Maximizing Profits by Selling On Amazon

Damon Pistulka  00:00

was Oh, get it?

Curt Anderson  00:01

Okay, here we go. Hey Damon, happy Monday. How are you doing?

Damon Pistulka  00:05

I’m doing great Curt ready to go?

Curt Anderson  00:07

Awesome. Hey, we’re here with our buddy Neil. And So Neil, is it Neil Twa. Do I have that crack? Yep, you got it. All right. So I’m David. We’re old enough to remember TWA back in the days, right? Yeah. Before Neil’s time, but So, Neil, just go ahead and share a little bit about yourself and what’s going on your world?

Neil Twa  00:22

Yeah, simple story short, got involved in eCommerce when the internet came online discovered that was more fun than being in college. So I dropped out and rode that through the corporate world up into IBM in 2007, where I fired the man. And then as the saying goes, I burned the boats but not the bridges and have never looked back. So 17 years later, I felt offline and online businesses in E commerce roles specifically focused in the last 12 years on launching growing and building five private label physical product brands. For both exit and now acquisition as we are acquiring brands, that are between one and a half and 3 billion and EBITA are not across digital media DTC, Amazon FBA and multi channel

Curt Anderson  01:03

Dude, that was a that was not your first rodeo was it? That was quite my first rodeo. not your first rodeo. So Alright, so let’s dive in. So what’s hot and heavy? What’s new and exciting with Amazon? How are you helping? Are you helping people just conquer their problems with Amazon?

Neil Twa  01:17

Yeah, I mean, Amazon is a single sales channel and it can be an opportunity, it can be trouble, just like any other sales channel, it can be an opportunity or trouble. So really, we look at the business holistically, holistically, I was put two words together, holistically, making up new words on the fly today. And you know, look at it as a as a demand capture platform really, while I start people there, we’re always going to go off into demand creation, which can be social commerce on Tik Tok, or other locations, Omni channel locations, media, etc, down to retail QVC, online television ads, etc. So it’s really about where the brand can expand from wherever it starts. If you’re DTC and you’re Shopify, that’s fine. You got to be on Amazon, if you’re on Amazon, you got to be on one of the other channels, you have to consider a multi leg strategies, I want everyone to be very clear about that, that we don’t really build just Amazon FBA channels, a single channel is not a business that’s like a wrist, it’s like having a unicycle. And when the tire goes flat, you can go anywhere. I prefer bikes with two wheels. So at the end of the day, we’re going to build brands launch ramps grow and build intrinsic value in them. And then of course, you can always escalate that to other groups of PE firms, groups, individuals, investors, or corporate investors later on and the exit. And building with the end in mind is really what I want people to focus on. That way you’re going to learn, you know, this is a two or three or four year business model of growth, exponential growth, it will continue to get easier and to some degree, more opportunity as you go along, as long as you make it past that first 12 months.

Curt Anderson  02:43

Okay, awesome. All right. So let’s, let’s get started. So say there’s a baby, we target manufacturers that’s ties in with the name of our show. And so say there’s a manufacturer, they are manufacturing all sorts of wonderful widgets. And this whole ecommerce thing is new to them, what would be when they connect with you kind of walk us through that starting point, or what are the first stages of how you engage and help that manufacturer get getting an online presence.

