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Gift biz,

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unwrapped episode 303 that you don't believe in yourself.

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Have you ever show up with the attitude that you matter,

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that your opinion matters and that people have better?

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Listen, no.

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One's going to listen to you.

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Attention. Gifters bakers,

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crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

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Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

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Now you are in the right place.

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This is gift to biz unwrapped,

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helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

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Join us for an episode,

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packed full of invaluable guidance,

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resources, and the support you need to grow.

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Your gift biz.

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Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.

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Hi, dear.

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I'm so happy to have you here with me today.

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As we dive deeper into Amazon handmade,

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we've talked a lot about the benefits of being on multiple

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platforms. So you have exposure to different audiences and have sales

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coming in from various sources.

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If you're not doing this,

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you're missing out on opportunities.

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And by being on different sites,

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you strengthen your business overall because you're not dependent on just

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one, all of this over and above your website,

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of course,

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because your website is the single most important online property,

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because it's the one you own and have complete control over.

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As a reminder at any time,

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you can go to gift biz,

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unwrapped.com forward slash search,

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and there enter a word that covers a particular topic you're

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interested in and all the episodes where we've talked about it

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will pop up.

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It brings you directly to the spot in an episode where

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that topics being discussed,

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or you can go back and listen to the whole podcast,

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your choice.

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So use this as a resource,

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really for any business topic that you're researching,

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kind of like your own gift biz,

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Google, if you will.

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So back to Amazon handmade.

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One thing that's really important to know is that not only

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does each platform have a different audience,

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but each platform works differently.

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Although your ultimate goal is to get sales.

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Your strategy with Amazon should be different than say your strategy

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with Etsy or eBay,

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even to the point of which products to offer your titles,

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inventory control,

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lots of things.

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This is why when you hear people say at is not

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working for me or Amazon handmade,

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doesn't perform as well as I'd say,

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it's probably because they're trying to duplicate the same product offerings

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and quote unquote,

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work the platform in the same way.

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In this episode,

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you'll hear in particular how Amazon handmade and Etsy are so

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different and what you should do to see results from the

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power of Amazon handmade.

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Oh, even though this is with Rachel,

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we had another guest with us and that her parakeet green

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you'll hear her chime in once in a while in the

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background. Now let's cue it up.

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All things you didn't know and how to have success with

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Amazon handmade Today,

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it is my pleasure to introduce you to Rachel Johnson.

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Greer of think Cascadia.

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Rachel is a global business strategist who specializes in helping entrepreneurs

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increase their internet,

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product sales,

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curate their brand image online and avoid catastrophic legal threats.

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After getting her MBA in international business at Seattle university,

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she spent nearly a decade at Amazon working in product development.

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Since then,

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Rachel has founded companies that reached both multi-six figure and multi

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seven figure growth.

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In under three years as a consultant,

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she supports clients in everything from international product expansion to,

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for Exene their sales through online retailers.

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Rachel has appeared on the today,

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show CNBC business,

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insider the wall street journal and Bloomberg.

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When she's not working with clients,

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she's scaring her friends at parties with stories about the most

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problematic online products she's found in their homes.

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Oh, Rachel,

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I want to be at one of those parties in here,

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all about those.

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Welcome to the gift biz on to podcast.

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Thank you for having me here.

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What do you do?

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Just like look around people's houses and say like,

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Oh, let me tell you.

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It always seems to come up when they figure out what

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I do or they've heard what I do or they're like,

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Oh wow.

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I saw you on TV.

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And tell me about something over here.

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It's like a party trick or something like that.

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But invariably,

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there's something that someone's bought that they think is so cool

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that has some sort of terrible safety implications.

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If you use it wrong or there's something that I was

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actually given for my kids where I looked at it and

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I looked at the bottom of it like that,

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the labeling.

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And I was like,

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I am so sorry.

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You guys,

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I will buy you a replacement,

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but this one is going in the trash.

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Oh my gosh.

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Sometimes knowledge can be dangerous.

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Right? But in this case,

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knowledge is safety.

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I think,

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I guess we shouldn't go that way.

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Especially with anything that plugs into the wall or anything for

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kids, I tend to be very cautious,

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no burning down the house.

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No poisoning the kids.

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Oh my gosh.

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We're way off our plan already.

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But I do have to ask you this,

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since it came up this way,

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is there anything that we should be looking out for when

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we're getting anything electrical that we should know about?

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Yeah, you're definitely It's labeled on the bottom.

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A lot of people will think that like CE is something

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special and something that shows that it's being properly CE is

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actually a self-certification that a lot of factory just put on

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there because no one actually checks and it's for Europe.

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So no one really checks it in the U S at

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all. So what you want to be looking for is something

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that says UL on it,

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like in a circle or something that says ETL on it.

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And there's a couple of other ones that are pretty big,

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like TUV and SGS is about five different labs that certify

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electric products.

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And if you look at your electrical product and it doesn't

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have one of those little circles with the lab information inside

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of it,

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that means it's not certified.

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That means a lab never tested it to make sure it's

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safe. And that's the kind of stuff that you just either

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give back or throw away and buy something new.

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Got it.

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Oh, that's perfect.

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That's wonderful to know.

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My brother used to work for UL underwriters laboratory.

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That headquarters is like probably 15 minutes from where I am

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right here.

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So yeah,

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he would tell me some scary,

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crazy things about that too,

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but that's not the topic for today.

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So we're going to go ahead and move on to something

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a little lighter,

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I think.

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And I want to start out Rachel,

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by asking you my traditional question here and that revolves around

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a motivational candle.

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It gives us since all of the people who are listening

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are creators gives us a little bit of a different way

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to learn something about you.

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So if you were to describe a motivational candle that really

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speaks to you,

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what color would it be?

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And then what would be a quote or some type of

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mantra that's on the candle.

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Yeah. I love this question.

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So the color would be that color of green.

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When a tree is just starting to grow new buds in

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the spring,

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it's a very bright and really,

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almost a sense of green.

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That's like right in your face.

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I think some people call it chartreuse.

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I just love that color.

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Most people do not love that color.

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It is just really in your face,

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happy green that's new life.

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It's spring,

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it's everything,

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it's renewal and something to me,

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it symbolizes a joy.

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That's the color that I would choose.

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And one of my very favorite authors is Brittany Brown.

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And one of my favorite quotes by her,

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she has a lot of really great stuff,

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but one of my favorite quotes is no one belongs here

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more than you.

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And it's one of the things that a lot of women

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especially have imposter syndrome.

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And I can tell you,

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you know,

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who doesn't have imposter syndrome,

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most men,

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they just show up and do whatever.

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And they say whatever and expect it to be good enough.

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And a lot of women don't.

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And one thing I learned working in tech and working at

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Amazon is if you don't believe in yourself,

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if you don't show up with the attitude that you matter,

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that your opinion matters and that people are better,

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listen, no one's going to listen to you.

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And so yeah,

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no one belongs here more than you.

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I love that because it's also so uplifting and opportunistic,

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I guess I would say you belong here,

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show us what you have and you have every right and

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you deserve to be here.

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No imposter syndrome,

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no questioning yourself.

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They certainly don't.

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Why should you,

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There you go.

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I agree.

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Absolutely. So share with us a little bit about your background

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and how you got into and started working at Amazon.

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So I actually,

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it's kind of a sideways away,

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which always made me kind of giggle a little bit.

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My undergrad was in history and then my first graduate degree

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was actually also in history.

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And the area that I studied was early modern Europe,

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specifically Austria.

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And it just happened to be one of those things where

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I studied German in school.

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And so when I wanted to do study abroad in Europe,

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I chose one of the dramatic countries and the place that

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I applied to that we ended up getting was Vienna.

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And I have never been so grateful that the place that

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we ended up getting was Vienna my college roommate and I,

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because it's such a wonderful city,

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it's such a wonderful place.

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And so then when we went on to our respective master's

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degrees, I ended up studying Austria.

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Instead of the German areas I went into studying.

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Austria had a lot of time spent there after my degree,

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teaching English.

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And so when I came back to Seattle and I was

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looking for jobs,

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there was a job posting for a fraud investigator with near

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native German speaking skill.

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And I was like,

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I'm not really near native,

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but you know what?

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I see being able to get a job,

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actually using my German skills in the U S when everyone

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told me that a language arts or a degree in history,

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wasn't going to get me anywhere.

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That would be really awesome.

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And so I just applied for it anyway.

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And then I found out after the language test that I

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was actually the best one there.

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So again,

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don't doubt yourself.

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You just have to show up and do it.

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Even if you don't feel like you're ready.

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So I got the job and that was,

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I started at Amazon back in 2007 was just because I

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spoke German.

270
00:10:12,110 --> 00:10:12,650
You know,

271
00:10:12,650 --> 00:10:14,540
it's so crazy how people land,

272
00:10:14,540 --> 00:10:15,230
where they do.

273
00:10:15,230 --> 00:10:17,270
And that's one of the reasons why I always ask it,

274
00:10:17,300 --> 00:10:19,250
even though we've done an intro too,

275
00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:21,530
because I think that is so crazy,

276
00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:22,790
like who would have thought,

277
00:10:22,790 --> 00:10:25,280
but you never know where the roads are going to take

278
00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:28,520
you from history background and all the way to just what

279
00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:29,300
you described.

280
00:10:29,630 --> 00:10:32,480
And I think that's really important also for everyone.

281
00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:35,690
Who's listening here to think about to the job that you

282
00:10:35,690 --> 00:10:36,320
have right now.

283
00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:37,580
Maybe it's a nine to five,

284
00:10:37,580 --> 00:10:39,740
has nothing to do with what you're looking at,

285
00:10:39,740 --> 00:10:41,750
creating or turning into a business,

286
00:10:42,020 --> 00:10:45,860
but what skills or other things are you picking up or

287
00:10:45,860 --> 00:10:48,950
connections are you picking up where you already are with,

288
00:10:48,950 --> 00:10:50,360
if you're working full time,

289
00:10:50,420 --> 00:10:53,270
that can also transfer over because you just never know.

290
00:10:53,540 --> 00:10:53,870
It's like,

291
00:10:53,870 --> 00:10:55,130
it just appears in front of you.

292
00:10:55,460 --> 00:10:59,300
Right. And I love that statement about how it's a lot

293
00:10:59,300 --> 00:11:00,080
of it is luck,

294
00:11:00,230 --> 00:11:02,390
but you have to be ready to take that luck when

295
00:11:02,390 --> 00:11:03,170
it presents itself.

296
00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:06,890
Exactly. I always say you have to stand in Lux path

297
00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:09,050
because if you're just behind a door,

298
00:11:09,110 --> 00:11:11,150
luck might be walking right outside,

299
00:11:11,150 --> 00:11:13,550
but you're not there to see it or to intercept it.

300
00:11:13,820 --> 00:11:14,960
So that's amazing.

301
00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:16,370
So what were you doing then,

302
00:11:16,370 --> 00:11:18,350
right when you first started at Amazon?

303
00:11:18,950 --> 00:11:19,850
Yeah, when I first started,

304
00:11:19,850 --> 00:11:22,220
I was actually a fraud investigator and I was an investigator

305
00:11:22,220 --> 00:11:23,090
for about four months.

306
00:11:23,390 --> 00:11:25,460
Oh, this Is where all those scary stories come up.

307
00:11:25,790 --> 00:11:26,690
Right? Well,

308
00:11:26,810 --> 00:11:28,760
that was the second department I was in at Amazon.

309
00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:30,980
So the first one was actually just fraud.

310
00:11:31,340 --> 00:11:32,540
So stolen credit card,

311
00:11:32,540 --> 00:11:33,590
stolen bank accounts,

312
00:11:33,650 --> 00:11:35,030
fraudulent tickets.

313
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:35,990
Oh, gotcha.

314
00:11:36,170 --> 00:11:36,710
That sort of thing.

315
00:11:36,710 --> 00:11:39,440
It sounds way cooler than it is being a fraud investigator

316
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:40,850
is a boring job.

317
00:11:41,180 --> 00:11:44,120
You have a couple of minutes to decide if an order

318
00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:45,050
is fraudulent or not,

319
00:11:45,140 --> 00:11:47,540
and then you either pass or fail it with a note

320
00:11:48,020 --> 00:11:50,090
and then people have to provide information to prove it.

321
00:11:50,090 --> 00:11:51,620
If they're actually authentic,

322
00:11:51,770 --> 00:11:54,460
it's actually a really terrible job because you're just constantly moving

323
00:11:54,460 --> 00:11:55,900
and you're having to move so fast.

324
00:11:55,900 --> 00:11:56,260
It's like,

325
00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:58,960
I'm sure people are aware from reading stuff about Amazon,

326
00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:00,430
but they're very numbers driven.

327
00:12:00,490 --> 00:12:02,860
And so everyone had to meet a certain quota per hour

328
00:12:02,860 --> 00:12:04,510
and it was a little bit overwhelming.

329
00:12:04,510 --> 00:12:07,450
So I was really happy to move after about four months

330
00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:10,390
into answering law enforcement inquiries.

331
00:12:10,780 --> 00:12:12,640
And those were actually really interesting.

332
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:13,810
Some of them were really boring.

333
00:12:13,810 --> 00:12:16,750
Like why did the information on this stolen credit card that

334
00:12:16,750 --> 00:12:17,380
was really important,

335
00:12:17,590 --> 00:12:19,600
but there were a couple of really interesting ones.

336
00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:23,530
Like when the FBI contacted us about having a schematic to

337
00:12:23,530 --> 00:12:25,330
the F 22 listed on the website,

338
00:12:25,420 --> 00:12:26,080
that was bad.

339
00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:26,440
We were like,

340
00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:27,340
we'll take it down right away.

