264 : Chris Grant – Get a Plan for 2018 so your ecommerce business happens for you not to you
Chris does a great job of breaking down his plan to earn x. (x is a pretty big number) Chris uses Internet Marketing to supplement his FBA business and honestly he loves the learning. I also like how his mentor is younger than him. Yes that is a sign of the times. You can and must learn from the marketplace users to understand the marketplace. (Ecommerce users are younger)
Mentioned:
REVROI (50% discount!!)
Sponsors:
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00] When I think my sponsor today they really make the show happen. I just couldn’t do it without them. You know Siller labs in scope you’ve heard me talk about it a ton of times because I’ve used them so many times. The beauty is you know you have a product you want to put the right keywords because it’s all about keywords right when you know that the key word is what people are searching for right. When you’re thinking of buying barbecue gloves what do you put in there that’s what you want to figure out what are people searching for. Well school allows you to do that because you get to see the number one number two number three seller in that category in that group that are similar products you get to see what their words are. Well that’s the key. There’s no reinventing the wheel here.
Stephen: [00:40] You’re going to take advantage of this information that’s available that scope presents for you. Tool was very inexpensive. They’re going to give you a couple of free keywords you got to give it a shot. So labs dot com solar labs dot com forward slash school use the code momentum to save 50 bucks say 50 bucks. Give it a shot. Give it a trial. Get some free keywords and see what you can do. Remember I also use it on my wholesale accounts or if you do bundles even better because you could take the keywords for each of those products in the bundle. Figure out the best and put it together several labs dot com forward slash scope use the code word momentum when it say thank you to Karen Larcker from solutions for e-commerce prepaid and a great account manager.
Stephen: [01:26] Yes you’ve heard me say a bunch of times but I mean it because our Q4 was spectacular because of all the variations for a particular line we had that Karen entered. Seventy eight of them I believe and now I’m adding a bunch more because we’re not done. I mean it’s Tom a year going to sell right into January February and March. So she’s getting ready to add a bunch more. That’s the power of having that team member. That team works overnight. Quite frankly they work different hours than I do. She sends a file she’s XTI fill in these particular fields shoot it back to me and boom they get it done and you get it and fast and it just as allowed us to grow. It’s that silent team member that don’t call of sick they just handle things solutions.
Stephen: [02:08] The number for e-commerce dot com slash momentum’s going to save you 50 bucks and she’s going to do that all important inventory Health Report. She only does that for my listeners only through this deal. You’re going to save 50 bucks and you’re going to get that inventory Health Report solutions for e-commerce dot com slash momentum. Get ready for them too. Here now is the time. Very excited. Hill coming up pretty soon and she’s going to talk to you of why it’s so important to get ready for 2018. Hey Gala’s bees group. That was awesome this quarter and I can’t believe the stuff that was posted in there I saw so many people have so much access and credit her group with having incredible success. Yes it’s still close. However they’re letting you get in through my link on only my link.
Stephen: [02:55] And so I have a link out on this episode that will allow you to click through and get on the waiting list and guess what you’ll get right in. So it’s a special list. The other thing which is cool is there’s so many people learning because gays a teacher was a teacher still a teacher in this world now and we’re very lucky to have her. And so gateless group it’s awesome awesome group. Send her a note that I sent you. And you’re going to get in and it’s going to set you up for real success for 2018. I don’t want to miss Go Daddy because they’ve been so good to me. I just so excited that they’re a sponsor of the show because I bought so many domains through them and it’s so cool. So if you go to try go daddy dot com forward slash momentum.
Stephen: [03:35] You’re going to save 30 percent off your purchase eco daddy. I’m going I want to go back and do my purchases over because I’d like to save that 30 percent. Hello. But I am getting ready to buy a couple more domains again. When I see a big idea or if I’m bringing a brand new market I’m buying that domain. You’d be a fool not to so try go daddy dot com forward slash momentum save 30 percent. Awesome. And finally today grasshopper the grasshopper is the app you put on your phone so you can run your business from your current cell phone. Don’t add a second cell phone appear larger when it’s put a low call vanity number if you want or a local 800 number to make you appear a little larger on what you are.
Stephen: [04:14] Had the phone forwarded to your current cell phone how it forwarded to voicemail habit forwarded to your reps work in other countries for your UVAs. You have all those options and it’s just try grasshopper dot com forward slash momenta and you’re going to save 50 bucks. Try grasshopper dot com slash momentum.
Cool voice guy: [04:34] Welcome to the e-commerce board will focus on the Habibollah the products and the process of e-commerce selling your host Steve Peters welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This
Stephen: [04:50] is episode 264. Chris Grant I’ve had Chris on the show before Episode 120. Way back then I’ll have a link in this episode and he can get his backstory there. But what’s so cool for me is to watch him continue to evolve as the e-commerce world changes and evolves. Chris has put his head down and did the work. He’s still NFPA. However he’s also an Internet marketer and he wears that badge with courage. Because I still think that him and I think Nate McAllister there are two good examples of people that offer tools that people want. You know it’s kind of kind of funny like you actually want something and somebody actually puts it together for you. They charge for it but they actually do it and I think that that’s a skill set the execution piece of it I think the follow through.
