
sales kept growing oysters with those
two but of course now I saw the system
and I saw how it worked so naturally my
eyes turned into money signs and at that
point I started launched another product
and that was another niche I found the
same way it was a gap no one was selling
it and it was a product that won tons of
search volume that just no one was
selling so I just filled the hole in the
market and that product took off so my
first three products are very successful
since that time I've launched a lot of
unsuccessful products so but a lot of
successful ones too it's uh so those
first three I I did early on in the
market and before it before those niches
were sort of filled and then now and
then I kept on with that same strategy
we're just throwing things up there
throwing zip that didn't work as well
that actually didn't follow the research
and the next products was already
already had a built up revenue stream so
now I start to get a bit lazy with it so
then I actually went back to the proper
way of launching products and then a lot
more took off after that so eventually I
got my accounts up - yeah producing it
was you know I remember my first goals
like if I ever hit a hundred thousand a
month I made it like it's it for me like
I I'm retiring you know like it's a
hundred thousand dollars a month and
once I got there I was like oh this is
awful a hundred thousand a month is
nothing all right so let's buy 250 all
right that's our new goal we got to
pnow right so and a couple of times I've
had a product shutdown and this and that
and problems and doing things
incorrectly and of course my sort of
trial and error gunning it mode didn't
work as well at that point especially
now that I have a business now I'll see
and so but as I kept going of course I
just persisted through all the problems
in the I'd run out of inventory and all
these fun things you're just going to
counter naturally in business and then
running out of funding I'm like wait a
minute now I have to reinvest because
we're growing so fast but once I got to
the hundred grand a month point I was I
was great we hit it and then now the 250
and that was a tough stretch for me that
one 100 to 250 was a really tough
stretch but actually me a lot longer
than I thought it would and I actually
when I got 200,000 with actually
decrease a little bit I went back down
at 80 70 and then I had to quickly
revert it and try new marketing
strategies but eventually after some new
product launches and that then I got it
up to 250 with some late nights some
hard works and seven days a week
consistently for weeks at a time but you
know that's kind of like my what was fun
for me is that kind of game of it you
know I wanted it was a game I was like
okay this gold 250 let's hit it
I want to win you know so when I got to
that point then it was I won that I won
the goal I won that game for 250 and the
same thing happened again I was like
geez nothing I know sellers doing a
million a month so I was like I'm a
little baby seller right now so of
course now the game become becomes
competing against the bigger sellers oh
he's doing a million I'm gonna do a
million right so or he's won five
hundred thousand I'm gonna do five
hundred thousand so then it just became
sort of competitive for me I wanted to
see if I could win and then after many
more product punches more advanced
tactics and strategies are learning more
and more going to conferences going to
ASM events going to masterminds
eventually I definitely hit that mark
and when I hit that was like cool all
right this is exhausting so I decided to
deer up - what if I want to sell this
one
day I built this all these up on all
these products but I don't want to sell
just this business I want to build a
whole empire right and then sell back
this is not gonna be I'm not gonna be
happy just telling this little business
that I built it's a little small
business technically so anyway and then
I ended up merging with other companies
and then now sort of now in the
corporate structure world of running
multiple Amazon accounts so now that was
the one Amazon account but I had so now
I ended up I'm running what is it total
of 15 seller accounts and of course that
includes like European accounts Germany
Italy France Spain etc and then also
multiple brands I have now now I have
listed a thousand twelve hundred twelve
hundred SKUs available on amazon.com
websites etc probably about I think
there's nine or ten different websites
and landing pages and all that built out
but yeah it was oh he knows a lot hard
work but it was a big payoff so let me
ask you what's your approach more almost
gonna publish or launch a bunch of these
random products that are kind of like
all unrelated to each other or was it
more I'm gonna build a national brand of
you know collection of a few products
and like a fitness brand for example a
few products like what approach did you
take around that well the approach was
the brand building approach so I mean
essentially like I'm in the Beauty
category in health and personal care
categories and consumable so I'm very
very big in a consumable so I have a lot
of loyal customers we've had some
customers that have bought in products
from us 40 50 times as a consumable so
obviously we had a brand already so and
I started off with one friend added a
second brand and from that obviously it
grew antenna and then as I merged
another company it became like seven or
eight brands and now it's like 12 or 13
brands but it was definitely every
