317 : Helen Kinson – You need to be interested in improving AND be happy in what you are doing!

merch by amazon podcast

I love what Helen said: “I have been successful because I am interested in improving”. So simple and so clear.  After talking to her for a while it became very clear it has worked. She clearly has found her lane for this time in her life. Thinking about this, you too need to find what YOU need for now, not forever. When you really let this set in, you gain some perspective about your life. If you can find happiness , remember for what you are doing now. Not forever, then move to the next segment of your life and find happiness there. Wash, rinse and repeat. Boom… a well designed life.

Mentioned:

Merch Money Facebook Group

Merch Money You Tube Channel

Chris Green

Helen’s Facebook Contact

Sponsors

Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List

Solutions4ecommerce

Scope from Sellerlabs

GoDaddy

Grasshopper

Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)

Stephen:                             [00:00:00]               I’m excited to talk about my sponsors today, Gaye Lisbey’s million dollar arbitrage group. Amazing, amazing group. This is a teacher. This is Gaye, she was a teacher. She is a teacher. Still. You need to learn. This is the type of environment you want to be in because she’s going to help you understand why, and I think that’s the hardest part of this business is understanding why. Why is the red one popular when the green one isn’t? Well, there’s usually a reason and what Gaye does is probably parse that better than anybody and she’ll explain the reasons for those things. I think that’s really powerful. Yes, she puts out a list. You’re going to get a good use of that list if you get in the group. Now here’s the deal. The group isn’t always open, right? So you get on the waiting list and you can join the waiting list through my link.

Stephen:                             [00:00:46]               Doesn’t cost anything to get on a waiting list and if you like her service, which I find that most people do that, that’s why there’s not so many openings. Um, you’ll be with her for a long time. And so it’s amazing freedom.com. She’s part of Andy Slam. It’s group amazing freedom.com. Forward slash momentum. And you’re going to get in the waiting list. That’s all I can get you on right now. You can use my name and see if that gets you anywhere. But what I like about in the uh, what I like about what they teach in that group or the things that are going on, you know, the current things. I’ve seen a lot of stuff going on about stores going out of business. Well here’s where an opportunity is, here’s why you want to do this. Hey, be cautious about this, you know, with toys r US coming out, you’ve got to think about this and that’s the learning that you need to do.

Stephen:                             [00:01:30]               And Gay is better than anybody else I’ve seen. So I’m amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash momentum will get you to the waiting list. Then hopefully I can get you in the group and then you’re going to see me in there and we can chat anytime you’re ready. Karen lockers, group solutions, the number for ecommerce solutions, four ecommerce.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you 50 bucks. Karen’s our account manager. We recommend her to everyone because she’s done so well for us. I mean that’s quite frankly the reason we’ve been paying her for last few years, but she’s become an important part of our team. Her and her team are so involved in our account. I just see the emails coming back and forth, hey, we did this for you. I just saw two listings today. I’m like, wait a second. Why did they show up?

Stephen:                             [00:02:09]               I did put any listings up. They got a. They got a set off to the side by Amazon and they reactivate them for me. You know what I mean? That’s the stuff that just happens when you have a strong team and I can’t recommend Karen enough if you use my code. Momentum. Karen pays me. I don’t want to hide that. Of course we all know that, but you’re going to say $50 and it’s a great opportunity to really, really build out your team with somebody you can trust. That’s why I recommend them. So solutions four ecommerce solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50. Oh, and by the way, she’s going to do an inventory health report. Why is that important? Well, guess what fees are going up. Is your inventory health number declining like ours is?

Stephen:                             [00:02:57]               Well, here’s why and what they can do. What I like is I get a spreadsheet from them and it says, Hey, here’s a bunch of inventory. Here’s what we recommend. And I’m like, Yep, read refund. I mean a delete a return to us, blah blah, blah, whatever it is and it’s or destroy and it just happens. That’s what I like. The other thing that I have Karen helped me with a lot is creating new listings. We do a lot of the research ourselves. We upload our images and then boom, magically the listing goes live and I don’t have to worry about it. Those are the services that Karen offers. CanNot recommend her enough solutions. Four ecommerce.com forward slash momentum. Save 50 bucks. Use My code. You save $50 a month every single month and it’s a great service. Plus you get that free inventory health report. I think it’s a really powerful way, so I can’t.

Stephen:                             [00:03:45]               I’m so excited how many people have been joining her because I see it and I’m excited because the messages I get from people saying, hey, this is great. I finally feel like I can focus on something else because Karen and her team are watching this for me and I highly recommend her. Next up is scale a seller lambs and scope and we’ll set it wrong. It’s, it’s amazing. I mean, it really is amazing when you sit back and think about, hey, I want to get this product up and it similar to this product and that’s, that product does well. Well therefore, if that product does well, they have the right keywords, they’ve chosen things correctly, so guess what? You scope and you could see all that stuff and that’s what the most powerful thing in the world is to copy somebody who’s done it right.

Stephen:                             [00:04:28]               That’s what you want to. You want to take advantage of that, right? I mean it’s, it’s fair to see and so therefore you can take and apply it to your listing and immediately get that same benefit. That’s what scope does for me. Sellerlabs.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50 on the service. Oh, by the way, it’s free to try. So sign up, try it and say, oh, this is how it’s done. Boom. And then you’re going to. The light’s going to go on and you’re going to be like, man, I can get my products out there. I just can’t wait. Can’t wait. So are labs.com forward slash momentum? The other day I bought another domain. Yes, I bought it the other domain. It’s almost like A. I’m admitting guilt, but it’s because I had an idea and it was something that was a pretty good idea I think is going to go pretty far.

Stephen:                             [00:05:18]               And so what do I do? I go to try Godaddy.com forward slash momentum and save 30 percent. So domains aren’t very expensive. You get a few services, it adds up a little bit and I usually buy three years. I usually by privacy, by the way, I recommend that to buy that, you know, it’s not that much money, but when you can save 30 percent it makes it that much sweeter and it makes it easier when you’re buying domains and especially if you buy a bunch of domains. I am a domain collector and so I do tend to do that, but that 30 percent makes it a lot easier and I use godaddy because what I like is I can pop in and address, I’m thinking and it’ll say nope, nope, could try this version or try this extension and then boom, there it is. Hey, you better hurry before it goes away.

Stephen:                             [00:06:00]               And the right, you know. And so try Godaddy.com forward slash momentum save 30 percent. Also want to mention about grasshopper, who was just talking to somebody the other day and they were like, Oh yeah, use this company called grasshopper. I’m like, Dude, did you buy it through my link and save 30 percent? Hello? No, they missed that. So save 30 percentage, try grasshopper.com forward slash momentum. No surprise there, but you’re going to save 30 percent and what the real cool part about that is they’re using it for their private label business and it gives them virtually a second phone on their current phone without having to get another number. They can make up a vanity number. They don’t have to go and do all the grief and sign loan contracts. Pretty easy stuff, and so if you’re creating a brand that you want to identify, you want to look professional, you want to look like a real company. Grasshopper is a great tool. It’s an app you put on your existing phone and boom, you now have a customer service to. You now have a sales department. You’d have a manufacturing division. You could forward it to somebody else. You can have it go to different voicemails, different departments, and it’s all included. So try grasshopper.com, forward slash momentum. Save 30 percent.

Cool voice guy:                  [00:07:13]               Welcome to the ecommerce momentum thought jazz where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of selling. Today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.