341
00:12:27,890 --> 00:12:29,190
Yeah. Seriously.

342
00:12:29,820 --> 00:12:30,540
Oh my gosh.

343
00:12:31,190 --> 00:12:32,820
Some other kind of interesting things like that.

344
00:12:32,820 --> 00:12:34,500
And it's really sad stories too.

345
00:12:34,500 --> 00:12:35,850
Like just really terrible stuff.

346
00:12:35,850 --> 00:12:37,560
So after a couple of years there,

347
00:12:37,590 --> 00:12:39,420
that particular role topped out,

348
00:12:39,420 --> 00:12:42,060
everyone has a level at Amazon and jobs have a specific

349
00:12:42,060 --> 00:12:43,380
levels. And so if you want to get promoted,

350
00:12:43,380 --> 00:12:46,350
you've got to move around to different departments that can allow

351
00:12:46,350 --> 00:12:46,980
you to grow.

352
00:12:47,460 --> 00:12:50,280
And so the second department I was at at Amazon was

353
00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:51,690
compliance operations.

354
00:12:52,050 --> 00:12:54,600
And so we got moved around to different operations departments,

355
00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,410
but it was an absolutely wonderful job because I got to

356
00:12:58,410 --> 00:12:59,460
learn so much.

357
00:12:59,940 --> 00:13:04,110
I really can't even emphasize how amazing it was to be

358
00:13:04,110 --> 00:13:07,830
in a position like that at Amazon in 2010 to 2012,

359
00:13:08,190 --> 00:13:12,540
the company grew from millions of dollars a year to billions

360
00:13:12,540 --> 00:13:14,310
during the time that I was in operations.

361
00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:18,810
And it's such a unique experience to be in a company

362
00:13:18,810 --> 00:13:23,880
growing that fast and doing that much in such innovative ways.

363
00:13:23,940 --> 00:13:26,460
I just feel like I learned so much that if you

364
00:13:26,460 --> 00:13:27,510
started at Amazon today,

365
00:13:27,510 --> 00:13:29,460
you wouldn't be able to learn what I did in the

366
00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:30,900
same department to doing the same thing.

367
00:13:30,900 --> 00:13:33,000
You just wouldn't be able to the kind of jobs that

368
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,040
I had were while it was growing.

369
00:13:35,100 --> 00:13:37,830
And I got to see and experience so much,

370
00:13:37,890 --> 00:13:39,150
and I'm really grateful for that.

371
00:13:39,150 --> 00:13:40,320
It was a fantastic job.

372
00:13:40,830 --> 00:13:42,900
Amazon also kind of choose you up and spit you out.

373
00:13:42,930 --> 00:13:43,740
So there's that.

374
00:13:44,550 --> 00:13:46,530
But I felt like I learned so much.

375
00:13:47,130 --> 00:13:49,980
It sounds like bouncing around to the different departments in a

376
00:13:49,980 --> 00:13:54,660
very planned way gives you this well-rounded understanding too,

377
00:13:54,660 --> 00:13:55,350
of the whole business.

378
00:13:56,370 --> 00:13:57,330
Yeah, absolutely.

379
00:13:57,720 --> 00:13:59,910
I was really lucky about that because the first job that

380
00:13:59,910 --> 00:14:03,750
I had was really in the buying and selling portion of

381
00:14:03,750 --> 00:14:06,000
it. So just like how the transactions work,

382
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,410
how the website works.

383
00:14:07,740 --> 00:14:09,960
Then I was in recalls and product safety,

384
00:14:10,020 --> 00:14:13,020
which touched a lot of the operational side of the business.

385
00:14:13,050 --> 00:14:16,530
I was responsible for making sure that recalls were locked down

386
00:14:16,530 --> 00:14:17,340
in the fulfillment center,

387
00:14:17,340 --> 00:14:20,490
that customers were messaged that first didn't go out.

388
00:14:20,490 --> 00:14:22,140
And so I had to know a bunch of stuff about

389
00:14:22,140 --> 00:14:23,430
how the website worked,

390
00:14:23,430 --> 00:14:27,600
how the business worked in really like super detailed level,

391
00:14:27,630 --> 00:14:29,850
like what permits people had to get that sort of thing.

392
00:14:30,150 --> 00:14:31,200
And then after doing that job,

393
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:34,020
I went to quality and compliance for private brands.

394
00:14:34,050 --> 00:14:35,970
And so worked on private brand launches,

395
00:14:35,970 --> 00:14:37,470
developing our own brands.

396
00:14:37,470 --> 00:14:39,660
We worked on Amazon basics and about four or five other

397
00:14:39,660 --> 00:14:42,960
brands. And now obviously it's like 60 brands.

398
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:45,510
So building the structure for Amazon,

399
00:14:45,510 --> 00:14:46,680
developing its own brands,

400
00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:48,750
then I worked at international expansion.

401
00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:50,460
And so a whole bunch of different things.

402
00:14:50,460 --> 00:14:52,950
They're learning about what an EORI number is in,

403
00:14:52,950 --> 00:14:53,450
in Europe.

404
00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:55,490
Like there's just so many different things that you learn doing

405
00:14:55,490 --> 00:14:56,060
different things.

406
00:14:56,060 --> 00:14:58,820
Then the last job that I had at Amazon was managing

407
00:14:58,820 --> 00:15:00,080
hardware for the website.

408
00:15:00,170 --> 00:15:03,470
And so I learned a ton about how websites are structured

409
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,890
and things like managing bots that scan the website.

410
00:15:06,890 --> 00:15:07,640
I had no idea.

411
00:15:08,030 --> 00:15:10,130
And so you just learn so much if you're just paying

412
00:15:10,130 --> 00:15:11,360
attention and curious,

413
00:15:11,420 --> 00:15:13,100
and always wanting to learn more,

414
00:15:13,100 --> 00:15:13,400
you know,

415
00:15:13,890 --> 00:15:17,240
so I feel like I just had a really well-rounded ability

416
00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:20,780
there to learn about e-commerce and what it means to be

417
00:15:20,930 --> 00:15:24,890
an e-commerce leader and what it means to kind of be

418
00:15:24,890 --> 00:15:26,360
a part of that ecosystem.

419
00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:31,030
That's a perfect segue for us because as I'm hearing everything

420
00:15:31,030 --> 00:15:31,840
that you're describing,

421
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:34,240
I'm thinking of all these little angles that we could go

422
00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:37,780
into, but I think what would best serve our conversation here

423
00:15:37,870 --> 00:15:42,910
is to talk about Amazon for a handmade creator,

424
00:15:42,970 --> 00:15:45,310
which is the majority of the people who are listening and

425
00:15:45,310 --> 00:15:46,690
hanging out with us right now.

426
00:15:47,020 --> 00:15:48,490
And we've talked a lot,

427
00:15:48,490 --> 00:15:49,630
Rachel about,

428
00:15:49,660 --> 00:15:51,220
you should have a website.

429
00:15:51,310 --> 00:15:55,420
People may have started through something like Facebook shops,

430
00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:56,110
things like that,

431
00:15:56,110 --> 00:16:00,310
but there are multiple ways that they can attract customers and

432
00:16:00,310 --> 00:16:01,960
then sell their products online.

433
00:16:02,230 --> 00:16:04,630
But part of that is also Amazon.

434
00:16:04,630 --> 00:16:07,420
And I don't think people always think about that as the

435
00:16:07,420 --> 00:16:09,130
first solution for them.

436
00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:13,360
So let's talk about Amazon and the opportunities that could exist

437
00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:15,040
for a handmade product maker.

438
00:16:15,790 --> 00:16:18,520
Yeah. So there's two ways that you can do business on

439
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:20,770
Amazon. If you're selling something that's handmade,

440
00:16:21,100 --> 00:16:23,140
the first thing you can do is just have a regular

441
00:16:23,140 --> 00:16:25,450
Amazon account and just sell it handmade,

442
00:16:25,540 --> 00:16:29,080
which is one way that you can do it depending on

443
00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:30,820
your supplier situation.

444
00:16:30,820 --> 00:16:31,930
If you think you can grow,

445
00:16:31,930 --> 00:16:34,180
if you think that it's distinctive enough to where you can

446
00:16:34,210 --> 00:16:34,930
show it that way,

447
00:16:34,930 --> 00:16:37,960
the other way that you can do it is through Amazon

448
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:40,390
handmade. And the results are a little bit different.

449
00:16:40,390 --> 00:16:41,620
The pages are a little bit different.

450
00:16:42,010 --> 00:16:44,110
And so it's more like Etsy.

451
00:16:44,170 --> 00:16:45,700
It's like Etsy with an Amazon.

452
00:16:46,150 --> 00:16:49,300
And so you have the opportunity to either be in search

453
00:16:49,300 --> 00:16:50,350
like a regular store,

454
00:16:50,380 --> 00:16:53,530
or you can be in handmade where people can search for

455
00:16:53,830 --> 00:16:56,410
where you're at specific features about what you do.

456
00:16:56,410 --> 00:16:58,600
They can learn about you as the handmade creator.

457
00:16:59,020 --> 00:17:03,040
I actually personally prefer Amazon handmade now over Etsy because I

458
00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:06,790
have a really hard time figuring out the difference between someone

459
00:17:06,790 --> 00:17:09,790
who's reselling handmade or an actual handmade seller.

460
00:17:09,790 --> 00:17:13,360
And the handmade program on Amazon requires like pictures of your

461
00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:17,980
studio really it's really involved or proof that you're actually a

462
00:17:17,980 --> 00:17:19,150
handmade. Yeah,

463
00:17:19,630 --> 00:17:22,510
It was going to be one of my questions is what's

464
00:17:22,510 --> 00:17:25,900
the difference in why Amazon over any other platform?

465
00:17:25,900 --> 00:17:26,980
And obviously the first one,

466
00:17:27,010 --> 00:17:28,840
many of us would think of is at se.

467
00:17:29,140 --> 00:17:30,190
So that's really,

468
00:17:30,190 --> 00:17:30,940
really interesting.

469
00:17:30,940 --> 00:17:35,830
So if you are applying for an Amazon handmade account,

470
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:39,160
you have to show or prove that you're the actual maker

471
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:39,790
of the product.

472
00:17:41,350 --> 00:17:44,020
Yeah. You have to be either the designer or the maker

473
00:17:44,020 --> 00:17:47,680
or in some way involved in the actual production of the

474
00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:51,570
product. And so have a whole application process where you've got

475
00:17:51,570 --> 00:17:52,410
to prove what it is.

476
00:17:52,710 --> 00:17:54,210
So like if you're the designer,

477
00:17:54,210 --> 00:17:54,870
for example,

478
00:17:54,870 --> 00:17:58,260
but you have someone else actually putting together your jewelry,

479
00:17:58,260 --> 00:17:58,860
for example,

480
00:17:58,860 --> 00:18:00,900
like maybe you do all the drawings and select all the

481
00:18:00,900 --> 00:18:03,480
stones, but someone else actually does the metalworking.

482
00:18:03,780 --> 00:18:04,440
That's okay.

483
00:18:04,740 --> 00:18:07,350
You are the jewelry designer or if you're the one who

484
00:18:07,350 --> 00:18:08,370
actually does the metal working,

485
00:18:08,430 --> 00:18:09,420
then that's okay.

486
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:11,940
So it's one of those things where you're supposed to be

487
00:18:11,940 --> 00:18:15,390
involved in the process because their whole goal is to make

488
00:18:15,390 --> 00:18:17,580
this as small business hub.

489
00:18:18,180 --> 00:18:19,980
Basically they were trying to make a better Etsy.

490
00:18:20,660 --> 00:18:23,390
Okay. What if you design the product,

491
00:18:23,390 --> 00:18:25,670
but you send it out to a factory to be made.

492
00:18:26,330 --> 00:18:29,810
So if it's something that's basically factory made or in some

493
00:18:29,810 --> 00:18:35,720
way using molds or something where it's not actually individually handcrafted,

494
00:18:35,810 --> 00:18:37,100
that it's not supposed to be in hand.

495
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:38,510
Okay, perfect.

496
00:18:38,510 --> 00:18:40,010
And how is that different from Etsy?

497
00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:41,510
So with Etsy,

498
00:18:41,510 --> 00:18:43,580
it's kind of hard to tell what's what,

499
00:18:43,700 --> 00:18:45,350
and who's doing certain things.

500
00:18:45,650 --> 00:18:46,790
And so for me,

501
00:18:46,790 --> 00:18:49,280
I like to know who the creator is.

502
00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,100
I like to know where it's from and the way that

503
00:18:52,100 --> 00:18:54,920
Amazon structured their search function is just easier for me to

504
00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:56,600
follow. Then finding things on Etsy.

505
00:18:56,960 --> 00:18:59,480
I feel like I get a lot of kind of individual

506
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,600
results. And then the way that the reviews work is different

507
00:19:02,630 --> 00:19:03,170
on Amazon,

508
00:19:03,170 --> 00:19:05,450
the reviews are per product on Etsy.

509
00:19:05,450 --> 00:19:06,980
If you look at people's comments,

510
00:19:07,010 --> 00:19:07,790
you see everything.

511
00:19:07,820 --> 00:19:09,440
So you've got to kind of dig through to figure out

512
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:11,360
what the comments are for that particular item.

513
00:19:11,660 --> 00:19:13,610
Managing listings is a little bit different on Etsy.

514
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:15,890
And so it's just harder to find things I find on

515
00:19:15,890 --> 00:19:18,410
Etsy and figure out what other people have said about it.

516
00:19:18,860 --> 00:19:21,620
So the other thing that you can do on Amazon handmade

517
00:19:21,620 --> 00:19:24,200
is you can also advertise and so you can get in

518
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:26,750
front of people and you can get movement that way.