Neil Twa  03:06

So after doing, you know, 1000s of launches over the years, we’ve learned that it’s obviously a statistical and numerical game at the end of the line until you determine the product and brand time is going to take you wide. And until you’re really established where that brand and time and market is going to be for you. Initially, you can sell products, zero to 100k, that’s fine. But if you want to get to a million, you got to build a brand. So it isn’t just how many products I throw up at the wall and see what sticks. And as I have a specific brand and agenda a goal to grow that intellectual property that IP and build it into a framework that actually becomes a saleable asset. So with manufacturers, you’re gonna want to test to fail fast. Okay, so our five by five methodology is literally to get five products in the market. Okay, and those test market products of 100 units are to determine can I sell the product I’m into a long time ago one of the things he beat in my head in the sales world and beyond ethical selling, of course, which was sales fixes everything, right? So you can have somebody go out and there’s literally just happened in the Olympics you can have these guys show up with their goggles, their you know, their their full setup and their their laser like this and all this nonsense and they’re all geared up and ready to go and and dude walks up to the platform with a T shirt on puts his hand in his pocket and planks off a silver metal. Why? Because he sold it. At the end of the day. T was selling the everybody else was like look at all the things I can do and really don’t doesn’t matter at the end of the day just matters if you show up. Fortune favors the bold and that dude was literally acting very bold by just getting up there and making that happen. And he’s become an internet legend because of it. Now, if you take that and apply it to the business world, just showing up, of course is not enough. You actually have to practice which he did. Yeah. And you actually go through the process of practicing by launching products until one of them fires off when one of them starts to fire off. You simply follow the data if you’re in manufacturing or we’re going to have it manufactured you take and sell more of the same product and different packaging to more people. You start expanding that brand out based on what the data showed you today. Data shows you they wanted a black extra large one, then make another black Extra Large with additional features and make 10 more of them just follow the data into the niche, it gets easier and easier. The phrase you know success is boring is because once you determine what those products and brands are, you just keep repeating the process. And it is a constant repetitive process of finding the data, testing the product, launching the products, okay, so once we know that data past 100 units will sell in X amount of days, less than 90 days or faster than I know I can confidently order 1000 units. So if you’re gonna go in and do a test, then you can run 1000 unit test or what we call a product launch behind that once you have the product launch into profit, that’s your goal, right? Because, as I mentioned a minute ago, our product process is the 50 to $200 retail price point, we have to have more than $12 in net profit per unit to really compete on profitability, which is not always volume, people confuse the two. Okay, it isn’t volume of the total inventory of a product is volume of the total inventory of the brand, which means I may have products that sell 200 a month. So I’m gonna sell 500 A month some itself 750 or 1000 or more a month, okay. But it’s profitable sales of those units at the level at which they sell every month. Okay, could they be optimized? Sure, am I going to spend a huge amount of time optimizing individual products, yes. Which is going to ultimately make one of the differentiators and whether or not that product sells 200 or 500 a month, but sort of market share wise until you inventory or level up your marketing, at least on Amazon, it’s not going to grow larger until you stack that inventory. So one of the opportunities manufacturers have if their direct to consumer is they can stack more inventory faster than the average dog can. If that’s the case, once the metrics are dialed in, and the test launches are in and the 1000 units, which we don’t marry our product, okay, until 1000 units prove velocity of sales, then you can stack 234 or 5000 units on top of that, and the Amazon’s algorithm is literally going to reward you. Okay, it is different than any other platform in that way. It will throttle your sales, if you have do not have enough inventory to overtake market share currently setting in the system from some other seller who’s meeting that demand of the customer already on the platform. You can’t put 1000 units in and expect to sell multi seven figures. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  07:09

so it’s interesting, the intricacies of this, as you said, Neil, is that how much inventory you commit into the FBA system will help you get more market share, it will take

Neil Twa  07:23

over that market demand because Amazon’s algorithm is not going to intentionally stalk you out because they want the product in the system visible to the customer. If they stop you out, that doesn’t occur. Can you force it to happen? Yes. Can other factors of you know acts of God and Amazon stupidity do it for you? Absolutely. But the intent is that it will be in there and it is available to the customer. If there’s more inventory stocked up and you here’s the big one, are more profitable per unit than the next competitors above you. Amazon is going to let you rank higher than them. They’re an engine of economics. Okay, if I don’t have as much product profitability as the ones above me that I can sell more volume, Amazon’s gonna know the numbers and determine whether or not it’s viable for me to take over that market share. Yeah, to meet the demand of their customer. Right? Because it’s about them. What am I doing on their system, direct marketing, if you really understand your role as a direct marketer to the consumer, I’m actually selling not to the end consumer on this platform. I’m selling to the algorithm. Okay, this platform is selling to the customers, and it wants the customers and demand to be met. And the reviews to be positive in the ecosystem to be good for the customer. You have to meet that demand because you’re playing on their platform, you’re in their backyard, you went to their barbecue don’t show up naked, right? Yeah. So when you show up know what you’re supposed to be doing direct marketing in the channel. Okay. And selling products. Second, is what I actually do. Okay, that doesn’t mean I create crappy products. No, because I need the economic engine to tell me it’s a good product, I need the positive reviews to come through. So I’m not going to sell a crappy product in my world. That’s a given. That’s a no. What I’m going to do though, is spent a lot more time properly marketing and optimizing the product before I take it to market. So that when it’s in the market, I will do a better job of optimizing and dialing in the product. Others will not do that. And they will not spend the time energy attention and money. The team effort, okay, of making this really work well in the first 12 months. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  09:26

It is so interesting how the Amazon ecosystem is just like its own world.