Stephen:                             [00:07:27]               Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 317, Helen Kensen man. Oh Man. Just listen to the sounds of the waves. The wind, the seagulls. Yes, we’re going to the beach. Helen is on vacation. She is looking at the ocean. Imagine she’s up on the roof, uh, looking at the ocean and the wind’s blowing. And so part of the conversation does get cut out a little bit and I’m not editing it. I didn’t, I was going to. And I’m like, no, because I want you to go to the beach in your mind. I want you to get there to understand that this opportunity of merch by Amazon, um, they closed a million dollar opportunity and most people would say no chance. It’s, they’re skeptical. There’s not another opportunity, but the listen to what Helen explains when you think about it, you know, we’re only talking merchant by Amazon, which is the most dominant marketplace.

Stephen:                             [00:08:19]               However, there’s more than 20 other marketplaces. And there are now you can sell on instagram. You could sell on pinterest. You can, uh, you don’t, you can print coffee monks, yes. Not on merchant by Amazon, but on teespring or t public and all the rest. There’s a zillion opportunities if that’s what you want to do, and then you can go to the beach like Helen because that’s what she wants to do and I think that that perspective, that opportunity, if that’s your thing, and I’m not saying give up Fba or give up Ebay or whatever you’re doing, I’m just saying if that’s your thing, just don’t walk away from these businesses. You’ve learned a great skill and this opportunity is here too and I’m not saying to do it, but I’m not saying not to do it. Figure out what your lane is. Let’s get into the podcast. Hey, welcome back to the congresswoman and podcast. We’re excited about today’s guest because she is way more relaxed than I and she is chilling, literally chilling at a beach and I’m very envious. Helen Kinson. Welcome Alan.

Helen:                                   [00:09:20]               Thank you. I’m so honored to be here today. I really appreciate it.

Stephen:                             [00:09:23]               Wait birthday. Thank you very much. Very Kindi. Think, describe what you see because what we, you know, you can always hear sounds so I asked her to move a little bit and she moved up to the roof so you’ll hear some wind, which I love because then inspires me even more. But describe what you’re looking at.

Helen:                                   [00:09:40]               I am looking at the ocean. We’re right on the ocean and I’m up on the roof of a four story house on the roof. Beautiful view from side to side. So I can’t take credit for this house though. My uh, my parents rent this every year. I’m the oldest of eight children and they, they have this big reunion every year of all of us and all of our families and there’s over 30 people here right now.

Stephen:                             [00:10:09]               So it sounds awesome. And your parents sound awesome. How important is that for you to go? I mean, you know, every year you described it and you’re 29, I’m sure. And so I’m going to hold that one. And so how important is it to you?

Helen:                                   [00:10:26]               It’s very important. I, my whole family lives in New Jersey. I actually live in northern Virginia, so it’s, it’s only four hours away. It’s not too bad, but it does feel FARC because everybody else’s is that peers. So I definitely try to make sure I always go and I go to as many other things that they can as well. And it’s really nice with merge. Uh, you can, you can still work. I mean I do a couple hours of work even when I’m up here and I can do it from my laptop though.

Stephen:                             [00:10:54]               Well that’s where I was going to go with it because it was like you’re making money literally. And let me ask you this. And so you’re gonna be like, dusty, of course. How inspiring is it to be sitting up there thinking about your business last year. First. Second. Okay. So I didn’t lose you, but how inspiring is it for you on that roof to be thinking about merge? I mean, does it give you a chance to refresh and just clear the slate and now I can

Helen:                                   [00:11:18]               you, I don’t have to miss anything. You know, like a lot of my brothers and sisters had to go back to work and for me, I don’t have to, I can just stay here all week and uh, you know, I don’t have to miss things. I can just bring my work with me and fit it in if I can and go to everything. So it’s nice.

Stephen:                             [00:11:38]               Now in the precall where you were talking a little bit, you, you used to do Fba heavier, now you’re not, you pulled back as you’ve concentrated on merge. Does that also play into a lifestyle that you’re designing for now because gives you this flexibility?

Helen:                                   [00:11:55]               Yes, it’s partly, it was partly the interest in the lifestyle, but also it’s just an interest in I’m trying to build, go toward more of building a brand and building my own business. I’d in a retail arbitrage. So with that I’d just go into stores. I mean, I know, you know, but I don’t know about the visitors, but uh, to just scan items, scan clearance, scan whatever and ship it in. And I just, I felt like I wasn’t really progressing. Like there was only so many boxes that I could pack. I did it from, let’s see, 2014 to just like within the last month or two, so about four years of it and I really wasn’t really expanding in there, you know, I didn’t want to hire any buddy and it just sort of, you know, I want it, I want something that I could scale better and I wanted something that I could build my own brand.

Stephen:                             [00:12:52]               I think that’s fair. Are you a creative person by nature?

Helen:                                   [00:12:57]               That’s an interesting question because I would have, if you had asked me that when I was in high school, I would have definitely said yes. I was the uh, uh, in the national art honor society. I was thinking about doing art in college. I got into some colleges for art. I was going to paint and everything. Um, and then I, I, but I was also interested in business, so I ended up double majoring in business and art history. And then over the years I’ve just really loved business. That’s been my main focus and I sometimes I sit down and I try to paint or I try to do art and it’s just, I just don’t have the passion for it anymore and I’m not sure why or if it’ll come back at some point, but I, I don’t as much anymore and I definitely don’t with graphic design and like I’ve tried to do my own tee shirt designs and I’m just like, I cannot do it. I mean I can kind of do it, but it’s just not fun for me. So I, I tend to buy most of my design lines and just, you know, maybe make some variations to them, but in general I hire other people to do the designs.

Stephen:                             [00:14:06]               That brings up two points. First off, you might be the first successful art history major that I’ve ever talked to in my life. Everybody says, what are you going to do with an art history degree? Helen, what are you going to do with it? And look at where you are. You’re sitting on a beach on a roof looking out at the ocean and making money. So that’s, that’s pretty cool. All right, how about this, let me ask you this because as you say, you’re not graphically interested. That doesn’t mean you have the skill, you just didn’t take the time to learn it or because it wasn’t interesting to you. Do you, do you get to choose your designs or influenced your designs up front?

Helen:                                   [00:14:44]               Just to back way up. Um, I heard about merch by Amazon from Chris Green’s if he in the whole Fda community and he was so excited about it and told us all about it in October. I don’t know if it’s October, but somewhere around September, October 2015 and I just thought it was the most amazing idea ever, but I, I just had no idea how to do graphic design and I kind of tried to learn briefly, but I was so busy with q four, I really didn’t quite figure it out. So I, I just put it on hold and I didn’t do much for awhile and back then there really wasn’t a lot of people explaining how to do merge. There wasn’t a lot of places to buy design. Um, so I kind of didn’t do anything with it for a few months and then Brianna green came out with va rentals and I heard about that from Joe Clay and I was like, oh my gosh, this is perfect.

Helen:                                   [00:15:38]               So the way she did it was she would do this subscription plan so you would get a certain number of designs per month and the designs would come with keywords. So I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t do the research, I didn’t do the key words, I would just get my subscription plan of design. So that’s how it started. Um, but then now I am going more into research and more coming up with designs that I want to do based on what is currently selling for me. So now I’m working with pen g, which is like an unlimited thing where you can get unlimited designs per month. That’s just one fee per month and I’m sending them what I want and they’re creating. Yeah.

