376 : Jeremy Nicholson – Amazing Amazon Product Videos come from years of training. Your past will lead your future if you let it.

Capture

Great story of finding ecommerce and then finding your lane within it. All the learning you do in this business is valuable. Do you still wonder where you fit in? Are you a seller only? Are you a number two who loves logistics yet hates selling? Are you a marketer who can sell anything? Or are you a storyteller like Jeremy looking to find a way to fit in? All work if you put your heart into it. Help others and you will see where you shine.

Mentioned:

Jeremy’s Facebook Contact

Amazing Product Video Service

Sponsors

SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY LISTENERS ONLY

TWO WEEKS FREE TRIAL!!!!

Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List

Solutions4ecommerce

Scope from Sellerlabs

Tactical Arbitrage – Get an 10 day free trial with code: “Tactical”

Freeeup– Save 10% (forever) and get an instant $25.00 voucher for your first hire.

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)

Jeremy:                                [00:00]                     That, I think little things that they’re doing that, you know, whether it’s, whether it’s how they are sourcing or, or, or just how they’re interacting with people. I, I take from that, you know, I’ve started, I’ve been in mastermind groups with people where we, we share information and I try and be as open and transparent as I’ve seen people like the amazing freedom team B and, and, and I, and I, and, and, and it’s, it’s, it’s only been beneficial because there’s been so many ideas in those arenas that I never would have thought of if I wasn’t networking and engaging with people. And, and, you know, it’s give and take, but you know, I don’t think about the take side and I just try and give. And then it just comes naturally that the more you give, you’re going to, you’re going to see people just pour into you. Like, dude, I wanna, I wanna show you something. Now I want to help, you know,

Cool voice guy:                  [00:53]                     welcome. Do they focus on the people, the products, and the process of incomers selling today, your host Stephen Peterson,

Stephen:                             [01:07]                     add an important member to your Amazon teams. Solutions. Four ecommerce. Yep. Solutions Four ECOMMERCE, Karen lockers team helps manage our Amazon account. We pay full price just like everybody else. We’ve been using her for a couple of years. And the reason is, is because of the results. We modify a lot of listings, especially in wholesale because we’re trying to enhance that listing, right? We’re trying to help the brand. And so guess what? That’s the type of service that we get from solutions for ecommerce. So it’s solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com forward slash, wholesale and you can get $50 off her service. Go try it, give it a shot and say, hey, could you help me get this listing in line? And guess what? That allows you to go out and develop relationships with wholesalers. And then the work gets done by Karen and her team. I can’t recommend it enough.

Stephen:                             [01:54]                     We use it again. We pay full price solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com forward slash, wholesale save 50 bucks. Get that important part of your team working for you. So you’re looking for an advantage to help you woo a brand. While one of the tools that you can use this scope, you could check out the product and then check out their competitors and find the keywords that are competitors are using and check out theirs and see that they’re not. And then say, okay, I’ve got an idea. Let me do this. Let me enhance your brand. That’s the thing you can bring to the marketplace. When you can hance the brand, you’re going to win that account. So try it. You get a free trial, but seller labs.com forward slash, scope use the code omentum and save 50 bucks. It’s a free trial. Try it and see if you can enhance the brand.

Stephen:                             [02:41]                     Hey, it’s time to get the listings, right. So what should you do? You should get your images right, right. So amazing freedom has a program to help you do that and we’ve used them. It’s phenomenal what they can do. You got to go look at this. So you go to amazing freedom.com forward slash photos and take a look at the examples. What you can do with an image you take and you give them some sample images, some simple images, and then what they do is they take and um, insert them with lifestyle photos. And so all of a sudden you’re going to see an example of what a plain image looks like and then what it can be enhanced to. Why is this of value to you while you were in the wholesale business? And guess what? You want to add value to the brand.

Stephen:                             [03:21]                     And this is just a simple way to do it. They offer all those kinds of services. Scroll down to the bottom. If you really want somebody to help really improve this service and you want to bring value to that brand because you want to exclusivity the services that they offer for listing enhancement will blow your mind. So again, it’s amazing. freedom.com forward slash photos take a look at what you can do for your brand that you’re trying to get. If you’re ready to learn about wholesale, then I suggest best from the nest. And Robin Johnson, her unstoppable Amazon Academy will help you learn from basically even open ending account if you’re brand new to Amazon, but then all the way to brand building, how do you, how do you enhance the brain? How do you have that conversation? There’s 300 plus videos, probably more than that by now. So very simple, little as $49 a month. Best from the nest.com forward slash e m that’s it. Best from the nest.com forward slash m checkout the services that they offer, checkout some of the events that she hosts. You want to go walk around AST, check it out best from the nest.com forward slash yeah.

Stephen:                             [04:35]                     Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 376 Jeremy Nicholson, I think Jeremy’s story, um, there, I mean it’s funny, you know, when you, you plan these things, I plan these things months in advance and if you think about what you want to talk about with them, you know, a bunch of their story. Usually I know quite a bit of it or I’ll do a little bit of research, but I try not to know too much. And you know, there’s a few things in here I didn’t know, but what he did for me was open my eyes to something that I don’t think I’ve done a good job of explaining when you listen to this and you’ll understand that Jeremy’s a videographer and that the opportunity of video came along and he was completely ready for it. The opportunity to do video for Amazon sellers.