Neil Twa  09:30

It’s its own platform. It is its own beast, you can’t take that knowledge and information, what I just gave you and get it to work exactly the same way on Shopify. Yeah, you can’t get it to work on walmart.com In the same way because even though they have an ecosystem similar in organic traffic, they don’t work the same way and the way they rank and determine product and profitability and the market share of an individual seller. You cannot take that to tick tock and expect to get the same kind of organic ranking unless you do a number of other factors in the demand creation space because that’s a demand creation social platform, it has a very similar by the way, psychology of buyer, okay between an Amazon buyer and a Tiktok. shopper. Why? Because in the last 24 months, the largest growing demographic on Tiktok shops is now matching Amazon. So when they get on Tiktok shop to buy, they’re actually ending up 30% of the time on our Amazon store. Okay, even if it’s not our product, if it’s a competitor’s product, they saw on the demand social creation of Tiktok. And they don’t feel confident in the product or knowing the buy through that platform, they end up on Amazon. And when they find our product, they buy it even if it wasn’t our product, our videos, etc. Yeah, so fascinating. ecos we’ll call it the halo effect, right? Yeah. So between this halo effect of online properties, while you may start on Amazon, first, I do to get that demand creation validation incubation of the product in this, you know, at 600 units, a minute monster machine that nobody knows how the hell this thing even really, truly works and why it works at all is a freaking miracle. Yeah. And then you take it out to social commerce and you say, okay, create demand for it, create more demand in this space, so that I will see it positively affect this base. Now that I know this base exists, and I’m capturing demand, and I’m organically growing year over year. By years two and three, I can then go out and start creating more demand and get more visibility. Amazon also, by the way, under the long answer to your question, sorry, is now marketing on sponsored ads directly through prime, Twitch and freebie and all their channels and are now going to be direct response marketing advertising to an individual person watching a documentary for fishing, they’re going to know that you’re a fisher and only put ads in front of you about fishing. Okay, and this is a new system rolling in within Amazon that will be a super big change to the way they currently run the platforms called Cosmo. They implemented the first aspect of it called Rufus recently, but a Cosmo they tested it back in February, which means they’re already starting to slowly roll this out. They only tested it on 10% back in February, and added a $4.9 billion market cap change in just 10%. Okay, and it is about targeted, hyper targeted aspect of advertising, think of Minority Report. Anybody seen that movie? Yep. Okay, where they target you to your ad specifically to who you are. That’s what’s coming. Yeah, fascinating time.

Curt Anderson  12:11

It is absolutely fascinating time. So Neil, so, man, fantastic breakdown, I think people are gonna have to rebind button a couple of times to catch up everything, do you on a b2b side, anything that you want us to could could take us there on the b2b side. So

Neil Twa  12:26

if you’re going to own your own brand, you should wholesale. Right. Once you have an opportunity to own the brand, you’ve got the back end manufacturing locked in maybe primary, secondary, tertiary, based on different locations around the world based on time to market speed of ticular product types, maybe somewhere in the US, and you deliver them faster at a higher price point versus the separate types of products that are being delivered maybe out of Vietnam or India, maybe China, don’t always recommend to go to China first. Everybody always thinks you have to go to China first. But still. There’s stuff in Pakistan, there’s stuff down in South America, there’s all kinds of good stuff happening, right? So the basic b2b premise is once I own the brand and control, I then look to attract wholesalers. And a lot of times when I’m on these channels, they actually approach us right. So one of my customers actually was on my other customer this time it was my partner has a separate brand that he runs within a vertical brand owner, they found him on Amazon and asked him to come over and sell everything on macys.com for his kitchen brand, because they found them in there, he built a b2b relationship with them to sell through their product channel, right? So those opportunities are out there when they come. If you’re an individual or direct to consumer seller, versus setting up an entire b2b channel. There’s of course, an opportunity to do that directly. However, I’ve found that it’s easier to get the DTC first, prove the brand through the marketplace and then attract b2b opportunities in behind you.

Curt Anderson  13:43

So how about for we have a lot of custom manufacturers where they’re, they’re not selling a finished good per se, but they have a great b2b where they’re in a supply chain somewhere, and are to be there’s great opportunities. How about, could you elaborate on that?

Neil Twa  13:57

So in other words, outreach towards more DTC folks, or sell them directly themselves, not to

Curt Anderson  14:04

consumer, so be so say, you know, I make a part that, you know, somewhere in the food chain of aerospace, we’re, you know, but that same part could go into marine that same boat could go to auto. So, you know, I’m not selling to Joe, consumer weekend lawyer, I’m not selling direct to consumer, I’m selling to other b2b folks in that supply chain, any?