Stephen:                             [00:16:23]               So you kind of do get your ability to go back and be creative. You just don’t have to figure out how they do it. Right. And so would you say that art skill, I mean, when I don’t want to lose this because I think this is really important, you have this art skill, you kind of get the best of both worlds where you don’t have to do the piece of it you don’t like yet, you still get the strong influence. I think that’s a powerful, a powerful example of what somebody can do given limited time because you’re not putting a tremendous amount of time into this today. Correct?

Helen:                                   [00:16:58]               Right, right. Hmm. Yeah, it’s a, it’s amazing. It’s amazing what you can do with merging. It can go in so many different directions. So what’s nice now is as you’re right, I can add in my own creativity, um, but I can also use the data that I’ve collected from doing all of the designs from Brianna’s group. So I started with the monthly subscription and then eventually I was like, can I do a bulk order? She’s like, sure. So I did a 700 designs and then a few months later I ordered another $700. So by December of last year I had ordered 2000 designs from them about give or take a couple. Um, and so with all of those designs uploaded now it gives me more data, gives me more ideas of what’s working, what’s not working and then based on what’s working now, it helps me with using png because I can, you know, give a pretty good educated guess of what’s going to work based on what, what is selling for me right now.

Stephen:                             [00:17:54]               I think this is really smart because I think most people start, you know, like you said, they registered, did nothing with it. They start, they feel like they have to go buy a adobe or something like that and then start creating their own and they’re flat. They’re not creative because you know, they’re not creative or whatever or they don’t have the skillset and then most most walk away and just let it go and don’t go back. And then, you know, Chris puts out a course and some different information and it gets all that extra additional and now they want to come back to it. And so I think the way you’re describing it is very, very cool because you got your feet wet, you started figuring things out, you relied on somebody strong like Briana, who you know, who’s trusting trustworthy and her group, and then you built it out to what you wanted to be to. Let me ask you this, as you think about, right. Because it’s a niche business again, right? I mean I think that’s really where the success is. The niche that you chose or the niches that you chose, probably more than likely. Are they interesting to you? I mean, is that why you chose them or are they just hot topics and current?

Helen:                                   [00:19:02]               Well, I, I think, I mean definitely people always recommend going with niches, you know, just because you’ll have more understanding of, you know, what are little things or little things that people say in that niche. But for me I, I really, I’m kind of doing a broad range of niches. So there’s several that I’m in that I have no interest in at all. But I mean as long as you. I mean, I speak in English and I can look up things. I mean sometimes if there’s a language barrier could be a little difficult, especially because you have language and it’s a niche you don’t know. So it’s like, it’s, it’s hard. You can end up messing. I’m sure it’s because you think you’re saying it right, but it’s not quite right. So I at least have the, the English side of it and then um, you know, I have the data from the niches that have sold already based on the designs that I brought from Brianna. So it’s not too hard to make new shirts in the niche just because I’ve seen what has sold and I’m able to just, you know, improve on it a little bit or go a little bit different direction with it. Um, so, so I, I honestly have a large range of niches.

Stephen:                             [00:20:11]               So is it, is it a learned skill and your, in your example, how about this, your female, does that, do you have more of a female approach to it or are you able to get to that masculine side too? I mean, does that, and I don’t understand art, so this is why Steve is asking stupid questions because I’m thinking about that. So what, what makes more sense?

Helen:                                   [00:20:33]               I think march is fascinating, like just the people in our group. So that’s another thing we can talk about. I started the merchant money group but the, we have five women in the group and each of us approaches it completely differently and then if you add in the guests that we have on our show, each guest’s approaches it differently and most of them are all very successful. So I will really all of them though that we’ve had on the show. So it, there, there’s no one right way. I think with me, I, I mix feminine and masculine because I, I have a, I mean business was something that I studied in, in college and then I have always been like um, you know, just interested in improving. And I’ve gradually gone towards being a self employed and an entrepreneur. I started with just being a manager at macy’s and then I was a manager at Bank of America and eventually got into being a loan officer because I kept going towards like doing your own thing, so when you’re a loan officer it’s commissioned, which felt better because it was um, uh, you know, I had more control.

Helen:                                   [00:21:39]               I could determine how much I made because it’s commission. So, and then now of course it’s completely completely on my own, but I put everything together like a merchant. It really helps if you look, if you research, if you look at data and you can’t just go based on what you like. I mean some people can, but it’s, it’s better if you look at what, what is selling well and what, what other people are looking for on March or looking for.

Stephen:                             [00:22:08]               You used an interesting phrase and I like it. You’re interested in improving. I think that’s a very powerful statement. That doesn’t mean you have to go to college to do whatever. It just means that you want to get better at whatever it is. And I think that’s a very healthy thing. Whether it be your health, your relationships, your whatever, but from a merchant perspective, I think you kind of touched on it. What do you suggest for people that are interested in improving?

Helen:                                   [00:22:33]               I think that in the beginning what helped me is just listening to all the youtube video. Then you know, mainly mainly taking action. You have to start, you have to do something. So upload your first design, you know, do something, and then once you do that at one thing, it’ll, it’ll lead you towards the next thing. So maybe you upload a design and it doesn’t sell, so now you need to learn like, well, what was wrong? Do I need to improve the key words? Do I need to improve the design? Is it just an a niche that nobody’s interested in? So once you do the first action, it’ll lead to the next step.

Stephen:                             [00:23:06]               Well, let’s stop there because I want to get deeper on that. So you do. You gave a good example. You uploaded to design and uploaded the data, uploaded the design until you had a lot of coffee. I’m just going to qualify this. Now you can do whatever you want. I am running on coffee, bulletproof to extra cups and then a starbucks Americano, big one. And I’m this. I’m wired. Um, but uh, so it didn’t sell. And so you said you have to try to figure out what went wrong. So can you parse that for me and just pull it apart and just say, Hey, stay, you’ve the, here’s what you would look at.

Helen:                                   [00:23:43]               Well, um, there’s at least three things. So one would be research. So is it about something so obscure that you’re the only person, so like let’s say it’s your niece wants something to do with her club or something like, it’s such a small little thing that there may not be anyone else looking for that except for her and her two friends. So like it’s so obscure that no one’s looking for it. Or is it just you didn’t put the right key words? So keywords would be the next thing. Like it might be something everyone’s looking for but you didn’t put in the words that people are searching for. So you might have called it and a. no, I can’t think of an example, but maybe you called it something so broad like motorcycle motorcycle. Exactly. So you should be a little bit more specific. So that could be one thing, um, or it could be the design, like maybe you used the whole bunch of fonts that don’t go well together or maybe you have it a little off center or maybe it’s some kind of graphic that just doesn’t go with the words that you put on this shirt.

Helen:                                   [00:24:51]               So you really got to take a step back and look at the design. And now, I mean now there’s so many things that have popped up to help with that. So, um, in our group we have a link to Laura Burke’s group, which is, um, she started this whole facebook group just for looking at designs. So if you’re a new person who’s just starting with t shirts or even if you’re experienced, you can put up a shirt that has installed and be like, what’s wrong with this? Like you guys help me and they’ll be able to tell you like, oh, try making it a little bolder or you know, they’ll help you find what’s wrong with the shirts so that, and it’s all very constructive. Like nobody’s making fun of anybody. They’re all like very helpful.