519
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:28,820
Okay. That's interesting.

520
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:29,750
And honestly,

521
00:19:29,810 --> 00:19:32,690
I wouldn't say that you have to be exclusively on one

522
00:19:32,690 --> 00:19:33,950
or the other only,

523
00:19:34,190 --> 00:19:36,020
Well, you should be on both for sure.

524
00:19:36,020 --> 00:19:36,980
If you're guilty,

525
00:19:37,070 --> 00:19:38,510
then you should be on Amazon handmade.

526
00:19:39,710 --> 00:19:43,490
Let's talk logistics of putting together an account.

527
00:19:43,490 --> 00:19:46,160
If I right now and buying things in the year that

528
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:47,570
we have just gotten out of,

529
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:51,350
probably everybody has bought something on Amazon over the last year.

530
00:19:51,620 --> 00:19:53,180
So we have like a personal account.

531
00:19:53,180 --> 00:19:53,630
Let's say,

532
00:19:53,630 --> 00:19:54,620
we're going to start with,

533
00:19:54,650 --> 00:19:55,940
from the bare bones here.

534
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:57,200
So I'm buying things.

535
00:19:57,200 --> 00:19:59,120
I've got my Amazon account.

536
00:19:59,690 --> 00:20:02,810
Where would I go from here in terms of setting up

537
00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:05,630
either a regular Amazon account or a handmade account?

538
00:20:05,660 --> 00:20:06,380
How does that work?

539
00:20:07,370 --> 00:20:09,470
Yeah. So they're actually completely different.

540
00:20:09,890 --> 00:20:12,740
So you actually apply to be in handmade.

541
00:20:12,740 --> 00:20:16,820
It's a whole separate application process versus the application process as

542
00:20:16,820 --> 00:20:17,660
a regular seller,

543
00:20:17,990 --> 00:20:18,950
as a regular seller,

544
00:20:18,980 --> 00:20:23,030
I usually recommend that people have gotten themselves set up with

545
00:20:23,030 --> 00:20:23,780
an LLC.

546
00:20:24,230 --> 00:20:27,080
It's not that big of a deal to set one up

547
00:20:27,530 --> 00:20:28,130
in most States.

548
00:20:28,130 --> 00:20:29,810
It's like a hundred bucks a year to make sure that

549
00:20:29,810 --> 00:20:30,560
you remain current.

550
00:20:30,980 --> 00:20:33,620
And so it's just better to have your business be a

551
00:20:33,620 --> 00:20:34,730
separate entity than you.

552
00:20:35,710 --> 00:20:38,600
So on the Amazon side for selling,

553
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,920
then you would sign up with your business entity and they

554
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,740
require basic things like the paperwork for that,

555
00:20:45,740 --> 00:20:47,370
the tax EIN number,

556
00:20:47,380 --> 00:20:49,630
stuff like that on the handmade side.

557
00:20:49,630 --> 00:20:51,730
In addition to your business information,

558
00:20:52,030 --> 00:20:56,260
they also request things like pictures of your studio or other

559
00:20:56,260 --> 00:20:58,960
information about what you're doing.

560
00:20:59,050 --> 00:21:00,940
And then it takes a little while for them to review

561
00:21:00,940 --> 00:21:01,690
both of those.

562
00:21:01,690 --> 00:21:03,670
And then sometimes there'll be a phone call with you.

563
00:21:04,030 --> 00:21:05,710
Occasionally you seem like a postcard,

564
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:08,200
they keep experimenting different things.

565
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,530
I'm assuming they're just trying to prevent people who are faking

566
00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:14,920
their own a good business from applying to be on Amazon.

567
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:17,890
But that's basically the process is you can be a sole

568
00:21:17,890 --> 00:21:21,940
proprietor and Amazon that's getting harder and harder just because there

569
00:21:21,940 --> 00:21:24,460
were a lot of fake accounts that were made.

570
00:21:24,550 --> 00:21:24,880
I'm sure,

571
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:25,120
you know,

572
00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:26,890
Amazon's a huge platform.

573
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:30,430
And they do a lot of takedowns of unauthorized businesses.

574
00:21:30,460 --> 00:21:31,090
Like they,

575
00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:34,300
Chinese shell companies where they got shut down and then they

576
00:21:34,300 --> 00:21:35,380
create new shell companies.

577
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,590
They even were doing this thing where they were hiring people

578
00:21:38,590 --> 00:21:41,890
on Craigslist to be the name and face of the company

579
00:21:41,890 --> 00:21:44,440
while it was actually backed by the Chinese company and was

580
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,230
run by the Chinese company and the person whose name and

581
00:21:47,230 --> 00:21:49,060
face was on it and got like 2% of the sales

582
00:21:49,060 --> 00:21:49,510
or something.

583
00:21:50,110 --> 00:21:50,920
Oh my gosh,

584
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,070
there's so many like games that people play on Amazon that

585
00:21:54,070 --> 00:21:55,630
they try to like catch.

586
00:21:55,660 --> 00:21:57,940
And so it can seem like it's kind of a stupid

587
00:21:57,940 --> 00:21:59,470
amount of paperwork just to get an account,

588
00:21:59,890 --> 00:22:01,480
but it's really because people have been cheating.

589
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,390
And so they want to make sure that you're a real

590
00:22:04,390 --> 00:22:05,830
person with a real business.

591
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:06,640
And that you're really,

592
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:11,440
that person does that then extend into the safety of your

593
00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,950
account. If they're watching and judging and you have to go

594
00:22:14,950 --> 00:22:17,950
through this filter to even get an Amazon handmade account.

595
00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:22,960
But would you say that a handmade account on Amazon is

596
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,980
a safer account to have on maybe other platforms I'm saying

597
00:22:26,980 --> 00:22:28,150
other platforms in general,

598
00:22:28,150 --> 00:22:29,320
not a specific one.

599
00:22:32,350 --> 00:22:34,390
We'll jump right back into the conversation,

600
00:22:34,510 --> 00:22:36,550
right after a quick word from our sponsor.

601
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,850
Yes. It's possible increase your sales without adding a single customer.

602
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603
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rapid cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,

604
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Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or

605
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606
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Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name

607
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or find packaging?

608
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That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select

609
00:23:01,620 --> 00:23:04,290
to not only are customers willing to pay for these special

610
00:23:04,290 --> 00:23:07,500
touches. They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your

611
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company and products.

612
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You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds,

613
00:23:12,450 --> 00:23:15,750
make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to

614
00:23:15,750 --> 00:23:19,020
spend money to order yards and yards print words in any

615
00:23:19,020 --> 00:23:20,010
language or font,

616
00:23:20,220 --> 00:23:20,970
add logos,

617
00:23:21,090 --> 00:23:22,860
images, even photos,

618
00:23:23,100 --> 00:23:26,040
perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels.

619
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:27,750
To for more information,

620
00:23:27,750 --> 00:23:29,880
go to the ribbon print company.com.

621
00:23:31,380 --> 00:23:35,940
They've had to be really careful about their screening process because

622
00:23:35,940 --> 00:23:38,730
they've had so many problems a couple of years ago.

623
00:23:38,820 --> 00:23:41,640
You could just sign up with your name and your address.

624
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:43,740
And today you've got an account and regulations,

625
00:23:44,190 --> 00:23:46,370
and now you to go through a bunch of hoops,

626
00:23:46,370 --> 00:23:47,480
you have to prove your real business.

627
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:48,530
You have to prove who you are.

628
00:23:48,530 --> 00:23:51,950
You have to submit your passport or driver's license because they've

629
00:23:51,950 --> 00:23:52,850
had so many problems.

630
00:23:52,850 --> 00:23:54,650
So in terms of,

631
00:23:54,740 --> 00:23:55,730
as a consumer,

632
00:23:55,850 --> 00:23:58,460
I feel much more comfortable buying on Amazon than I used

633
00:23:58,460 --> 00:24:00,200
to. I used to be really careful in spring.

634
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,890
Everything that I bought the whole knowledge can be a little

635
00:24:03,890 --> 00:24:06,050
bit challenging sometimes because then you're like,

636
00:24:06,050 --> 00:24:07,780
I know this could be one of these shell companies and

637
00:24:07,780 --> 00:24:08,330
I'm buying it.

638
00:24:10,120 --> 00:24:12,340
You do have to be careful because buying is so easy

639
00:24:12,340 --> 00:24:14,890
now online that you really do want to take that extra

640
00:24:14,890 --> 00:24:17,290
level. I want to back up just for a second,

641
00:24:17,290 --> 00:24:20,620
for some of our new listeners who you may just now

642
00:24:20,620 --> 00:24:24,190
be thinking of turning something that you create into a business,

643
00:24:24,190 --> 00:24:25,990
monetizing your handmade product.

644
00:24:26,260 --> 00:24:30,010
A sole proprietor means that you're running business under your social

645
00:24:30,010 --> 00:24:31,030
security number.

646
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:34,780
So taxes are paid through your personal taxes,

647
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:35,410
et cetera.

648
00:24:35,410 --> 00:24:38,800
There's really no wall between you and your business.

649
00:24:39,130 --> 00:24:41,980
And I know a lot of people start out that way.

650
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:43,570
As I talk about Facebook shops,

651
00:24:43,570 --> 00:24:44,680
we even say,

652
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:44,920
you know,

653
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:45,910
as you're testing out,

654
00:24:45,910 --> 00:24:48,010
whether you really want to get into business,

655
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:50,920
you can set up a Facebook shop as a sole proprietor

656
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:52,690
using your social security number.

657
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,210
But very shortly thereafter,

658
00:24:55,270 --> 00:24:59,590
you want to ramp it up and specifically get an LLC,

659
00:24:59,590 --> 00:25:02,230
which is limited liability corporation or company.

660
00:25:02,230 --> 00:25:03,550
I forgot what the C is for,

661
00:25:03,850 --> 00:25:06,400
but what that does is it separates you from,

662
00:25:06,430 --> 00:25:09,460
if anything were ever to happen in you were being sued,

663
00:25:09,490 --> 00:25:12,220
they can't touch any of your personal assets.

664
00:25:12,580 --> 00:25:13,990
And that's really important.

665
00:25:13,990 --> 00:25:15,790
So I really liked the fact Rachel,

666
00:25:15,790 --> 00:25:17,230
that you're talking about that.

667
00:25:17,500 --> 00:25:20,800
And I think you were mentioning that for even an Amazon

668
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:21,820
seller account.

669
00:25:21,940 --> 00:25:24,190
So you're just saying that's best practice overall,

670
00:25:24,190 --> 00:25:25,750
regardless of where you would go,

671
00:25:26,140 --> 00:25:28,480
Amazon seller or Amazon handmade,

672
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:31,360
I would never tie my social security number to anything.

673
00:25:31,390 --> 00:25:34,960
And when I was seeing people do imports and importing under

674
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:35,950
their social security number,

675
00:25:35,950 --> 00:25:36,670
I was like,

676
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:38,060
yeah, I'm going to break out in hives,

677
00:25:38,090 --> 00:25:39,100
just like paperwork.

678
00:25:41,230 --> 00:25:43,660
Really. People don't understand the risks they're taking.

679
00:25:43,690 --> 00:25:44,920
And it's so much better,

680
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,290
especially if you've got any assets that you care about to

681
00:25:47,290 --> 00:25:48,790
separate your business from your personal life.

682
00:25:49,390 --> 00:25:54,280
Okay. So if somebody has already been selling on Amazon under

683
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:56,080
a regular seller account,

684
00:25:56,110 --> 00:25:59,710
they would open up then a separate and new account for

685
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:01,000
Amazon handmade.

686
00:26:01,300 --> 00:26:02,230
So would you have to,

687
00:26:02,230 --> 00:26:04,570
would you sell the same product in both places?

688
00:26:05,290 --> 00:26:07,810
You're not allowed to sell the same product in both places,

689
00:26:07,810 --> 00:26:10,090
so you would need to choose which one you wanted to

690
00:26:10,090 --> 00:26:10,540
go for?

691
00:26:10,870 --> 00:26:13,870
The thing that is important to know about what gets you

692
00:26:13,870 --> 00:26:17,410
success on Amazon is it's all about reviews.

693
00:26:17,470 --> 00:26:19,090
It's really critical to get reviews.

694
00:26:19,090 --> 00:26:22,810
And so unlike on Etsy where you usually get reviews for

695
00:26:22,810 --> 00:26:23,440
the seller,

696
00:26:23,740 --> 00:26:26,410
because they're often doing unique individual things,

697
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:28,270
each listing is a new thing.

698
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,180
So there's not generally reviews on every single product.

699
00:26:31,180 --> 00:26:33,010
It's, it's a reason the seller themselves,

700
00:26:33,010 --> 00:26:34,180
and you can see previous items,

701
00:26:34,180 --> 00:26:35,800
they sold on Amazon.

702
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:36,610
It's all about the product.

703
00:26:36,850 --> 00:26:40,210
So one of the top selling items that I actually have

704
00:26:40,210 --> 00:26:42,490
bought personally on Amazon handmade,

705
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:43,620
and I know that they're on Etsy,

706
00:26:43,620 --> 00:26:44,970
but they're on handmade as well.

707
00:26:45,420 --> 00:26:47,880
Is there little wrist warmers?

708
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:50,910
I know that every woman who's ever worked in an office

709
00:26:50,940 --> 00:26:51,990
can understand this,

710
00:26:51,990 --> 00:26:52,920
but Holy crap,

711
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:53,520
it gets cold.

712
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,550
And so one of the things that I learned to stay

713
00:26:56,550 --> 00:26:59,640
warm at the office was to use restorers.

