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Hi there and very warm welcome to the brand new 10K Collective e-Commerce Podcast.
This is still linked to the site for our sister podcast, Amazing FBA, which we’ve been running for 3 ½ years now.
The Amazing FBA podcast will still be published; it’s just going to focus on the needs of pre-revenue entrepreneurs (those thinking about/planning for setting up an Amazon business) and early stages. That’s not the focus of the 10K Collective e-commerce podcast.
Another e-commerce podcast? Who is this for?
Business directors doing 6, 7 and 8 figures a year in e-commerce. For now, we are very Amazon-centric (as is e-commerce as a whole these days!) However, we will be gradually bringing in more off-Amazon entrepreneurs and experts.
These businesses are scaling fast and the directors are enjoying the ride. As an end goal, rather than creating “lifestyle” businesses, they are aiming to create valuable, defensible assets to s ell on, or to pass on to the next generation.
Who is it our e-commerce podcast not for?
Newbies…
That is, those who are “pre-revenue” ie thinking of selling on amazon but not selling yet (our sister podcast, Amazing FBA is the place for you)
“Laptop lifestyle” Believers
A lot of e-commerce podcasts seem to preach living on a beach with a laptop.
Holidays are fun and recovering from overwork is fantastic. I’m all in favour of travel and learning languages and cultures.
And listen, I read the 4 hour workweek. But (as Tim Ferriss himself has admitted multiple times), the least good thing about that book was the title. Rather, I felt the value was in challenging assumptions and breaking lazy mental habits.
Problem is: your competitors aren’t sleeping while you’re playing. You need to stay ahead of the game.
Bigger problem: say you manage to just play on the beach all day. What meaning have you now got in your life?
Tim Ferriss’s own 4 hour workweek lasted maybe 18 months to two years; then he was back in the games of marketing (writing books) and business (as an angel investor).
And there is biggest issue. I believe – based on the evidence I’ve seen – that we all need a purpose. The aim isn’t to escape from the game but find a game you enjoy and are good at; and win at it!
That’s the purpose of this e-commerce podcast.
Those who are over-focused on “hacking” the Amazon algorithm.
We’ll take hacks, but we don’t believe you can build a valuable, future-proof business by focussing on things that will change every few months. Your business needs to keep pace with the environment – and our e-commerce podcast will help you do that over the coming months & years.
Where do you get your insights from? (what’s your background?)
This e-commerce podcast, the 10K Collective podcast, may be new but it’s built on a lot of my private experiences over the last 3 years or so.
Obviously selling on Amazon myself has given me a real feel for the platform; what works and what doesn’t.
Being a member of insider groups of (mostly UK) Amazon power sellers has given me some solid insights into what they do that works; as well as their less successful experiments.
First and foremost though our podcast is based on the insights from over 20 months’ work with advanced, high-growth Amazon sellers who are scaling fast in the 10K Collective London masterminds.
They consist of monthly or bi monthly in-depth, detailed, intensive debate.
Now talk is cheap, but Members are fantastic at going back to their offices and implementing what they learn; whether that be just some little tactical wins like optimisation of listings, all the way to months-long experiments with say instagram influencers; SEO or advanced FaceBook group strategies, to name but three examples.
The great thing is then the sharing back of what works and what doesn’t over the course sometimes of several months. This means we can track people’s journeys through their experiments. We can all learn critical lessons without all having to risk our capital – or even our businesses.
Sometimes the debate is pretty direct, but we enjoy the rough and tumble! Most importantly, what emerges is some pretty serious insights into what to do to create a sellable business or even one to pass on to your grandchildren!
The end result is pretty serious measurable progress. Several businesses are track to grow 100% since joining and several are growing over 40% a year.
So what’s the philosophy behind this Amazon e-commerce podcast?
Increasingly as whole, the mastermind members are starting to focus on proven business strategies and thinking from outside the e-commerce space (And definitely from outside the Amazon Bubble).
Coming back to the “hack-focussed” sellers…
Let’s take Jim Collins’s findings in his book “Great By Choice” . His incredible in-depth study documented companies that grew value astronomically in turbulent and unpredictable markets over 3 decades.
What was perhaps predictable was that there were several guiding principles and internal disciplines that great companies followed. And which mediocre companies did not.