Stephen: [05:44] We all have a million ideas. Most of us can’t get out of our way to get it started and Chris will tell you. He’s never coded a line of programming so therefore he has other people do it. But the ability to have other people do what you want and understand it. That’s a skill set and he’s able to charge for it. So it’s a really good example. Let’s get into the podcast I think it’s great for 2018 planning. All
Stephen: [06:06] right welcome back to the e-commerce MMN podcast very excited about today’s guest because in our preshow we are talking about it. It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to Christopher Grann. Welcome Chris.
Chris: [06:18] Thank you sir for having me I appreciate it.
Stephen: [06:20] I appreciate you coming back on. It was August of 2016. Episode number 1. Number 120. It’s
Stephen: [06:29] incredible to me that we’ve more than doubled that since that year’s story is there so if somebody wants to go hear a great story about drop shipping on eBay and how you get going and what you can do with it and what it’s led to. And at that time we were talking about that you were looking to create residual income that was your model.
Stephen: [06:50] Let me ask you this is Nate older or younger than you.
Chris: [06:55] Nate is younger than me.
Stephen: [06:57] And is this fair. He’s been a mentor to you.
Chris: [07:01] Absolutely. That’s something I find absolutely fascinating in the Amazon world. People may not remember I come from an insurance background. And you know it is kind of like you think it’s corporate it’s stuffy and the kings of the hill are elder statesmen as well.
Stephen: [07:24] So do which. Yes I can relate to that somewhat.
Chris: [07:29] And you know in internet business in Amazon in e-commerce you know these guys who are out there crushing it are 20 21 27. And you know I’m 32 and I think of guys like you know Tyler Nelson and Sky brands. You know these guys these guys are kids and I have so I used this line is a truth though I have socks older than both of you know and and these I can learn from these guys. I can learn from from guys like yourself you know guys in between. And I mean you’re really you’re really need to be open to not allowing age to be a barrier to who you learn from especially in this kind of internet. You know e-commerce 2.0 world that we’re living in now.
Stephen: [08:26] There’s no doubt. And so you know I would say Nejd is an outlier. I mean I there’s no doubt in my mind he’s an outlier. I mean he’s very good at a lot of different things. And when you have an outlier you know how rare an outlier is right. You’ve got to you know they can teach you an enormous amount of things. Now you know does he know about basket weaving or what. I don’t know. But in this world and in marketing or whatever he’s into he really does very well with it. So why not learn from a 20 something year old or he’s probably getting close to 30 now. But I mean why not. To me that’s the beauty of it right. You know you don’t only have to learn from Warren Buffett although let’s face it you could.
Stephen: [09:08] It’s incredible. But I think you can learn a little bit from like Mark Zuckerberg or a Gary Vaynerchuk right. Younger guys. And so I think it’s I think it’s a very good statement. It fascinates me that he is a mentor to you. You have definitely adopted a lot of what he’s done and emulated it to a lot of success.
Chris: [09:28] Fair I would say that’s fair Absolutely. The
Stephen: [09:32] other thing that I would say that I notice is that you’re willing to partner up a lot with well with Knape but with others too. And
Stephen: [09:42] I think that that is another strength was that easy for you to do.
Chris: [09:48] It is. I think that I think that we all have different strengths and.
Chris: [09:56] I am I will be honest I don’t believe that I’m the best idea guy. You know I do have ideas and occasionally they are their home runs but but I find my strength the B is execution. And once we have a plan in place making that plan happen. And so that’s why I actually like to team up with people because I can kind of specialize and focus on what I’m really really good at.
Stephen: [10:30] I think execution is ninety five percent of it. The idea is you know everybody has ideas right. Think of all the ideas that you didn’t execute and somebody else did. And then all of a sudden you’re like wait i thought of that before right. But you didn’t do anything with it or you couldn’t do anything with it. And so the fact that that is your skill set. I think that’s 95 percent of the role ideas. I’m half a million of them I’ve got 2 million domains from all the ideas that I have and yet have I pulled the trigger on them now. And so execution I think is the biggest challenge. How does that.
Stephen: [11:05] Mean. Is that a develop skill or is that something that you’re just born with specific to you.
Chris: [11:14] For me I would say that it’s a developed skill.
Chris: [11:19] I was I was a shoot from the hip you know kind of guy when I was selling insurance and I was here and I was there and when I when my income became solely independent upon the amount of work that I put into my business I knew that I had to buckle down and put in the put in the work execute the plan to make sure I have an income and my family eats next month. What
Stephen: [11:51] you mentioned is specific skills that you’ve developed and the thing that I heard in there was a plan is that the place where somebody needs to start. I mean think about you know you’ve been able to execute and build this skill set if execution is 95 percent success and I absolutely believe that that you know define.
Stephen: [12:11] You get lucky once in a while. Right. I think I think Mark Cuban is a good example of somebody who put in the time but then got lucky when he sold to Yahoo. Because Yahoo is in a crazy buying mode at the time and it’s a net. He was one of those lucky guy who did a lot of work. Don’t
Stephen: [12:25] get me wrong but he got lucky. Our bench replanning and that’s a that’s probably it isn’t it.