714
00:27:00,030 --> 00:27:02,250
So they basically are really simple.

715
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,550
They have a cuff that is on one end,

716
00:27:05,550 --> 00:27:07,950
and then it's really simple at the top.

717
00:27:07,950 --> 00:27:09,780
It's just a hole for your thumb and then a whole

718
00:27:09,780 --> 00:27:10,740
three or four fingers.

719
00:27:11,100 --> 00:27:13,920
And it's just a little bit of cloth that covers over

720
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,860
your wrist to where your fingers are free to type,

721
00:27:17,130 --> 00:27:19,770
but you're covered all the way up to your knuckles basically.

722
00:27:19,770 --> 00:27:23,030
And so then you're going to be less cold And there's

723
00:27:23,030 --> 00:27:24,380
even like tops.

724
00:27:24,380 --> 00:27:26,510
Now that have the thumb in there where you can loop

725
00:27:26,510 --> 00:27:28,670
your I'm actually wearing one right now where you can loop

726
00:27:28,670 --> 00:27:29,570
your thumb in.

727
00:27:29,750 --> 00:27:32,840
And then the sleeves like go over your hands a little

728
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:37,640
bit Working at Amazon because I used to sit under event.

729
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:38,240
It's terrible.

730
00:27:38,540 --> 00:27:41,030
It was always 65 degrees.

731
00:27:43,070 --> 00:27:45,770
So you'd have your like summer getup in the office where

732
00:27:45,770 --> 00:27:47,270
you've got your coat and your wrist warmers.

733
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:50,600
So funny,

734
00:27:51,770 --> 00:27:54,230
they've just done a fabulous job because they've got four different

735
00:27:54,230 --> 00:27:56,840
designs of the same wrist warmers.

736
00:27:57,110 --> 00:27:58,880
And they're like Jane Austin.

737
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,450
And so like it's printed with a section from Jane Austin

738
00:28:02,750 --> 00:28:03,050
or from,

739
00:28:03,050 --> 00:28:03,470
I forget the other ones,

740
00:28:03,470 --> 00:28:05,030
the one that I have is for pride and prejudice.

741
00:28:05,540 --> 00:28:07,280
And so that's the main thing that they do.

742
00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:10,190
And they're just constantly selling these things because they've gotten hundreds

743
00:28:10,190 --> 00:28:12,320
of reviews and people just buy them now.

744
00:28:12,380 --> 00:28:14,570
And so that makes it to where you,

745
00:28:14,570 --> 00:28:17,540
you shouldn't be thinking too much about variety on Amazon.

746
00:28:17,540 --> 00:28:18,620
If you want to do variety,

747
00:28:18,620 --> 00:28:20,900
like Etsy is the place to be on Amazon.

748
00:28:20,900 --> 00:28:24,110
You should be thinking about what's a product that I think

749
00:28:24,110 --> 00:28:27,140
has a market and how can I get reviews on it

750
00:28:27,730 --> 00:28:31,070
and advertise on it so that I can gain ring and

751
00:28:31,070 --> 00:28:32,240
have people see my product,

752
00:28:32,570 --> 00:28:33,980
some of the other ones that do really well.

753
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:35,840
There was one that I saw that did really well.

754
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:37,070
That was a whiskey candle.

755
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:38,360
And so when it burns,

756
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:39,170
it smells like,

757
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:39,470
you know,

758
00:28:39,470 --> 00:28:42,290
whiskey, there was one that they had those like spiced rum,

759
00:28:43,150 --> 00:28:43,820
couple of other ones,

760
00:28:44,060 --> 00:28:44,960
but they did a really good,

761
00:28:44,990 --> 00:28:46,970
huge business for Christmas.

762
00:28:47,330 --> 00:28:47,690
And so,

763
00:28:47,690 --> 00:28:47,930
you know,

764
00:28:47,930 --> 00:28:48,740
when you're thinking about,

765
00:28:48,740 --> 00:28:50,420
okay, so how do I use Amazon,

766
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,670
Amazon at the peak of traffic,

767
00:28:52,790 --> 00:28:56,330
I'm hesitant between 25 and 35 million people on the site

768
00:28:56,330 --> 00:28:57,050
in any given day,

769
00:28:57,410 --> 00:28:58,250
which is just huge,

770
00:28:58,340 --> 00:28:58,640
right? I mean,

771
00:28:58,640 --> 00:28:59,270
it's just massive.

772
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:02,420
So how can you get some of those people to click

773
00:29:02,420 --> 00:29:03,110
on your products?

774
00:29:03,170 --> 00:29:04,850
And then once they click on your product,

775
00:29:04,910 --> 00:29:06,860
how can you convince them that this is the right thing

776
00:29:06,860 --> 00:29:07,310
for them?

777
00:29:07,850 --> 00:29:10,370
And so that's where you want to be like reviews.

778
00:29:10,460 --> 00:29:12,710
And so something that you can remake over and over again

779
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:13,790
is really critical.

780
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:17,780
And then the second piece is something that has an audience.

781
00:29:18,170 --> 00:29:21,050
So the ones that I've seen do really well are candles

782
00:29:21,170 --> 00:29:23,360
and bath bombs do really well.

783
00:29:23,570 --> 00:29:27,830
Basically things that people need that might wear out that are

784
00:29:27,830 --> 00:29:30,350
handmade or things that are really unique gifts.

785
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,540
Those do really well on Amazon.

786
00:29:33,140 --> 00:29:38,450
Okay. And we got into this in some shows a couple

787
00:29:38,450 --> 00:29:39,560
of months ago,

788
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,190
and it was a little bit new to me.

789
00:29:42,190 --> 00:29:45,790
And I think something that a lot of people really resist.

790
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,730
And tell me what you think about this statement,

791
00:29:48,730 --> 00:29:50,470
Rachel, with Amazon,

792
00:29:50,470 --> 00:29:51,850
it's all starts with search.

793
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,790
Someone's looking for those rum flavored candles,

794
00:29:54,790 --> 00:29:55,660
for example,

795
00:29:55,990 --> 00:29:59,860
then what you title your products needs to be something that

796
00:29:59,860 --> 00:30:01,330
can be found through search,

797
00:30:01,570 --> 00:30:02,470
right? Yep.

798
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,290
So you probably want to call your product,

799
00:30:05,350 --> 00:30:07,680
Rama flavored candle It's to be in the title.

800
00:30:08,010 --> 00:30:09,870
You have lots of texts in the title.

801
00:30:09,870 --> 00:30:11,220
You have lots of texts you can work with,

802
00:30:11,490 --> 00:30:12,930
but don't be too cute.

803
00:30:12,990 --> 00:30:14,160
You want to be a little bit cute,

804
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:14,880
but not too cute.

805
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:17,310
Yeah. Because it has to be found.

806
00:30:17,460 --> 00:30:20,700
So not tropical.

807
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:25,050
I learned candle sense or something like that because who's ever

808
00:30:25,050 --> 00:30:25,920
going to search for that.

809
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,670
You're looking for like rum Mohito or my favorite for those

810
00:30:30,030 --> 00:30:31,710
ones. They had a line of,

811
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:33,540
I forget the exact way they put it,

812
00:30:33,540 --> 00:30:35,040
but it was like the kick-ass line.

813
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,350
And so it was something where it was like,

814
00:30:37,350 --> 00:30:38,190
meant to be,

815
00:30:38,490 --> 00:30:38,730
you know,

816
00:30:38,730 --> 00:30:42,000
that thing where people are like kind of aggressively supportive.

817
00:30:42,750 --> 00:30:45,060
And that was what was on the tin of the candle

818
00:30:45,060 --> 00:30:47,310
was some sort of like mantra with a swear word in

819
00:30:47,310 --> 00:30:47,630
it. Right.

820
00:30:47,670 --> 00:30:49,800
There's some research that shows that those,

821
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,500
that kind of like drives and adrenaline hit in our brain

822
00:30:52,500 --> 00:30:54,480
just because of how we feel about swear words.

823
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:55,080
And so it's like,

824
00:30:55,170 --> 00:30:56,520
feel strong about this kid.

825
00:30:57,180 --> 00:30:57,990
It was interesting,

826
00:30:58,260 --> 00:30:59,940
but they did really well with those ones.

827
00:30:59,940 --> 00:31:00,870
With that particular line,

828
00:31:01,530 --> 00:31:04,170
This brings up a really crazy question.

829
00:31:04,740 --> 00:31:05,400
Like I said,

830
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:08,760
I've been working with my community a lot on Facebook shops

831
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,280
since this is the new thing that's open.

832
00:31:11,310 --> 00:31:13,110
There's not a big barrier.

833
00:31:13,290 --> 00:31:14,370
It's really nice for someone,

834
00:31:14,370 --> 00:31:15,090
in my opinion,

835
00:31:15,090 --> 00:31:16,020
who's just starting out,

836
00:31:16,020 --> 00:31:16,830
selling their product,

837
00:31:16,830 --> 00:31:19,170
just to see if they even like processing orders,

838
00:31:19,290 --> 00:31:21,030
actually selling all of that.

839
00:31:21,390 --> 00:31:27,150
And I had one client whose store would not be approved

840
00:31:27,180 --> 00:31:31,770
because the name of her company and the logo was slightly

841
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,980
suggestive. So it's not totally,

842
00:31:34,980 --> 00:31:38,250
but just a little bit sexually suggestive.

843
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:42,480
And she can't set up her business in Facebook shops to

844
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:43,380
save herself.

845
00:31:43,470 --> 00:31:45,360
Like they keep rejecting her and rejecting her,

846
00:31:45,390 --> 00:31:47,730
even though she shows that's not what my product is.

847
00:31:47,730 --> 00:31:49,350
Like, whatever you're thinking it isn't.

848
00:31:49,710 --> 00:31:52,050
Is there some type of a layer or do you feel

849
00:31:52,050 --> 00:31:55,020
like people would get caught with that over on the Amazon

850
00:31:55,020 --> 00:31:56,310
side? No,

851
00:31:56,310 --> 00:31:57,390
I don't think so.

852
00:31:57,510 --> 00:31:57,960
In fact,

853
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,360
I was just looking it up just to see if there's

854
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:02,670
something similar to that on the Amazon side.

855
00:32:03,090 --> 00:32:07,410
And one of the first things that I see is some

856
00:32:07,410 --> 00:32:08,700
Lamas humping each other.

857
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:09,330
So, no,

858
00:32:09,330 --> 00:32:09,990
I think we're good.

859
00:32:10,710 --> 00:32:11,820
Okay. Now,

860
00:32:11,850 --> 00:32:12,240
you know,

861
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,340
like the second we're done with this interview,

862
00:32:14,370 --> 00:32:15,810
I have to email her and say,

863
00:32:15,810 --> 00:32:18,810
Hey, let's look at Amazon handmade for your product.

864
00:32:19,770 --> 00:32:21,360
Yeah. Scrolling down.

865
00:32:21,420 --> 00:32:22,350
I'm just kind of like,

866
00:32:22,380 --> 00:32:25,890
Whoa, sexy,

867
00:32:25,890 --> 00:32:27,180
just to see what would pop up.

868
00:32:27,570 --> 00:32:29,880
And some of them are actually sexy and some of them

869
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:30,240
are like,

870
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:31,050
Whoa, hi.

871
00:32:31,380 --> 00:32:33,960
Hmm. Maybe I didn't want to see that today.

872
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:35,790
So you can definitely sell pretty much.

873
00:32:35,790 --> 00:32:37,380
It That's really interesting.

874
00:32:37,380 --> 00:32:37,560
I mean,

875
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:40,100
some of them might not be to your point that it

876
00:32:40,100 --> 00:32:41,360
just captures the attention,

877
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:42,200
but the product,

878
00:32:42,470 --> 00:32:42,680
you know,

879
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:47,260
it's a fun play on a logo or Yeah.

880
00:32:47,290 --> 00:32:48,430
And there's some really fun things.

881
00:32:48,430 --> 00:32:50,620
So like Amazon does a lot of like handmade cards and

882
00:32:50,620 --> 00:32:54,400
stuff. There's a lot of like suggestive stuff there or handmade

883
00:32:54,580 --> 00:32:56,350
clothing that is suggestive.

884
00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:01,120
So the biggest takeaway that I've had so far besides the

885
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:05,230
whole electrical thing in the very beginning is that Etsy in

886
00:33:05,230 --> 00:33:08,020
terms of reviews is more specific to the seller or the

887
00:33:08,020 --> 00:33:09,100
business overall,

888
00:33:09,460 --> 00:33:12,940
an Amazon relates way more to the product.

889
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:14,590
Yes, absolutely.

890
00:33:15,100 --> 00:33:16,570
Given That's the case.

891
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,090
How do you develop or let me even back it up

892
00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:23,350
further, do you try to develop your brand on Amazon or

893
00:33:23,350 --> 00:33:25,600
is it all about just selling Your product?

894
00:33:25,990 --> 00:33:30,190
So what I usually recommend is putting some inserts in the

895
00:33:30,190 --> 00:33:33,190
shipment that you send about the other things that you sell,

896
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,610
because your flagship product that you invest your time and money

897
00:33:36,610 --> 00:33:38,020
in, and you really do need to figure out what your

898
00:33:38,020 --> 00:33:39,250
flagship product should be,

899
00:33:39,250 --> 00:33:41,080
and then make sure that's never out of stock.

900
00:33:41,380 --> 00:33:43,240
Make sure you always have product available.

901
00:33:43,620 --> 00:33:45,790
Other things that don't sell as much can go out of

902
00:33:45,790 --> 00:33:47,470
stock and can be less of a priority,

903
00:33:47,470 --> 00:33:48,190
but on Amazon,

904
00:33:48,190 --> 00:33:50,350
it's about staying up and staying in stock.