Neil Twa  14:23

Well, their best bet in terms of discovering those relationships is to either in terms of finding them and deliver it, there are millions, there’s 1.2 million Amazon FBA sellers alone. There’s 850,000 Shopify owners, actually there’s 2.8 million Shopify stores. Okay. So in that way, there’s a lot of opportunity for b2b is to do some cold outreach, leveraged outreach, group outreach, partnering with courses consulting and advertising firms and say, Hey, we’re a b2b manufacturer. We’re looking for direct relationships. We’ve got custom parts custom this, we can customize that we can private label this, it’s just going to need to be more of a conservative outreach. I don’t think They do it very well. I think they’re trying to just get them to be attracted somehow to them, I don’t see it a lot, we actually have to find most of them. And most of the good ones are not doing a lot of outreach. And I think that’s a lost opportunity for them is just literally just get cold outreach, you know, build a podcast around it, do a guest podcasting with other b2c channel operators and get the awareness that, hey, we’re a brand that can create XYZ, we can’t do ABC. But we can do these specific things. And if it fits, and you want supplements, we can do that. If you want parts of manufacturing, we can do that. Like they don’t see a lot of them doing enough cold outreach, we certainly don’t get hit up by them. And which I would be surprised why not. But we actually end up having to go find them. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  15:38

yeah, I think that’s the thing is we talk about that a lot is the manufacturers tend to be the best kept secret. And in a lot of cases, if they’re not selling to you to see. Yes. And there are a lot of DTC brands that have to look for manufacturers every single day. Yeah, and it’s a that marrying those two together is, is where the where the real b2b People want we’re not doing

Neil Twa  16:02

is an opportunity cost. So what we discovered, we’ve actually said, Hey, we could create you a house brand, we can operate it and since you’re the manufacturer will become the DTC front end and operate it why don’t we just focus on the manufacturing? And we’ll take that over and like, oh, okay, let’s create a house brand together. So we do. Yeah, and help them move that house brand out into market with trusted suppliers and time and market we can do that.

Curt Anderson  16:24

As well. Okay, so let’s tie in. So you mentioned podcasts, you have an amazing podcast, I believe you have a best selling book. Could you talk talk a little bit about your podcast in your book, want

Neil Twa  16:32

me to brag on myself? Now?

Curt Anderson  16:33

I would love your mind to talk to me. You said Would you please have Neil brag about himself. He’s

Neil Twa  16:38

I thought that’s why we were here was just to talk all about me.

Curt Anderson  16:41

He’s too modest. He’s too humble. But just yeah, if you could just share a little bit about your book and a little bit about your podcast.

Neil Twa  16:47

Yeah, in simple terms, not to be braggadocious. We do have a top 5% global podcast now called the high voltage Business Builders podcast. It is about interviewing folks like yourselves and others in business and finance and marketing for expertise and growth, the entrepreneurial story, it’s ecommerce related, it’s real estate related. It’s wealth without Wall Street related it is the business of doing business in different verticals, from experts who are specifically vetted to do that between one to 5 million or more. And those are the guests that are on that show. I took a segment of them. And I actually built a book around it. So there are 15 different experts from my podcast who are good in each vertical area of E commerce, and specifically Amazon FBA and multi channel and DTC and then I compile that into 15 interviews. And we put our case studies in there along with our five by five strategy that is outlined in the book. It’s the strategy if you want tactics that comes in implementation, this is the strategy of how to actually make that work. Why do I not do tactical in the book, because so many other people are like, here’s the book, here’s all the tactics, what people don’t understand is how to make that successful as a strategy. So we wrote the book to be a strategy, because I can teach the tactics how a 19 year old high school dropout and a 16 year old asked me how Right, yeah, the book was built around them. And then was released in January, Kevin Harrington wrote the foreword, which is awesome, a mentor of mine and friend from a long time ago, and the first shark on as, you know, on the, on the Shark Tank, didn’t have to go to the Shark Tank myself, just went to the mentors, and has built, you know, a $6 billion industry around the scene on TV, right and very cool, dude. And he wrote the foreword for the book. And so now we just give it away at times, or we leave it out there. It’s available on Amazon for people to go understand what the actual strategy is for an E commerce deployment. Starting on Amazon FBA, it’s called almost automated income with FBA.

Curt Anderson  18:31

Nice, awesome, Neil, without giving away the secret sauce, because whoever’s listening absolutely needs to go out and purchase that book. Could you walk us through, you know, is there one case study in particular that really stands out that was, you know, maybe somebody was floundering or just didn’t know what to do? Where to turn and you guys came in just kind of turn that, you know, got that magic wand going and just really exploded things? Is there any particular stories in particular that you’d like to share?