Chris: [12:34] I think so. And it doesn’t have to be. It doesn’t have to be this broad wireframe it doesn’t need to be you know a complete 30 page business plan. It really you at least need have something that’s that back of a cocktail napkin and ready for you to execute on.
Chris: [12:55] You know I think people over think it and I’m pretty active in the groups and I think people asking question after question and taking every single course they’re looking at every single youtube video but then never pulling the trigger on something.
Chris: [13:11] And you need to have a plan. But that plan has to. Coincide with the action for you to be able to move forward.
Stephen: [13:21] Well is it then let’s take it a step further. Is the plan. Does it need to be broken down or their little little winds right little milestones. I always feel good about like when I’m on a diet it’s like oh I’ve lost a little bit or I made it through that week. You know I’m trying to break my my my diet down in a daze now literally I can eat well for four days. That’s better than not eating well for four days. Right. And so I’m trying that module is that’s something that somebody can use to if especially if their their privacy is right if they’re just analyzing forever.
Chris: [13:53] Absolutely. Now I saw a bad piece of advice the other in a Facebook group that if you if you kind of spend a little bit it turns into a good piece of advice. And it talked about spending a dollar a day on product and spending two dollars tomorrow on other maps was completely off. But the concept is a good one. You have a pretty good broke down there. You know I’m going to watch six hours of youtube videos and I’m going to read books and then I need to go out and I need to pay some tuition and put some skin in the game. To actually practice what I’m learning. Because there are two ways to really cement what you learn. One is by doing and two is by teaching. And so you just have to do it.
Stephen: [14:53] I agree with the teaching method for sure. I always whenever you know it’s almost like reassuring when I’m saying it over again and I’m helping somebody else and they’re having success. It’s like it gives me that little bit more confidence and then it’s just like I can really move forward with it. OK so we’re going to break the plan down into smaller steps smaller bite size pieces and actually pull the trigger. Is it me. So do you have a plan for 2010 18 let me ask you that. I
Chris: [15:19] do. OK. So it’s written down. You
Stephen: [15:21] have a written plan for 2018. Do you break it down by month by segment by quarter. Sigmon meaning revenue. So for example your apps are going to do this and you’re going to you know you add your personal life and I know there’s a bunch of questions. But I mean how elaborate is it. I
Chris: [15:40] have I have business goals and then my wife and I have personal goals separately. And what we do is we work on the personal goals and then I work on my business goals my business goals. I’m not as detail oriented as some might think my business goals are bullet points and then revenue based.
Chris: [16:02] So I know how much money I want to make next year. I then break that down into how much money I need to make every month and then I break that further down into where I want that money to come from. Whether it’s my Amazon business my affiliates my software and then I also.
Chris: [16:26] Figure out what new ideas I want to take action on. You know I’ve had a couple of ideas that I’ve let fester for a while and I think it’s time to bring them to fruition. So those goals are written down and then I’m more of a list guy. So I just try to cross things off the list I put them in order of importance. And then I go out and do what I need to do to be able to check those off.
Stephen: [16:54] I like it. So when it comes to the revenue side because you know I’m a little bit more the math guy is it you know how many customers. Let’s use one of your softwares and let’s say you make 20 dollars per customer and make this up. And so is it literally. OK. I want to make you know a thousand dollars a month on my software. And I’ve got three different softwares and so on this particular one I want to make 500 dollars and therefore at 20 dollars I need to have 50 customers. Right. I’m a behemoth. What did I say five hundred. Yes so. So now I need to have 25 customers and I already have 13. So that means I need 12 more customers so therefore I need to develop a plan to develop 12 customers. Is that is that kind of the bullet point in you and then you break that down further in there. Yes
Chris: [17:44] I’ll break that down further into here’s how here’s what my conversion rate is based on what it is.
Stephen: [17:50] Yes so you got to pitch 100 people to sell 10 right. And then so then you build the cost out for 10. Do you actually build out a cost side other in addition to the revenue side that’s that is so tough. When we’re talking when we’re talking Internet marketing.
Chris: [18:11] You can kind of figure out what your ad spend is going to be and say you know while I’m on going to spend X amount of dollars this month on ads but then you also have organic traffic which you know I try to do with my blog and I have an e-mail list. And so it’s kind of difficult to figure out exactly how much I’m going to need to spend. You know my e-mail list is much more much more useful than Facebook ads.
Stephen: [18:41] Right. And there’s no cost for your e-mail list. And other than bringing more customers on it. So then so do you say look I want to make 90000 dollars next year. Do you then say well I know I’m going to have 30000 expense. So therefore I’ll net 60. Or
Chris: [18:58] do you say I got to take him 120 less than 30 so I get to 90 I think about 120 30.
Stephen: [19:07] So get them 9d. You get to 90. So it’s net. So you’ve already considered that cost OK. All right. And then you can execute that well or not. How different is it today versus a couple of years ago. I mean it’s got to be easier for you and I’m sure it’s harder because there’s more people doing it but it’s got to be easier for you because you’ve had so much success with these things and I know not everything’s been successful but you’ve had you’ve had some really good you know some home runs like we said is it a lot easier.