905
00:33:50,380 --> 00:33:51,460
If you ever got a stock,

906
00:33:51,460 --> 00:33:54,280
you start losing rank like crazy Amazon's algorithm,

907
00:33:54,310 --> 00:33:57,910
prioritizes those who have slow action available to buy.

908
00:33:58,480 --> 00:33:59,890
And if your selection is not available to buy,

909
00:34:00,010 --> 00:34:01,240
you don't get the good numbers.

910
00:34:01,270 --> 00:34:04,030
So once you have a product that you think can be

911
00:34:04,030 --> 00:34:04,510
a winner,

912
00:34:04,540 --> 00:34:07,900
like the pride and it is wrist warmers,

913
00:34:07,900 --> 00:34:09,130
or one of my favorites,

914
00:34:09,190 --> 00:34:10,690
lavender and rice,

915
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:12,520
I actually bought this a couple of years ago and then

916
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:13,090
bought another one.

917
00:34:13,090 --> 00:34:15,550
When I lost it in the move was a lavender and

918
00:34:15,550 --> 00:34:17,980
rice ergo thing in front of my keyboard.

919
00:34:18,550 --> 00:34:20,260
And then there was a lot of rice and for the

920
00:34:20,260 --> 00:34:22,390
keyboard and then a smaller one in front of the mouse.

921
00:34:23,110 --> 00:34:24,940
And so that person's top item.

922
00:34:25,240 --> 00:34:27,460
And so those are the kinds of things where when you

923
00:34:27,460 --> 00:34:28,330
have a top item,

924
00:34:28,330 --> 00:34:29,680
it better be in stock,

925
00:34:30,010 --> 00:34:30,670
no matter what.

926
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,790
So Given that you want one item,

927
00:34:33,790 --> 00:34:34,960
it's your best seller.

928
00:34:34,990 --> 00:34:37,420
It's what you're calling your flagship product,

929
00:34:37,420 --> 00:34:38,080
whatever it is,

930
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:40,060
you need to know that you can make them quick.

931
00:34:40,090 --> 00:34:41,110
If you're out of stock,

932
00:34:41,140 --> 00:34:42,460
you always have stock.

933
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,490
And that it's something that people regularly would search for and

934
00:34:45,490 --> 00:34:46,150
want to buy.

935
00:34:46,420 --> 00:34:48,340
Right? Yep.

936
00:34:48,670 --> 00:34:54,310
Okay. So could you just have one product Amazon you could.

937
00:34:54,310 --> 00:34:57,820
Yeah. And so usually the ones who do really well do

938
00:34:57,820 --> 00:34:59,410
variations on a similar product.

939
00:34:59,830 --> 00:35:02,500
So they'll have different sense of a candle or,

940
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,320
or like the restorers are exactly the same design,

941
00:35:05,350 --> 00:35:07,060
but different sections or different books,

942
00:35:07,060 --> 00:35:10,360
like famous books or the one that I was talking about

943
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,930
with the little bag thingy that's in front of your keyboard.

944
00:35:14,380 --> 00:35:16,390
She has about six different designs for that one.

945
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,450
And so it can be just like one product with a

946
00:35:19,450 --> 00:35:20,650
bunch of variations.

947
00:35:20,980 --> 00:35:22,030
That's totally fine.

948
00:35:22,030 --> 00:35:24,760
And then the folks who do the candles,

949
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:25,930
I saw their first year,

950
00:35:25,930 --> 00:35:27,130
cause I bought her a couple of years ago.

951
00:35:27,130 --> 00:35:28,660
And then I've gone back a couple of times for other,

952
00:35:28,900 --> 00:35:29,440
I guess,

953
00:35:29,830 --> 00:35:31,540
and they've added a couple of new lines.

954
00:35:31,690 --> 00:35:32,620
And so that's one of the things.

955
00:35:32,620 --> 00:35:35,440
If you can get a really strongly performing product,

956
00:35:35,860 --> 00:35:37,530
then you can send inserts that,

957
00:35:37,530 --> 00:35:40,020
tell them about the other things that your store sells.

958
00:35:40,350 --> 00:35:43,920
And you can turn your customers who are buying your top

959
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:44,970
product that has rank.

960
00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:46,380
That's getting people in.

961
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,060
Some of these people are selling 50,

962
00:35:48,060 --> 00:35:50,970
a hundred thousand dollars a year of candles.

963
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:51,630
I mean,

964
00:35:51,630 --> 00:35:53,130
they're actually making a proper living at it.

965
00:35:53,550 --> 00:35:55,740
Then you can launch a different line,

966
00:35:55,740 --> 00:35:58,650
like a line of bar soaps or far lotions with a

967
00:35:58,650 --> 00:36:00,150
similar sense as your candles.

968
00:36:00,150 --> 00:36:02,160
So there's different ways that you can use it,

969
00:36:02,220 --> 00:36:05,370
the success of one listing to grow new ones.

970
00:36:05,810 --> 00:36:08,930
Right. But you've been really clear on the approach to take

971
00:36:08,930 --> 00:36:11,210
when you're starting getting recognized,

972
00:36:11,270 --> 00:36:12,350
getting sales.

973
00:36:12,380 --> 00:36:12,500
I mean,

974
00:36:12,500 --> 00:36:14,720
this IC is also a great way to start building your

975
00:36:14,720 --> 00:36:17,930
business. You don't need a whole slew of products.

976
00:36:18,140 --> 00:36:19,250
You have one thing,

977
00:36:19,250 --> 00:36:20,090
cause we always talk about,

978
00:36:20,090 --> 00:36:22,070
you want to be known by one thing first,

979
00:36:22,490 --> 00:36:25,100
Amazon doesn't care if you have one thing or a hundred

980
00:36:25,100 --> 00:36:27,320
things. So go with that one thing,

981
00:36:27,500 --> 00:36:28,130
sell it,

982
00:36:28,130 --> 00:36:29,960
maybe sell a few versions of it.

983
00:36:30,290 --> 00:36:33,290
And then this is your visibility play to get in front

984
00:36:33,290 --> 00:36:36,890
of people who then as you grow your brand now know

985
00:36:36,890 --> 00:36:40,340
you, and then you're able to market to them a more

986
00:36:40,340 --> 00:36:43,880
broad extension of what you have available through the insert that

987
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:45,050
you were just talking about.

988
00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:45,800
Right. Rachel,

989
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,350
And one of the better things about Amazon is that it's

990
00:36:48,350 --> 00:36:50,300
really easy to see your past orders.

991
00:36:50,690 --> 00:36:52,700
And as long as you stay in stock on those,

992
00:36:52,700 --> 00:36:55,130
it's really easy to click on that item and go right

993
00:36:55,130 --> 00:36:57,440
back to the detail page and see all the information.

994
00:36:57,440 --> 00:36:58,430
So I do that sometimes.

995
00:36:58,430 --> 00:36:58,760
And I'm like,

996
00:36:58,790 --> 00:37:00,380
I thought that thing a couple of years ago,

997
00:37:00,770 --> 00:37:01,280
where was it?

998
00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:03,500
And so I'll go to the search function in my Amazon

999
00:37:03,500 --> 00:37:04,190
account and I'm like,

1000
00:37:04,220 --> 00:37:04,490
Oh yeah,

1001
00:37:04,490 --> 00:37:05,120
there it was.

1002
00:37:05,450 --> 00:37:07,370
And then I click on it and then I can go

1003
00:37:07,370 --> 00:37:08,060
buy more stuff.

1004
00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:11,450
So if you have a great experience for your customer without

1005
00:37:11,450 --> 00:37:12,110
one product,

1006
00:37:12,140 --> 00:37:13,130
they're going to remember you,

1007
00:37:13,130 --> 00:37:14,780
they're going to remember what they got and come back.

1008
00:37:15,740 --> 00:37:16,580
Okay, perfect.

1009
00:37:16,610 --> 00:37:21,080
Now we sell our product because we had really good keywords

1010
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:22,400
and we were found in search.

1011
00:37:22,730 --> 00:37:24,800
We sent it out with an insert.

1012
00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:28,550
So now they can see what other things we have available.

1013
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,270
Is there a way for us to communicate us as a

1014
00:37:32,270 --> 00:37:36,440
business owner to reach out and communicate with them through an

1015
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:37,700
Amazon channel,

1016
00:37:38,030 --> 00:37:39,920
kind of like how we would do with email?

1017
00:37:40,580 --> 00:37:43,670
Yeah. Unfortunately there isn't a direct way,

1018
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,550
but what you can do is a cool new thing called

1019
00:37:46,550 --> 00:37:52,100
Amazon live and Amazon live is Amazon's answer basically to social

1020
00:37:52,100 --> 00:37:55,640
media. And they've created a whole platform where you can go

1021
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,560
live on Amazon and talk about stuff.

1022
00:37:57,590 --> 00:38:01,470
And I think this is a huge opportunity for influencers and

1023
00:38:01,470 --> 00:38:02,720
TRIBEr who are just starting out,

1024
00:38:02,720 --> 00:38:03,830
are selling on Etsy.

1025
00:38:04,010 --> 00:38:06,710
Because if you have followers on social,

1026
00:38:06,710 --> 00:38:08,600
they usually require a thousand followers,

1027
00:38:08,930 --> 00:38:10,490
which isn't terribly hard to get.

1028
00:38:10,850 --> 00:38:14,180
Then you can apply to be on Amazon live and do

1029
00:38:14,180 --> 00:38:18,170
demonstrations. So say if you're doing a handmade bath bomb set,

1030
00:38:18,230 --> 00:38:21,560
then you could do a live and feature your bath bombs

1031
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,790
along with other top products in bathrooms.

1032
00:38:25,790 --> 00:38:29,780
So like the top soap set or the top dishware set

1033
00:38:29,780 --> 00:38:32,240
or whatever you want to have for a bathroom or for

1034
00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:32,720
a home,

1035
00:38:33,020 --> 00:38:36,760
and then your live event will up on those pages.

1036
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:39,580
And so it's a really great way to promote your products

1037
00:38:39,580 --> 00:38:41,590
along with other top products on Amazon.

1038
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:44,020
If you have a regular seller account,

1039
00:38:44,050 --> 00:38:44,950
not a handmaid account,

1040
00:38:44,950 --> 00:38:45,850
but regular seller account,

1041
00:38:45,850 --> 00:38:48,700
you can also sign up for Amazon live as a brand

1042
00:38:48,700 --> 00:38:49,870
and have people follow your brand.

1043
00:38:50,290 --> 00:38:51,250
So you can choose either way,

1044
00:38:51,250 --> 00:38:54,460
you can apply as an influencer or you can apply as

1045
00:38:54,460 --> 00:38:54,850
a brand.

1046
00:38:55,420 --> 00:38:56,440
If you apply as a brand,

1047
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:57,460
you do need a trademark.

1048
00:38:57,550 --> 00:38:58,810
So a lot of people don't have that.

1049
00:38:58,810 --> 00:39:01,480
So I recommend going the influencer route if you're a smaller

1050
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,240
business and have not as many options in terms of the

1051
00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,850
trademark. But if you do maybe have a social media following,

1052
00:39:06,850 --> 00:39:08,410
that's a good one to join as an influencer.

1053
00:39:09,610 --> 00:39:10,720
Meaning handmade,

1054
00:39:11,110 --> 00:39:13,510
no Influencer program is totally separate from handmade.

1055
00:39:13,510 --> 00:39:15,070
So handmade is selling products.

1056
00:39:15,190 --> 00:39:17,650
And then if you want to promote or pitch products on

1057
00:39:17,650 --> 00:39:20,350
Amazon, you can sign up as an influencer or as a

1058
00:39:20,350 --> 00:39:21,510
brand. Got it,

1059
00:39:21,510 --> 00:39:21,750
got it,

1060
00:39:21,750 --> 00:39:22,050
got it.

1061
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:23,550
Okay. I'm with you on that.

1062
00:39:23,580 --> 00:39:25,860
Okay. And so let's stick with handmade,

1063
00:39:25,860 --> 00:39:29,040
cause I think that's really the best place for people who

1064
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:30,630
are listening here to be,

1065
00:39:30,810 --> 00:39:34,260
where would they see more about the live?

1066
00:39:34,260 --> 00:39:36,030
Or let me just kind of ask you some questions.

1067
00:39:36,030 --> 00:39:38,220
So I'm thinking about live that I know.

1068
00:39:38,310 --> 00:39:39,240
So Facebook,

1069
00:39:39,270 --> 00:39:42,090
Instagram, all the places where you can go live it's social

1070
00:39:42,090 --> 00:39:42,780
media. Yes.

1071
00:39:42,810 --> 00:39:44,970
You can either schedule a time when you're going to go

1072
00:39:44,970 --> 00:39:46,590
live and invite people to come.

1073
00:39:46,890 --> 00:39:49,470
Or you can just pull up your phone,

1074
00:39:49,470 --> 00:39:50,820
click the live button.

1075
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:52,380
Obviously you're a little more prepared than that,

1076
00:39:52,380 --> 00:39:53,250
but you get what I mean?

1077
00:39:53,670 --> 00:39:56,310
Is that the same type of thing on Amazon?

1078
00:39:56,310 --> 00:40:00,870
Or is there some structure to scheduling or do you prerecorded

1079
00:40:00,870 --> 00:40:02,610
or how does that work over there?

1080
00:40:02,610 --> 00:40:04,350
I've never seen a live on Amazon.

1081
00:40:04,710 --> 00:40:05,070
At least.

1082
00:40:05,070 --> 00:40:06,210
I don't think I have.