Neil Twa  18:54

There’s a number of them, I’m trying to think of which one would be most relevant, most recent? How about that? enroller? Okay. There’s a gentleman who came in and he had started out and tried to build the brand himself. For the first six months, I think he started on a course spent almost $200,000, in six months getting the entire business off the ground. So it was in debt by a longshot, and didn’t really have a growing business and wanted to shut it down. So he comes to us and said, Hey, look, either I build this business, or I shut it down. And I said, Well, you got all these things going on. Let’s focus, focus, focus, focus, one channel until successful Amazon until seven figures and then multi channel, let’s break this back down into what are you doing? And what can you do better here is the strategy. You’ve got all this tactical stuff you’re doing and these growth hacks and all these things you’re trying to consume? And do which I see is basically creating this cloud of ambiguity around your business and you’re not actually sure what you’re really good at. And I’m like, What are you like really good at? And he’s like, Well, these are the things I’m really good at. And I’m like, great. Those are usually under strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities. I have all the resources over here to fill in the gap on the things you’re not good at. So if you just focus on this one strategy, we’ll take that 200,000 And we’ll turn it into a positive so So after six months of that, we got him net positive 200,000. So as we took away the mess, we took away the ambiguity and focused him down on just the five steps he needed to work on every day, week and month, he turned that business around, I give him credit for following and executing the steps. As the say goes in the country. I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t make a drink. Yeah, we drink the water, and he executed the water. And he went through that process. Okay, fast forward, got an email from them. This is 18 months later, just this past July 4 2024 emails and said, Hey, I’d love to do an updated podcast. So I got I’m scheduling to do an updated case study. I mean, half a million a month, I’m hiring separate people to go in and back down the resources. I’m going for a million a month, and I would love to come on your podcast and get updated information from you. I had heard from him for about four months, because he was in operations mode. He did what he needed to do when he was mentoring a few things and questions along the way. And then he just pops up and says that to me, and I’m like, Cool, let’s get you on the app a million a month. And his market share, by the way, is like point zero 1%. So even I have consulted with some of his larger vertical competitions. We’re doing about 100,000 units a month on Amazon. And so he is by no measure hit their run rate yet. So he has a lot of growth opportunity in his market.

Curt Anderson  21:10

Well, congratulations. What a phenomenal story. Could you you know, for we talk a common theme on our show, is digital transformation resistance from you give any tips or insight how why why do you think he was finally able to, you know, listen to you or like get through that transition? Can you just share? Were there any tips? You know, you’re dealing with 1000s of different entrepreneurs, what are,

Neil Twa  21:32

you know, this guy is a unique little bit in the way that when we sat down and we talked and we kind of cut this out and cut the sails out, you know, as the saying goes, when the student is ready, the mentor will appear. And he was ready to listen, it was like, Well, I have no other option. So I want to listen, and you’re saying things that others have not told me in detail that I’ve never heard them say before. And that’s because the way we do business, we invite I don’t sell I don’t have a course I don’t do that I have a consultancy, that’s very exclusive to only people I want to work with. And I said, Well, if you think you’re going to be the executable person, then we’re going to do this for a while. And we’re going to make sure that works. Right. He was willing to take action, he actually did it. He was in a point where he was ready to do it. When others come and have conversations, they typically look and say, Well, you convinced me to do this. You tell me why you’re better. You tell me why this is good. I’m not going to tell you why there’s business all over the place. If you don’t like the economy, go to real estate. Yeah, that doesn’t work for you go flip products on eBay, I don’t know, do something that makes you happy and can be profitable. But don’t put me in the limelight of your success. And don’t put me as the person in between you and your ability to execute. Okay, that’s that’s FOMO I don’t have any of that. I don’t want any of that. You know, people come in constantly thinking, Okay, well, the grass is greener over here. Why am I not doing this? And why are you not saying this? And why shouldn’t I be doing this growth hack. And this guy over here said I should go do this. And I’m like, You know what we say in the country about grasping on the grin on their face, because there’s a septic tank over there. That’s why That’s why the grass is great. You’re literally gonna stop and shit if you go over there. So stay focused, literally stay focus. One thing people are like, well, I miss out on all this opportunity. No, actually, you’re going to destroy the whole thing. Because you are not focused on one activity daily, weekly, and monthly as you’re doing each of them in order, follow a process. So come to the process. It’s been done by many other people. Okay, the last part of that whole conversation is I get too many people who think they’re just smarter than everything. They’re so smart. They don’t do anything, but they tell you all about it. And what I have is a group of people, and I love them to death. And they’re not dumb. They’re just street smart. So they’re willing to do and sometimes they don’t even know why they’re not going to do it. They’re just gonna do it anyways, until they’re successful. So they don’t question that they just do it. They take action, they show up in their T shirt and their shorts, and they shoot off their silver medals. And those are the people that I love to work with. Because they are humble enough to know that they’re not the smartest guy and they’re not going around sit around telling you they’re so smart. That’s what vegans are for. And so they actually go out there and eat the meat and do it.