Chris: [19:40] I don’t I don’t think so. Ideas what we call ideas are a dime a dozen. They’re still hard. You know they’re difficult to properly execute. You know for for everything that everything that looks like a home run in public and you know in our community there’s there’s 15 things that I’ve spent money on and failed. You know so I don’t think it’s gotten any easier. You know the space’s dynamic tastes are changing. You know I remember a couple of years ago you could throw together a list of products.
Stephen: [20:20] And people would be knocking on your door down to buy them so they could then resell them and you know today’s Amazon’s seller kind of sticks their nose up at that which I don’t I don’t think is wrong. You know so the market has evolved gotten a little bit more educated yes educated and it’s not a negative.
Stephen: [20:44] I mean it’s not like they were dumb don’t mean it that way it just means that they can do it like a tech to learn which they can do some of that themselves. Exactly
Chris: [20:52] . And so I don’t think it’s necessarily gotten harder or easier but it definitely has not gotten harder. And I think that part of that is. Part of that is me trying to be known and actually try to help people. First I try to you know educate a tribe to share information so that others can succeed. And then I think in return you get a pat on the back in the form of buying software from me or signing up to my e-mail list.
Stephen: [21:29] And if they buy that’s the applause right when they spend money with you that’s the applause right that’s how I forget. Who says that write dollar bills or the applause of for business. And so. Because of that. Have you thought about because of the dynamic nature of this business how quickly it’s evolving and changing. And you guys have earned some respect and so therefore you do get some credibility with that but have you thought about going into other markets other you know other spaces than just FBA or eBay or e-commerce only.
Chris: [22:03] Oh absolutely. You know I thought I’ve thought about moving into the into the marketing side into you know Facebook ad agency. They’re all there are a lot of things that I’m interested in. I just need to learn them a bit more before I would do that. But
Stephen: [22:21] it’s absolutely crossed my mind when when you think of sellers now because you get a lot of people who you know create courses or you know create a list like you’re describing in that and have done OK or maybe not so. OK. What’s your advice to people who are thinking about getting in the information space.
Chris: [22:45] Be honest. I mean.
Chris: [22:49] Before anything else just be truthful. You can yeah. I am not a million dollar seller. You know I’m I’m probably never going to be a million dollar seller because that’s not where my my real passion is now. I like the income. And I think that Amazon has an incredible opportunity. But I consider myself a teacher first. And you really need to be honest. If you’re not selling a million dollars don’t. Don’t say you are and if you don’t know how to do something don’t don’t make something up.
Stephen: [23:31] Fake it till you make it. That used to be a phrase right that was acceptable absolutely not in this world just you know make some big mistakes now and you will be called out on it.
Stephen: [23:42] You know we would say that people are keyboard warriors. But sometimes that is for the common good. You know when people will call you out on the map and say what you’ve done is wrong. And I think it not only keeps our feet to the fire to stay honest but it also can you know wash out some some people who are taking the humanity of theirs. There is a great example of that happening. You know Washington court right now.
Chris: [24:11] Yeah that’s a pretty significant one really talked about it because I really don’t know much about it other than I’ve saw prior to that just an enormous amount of people saying I can’t take it for thirty thousand dollars. They felt like and I don’t know that to be true. But that’s what their statements were. I saw a whole bunch of people in them think oh my god. Who would who would pay thirty thousand dollars. Apparently a bunch of people did. And now apparently there’s some there’s some back and forth so there’s a big lawsuit out there of a company and I don’t know who they are. I’ve never heard of them. And they had not approached I shouldn’t say that. Actually one of them I think did approach my meta to come on the show but I wasn’t familiar with them so I filter that stuff as best as I can.
Chris: [24:54] But that is real and that should be real for everybody. But then again if you are honest and you offer good services and you offer what you say you will do. I mean that’s usually the biggest problem is people say they’re going to do this and they don’t. Right. They fall short of it.
Stephen: [25:10] Absolutely. That’s and that’s painful. And then you know they should just refund people and make it right. Right. Trying to make it as right as they can. When you think about going into another business do you feel like you have to put in the thousand hours.
Chris: [25:28] So for example like like if you went into Facebook marketing or opened up a Facebook marketing agency do you think that you have to put in the time because I think some of it too is you get new in here and everybody has some easy success. Right. We all remember frozen. Anybody who sold frozen was a genius right. It was easy right. Oh you wouldn’t believe the chute.
Stephen: [25:47] Andy and I always tell that story Andy Slamdance and I were selling Ana boots. Oh my god we sold pallets of these down things right. We were geniuses for that second. And then it’s over. Right. Everybody was. Do
Stephen: [26:02] you feel like that thousand hours is still a real rule where you got to put a thousand hours to know it.
Chris: [26:09] I think that the thousand hours can be compressed these days. Yeah I’m not I’m not a Tony Robbins you know evangelist you know he talk. He had a program called decade and a day and I think that you can compress the amount of time it takes to really learn and maybe even become a master at something. But I do think that you need to have some track record of success or you need to put you need to show that with people. For example if if I were going to start a Facebook ad agency today I might do is make sure I know what I’m doing. First of all with Facebook is difficult but I would then offer my services for free to show them what I was what I could do for them and then sign them as a client you know.
Chris: [27:08] They would see that over time and yes I can deliver if I can. There’s no cost. I think that’s a very fair way.
