331 : Christian Verhoeven – Learning Amazon Private Label has made me a better wholesale seller
Christian has figured this out: Life is living. Sounds trite maybe but he is actually doing it. When was the last time you paused to work on yourself? When did you stop and enjoy life? Remember you get one chance on Earth, so live it now. Listen how Christian is making it happen.
Mentioned:
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Tactical Arbitrage – Get an 18 day free trial with code: “Tactical”
Freeeup– Save 10% (forever) and get an instant $25.00 voucher for your first hire.
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Tactical Arbitrage – Get an 18 day free trial with code: “Tactical”
Freeeup– Save 10% (forever) and get an instant $25.00 voucher for your first hire.
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Christian: [00:00:00] If anybody is in wholesale and they not using sponsored ads, you have to do it because nobody in wholesale, these using sponsored ads,
Cool voice guy: [00:00:07] welcome to the ECOMMERCE, but we focus on the people, the products, and the process of selling today. Here’s your host. Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [00:00:21] Yeah. This is going to be a good episode. Hey, just wanted to jump in with a couple of things. There’s a couple notes about some things going on with Andy and myself at our warehouse. Some opportunities to work with us. I’m going to get them in a second, but first up, man, I’m, I’ve kind of mentioned something. I hope you’ve saw this. Um, one of my sponsors, seller labs was recently honored as one of the top companies, the top fastest growing companies in the United States and they looked at the top 5,000 and these guys didn’t make, you know, number 4,000 or 3000 or 2000 or 1000 or 800, 500. Now they’ve made the 148. I think it was. I mean, just imagine that what’s it take to be number 148 out of 5,000 that were recognized and you know, it’s just an honor to be recognized now to be 148.
Stephen: [00:01:11] It’s a big deal and you know, I know, yes, they pay me and all that kind of jazz, but again, you hear me talk about consistency over time and when you see a company that’s doing these kinds of things, it takes really strong leadership. When you, when you hire services that we all pay for service, I’ve got a lot of them and when I recommend a these companies that I recommend, it’s because I use their services right over time. What I love is this is you go to an event and there’s jeff or tyler, one of them are always our ed are always at the event because you can go and give them feedback, right? Feedback. Genius gets better because you give them feedback and they help improve the product. They’re always at every event and they’re willing to talk with you. They’re there to talk to you.
Stephen: [00:01:53] How many companies do that? You know, it’s easy to, I get these companies all the time, hey, you know, would you let me promote, I got one right now, would you let me promote and will want to sponsor in a that mom, no, I don’t know you, I’m sorry, and your new then maybe you do have the best company, but again, I’m looking at over time and again for similar labs to be recognized across the country and that just to make the list of $5,000 a huge deal, but to be on number 148, that’s a really big deal. So, you know, Jeff Cohen, a Brendan check hurts, um, and uh, uh, Hank, sorry guys. Um, it’s just so exciting for me. The leadership that you guys have put together for this company. It’s phenomenal. And it just said something about you. So I 100 percent solution, so I just don’t want to miss that.
Stephen: [00:02:38] That is such a big deal. Um, that’s why I think you should be with sellerlabs. Look at all the product scope, right? Ignite, take a look at a feedback genius. All those products that they have, right? They’re doing advertising, all that stuff is there to help you, but again, they’re going to be there next year and I think that’s the thing you want to remember how many companies have we seen come in and go out because they moved on to the next cryptocurrency and all the rest of the, you know, and I don’t fault him, but that’s not the kind of company you want to be with. You want to be with a company that’s going to be here for the long haul that’s going to help build that brand that we’re all trying to build and that help you take it to the next level.
Stephen: [00:03:11] So, so her labs, well done. I applaud you. Very, very cool. Another big one with one of my sponsors is gay lesbian group. You’ve heard me talk about it’s q four is coming. Um, all that kind of stuff. But what’s very cool is she’s now given me a special two week free trial were the only ones who have it. You get a free trial if you’re interested in a sourcing group, daily product find. And I’m going to have an announcement in the next week or two with a special bonus thing that you get if you join, but try sign up for two weeks, try it, and then sit back and say, is my business better off? Am I in a better position for q four? And my theory is this, have a strong q four to get the cashflow so you can build next year’s business. You should be building next year’s business.
Stephen: [00:03:55] How are you going to do that? You need the money. Use this as an opportunity. I just think it’s phenomenal. So it’s you go to amazing freedom.com, forward slash momentum, hyphen arbitrage. Yes, it’s a mouthful. Amazing freedom.com, forward slash momentum, hyphen arbitrage. And you get that two weeks free. It’s phenomenal. And last but not least, I don’t want to Miss Karen Locker solution for ECOMMERCE. She’s doing listings for me this week for all these new private label products we have going on. And it’s unbelievable. You know, I just send them to her with some information and boom, they do it, they test it. Now here’s a better example. There was a a listing, it’s a wholesale account that we have and I said, hey, could you get these four or five photos added on now I need to with Karen idea with some, one of her team members, which I have my own, you know, assigned person for my team, which is phenomenal.
Stephen: [00:04:47] And she was like, Hey Steve, I’m having trouble. I’m waiting for them to link or whatever. She followed through and then eventually she said, okay, go take a look. They’re up. That kind of service is what I’m looking for and that’s what I get from Karen’s lockers team. It’s solutions four ecommerce solutions, four ecommerce, a forward slash momentum and you’re going to save 50 bucks and which is great and it’s 50 bucks every month from there on out. Okay. And so consider that and if you have any questions, whatever message me or message Karen, but solutions the number for ecommerce forward slash momentum. And Man, I just loved, loved, loved the service. So back to andy and myself. So what we’re doing at the warehouse, we have a couple things going on. So we have, we have our fifth client coming to board now. We’re not a fulfillment company, we’re not in that world, we just have some storage space and some relatively lower cost.
Stephen: [00:05:37] And the good news is we’re only an hour from avp so if you send a lot of material, the APP, it’s very convenient here because it’ll check in usually that day or the next day, but we have a loading dock so we can hinder pallets and we ship out by the pilot. That’s the way we prefer to do it. Um, but we have a couple openings if you’re interested in working with us. We’re not interested in doing any of Ra or away, but just be, can we just not, we don’t live at that warehouse, right? Um, but we can work especially for pallets, containers and stuff like that. Um, and we have a couple of wholesale clients but mostly private label. If you’re interested in joining us, you want a message, Andy, Andy Salmon’s a private, message him on facebook and start the conversation and that eventually we’ll get into it if you’re interested in that.
Stephen: [00:06:20] Second thing we’re doing is we are actually going to hold the summit, we’re gonna hold a summit in September 22nd, I believe the date is, and he’s going to talk more about that, but if you’ve been interested in finding out what it takes to run a successful full time or part time, I mean, I’m part time so I’m, I’m pretty good example of part time. But uh, how about an Ra business doing over 3 million? I think it is. 10 Wentworth is joining us for this summit and Andy’s going to be bringing in his private label, his wholesale and is already. Remember Andy used to do Ra and we’re going to bring this whole thing into a conversation. Very, very limited group. Not very large, but it’s a workshop type of deal. It’s in our warehouse. We’re actually going to let you see behind the curtains. Um, who else is willing to do that? So if you’re interested in that message and about summit, you want to get on that list and find out some more information. He’s going to be talking about it over the next few weeks, but I just wanted to get that there. Now let’s really get into the podcast.
New Speaker: [00:07:20] Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 331 Christian verhoeven. Man. Oh Man. For a young guy, we got wisdom to dudes. Got Wisdom. He said something, and Nicole, we were done with the call. He said something to me afterwards. We were talking about, you know, um, designing that life. I’m all about that, right? And when you hear what he does and then when junk happens, how he’s able to just let it roll off. I think there’s a real powerful lesson and there’s only 31 year old kid to me. I have a son older than him, but he said something else. He’s like, you know, we’re talking about, you know, wow, I got to have the biggest sales. You’ve got to do this. He goes, no, I think the real success happens at home. He actually used that phrase and I’m like, Whoa, that’s pretty deep.