Speaker 5:                           [00:25:32]               Petitioned the big worry there. And now let’s just answer this. A Helen is going to steal my design. I put it up there. She’s going to be like, oh, this is a good one. And it didn’t sell. So that’s pretty dumb, but it’s going to be like, she’s going to steal my idea. My idea is my idea. Nobody’s ever thought of putting a motorcycle onto t shirt before I am the original. Um,

Helen:                                   [00:25:51]               you’re worried about that. There’s no, I mean, you definitely don’t have to put it up. So it’s, it’s really just, you know, you can pick something that you’re just not that worried about if someone steals it, but it gives you an idea of like, oh, I never looked at that. I never thought about that. Like, that is a good point. Um, so it’s, it really is helpful to, to learn techniques and you know, what, some people don’t have an eye for graphics or they don’t have an eye for what font to use, like there’s some may different fonts out there, it’s Kinda hard sometimes to pick what font to use. So it, it, it is helpful

Speaker 5:                           [00:26:27]               and that’s one of the things in your group and we’re going to get too much money, but that’s a common kind of common sense stuff that you’ll be like Steve, use a Helvetica bold or whatever it would be, I don’t know, whatever, cause that’s the only phone you could ever think of in my life. But growing up that’s what we all use. But that would be the thing you’d say, Hey, these are the common ones, these are the best sellers. Boom. And it kind of gives you that generic thing and then it’s that artistry. Can you think? Yeah, I mean you’re going to be another dusty. Your art sensitivity, your art is that, I mean obviously it’s a, it’s a real value, but does that hurt you some time because you’re so creative and so if you’re, especially if you’re a painter, I really think that that’s a really, you got an eye, a different eye than somebody who does stick figures, you know, like life is like life is good kind of example.

Helen:                                   [00:27:13]               I think it really depends on what you work on and what you focus on. So for me, for whatever reason, I just have focused more on the business side and I’m not sure if that is just because that’s what I like more or if that’s just how life happened, but I have focused way more on the business side than the art side. So, um, it hasn’t been a detriment at all. Like I, I, I look at the business like a business and I don’t have a lot of attachment to things. If it’s not dying, I don’t worry about it. I just focus on what is selling and you know, what to improve on and things like that. So for me it hasn’t been a detriment, but it does, it definitely is for some people because you spend all this time creating something that you think is so great and if nobody wants it can be, you know, it can be upsetting.

Speaker 5:                           [00:28:03]               Yeah. But it’s a much better thing to have nobody want it and not spend any money as opposed to printing 100 tee shirts and bringing them in and then trying to use them. They’re trying to sell it and nobody wants that. That’s heart wrenching. I can’t even give them away. My kids won’t even wear them, you know, they’re using them for your husband, using them for rags out in the garage to wipe down the car. Okay. So we got through that section and I think that’s really powerful. That’s good to number two.

Speaker 6:                           [00:28:28]               Okay.

Speaker 5:                           [00:28:29]               Do you were going to give me a number two. We went through, you know, why? Why is something not selling? So we went through those exams. Yeah. No, that’s okay. You are on a beach. Remember that? Let’s just remember. Listen to the waves, look at the look out there. It’s got to be cool. Okay,

Helen:                                   [00:28:47]               so the reasons why a shirt would installed, that’s what we’re.

Speaker 5:                           [00:28:49]               Yeah, that’s where we’re back to that.

Helen:                                   [00:28:51]               Okay. So that’s where we’re at. Okay. So, um, we talked about research, we talked about the design quality and keywords. Those are really the three things

Speaker 5:                           [00:29:07]               I know I keep a volume. Those are the three main thing. Let’s just use this example with motorcycles. I’m going to stay with my motorcycle. I don’t know why I’m into them today, but, but just imagining there’s just such a glut of them. Is that part of it that you get lost in there because there’s so many or let’s go back to the millennial or the, uh, you know, when it changed to whatever it was, you know, member, remember the big thing I’ll work. Kim Jensen made all our money. Oh my God, I can’t believe it. The clips, short clips, that’s it. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. So she was a very early adopter to it and really had an incredible success. And, and, but once it gets to that point where it’s saturated or you then, I mean, do you spend your time or do you recommend people spend that much time on it because there’s so many of them are just pick something else and move on

Helen:                                   [00:29:58]               again, like there’s no right answer. I mean if there’s so many people that do so many different strategies, so um, uh, you just have to figure out a way to make the strategy work for you. So some people, they want to go where the money is. So if everyone’s searching Unicorns, they want to put a unicorn shirt. Well, so does everybody else. So if you want to make your Unicorn shirt stand out, you have to find a way to do that. So one way is to me be priced a shirt lower. One way is to make it a little bit more, um, you know, niche it down a little bit. So maybe instead of just a broad category of Unicorns, you might add in a few other things like maybe at the Halloween Unicorn shirt or maybe it’s, you know, that you add some other things in there, um, but some people, or you might do advertising, so you might do facebook ads or you might do pinterest ads and driving more traffic to it.

Helen:                                   [00:30:55]               So you don’t want to avoid the big filling niches. You just want to dominate that niche. So some people go that direction where they’re like, yeah, I understand there’s hundreds of thousands of people making Unicorn starts, but I’m going to make the very best one. And if you are able to do that, you’re, you’re able to make a ton of money because so many people are searching that thing. So if you’re a beginner and your shirt is not very good and you don’t really know that much about keywords, if you try to do a unicorn shirt is never going to sell because it’s just, it’s going to be impossible to get it seen. But if you’re someone who has like a $50,000 marketing budget and you can do all this different stuff, you might be able to get ranked number one on the Unicorn page and sell millions of them. So it really just depends on your, your, your game plan and what you’re willing to do to, to make it work. Um, if you’re a beginner, normally we recommend doing a niche that’s much smaller. So something that’s not very, not very big because there’ll be less competition. So maybe some kind of obscure sport or maybe I’m combining a couple of niches together. So it’s really like niche down. Um, but there, there’s no, there’s no right or wrong answer to that. It’s just

Speaker 5:                           [00:32:06]               I want to do to make it work. That’s sound advice though. I mean it kind of like you’re saying they all will work, but it depends on execution. John Lawson just had John Lawson and he, he’s like, Steve, it’s really coming down to marketing. I mean, and that’s what you just said too. It’s really, can you, can, you have the. You don’t have to have. His example was a is a Mac computer, an apple computer better than a windows computer and you would say, of course. Right, but that doesn’t mean window computers don’t sell the lots of them sell, but it’s the ability to market to the right person, right. So the best doesn’t always win every, all of it. And there’s so many factors

Helen:                                   [00:32:40]               there, you know, for somebody who started at the beginning, like I didn’t really, I missed the first year because I was mostly focusing on Amazon Fba, but I still started in 2016. So for people starting right now, that’s a long enough time ago that the shirts that did dow now have reviews and it’s harder for someone else to come in because I’ve already been selling that shirt for a year and a half, two years. So it’s a, it has a lot more failed. It has more reviews. Amazon is going to weight it heavier than if someone just put one up now. So there’s, there’s other factors that go into it that can help.

Speaker 5:                           [00:33:16]               That makes sense. How about this? I and nobody’s been able to answer this yet because I don’t, I haven’t asked it, but I’m thinking about this. Print on demand is not new. Right. I don’t know how long teespring or one of those first companies, they’ve been around for quite a long time. Why? All of a sudden? I mean like, up until merge. I guess I never thought of it. I never thought about it. I mean, were you aware of it before Amazon by merchant came along that you could have done print on demand with other third party companies? Let me say it again because I’ll say it again.

Helen:                                   [00:33:48]               Check on the roof, but I think I, let me just, I think what you said is that it had print on demand is fairly new and you hadn’t heard about it before. Is that right?