Stephen: [27:14] You know a segment you said about staying on track. Or what do you do when you get off track because you must be real like everybody else. How do you how do you pull back and get back on track.
Stephen: [27:25] You know I apologize to anybody listening because there’s some definitely some scary problems that came through on this interview. However we think we got it worked out and so we’re going to take another swing at the section again and really try to keep going because I think the content. I think what I like about Chris is much like Nate same kind of thing is you guys have figured out a way to offer picks and shovels to sellers. Right. I mean it’s fair. I mean it’s not an unfair statement that you know picks and shovels.
Stephen: [27:58] The people who sold picks and shovels and the Gold Rush made the most money and that’s I guess it could be a negative connotation to that but it’s not meant as one. It’s like somebody has to supply that stuff right. Somebody you know I was showing my son this morning we’re using and we can’t power and I was showing him something this morning we were listing something and I’m like all these steps I could do directly in the Amazon. I don’t need to pay somebody else. However look at every time I do this I don’t have to do that. That that that that or that. So therefore I’m willing to pay that fee to them or amatory Labora whoever. Right. There’s nothing wrong with that. I mean you don’t I think there used to be a much more negative connotation to what you guys do. And then there is now is that is that your sense too.
Chris: [28:45] I think that’s I think that’s fair. Absolutely.
Stephen: [28:48] It’s not it not a negative thing. I mean you don’t. It was somebody we just described the other day.
Stephen: [28:54] You know you are so on eBay. It was that kind of way you felt like to like well you sell on eBay. Nobody thought it was real. And now we know people that are selling a million dollars. I know it was me personally sells a million dollars on eBay and they make a lot more margin than they did on Amazon. So guess what. You’ve got to respect it. I mean you’ve got to give it the respect so therefore the same thing goes for information. All right so let’s do this. What I like about what you guys do is you execute and you put something in place. Now you’ve done a couple of your own apps.
Stephen: [29:27] I mean is that again an execution with somebody else or not yet.
Chris: [29:33] OK. But next year. Yes. Everything everything that I’ve done so far has been my idea or or maybe someone said hey I really really want the threat of missing this.
Stephen: [29:47] I have a need for this.
Chris: [29:49] Yeah. And then and then yes. The rest of it is execution. You know like we talked about before ideas really are a dime a dozen. You know. And we’ll talk about it we could talk about Rivara like you know which is my best guess they’re my best selling extension. I’m going to be honest. The idea is not hard.
Stephen: [30:11] Tell us what the idea was what was what was it like the aha moment.
Chris: [30:16] Well you know I’m doing online arbitrage and we all want to save time we want to make sure that we’re getting you know the best of margin. And one of the ways to do that is of course discount gift cards and cash back. And Bob Steele who is master. Yes he’s a genius in his own right. The man pays he won’t tell you the rent. I know. I know. He’s very humble and very. He pays his rent. He makes enough just in cash back he can buy fairly nice car. And the thing is is that to make sure that we get the best cash back and we do it quickly we had to go to a couple different sites and make sure that this was the best or this was the best. And there had to be a way to pair that time down and make it simple so that everybody can make sure they’re doing it.
Chris: [31:14] And that’s all that’s all Rivara. The idea is simple but then dealing with developers because I’ve never written a line of code in my life you know. Oh my goodness. Conveying conveying your your idea making sure that it gets executed properly and you’re dealing with someone who you know likely doesn’t speak as good of English as you do. That part is the difficult part.
Stephen: [31:44] And following through with it you know you describe something though is there’s got to be an easier way. I’ve got to reduce these touch points right. That’s that’s the thing that you should be listening. So if somebody is sitting there saying man I want to get in this information business because let’s face it I mean the beauty of having a piece of software is it’s a vending machine correct. I mean it’s you write it once and you got to mine. You know it’s easy to save right at once and as as Google changes or whatever you know chrome changes right. You have to modify. So there’s a lot more to it than that but the theory is basically hey start with something. Sell it multiple times. That’s really the theory yes. But paying attention to people who are having trouble. Right.
Stephen: [32:27] You’re solving a problem I think if you know one thing that the successful people that I’ve had on the show all the said the same thing is that I was trying to solve a problem because this didn’t work for me and I’m like it has to be other people. So therefore they create it and then all of a sudden it’s like wow you mean more people be interested you have this problem too. Oh yeah. Here you go. And then it’s like wow it’s like a floodgate almost right.
Chris: [32:50] Absolutely. And I have to give it credit for this is the first person to have said this where it stuck with me. But one of the one of the best places to start is by scratching your own itch because there are likely people who have the same itch and if you can provide that.
Chris: [33:13] That ease of pain or a way to make things easier. That’s what we pay for in life where we are to a point in the evolutionary cycle where we pay for convenience we pay to make things easier. And so that’s that’s really.
Chris: [33:31] What you have to execute on.
Stephen: [33:33] Well let’s go back. Your Reb or a. If you were going to have an administrative per I mean think back to how it would have been done in the old days. Right. Go look at Mad Men. I think it’s a great example. Right go watch the show Mad Men and watch the way they used to do things right. That’s within our lifetime right. I mean they’re up to the 70s. My sons will be watching it and these are the 70s right now. That’s lifetime for a lot of wow leaves me. It was not you go yet but it gets there. But my point is this is that it wasn’t that long ago you would have paid somebody to do that red or white calculation for you right you would have had administrative secretary. God forbid. That’s the term you would have somebody there calculating that for you and doing that work and you had to pay a whole lot of money for it.