What surprised Collins – and is still surprising perhaps to those of us used to the massive changes Amazon throws at us- is this:
The deep business flywheel driving the businesses; and even the specific “recipes for success” which they followed – actually showed remarkably LITTLE change over decades.
This includes industries like personal computing (Microsoft) which was a high-growth but very fast-changing industry in the period Collins studied.
Another industry was the infamous airline industry (Southwest airlines), which is renowned for bankruptcies and negative return on investment.
E-commerce is still commerce; online business is still business
We don’t believe Amazon reinvented the entire way business works. If anything, our experience is that retailers on Amazon’s platform experience an intensified and accelerated version of deeper business trends that have always been there.
It’s a hyper-growth, hyper-competitive environment which does not negate the principles of great business building; rather it accelerates everything even more intensely.
Having a strong strategic focus – centred around real brand building – becomes even more critical to really drive the business forward through these choppy waters.
We believe in following real business principles and strategies and integrating short-term tactics into their rightful place. That’s reflected in what we offer in this e-commerce podcast.
What are we offering you in this podcast?
The main focus of the show (our e-commerce podcast) is interviews.
We have in-depth interviews already recorded with successful e-commerce sellers, including our own Ashley Pearce from the 10K Collective mastermind with more to come in the pipeline.
We are also addressing specific topics for advanced sellers with with industry experts.
Here’s what’s coming up – this is JUST what we’ve already recorded for you:
E-commerce Entrepreneurs on…
- How to handle rapid scaling
- Getting accurate stock management and financial projections
- The philosophy behind building a team
- How the “Star” Principle dominates his business philosophy
Experts in…
Outsourcing
Outsourcing & Company Culture – Aaron O’Sullivan – How to Remove Things Like Customer Service, Inventory Management & Book Keeping Off Your Plate…
Quick Outsourcing with Connor Gillivan of Freeeup
Money
interview with Benjamin Chambers on FBA Reimbursements
interview with Bruce Mack on Funding For FBA clients
Sourcing in China with Ash Monga of Imex Sourcing
Custom Manufacturing (Beyond Private Label) with Ryan Shaffett
Selling e-commerce businesses
Selling your Amazon or e-commerce business – Interview with Chris Shipferling & Jason Somerville of Providium – Wall Street Private Equity experts
Are you selling products/services – like the other e-commerce podcasts?
Obviously you’ll have gathered by now that we run masterminds based in London (in fact we are starting to expand into Continental European locations for some meetings).
By design, these are very small groups (max 12 members). So we have very limited space in these at any time. In that situation, I’m not doing a big pitch for that as we couldn’t fulfil all the demand if we did.
That said, of course, are always looking for a handful of really cool people who might be a good fit.
Any considering that will need to be focussed but fun and owner or direct a business doing between around £500K-£10M a year on Amazon, and which is growing fast (40-100% a year).
If that does interest you, by the way, you can check out the 10K Collective Mastermind at www.amazingfba.com/10KC (minimum revenue £40K/mo)
And the Million pound mastermind(minimum revenue £100K/mo) at www.amazingfba.com/MPM
If you’re serious, you can join our waiting list and have a proper chat to me about that.
Equally obviously, some of our expert guests run services that deal with their specialist areas – how do you think they become so knowledgeable?
They’ll share some of the details and if you want to check it out.
That said, this is not a “pitch fest”. We believe that giving solid – even deep -advice is a great way to build trust over time in our brand. That’s why we run the podcast and that’s what drives
What to do now
If you like what you hear and think this could be the e-commerce podcast for you, here are a couple of things I’d suggest you do:
- Subscribe to the podcast so as not to miss out on all the great content coming up. By the way if you’re new to podcasts “subscribing” to a podcast doesn’t involve paying money! It’s free and always will be.
- If you’d like to get uncut audio from the interviews before they’re released to the public, and stay in touch with the new podcast, go to www.10kcollective.com and you should be given the opportunity to subscribe to that list.