Speaker 5:                           [00:33:55]               Well, what I basically said was actually I don’t think it’s new. I think it’s been around for a long time, but it’s new to me since Amazon merchant, Chris Green started promoting it. I never thought about that. There was other companies prior. Had you been aware of it before?

Helen:                                   [00:34:16]               Um, before merge I, I was more aware of just if you want to create a shirt you would go to like some kind of local company and they would make it for you on printed out. So I was more aware of things like that. Like there was a little store on my college campus that, that if we wanted to make a shirt we would just go there and they print it for us. So I was aware of stuff like that, but I, I really wasn’t that aware of print on demand at the time. Um, in 2015. It had been going on for a while, but it, um, it, a lot of people had in her. I hadn’t really thought about it more.

Speaker 5:                           [00:34:52]               It was an 11 is when they started. Two Thousand and 11 spring. I don’t know. And I don’t know that they’re the first one aware at the time. I don’t know that the first one, there might be other ones prior, but it’s just interesting to me that, you know, think about. To me, this is what’s interesting me merge came out what? Maybe 2016 merch by Amazon.

Helen:                                   [00:35:20]               You’re their march now. Merged. Came out in 2015, I believe it was September. It was right around. Yeah, merch by Amazon right around September 2015. Give or take a month.

Speaker 5:                           [00:35:31]               So, so think about that. So from 2011 to 2015, we weren’t aware of this and I and I think about a lot of people

Stephen:                             [00:35:38]               that jumped in because ultimately the print on demand market is not just putting them on Amazon, right? It’s putting them on teespring and a red bubble and I think there’s what, 15 companies or at least more maybe more that that a lot of people are using a to sell these shirts. Correct.

Helen:                                   [00:35:56]               More than that. And there’s also companies that you can use, so it could go on any platform. You could do it on your own website and print volkers printed out for you. People are selling them a walmart at the EBA. Any. Any place that you can put things up for sale, you can link it to the principal or one of these other companies so you can sell them on Craig’s list, you could sell them anywhere you want.

Stephen:                             [00:36:19]               Hmm. And so when you look at the outliers that you guys have interviewed on your show, are they spending a lot of time? Because I have a friend who’s a tier 6,000 and he’s got about 4,000 designs I think he said. And he said, you know Steve, Amazon’s marketplace for me right now. He said, I just can’t keep up with that until I saturate that. I can’t even bother on these other ones. What are you saying that

Helen:                                   [00:36:41]               again? I would definitely say it. There’s no right or wrong. It depends on you as a person, what you’re willing to do. So I’m on that same wavelength as that person where I am just like, you know, I, I haven’t maxed out my tier yet. Like there’s, there’s still more I can do on merge. So to me I don’t want to do other platforms until I’ve done everything I can on Birch. But brianna and a lot of other people are against that. They’re like, why would you put all your eggs in one basket? What if merge, uh, every fourth quarter so far merge has frozen and all the accounts. So there’s nothing you can do. You can’t upload shirts, you can’t do anything. Sometimes they suspend people or terminate people and if you have all your eggs in one basket and all of a sudden you can’t do anything, you know, that that could be a problem.

Helen:                                   [00:37:27]               So there’s, there’s definitely different trains of thought and it just depends. I mean, for me, I’m, I’m willing to take that chance because I feel like, you know, if Ama, if something happens to my Amazon account, I’m going to be in trouble anyway, even if I had been working on etsy or the, the other things and I’ll have to just scramble and build up those other sites at that time. Um, but it, it really just depends. I mean merchant is the biggest and so you’re going to have access to the most organic traffic. So you know, if you put aside some savings or you, you know, kind of figure out what you’re going to do with anything happens to that Amazon account, you could do that, so you’d be okay for a few months or whatever while you’re figuring out something else. So it depends on the person. I know a lot of people who built up all the platforms at the same time, so they’re, they’re putting shirts on Etsy, they’re putting shirts on red bubble there, they’re building up all of them at the same time. So then if any one platform isn’t doing as well at any given time, it doesn’t matter because they’re getting money from all the different platforms.

Stephen:                             [00:38:28]               That makes sense. Uh, but, but because this conversation came up last week with someone and I just want to make sure I’m clear on your experience generally, as you said, merchant merchant by Amazon is a bigger market currently. The biggest marketplace in your experience, that people that you’ve had on your show are the majority of their sales. Then on the [inaudible], I mean logic would tell me that, but I just want to be sure that I’m correct on that, that the majority of their sales would be on Amazon because of the size of the marketplace

Helen:                                   [00:38:58]               so far. Yes. I mean I think that there are more and more people that are really going all in on Etsy, so there’s getting to be quite a few people where it’s about even with etsy and merge because the is a big platform. I mean if you, if you learn at see, well you can do just about as well on Etsy as you can with merge and especially the people that got into etsy in the last year or two when printful first integrated with them, it was a lot less saturated market then merchant. So for someone just getting in now, they might actually do better on one of the other platforms then merge because merge has so many, so much competition right now.

Stephen:                             [00:39:35]               Now you mentioned mentioned pinterest before. Have you started selling on these third party platforms like an instagram or pinterest or facebook marketplace and is that changing the game

Helen:                                   [00:39:48]               more? Um, I have definitely been building up a pinterest account over the last two years and uh, it, it definitely does help. It’s hard to know the exact amount that it’s helping because I haven’t figured out how to really track it. Well, I can tell how many people are clicking on the shirts. I can tell how many people are saving them. Um, but the actual conversion, in order to do that, you’ve got to figure out a way to add an affiliate link in there or something. So you can track on Amazon side. If they really clicked all the way through and bought the shirt. I’m, I’m kind of. Amazon doesn’t want you to put affiliate links on Pinterest, so that’s why I haven’t done it yet. But there is a workaround that a lot of people have figured out where I think you go through a shopify store or you do something where you’re able to get the affiliate link. So for me it’s, it’s a, I know it’s helping, but the exact percentage is a little bit hard to calculate. I have to kind of just go by, Oh, that shirts bold today. That person saved it. Okay. It’s probably from pinterest. Um, but the little, yeah, it’s a little hard to track. So I use pinterest and I use spark Amazon, spark. Um, so I don’t know if you’ve heard of it or if you, if you know anyone who uses that, but Amazon’s version of social media. Have you heard of it?

Stephen:                             [00:41:08]               Heard of it? I’m not sure. You might be the first person I’ve actually heard using it.

Helen:                                   [00:41:13]               Yeah, it’s a little tricky. And Amazon, uh, you know, I mean, you’re familiar sometimes Amazon is like a little vague with their plans, what they’re trying, what they’re doing, why they’re doing things the way they’re doing. So. And I’ve tried to contact them about Amazon spark and they never reply to emails or anything on their page or anything. So they came out with a disclosures or terms of service where they make it sound like you can’t advertise anything. But then when they were promoting spark, they were talking about advertising things and they shared stuff to their facebook group of Youtube, youtube channels that we’re promoting their merged shirts. And so it’s, it’s a little vague of whether they only want Amazon customers to use it. And then why would they be saving? I don’t know, it’s confusing. It’s confusing what their purpose is for it.

Helen:                                   [00:42:07]               But before they came out with those terms, I had been using it right away for it. It started July 2017 and it helped a lot. You would, they had these poles and different things they would connect directly to your shirts or directly to any products. So I used it for Fba also and people could save it, click on it, goes right to the product. Um, so it helped a lot. So now I’m not really sure if it will continue. I’ve heard that they’re trying to work out a way to have it for businesses so they might change. Like if you’re a business, you might have to do some other kind of step before you’re allowed to use it. But anyway, whenever they start working on it more and promoting it more that that’s a really great tool for everything.