1083
00:40:06,780 --> 00:40:07,530
It's exactly the same.

1084
00:40:07,530 --> 00:40:09,630
You can either schedule it and it'll show up in the

1085
00:40:09,630 --> 00:40:11,940
upcoming lives and you can tell people about it on social,

1086
00:40:12,090 --> 00:40:14,700
where, or you can just go live and the thing that's

1087
00:40:14,700 --> 00:40:16,950
great about Amazon live and the reason why I say that,

1088
00:40:16,950 --> 00:40:19,260
it's the way that you connect with your customers through Amazon,

1089
00:40:19,260 --> 00:40:19,860
that's allowed,

1090
00:40:19,890 --> 00:40:22,050
there are other ways that are against policy,

1091
00:40:22,050 --> 00:40:22,710
but people still do.

1092
00:40:22,710 --> 00:40:26,130
Anyway, this is the way that's fully compliant with policy.

1093
00:40:26,130 --> 00:40:27,810
As people can choose to follow you.

1094
00:40:27,810 --> 00:40:29,070
And then when you go live,

1095
00:40:29,370 --> 00:40:32,280
there's a push notification that goes to your phone that says

1096
00:40:32,610 --> 00:40:34,090
whoever is going live,

1097
00:40:34,110 --> 00:40:35,280
but as the brand or your name.

1098
00:40:35,490 --> 00:40:37,590
And so then they get the notification on their phone that

1099
00:40:37,590 --> 00:40:39,330
you're going live and they might want to follow you.

1100
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,110
And then does that recording stay on Amazon after you're done.

1101
00:40:44,190 --> 00:40:47,070
Yeah. It's actually in the previously live section for a couple

1102
00:40:47,070 --> 00:40:47,610
of days.

1103
00:40:48,030 --> 00:40:49,650
And then if someone's really digging deep,

1104
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:50,190
they can see it.

1105
00:40:50,220 --> 00:40:52,530
I've seen lives and be watched up to two or three

1106
00:40:52,530 --> 00:40:54,630
weeks after the live is actually happened.

1107
00:40:55,050 --> 00:40:58,230
What I've been doing is downloading the lives that we do

1108
00:40:58,230 --> 00:40:59,070
with the clients,

1109
00:40:59,100 --> 00:41:01,530
clipping them into chunks because you end up repeating yourself a

1110
00:41:01,530 --> 00:41:04,680
lot in a line and then putting the best chunks onto

1111
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:09,570
the Amazon page itself And then putting them onto your own

1112
00:41:09,570 --> 00:41:10,680
Amazon page.

1113
00:41:11,430 --> 00:41:11,910
Yep. Yeah.

1114
00:41:11,910 --> 00:41:13,050
There's places where you can add.

1115
00:41:13,860 --> 00:41:14,790
Okay. Got it.

1116
00:41:15,300 --> 00:41:15,570
All right.

1117
00:41:15,570 --> 00:41:19,260
Wonderful. And with the inserts,

1118
00:41:19,380 --> 00:41:23,160
are you allowed then to offer something else or I'm thinking

1119
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:26,130
the best thing to do then since there is no real

1120
00:41:26,130 --> 00:41:29,130
way to communicate back with your purchasers,

1121
00:41:29,130 --> 00:41:29,370
I mean,

1122
00:41:29,370 --> 00:41:32,040
it's more your customer finding you,

1123
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:36,500
then you being able to attract your customers directly one-on-one in

1124
00:41:36,500 --> 00:41:37,940
terms of prior customers,

1125
00:41:38,240 --> 00:41:42,170
but what about putting an email address or some incentive for

1126
00:41:42,170 --> 00:41:45,230
them to give you your email address on that insert is

1127
00:41:45,230 --> 00:41:46,160
that acceptable?

1128
00:41:46,900 --> 00:41:49,270
So you're not allowed to direct them off of Amazon.

1129
00:41:49,420 --> 00:41:50,500
That's the biggest,

1130
00:41:50,500 --> 00:41:52,930
tricky thing for any sort of insert.

1131
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:54,430
And so generally speaking,

1132
00:41:54,430 --> 00:41:55,510
if you're going to do an insert,

1133
00:41:55,510 --> 00:41:58,210
you want to make sure they can use any discounts you

1134
00:41:58,210 --> 00:41:59,650
give or any specialties,

1135
00:41:59,770 --> 00:42:01,210
that sort of thing you want to make sure they can

1136
00:42:01,210 --> 00:42:02,110
use it on Amazon too.

1137
00:42:02,290 --> 00:42:04,960
And so that there's no question of them being directed,

1138
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:08,290
like a discount that's only available off of Amazon.

1139
00:42:08,380 --> 00:42:09,310
That's not going to work.

1140
00:42:09,310 --> 00:42:11,650
Right? So that's the kind of thing that you have to

1141
00:42:11,650 --> 00:42:16,600
think about when you're deciding what to put in there is

1142
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:18,520
Amazon doesn't want you taking away their customers.

1143
00:42:18,550 --> 00:42:21,060
So you can't direct them to your website.

1144
00:42:21,070 --> 00:42:21,850
It's called diverting,

1145
00:42:22,180 --> 00:42:25,420
but you can offer them a discount and just make sure

1146
00:42:25,420 --> 00:42:26,530
it works on your website too.

1147
00:42:28,030 --> 00:42:29,830
And then if they have to go to your website,

1148
00:42:29,830 --> 00:42:30,610
then that's your choice.

1149
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:32,860
Okay? Let's say I sell scarves.

1150
00:42:33,220 --> 00:42:36,130
Could you put an insert in that says,

1151
00:42:36,580 --> 00:42:40,360
come over to my website for a free download.

1152
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,900
That shows you seven different ways that you can wear your

1153
00:42:43,900 --> 00:42:46,660
scarf. And then there's some type of a link there,

1154
00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:48,010
or they just go to the website.

1155
00:42:48,010 --> 00:42:49,360
And then when they go to the website,

1156
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:50,500
it's through an opt-in.

1157
00:42:50,500 --> 00:42:53,500
So you collect an email that way is that legal?

1158
00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:56,560
I recommend people will do.

1159
00:42:56,860 --> 00:42:58,630
It's kind of in the gray area,

1160
00:42:58,660 --> 00:43:00,070
but it's defensible.

1161
00:43:00,220 --> 00:43:00,770
So that's,

1162
00:43:01,810 --> 00:43:02,770
And you're not selling,

1163
00:43:02,770 --> 00:43:05,050
you're sharing information to support the product.

1164
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:06,220
But yeah,

1165
00:43:06,220 --> 00:43:07,090
it's a little gray,

1166
00:43:07,210 --> 00:43:09,820
but I like gray color like that color.

1167
00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:13,840
So valuable to get that information from people that a lot

1168
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:15,070
of people will just do it anyway.

1169
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:19,270
And so I definitely give those recommendations to my clients where

1170
00:43:19,270 --> 00:43:22,690
it's like some sort of instructional giveaway or some sort of

1171
00:43:22,780 --> 00:43:24,970
QR code where you can get a sample of free sample

1172
00:43:25,300 --> 00:43:29,170
bulls of other items say you do skincare or something and

1173
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:30,880
they can try different products.

1174
00:43:30,940 --> 00:43:32,320
If you've got a sample size,

1175
00:43:32,530 --> 00:43:34,840
then they can give you their information and get a sample.

1176
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:37,240
Like there's various ways that you can try to get people's

1177
00:43:37,240 --> 00:43:39,790
information. Okay.

1178
00:43:39,910 --> 00:43:43,240
All based on things that will help heighten the customer experience,

1179
00:43:43,270 --> 00:43:43,390
you know,

1180
00:43:43,390 --> 00:43:45,850
something that's going to be valuable to them in return.

1181
00:43:46,330 --> 00:43:47,320
I never asked for it.

1182
00:43:48,100 --> 00:43:50,260
I will say that never asked for reviews.

1183
00:43:50,590 --> 00:43:53,860
If you ask for reviews in any way,

1184
00:43:53,860 --> 00:43:55,180
connected to a freebie,

1185
00:43:55,180 --> 00:43:56,290
Amazon will freak out.

1186
00:43:57,850 --> 00:43:58,690
It is not worth it.

1187
00:43:59,380 --> 00:44:00,280
How will they know?

1188
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:04,600
So they sometimes will get reports from other sellers.

1189
00:44:04,630 --> 00:44:07,750
So in case if you have a successful listing,

1190
00:44:08,110 --> 00:44:10,480
you can come under attack from other sellers.

1191
00:44:11,260 --> 00:44:13,420
So other sellers will sometimes buy your stuff,

1192
00:44:13,540 --> 00:44:15,070
take pictures of what you sent with it.

1193
00:44:15,130 --> 00:44:16,810
And then submit a report to Amazon.

1194
00:44:17,170 --> 00:44:19,720
Amazon's whole system relies on sellers,

1195
00:44:19,720 --> 00:44:20,680
snitching on each other,

1196
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:23,680
basically because they don't have to do it themselves.

1197
00:44:24,010 --> 00:44:25,300
And so they have a whole report,

1198
00:44:25,300 --> 00:44:27,490
a violation section where you can report other sellers,

1199
00:44:27,910 --> 00:44:30,670
Oh, no self policing.

1200
00:44:30,670 --> 00:44:32,790
I guess that's the way that goes.

1201
00:44:33,380 --> 00:44:34,010
One of those things where,

1202
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:36,110
when I first learned about it back in like 2009,

1203
00:44:36,110 --> 00:44:36,470
I was like,

1204
00:44:36,470 --> 00:44:39,140
wait, you have a whole form for this because I was

1205
00:44:39,140 --> 00:44:39,890
in the same department,

1206
00:44:39,890 --> 00:44:41,060
but I didn't work in that team.

1207
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:41,690
And they're like,

1208
00:44:41,720 --> 00:44:42,090
Oh yeah,

1209
00:44:42,110 --> 00:44:44,150
well we have way too much to do to go find

1210
00:44:44,150 --> 00:44:45,290
these problems ourselves.

1211
00:44:45,290 --> 00:44:47,540
So we just wait for sellers to snitch on each other.

1212
00:44:47,990 --> 00:44:49,040
Oh my gosh.

1213
00:44:49,100 --> 00:44:49,640
Well, you know,

1214
00:44:49,670 --> 00:44:50,480
honestly, I mean,

1215
00:44:50,510 --> 00:44:53,960
Amazon is so big and you want everybody playing by the

1216
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:57,380
rules. But I think like some of the rules people would

1217
00:44:57,380 --> 00:45:00,350
violate, not even knowing that they're violating,

1218
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:02,360
they're just trying to grow their businesses.

1219
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:03,620
So this is really interesting.

1220
00:45:03,890 --> 00:45:07,640
So don't ask for reviews in exchange for anything,

1221
00:45:07,790 --> 00:45:10,010
right? So don't bribe for reviews.

1222
00:45:10,370 --> 00:45:13,010
Exactly. It's either ask for reviews and then nothing,

1223
00:45:13,340 --> 00:45:17,780
silence, just reviews or freebies and getting their name and all

1224
00:45:17,780 --> 00:45:18,380
those sorts of things.

1225
00:45:18,410 --> 00:45:20,020
That's getting their sample size or whatever.

1226
00:45:20,020 --> 00:45:21,110
But don't mention reviews,

1227
00:45:21,530 --> 00:45:22,190
I guess one of the other,

1228
00:45:22,340 --> 00:45:25,160
you can't give the appearance of incentivizing reviews.

1229
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:25,850
Got it.

1230
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:28,550
Okay. What are a couple of other things that you see

1231
00:45:28,550 --> 00:45:32,210
people doing that are either not in accordance with what you

1232
00:45:32,210 --> 00:45:34,580
should be doing or just not a best practice overall?

1233
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:38,000
Yeah, I would say the other one that can come up

1234
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:41,540
sometimes is not providing sufficient warnings statements.

1235
00:45:41,930 --> 00:45:44,810
And this is something that a lot of people don't really

1236
00:45:44,810 --> 00:45:48,050
think about on Amazon or really anywhere else when you're a

1237
00:45:48,050 --> 00:45:48,500
small business.

1238
00:45:48,500 --> 00:45:48,860
Cause you're like,

1239
00:45:48,860 --> 00:45:50,660
well, why would they do something stupid like that?

1240
00:45:50,930 --> 00:45:53,600
But the reason why a lot of your big brand stuff

1241
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:55,400
has about four or five different warnings,

1242
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:56,660
sometimes a whole booklet of warning.

1243
00:45:56,660 --> 00:45:58,910
So what the product is because people have done that and

1244
00:45:58,910 --> 00:46:00,440
people have gotten sued over that.

1245
00:46:00,860 --> 00:46:03,590
And so you just want to make sure to cover yourself.

1246
00:46:03,650 --> 00:46:06,260
And so one of the things that I always recommend that

1247
00:46:06,260 --> 00:46:08,420
my clients do is they go into a regular store,

1248
00:46:08,420 --> 00:46:11,210
like a big box store or Walmart or target or something.

1249
00:46:11,690 --> 00:46:15,140
And they go buy a retail version of that product and

1250
00:46:15,140 --> 00:46:16,910
then make sure that on your product,

1251
00:46:16,910 --> 00:46:18,020
no matter how you package it,

1252
00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:21,410
that you have all of the warnings and required information that

1253
00:46:21,410 --> 00:46:23,990
the big brands have just to cover yourself.

1254
00:46:24,410 --> 00:46:25,820
Even if it's a handmade item,

1255
00:46:25,820 --> 00:46:27,980
you still just want to make sure that you're covered and

1256
00:46:28,010 --> 00:46:31,520
that you have warned people and that they can't get mad

1257
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:31,730
at you.