New Speaker: [00:08:08] And I think that, you know, when you look inward, take a look at your own life and sit back and say, is real success happening at home or your relationships at home healthy, are you healthy? Are you taking care of yourself? How about your relationships with your family? How about your relationship with your neighbor, about your relationships with your vendors? Right? If that’s not all healthy man, start there, right? And, and, and don’t give so much to your business at the cost of all these other things. I think there’s a really important lesson here in this episode that there is a way to figure out both. You just have to have different perspective. And I think a 31 year old Christian has some pretty darn good perspective to offer. Let’s get into the podcast.
Stephen: [00:08:52] All right. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. We’re excited about today’s
New Speaker: [00:08:56] guest. He is all the way on the other side of the United States. He got up nice and early for me and I really appreciate it. Christian Verhoeven, welcome Christian. Hey, thanks for having me and thanks for coming on. It is early in your neck of the world. Is The sun coming up?
Christian: [00:09:14] Yeah, it’s [9:00] where we’ve got some sunlight. We’ve had a couple of hours of sunlight. You’re, are you close to the fires at all in California? No, not at all. In Highland Park Los Angeles where it’s, there’s some greenery here, but nothing’s on fire yet.
New Speaker: [00:09:29] Okay. Well that’s good. Let’s hope there’s not, especially today while we’re talking. Okay. So you’re in California. Are you in California by choice? Uh, by luck by force, uh, you know, family wise or what have you, uh, how do you end up in California?
Christian: [00:09:46] Yeah, it’s definitely by choice. Um, so a little preamble here. I’m actually born and raised in Germany. Um, and I say that as much background as, as a little pre face because there might be a time where our pronounce something a little bit wrong or I’m gonna take a second longer to find the right word in English is my second language. Uh, so yeah, I’m, I’m in California. I’m in Los Angeles very much by choice. I moved to the United States about seven years ago. At the age of what? Uh, it was 24. Yeah. So 31 NASA, 20 hours. Twenty four. All right. That’s a pretty good age to move over. Yeah. And that’s it. I don’t think I’d do it again now. Really? Well, I do it again, knowing what I know now, that part of it, but if you didn’t know what you know now exactly back then, um, I literally sold everything that I owned and I came to the US with, with two duffle bags and, and that was it.
Christian: [00:10:50] And I actually literally started out as a dishwasher, a in a, in a restaurant kitchen where you’re going to be an actor on what was the dream? No. Um, well I don’t know that there was necessarily a dream. I just had the opportunity to go and I didn’t think twice about it. I didn’t really see a future that I liked for myself back in Germany even though I was in business school, I just didn’t think that was a really fitting choice for me. So I kinda just went on a whim. I’m packed my bags and came over here. That’s crazy. So that was that.
New Speaker: [00:11:27] So, so one of the things that I’ve always heard about the German education system is they test, test test you and they steer you in something that’s well suited for you and so obviously you must have tested well to get into that curriculum and they steered you that way and, and quite frankly Christian, they’re probably right because you are doing really well in business if anybody hasn’t told you right, but, but you know, so I guess they, they really do know what they’re doing. But realistically
Christian: [00:11:54] was it the formality? Was it the structure that you didn’t care for?
Christian: [00:12:00] Yeah, possibly. I’m not sure what happened. I always describe it to some people as something just clicked the first time I came over here, I realized there was a whole nother way of being that was, that I felt much more comfortable, never looked back. It’s a. So when they put you in that track, they normalize you for that track. Right? So everybody’s kind of had to use a negative term, but I’d like a lemming. Everybody’s the same. Similar. Maybe that’s a better way to say. Yeah, definitely the way that it works, uh, actually as that, after elementary school, however you test, you go on into a one of three secondary schools. There is the, well, yeah, basically depending on your grades. Uh, I had very good grades in elementary school because I was a reader from a very early age, so that made things really easy for me. Um, and then later on after you go to what’s, it’s called the gymnasium, it’s silly, but that’s Kinda the higher, higher tier, second level school you can go onto university now actually dropped out of high school and I think 11th or twelfth grade a girl or music music. Actually I knew that it was one of those two. It has to be one of those two. Yeah. I was in a band than we were a touring quite a bit. I was working on the side, uh, and I, I picked up college a little bit later.
Christian: [00:13:33] Yeah, you were more than an abandoned me. It was more than just a little band. Right. I mean, uh, you ended up. I mean, you get to see a lot. No, it was definitely a little bad. So me and three friends from school, uh, and it was a hardcore punk band, so it was all like 30, 40 seconds songs, a lot of screaming, a lot of blast beads. And it was very, it was a little. We toured a bunch, it was all German language, so we only toward German speaking countries, I think with one exception was the Netherlands. Um, and we did have a record, but I think it was limited to 500 copies. So that was very common ground. You still have that record, do you have a copy of it? I have like three copies here. I didn’t have one for a long time and then somebody told me, I’m not sure if it’s actually true that it became somewhat of a hot commodity on Ebay Germany. So I went to our bass player and secured like three more records, but just one day. Uh, so what do your parents say about this? So they say, wait, you’re dropping out of school to do what and you’re going to scream and in German and you’re going to be a. I don’t know what that thing is. Something beads. I didn’t know what that was. Right? Oh, it’s just been very fast and drumming. I last beads. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that doesn’t sound as a dad. I’d be a little.
Christian: [00:14:52] Oh, sorry. Um, it was not only that, but also write about a year after I dropped out, I moved away from my parents to Berlin. I grew up in, um, in a small town between Cologne and Dusseldorf, more of the west side of Germany and I moved to Berlin when I was 19 or 20. I’m also for the music, but also because I thought, you know, there was a little bit more action for a late teen, early twenties young guy. Especially a punker scene. Yeah, definitely. Um, and yeah, they were a bit concerned I guess. But um, you got past it. We got past that. In the end, everything worked out. I think that was definitely a time where being further away from my parents helped our relationship along because the time that we would spend together we would have to make an account and have it be positive time
New Speaker: [00:15:44] and that’s a. that’s a very good lesson. You’ll, you almost appreciate them from a distance more than you would when you see them everyday. Kind of. I mean, it’d be honest as guys, we take it for granted. I mean that’s fair.
Christian: [00:15:56] Definitely. Yeah, definitely.
New Speaker: [00:16:00] So sorry I didn’t mean to stop you there, but no, blow their mind when you said I’m going to go. I’m back. Oh wait, I’m going to California Dad.
Christian: [00:16:10] Yeah. My Dad was a little bit more of a traveler when he was younger too. I obviously he was, you know, I’m a bit disappointed but we all new technology at that point. It would make it a lot easier to keep in touch with my mom. I kind of dropped a bomb on her but. But she came around to it. She’s actually going to come visit me next month so I’ll be nice.
New Speaker: [00:16:32] So this is a, this they see as positive, they see a Christian coming into himself because you didn’t go to California to join a band. You went there to wash dishes. How’d that play?
Christian: [00:16:45] Right? Um, so I was in business school when I, when I’m a little bit over, it’s still, it was a like online school, so I was just doing assignments and everything for my computer. Um, and I became a dishwasher actually when I first moved over. I was in New Orleans for a year because I thought that’s a city that’s busy with the service industry. I can find a job there easily at a restaurant, which is something I had done before and I wanted to do again. Um, and then slowly it kind of came into myself. So from a dishwasher I became a line cook at some point later. Realized cooking was what I wanted to do for the time being. And that’s what I also dropped out of business school. Um, but since the cooking pretty quickly it became a real career for me. That’s when really I think both my parents realized I’d found my way.