Speaker 5:                           [00:42:51]               You were an early adopter so you’ll be able to jump right in as we both know is Amazon build something and then goes into the and did I lose, you know, you’re good. They built something and then they come back and fill in the details. That’s normal for them. So that wind, you hear again? That one’s at the beat.

Helen:                                   [00:43:07]               Yeah. So when you’re in the beginning, you just kinda have to like, just

Speaker 5:                           [00:43:11]               keep going. Yeah. Just put your head down. Do the work. Don’t worry. No, no, that’s okay. Hey, I’m telling you, I’m inspired. I can hear a seagull going by and I’m loving it. I’m loving it. I’m telling. I think I’m sneaking to the beach this weekend. All right, let’s go here because I’m sitting here thinking about your, your, your family as they’re sitting here looking at you. And they’re like, wait. She went to school for art history and business but art history. So she should be, you know, just some loser it, you know, I don’t want to make somebody pushing shoe shopping, cart baskets,

Helen:                                   [00:43:44]               art history majors. They’re not losers by the way.

Speaker 5:                           [00:43:48]               It’s, it’s, it’s the actual stigma though, but it’s just so cool. I mean, what do they say to you? I mean, what are they, what does your family look at you like? What do you like some genius or they like what happened? She wasn’t supposed to be the big successful one that she is.

Helen:                                   [00:44:04]               Well, well they, they are, they’re all successful. So. But they are very supportive. I mean my brother is a, he got his phd and he’s a scientist and he, he talks to people in China and talk to NASA and he wrote a book. So it’s like, I feel like I’m the lead thing. That’s all my family. But they. But they all are, they’re so supportive and they were all watching our merge money show last night and my was even commenting. We were talking about pop socket. Then somebody asked if they thought it would be a bad and he typed in and he’s like, no, they won’t be a fad there. They’re going to be around for awhile

Stephen:                             [00:44:41]               for his generation. I mean, I think it’s a good point. So he’s 15 and he’s sitting there watching his mom and her friends. These crazy ladies excited talking about talking about something that you guys and you guys are pumped. I mean, you’re not shy. I mean this is exciting stuff and he sitting there watching like, isn’t that guy to be. When you’re teaching kids, you know who gets to, you know, only celebrities get their kids to watch, right? I mean, that’s what I always thought about. Right? Your celebrity kids, what does will Smith’s kids watching him on screen or Tom Cruise kid. I guess it’d be a good example. I mean that’s weird, but here now he gets to watch you do something that you love, get paid for it and have some success with it. It’s got to be pretty cool and it’s got to make different conversations with him.

Stephen:                             [00:45:32]               Does he have. But here’s what he gets to look. It’s not like he’s arm’s length away from it. He actually sees you. That’s powerful. I mean, he’s actually somebody he knows. Somebody who loves somebody he eats, he eats close to. He gets to see that. That’s powerful to me. Oh, love it. Love it. Love it though. All right, let’s talk a. let’s talk about these crazy ladies. The merchant money ladies. So this show is called. Well, it’s a, it’s a group. So it’s merchant money building. I’m going to get this right. Building a million dollars. I mean this is big building, million dollar empires. One shirt at a time. That’s a big nap. That’s a big place. Is it possible to build a million dollar empire?

Helen:                                   [00:46:14]               Absolutely. I mean absolutely you can. It just grows and it never, it never ends. It’s not like, I mean I’m used to spa where you buy something and then you said spell it and then you have to go buy something else to sell it again. Like it doesn’t keep selling with shirts and keep selling and not only that, the keep selling, there’s unlimited places you can put it. So like we were talking about earlier, right now I’m mainly focusing on merge, but there’s so many other places. There’s ED theaters, your own website and then there’s so many products. So just in the amount of time I’ve been doing merchant started with just two different kinds of tee shirts now there’s long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, and then just in the last week pop socket and there’s so many other things. Other, other places have bathing suits. You can make leggings, tote bag, a shower, curtains. I mean there’s anything, any physical object could have a designed printed on it. So it could be. I mean, who knows, in the future, merge on demand coffee tables. I mean it could be anything. Yeah,

Stephen:                             [00:47:21]               it sounds like it could. Yeah, there’ll be printing when you want to wrap your car, you know, to make it look like a starbucks coffee mug now. Bad example, starbucks, but

Helen:                                   [00:47:30]               it’s coming. It’s be anything at all. So it could be sunglasses, I mean, anything. So it’s, it really is just limitless. Um, and you can, you can register a brand and start developing a brand. I mean, just the, like you, I think you brought up life is good. Like that guy who made those t shirts, I mean he did really well and it was just this tee shirts. Um, I mean now it could be any product and you could build multiple different brand so you could have a life is good brand, you could have the volleyball something or uh, other brand, you can use instagram to promote things. Um, I mean you could become a millionaire just off one type of brand, but yeah, it’s unlimited how many brands you could create, how many companies you could create. A lot of people sell company, so they create some kind of brand, some kind of merchant demand brand and then they sell it and when you sell it, you get about two years worth of income all at once. Now you can use that money to start the next one. Um, so it, it really does build on itself.

Stephen:                             [00:48:36]               Well, I think you gave a good example there of what you can do because I think you’re right. It’s limited by your imagination. So somebody who is really strong and instagram all of a sudden could have a business where they don’t have to do to design because you’ve already outsourced that and they don’t even have to create the listings because I have an account manager for mine and she does an amazing job. So you can really, so they can focus on that piece. So let’s talk about the group. So the group got started by you and did I hear the Chris Green helped you out just recently? Is that true? Are we allowed to.

Helen:                                   [00:49:06]               Yes, yes. We’re allowed to

Stephen:                             [00:49:08]               because we’re allowed to say that about Chris. Nobody knows this stuff and he doesn’t say anything in front of anybody’s always so quiet. No,

Helen:                                   [00:49:14]               I know. So, you know, and that’s another thing, like I don’t wanna make it seem like I’m some kind of big guru. Like I just started from scratch, like started with that va and all along the way people have helped out and reached out. So um, you know, I uh, joined the green room and then through there I met people that were going to asd. So then I went to asd. It’s a conference in Vegas and then I met people in person and then everything just kept growing. So then I eventually met Chris Green mostly through youtube, but I have seen him, you know, at conferences. But uh, you know, then I learned from that about merch by Amazon and then different people have just helped all along the way and even still I still felt like I was like, nobody. I’m like, I can’t, I just got frustrated watching youtube, but there weren’t any.

Helen:                                   [00:50:07]               Well, I think there was, there’s one or two, but there wasn’t very many women talking about march by Amazon. Most of the groups and most of the youtube channels were all male and I just didn’t understand why. I’m like, I feel like this is such a perfect job for women. Like you can work from home, you can just find it so perfect. So I didn’t really understand why and the. And I didn’t even think that I could be the one to do it. I was just like, oh, well I’ll just keep waiting until somebody does it. And then nobody ever did.

Speaker 5:                           [00:50:35]               But that’s a big statement right there. You didn’t think you could do it. You were like waiting for permission, Helen. Really? Yes. And who gave you permission? Who, who, who gave you permission to do so? I finally like, why don’t I just start it? Good for you. Good for you.