Curt Anderson  23:55

Dude, that was phenomenal, man. Yeah, like right there, Damon. So yeah, I just I love it. So do you want to just share a little bit, Neil, I’m like, you’re on the voltage process your sister again, when somebody comes in? What’s that look like?

Neil Twa  24:07

So we test market everything. Okay, no one orders 1000 units unless they decide as the business owner, they want to do that with all criteria of risk laid out because that’s not exactly my process. So if you choose to do that, you’re the business owner. Okay. But my five by five methodology is to take and get five products in the system selling organically 25 units today. Okay, that’s it only 25 with $12 minimum net profit per unit they should be bringing in around $300 A day in profit. Okay, not a lot but it’s nine grand a month in profit. If you do it, right. That’s about 109,000 a year minus Prime Day and holidays you’ll get to about 150k In the first 12 to 16 months that is doable at a base case was called the base case and business okay. Now everybody wants to get to the high case, but nobody wants to do a little work. That’s like saying, Well, I’m super wise but I didn’t have any experience in any knowledge. I’m just super wise because I’m a 19 year old life coach with a virtual verified Twitter account. But the end result is that they don’t want to go through the execution. So we take them through the execution, first step is to test those products and know their 50 to 200. And retail price point more than $12 in net profit, organic sales first in the first seven to 21 days, okay? If it doesn’t work in the first seven to 21 days on organic, something is wrong. Okay. One of the things most people do not understand about this engine, okay, and I’ve been around this engine for a long time. And when I was at IBM, I helped develop a component of it at the Super Watson Armonk lab and IBM when we were there for this human machine language management system. Okay, this LMS system that was based on artificial intelligence, I was way back in the day, guys, like I’m gonna date myself a long time ago. Long story short, they built a platform of LMS for knowledge and information learning against physical products, they were the first to really do it, right. But it was based on a component. So I’ve been studying this thing for a long time. And again, it’s about to change very dramatically. But here’s the thing. If you now go into Amazon, and you run PPC ads in the first 24 hours of the product asin launch, they will be holding you to that PPC campaign from that point forward. Okay, meta does the same thing. And so to other platforms a purchase, okay, they force you to pay for the traffic, if you get Amazon’s organic ranking first dialed in. Okay, first impressions clicks, hopefully sales in that first period of time, and then you add PPC campaigns, it’s gasifier? Okay. Data first organic first than PPC. So we always test that method 100 units, 90 days or less? Can I move it in 60 days, that will determine how fast if I move it in 90, I’ll maybe do 500 to 1000? If I do it in less than 60? I’ll do 1000 units. Okay, when 1000 unit test goes out that’s going from revenue and what the heck do I sell? And who do I sell it to? And can I keep selling it because no other act of God Amazon or otherwise has stopped me? Then I’m moving into profit with that 1000 units confidently moving into profit because everything is going up. Okay, just following the data. So the more products I’ve put you know what a Gantt chart has, right guys, the more products I’ve put in a price lot pipeline pipeline pipeline, not in 90 days by 90 days, or what I see people doing over way too much time during their products getting bogged down in the business, you’ll launch faster and faster and faster to find that data sooner go from the funnel down into the cylinder. Once you’re in the cylinder, as I mentioned earlier in the drop down, you just sell more products and different packaging to the same people, you expand that share across marketplace in Amazon. And the more products you put in, the more money you’re going to make. Because the more products we have selling in the system, the faster you will rank. Well. Last tip for those who are paying attention. Okay, if you got 10 skews in your Amazon Seller account, that’s not what I’m talking about. Because if you have four of those or two of those making up 80% of all of your sales, the other skews are dragging your account down. Okay, but Neil, I’ve got green lights, my sell their health health is wrong, wrong. Wrong, doesn’t matter. They’re not telling you what they’re not telling you is your metrics behind the scene are dragging down your brand account, remove those other skews or let them sell out and keep only the top selling skews in the system and watch what happens. You’ll get an entire lift in the accounts ranking online.