1258
00:46:31,730 --> 00:46:32,630
For certain things.

1259
00:46:33,110 --> 00:46:36,110
We have a client who used a special kind of ingredient

1260
00:46:36,110 --> 00:46:37,750
in some of their scrubs.

1261
00:46:37,820 --> 00:46:39,860
It's like a body scrub type thing to help her to

1262
00:46:39,860 --> 00:46:42,590
calluses. And if you leave it on for too long,

1263
00:46:42,620 --> 00:46:44,360
then it can make your skin a little bit red because

1264
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:44,930
of what's in it.

1265
00:46:45,380 --> 00:46:47,390
And he didn't have a warning on it at first.

1266
00:46:47,390 --> 00:46:47,960
So we were like,

1267
00:46:47,990 --> 00:46:48,140
no, no,

1268
00:46:48,140 --> 00:46:49,670
no warn the heck out of that thing.

1269
00:46:50,660 --> 00:46:52,880
Seriously, some customers.

1270
00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:53,210
And it's like,

1271
00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:53,690
well, yeah,

1272
00:46:53,720 --> 00:46:55,640
but that's better than having a customer,

1273
00:46:55,700 --> 00:46:58,220
have something go wrong and then suing you.

1274
00:46:58,250 --> 00:47:00,020
Like, it's really easy to Sue people here.

1275
00:47:00,020 --> 00:47:00,920
So one of the things,

1276
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:02,030
that's the easiest way to do it,

1277
00:47:02,030 --> 00:47:03,230
where it doesn't cost a lot.

1278
00:47:03,290 --> 00:47:05,810
And it's not going to be something that requires you talking

1279
00:47:05,810 --> 00:47:07,790
to a lawyer or talking to a lab to figure out

1280
00:47:07,790 --> 00:47:10,190
if it's safe or not just go into the store and

1281
00:47:10,190 --> 00:47:12,410
look at what's on a retail package already,

1282
00:47:12,740 --> 00:47:14,930
or buy something similar and take a look at that a

1283
00:47:14,930 --> 00:47:16,520
few years back on Etsy,

1284
00:47:16,550 --> 00:47:18,230
there was a whole slew of these,

1285
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:20,060
these baby slings that were sold.

1286
00:47:20,180 --> 00:47:22,100
And this one is just kind of heartbreaking,

1287
00:47:22,130 --> 00:47:25,430
but people didn't realize that if they held the baby at

1288
00:47:25,430 --> 00:47:26,360
the wrong angle,

1289
00:47:26,450 --> 00:47:27,500
babies can't move their heads.

1290
00:47:27,770 --> 00:47:29,440
So if they held the baby at the angle,

1291
00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:30,850
it would constrict their airway.

1292
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,540
And in some cases fully restricts the airway and the baby

1293
00:47:34,540 --> 00:47:35,440
would suffocate and die.

1294
00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:37,000
Oh my gosh.

1295
00:47:37,180 --> 00:47:38,980
From people selling slings,

1296
00:47:38,980 --> 00:47:41,590
it was like a whole thing 10 years ago about trying

1297
00:47:41,590 --> 00:47:43,180
to be more baby wearing.

1298
00:47:43,210 --> 00:47:45,910
And people were trying to do more things.

1299
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:49,030
These are parents who obviously love and care for their children.

1300
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:53,650
And just didn't realize that the low hanging sling around the

1301
00:47:53,650 --> 00:47:55,540
belly is not the correct way to hold a baby.

1302
00:47:55,540 --> 00:47:57,460
You want to have the sling to where the baby is

1303
00:47:57,460 --> 00:47:58,030
up top,

1304
00:47:58,060 --> 00:48:01,060
where their head is next to your chest and they're fully

1305
00:48:01,060 --> 00:48:03,490
vertical so that their head is supported and secure.

1306
00:48:03,970 --> 00:48:05,770
And there were just no worries on these things.

1307
00:48:05,830 --> 00:48:08,320
And I know that the people who made them did not

1308
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:09,790
intend for anything bad to happen,

1309
00:48:10,150 --> 00:48:12,130
but you have to be careful of your business.

1310
00:48:12,130 --> 00:48:13,990
You have to be careful of what you're offering.

1311
00:48:14,230 --> 00:48:17,080
And if you're giving someone a product that injures them or

1312
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:17,980
hurts their child,

1313
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:19,990
or they go to the hospital,

1314
00:48:20,020 --> 00:48:22,090
a lot of people in this country are not fully insured.

1315
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:23,950
And so if they're facing a 10,000

1316
00:48:23,950 --> 00:48:25,060
or $15,000

1317
00:48:25,090 --> 00:48:27,250
medical bill or heaven forbid more,

1318
00:48:27,250 --> 00:48:30,100
some people aren't insured and it's hundreds of thousands of dollars.

1319
00:48:30,490 --> 00:48:33,250
They may choose to go after you and try to get

1320
00:48:33,250 --> 00:48:35,770
money from you to pay for that circles back to why

1321
00:48:35,770 --> 00:48:36,970
you want to be an LLC.

1322
00:48:37,780 --> 00:48:38,920
Yeah, absolutely.

1323
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:43,710
You do not want your house to give you Anything else.

1324
00:48:43,710 --> 00:48:46,710
Any other mistakes that you've seen people make on Amazon that

1325
00:48:46,710 --> 00:48:47,850
you think we should know about?

1326
00:48:48,660 --> 00:48:51,660
I think the only other one for folks who are just

1327
00:48:51,660 --> 00:48:54,450
starting out is just going to broad all at once.

1328
00:48:54,540 --> 00:48:55,710
It can be tempting to be like,

1329
00:48:55,710 --> 00:48:56,070
look at me,

1330
00:48:56,070 --> 00:48:56,670
I'm a real brand.

1331
00:48:56,670 --> 00:48:57,480
I've got all this stuff,

1332
00:48:57,810 --> 00:48:59,850
but you don't know what it's going to work or how

1333
00:48:59,850 --> 00:49:00,420
it's going to work.

1334
00:49:00,420 --> 00:49:02,460
So if you have like 10 or 12 things that you've

1335
00:49:02,460 --> 00:49:03,360
been toying with,

1336
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:04,710
and you're not sure which one might work,

1337
00:49:05,100 --> 00:49:06,000
just put them up,

1338
00:49:06,030 --> 00:49:07,710
but don't invest a ton of money in it.

1339
00:49:07,740 --> 00:49:09,330
Like a small amount of money.

1340
00:49:09,330 --> 00:49:10,440
See what happens,

1341
00:49:10,950 --> 00:49:13,590
the ones that get traffic immediately,

1342
00:49:13,620 --> 00:49:15,660
even if it's only five or 10 people on the page,

1343
00:49:15,670 --> 00:49:17,070
the other one's only got one or two people.

1344
00:49:17,310 --> 00:49:18,660
Those are the ones to invest in.

1345
00:49:19,050 --> 00:49:20,310
And so you can kind of,

1346
00:49:20,340 --> 00:49:22,380
one of the things that Jeff B likes to say is

1347
00:49:22,380 --> 00:49:24,000
fail fast and fail often.

1348
00:49:24,510 --> 00:49:27,630
And the idea is that you don't keep chasing a losing

1349
00:49:27,630 --> 00:49:29,970
proposition. You test a lot of things.

1350
00:49:29,970 --> 00:49:32,100
You figure out which one is most likely to be successful.

1351
00:49:32,190 --> 00:49:34,530
And then you chase that with single-minded intensity,

1352
00:49:34,830 --> 00:49:36,990
but you leave other ones like nine out of 10 things

1353
00:49:36,990 --> 00:49:37,530
are going to fail,

1354
00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:39,600
right? So you try a bunch of things.

1355
00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:42,720
This one got 20 people to in on the page in

1356
00:49:42,720 --> 00:49:43,260
two weeks,

1357
00:49:43,260 --> 00:49:45,810
that really only got five people they want to 20 people

1358
00:49:45,810 --> 00:49:46,740
is the one worth pursuing.

1359
00:49:46,830 --> 00:49:50,010
Right? And so then you can really see what the direction

1360
00:49:50,010 --> 00:49:52,260
is that you should go without investing a whole lot.

1361
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:55,050
And then what's the whole sunk cost fallacy.

1362
00:49:55,050 --> 00:49:56,220
I spent a lot of time on it.

1363
00:49:56,220 --> 00:49:57,540
So therefore it's worth my time.

1364
00:49:57,930 --> 00:49:58,530
It's not,

1365
00:49:58,770 --> 00:50:01,470
if it something that is like your favorite thing and you

1366
00:50:01,470 --> 00:50:02,280
absolutely love it.

1367
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:03,930
And it's the best thing for you.

1368
00:50:04,230 --> 00:50:06,300
And then you see that it sells one or two items

1369
00:50:06,300 --> 00:50:07,560
a day and you're like,

1370
00:50:07,710 --> 00:50:08,730
Oh, that's terrible.

1371
00:50:08,730 --> 00:50:10,590
And your other one sells five or seven items a day.

1372
00:50:10,590 --> 00:50:12,390
Then invest in the one that sells five or seven,

1373
00:50:12,390 --> 00:50:14,280
no matter how you feel about the one that's selling slow.

1374
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:15,510
Okay. Absolutely.

1375
00:50:15,570 --> 00:50:17,100
It's so hard to do though,

1376
00:50:17,100 --> 00:50:17,820
because you know,

1377
00:50:17,820 --> 00:50:18,360
as a maker,

1378
00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:20,130
you have your favorite one.

1379
00:50:20,340 --> 00:50:21,600
And if it's not the mover,

1380
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:22,080
it's like,

1381
00:50:22,110 --> 00:50:23,340
people just aren't getting it.

1382
00:50:23,370 --> 00:50:24,600
Maybe it's the wrong audience.

1383
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:25,620
This is so beautiful.

1384
00:50:25,620 --> 00:50:26,670
This is the best,

1385
00:50:26,990 --> 00:50:27,320
you know,

1386
00:50:27,350 --> 00:50:29,180
but your audience gets to choose you.

1387
00:50:29,180 --> 00:50:31,400
Don't I think it's Gary Vaynerchuk that says that,

1388
00:50:31,430 --> 00:50:31,610
you know,

1389
00:50:31,610 --> 00:50:34,700
the market says all they have the final say right.

1390
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:35,690
Of what it is.

1391
00:50:35,690 --> 00:50:37,820
So that's exactly what you're talking about.

1392
00:50:38,180 --> 00:50:39,680
Another question occurred to me.

1393
00:50:39,740 --> 00:50:43,370
What about consumable products on Amazon handmade?

1394
00:50:43,370 --> 00:50:47,180
So if someone makes decorator cookies or something like that,

1395
00:50:47,270 --> 00:50:50,150
is that acceptable in Amazon handmade food,

1396
00:50:50,860 --> 00:50:53,260
It is not acceptable on Amazon handmade.

1397
00:50:53,260 --> 00:50:55,480
So you would have to have a regular Amazon account for

1398
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:59,200
that. And we have had clients who sell on Amazon.

1399
00:50:59,230 --> 00:51:02,080
The only thing that I would say about that is that

1400
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:06,130
you do want to make sure that you are registered with

1401
00:51:06,130 --> 00:51:06,760
the FDA.

1402
00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:09,370
If you're going to be making food for consumption,

1403
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:12,910
they do have some small maker rules.

1404
00:51:12,910 --> 00:51:14,830
And then you also have your local requirements,

1405
00:51:14,830 --> 00:51:17,110
like definitely check your requirements.

1406
00:51:17,110 --> 00:51:20,170
So sometimes people forget to get permits that they need to

1407
00:51:20,170 --> 00:51:21,700
have. Sometimes there's County permits.

1408
00:51:21,700 --> 00:51:22,870
Sometimes their state permits.

1409
00:51:23,170 --> 00:51:25,180
If you're going to do consumables,

1410
00:51:25,180 --> 00:51:26,770
make sure you get everything organized.

1411
00:51:26,770 --> 00:51:29,050
And it's like those terrible stories of inspectors showing up.

1412
00:51:29,050 --> 00:51:31,840
And you're dumping bleach on all the brownies that people are.

1413
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:34,930
So, but it's really important to make sure that your paperwork

1414
00:51:34,930 --> 00:51:36,430
is in order if you're doing consumables.

1415
00:51:36,430 --> 00:51:36,820
For sure.

1416
00:51:37,210 --> 00:51:39,310
Absolutely. So that would be a seller account,

1417
00:51:39,310 --> 00:51:39,880
not a handmaid,

1418
00:51:40,780 --> 00:51:43,540
Right? So handmade skincare and topicals,

1419
00:51:43,540 --> 00:51:44,350
but not consumable.

1420
00:51:44,860 --> 00:51:46,090
Okay. Perfect.

1421
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:50,230
Wonderful. So tell us a little bit more about your business,

1422
00:51:50,230 --> 00:51:52,870
what you're specifically doing and share a little bit more about

1423
00:51:52,870 --> 00:51:54,010
where people could find you.

1424
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:59,740
Yeah. So I help sellers with growing on Amazon for optimization

1425
00:51:59,740 --> 00:52:00,320
of listings.

1426
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:02,080
So like doing search engine optimization,

1427
00:52:02,380 --> 00:52:03,460
doing photography,

1428
00:52:03,700 --> 00:52:06,940
just making really beautiful listings that grab people's attention.

1429
00:52:06,970 --> 00:52:10,420
We also help with strategies to get reviews strategies,

1430
00:52:10,420 --> 00:52:12,580
to get attention on your product.

1431
00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:15,340
And the best place to find us is actually our website.