Helen:                                   [00:50:51]               I mean I still, I had no confidence that I could start it. So I made a list of 30 women that I felt like we’re doing well On march, just from facebook groups and different things. I mean it was total guesses but I was like, I feel like these 30 women are doing well, but most of them I didn’t know. So I sorted by like people I had at least talked to at least one. And I thought it would take 30 people to get three people. I was aiming for me and two other people to do a youtube channel. So my, my goal is three people and I thought I need the context 30 people to get there. So I went down the list and I contacted the first seven. All seven said yes. So he was like, oh my God, how am I going to do a channel with seven people?

Helen:                                   [00:51:37]               Luckily two people decided they were too busy and I watched them for them and they didn’t want to do it. So it ended up being me and four other people and so we have five people and I still felt like five people’s gonna be way too much. But it’s worked out. It’s been amazing. And so it’s just so funny. I mean, I, I knew Brianna, I keep going in between brie basically is what she goes by. I knew Bri because I have bought designs from her. That’s the only way I knew her. I never talked to her. I’d never been friends with her, like only because I was her customer. That’s the only way I knew her. And then Michelle, I had met once at the unconference, so I went to that in February and I met her, are there. And then Amy Nicholas, the only way I knew her was because there was a time where a lot of people were feeling really down on merchant sales had really plummeted in the spring.

Helen:                                   [00:52:28]               Like um, a lot of people had seen a big drop in sales so there was a ton of negative posts all over all the different merge groups and she tried to write this like super positive and inspiring posts and all the comments underneath the posts were all negative. I was like, I private messaged her and I was just like, I just want you to know that was an amazing post and you know, so that’s how I reached to doubt to her. And then amy springer, I didn’t know either, but any Nicholas recommended that I contact her. So that literally, I mean I didn’t even know these people and it just all worked out perfectly,

Speaker 5:                           [00:53:03]               but you were connected to them and it’s because people asked this question all the time, Helen, hey wait, how do I create a group? How do I find people are because we, you know, we travel a lot, me and my groups and they’re always like, well, how do you make those friends? How do you make these connections? You just described the way to do it though,

Helen:                                   [00:53:22]               you know, those people also wanted to start a youtube channel. But they, they just hadn’t done it yet for whatever reason. So when I reached out to them, they were like, oh my gosh, yes, I’ve been wanting to do that. So you never know how people are going to respond and you know, if you, if you want to just see, you go in with. I went in with low expectations but you could do it however you want. I mean, don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work the first time I was ready to beat denied 30 and it just worked out that everybody said yes, but I’m,

Speaker 5:                           [00:53:51]               that’s a great lesson. I think that’s a big lesson for people because they all ask that question. Not many people are willing to put themselves out there, Helen. And that’s a challenge. All right, so give me this weight. We didn’t get to the green story. What did he do for you guys recently?

Helen:                                   [00:54:04]               Oh, okay. So

Speaker 5:                           [00:54:05]               I don’t want to miss that because he’s important and I always, nobody knows what he does. And it’s funny, he takes a lot of heat and I understand, you know, he’ll make some comments about other stuff, but he’s such a wonderful person. And what does he do to you?

Helen:                                   [00:54:19]               He gets the credit because I think people, even myself, I really didn’t think him that often be or at all because I just felt like I was just one person in a million and like he didn’t care about my opinion or I don’t know, like I just felt like I was nobody compared to him. So it’s like, I think when you feel like that, first of all it’s not true. And second of all it’s hard for that person too because they never get to hear the thank you. They never get to hear how much they helped you. So he’s helped me all the way back to 2014 and had no idea probably. So he, um, I would watch his youtube videos. I got his retail arbitrage book is online arbitrage book. Never said thank you. Never posted anything. But he helped me all through that. And then, um, he’s the reason I started merging in the first place because he, he did this whole youtube thing where he was just so excited about merch by Amazon and back then it was supposed to be for people who were like having apps like apps or gaming kind of people like video games and things like that.

Helen:                                   [00:55:21]               So I never would have known that anyone had apply if he hadn’t said something because I just thought it had nothing to do with me. But then he explained to all the Fba people like how we could use it and that it was fine if we applied. So I applied right away from, from his call and then I didn’t take action right away. But um, you know, eventually I did and then I learned more. I watched this video is on merge, learn more about that. Um, and then eventually I started the merchant money channel and I thought I had thought that I had checked if that website was available. Right.

Speaker 5:                           [00:55:59]               But you would pick that you would be. That would be the way for sure.

Helen:                                   [00:56:03]               Kind of embarrassing. But anyway. So I it, yeah, I checked it just, but I wasn’t thinking big enough. I wasn’t thinking we needed a website. I was thinking we’re doing a youtube channel. So I wasn’t thinking about a website at all. The only reason I checked with some, make sure nobody had that name because I didn’t want to copy someone’s name so it was a blink website so I didn’t actually to buy it or anything because I wasn’t even thinking along those lines. So that’s how I didn’t notice that he already had it because it was just a blink website. So anyway, about once it started growing quickly and we started gaining traction, I thought well maybe I better get that website just in case we need it or just to make sure nobody else gets it. So I went to go buy it a couple of weeks in and I was like, oh no, somebody has it. Figured out how to find out who has it. And I’m like, oh, of course [inaudible] screen has it. And I saw when he bought it and it was like right when rich came out. I mean the guy is so smart. Yeah,

Speaker 5:                           [00:56:59]               well that’s a lesson right there. So. So that’s a very important part. Yeah. He bought how many domains back then? I don’t know if he, if, if he even tells him, but he was so smart, but I agree with you. Right. So he was smart enough and like domain squatting, right. They, they call that he could have sold it. These things to a whole bunch of other people. How much did he charge you to, to give you this website? How much did he charge you? He did not charge anything. Yeah. I asked,

Helen:                                   [00:57:27]               I was like, oh, I’d like to buy it. And Briana with like, how are you going to buy it? Like it’s probably worth thousands of thousands of dollars. I’m like, I don’t know. I’m going to try so

Speaker 5:                           [00:57:35]               and here he is and he gives it to you. I think about that. Think about that. To me that’s a very cool statement for a very cool person with a very cool conscious. Now that, I mean someday you might want to partner or something like that. That’s a reasonable thing because you know you can trust there’s a trust. There’s a new connection to somebody who you really didn’t know very well and you get to see what kind of person is. It gives me the chills when I heard the story. It’s. It doesn’t surprise me because I know Chris really well, but I guarantee you most people are like, Huh? Really is. That’s an opportunity. I mean he’s a. he’s an entrepreneur. He could have sold, like you said, you would have paid for that. Anybody else would have charged. So I think it’s very cool and I, I hope he gets the recognition for it and now I’m going to help them in my little world because I just think it’s so important for that stuff

Helen:                                   [00:58:27]               horn and it’s so important for everybody listening. Just thank people along the way because people do these things and I. I mean I have no idea out Chris fields, but I’m sure there’s been times where he’s just like, oh my gosh, I’ve done so much and nobody. It’s got to hurt your ego. The negative stuff. Those for does ego. I know it does. This is four years later. This is 2018 and that post was the first real thank you post they did for him, so that shameful. It’s like four years later. That’s great point sir. You say thing. Well thank you along the way. I mean he gave me the website and I hadn’t said thank you along the way. The whole four years I had never said thank you. And he’ll just different now. I mean is that now when I’m with you, thank you. And just be so grateful for all the people that are spending their time teaching people and then helping people along the way.

Speaker 5:                           [00:59:16]               I think it’s powerful. And you’re right. I’m going to send some thank you notes out today. So is this group only for women because it’s run by women?