Curt Anderson  28:02

Okay, man, there’s some priceless, priceless Amazon tips.

Damon Pistulka  28:06

Oh, yeah. I love my talk with Neil, as you guys study this in depth, you know how then you’re launching products every day,

Neil Twa  28:14

and I’m acquiring companies at volume. So with that case, I have to know what we’re doing in this operation space where we simply can’t run these companies at volume. These companies were 510 20 million that we’re looking to buy right now. Yes. Awesome.

Curt Anderson  28:25

All right. Well, you know, I know you’re super busy. And so hey, we’ve got Sarah says, Hey, Neil, we need the resource resources.

Neil Twa  28:32

What kind of resources do you want?

Curt Anderson  28:34

Thank you. I think she was commenting on one of your comments. So okay, resources. You and Sarah should absolutely Connect. She is a powerhouse Damon, she’s a dear friend. I have a question for you from Rubin. Does it make sense to create a podcast campaign to promote a service that helps brands protect themselves from counterfeiting? Or is this type of podcasts focused on selling on Amazon? Any comments there?

Neil Twa  28:59

So there’s a two part aspect? I think, to your question, Ruben. It was one on the product brand side and another one on the business side. If I heard that section, yeah. So on the business side, you would create a podcast to just reach the audience and tell people what I’m telling you right now and keep a very level transparent understanding of how the business actually works correctly. For example, I won’t tell anybody to start Amazon today with less than 25 and capital minimum, okay, why? Because it myself, our business and other people like us, we’re creating an ecosystem within the online e commerce world and Amazon. Now, that means you’re not going to compete with us at larger levels anymore, unless you’re willing to deploy the capital to go after the business we’re going after. It just means we’re going to take the market share, and you’re not going to get it back from us, which means you have to compete at our level. If you come in with a $5,000 need for business products, you’re not gonna make it on that money, you won’t, you’ll have to get more capital later. They don’t want to tell you that because they want you in their $7,000 course and I don’t care. So at the end of it, they want to know that you have to deploy capital at volume for growth. So the faster you do it upfront, the faster the results will come And the more you have to deploy, okay, for example, will deploy up to a million dollars in four years to a brand to turn it into an eight figure business. Yep, you got to be able to do this, okay, or you can’t compete on volume, like everyone else tells you, you can, it simply won’t happen on the smaller amount. Okay. So on the other half of that there was two parts to the podcast angle that would be one for broadcasting who you are, and getting making transparent communication and getting your brand visibility out there for where you are. The other one would be a niche podcast, okay, about a specific brand or type element to a customer solution that your product solves. Okay, so you might podcast on just Home and Kitchen. Okay, and you may have a Home and Kitchen brand, which the products could be mentioned or featured or you bring in other guests, or chefs or experts into that podcast to talk about Home and Kitchen. And oh, by the way, this is sponsored by XYZ brand exclusively on Amazon right now. And you finish the podcast directly down to the area you microfocus in to the podcast for the brand that you’re supporting. And continue to bring in more guests to amplify, say the Home and Kitchen and baking goes or whatever it is you’re in, and then just reference the product over to Amazon, the link is below and always use your brand referral links so that you can get that 10% off your brand. product purchase. Right. So you pay less and then yeah, yes, it’s a marketing tool. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  31:15

No, thank you and what Sara is asking about the book and so the podcast is high voltage Business Builders podcast. That’s great voltage business book, builders podcast and the book is almost automated income with FBA. And again, strongly encourage you invite you connect with Neil, on LinkedIn. Sarah, you and Neil. Oh, my goodness gracious. You guys would be best friends connect with Sarah. She is a powerhouse. And so I think there’s a lot of collaboration. opportunity there. Damon will start winding down. I know we’re coming into time. Neil, my last question for you. You IBM, you’re at one of the top companies in the planet. You decide to leave the corporate How did you describe it when

Neil Twa  31:54

you left IBM or the man?

Curt Anderson  31:56

You left the man you fired a man man fired the man you start your own business 2007 Two, I think it was like a little economic thing going on when the world just love it. There’s always just a little bit what when you launch your entrepreneurial journey, what was the best business advice that you’ve ever received, or that you’d love to pass along to anybody out there today, just business advice.