New Speaker: [00:17:41] Hmm. Did when you look back, I mean, you know, look looking as you’re traveling through your life mentally backwards, right? I think we all retroactively look back. Do you see this as a natural course for you? You were destined to end up there at some point?
Christian: [00:17:57] Yeah, I think so. I couldn’t imagine my life turning out any other way.
New Speaker: [00:18:04] Well, I think as parents, you know, anybody who’s listening, who’s got somebody as a younger, a child who struggles to find themselves because not every. I mean we all know those people that seem to have it all together. Right? Usually you find out later on they’re a train wreck and it’s all a facade, right? It’s all a fake pretending to be somebody that somebody else wants them to be and you can’t be real and it will eventually collapse. But when you see that, I mean, I think that that’s the thing is you just love them and you love them where they are and eventually they push their way through. And Christian’s a good example then. Okay, so you go there, you washing dishes. What were you trying to do on the side? I mean, were you thinking music? Were you thinking maybe a little acting, maybe something or just Girls Beach Surfing. Nice. Either. Not Berlin, not rain. Not, not that. I’m sure they get beautiful, you know, certain times of year too, but
Christian: [00:18:54] no. So acting never was in my head. Okay. So acting wasn’t going be it. You’re a good looking guy. You can pull that off. I’m not sure. I think the accident, what would get in my way and Tattoo is probably.
New Speaker: [00:19:06] Yeah, that might be an issue. Yeah man. It depends on where hey, if it was sons of anarchy, you never know. I mean it could have been.
Christian: [00:19:12] Yeah, definitely the motorcycle help. Yeah. I’m a. So I’m in New Orleans. I’ve moved on to be a line cook from washing dishes and um, because everything has gone pretty smoothly. I found a job right away when I came over to the states and uh, I bought a car, I remember exactly. I was riding my bike to work, one of my two jobs. I was working a lot. Then I’m thinking, wow, this was pretty easy. Why don’t I also moved to California since I’m already here. It’s not that much further away. Uh, and that was all the thinking that went into it and I was talking to some people that told me now you need to save all this money to make it work in La and this and that. And in the end I think I came over with a $600 bucks in my pocket. Nice. And yeah, I worked out. I, I went on a, I came in and the first week I went on a frenzy on craigslist applications to be a line cook again. And it worked out even though I think my original intent was to go to cooking school, but they wouldn’t take me, I think.
New Speaker: [00:20:20] So you go to California and you immediately find a job. Right. So that’s that. Especially in that career. I mean there’s a zillion restaurants and they’re dying to find common. So that’s an easy one. But where do you live? I mean that the things that I hear the horror stories about California is the price of a, you know, a real estate. But I mean, just renting anything, it’s just so expensive and it’s almost impossible. Is that, is that true?
Christian: [00:20:43] Yeah, that’s true. And it’s more and more true then I those 600 bucks that I had to live in a room for the first month that I had found through my old roommate in New Orleans. So it was more of a personal connection there. And from there on out I kept moving on. Um, because once you have a place, you’re in a bit of a better position. You don’t need to take every apartment that you can get.
New Speaker: [00:21:07] Oh, you little technique, a little picky at that time.
Christian: [00:21:12] Yeah. Because you’re not sleeping in your car, which I mean, a lot of people do that here. Um, but you can wait until the place comes along that you actually do like and that you can’t afford.
New Speaker: [00:21:24] Do you think, I mean, as I sit there and listen to this because I just saw something last night where somebody was sleeping at a working actor, sleeping in his car. That’s what I saw. And I was like, what? That’s crazy. Do you think though, that these sacrifices, because I think most of us would say that these are sacrifices, right? These are, you know, of course you should have a house. Of course you should have this, right? He sacrifices. Do you think they help build up the character within you? Do you think they have helped build the character within you? Let me say it that way.
Christian: [00:21:53] Definitely. Um, so I’ve, I’ve lived very modestly back in New Orleans when I was just working the line cook jobs and then when I moved to La, you know as a line cook, you work crazy hours but you don’t necessarily make a lot of money so you have to dial back on some things that aren’t as important. I don’t go buy clothes every month. I buy a few new pairs of jeans maybe once a year. Um, so it both character in a way that maybe you can make, do with less. And um, that actually plays into my life today very well because I do a run it, you congress business full time and it’s definitely one of the smaller ones. If I compare myself to other sellers, but it’s on your terms and I think it’s on my terms, what you just said though, it’s important, it’s on my terms and especially compared to some other people that I know that do this full time. I don’t make a lot of money, but being a line cook for so long, I’m used to that already. So now the commodity that I do have an abundance of this time
New Speaker: [00:23:06] and when you, you know, freedom, right? That’s what really is freedom and so when you don’t have to worry about whether you have a house or whether you’re going to have food and you have your bills paid, it gives you the opportunity to do more things. Looking back at your friends, right? The people that you grew up with, the ones who went to school, who didn’t drop out or all those different things. What does that. I my opinion, I mean this is Steve just saying this is their diet. They would die to be in your shoes. To have that freedom. They wait. You mean you could literally really go to the beach, like really like actually go, like not talking about because you know how many people my wife and have this conversation all the time. We’ve talked about moving to Florida for so and she’s like, yeah, but you’d work all the time. You wouldn’t be at the beach.
Christian: [00:23:48] Yeah, at the beach, but you wouldn’t be at the beach. I’m like, yeah, you’re probably right. It’s true. Friends, friend requests from those people now because they know where you live. Like, Hey, you’re the same person. You live in Los Angeles now. What are you doing?
New Speaker: [00:24:06] All of them know that say to you, I always knew you had headed in you Christian. You just had to see it yourself. That one’s deep in it. I mean, think about that, right? I mean because I’m sure when you’re screaming up on the stage doing whatever that bead stuff, you called it a or whoever was doing that, stuff it loud and blah blah, blah. Nobody sees that yet.
New Speaker: [00:24:31] You did it and you toured and whatever. Even though you pressed 500 records, you still did something. You accomplish something, so that foundation was there and so anyway, I know I’m getting off track, but I just think it’s very cool. I just think it’s very cool that you’re designing the life for you. You’re figuring it out for yourself and I think that that’s what I hope most people listening to this stop comparing yourself to others because even some of the mega sellers, they have a lot of responsibility, you know, I mean, I know someone going big sellers who’ve got the same cash flow problems you have, but add two extra zeros to it, right when they’re, when the order comes in, it’s not $10,000, it’s $400,000 and they want, you know, not the 30 percent. They want it all, you know, and then it comes fob. Then you’ve got, I mean it’s just all this stuff and knows extra zeros at gray hairs and a bald spots and stuff. So I’m the man. I, I think you should, you should set up a little taller because I think it’s very cool for you. This is where you are for you, right? You’ve got that much figured out. What are you doing with that spare time? I think that’s a good question. Right? You got a lot of spare time. You just said that. What, what does that allow you to do?
Christian: [00:25:39] Yeah, I had to figure that out this year. So I set myself the target from January first I’m going to be doing this full time. Um, and
Christian: [00:25:48] it actually came out of, at that point I had stopped cooking and I was working for my friend’s company working production and music festivals and I was on the road a lot, so it was a lot of Gig work, meaning I’d be on for three weeks and off for three weeks and I started selling on Amazon during that off time when I was home for three weeks and I didn’t know what to do with myself and I thought, you know what? I should create a little bit of a side hustle. And you know, my initial goal was I want to make 300 extra bucks a month. Very realistic. Not, not a big shot. You’re not, you know, you’re not looking for the, I need to make $10,000 and I need to make it by Friday. Steve, can you help me out? Not Looking at it.