Stephen:                             [05:22]                     He was completely ready for it because of his past and because of his preparation, because he was paying attention because he was listening, um, because he was giving, he was accepted and he then was given to, and I think that’s so powerful. So no matter where you work, and I used the example, if you work in health care now that Amazon’s getting into the healthcare business, right? And you know that it’s only gonna get better as technology changes and this and that, you have a distinct advantage. And I hadn’t thought about it that way. I know I always say something similar to this, but being ready when it does come your way, right? It’s not ready today. So if you’re in and, and it, you know, you’re not seeing a big advantage on Amazon yet, it’s coming. So get all the other stuff worked out, get all the details of how to do things worked out so when the opportunity comes, you can pounce on it and you will advance. So 10 times further than me, 10 times further than 99% of the people. That’s your secret sauce. And it’s different for each person because we’ve all done different things in our life that are preparing you for what’s to come. And I think Jeremy is a perfect example of that and he’s so humble about it, but he’s just such a wonderful person and I just think it’s such a great example of what you can do. Uh, when you put some faith in it,

Speaker 4:                           [06:36]                     it’s going into the pocket. All right. Welcome back to the ecommerce women a podcast. We’re excited about today’s guest because I think another example of

Stephen:                             [06:47]                     building or using ecommerce and the way that works for you at the time, you need it to work for you, there shouldn’t be one set way because when the world changes outside of your control and you don’t adapt, you could implode. Right? And so having the ability to do a whole bunch of different things and then ebbing and flowing. So as my, my life gets busy, we slow down. Literally, we were just away at a trade show for several days, barely any shipping got done. Whatever got done, had to get done. That was it. And we stop. All right. And that’s the beauty of having Amazon. But then we come back and we can give it our all. And that’s by design. So another great example, Jeremy Nicholson, welcome Jeremy.

Jeremy:                                [07:27]                     Thank you, Stephen. Welcome. Well thanks for having, what do you agree with that statement? Is that fair? Yeah. And actually I was kind of mulling that over and why I was Kinda caught off guard there. Um, that’s exactly my life story, but, but isn’t it cool? Let me think about that.

Stephen:                             [07:45]                     I have that option. Right. And he didn’t have that option.

Jeremy:                                [07:49]                     And that’s, that’s one of the things that makes me appreciate, uh, an opportunity like Amazon more than, than anything else because it, it gives everyday people an opportunity to make side income, fulltime income, um, you know, residual, passive income in ways that no other opportunity out there can give you way back. Yeah.

Stephen:                             [08:12]                     Years ago I had an interview and, um, she, uh, I can’t, I’m drawing a blank on her name and I’m, Oh, I’m sorry. I apologize. But it was such a profound statement. She said it basically selling you an Amazon. Nobody knows if you’re black, you’re white, you’re gay, you’re straight, you’re tall, you’re short, you’re fat, you’re thin, you’re blind, you’re not, you’re anything. It’s the evening out. It’s an effort issue. Right. And a result issue. Um, that’s pretty cool. I mean, that’s pretty cool to not many things in my life have that same, you know, uh, ability, you know, there’s usually somebody can see you so they can judge you and then they can pass judgment on you. Right. Or they can hear you didn’t like my voice, right? But with the blind selling like that, right. The bad term. But, but you know, third party selling, maybe that’s a better term, nobody knows. You know, most people have no clue that they bought something from you,

Jeremy:                                [09:03]                     right. And a lot of times they don’t even realize when they’re buying from Amazon that they are buying from uh, an entrepreneur or a mom and pop store or like they just see prime shipping, add it to their cart and most of the time they have no idea the uh, the work that’s going on behind the scenes and the opportunities that are happening there.

Stephen:                             [09:23]                     100%. Do you have any boxes? Do you get in and you just see, I see an Fba label on and I’m like, I have no clue who sold that. And I mean we, we got our vitamins and the other day is somebody put an Fba shipping our label on that. I have no clue who it came from. I’m sure my wife just bought the buy box. Right. That’s like most people. Okay. So let’s talk about Jeremy Because Jeremy is not just in the ecommerce world. He’s had a couple other little things happen in his life. So, but let’s go back. Um, you were always going to be x. What was it going to be?

Jeremy:                                [09:55]                     I was always, always going to be a storyteller. That’s my periods, my stick. That’s what I do. So yeah.

Stephen:                             [10:03]                     Were you the kid that would just, you know, get up in front of the family, they say, okay Jeremy, get up there and tell everybody a story at dinner time or, you know, thanksgiving dinner. It was that you,

Jeremy:                                [10:13]                     I mean, yes and no. I mean in, in storytelling, I, I prefer to use the tool of Leica camera. And I remember I was like a kid realizing the power of that when I, um, I was playing with my neighbors with a video camera and you know, it was like a VHS camera back in the day. And, um, we were playing on trampoline and I did a few scenes where I had him like jump up in the air. Then I said, jump now, jump off and, and, and now lay down on this truck right here. And I just like cut it together in camera and went to my friend’s parents and said, oh no, look what happened. And they looked at the video and they said, yeah, it was, it was evil. I was, I was a genius young kid. But seeing the look in that parent’s eyes and the terror as they, uh, thought their son had jumped off and land on, on giant rock, cause we lived in the mountains of Colorado off a trampoline. And just like seeing that they believed it. And I was like, man, there’s power here and you know, and then, you know, we laughed and said, Aha. It was a big joke, but, but I immediately realized as a kid that men, this is fun. It’s fun to, to do that kind of storytelling in a way that, you know, you can manipulate things, but also to tell real stories that, that people watch and say, wow. And they take something from it and they can, and it impacts their life. So I’ve always enjoyed that.

Stephen:                             [11:33]                     So, you know, as you sit in there saying that, I’m thinking to myself, yeah. Because if somebody said, oh man, you know, Billy Bob jumped off a rock and he hit his head, you know, it’d be like, ah, are you telling stories again? But now you’re showing visual. Oh my God, it looks compelling. Right? Especially you’re a little kid. You’re not, you’re not supposed to know how to do that. Exactly. All. So you

Jeremy:                                [11:54]                     that, that storytelling stays with you. When did you start taking photography serious? Um, it was in college. Um, I, I thought music would kind of be one of the things I got into and then, you know, and still was doing the video side of things. But again, uh, just continued to like see how much, um, shooting video and editing it together and making stories that, that people enjoy it. And, and uh, you know, my w I created a lot of content that was used in some like Saturday night live type Schizo and our, our college that I went to and just really started learning that, that this is really my niche. This is what I’m good at. And this is what I want to do with my life. Was a one type of photography that was a better for you? I mean it’s video, I mean, but was there one style, I guess I should say or genre you were looking at that seemed to be more attractive to you and that just came easier for you?