Neil Twa  32:18

The first one was get a mentor took me three years before I finally figured that one out and had some serious troubles and what I was I was going to do and how I was going to focus and by the time I got a mentor, he engrained some very simple things into my brain that have stuck with me every since then. And one of them was sales fixes everything, show up and sell something. The difference in that is don’t be a used car salesman, okay? Everybody’s like, well, you sell something that means you’re out to take something from somebody and you only want for yourself. No, there’s ethics and selling and inviting. And there’s business ethics and development of businesses or brands or products and services, there’s a way to sell ethically. And that was one of the major things he instilled with me Do not be afraid to sell Do not be afraid to fail seven times. So the eighth time you get something good, right? And you just have to keep failing to succeed faster. All right, people see failure as a as a complete reason to quit. And I see failure as what did I do wrong? And how can I do it better? Yeah. Okay. You just have to change and shift. And so that was something that I learned instilled in me from my father, to not give up be tenacious, keep going. Don’t take no for an answer. The No, you may tell me is a KN O W. And until you tell me, hell no, at that point, I might back off, okay. So that’s where I understand the boundaries, and you know, the selling of information and the opportunity for consulting. And so that was a that was really a big one. And, frankly, the last one that hit me the most was excuses. I used to make stupid excuses for things because I thought that that’s what I would need for someone to invest time or money or helped me up or give me a symbol accolade that I thought I might need from them. So I’d use an excuse. But here’s the quote that came to me once upon a time, your opportunity begins at the end of your excuse, okay? When you set the excuses aside, the opportunities will come no one wants to hear your excuses, okay? They want to hear your defeats, they want you to fail, you just have to expect that. They don’t truly want you to succeed beyond where they are, especially if they can’t see where you’re going and feel like you’re not going to take them with you. Or that they’re gonna get left behind. Okay, once you get past all that this whole thing with business, okay, last point, is all mindset. I don’t care if you’re in real estate, I don’t care if you start a mowing company because I started when I was 12 to make extra cash because I couldn’t get what I needed unless I had side hustle. This is what my GoFundMe was going out and mowing lawns. Yeah. And if you want someone to hand to you something for free because you feel they’re entitled to do it because they have any you don’t want don’t come to my doorstep because this is not going to be met with positivity, okay? Which means that you need to stand up be 100% accountable for what you’re doing and go after it. And when you do that, others will help you out and then you can help other people get into servant leadership. And that is the best rewardable

Curt Anderson  34:55

Dude, drop the mic right there. Reuben says thanks for your answer. Answer and so, Neil, that was phenomenal dude thank you for that jam session right there that was I’ve taken tons of notes Damon thoughts takeaways from today’s little kind

Damon Pistulka  35:10

of like, just reiterating what Curt said thanks so much for stopping by I mean I’ve always enjoyed your knowledge base in launching Amazon products and how you guys do it the systematic approach to going okay this is what we do step by step by step by step and and the No bullshit part about it right you got to go this is what we need to do or it’s just not gonna work. And because you’ve been through this so much your experience level just love love. Listen to you got I’ve got tons of

Neil Twa  35:40

chicken. I’m sorry, I did turn off that literally is one of my roosters because I live on 50 acres in the country out here. Yeah. And so he’s literally just living his best life right outside my window.

Curt Anderson  35:48

Nice. Awesome. Well, Neil, we’re gonna wind down again, connect with Neil here on LinkedIn. He’s a CEO of voltage holdings. Just Amazon expert. He’s got his podcast, he’s got his book. Just connect with Neil on any he’s the everything. the go to guy for everything, Amazon. And I think what did we hear in the background there as much as I can that a boy saw Hey y’all, so thanks. We want to thank you. We appreciate you. We applaud you what an inspiration you are. We appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us my question, you know, please connect with Neil to help you with any of your Amazon questions. Damon will wind down and we will be back here on Friday with once again and amazing, incredible guests, and we’ll just keep the party rolling.

Damon Pistulka  36:37

All right.

Curt Anderson  36:39

I love the chicken. Have you ever had a chicken on the show? You’re gonna have a moment to hear the chicken.

Neil Twa  36:48

Is he gonna operate on command? I don’t know. He’s pretty stubborn. No,

Damon Pistulka  36:52

don’t take that. Okay. All right, Curt. Neil, thank

Curt Anderson  36:55

you. So how many chickens do you have?

Neil Twa  36:57

We have like 7070 Yeah, we have like 30 ducks and animals and stuff. We just we’re busy, busy people with our farm.

Curt Anderson  37:04

If you need ducks, Neil’s your guy go through. In all seriousness, thank you. This was a master class. This is what you do. I’m looking at your website, all sorts of great information that you deliver. There was a

Damon Pistulka  37:19

game back, back. They came back and helped us alright guys. We’ll

Curt Anderson  37:23

see. Hang out with us for one second. Neal. God God bless everybody. Thank you for today and we will talk to you soon.