Stephen: [34:20] As a poet what’s the cost of Riverway 39 95 for 40 bucks. One time it’s so embarrassing to say that you would have had some staff member do that and that would have been one of the responsibility of we got to calculate or make sure the calculations are right and get all the research done. And today you can pay 40 bucks. Not even 30 95 and you can quickly have it and have it at your fingertips literally as you’re pulling it up. It tells you right then and there. Correct
Chris: [34:49] . Exactly right. In graph form has nothing to do but just open or click a button.
Stephen: [34:56] Let me ask you this because I think that brings up a point my mind anyway is when does it make sense to investigate further so scratch your own which is a broad term I got to watch it. Lots of itches right. Was that the biggest pain point in your business at the time. It
Chris: [35:14] was. And the reason is and I tell people I tell people this honestly and without shame I am a lazy Sellar if it takes me you know I don’t I don’t do any of my own crap anymore. I I try to outsource as much as I can so that I don’t have to touch product or you know I have a I have a V.A. who helps me with doing OK. You know I I honestly this is a lifestyle business. And so when I was trying to figure out all of these processes I was not using discount gift cards I was not using cash back because I would forget or it would it would take an extra minute or two between putting items in the cart and checking out. And it’s it’s time that I didn’t want to spend. So I needed a way to compress that time. And
Stephen: [36:15] that’s almost like a discipline. Right. I mean it’s it’s to me I was sitting there thinking about that it’s it’s a discipline because you should be looking every single time.
Stephen: [36:24] Well you don’t because life happens right. And so therefore by using a tool somebody else’s tool or your case your tool whoever it is I mean it makes perfect sense to me. Would it would it would matters to you. Sydnor thinking about that lifestyle business what really matters to you and then immanence to Convers which is what doesn’t matter to you now and especially has that what matters what doesn’t matter to you evolved as you get older.
Chris: [36:50] Now that year there’s whopping 32. Yeah four and a half years ago my son was born. That you don’t know what life is about until you’re a parent.
Chris: [37:07] And that once that happened I knew that being able to not be chained to a desk and being able to be the one to take my son to school and pick them up and take him swimming lessons. That was it had to be something that I was able to do when I asked Matt Cartledge this quest to tell me this.
Stephen: [37:30] Sorry to cut you off but it gets the visualization of you dropping them off and picking him up. How many dads are with you.
Chris: [37:38] Where my son goes to preschool I would say that I am in the 5 percent. Think
Stephen: [37:44] about that. I mean have you. Have you pinched yourself and realized now I’m not saying it’s luck because I’m going. I didn’t want to use the word. How lucky you are. Because obviously it’s hard work and preparation right. But I mean that is the tradeoff you’ve made. Let’s say it that way. Have you thought about that.
Stephen: [38:05] A little bit by 10 percent. You just told me you’re in the 5 percent. Why not.
Chris: [38:09] Yeah it’s the positives have been so great that I don’t think about any of the tradeoffs that I’ve had to had to make. They’ve all been they’ve all been for the good in the long run.
Stephen: [38:24] It’s a good attitude. OK. All right. Sorry I missed you. Currently you guys I mean when I see that I mean it just it’s so exciting to me because I was the opposite I mean to be fair mean it was a different generation. But
Stephen: [38:36] I mean it was me and I remember going to work long before the kids get up and coming home after they were still or they were in bed and that was just the norm.
Stephen: [38:45] That’s just absolutely you know and that Norm isn’t so good when what did I just see.
Stephen: [38:52] Toys R Us Europe there there they might end up closing the whole thing because there’s a pension problem for a whole bunch of people or some story and I’m thinking oh man those poor people worked their whole career and now completely in jeopardy. And so was it worth it. I would guess they would say no now right. Absolutely. How about this. Do you think. At 32 and you made the decision to go out on your own.
Stephen: [39:17] How old were you.
Stephen: [39:21] Twenty nine. When I went out on my arm and you didn’t have instant success so it’s been a gradual success. When you think about it. Would you trade it for anything and if not which I assume you’re going to say.
Stephen: [39:38] What do you say to the 28 year old who says I need to earn a hundred thousand dollars before I can jump full time. I mean I want to go. Is it true I can make a hundred thousand I’m ready to quit my job today.
Chris: [39:51] So no I would not trade what I’ve been able to do for anything. This was probably you know besides marrying my wife and you know deciding to have a child. This was the one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I would like to be able to go back to my 28 year old self and make myself around a little bit staying focus focus.
Stephen: [40:20] Focus and dude you should have done this seven years ago. Bought bitcoin. We should have whole bitcoin 10 cents when it was there. Alex you’re like a Menza.
Chris: [40:31] Yeah. I wish I wish I had that kind of foresight and you know. None of us do. None of us have that kind of foresight you know. But picking away at a dream will still it and get there no matter what. You’re moving forward. Forsight Yeah.