Helen:                                   [00:59:23]               No. So that’s another thing. I’m not sure why that, that tends to happen where women groups are only all women and the only reason that I hit women is just because I was just like, well why is there no women’s hockey? Like I knew that there were people doing well. Um, but no, our group is, is a lot of guys and girls and some people before, before I launched the group, they’re like, well your target audience is women. And I was like, well why does our target target audience have to be women? And they’re like, well, because you’re a women, I’m like, well I don’t feel like it has to be women. So I had this whole argument because somebody was helping trying to help me, uh, like how to market or how to target an audience. And I was like, I just want the audience to be anyone that wants to succeed on merge. And they’re like, well, I really think your target audience would be women. And I’m like, well, not going to

Speaker 5:                           [01:00:16]               good for you. I think. I think you’re right and got to keep the crazy. Then you got to keep the nonsense out. But realistically, you know, you guys have a similar interest if somebody can help you or vice versa. I mean, should you limit your ability to help people? Are you that person that only wants to help females?

Helen:                                   [01:00:32]               Yeah, and I just feel like it’s just like guys don’t do that. I mean I’m at they, I’ve been in plenty of guys groups and they never said I had to leave because I was on a guy. So I, I, I want to make sure it’s open to everybody.

Speaker 5:                           [01:00:45]               Well, you’re well over 2000 members. That’s got to be a big moment for you. I mean, who would’ve thought, right? I mean is that crazy?

Helen:                                   [01:00:50]               It’s only been two months, so it’s very exciting. We’re, that’s in our facebook group. Our Youtube channel is just under a thousand so we’re hoping to pass that soon, but it’s exciting and I just, I’m so excited for all the people in the group and in the community. I mean I think that a lot of people are starting to realize like, wait, how long has nobody? Like it’s, you started this, like the hopefully other people will do the same kind of thing where you know, you don’t have to be anybody. You can just start.

Speaker 5:                           [01:01:19]               No, I think people are gonna. Say Helen realizes, realized she was somebody, not, she wasn’t nobody. So I’m going to go at the opposite approach. Okay. So let’s do this. Let’s close with these couple things. One, if somebody is interested in joining the groups, it’s you request to join merchandiser cost to join merchant money? No, no cost

Helen:                                   [01:01:41]               group and a youtube channel. Okay. Okay.

Speaker 5:                           [01:01:43]               And I’ll put the links to both of those. Okay. And tell me this, you have experienced with Fba, right? You started there yet, that value that you learned, the ability to buy and sell things, to ability to see, to learn what things sell, right? All those skill sets. I think they’re very transferrable to merge. Right? So somebody who’s intimidated by this, you’ve already described you combine your, your shirts from somebody, your designs from somebody else. I’m, I’m telling people that I have an account manager that uploads mine. I don’t even do that. So, uh, you can pay somebody and you have to pay for it and she’s very valuable. And so I get so realistically,

Helen:                                   [01:02:22]               Oh, it’s bad because you’re not really supposed to have someone else upload this chart. So you just got to make sure, like with the main name, especially if someone lives in another country, I’m Brianna, had her account terminated because of that. So you just have to be careful with the. So if you do hire someone, make sure it’s somebody close to your town or something like that. Okay.

Stephen:                             [01:02:44]               Or a family member. And so somebody who can help you there. All right? And you can get around that. And so, uh, that Fba skill set is transferable. So whoever’s out there saying, I’m getting tired of doing all right, I’m tired of brand shutting me down. I’m tired of this, I’m tired of that. I don’t want to do private label or wholesale or whatever. This doesn’t mean to walk away because it brings my heart to see somebody who invested that much time and then they walk away rather than expand into this world.

Helen:                                   [01:03:13]               I think the main characteristic of an entrepreneur is just always learning, always growing, always finding a way. So there’s, there’s always a way. There’s, there’s so many things, different things you could do. There’s always an opportunity somewhere. Most entrepreneurs have the problem that there’s too many opportunities and they just want to do everything like this shiny object, like I want to do this, I want to do Bitcoin, I want to do this over here, I want to sell houses. They’re just all over the place so it’s good to be a little bit focused, but if you get disheartened or whatever you’re doing or you don’t want to do it anymore, there’s thousands of other options and you know, just maybe hang out with some other entrepreneurs, go to a conference, go somewhere and get reinspired and think of new ideas and go a different direction.

Stephen:                             [01:03:57]               Be Interested in improving. Right. That’s for sure where you stand. You well. All right, so the goal of the podcast is to help people were stuck. So let’s go to only. I only want to talk to merchant people who are stuck and again, I’ll have all the links to all your contact information. That’s the best way to get you to, is that merge money, is that, is that right?

Helen:                                   [01:04:15]               Yes. I mean you could message me on facebook also. Helen can send but to preferred.

Stephen:                             [01:04:20]               Okay, and um, let me document that. Okay, so people are stuck, they, they got an account or they can’t get an account because they’ve applied in Abbott heredity thing. Take us past the point of getting stuck. What you would do and what’s your advice to get people past that point?

Helen:                                   [01:04:39]               Yeah, I mean it’s 100 percent mindset. You would think that it’s like, oh, well I need this killer and you go, it’s just, I mean, if you’re stuck, something’s wrong in your mindset. So I really think that you need to go hang out with people who are happy with what they’re doing and you get re inspired and you’re like, oh, that’s a great idea. Maybe I’ll do that, or maybe I’ll do this. I mean, there’s no reason to be stuck at all, uh, not, not in this time period with the Internet. So if you feel stuck then you just need to find a way to be reinspired. So go to the beach.

Stephen:                             [01:05:13]               It’s a great way to close right there. Go to the beach like Helen, listen to that. I heard a seagull or two. Everybody’s listening. That’s inspiring and awesome. I just want to say thank you so much. I wish you nothing but success. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me on. Great episode. Great Lady. Oh my gosh. She’s so cool. And I just, she’s very humble and it’s so neat to see her realize that she is somebody, not that she was a nobody. I don’t like that phrase. She was a somebody. She just needed to find her voice and guess what she has and her and a bunch of friends because the, uh, the other ladies in that group, I know two other ones personally and they’re amazing. I mean, just absolutely amazing in their own way and they bring something different and I think that’s what makes a group so successful is those different perspectives, those different attitudes, those different abilities.

Stephen:                             [01:06:02]               That’s how you find those groups. And I get that question off that. How do you, how do you get in with Andy and Lee, Ron and nate and, and, uh, Chris Green and all the rest of that. Well, I’ve put myself out there, you know, and I, I’m a friend. That’s how I have friends because I’m going to be there for them when they need me, and so guess what? You do the same and you can find these likeminded people. Helen [inaudible] a great example of how she found her group do the same, you know, and it’s not too late. Start a facebook group, start a podcast or a youtube channel, all these things. That’s how you get a. that’s how you make context and it’s just been a wonderful thing for me and I’m very, very fortunate. Yes, it is my birthday today and I’m very fortunate because this is three years, this podcast has been going today and I get to talk to amazing people like Helen and now she’s part of my life and I’m richer for it. So very cool place. ECOMMERCE, momentum.com, ecommerce momentum.com. I truly, truly appreciate you listening. Take care.

Cool voice guy:                  [01:06:57]               Thanks for listening to the momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at incomers momentum. Doug, come under this episode number. Please remember to subscribe and the like us on

Stephen:                             [01:07:09]               wounds.

 

Stephen-Peterson

About the author, Stephen

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.