Christian: [00:26:26] Yeah, exactly. So it was a small goal from the start because I was kind of just hanging out it, not really doing that much with my free time and now that I’m doing a full time again, I again, I don’t work that much. I have it down to maybe two or three hours a day. So I had to figure out what, what to do with my time. Um, I bought a motorcycle last year that was kind of on a whim to my friend convinced me to buy a motorcycle and I did and I didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle. Okay,
New Speaker: [00:27:00] that’s a bad. That’s a bad plan then. Right? When you buy a motorcycle, do you don’t know how to write? That’s not terrible. Okay.
Christian: [00:27:06] So I bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle I couldn’t afford at the time, um, but I just become a citizen. So it’s celebrating that by an American motorcycle. Um,
New Speaker: [00:27:19] you got it right. You got the long hair, you gotta, you gotTa have a motorcycle. I mean if you got the tattoo, it’s. Yeah.
Christian: [00:27:27] Um,
Christian: [00:27:29] so that’s become a big part of my life. Uh, I learned how to ride it eventually. Um, so now we go on weekend trips, stuff like that with friends that I have who do right. Um, what else happened? I’m teaching myself Spanish. I did just do the Duolingo for like 15, 20 minutes everyday in the morning as part of my morning routine, which is something else I had to come up with to kind of stay disciplined. Um, I work out. I started going to a Jujitsu class about two months ago and that’s been a real, real killer. I go for about two hours, three times a week. Um, and you just get beat up every time. I just tap out a ton as a new, as a beginner.
New Speaker: [00:28:17] You think so you’re investing in yourself. I mean, none of these things sound like you’re working on your Amazon business here. Christian, none of none of the things you described.
Christian: [00:28:26] No. Again, I worked through for three hours in the morning and then the day is mine.
New Speaker: [00:28:29] Well, but let me ask you this and I, and I think this statement is going to be accurate when you’re out riding your motorcycle, when you’re in Jujitsu, when you’re doing all these other learning Spanish, you’re clearing your head. So when you do spend those two or three hours working on Amazon, the focus must be intense.
Christian: [00:28:49] Yeah, it definitely is. I’m, I’ve always been pretty good at that and I think actually the kitchen work made it so that I could focus on a couple of things that it’s at a time. Um, I have my to do list and I knock it out everyday without any distraction. Sometimes I add a few more things and that’s it. Boom. Yeah.
New Speaker: [00:29:12] Okay. So let’s, let’s talk about this because I think people are going to sit here and say, well, wait a second. This is a relatively young guy, young the US. Those was my age. Steve is not as head who’s guys an Amazon business is successful a successful enough to live, right? You know, you don’t have side hustles anymore, correct? Yeah, that’s correct. Okay. And yet you’re learning Spanish. You riding your motorcycle, you’re hanging out, you’re taking Jujitsu several times a week. I’m in. You’re eating healthy because you stay healthy. I can say that having met you, I mean all those things. This has given you this freedom by design, by intention. So let’s talk about intention. So now you’re. Are you 100 percent private label now?
Christian: [00:29:56] No, I actually started. Well I started doing, doing. I did one ra run and I hated it. I was peeling off labels in my kitchen and I’m like, oh my God, this isn’t it. This is awful. Yep. So I did online arbitrage where the prep center where I didn’t have to touch stuff and that was always my big thing. I don’t want to touch any inventory. Uh, I really quickly ventured into wholesale and I got really lucky there. I have three accounts that I got about in the first maybe five or six months and I got those three accounts and I still have them today. They account for probably half of my revenue. Nice. And then about a year ago I started dipping into private label and that’s been my sole focus. And, and you have how many skews in private label now? Um, that’s a good question. I think it’s about a 15 or 16. There are a couple of variations there. Right, right, right,
New Speaker: [00:30:53] right. And I think that that’s, that’s one of the very cool things about when you do private label, it’s like wholesale, right? If you’re selling a. let’s see what Steven is saying. I got my glasses on my desk, right? If you’re selling a pair of glasses, hey, you can put two together and now you have a bundle, right? So that’s another skew, right? And that’s a very cool thing. Well, if you can do a blue frame and a black comedian, that’s another skew. Well the same goes true for private label. Um, and I, I, that’s one of the, one of the core things I think about that people who are doing wholesale or doing private label really need to start figuring out instead of chasing the next product, sometimes they should be looking at what could they bundle in with their product to help build out their skew count.
New Speaker: [00:31:31] So you’ve been doing this for, for, what’d you say, six months to a year with the private label. Private label. About a year? Yeah, about a year. And you’re in Andy and Lauren’s and nate’s course. Correct. That is right. And where did you learn about private label and who? Who and what, why? I mean, I guess I want to ask it this way is why, why are you actually succeeding at it? I mean, is it, is it because you’re an outlier in your discipline? We’re back to you working in the kitchen or back to you with good grades because your ability to focus, um, is your ability to learn from others, are you inquisitive? What is it that’s giving you the ability to succeed in it?
Christian: [00:32:15] I think the biggest one is a lot less than that that I’ve learned in the kitchen and it’s that whatever is going to get thrown your way, you still have to make it happen. You still have 300 covers on the books, denied your pro produce delivery. They didn’t get in. I’ve had all happened on the same day and you still make it happen for those 300 people and with private label, I think a lot of people give up at the first few roadblocks that they encounter.
New Speaker: [00:32:43] Well, let’s talk about that because everybody says it’s easy. Private labels, easy Christian, right? It’s just you’re going to make a million dollars. Just, I got a great product for you. It’s gonna be. It’s going to be amazing. It’s this thing. You put a clove of garlic in it and you squeeze it and it’s going to be or and you can use it with these gloves. Then they have claws on the end of it. You know what I’m talking about here? People do make it sound like it’s easy. It’s not easy is it?
Christian: [00:33:09] It’s not easy and it is a matter of mindset, so obviously a big one is in your product selection. If you pick the wrong product, it’s always going to be hard. If you pick the right product, you can still encounter some roadblocks, but the product is kind of gonna lead the way for you.
New Speaker: [00:33:28] Well then let’s stop there because I think this is a good question. What do you mean by picking the right product? Give me an example of the right product versus the wrong product and don’t tell what your stuff. Of course. Well,
Christian: [00:33:42] a lot of people look at the numbers. They opened the jungle scout viral launch and they try and see if that niche is good for you. None of it matters. It doesn’t matter if and if the niche has, I don’t know, everybody does 20,000 in revenue already and there’s 500 reviews on the first page. As long as you can’t add value to the product and it has to be value that somebody else can recreate, you’re not going to have a successful product. The important thing is how can you do something that nobody else is doing that way you’re creating value that can’t be replicated. That’s all there is to it. Well, obviously there needs to be a little bit of a market. People do have to buy a product and there are those tools that will tell you if there is a chance there, but unless you’re adding value there, there’s no point in going along.
New Speaker: [00:34:37] And so adding value. So let’s give an example. So let’s go back to my garlic press example. So, and there are still people selling gazillion of garlic process and successfully, I mean they’re outliers. Um, there’s a facebook lady who can teach you how to use facebook viral campaigns and make a, a crazy video and she’ll sell through $100, million garlic presses successfully. So there are outliers there. But what would be adding value to a garlic press for example? What would go through your mind? What we do immediately, you start thinking like you were a kitchen guy, so this should be good one for you.
Christian: [00:35:13] Yeah. People always ask me about the kitchen stuff, but I’ll be good to have that already exist in my opinion.
New Speaker: [00:35:19] Oh, the necessary tools I think. I think that that there are a lot of cool things that I see. I saw somebody with some kind of scissors that chops vegetables or whatever. I’m like, bullshit. Nobody’s going to clean that thing. That’s not necessary. Right. So I agree with you. I think like a knife, you can improve a knife, right? It can be better, but it already exists. It can be cheap.