Jeremy:                                [12:58]                     Yeah, I mean the more the documentarian style and that’s why I ended up, uh, for a large portion of my career at a public broadcasting station in Miami, working as a videographer, editor, working on many documentaries and um, science based programs and traveling around the world and shooting things and, and uh, even underwater cinematography that, Alana, that so, so, so you all, not only did you take pictures, you had to edit other people’s pictures or video uncle, I’m using bad terms. I pay Steve, I get, I’m not, I did it all the time. All the time. So, so how hard is it? I mean, cause I would think about like an hour documentary. How many hours of footage as it take to make something like that? Oh Gosh. Realistically, I mean, I mean in general we would probably shoot 2030 hours of footage for half hour to an hour documentary.

Jeremy:                                [13:58]                     It just the, the way it went when you’re really trying to dig in to find where the real story is and just getting all the footage to kind of compliment all that. It’s a, it’s a lot more than people think. People are always shocked when they realized what all went into it and every time I shoot an interview or even just shoot like a scientist in a laboratory there or you know, they’d be like, wow, I didn’t realize there was some much that went into this. I thought you just come in here and you’re in and out in 1520 minutes and it’s, it’s not like that. So it’s 1520 minutes per view and there’s 12 views, right? Yeah. You know it’s funny I think about that stuff when I see and it’s another view and I’m like, did they have a second camera or did that guy pick up and move over, start filming again. And a lot of times, especially today, it’s probably the latter, right? I mean cause

Stephen:                             [14:52]                     cost cutting right as the corporate, right. I don’t care if it’s PBS, they’re all corporate America. They have cut costs. Matter of fact, in our towns, I saw the TV stations consolidate a lot of the videographers, I don’t know if they were outsourced or whoever they were, they would just share the same camera guy. He would take, there was no news thing on the side of it. And he, that same film shows up on two or three competing stations edited differently I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So true. So, so you went into, uh, you left college, you went to work for PBS, you traveled the world. Um, what did you learn about video that you were naive about in college? Cause I’m sure you had this glamor thing, oh, this is going to be glamorous and it’s going to be the amazing, and then life happened.

Jeremy:                                [15:41]                     I mean, I think I learned that it would be more time consuming than I thought. You know, it’s a young person that, you know, why I and stuff. I thought, you know, it’d be easier at times than it was. But in reality, it really was as fun and exciting to me as I expected it to be. And I really have always enjoyed my career. Um, I mean I’ll, you know, of course everyone has certain things that are frustrating about their jobs and, and even your dream job has frustrations. But I felt like I’ve always worked my dream job. I’ve just, um, you know, in order to do that I had to get creative sometimes with, with, uh, you know, being able to supplement the income, cause working for PBS wasn’t exactly the most lucrative thing I could do.

Stephen:                             [16:28]                     So. So is that, why is that, why ecommerce came into your world?

Jeremy:                                [16:36]                     Well, sort of. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I mean, even in middle school I was buying candy in bulk at Sam’s Club and selling it to my peers, uh, out of my locker. Um, I, I right out of college I, I was looking for a side income as well on, I put out a bunch of gumball machines and within a matter of time I was generating over a thousand dollars a month in quarters from, from gumballs. And you know, like, and went from there to like snack and soda machines. I just did whatever it took to kind of supplement whatever income I had and tried to come up with the night with ideas that would lead me somewhere to where I can have more of a passive type income. Right

Stephen:                             [17:27]                     on each one. I mean, so it’s funny you say that cause you see guys who start with the little machine and then they get the bigger machine in the bigger machine and they do that, that that’s a natural progression. However, none of them are passive. Everybody thinks they are the right, oh the soda machine. You know, good luck. Yeah. Carry those cases of soda and fill that machine.

Jeremy:                                [17:46]                     I will, I will say, I totally agree. I bailed on the whole soda machine snack machine idea. The gumballs felt more like a passive, although it’s, it’s still work. You go and fill it out. But I was only having to do that like once a month, several, a couple of the machines every like four or five months. So it felt more passive than, than uh, in, you know, and I just, I remember as a young person meeting with like a Merrill Lynch financial planner with me and my wife has a young couple trying to plan our, our uh, you know, how we’re going to handle our money and setting it up for retirement and stuff. I remember the lady saying, you need to get more gumball machines. That’s what, that’s what we need to focus on right now that we sort of go big, go big or go home.

Jeremy:                                [18:32]                     I in this huge office building talking to a financial planner and they’re saying, go get board gumball machines now and focus on that. Did you get one in that, in their building? I mean, that would be the clothes that would be the ask and be like, all right, you get me one on each floor, let’s go. No, I actually found a little niche that, that uh, a friend of mine’s encouraging me to, to write some, uh, like an ebook or something about it, to put it on Amazon because I tried a bunch of different spots and I found that some particular, uh, things worked better than there is. I mean, it’s not like a get rich quick thing, right. It’s just a, it’s a great side income. I think it’s great for young, young families to, uh, especially with kids. It shows, you know, I love, I love, I still do it.

Jeremy:                                [19:20]                     I still do this today. Um, and I love going with my kids. You still have gumball machines? Oh yeah. Yeah. I still, I mean that’s funny. No, not to the level that I had before cause I just don’t have the time. But I, I find value. I mean it, you know, I’m probably about 150 a month is all I’m making. Uh, cause I’ve only got one location. Um, right now for $150 cash. I mean, that’s a lot of money. That’s, that’s right. And, and, um, so when I go with my kids to empty it and stuff, it’s super fun to see the look on their face and all the quarters and kind of explaining to them how that works and why we do it. So I have three kids. Do any of them share that spark, that spark that you had? Are you seeing any of it?