Transcript
Hi there and a very, very warm welcome. Welcome to the brand new tank a collective podcast. You can find the show notes by the way and helpful links at our home on the web. 10 k collective.com. That’s 10 one zero k for Quito co double l EC t IV. This is still linked to by the way to the site for our sister podcast amazing FBA which have been running for three and a half years now and will continue to run. But we’re going to focus more on the needs of those who are new to Amazon space, pre revenue or early days. And this is more for the serious business business scaling person. So I’m going to keep this fairly short, most of the podcasts are going to be interviews, and those will move on to swifty. This episode is really just to tell you who we are, and who this is for. And a couple of questions like that. So I’m going to do it in a rather cheesy but hopefully helpful form of a few questions and answers. First question Who’s this for is for business directors, so mostly business owners, but if you work as an e commerce director, that’s fine. You also find it very, very valuable for businesses that are doing six, seven and eight figures in e commerce. For now, it’s fair to say we’re very Amazon centric. And to be fair, ecommerce as a whole is very Amazon centric these days. But we will gradually be bringing in more off Amazon entrepreneurs and experts over the course of the next few months. And indeed, yes, these businesses are probably scaling pretty fast and your directors are hopefully enjoying the ride. And if they’re not enjoying the ride, then maybe if that’s you, you need to listen up because the people that we work with in our masterminds do enjoy the ride. I think that’s a critical part of the process as an end goal, rather than creating lifestyle businesses. The ideal target listener, I guess, is aiming to create a valuable defensible asset to sell on autopilot and for the next generation. And if that sounds fanciful, we have a couple of people in the masterminds who have done generation the old businesses like three four generations old, so that is indeed possible in the retail space even now. So who is it not for? Well, first of all, newbies, those who are pre-revenue are thinking of selling on Amazon but not selling it at all, or in the very early stages of selling our sister podcast amazing FBA is the place for you just go to amazing fba.com the other people is not for laptop, lifestyle followers, and those who believe that you can live on a beach with a laptop, and that’s a good thing. Now look, holidays are fun, I’m recovering from overwork is fantastic. Um, and I’m all in favor as well of travel and learning languages and cultures. I read the four hour workweek by like everybody else, and I liked him. However, as Tim Ferriss himself has admitted multiple times, the least good thing about that book, or the most challenging aspect was the title. Rather, I felt the value was in challenging assumptions and breaking lazy mental habits, then just working as little as possible. There are a couple of big problems with their work as little as possible idea. The first problem is, your competitors aren’t sleeping while you’re playing, you need to stay ahead of the game while you’re sitting on the beach. Unless you have an amazing director of e commerce in place, then that can happen. But yet, for sure you can travel I mean, there’s nothing to stop you traveling last building an e commerce business. But the mentality implied by some be sitting on a beach with a laptop worries me. And if it worries you as well, then you may be the right person to listen to this podcast. The bigger problem is if you managed to play on the beach all day, what meaning Have you got to your life, look at him produce his own behavior, his own Four Hour Work Week lasted maybe 18 months to two years where he traveled around the world and had a little ecommerce business with some Google ads and SEO, driving that. And then he was back in the game of marketing, writing books and business as an angel investor. And he’s been doing that as far as I can tell since So, there’s the biggest issues, I believe, based on the evidence that I’ve seen that we all need a purpose in life, I don’t think the aim is really to escape from the game of life, but to find the game you’re good at and enjoy, and then win at it. So that is the focus of this podcast. The final person who’s not really going to find this as the right place for them is those who are over focus on hacking the Amazon algorithm, show will take hacks, and they can be very useful. They’re part of staying in pace with your environment. And we’ll be helping you to do that over the next few months. But we don’t believe you can build a valuable future proof business by focusing on things that will change every few months. And apart from anything else. It’s very, very stressful and reactive. And it’s a lot more fun to build a business that is proof against such things. And I think that is part of the enjoyment of building a business where you enjoy the game rather than just miserable all the time. And let’s face it too many Amazon sellers get miserable. That’s not the way to be, you need to find a way of building a business that’s robust. That is Amazon proof. That’s future proof. And that is fun, or at least, you know, mostly enjoyable. Not always fun, of course. But that’s one of the things we’re definitely here to help you do.