Stephen: [40:50] Well the I think that you know it’s I think about this conversation. The thing that it’s really keep I keep thinking about outliers and measuring yourself against an outlier so you’ve had some success. Not as much success as Nate. And you know that’s not a criticism but it’s true. I mean I don’t think that’s an unfair statement. No. How do you measure yourself against an outlier. You know and that’s going to be all blushing because he called him an outlier. But it’s the truth. I mean in fairness he deserves it because he really has he’s considered one of the best writers I’ve ever seen. But as an outlier how do you compare yourself and then how do you get past that because you think about all the people we know when they see you know so-and-so just sold a million dollars today or you know we’ve seen some people have and a hundred thousand dollar days right.
Stephen: [41:37] That’s not unusual this time of year. I should say that it’s not. We’ve seen people do it not that I’ve seen it. I’m talking about other people I there. And so how do you get past that and give you advice to somebody who can’t.
Chris: [41:52] That’s a great question. You know I see I see those guys who share you know hey I had a hundred thousand dollar today that this was the second best day of Q4. Something like that. And then you’re going to see two kinds of responses you’re going to see. Dave I’m really glad you’re crushing it and then you’re going to see well what was the point of this just to brag. You know we have to do everything we can to not be that second person. That kind of mindset is a cancer. And if you think that everybody just wants to brag or show off you’re not you’re going to close your mind to what you could learn from that person rather than be able to take what they might be able to say and spin it into your own success and one of the things that I would I would really I would warn people against IS is your success looks different from another person’s success.
Chris: [42:59] I had I had a really great conversation with with someone I won’t say their name because I know they wouldn’t care for it. But his success has been realized.
Chris: [43:08] Now he. I don’t know what he makes. But it’s you know seven to ten thousand dollars a month. It’s you know it’s not we know guys you and I both know guys who make it a lot more than that. But his success has been realized because he is not chained to a desk. He is not chained to a time clock. It comes and goes as he pleases. And he does what he wants and he has all of his needs and this one’s met. Now my success is different than his last seven to ten thousand dollars a month as is not my goal it was never my goal. Mine was much higher. Because of the things that I want to be able to do for my family and the goals that I have. But my success is not 20 million dollars a year either.
Chris: [44:02] You know and we know guys who are selling 20 million dollars a year. And for them that’s incredible. We should never be envious but we should always be looking to learn from those guys. And I would hope that everybody would take that to heart.
Stephen: [44:16] Let me tell you your son’s success when he sees you picking him up from school. His idea of success is right there because his dad is there and the 95 percent of his classmates their dad’s not there. And my bet is a good portion of that 95 percent wish they could change places with you. They might make more money they might have more success whatever that means and yet they would look at you like man he’s figured it out. 32 he’s figured it out.
Chris: [44:47] Yeah. There are guys there are a couple of guys there. You know the ones of us who who do drop our kids off are mostly business owners you know and we’re the ones showing up in shorts and t shirts to school functions.
Chris: [45:04] And it is interesting the look you get you know. So it’s the best thing ever.
Stephen: [45:12] It’s awesome. OK so you’ve got Rivara Y. And so for the few people who don’t know what it does again. So it is a chrome extension correct. It’s a first off it’s 30 995. That’s how much it is. However you’re going to give a 50 percent off coupon. Yes they can use. So you can see nineteen dollars in 92 or 93 cents depending how the math goes. And so it allows you to do what.
Chris: [45:45] It allows you to save time and not have to hunt all over the Internet for discount gift cards and cash back. We aggregate from a bunch of different sources to make sure that you’re able to see who has the best deals available when it comes to saving money on your on your way purchases. So
Stephen: [46:11] give me an example so I want to buy the water bottle that I’m looking at it’s a beautiful water bottle. It’s probably sold on target so I’m going to go and I’m looking at this and I’m getting ready to make the purchase and the math works I can see I can buy it for eight dollars and sell it for eight billion because that’s what usually happens when you buy from Target the price will hold. And so I’m going to buy it and then I just before I do it says hey wait you can save.
Chris: [46:35] Tell me what it says. So all you do is you click a little speedometer icon up and you’re up in your google chrome and a graph pops up and it looks like any regular bar graph to the left. Is the most savings to the right is the least. And you know of course you know Ebates is. And that might be everyone’s goto because they also have a Chrome extension. But you’re going to find that Ebates is not the best cashback for Target. It’s probably going to be something like TOPIK cashback or simply best coupons which most people have never heard of. Never heard of. So you click on one of those. I happen to be a top cashback fan. So I use them most often and I don’t have an affiliate of them or anything like that so I’m not pushing anybody there. And then you click a another little area says G.C..
Chris: [47:37] It takes you to another tab with another bar graph and it will show you who has the best discount gift cards. And of course everyone knows they will raise probably has the view everybody knows.
Stephen: [47:50] It might be gift card Zen or it might be a gift card granny training there’s there’s all kinds of them out there.
Stephen: [47:58] So your point is is that there could be. It just pays to know and you don’t have to go do that because how many times. All I could do this myself Chris might go check. I’m going to go check. I’m going to check this one this one this one this one and then somebody calls or a distraction happens and yeah I’m not going to go check those are they weren’t good last time. But you know the key is they could be good this time and that’s the value of it. All right. You have one more that you’re working on. So anyway so I’m going to have a link for that reveler why he’s given 50 percent off with code and I don’t know what the code is but I’m going to put it in. I’ll find out from him afterward so that’s pretty awesome I appreciate that.