Jeremy:                                [20:13]                     Oh, definitely. My daughter is like, she’s kind of, she’s always, she’s, she’s either dreaming up, away to like she just opened her own cleaning business this last week that we’ve reaped the rewards of that, uh, immensely as she’s, she’s a cleaning, you know, areas of our house for a dollar at a time. And she’s seeing, she’s seeing how she can accumulate money to buy things that she wants her save money. And she also, she even does stuff like, she’s, uh, she’s wanting to do a fundraiser for her local, for local outreach program that helps like homeless kids and stuff. She’s just so, she’s, she’s so amazing and I love that spirit in her. So now we share the entrepreneurial spirit, but she also has the spirit of giving. And wanting to impact other lives, which is like even more important in my, uh, in my, in my mind,

Stephen:                             [21:05]                     in mind. You know, it’s funny, I had that discussion with somebody earlier. I said, no, I’m not interested in doing, I’ll just give, I don’t want it. No, no money. Um, how, how do you feel about that? You know, cause that that cup, it comes up a lot in our groups. You know, you’re teaching other competitors, Jeremy, you know, by your, in your daughter’s case. But I’m just talking about in general though, um, my experiences is that, you know, most people, most people, I’m going to be real general here, don’t follow through. So it’s just so cool when you get that person and they get exposed to this and they just shoot to the top. To me, that’s a win. Even though they passed me out long time ago, I, I applaud them. I stand behind them and say, man, thank goodness you found out what you were supposed to do. Because if I didn’t share with you, you might have never found it. And what could have happened, you know, we might’ve lost, I mean, cause you know, you never know who they are. They could be the next Amazon right or whatever. You know what I mean? To me that’s my approach. But I’ve heard the other side is like Steve you are bringing competitors in. What do you stand on that?

Jeremy:                                [22:09]                     Well, I mean I, you know, I, one of my idols for and friends and just someone that actually two guys that I admire and there’s so many actually as I keep thinking it’s growing in my head. But let me just say the, in the Amazon world, the gurus that I’ve had the opportunity to kind of either do work for work with me alongside of, uh, be, uh, whether it’s a, it’s a retreat where they’re teaching sellers how to sell or it’s a conference or you know, cause I’ve done a lot of video work for these guys. And one of the things I love when I, when I go on, when I get a chance to be around these, these guys that are making it and are doing well as how much they enjoy pouring into others and, and without worry of what that’s gonna do to their bottom line.

Jeremy:                                [22:59]                     They just want to see other people succeed. And I, I’ve never seen it anywhere else like I do in the Amazon community. Um, you know, you see, you see on Facebook and stuff, sometimes you see a lot of the opposite of that. People that are, that are mad, they’re mad, that information’s getting shared and that that tips and tricks are being shared that, that they feel like, oh man, this is just going to make it harder for me. But, but in reality, once you just sit back and realize it’s more about connecting with people in life and you’ll see that you’ll get more out of what your bank account’s doing. And then when you connect with people in a real way and in, you see them, their eyes light up and like, man, I never thought of that. And, and, and, and I, and hear them say, I took your advice and ran with it and now look what’s happening. Like, you know, I see people like, you know, like while you’re on Hirshhorn showing stuff all the time on Facebook about people that he’s helped out and, and

Stephen:                             [23:59]                     you’ve seen it personally, him and Andy and Nate. I mean, you can speak to it. I mean, that’s who you’re talking about. And he didn’t say who it was. So it’s Andy, you run a Nate, but you’ve seen it personally. All right? You’re getting paid by them to perform a service and yet, you know, and they got the, those people paid to go to that event. Right. You see the above and beyond, right? I mean, it’s like, it’s like that doesn’t exist. You know, it’s like, hey, you know, my contract ends right here. Champion. Ah, you were supposed to do this and that’s it. I did my part. Goodbye. I’m leaving. Yeah, no, these guys are up almost 24 seven, they’re vampires. Him, Nathan and Lauren are vapers. I swear to God, they never sleep. Getting going. As I’m getting up there, getting ready to go to bed. And I’m like, hello. Um, but it’s the truth though. That’s the God’s honest truth you see. And you’re sitting there behind the camera. So I’m sure you’re sitting there judging, right? I mean a human being. And what do you see? Real Compassionate help,

Jeremy:                                [24:59]                     right? And, and it’s, it’s evident. I mean, I’ve, I’ve shot and testimonial videos for them, but I’ve been sitting there late at night just listening to the interactions, uh, at an, at a, at a private label retreat. Uh, and just hearing them dialoguing with people. And I, I’ve, I’m friends with a lot of the people that are, that have gone to these things and seeing how their, their businesses have exploded. And it’s just celebrated immensely by the amazing freedom team. And, and I’ve just never met a core group of guys that, that, you know, they’re in the trenches doing it all the time, but all they want to do is lift people up and show them how to, how to succeed in the same way. And it’s like real, it’s, it’s, it’s transparent and it’s immediate almost.

Stephen:                             [25:46]                     It does hurt me or that when people are like, oh, they’re doing it for the money. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they make a lot of money. Don’t get me wrong. They do make a lot of money. But I know their stores, they sell a lot. I mean, you know, it’s not like they need to do this. And somebody said, well, why would they do that? I honestly personally believe and I, three and a half years, almost four years with them, I’ve seen it for all that time. I’m waiting for somebody to show me another side. I’ve never seen another side but that, and I’ve seen him, you know, we drank way too much at certain places, you know, when you see the worst in people. And I’ve never seen any of that. And so it’s very cool. Um, you know, I’m particular who I’m around with that and I mean, I’ve just been so lucky and so fortunate and has it, you have to, what do you think that’s done for your business as you think about like, you know, being a seller.

Stephen:                             [26:29]                     Um, and then we’ll get to merge two. But, but what, what has that done for you? You’re out there performing a service and you have to perform at a standard, so you have to be on and your game, right? You photography game or do videography game. So, you know, not like you can soak it all in, but how, how has your pencil gotten sharpened over time with your business? Do you know? Just even through Osmosis, just sitting there hearing that again and again in, it has to, it has to start connecting in some way, right?