product that was added was related to
the brand so and it was based on in a
lot
the time there's there was the shotgun
approach like I think the customer said
that we should make this so let's
research a little bit you know we'll
throw in a little bit of research into
it a few minutes but I think would be a
great product we just kind of it was at
that point with the resources we had a
manufacturing it was really easy to just
throw up products so of course we
shotgun the market to see what would hit
what would stick and some things really
did and they stuck hard and then a lot
of things didn't so that's there's
definitely a lot of failed products we
had to get rid of because we shotgun did
we wouldn't we didn't do and also
sometimes we had so many products going
we didn't just put deep efforts in the
marketing on them we just want to see if
Amazon will about him what it would hit
him for us right
so because Amazon such a beast that
sometimes you can throw something on
there and throw a few ads to it almost
said boom but you're more often than not
nowadays it's not gonna work that way so
you definitely have to put some
marketing into and some love and some
care and some and actual traffic and all
that stuff so nowadays we're definitely
more on that approach when launching a
product so we definitely take a a little
bit more time on the market research a
lot more time in a product launch so now
we have these brands that have been
around for a long time we want customers
to have we want to do a pre-launch well
customers to know about it before it's
coming out we want to actually be a real
brand and give our customers all the
information about what we're doing you
know so that's kind of the approach
you're taking now let's pose to the
shotgun yeah now you've mentioned had a
lot of failures and challenges I'd love
to hear what were some of the biggest
challenges that you faced and what are
some of the lessons that you've learned
from them you know I'd say overall the
the biggest challenge there's several
but the biggest challenge was I mean
it's kind of like for me it was if you
put a dollar in a slot machine you get
three dollars back what are you doing
with three dollars you're putting it
back in a slot machine to get your nine
right and that keeps going so how are
you gonna get paid if eventually you
want to keep doing that forever right
well that's sort of how growing a brand
new business was so the biggest
challenge was financial and
the stresses of we fear if you're
growing from thirty to a hundred
thousand and you got to support all the
have the heavier inventory orders or is
the money gonna come from now and this
is the interesting sort of catch-22 of
the business anywhere in America
actually has it easier is that if you
need to finance that next inventory
order that now you have to order triple
the amount of inventory ordered before
no where's the money gonna come from
well you can go to a bank but they don't
like supporting businesses I'm in
business that have been in business for
less than a year you know so that's sort
of like the sort of catch-22 of a brand
new business but you get really clever
and you figure stuff out when you need
that money for the next inventory order
and you know it's gonna make you money
you find ways do you find friends you
find uncles you find parents you find
whoever you can support you and this
because you you see it right you see the
numbers like of course not gonna run
your self run out of inventory so and
that became some most hardcore
hair-pulling stuff that happened along
the way is the finances and now because
I spent spend all my time working on the
business I didn't have a second job so I
had to also support myself so and then
figure out how to do that while and
pulling money on the business to pay my
bills and everything else too while
trying to get the inventory order so
that was the hardest challenge the
second biggest and that's that can be
overcome with being clever and bright
and having a lot of bright ideas and
when you get bright ideas very often
when you're growing a business because
you kind of have to
so the second challenge was dealing with
the managing of the business I mean
keeping track of everything I mean you
have to obviously delegate as best you
can but I mean it took me years to
properly delegate stuff that I kind of
hard time letting go of such as managing
my own inventory management advertising
managing customer service like I know
I'm gonna do it better because I'm gonna
have that care factor more than most
other people cuz it's mine but I throw
someone else in there and I'm like are
they really gonna do the same job I'm
doing like but you gotta train them and
trust them and you know and that was a
hard part
and it was definitely challenging and
exhausting to do a lot of screen
recording so I did record myself a lot
to properly delegate a lot of those hats
that I was wearing but eventually I got
eventually I got it done so and then
there's all the managerial you know
day-to-day operations of managing the
business and there's also the legal
parts of managing the business you know
their proper filings the tax tax filings
the states etc need to kind of figure
your way through that because you know
you know get taught that stuff in high
school so you don't get taught that
stuff any anywhere today even in college
really you can learn a little bit about
it by the proper way to own a business
and to keep up to legal standards at
your stage and all that stuff was a