Christian: [00:35:39] That’s one of our very expensive. Okay. So that’s one thing you can do. All right. I think in the kitchen, the, the important one is once you have a tool, like a garlic press or avocado slicer or what have you, that only has one function. Uh, it’s no good. Every kitchen, every useful kitchen tool has more than one
New Speaker: [00:36:00] function. So give me another example of a useful kitchen tool because I, I heard you say, so a garlic press you right. That’s it. I don’t think. I’ve never heard of anybody using it for anything other than a garlic press.
Christian: [00:36:13] So that 90 percent of all kitchen tasks that you need to do, you can do with your knife if you have a nice eight chef knife with heavy blade, that’s new garlic press. You Slam it down to the garlic, the garlic. Yep.
New Speaker: [00:36:26] So when knife is something that has multiple use. Okay. So that’s a good example. Okay. All right. And so then you can differentiate in a differentiated knife by weight, by price, by design, by edge, all that kind of stuff. Right?
Christian: [00:36:41] Right. But again, there’s, there’s kind of a 80 slash 20 at work here. You with one eight and chef knife, you can do 80 percent of the things that you need to do in the kitchen when it comes to Mexico. Um, you don’t need a knife block with 12 lives than Ed that all have a different function. Again, a bread knife was nice to have a paring knife is not as nice, isn’t nice to have. Yeah, it’s nice to have. But the chef knife is all you need.
New Speaker: [00:37:14] And so, so spending a lot of time developing those things, you’re not really adding value. Okay. All right. So that’s a good, that’s a good example. All right, so I want to add value. So here I got a water bottle sitting on my desk. Right. Okay. Another example of water bottle, right? There’s a million of them out there. Um, everybody tries one. Um, there’s not been a lot of advances in the water bottle world, uh, lately. Right? Um, so what’s an opportunity to add value for something like that?
Christian: [00:37:50] Well, it’s a good question. I think the, there are some obvious, uh, added values to some things that we don’t see. I think a good example of that as I’m sure a lot of people have heard of the, um, putting wheels on a suitcase, which we didn’t come up with until the 18th.
New Speaker: [00:38:08] Yeah, that’s a good one.
Christian: [00:38:10] Um, so I might not see it. Somebody else might, somebody else might look at a water bottle and I realize there’s this really obvious thing that we need to add that we’ve just somehow forgotten about.
New Speaker: [00:38:25] Okay. All right. So when you’re saying for private label, that part is easy because I mean, it’s easy when you think that way. I guess that that’s the right way to say it.
Christian: [00:38:36] Yeah. It’s not easy to add value. I think that’s actually one of the hardest things, but once you have your product that nobody else can replicate where you’ve added the value in a way that nobody else has before and there is a market for it. Obviously you need to identify a product that has a market. The rest will come the rest of the season.
New Speaker: [00:38:57] When you think now like where you’re at, you’re one year into it. Um, you had relatively early success with wholesale. Like you said, you got into it, um, and it worked and you’re still with them and that relationship sounds pretty solid. Um, and now when you elevated to private label, how difficult was it for you to make the transition from thinking like selling wholesale, selling other people’s products to selling your own products?
Christian: [00:39:26] Um, I think it was a little bit of a step by step learning. Right? So first of all, you need to think about products in a different way because you’re not looking at products that are already successful where you’re just jumping on a listing. You need to imagine your own product in a competitive marketplace where you’re actually competing with other products instead of other sellers. Um, but I think it goes a little bit the other way around. I started doing wholesale and then went into private label and then I realized, man, I really should’ve had this private label education first. So for anybody who’s looking at wholesale, who doesn’t know anything about private label, the skills that you pick up learning private label are incredibly important for wholesale. So again, we’re talking about adding value here. Anybody can call up a brand and say, hey, I want to sell you products, please sell it to me. And then you’re supposed to provide them with a value prop. And after learning about private label, you know what a successful listing looks like.
New Speaker: [00:40:28] Writing the check is not writing them. A check is not value prop. Hey here, my money’s good. That’s not going to add value to them. Yeah. Short term, yeah, they got paid, they s, but that doesn’t solidify the relationship. I think that’s very important to to hear that.
Christian: [00:40:44] Right, so I called the brands and I said, hey, I want to sell your product, and they agreed to it, but now I could call a brand and say, I want to sell your product. This is why, because I can do for you. I can run sponsored products, I can run headline ads, I can run paid traffic from facebook. I know how to do that. I can optimize your listing. Here’s the key word that should be in your listing already. That’s not. Those are the things that you learned doing private label
New Speaker: [00:41:15] and so by learning that, when you think back to your wholesale business, how much better is it a year later than what it was a year ago. Do you know what I mean? Like flow, workflow wise and benefits.
Christian: [00:41:29] It’s incredible. So I have applied all those skills back then. I had the wholesale, I jumped on the listing and I price matched and again I was really lucky. It was good to me. Today I’ve learned all those things, um, and I can approach the, the wholesale clients that are already have and I say, hey, how about we launch your product in Canada or in the UK, which is something that I’ve done now. Um, I’ve improved the, the photos. I’ve had new photos taken for wholesale products. I’ve enrolled my wholesale product into sponsored ads, which if anybody is in wholesale and they not using sponsored ads, you have to do it because nobody in wholesale, these using sponsored ads, uh, your return on investment on just using sponsored ads for wholesale will be incredible.
New Speaker: [00:42:14] He, the wait, nobody’s making money in wholesale Christian out. Like we should pause to let you know this. There’s no money in wholesale. It’s not the cool open nobody because the margins, there’s no margin there, right? There’s just not enough value there. You’re saying not true.
Christian: [00:42:33] I think it’s becoming more and more, like you said, I definitely think it’s possible to make money in wholesale still.
New Speaker: [00:42:41] Um, but you have to work relentlessly. You have to be calling brands all day until you the Unicorn. But yeah, I was gonna say though, that’s name, name, anything where you don’t have to work all day. I mean name anybody do in the four hour workweek, I don’t, I don’t believe it. Right. And, and, and don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that you’re putting in fewer hours but you’re putting in fewer hours now because you put in the time before. I think that’s a very accurate statement. Fair
Christian: [00:43:10] not for ECOMMERCE. I wouldn’t say really upset with wholesale. I got super lucky and I wasn’t calling brands all day in fact.
New Speaker: [00:43:17] Well, but you can earn a fulltime living just with those three wholesale accounts. So I guess to scale it to a certain thing, I mean you’ve got to, you’re going to pay the dues sometime and so at some point you’re going to put the effort in. So I, I don’t think, I mean to me I think anyone, I mean we’ve got friends. You and I both know people selling millions, many millions of dollars to an IRA. I couldn’t do it. I mean that’s their thing. That’s their lane away. We all know tons of people. We know people who are the masters at technical arbitrage or price checker to they’re masters at it. Right? Or we were. I look at Dan and Eric who launch in their wholesale course right now. Those guys, they’re the real deal. They’ve hit it. They have a good program. It’s very solid. It does work there.
New Speaker: [00:43:57] Volume sellers, right? That does work. Is it getting harder? It’s getting harder. Why? Because brands are taking out middlemen like us, right? And they’re selling it themselves, right? And they’re, they’re saying, Hey, wait a second, I want to control my future private label as we started this part of this segment here was basically you’re going to hit roadblock after roadblock after roadblock after roadblock and they get easier as you go along, but they’re still hard. So I think all of it’s hard. Um, and I, if you had a retail store, I’d be selling the same thing. I mean, can you imagine back to back to your working in a, as you talked about all those people that called off. That’s hard.
Christian: [00:44:35] Yeah. But you know, you just have to have a mindset to make it work. So. And push everybody, as you said earlier, right? If you’re in private label, there’s a couple of things that that have happened to me this year. I got hit by the new comp terrorists. People are complaining and the facebook group, okay, you know what? Are you going to stop private label now? No, you’re just your business and you move on.