Jeremy:                                [26:58]                     Yeah. I mean it’s, it’s, it’s definitely been a, an experience that’s only made me better to be around people like that, to, to see their daily journeys and stuff and just figure out that the thing, little things that they’re doing that, you know, whether it’s, whether it’s how they are sourcing or, or, or just how they’re interacting with people. I, I take from that, you know, I’ve started, I’ve been in mastermind groups with people where we, we share information and I try and be as open and transparent as I’ve seen people like the amazing freedom team B. And, and, and I benefited from that. And, and, and it’s, it’s, it’s only been beneficial because there’s been so many ideas and those arenas that I never would have thought of if I wasn’t networking and engaging with people and, and you know, it’s give and take, but you know, I don’t think about the tech side.

Jeremy:                                [27:54]                     I just try and give. And then it just comes naturally that the more you give, you’re going to, you’re going to see people just pour into you. Like, dude, I wanna I want to show you something. Now I want to help, you know? And it’s like, oh, okay. And then you’re like, wow. And it changes, you know, something about how you, I mean, like Merck, Merck for me was, you know, I was doing the hustle of retail arbitrage on the side while working at PBS with three kids, with three kids. And I had like a full blown warehouse in my living room at one point when my life a while she loved the income, was starting to get a little, uh, uh, claustrophobic warehouses a good thing for your marriage you’re getting at it’s stuff out of your house is a good thing for your marriage.

Jeremy:                                [28:44]                     And, and certainly and you know, and, and being friends with someone like Chris Green and seeing him posts like, hey, look at this custom shirt I made and I’m like, wait, what? You know, like what through Amazon. Tell me more and have him immediately messaged me here. Like, here’s merge by Amazon. Go sign up like immediately. And how much did he charge you for that? Tell me how much he charged. Charged. One, one thing about Chris and people don’t know is he’s another one that it’s not about the money and so many people, I don’t know why I get back about he takes, he takes, he takes a beating by Internet trolls and just people in general, uh, as to like why he’s doing what he does. And generally it’s just, he didn’t love seeing people succeed. And he loves to, like, he’s, he’s the idea guy and he’s someone that I’ve always like, you know, whatever train he’s, he’s jumped on, I’m kind of just jumped right on it too. And it’s been so helpful for my family. You know, I was able to build a side income, uh, that really helped me do what I love doing. Um, while, you know, while, you know, working from home and no more boxes in my, my house and shipping stuff all the time and I, you know, so I’m grateful for that. That, you know, the way that he shared freely shares information,

Stephen:                             [30:07]                     but that, and I say this to merchants easier for you because you did retail arb and because you did all that other stuff, right? Because one of the things that’s cool about doing that stuff is you have to become efficient, right? You’re handing volume, you’ve got to, and you’ve got to, you know, just continue to move stuff and you gotta be stay up on the trends and you gotta be able to do that. That adaptability maybe is the right term to use when applied to merge. That’s the difference between the outliers, the people who are really doing well with it. And Steve Now, are we doing okay with it now?

Stephen:                             [30:41]                     I mean, we’re a thousand tier, so I’m not, you know, like not embarrassed by that, you know, it’s pretty good. Um, but no, we don’t give it the effort. It could be. I mean, we don’t want me to be honest with you and my son handles it now. I’m actually handled it forever for us and uh, and she moved on to something else, so, so my son handles it now, so we’ll, we’ll push it a little bit harder. But it’s, you know, for us it’s not, I’m not, uh, it’s not my love to what it is. But a guy like you who loves to tell a story, you could tell a story through a shirt. Correct. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy:                                [31:11]                     I mean, being in the field that I’m in and just in general, being in creative type, uh, shared ideas just kind of hit me like all the time. And so, so yeah, March was a natural.

Stephen:                             [31:26]                     Can I tell this story of the one that I came up with for you? Yeah. It won’t affect you in any way? No, not at all. This was a few years ago and we were in, I think we were in Colorado at that point, right? Doing one of Andy’s retreats and the subject came around and um, I’m going to give somebody, if somebody is looking for a product to source, I’m gonna give you a product to source chicken feeders. Now if you sell chicken feeders, you’re gonna be like, Steve, you just outed my niche. But chicken feeders or a good item, right? Because they’re big, they’re bulky, they’re expensive. It’s a thin market, yet a growing market because in Denver, Colorado for example, we have friends that have chickens and they live in apartments. It’s there everywhere. And I made the comment, chickens are hot, literally because they were men.

Stephen:                             [32:12]                     The place reward. Oh my God, place for, okay. So fast forward to a little bit later on in the evening and I’m wandering around. The house is huge. And I go up and I see Jeremy and all he’s doing is up there on this computer. I’m like, oh, he must be editing video. He must’ve done all day and then all of a sudden he had all of us get together and this group and yell out, chickens are hot, and I’m like, I think he’s going on it. We all did it. I mean, we’re like fools. We all did it. I still don’t understand what he was doing and I’m thinking, oh, this must be part of the video that he’s doing for Andy and stuff. Well, not even, I don’t know. It was the same day or the next day. All of a sudden the shirts are live chickens are hot shirts or live out on Amazon merge. There is Facebook videos put into chicken groups on Facebook. Right? There were videos created, there was a email campaigns. You were, you were into all these chicken related organizations dropping your link for that stuff. And that’s when I sat back and I’m like, oh, there’s your competitive advantage because that barrier to entry to learn how to do all that stuff you’ve been, you’ve been planning your whole life for that, right. This is like tools.

Jeremy:                                [33:29]                     Yeah. I have at my disposal to tell little stories and give life to a product.

Stephen:                             [33:36]                     This was years ago before everybody is saying to do this stuff. You didn’t, nobody told you that this was intuitive to you based on your experience. And I always tell people that if whatever you’ve done in life, you apply that to this business in a way and you have an advantage over me, certainly. Right. You know, and uh, so anyway, I, I, it was so cool and it was hilarious to see. And the, the dance, you had the chicken too. I mean, it was just crazy. All of a sudden I’m this, this video, it’s almost like a viral video. Really. It was what I would think.