1432
00:52:15,460 --> 00:52:18,340
So www.thinkcascadia.com

1433
00:52:18,790 --> 00:52:20,410
and Cascadia is where we're from.

1434
00:52:20,410 --> 00:52:22,780
I was born and raised in the Seattle area and the

1435
00:52:22,780 --> 00:52:25,450
cascade mountains run through British Columbia,

1436
00:52:25,450 --> 00:52:26,500
Washington, and Oregon.

1437
00:52:26,830 --> 00:52:29,830
So this part of the world is called Cascadia.

1438
00:52:30,460 --> 00:52:31,060
And a lot of it,

1439
00:52:31,090 --> 00:52:35,350
my daughter almost moved to Seattle before March of 2020.

1440
00:52:35,860 --> 00:52:36,490
And instead,

1441
00:52:36,490 --> 00:52:37,360
now she's in Denver,

1442
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:40,960
which is equally wonderful for us as you move forward.

1443
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:41,230
I mean,

1444
00:52:41,260 --> 00:52:44,680
obviously with the time that we've just gone through everyone's buying

1445
00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:49,600
online, people are so much more comfortable or will purchase online

1446
00:52:49,630 --> 00:52:51,460
just because that's what we've had to do.

1447
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:54,100
What do you see for the future of e-commerce?

1448
00:52:54,730 --> 00:52:56,590
I just think it's going to keep getting better.

1449
00:52:56,860 --> 00:52:59,260
The thing that was interesting about this here is that it

1450
00:52:59,260 --> 00:53:01,810
kind of trained a bunch of people who had been resisting

1451
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:04,390
going digital by digitally.

1452
00:53:04,390 --> 00:53:06,580
And so one of the things I thought was really interesting

1453
00:53:06,580 --> 00:53:09,970
is the paperless menus restaurants now have trained people to know

1454
00:53:09,970 --> 00:53:10,870
what a QR code is.

1455
00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:12,430
So now that I see a QR code,

1456
00:53:12,430 --> 00:53:12,730
I'm like,

1457
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:14,950
Oh, I could go get that freebie that I just got

1458
00:53:14,950 --> 00:53:15,310
in the mail.

1459
00:53:15,310 --> 00:53:16,330
Whereas before I was like,

1460
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:17,800
I don't anyone understand.

1461
00:53:18,100 --> 00:53:21,220
And it's something that people who are more tech involved,

1462
00:53:21,220 --> 00:53:23,140
like there was some guys that at Amazon who were super

1463
00:53:23,140 --> 00:53:25,060
into this when I was there years ago and they were,

1464
00:53:25,260 --> 00:53:26,730
Oh, we're going to have a QR code or everything is

1465
00:53:26,730 --> 00:53:27,450
going to be really cool.

1466
00:53:27,450 --> 00:53:28,020
You can see this,

1467
00:53:28,020 --> 00:53:28,500
you can see that.

1468
00:53:28,500 --> 00:53:30,240
And like this looks at a QR code.

1469
00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:30,720
That's weird.

1470
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:33,300
And now everyone knows that QR codes are no matter what

1471
00:53:33,300 --> 00:53:34,200
your age is,

1472
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:36,630
because anyone who's been to a restaurant in the last six

1473
00:53:36,630 --> 00:53:38,430
months has experienced the QR code menu.

1474
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:40,980
Oh, it's just easier for the restaurant to do.

1475
00:53:40,980 --> 00:53:43,530
And so now customers know what to do when they see

1476
00:53:43,530 --> 00:53:44,190
a QR code,

1477
00:53:44,870 --> 00:53:45,080
You know,

1478
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:48,860
it's so interesting because QR codes did kind of go out

1479
00:53:48,860 --> 00:53:50,180
of popularity for a while.

1480
00:53:50,180 --> 00:53:51,020
They were the big thing.

1481
00:53:51,020 --> 00:53:52,250
Everyone was excited about them.

1482
00:53:52,550 --> 00:53:53,930
Then they a little bit,

1483
00:53:54,050 --> 00:53:54,260
you know,

1484
00:53:54,260 --> 00:53:55,970
people weren't using them as much anymore.

1485
00:53:55,970 --> 00:53:56,180
I mean,

1486
00:53:56,180 --> 00:53:57,680
you'd see them around from time to time,

1487
00:53:57,680 --> 00:53:58,670
but no big deal.

1488
00:53:58,940 --> 00:54:00,920
Well now all of a sudden you're absolutely right.

1489
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:02,480
They are back full force.

1490
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:03,260
For sure.

1491
00:54:03,620 --> 00:54:06,470
I, in the summer had been going out to a number

1492
00:54:06,470 --> 00:54:09,710
of craft shows just to see how these events were taking

1493
00:54:09,710 --> 00:54:13,070
place with social distancing and temperatures and like all of that.

1494
00:54:13,340 --> 00:54:17,810
And there's so many less to your point paper menus,

1495
00:54:17,840 --> 00:54:21,860
but also brochures or anything that would be managed or handled

1496
00:54:21,890 --> 00:54:22,760
yet. Instead.

1497
00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:24,170
Now there were QR codes.

1498
00:54:24,170 --> 00:54:26,510
So people who were going to the booths take your phone,

1499
00:54:26,510 --> 00:54:27,620
click the QR code,

1500
00:54:27,620 --> 00:54:29,090
and there you've got all the information.

1501
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:31,670
So I think it is something for us to pay attention

1502
00:54:31,670 --> 00:54:34,310
to and figure out how we might integrate that into our

1503
00:54:34,310 --> 00:54:36,320
business. I think it's a really good point.

1504
00:54:36,860 --> 00:54:39,440
And so you have older people who had never paid attention

1505
00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:40,130
to any of this.

1506
00:54:40,190 --> 00:54:41,600
I'm not going to say that I'm older,

1507
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:42,770
but I definitely was.

1508
00:54:43,130 --> 00:54:44,690
I'm the Oregon trail generation,

1509
00:54:44,720 --> 00:54:46,790
the ones that played Oregon trail in schools when it was

1510
00:54:46,790 --> 00:54:51,650
like those old computers card catalog at the library.

1511
00:54:51,740 --> 00:54:55,100
And I tend to shy away from too much technology.

1512
00:54:55,100 --> 00:54:56,540
I liked doing things where analog,

1513
00:54:56,540 --> 00:54:57,080
where I can,

1514
00:54:57,560 --> 00:54:58,880
and this year has just been,

1515
00:54:58,910 --> 00:54:59,570
it's all been at all,

1516
00:54:59,810 --> 00:55:00,440
like, okay,

1517
00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:03,680
fine. And so even people who have resisted it have just

1518
00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:05,210
been like fine it's time.

1519
00:55:06,290 --> 00:55:06,920
Yeah, for sure.

1520
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:08,360
And I think it is here to stay.

1521
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:08,720
I mean,

1522
00:55:08,780 --> 00:55:12,050
as we open up again and are able to get back

1523
00:55:12,050 --> 00:55:14,720
whatever portion of the past lives we had,

1524
00:55:14,720 --> 00:55:15,320
we'll get back,

1525
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:16,640
hopefully most of it.

1526
00:55:16,910 --> 00:55:19,490
But I think some of the things will stay and definitely

1527
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:22,640
more acceptance with online and purchasing online.

1528
00:55:22,640 --> 00:55:24,860
And then things like you're talking about QR codes and other

1529
00:55:24,860 --> 00:55:28,700
things I absolutely loved going on tourist trips to where I

1530
00:55:28,700 --> 00:55:30,410
would go into a little store and there'd be all these

1531
00:55:30,410 --> 00:55:31,730
cool artists and things there,

1532
00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:34,100
and little gift shops and so on.

1533
00:55:34,100 --> 00:55:36,050
And I think that one of the things that people are

1534
00:55:36,050 --> 00:55:38,900
going to start doing is a lot more kind of offline

1535
00:55:38,900 --> 00:55:41,960
and online connection because it would be really great if you're

1536
00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:44,540
in a cute little store and you see these beautiful jewelry

1537
00:55:44,540 --> 00:55:46,730
items, there should be a QR code that shows you how

1538
00:55:46,730 --> 00:55:49,490
to follow a person for new designs or go to their

1539
00:55:49,490 --> 00:55:52,040
website and join the mailing list for new designs.

1540
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:54,020
Cause there's plenty of people that I would do that for

1541
00:55:54,170 --> 00:55:58,100
like jewelry items or beautiful scarves or various handmade things that

1542
00:55:58,280 --> 00:55:59,420
are uniquely made.

1543
00:55:59,420 --> 00:55:59,960
And so then you're like,

1544
00:55:59,960 --> 00:56:01,550
maybe I really want to get that to my mom next

1545
00:56:01,550 --> 00:56:05,990
Christmas. And so kind of connecting online and offline in that

1546
00:56:05,990 --> 00:56:07,640
way. I like that.

1547
00:56:07,670 --> 00:56:08,180
I like that.

1548
00:56:08,180 --> 00:56:09,680
And you were saying a little while ago,

1549
00:56:09,680 --> 00:56:12,920
too, how you really enjoy knowing who the artist is.

1550
00:56:13,190 --> 00:56:14,690
I'm even seeing a QR code,

1551
00:56:14,690 --> 00:56:15,560
like your saying,

1552
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:19,160
if there's like an artist in market where you're not sitting

1553
00:56:19,370 --> 00:56:20,570
where your displays are,

1554
00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:22,400
whether it's consignment or wholesale,

1555
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:24,790
however it's to your product Is displayed,

1556
00:56:24,790 --> 00:56:29,260
but you're not there having a QR code that referenced back

1557
00:56:29,260 --> 00:56:33,190
to a video of you creating the product or how to

1558
00:56:33,190 --> 00:56:34,810
use a product demos,

1559
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:38,350
anything to grow followers,

1560
00:56:38,740 --> 00:56:40,180
anything to grow your followers.

1561
00:56:40,180 --> 00:56:42,040
Absolutely. Well,

1562
00:56:42,130 --> 00:56:44,440
Rachel, this has been so interesting.

1563
00:56:44,710 --> 00:56:46,450
There's so many things about Amazon,

1564
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:49,570
even though I feel like I'm on there every single day

1565
00:56:49,900 --> 00:56:53,290
that I didn't know from a seller perspective and handmade for

1566
00:56:53,290 --> 00:56:53,890
sure too.

1567
00:56:53,890 --> 00:56:56,170
So this has been very enlightening,

1568
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:57,730
very, very helpful.

1569
00:56:58,060 --> 00:57:00,220
And I thank you so much for coming on the show

1570
00:57:00,220 --> 00:57:01,450
and sharing with us today.

1571
00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:03,760
Thank you so much for having me.

1572
00:57:07,150 --> 00:57:10,540
How refreshing is it to think that you don't have to,

1573
00:57:10,810 --> 00:57:15,520
nor should you load your entire Amazon handmade account with all

1574
00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:16,330
your items,

1575
00:57:17,110 --> 00:57:20,320
pick the products that are positioned to perform the best there,

1576
00:57:20,770 --> 00:57:24,190
adjust their names and descriptions if necessary and give it a

1577
00:57:24,190 --> 00:57:26,140
go. Now,

1578
00:57:26,680 --> 00:57:28,210
what do we have coming up next week?

1579
00:57:28,870 --> 00:57:32,200
I'm going to talk about virtual craft shows.

1580
00:57:32,770 --> 00:57:35,320
I can see this as an up and coming best practice

1581
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:39,340
to integrate into your marketing and sales strategy immediately.

1582
00:57:39,820 --> 00:57:42,670
We'll talk about why I say this and what it's all

1583
00:57:42,670 --> 00:57:46,450
about next Monday as always,

1584
00:57:46,690 --> 00:57:49,180
thanks so much for spending time with me today.

1585
00:57:49,660 --> 00:57:51,760
If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

1586
00:57:51,820 --> 00:57:53,650
please leave a rating and review.

1587
00:57:53,920 --> 00:57:56,890
That means the world to me and helps our show get

1588
00:57:56,890 --> 00:57:58,180
seen by more makers.

1589
00:57:58,570 --> 00:58:01,660
It's a great way to pay it forward and now be

1590
00:58:01,660 --> 00:58:02,560
safe and well.

1591
00:58:02,980 --> 00:58:05,260
And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz

1592
00:58:05,290 --> 00:58:10,980
unwrapped. I want to make sure you're familiar with my free

1593
00:58:10,980 --> 00:58:14,070
Facebook group called gift is breeze.

1594
00:58:14,430 --> 00:58:18,090
It's a place where we all gather and are a community

1595
00:58:18,090 --> 00:58:19,500
to support each other.

1596
00:58:19,940 --> 00:58:22,080
Got a really fun post in there.

1597
00:58:22,080 --> 00:58:23,430
That's my favorite of the week.

1598
00:58:23,430 --> 00:58:26,340
I have to say where I invite all of you to

1599
00:58:26,340 --> 00:58:29,460
share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

1600
00:58:29,610 --> 00:58:32,850
to show what you're working on for the week to get

1601
00:58:32,850 --> 00:58:35,820
reactions from other people and just for fun,

1602
00:58:35,820 --> 00:58:39,420
because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

1603
00:58:39,420 --> 00:58:43,950
in the community is making my favorite posts every single week,

1604
00:58:43,980 --> 00:58:45,360
without doubt.

1605
00:58:46,050 --> 00:58:47,130
Wait, what,

1606
00:58:48,030 --> 00:58:49,650
aren't you part of the group already,

1607
00:58:50,310 --> 00:58:53,700
if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

1608
00:58:53,700 --> 00:58:57,180
for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.

1609
00:58:57,660 --> 00:59:00,600
Come join us in gift biz breeze today.