So another question you might have is where do you get your insights from or, you know, what’s your background? So this podcast, the tank, a collective may be new, but it’s built on a lot of my private experiences over the last three years or so that have some serious depth in them. Obviously, selling on Amazon myself has given me a real feel for the platform for what works and what doesn’t. And by the way, I’m not really selling that much I didn’t do big numbers these days. And that’s not what I have to offer. Right being a member of inside groups, mostly UK, Amazon power sellers has given me some solid insights into what they do. And that works, as well as their less successful experiments I EFL products or trying in that, say Amazon as that didn’t work or whatever it is. First and foremost, though my insights and experience come really from over 20 months work. very intensive work with advanced high growth Amazon sellers who are scaling fast in the 10 k collective London masterminds consisting of two masterminds these days, the 10 k collective and the million pound mastermind, those masterminds consist of monthly or bimonthly in depth in person debate this detailed and intensive. Now Talk is cheap, but the members are fantastic at going away to their offices, and implementing what they learned whether that be just some little tactical wins, like optimizing their listings. But all the way up to months. experiments will say Instagram influences SEO work, or advanced Facebook group strategies to name but three exams of the things that have been topics for very many months recently in the masterminds. The great thing is a showing back to the group of what works and what doesn’t over the course of several months. That means the members can track people’s journey through their experiments, learn critical lessons, but without having to risk their capital or even their businesses. And sometimes the debates pretty direct, but we enjoy the rough and tumble and what emerges as some serious insight into what to do to create a sellable business or even want to pass on to your grandchildren. And pretty seriously measurable progress as well. several businesses are on track to grow 100% since joining, and several are growing at over 40% a year. So that is basically the sort of insight that I aim to bring to you in this podcast.
So another question, maybe this is a bit of a pretentious question, what’s your philosophy? Maybe that’s not a question, you’d naturally ask somebody in a bar. But you might, you know, get into a debate where that emerges. So let’s cut through to that part of the debate or that part of the conversation. He increasingly as a whole, the mastermind members are starting to focus on proven business strategies and thinking from outside the e commerce space and definitely from outside the Amazon bubble. That’s also something that fascinates me. And I will be doing the odd book summary of really, really fantastic books, I’m not going to do tons but the ones we get, I think you’re going to be very, very powerful for you. So coming back for a minute to the hack focused sellers. Let’s take Jim Collins is finding in his book, great by choice, great by choice was a great in depth study, the documented company’s growing astronomically in value in turbulent and unpredictable markets. And we’re talking over three decades. So it was a very, like a generational long slice of life. And what perhaps was predictable was that there was several guiding principles and internal disciplines that great companies followed, and which media companies did not. And that definitely includes a strategic level of focus, which is something we’ll be passing on to you and discussing a great length over the course of the coming months. It’s not something to just superficially, take and move on. It’s only to really wrestle with intellectually and come to your own conclusions. Now, what’s really quite amazing to me, and what surprised Collins, and perhaps particularly surprising, so those of us used to the massive change changes that Amazon throws at us and the competitors as well, is the following, that the deep business flywheel driving the businesses, and even the specific, if you like recipes for success, which they followed their practices and principles for their daily actions, actually said remarkably little change over the decades. And this includes industries like personal computing, incredibly high grades, but very, very fast changing industry in the period that Colin studied. And Microsoft in the period that he studied was an absolutely predominant winner. Of course, since then, Apple has researched. But Apple is another classic example of a greatly disciplined business. Another industry is the infamous airline industry, which is renowned for bankruptcy is negative return on investment in which Southwest Airlines made a consistent profit for I believe, over four, or possibly even five decades incredible achievement. We don’t believe that Amazon has reinvented the way the business works, if anything, is kind of the opposite. Our experience is that retailers and Amazon’s platform experiencing intensified an accelerated version of deeper business trends, more than they see a reversal of the more changing of it. It’s a hyper growth, hyper competitive environment. It doesn’t negate the principles great business building, but rather it accelerates everything even more intensely. So having a strong strategic focus centered around real brand building becomes even more critical to really drive the business forward through choppy waters. So we believe in short in following real business principles and strategies, and integrating short term tactics into their rightful place. So what’s on offer here? What are we going to be giving you? Well, the main focus of the