New Speaker: [00:45:03] Well, if you get hit by those terrorists, I mean this is Steve’s thinking, right? So let’s just say he was an iron tariff. Let’s just say you’re bringing in. I don’t know, I don’t have anything iron in my office. You bringing in a scissors and it was hit because of the steel tariff because you sell stainless steel scissors or whatever. Isn’t everybody hit by that tariff? That’s what I’m saying. Right? So I agree that your scissors are not going to be as competitive today because you only have six cases in your house where somebody else has six pallets in their warehouse, but at some point there is a point where everybody has to raise their price at some point, right? Yeah, exactly. Okay. All right. So you have the same experience. That’s what goes through my head. I mean, it sucks and it’s awful, but as long as everybody has to pay it, I mean, isn’t that the end?
New Speaker: [00:45:50] It was paying for it as the consumer. Right? Right. And you’re going to pass along that. I, I saw that with cars. So they’re absorbing some of the car costs. Well that’s because they have so much fluff built into that stuff. Of course they can absorb it, but at some point they’re gonna have to raise prices because they need bonuses and stuff, you know? Yeah. Alright. So you got hit with the teros. Uh, you didn’t curl up, you push through it. Right? Right. What else happened? Did I see you have a shipping problem or something at one point?
Christian: [00:46:19] Yeah, I launched a new product. Uh, actually I launched three new products that are on the same time I’ve placed all those orders right after Chinese new year. It took a while to produce, um, and one of them is small and light. So I realized, you know what, let me split up the shipment, I’ll put half of it, uh, on a plane and half minute on a boat so that I can start making those sales and get some of the money back. Now I’ve had nothing but problems with that shipment. I’m number one. The air shipments get delayed three times by my freight forwarder, um, to where it checked in about it a few days after the boat Shipman. So I was missing out basically on a month of sales. And then what actually it wasn’t checked and it was delivered. Um, and Amazon hasn’t found the 800 units yet. Nice. That’s a really good one. I’ve been waiting on for about three or four weeks to get a reimbursement from them. Then the boat shipment arrived, then immediately the units were flagged as Hazmat, they’re not. And then I filled out a form wrong and then it took another week to do it. So there is a product that I should have been making sales since late June, June. And I just started this week
New Speaker: [00:47:38] when, when, now here, you’re a year into it. So you’re almost seasoned, right? You’ve brought 16 products, right? And you still make mistakes. What’s up with that? I mean, it’s not perfect. It’s not easy. It’s not. Things go wrong. And you know, the other thing which I think is very interesting is you, the, the, some of the other issues you have are outside of your control and that’s probably where the majority of challenges are right there. Outside of your control, you’re relying on other people and guess what? They don’t care about your business as much as you do.
Christian: [00:48:17] Thankfully I’ve learned early and not to worry about things that are out of my control. I can try to remedy them in another way, but if I can fix them
New Speaker: [00:48:28] well, how do you push past that? Because I think that’s a good question for some people. I mean, you know, how much money are we talking? I mean, are you able. You didn’t push everything in on seven. Oh, you make one? Bet. It’s all. I’m all, I’m all in, right? That’s the lesson here, right? You didn’t go all in on this product. If it fails or delays, it sucks. It hurts. I’m sure it’s painful. Flow is always a big problem, but you’re still eating.
Christian: [00:48:56] Yeah, definitely. Um, I mean, what can you do? You try and roll with the punches now, I think because of what happened with the shipment and a few other things that were again, out of my control now I’m not gonna hit my yearly goal, which is a revenue based goal, so it’s kind of silly to begin with. Um, but at the same time I heard this in a recent Tim Ferriss podcast where somebody was talking about goal setting. Am I going to be disappointed now that I’m not going to hit my goal that have arbitrarily stamp for myself? It was a high goal to begin with and I’m going to shoot just under it. Should I be sad now?
New Speaker: [00:49:43] My answer’s no. I always say grant cardone says that he’s doing a 10 x and then if you only have it, man, life’s still pretty stinking good. Right? I mean, think about that. Yeah, that’s how I feel. Exactly. You’re still riding your motorcycle this weekend, aren’t you? You’re still going to be taking Spanish lessons and you’re still going to do what you want on your terms. I think. I think finding a way to handle that. Well, let me say it this way. I think because of all those extra things that you’re doing by investing in yourself, it allows you to roll with things. If you were so busy were, you know, 20 hours of every single day was sucked up. When this stuff hits, it could collapse a person. You know what I mean?
Christian: [00:50:31] Yeah. You touched on something interesting. Really. I’m now I have my Amazon business and if things go wrong with it, it hurts, but at the same time I have some other things that are distracting me from it, so maybe I had a shipment that were 800 units got lost at the same time. I just finished a book this week. I made some real progress in Jujitsu where I learned a new move or I got a new, a new set of rims for my motorcycle. You just kinda. You gotta balance it out. It’s the same as you say, with the shipment. I didn’t put all my money and in one product it’s respect time and the one thing, yeah,
New Speaker: [00:51:11] it’s like perspective, right? [inaudible] we we say this. I mean, God forbid somebody in your family gets cancer, everything stops. All rules are off, right? Everything right. It’s amazing what can get done when something, when it has to get done. So I think it’s very healthy and I think there’s something for people to listen to that section again, the reason that he’s able to kind of let that challenge roll off his back and I’m not saying you’re happy about it and it’s a big issue and you’ve got to figure it out is because four or five other good things happened in your life. Why? Because you were there to notice it. I think that’s part of the problem, and this is Steve Talking to Steve here sometimes, is we’re so busy, we create so much. We, we recognize busy as being successful and yet it’s just noise and so stuff is flying past us. Our kids are getting older. Your mom gets another year older. She didn’t get to see you this month. You’re going to see your next, you know what I mean? All that stuff just flies by you and you’re not present and so therefore you never get to enjoy it. Oh, your mom coming has got to be a big deal for you. I mean, it’s got to be a big deal.
Christian: [00:52:20] It is as sure as I’m going to have to get a cleaning lady.
New Speaker: [00:52:24] Yeah. You better get that done and she’s going to be looking right. Remember that? But. But here’s the deal though. You’re going to be able to be present with her.
Christian: [00:52:31] Yeah. No, it’s very nice actually. Um, when you said something about, you know, God forbid somebody in my family getting cancer, I went through a similar thing. I’m not with cancer, but my dad about six or seven years ago, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at a fairly young age of 65 at the time. Um, by the time that he needed more of my attention, I had created this business for myself where I could go back and take care of him. Do they lead through the, the to one or two last years of his life. Wow.
New Speaker: [00:53:15] Alright. You just gave me the chills. My whole body’s giving me the chills right now. That is amazing. But by design Christian, all this stuff, you know, this stuff doesn’t just, you talked about it when we first started talking is you got to take action and it just, it gets, stuff’s going to get thrown your way. Your ability to move forward with it I just think is so powerful. So, so you now, um, and now that even means more about your mom coming. Knowing what I know now that means even more. I didn’t realize that, wow, this is probably a whole bunch of people are sitting there saying, man, how do I find this? How do I, how do I get to this point in my life? I’ve got all these other outside responsibilities you made. I go back to the beginning of our conversation. You made a whole bunch of personal sacrifices, you know, to get to this point, you lived minimal and it sounds like you still got minimal right by choice
Christian: [00:54:14] somewhat, I think in certain aspects. Yeah.
New Speaker: [00:54:17] Yeah. And so, I mean, what’s your advice for. People were saying, man, I want that Christian, I want what you have, which is, I mean, I’ve got this business, but it’s this giant machine. I got to keep feeding the machine. I must keep adding product. I must keep sourcing product. What’s your advice?