Jeremy:                                [34:06]                     Yeah. Well that’s what I was attempting to do. I will say it didn’t, it didn’t, it didn’t gain the traction that I would hope, but you know, it was sold more than one shirt. Yeah, I did. And it was fun and it was fun and, and you know, and, but I’ve had success doing those types of things and that’s why I do it. I, I, I’m, I’m just because of that one didn’t like take off like wildfire. That niche did for me.

Stephen:                             [34:31]                     You know, it’s funny, I ability to do more of them. Right. Is your ability to do more. I want my percentage, um, your ability to do more of those, right. You get better at every one of those right now and didn’t take off, but when Fisher hot or you know, whatever, a panda bears or hot or whatever that would be, whatever it put an insert phrase in a words in both ends, you can just replicate it and just whip ’em out and whip ’em out. That’s really the best part of it, isn’t it? Cause it’s, it’s not like you’re just creating a short and putting it up and saying, go ahead. Amazon. Do the work. Your ability to influence. It has to be the probably one of the most rewarding pieces of it, right? Yup. Yeah. It’s selling it. You’re like selling it. I mean, you literally are. By creating that video, you’re selling it and then when it happens, it’s like, ah, I was rewarded for my efforts.

Jeremy:                                [35:21]                     Cool. Yeah. And you know, and that, that’s what’s kept me going and you know, with merge you got to have fixed skin. It’s like any other entrepreneurial and deputy me by that. What do you mean by that? Just meaning that like you can’t, you can’t fall in love with your designs and think that everything you’re making is beautiful and why don’t people want to buy it? Because frankly they’re going to buy stuff that you don’t even have a way of predicting that. You know, some of the most awful designs I’ve thrown up and I’m like, oh, well this didn’t come out how I wanted, but whatever. I’ll put it up there and then ends up being one of my best sellers. Just like you don’t, you don’t know your clients as well as you’d think you do and your ideas may not be as as amazing as you think they are. So when, if you are so invested in design that fails and then you just take that personally, you’re not going to have the, the wherewithal, the pick yourself up and keep going and doing it every day.

Stephen:                             [36:25]                     Do they have demographics out on buyers for merchant on Amazon? Do they, do they share that? I’ve not seen it, but I’m just wondering.

Jeremy:                                [36:32]                     No. Um, not really. I mean, you can see the sizes and colors that are being ordered and whether it was a man or a woman buying it or you know, child, but it’s, it’s not really a, I mean, maybe, maybe through the, the ads that they’re doing, they’ll start adding some of that stuff in. But

Stephen:                             [36:53]                     so how do you know who your customers are then? I mean, how do you, how do you approach that? I said, because I’m sitting here thinking about that. What you said is that you don’t, you don’t know. Well, I’m a, I’m an old dude, so I would do things that I’m interested in. Maybe that’s my limit. Right? Cause there’s not a lot of old dudes buying shirts on Amazon or maybe they are, but I don’t know. But how do you know the market? So how do you approach that?

Jeremy:                                [37:13]                     Well, I mean with any niche, if I, you know, if I see that, if I think a short, it’s going to be good or I think or no because it’s already selling. I can go on like Facebook or Instagram, mostly Facebook. I’ll find groups where, you know, if it was chickens, I find all the groups that people are like closed groups, people talking about chickens and I joined those groups and you know, I don’t just like spam them with my shirts. I try and interact a little first and they don’t. So it doesn’t look so like scammy, but um, you know, eventually post a shirt and without a link or you know, maybe a couple shirt ideas and say, hey, what do you guys think? And I usually get sales that way. And it’s that, you know, you’re, you’re, you know that, that when you’re in those groups, you know that those are the most passionate people I’ve met niche.

Stephen:                             [38:05]                     Oh, you said something earlier that like with the chickens are hot, that wasn’t the hot idea, but you drew more ideas from that, that niche. And so because you put your effort into and did exactly what you’re saying, getting in those groups, you found other ideas that you had not even thought of.

Jeremy:                                [38:23]                     Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just didn’t realize chickens for such a, they literally are hot and no doubt. And, um, thanks to you, Steve. I, I, I looked into that niche and I, I’m still active in a bunch of those, uh, chicken groups on Facebook and I still have shirts that cell. Uh, so I’m thankful for that, that little, uh,

Stephen:                             [38:47]                     no idea. It’s very cool to me again. And you know, and now we say whenever, cause people come for advice or whatever, and I’m like, look, start. Right. Just, just start. Right. Um, you know, get going and then it’ll evolve over time. You know, where you start is not where you’re going to finish. And so just having an open mind and be attentive to it and you’ll be led the right way. Okay. How was that for a segue? So tell me this, are you still a videographer for PBS? Okay.

Jeremy:                                [39:17]                     No actually, um, you know, within the past year I made a switch to working in full time ministry.

Stephen:                             [39:25]                     So get the being led there. I was, I was trying to take it to, was that, that was pretty good. Um, so, so what, what, what comes across, you know, as, as somebody who has a calling like that, what, what comes across, um, that would push you that way? I mean, how, how big is the nudge for that?

Jeremy:                                [39:43]                     MMM,

Stephen:                             [39:44]                     for you? I guess it would be different for each person. What do you, so like how going, you know, why and that why? Because obviously you’ve felt cold there, but it’s, how big is the nudge for that? I mean, how, you know, cause everybody say, Oh, pay attention. I always pay attention to that stuff. You know, was it a s a a smack in the head for you or was it a being, you know what I mean?