Stephen: [48:36] The other one that you’re involved in tactical arbitrage Academy. This is the the real shortcut because technical arbitrage. While Alex does an amazing job and has made it so much more user friendly from the original version and been user it’s there’s still a lot of moving pieces and how many people use it to capacity would you say.
Chris: [48:58] I would say maybe 1 percent. Bob Steele Yeah. Yeah that’s about it. There is I honestly Alex. Alex is another person I really look up to. He is a guy who not only has ideas but is someone who executes his ideas very very well. And if you ever get to sit down and have a conversation with him you realized really quickly that he is just so smart and so because he has so much crammed into the software it is difficult to make sure that you maximize the potential of tactical arbitrage and that’s not a slam on the software or Alixe it’s just the fact that it is it is the Thors hammer of online arbitrages trolls. And so it can be difficult to wield at times.
Stephen: [49:57] That’s a great way to describe it. Thinking of swinging a hammer No it’s a fair state because it’s data. I
Stephen: [50:05] mean it is enormous enormous amounts of data. I mean it’s just it really is. It
Chris: [50:11] can be. Absolutely.
Chris: [50:14] You know if you if you over filter what you’re looking at and will arbitrage you can find absolutely nothing new under Felter you could find absolutely nothing.
Stephen: [50:27] Yeah.
Stephen: [50:27] It’s like drinking from a firehose at times.
Chris: [50:31] You know so if you’re able to take what someone else has learned and then apply it to your own business it can seriously cut down the learning curve and increase your chances of success with a product that is meant for people to be successful with love.
Stephen: [50:52] And so this this is a how to tutorial kind of a shortened version to help you jump through really helps buy time. Is that a fair statement.
Chris: [51:02] I would say so yes. OK. What’s the cost of technical arbitrage Academy. It is three hundred and ninety seven dollars. Normally we we do discount it occasionally. And I don’t I don’t know when this will actually be aired but there will be a discount coming soon I’m sure.
Stephen: [51:23] All right. He’s going to give us a discount. I have it in my show notes. I’m going hold them to it. I’m going to hold him and Nate because Nate’s and all that is going to hold him to it just so you can benefit listeners. I just think that if you’re going I mean again I’ll use my scant power example this morning teach my son I’m like I could do this this this this this and this.
Stephen: [51:43] I don’t need to pay him or those guys I don’t need to pay him. I just I’m kind of lazy like I don’t want to have to do this this this and this. Because quite frankly it’s mindless and I’m not consistent. And so by getting consistency by investing in tools and learnings that’s how you’re going to get there.
Stephen: [52:01] Dude you were a good example of what can be. And I just really applaud you guys for what you do because again I think the reputation I see a lot of people take a lot of heat a lot of people give out a lot of heat but you guys kind of stay to the side because of the consistency. And I think that that’s that’s the key is that you say what you’re going to do and then you actually do it. And I think that’s a big statement. Somebody wants to reach out to you to hear more. Or throw an idea or because you’re the execution guy. What’s the best way to get yours honestly.
Chris: [52:36] You know I’m I’m in FBA today I’m in the tech arbitrages group so you guys can I can you can PM me on Facebook I try to answer every one I get.
Speaker 22: [52:47] Or you can go over and hit me up on my blog it clear the shelf that com and I have a contact me button for you to shoot me an email if you need to also clear the shelf dot com.
Stephen: [52:59] That’s where Chris blogs lots of information lots of great stuff. Ben I appreciate you taking the time apologize for the Skype issues. I don’t know. Whatever you did on your side seems to have worked. I have not heard any problems since then so I appreciate that and I appreciate you being patient and working with me. Thank you so much I wish you nothing but success.
Chris: [53:20] Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 23: [53:23] Another great episode. I mean it’s smart you know he is fulfilling needs that people have. And I think that that’s such a powerful thing. If you learn anything do you know scratch that itch for yourself and then scratch for others. You know 2018 is here. Plan plan plan. You’re hearing that comment the from everyone that I’ve been interviewing or will be interviewing in this next couple of weeks. It’s really about putting something down and if it goes in foremost Chris I mean he’s a good example somebody who doesn’t have it so detailed that you just can’t do anything right. You can plan plan plan at death and never execute. He’s a good example of somebody who has a general idea where he’s going but he actually gets there. And I think that that’s so important so powerful we congresswoman of dotcom a Don’t forget silver Lab’s scope management.
Speaker 23: [54:13] It’s 2018. Take a look at all the listings you’re on and see what you can do to improve them. Go look at the number one seller see what keywords they’re using. Modify yours. Get them. Get them right. Get your sales moving. Get the flywheel moving right that’s why you always hear about celebs dotcom forward slash scope. Use the code word momentum save some money get some free keywords. But more importantly get your listings right. E-commerce MMN dot com ticker.
Cool voice guy: [54:43] Thanks for listening to the e commerce momentum podcast all the links mentioned today can be found at e-commerce momentum dot dotcom under this episode number. Please remember to subscribe and like us on iTunes.