Christian: [00:54:34] Well, again, I think I’m in a very lucky position where I travel light. Um, and I mean that in life. So
New Speaker: [00:54:41] travel light and life will be. I like that. That’s a good one. That’s a merger for somebody who wants that. That’s a good one.
Christian: [00:54:48] Yeah. I don’t have kids. I don’t have a mortgage. A, my motorcycle paid off. Um, I don’t have too many clothes in my closet. Like I said, I when I was 24 and that was just seven years ago, I sold all of my belongings and came to the states with two duffle bags. Now I’ve recouped some personal property, but I’ve been in that position where I could go back to that point
New Speaker: [00:55:17] and it doesn’t scare you because you survived in, you know, I mean, I, I just think that there’s a lesson here, you know, we add so much clutter to ourselves. We put all that responsibility upon ourselves. When it comes back down to it, let’s make it even worse. Somebody’s kid is sick, everything stops. You know, why can’t stop then why do you have to wait for something awful to have it stop? If you really want to make a change, listen and what Christian’s saying, you can make that change. I think it’s very cool. And again, you’re not the biggest seller, right? And there’s some guy who’s going to be like, Steve asked him what his sales. I don’t care what a sales. Sorry, I was living a life. I don’t care because to me you’re living the life that you designed and I think that people have to get ahead of their head that they must be selling $10,000,000 to have success as some of the $10,000,000 sellers. Sometimes they say they made more money when they were selling, you know, $400,000 because of all these additional responsibilities. So when you’re now you’re staying with the wholesale model and the private label, you’re going to kind of write them both for as long as you can.
Christian: [00:56:20] Yeah. I’m not continuing to add any wholesale accounts and if those products go bad, I’m not looking to add any more. I’m definitely focused on private label now. I got lucky with my second product that I hit a niche that is a personal passion of mine, so I know my product really well and I stand behind my product and I can give customer support if I have to by myself and it’s a niche that I can add a couple of products to in the future.
New Speaker: [00:56:46] What is that? What is that? Let me ask you this because at this might be important you knowing it and being passionate about it, is that adding value to the product? Certainly that’s an example of adding value to the product. Your passion in your ability to help people with it.
Christian: [00:57:02] Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, any customer message that I get with a question about my product, I could outsource it. It’s not an a, you know, there’s not a crazy volume of customer messages that again, there’s maybe one or two a week, but being able to. I mean I haven’t used my own product in my own home so I can go when a customer has an issue, look at the same thing and see if it’s an issue that I would be having myself in their position or really personal advice.
New Speaker: [00:57:29] That’s very interesting. Yeah. I see this happening with mine too. Oh yeah. And then when you write your listings, you can answer those questions. Do you go back and fine tune that stuff over time? If you see the same question getting asked that you didn’t do a good enough job answering. So let me do that. And then have you seen results from that?
Christian: [00:57:49] Well, we and it’s not just changing the listing, it could also be changing the product. Oh, okay. It’s the same thing happens over and over again and it’s minor issue. Why not just fix that in the next production run?
New Speaker: [00:58:01] Okay. All right, good. Well I think the other thing that you talked about was expanding into other countries and stuff with existing products. How is that been? I mean, there’s no market like the United States on Amazon, right? I mean Amazon is exploding in other places, but there’s still, there’s, there’s nothing like the United States right now today. Have you had success in these other countries?
Christian: [00:58:26] Well, I’m just getting started. Like I said, I’ve added a wholesale product and the Amazon Europe using the Patty European fulfillment and Canada and I’m getting a couple of sales nowhere near the volume that the same product as in the US, but again, it’s only been a couple of weeks and I’m just getting started. That was a wholesale item. Uh, just uh, I think the products on the bone with. I just sent my first private label item to the UK as I’m in my niche and I kind of want to stay in it right now. I’m looking to take my product as far as I can in the marketplaces that are available before I start branching out and another. Nice.
New Speaker: [00:59:08] I think that’s very smart. You might as well take advantage of it all the way. Does it help that you being a German born, uh, um, now your us citizen, so just being born, does it help you with the European market?
Christian: [00:59:25] I guess it would help as far as translating those things. A German competitor. Originally it wasn’t more of a hindrance when I was setting up my account because I, a couple of years back I had an individual selling account in Amazon, Germany just sending in some old books of mine when I was visiting my mom and just getting it transferred now to, into my company’s name set up. Oh my gosh. It surprisingly a lot harder than it would have been starting from a clean slate.
New Speaker: [00:59:58] I think that’s absolutely true. Yeah. The now the. Oh wait, no, you don’t understand there’s a machine here, right? You’ve got that bureaucracy. Yeah.
Christian: [01:00:06] Tax compliant in Germany. Actually the easiest way for me to do it is to be there. So I thought, you know, I go a couple of times a year, I should be able to set it up, but in the end I was able to get my vat number and about three or four weeks from the UK. So lesson learned,
New Speaker: [01:00:22] lesson learned, right? Yeah. Hey, you know what, if it was easy everybody would be doing it. And so I think that these barriers, you know, and again, tell me if this, if you get a, you get a little wind when you do pass one of those barriers, you see it, oh my gosh, I got to deal with this. And then boom. It’s Kinda that Jujitsu thing when you get that new move and when you advance forward, right? When you don’t have to submit in six seconds, it takes you a seven or eight.
Christian: [01:00:48] No, it’s very nice. It’s incremental progress. So you do something for the first time, like setting, sending a shipment to Europe. The second time it becomes a little easier and the more, the more you do it, at some point it just becomes a part of you. I was thinking about that yesterday. I had a couple of customer returned back to my house and they were basically new condition and I was sending them back, uh, doing shipments on my own, so kind of violating my own rule of never touching anything. Um, but I remembered the first time anyone’s created the Shipman in seller central where you’re not overwhelmed and yeah, I’m sure it took me about an hour to complete my first shipment and then realizing, wait, I have to pack this into three boxes now. Before you knew about inventory placement, service, and now you did one of those things in five minutes. So anything that’s hard today, it could be very easy next year.
New Speaker: [01:01:46] Mellow deep quote another shirt. Just another shirt for someone. Yeah. Alright. So looking out, what’s next? Where are you going next? What, what are you [inaudible] you must stay interested. You have some pretty absolutes, right? One, you’re not touching a product to generally take less than three hours a day. It sounds like that’s an APP because otherwise you’re getting into my, you know, my Jujitsu, my Spanish, my motorcycle time. That’s no chance.
Christian: [01:02:11] Right. Obviously there are a couple of days where, you know, or a couple of times during the year, like I was working a bunch maybe two or three weeks when I was trying to place all my q four orders. Yeah, I was sitting here for eight hours a day, but I don’t want to make that a habit.
New Speaker: [01:02:26] What’s next?
Christian: [01:02:28] Next. I have a couple of goals that I still need a crush and q three before he would go on a for. Um, yeah, it is one of the time they’re small goals. I want to become a little bit more active from a brand on social media and that’s something that I’m struggling with because I’m not necessarily very social media savvy, nor am I interested in doing it.
New Speaker: [01:02:52] So what would you do that? Well, that’s a good question. So what will you do? So did take us into the Christian verhoeven experiment. What? Yeah.
Christian: [01:03:03] Hmm.
New Speaker: [01:03:04] We’re going to hold you to this. So this is a, you’re putting it out there. This is it. Tell us how you approach us.
Christian: [01:03:09] My goal for q three, again, it’s a very small goal. I want to have an active social media account for my brand on facebook and instagram and I want to average about two to three posts a week. That’s for q three and after that we’ll see where we can take it from there if it even makes sense to continue, but I think that’s where I want to be going with it and the way that I want to do it because I don’t want to be doing it everyday as hopefully that I can concentrate on social media for about an hour or two a month. Gather, gather all the posts that I want to be creating over the next few weeks and set it up on a schedule. I’ll be tapping into a personal resource of mine with my girlfriend. Does social media for a fashion company in downtown Los Angeles. She is very savvy there. Um, and once I got closer to setting up my system, I’ll be talking to her more about best practices.