Jeremy:                                [40:08]                     Well, for me, I mean, I’ve always kind of tried to serve as the right word at my church, uh, using my skills and as the church has grown more and more of their meet the needs for, for someone with my skillset has grown. And, you know, it was just a conversation that was being had over several years of, Hey, what would it look like to one day, you know, US Kinda bring you on staff and have you, have you helped us, uh, as we, as we grow and do more media and um, you know, it was, it just kind of, it was a natural progression. I buy actually always wanted to work in, in ministry and it’s something that I’ve always had my eye on and they’ve even done several stints and, and a part time, uh, even while at PBS, worked in other ministries part time. So, uh, it wasn’t like a massive, like pivot for me. It was kind of a, a long overdue. This is where I was. Everything was kind of headed type thing.

Stephen:                             [41:14]                     Hmm. It’s, it’s very neat. I mean, when you, if you stood back and took the, you know, the hundred yard look backwards, like I try to do, would you see it as a natural progression? I mean, does it look like, like that now thinking about it

Jeremy:                                [41:29]                     100%? Yeah. I mean I feel everything I’ve learned in my life has, has prepared me for what I’m doing now and I’m including the entrepreneurial side of things. Learning how to market my shirts is probably one of the biggest assets I bring to the staff here because I am able to use that skillset to now market our church as a, as a place to come in and connect with other people and connect with God. So, uh, I, uh, I, I love that all of that’s kind of a built a skillset within me that makes me good at what I do.

Stephen:                             [42:13]                     You know, what I think about when I think about your story is the sacrifices you’ve made because you know, doing ra, doing online, doing, you know, all the FBA stuff. And then to merge stuff still had to come at a cost to your family of time. Right. It didn’t come with money. I mean I know they benefited from the money, but it’s still just like when you did a side hustle to do videography for third party that comes at a cost of time and you with a bunch of kids that’s limited. But now that you’re on the other side of it, you found a home with, you know, your career wise, what seems to be the fit of fits and you’re still able to do your side hustle. Looking back, would you change anything about it? Cause I think about somebody listening saying, man, I, you know, I, I work a lot of hours. You know, can I give up another two hours of my life to get started doing this and then put in the thousand hours we know that it will take to be successful. Um, what would you say?

Jeremy:                                [43:09]                     I don’t know that I would’ve pushed through and done as much Ra as I did thinking about it now. Um, just because of the pressure put on my family, even though there were parts of it that were fun because we can do it together and you know, me and my wife and kids are packing up products and labeling them and that, that was good, but it did put a lot of strain, you know, sometimes financially because you’ve got a lot of money invested in product and sometimes, um, you, you’ve made, you know, I one time made a hugely wrong purchase, a buying Walmart. It’s out of stock of an item that, that, uh, immediately came back in stock at a lower price. It’s like, yeah, stuff like that. Mistakes like that made, made, made for some, some tough times. Whereas like, um, you know, if I, if, if I would have, the one thing I would have done differently is it just dropped everything and started that day that Chris Green sent me to join merch by Amazon link and focused on that. I did, I did, uh, immediately sign up for merge, but the rest of us, yeah. Yeah. It came at a time where it was like the beginning of the fourth quarter and you know, I was already in the of like trying to maximize my profits for that, for that a fourth quarter and was just put, put merge completely on the back burner.

Stephen:                             [44:41]                     So that’s an interesting point. So, so listening to those, you know, visionaries and Chris is a visionary because he is an idea guy, like you said, but he’s three or four ideas out. I mean is some of his stuff, you’ll be sitting there, I’ll come on it’s, and then all of a sudden you’d be like, holy crap, that dude was right. And I go listen to them. Right. So by listening to Chris Types, because there are others like him, but he’s truly a visionary. He really is. Yeah. But seeing that and listening to him and start saying that aligns with what I want to do more so than this. Now Andy will tell you, don’t stop. Adjust. Right. So as you say, maybe you don’t go as far as an Ra, you keep enough to go to make up whatever you were doing with that. You know, and then use that money as an investment to, to launch this next thing. I think that is very, very sound advice very so much because it aligns with what, you know, like you said, if, if you would have gotten into Merck earlier cause you already had the skill sets to learning curves gone, how much bigger could you have been quicker. Right, right, right. So I think that’s powerful advice. Um, I never thought about that way

Jeremy:                                [45:48]                     back then. It was, you know, I mean I know people are complaining now and their sales or their off even on the competition’s gotten stiffer back then. It was a gold mine and I just wish I had listened sooner. And so being aware and active in the communities so that you can jump on that next idea. Not that I think march is like going down hill. I think there’s nothing but upside, even though there’s a lot of negativity around it right now. Uh, there’s always going to be another opportunity like that. And you’re going to miss the, you’re going to miss it if you’re, if you’re not connected and networking and in giving to the community that issue

Stephen:                             [46:27]                     your, that’s exactly right. If you’re not giving back, it’s very hard to take because people aren’t going to give to you write it. You have to give back. Powerful. Okay, so what’s next? What do you, what do you thinking that you know, um, oh, and let me make this one last point on Chris Green there. He’s still dropping these knowledge things. This, this isn’t his last hurrah. He’s not one and done. Not One. He’s not 15 and done. He’s got more. And so pay attention to it and then see if it aligns with you because this could be replicated, this merchant, the last hot thing that Amazon’s going to do now they’re looking at health care. They’re looking at all these other things. And if you’re in the healthcare world, that’s an opportunity. I don’t know what it is yet, but you know more than I do.

Stephen:                             [47:11]                     So therefore you have an advantage. How do you maximize that advantage? That’s the key to be looking for those things. So just like Jeremy has an advantage with the video and marketing and he was able to take advantage of it. You have it if you’re in healthcare or whatever else they get into aviation or tickets or whatever. So sorry, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to lose that. So back to it. So what do you think you’re going to do next? I mean, would it, uh, you know, obviously you have the, you got a lot on your plate, the kids are getting a little bit older. I mean, what do you see for yourself?