show interviews. As I said, I’ll do the book summary but the majority is going to be interviews with two types of people we’ve already have in depth interviews, recorded with some successful ecommerce sellers, including our own Ashley peers from the 10 k collective mastermind with many more to come in the pilot plane. We’re also addressing specific topics for advanced sellers with industry experts, which is the other type of interview. So here’s what’s coming up. This is just what we’ve already got recorded, nevermind what scheduled or what we’re going to be doing in the future So lots more to come. Ecommerce entrepreneurs talking about handling rapid scaling, getting accurate stock management and financial projections. That’s such a classic discussion point for any mastermind of serious sellers as I’m sure you would know if you’ve been in those the philosophy behind building a team which is very interesting. It’s not just about always about quick outsourcing sometimes it can be and this star principle Richard cautious star principle and how that dominates business philosophy for certain people. In terms of expert interviews, we’ve got lots coming up we’ve got outsourcing, outsourcing and company culture are in O’Sullivan How to remove things like customer service inventory management and bookkeeping quickly, quick outsourcing with Connor given of free up talking about money, we got an interview with Ben chambers on FBA reimbursements. And we’ve got an interview with Bruce Mac, on funding, raising debt, which can really help fuel growth if used wisely. In the sourcing area. We’ve got sourcing in China with ash monger of iMac sourcing who’s been outsourcing in China for nine years now. And custom manufacturing and getting beyond private label with Brian chef and he’s been out in China, I believe, about 18 years. So real experts in those areas. When it comes to selling your business, we’ve got interviews with Chris ship filling and Jason Somerville of previous who are Wall Street private equity experts really fascinating how the world of private equity is finally waking up to the value of FBA businesses. So one question you might have for me and your mind is, are you selling products and services? Is this another way of putting that question is, is this going to become a pitch fest? Now, obviously, you’ll have gathered by now that yes, we run masterminds based in London. In fact, we’re starting to expand into continental European locations for some meetings. And by design, these are very small groups, maximum 12 numbers. So we have very limited space in this anytime. So in that situation, I’m not going to be doing a big pitch for that, because we just couldn’t federal the demand anyway. That said, of course, we are always looking for a handful of really cool people who might be a good fit, you’ve got the right kind of business. Any people considering that one needs to be focused, but fun, very important, and they need to be an owner or director of the business doing between about 500,000 pounds a year to up to about 10 million pounds a year on Amazon mark, and which is growing fast say 3040 up to 100% or whatever a year. So that does interest you. By the way, you can check the 10 k collective mastermind out at amazing fba.com
forward slash 10 k one zero Casey, minimum revenue for that it’s 40,000 pounds a month in e-commerce. And the million pound mastermind, which is a minimum revenue of 100,000 pounds a month is at amazing fba.com for slash MPM unfamiliar p for pound and for mastermind so amazing FBA Friday before Bertie a alpha.com forward slash MPM and if you’re serious about that you can join our waiting for this by applying and have a proper chat to me have an interview for that. And do you think seeds will put you on our waiting list? And when places come up? We’ll let you know. Equally obviously coming back to the question of are we selling stuff? Or Yes, of course, some of our expert guests run services that deal with their specialist areas, you know, how do you think they became so knowledgeable, so they will be sharing some details of that. And if you want to check it out, then you’re free to do so. But that said it’s not a pitch Fest, hey, we’re not here to hype or sell. We believe that giving solid and in many cases, even very deep level advice is a great way to build trust over time and our brand. That’s why we run the podcast. And that’s what drives our business philosophy. So next steps for you what to do now if you like what you hear and think it could be for you, here are a couple of things I’d suggest you do. The first thing is obviously to subscribe to the podcast so as not to miss out on all the great content coming up. And by the way, if you’re new to podcasts, subscribe to a podcast doesn’t mean paying money. It’s free, as most podcasts are and always will be. The second thing to do is if you’d like to get uncut audio from the interviews before that release to the public. And to stay in touch with a new podcast, where we’ll keep you up to date with what’s getting published and go to 10 k collected common you should be given the opportunity to subscribe to that list as well. It just reminds me to say thank you so much for listening, really appreciate your time and your attention more than anything else. They say. Attention is the new currency of the internet. It’s the rarest thing in the world. And it’s true time and attention are getting rarer and rarer. And I really value the fact that you’re spending yours with me right now. And we promise that we’re going to work very, very hard to give you a great return on your listening time and the investment of your energy and attention in us in the coming episodes. So stay tuned, subscribe and stay in touch with us and thanks for listening. Welcome to 10 k collective.