New Speaker: [01:04:02] And so then you’ll just, you’ll have a plan, right? And say, okay, there’s, there’s, you know, 20 weeks left and okay, two a week. So that’s 40 posts. These are the subjects I plan on covering and then start developing them all in small bite size pieces. I think that’s very practical, very simple advice. A manageable. It doesn’t sound overwhelming when you said it that way.
Christian: [01:04:24] Yeah. Again, I like I did when I started out with Amazon in general. I like small goals that are achievable and that will make a difference. When when I was looking at making, I just want to make 300 bucks extra a month. That was achievable, but once you hit that, you’d kind of get the ball rolling.
New Speaker: [01:04:41] I love that. Set. Small achievable goals and travel lightened life, man. Those two. That’s the town that’s very sound advice. Travel light and in life, you know, there’s, there’s two things. One that means yet you don’t, you don’t get a lot of stuff because it does become a burden around you. Like a, like a, like A. I had a friend tell me a guy tell me about my ebay inventory. He’s like, Steve, you’re dragging around an old girlfriend. And I’m like, Oh man, that really hurts what he said it because he’s right. You know, but, but that also could mean don’t bring heavy down on other people. Travel light in life. Don’t make, don’t be the for everybody else, you know, be light. That’s the way I see it too. I think that’s very powerful for a young guy. Dude. You got some deep wisdom there. Alright, so, so you’re, you’re going to continue to build out and I think that that’s very exciting that you’re going to continue to build out your existing business. You’re going to really create some brands. I mean, do you see an end game for your brands? I mean, would it be like cool to be a, you know, the anchor brand or the ring I guess was the other one that just got sold or what have you. I mean, is that, is that something that would be cool for you?
Christian: [01:05:50] Yeah, I think and I think that’s a bit of my overarching goal for next year. I do want to become that, that cornerstone brand and my niche. I’m on a podcast somewhere, so if you’re talking about phones and you, you’re trying to buy an iphone on Amazon, you don’t go to Amazon and you type in cell phone with touchscreen and you type in iphone and I want my brand name to become that for my niche. I want people to go to Amazon and Google my brand name or search for my brand name and become that thing. There are a couple of things that I needed to achieve along the way. Social Media and having a strong brand presence is one of them.
New Speaker: [01:06:29] One, uh, one thing I want to get from you is context. So if somebody has a followup question, I do want to ask you about this because I, you, you said something that I had not heard from somebody else about private label going back and using it on hold. So I think that’s a very powerful statement. I’ve not thought about what you said. I mean I can take it for granted because I get andy stuff being. I’ve been in it forever for free. He’s a sponsor, my show, so, and, and we share warehouse. So I’m very fortunate that way, so I just take it for granted that I know all that stuff, but you’re absolutely right that there is an opportunity, um, and his group is free to join. Amazing freedom is a frequent to join us. He’s a sponsor my show and blah blah blah.
New Speaker: [01:07:06] I get it and he’s one of my best friends. So I get all that, but I’m just telling you go join and just because there’s guys like Christian in there that are dropping advice and helping people and then you can take and use that information on your wholesale business if, if private label isn’t right for you, you still could take that information and use it backwards at no cost. And I’m not trying to sell Andy’s Scorsese. He’s not selling one, but, but just go back and use that information. I think it’s very, very powerful. Um, that you pointed that out. I had not heard anybody say it that way. Um, and I think that’s really, really strong. I’m going to talk to andy about that tonight because I just think that that’s so powerful. That’s such an opportunity. So if somebody has follow up question, what’s the best way to get in touch with the Christian?
New Speaker: [01:07:49] Yeah, I’d probably be facebook. Okay. I’ll put your facebook contact there. Okay. All right. I don’t want to miss that because I just think that, you know, I think, you know, you’re chill, you’re chill, you’re approach is very healthy. Um, let me tell you, as a dad, your dad would be very proud knowing that you not only hit your stride, do, do you figured out. Oh, I’m telling you, I know it sounds Corny, but I’m just telling you, hey, I’m just telling you, most 31 year old single guys do not have that part together. Do not have any part together. So, uh, I mean, uh, and, and, and you know, it sounds Corny, but I’m, I mean it as a dad, I’m just telling you that. That’s very, very cool. All right, so the goal of this podcast is to help people move forward. You know, you, you have not gotten stuck or you’ve pushed past stock. That might be a better example because you, I’m sure you’ve gotten stuck. What’s your advice for people to get to get forward, to get moving, to keep this thing going forward? What’s your advice?
Christian: [01:08:56] I think you do a little bit every day. Um, I think the best way to go about it is to set a goal, whether it’s a big goal or a small and achievable, it doesn’t really matter. And every day to just a tiny little bit that, that tiny little bit everyday it will compound.
New Speaker: [01:09:16] There’s a book out there called the compound effect by Darren Hardy and he talks about that, right? So, you know, doing half a push up everyday. Eventually you get to a full pushup, right? And then you get to two and three, right? That’s the same concept, right? Just those small incremental improvements over time, that small step towards that goal. I wrote down about those small achievable goals that you talked about earlier. I think that, that, those small winds, they, they do snowball, right? I mean, they do give you a momentum there. Yeah, they definitely do. Do that. I think they, they add
Christian: [01:09:51] possibility. So if you. Oh, I guess we’ll go with another example.
Speaker 5: [01:09:57] Um,
Christian: [01:09:59] I forget what it was, but I think it had some goals for when I moved to the states first. I thought in the first few months I needed to buy a new computer because that’s all my computer as well. I suppose the idea was you’d find a girlfriend that was the romantic in me and then buy a car and the first year and those were pretty small achievable goals and I made them all happen and then having the car and the computer, uh, allow me to move to La and
New Speaker: [01:10:30] goals opened up other doors and other goals you didn’t even think about. Oh yeah, exactly. Dude. You’re 31, you’re not supposed to be this wise, very wise is the right word. Uh, I, you know, I don’t think it’s, I think it’s, it’s a good point. Um, they open up and sometimes you learn what you don’t want, right? When you hit that goal you’re like, Ooh, that sucked. I didn’t like that. Okay, check. Right. That’s a win. I don’t do that again. Okay, dude. It’s very cool. It’s very cool to see what you’re doing. It’s very cool to watch. Um, to get to peek in and see how well you’re doing. I’m very impressed. I’m impressed with the life that you desire. I’m telling you, there’s a whole group of guys wearing in this diet group together and there’s a whole bundle of this topic will come up about that.
New Speaker: [01:11:17] You’re focused on all these other things. And so when this other junk happens in your life, it just flows right off. I’m telling you, there’s a lesson there. Just listening to that for us. Old Dude. So very, very cool. I wish you nothing but success. Christian, thank you so much. Thank you very much. What a great. A great guy. But I mean, what a great, uh, as a dad. I mean, I, I know it sounds Corny, but I’m just sitting back and thinking to myself, man, well done dad. Well done. You got it in him. You didn’t think it was going to happen when he’s banging on the stage doing whatever that drumming thing they were talking about. I still don’t know what he meant by that, but it sounds loud, a screaming and all that kind of jazz. Um, but he figured it out. It was that stuff got put into him by somebody somewhere. And so, well done dad, a very, very cool story. It’s very cool. That is moms coming in and then he’s going to be able to spend the time with her because he’s designed his life that way. I really hope that you find the life that you want. I really hope that you take the time, um, because the real success starts at home. Remember that the real success starts at home. He commerce momentum.com, ecommerce momentum.com. Take care.
Cool voice guy: [01:12:29] Thanks for listening to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at [inaudible] dot com. Under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and the lake us on itunes.