Jeremy:                                [47:40]                     Um, I mean, I’ll say one of the, uh, side hustles that I’ve started doing over the past year or so and only a handful of clients is doing product videos. Um, because I see one of the key things with Amazon is, and they even mentioned this at a conference that I was at, that the, the, the Amazon search engine, it’s going to favor video more and more going forward. And you already see that, like you text a product to someone on like, I know I’m an apple device at least, I don’t know about all you android users, but when you text a product from Amazon, if it’s got a product video attached to it, when they, when that person gets your techs, they’ll see a video just start playing in there and the, and right there on the text screen. And so immediately you’re engaged with the product without even landing on Amazon’s page yet. So there’s the power of video and you know, that’s something that tells a story to tell a story, tell me this isn’t my world colliding. Right. And, and you know, and that working with amazing freedom guys and talking about that and like, you know, it was just, it was just like, well, Duh, this is something I’ve got to start tapping into. So me and another, a videographer friend of mine that I’ve done a lot of work with, it started doing some work for people like Paul Miller who has cozy phones and, um, um, Eric Payne.

Jeremy:                                [49:14]                     I’m not saying not saying this product, I know it don’t say he’s, he’s an amazingly cool, smart guy. That uh, what a great freaking story. He is in fact kind of brought tears to my eyes, the listening to his and Paul Stories. Um, their success stories are hard. Something that anyone can be inspired by, but working alongside them to help them bring their products to life has been a really fun adventure. And, um, you know, so and, and, and I just want to continue doing more of that. Uh, just because, uh, you know, it’s right in my wheelhouse and things to do. And on top of that continues to grow my, my merchant account.

Stephen:                             [49:52]                     But you’re also now I, I cut you off because you’re also giving back to them. I understand they’re paying you, but you’re doing it with a compassion for them success. That’s hard to find. That’s not just a contract. Cause I think that’s one of the hardest things for people to get. You can get anybody to shoot a photo, right? But for them to care about your product so you, it shows like it’s yours. That’s hard to find. And so give me the chills thinking about it. All right, so if somebody is interested in that, you’re going to reach out to Jeremy because he’s going to give us his contact information right now. Tell me the best way if somebody has a need, right? I mean,

Jeremy:                                [50:28]                     industry direct messaged me on Facebook or Instagram. Um, uh, we have a Facebook page that I just started like, um, a few weeks ago. I haven’t really done much with it called amazing product videos, so you can read and reach us from there as well. Kind of you’ll see a nice little testimonial from, from Leon Gordon, who I’ve done a lot of work with.

Stephen:                             [50:58]                     Oh, that’s a Yoda. Anyone you’re doing it when you go to speak to everybody should listen. Just like Chris Green. Honestly, smartest people I’ve ever met my life.

Jeremy:                                [51:06]                     [inaudible] Ron, when he runs hands down the smartest, a newer I I’ve ever met. So

Stephen:                             [51:10]                     yeah. And I know people use that guru term in a negative way. I’m just, I’m blown away. I mean, I’ve, I’ve seen him help people like 20 because they’re vampires. They never sleep. And they’re just always mentioning, Yep, just do this. Just do this. And it’s like, wow. Okay. So the last thing I always ask is I’m always looking for something to help people who get stuck. Um, we, while we, we talked to your conversation, you hit challenges along the way life happened, right? You know, things don’t always work out. What’s your advice for somebody who’s looking at this right now? I’m hoping that they hear what you said is pay attention and then look for the lane what’s in your wheelhouse. Right? And find that piece and then embrace it. Right? Who would know that videography for Amazon is going to be potentially your biggest thing? Who would have thought that? Right. That wasn’t something that didn’t even exist. It’s almost a year ago, two years ago. So you have to be open minded too. So I hope you hear that. Whoever listening hear that, that’s really solid advice. But what about somebody who’s stuck right now and they’re sitting there saying, should I go on with this, Jeremy? This isn’t quite as what I expected. What’s your advice?

Jeremy:                                [52:18]                     I mean, uh, I, my, my biggest thing is just always be the networking and if you’re, you’re stuck talk about it.

Stephen:                             [52:29]                     Oh, in Facebook or that’s hard to do, dude. We’re all supposed to be positive. We’re also a millions. Yeah.

Jeremy:                                [52:35]                     Yeah. Not, not at all. Not always. And, and the thing is like just talking about it and getting it out there, you realize how many other people either are in the same position or have been there and then are willing to kind of either talk you off the cliff as far as if you’re ready to give up on it or can, can give you some new direction. Um, there’s just such an incredible community, people out there that are willing to help that if you’re in in that world where you’re thinking, man, I don’t know if this is for me, talk about it and, and see, see what the, the people that have been in your shoes before dead to, to find the way to push through

Stephen:                             [53:13]                     solid advice. I’m very excited for you. And again, his a amazing product. Videos is his Facebook page. Check it out and I’ll put his Facebook contact on this episode and I wish you nothing but success. Thank you so much. And I always love chatting with you. This has been fun. How cool was that story? What a great guy. Just doing well, where he wants to be. So now he’s got two lines of work related to ECOMMERCE, right? He’s unmerge and he’s doing videography for products for brands. That’s cool. Does that mean he failed because he’s not doing ra or Fba anymore? No, he’s past that point for him. But that doesn’t mean you should give it up. And that’s just for him. And that’s the beauty of this. You can find, and if you listen to Chris Green talk, there were 18 ways to earn money on Amazon.

Stephen:                             [54:03]                     Last time I heard him talk about it. There are probably 23 ways to earn money on Amazon. Well, the videography is a new one that wasn’t even there before. So listening to people like that and paying attention and putting yourself in a position that you’re accepted takes some effort. You gotta be good, you gotta be giving, you’ve got to help others, and then you get this magic help. And I think Jeremy is a great example of what it could be. So I hope that you connected with him as much as I do. Um, just a great guy. He commerce, momentum.com ecommerce momentum.com.

Cool voice guy:                  [54:33]                     Thanks for listening to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found that incomers momentum.com under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and the lake us on iTunes.

Stephen:                             [54:47]                     Okay.

 

Stephen-Peterson

About the author, Stephen

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.