whole nother challenge to overcome but
you get bright and you figure out and
you find people and you find connections
and you're gonna get some help from over
you can and eventually you work your way
through it those are definitely some of
the challenges of owning a business tell
for sure yeah and I think also because
you've you've decided to scale it so big
right like you've had this ambition to
continue to grow it do you think someone
maybe they didn't like maybe there's
like a stay-at-home mom that's watching
this right now they don't have that
desire but there's looking at maybe this
could maybe there's gonna make ten
thousand a month and and it's gonna be a
great opportunity for them to you know
be at home with their kids and they
don't really have that desire or do you
think like maybe there's that temptation
once it starts to grow you feel like
compelled to continue to grow it and
scale it up or do you think you could
have just like at a certain point you
know I'm happy with this you know this
you know this is enough you know it's an
interesting question I've heard multiple
opinions from multiple people or you
know perspectives on this exact point is
I have met people that have gotten to
their the thirty thousand a month and
they were happy and they're like that's
all I really want to do and I want any
more stress with that and it's actually
more rare that you find that I mean a
lot of people I talk to you they're like
at you know
let's say they're at ninety or hundred
thousand a month or fifty thousand a
month and they're like I know I need to
grow it I need to make it bigger I just
tend to do this and they get a little
stressed out because they start thinking
about growth and they have to do it so
the I'd say 90% of the time people do
want to grow it bigger there are the 10%
I kind of just want to are happy to
relax and they even want to keep their
day job this one a side income so
they're absolutely out there and if they
wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and
build some in the side but I mean I can
tell you with most human beings it's
like if you see a 10,000 a month hey if
you see $10,000 a month being generated
in sales and you know you a little bit
of a strategy to get to 15,000 a month
you're gonna well we want to try that
strategy I mean it's very enticing and
tempting you know so it's like you might
sit on the on the rest on your laurels
for a little bit and be happy with a 10
but eventually you're gonna go bored
you're gonna want the 15 and 20 so I
mean but it's up to the person entirely
I mean and there's the great thing about
an Amazon business particularly or even
an e-commerce business is it is
automated and many parts of it automated
growth isn't necessarily automated you
can get it to be automated but Amazon
actually establishes most of the
organization for you they ship out your
product they handle a lot of your
customer service for you they handle a
lot of logistics and even management of
your company for you that's the
brilliance of leaving you with a lot of
extra time whether you want to stay on
the kids or grow your business because
you gives you that time to actually grow
your business or say I'm with your kids
because half the works done for you now
I know you mentioned that you've
launched a lot of products some of them
have been successful some of them have
failed what are the certain patterns
you've noticed like what makes the
difference between a product you found
that succeeds and does really well
versus one that doesn't do as well I
don't want that great question so I
think the criteria for profit did really
well is a product that the products that
actually still do really well a product
that filled a hole in the market so and
now a hole doesn't mean like hey there's
all these searches for it and nobody has
any product related to that I it was
taking something that was already highly
searched and then changing it to be
something no one's ever seen before
or a new version of that thing and those
are always our most successful products
that be successful the unsuccessful
products that we tried with a sort of
shotgun approach are very broad category
products that sort of a lot of people
are selling the exact same thing and so
we didn't actually hit an audience with
it we just sort of hit everybody with it
so what we found to be the right
products or products that filled a gap
in the market it sound like we invented
them or anything it's not like we had to
go and you know reinvent the wheel or
you know or try to mold a whole new
product or invention we just some we
took something that already existed and
we made it better and made parts of it
something that hasn't really been seen
or done or even if it has been done as
it how many sellers have done it you
know so that's one thing we sort of
research that actually went into the
best selling products that we have so
that's what happens is a lot of the
times obviously we got really ambitious
and I launched a lot of new stuff
without using that same method and
criteria and that was became
unsuccessful products they just hit
broad categories that sort of applied to
every single human being on planet earth
or every single person in that
particular market there was just too
broad of an audience so and that's
basically what we violated we violate
our own formula of what was already
successful for us great we took that and
made it into something and change it and
then we sold it and they never but and
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