412: Student Story- From 0 To 6 Figures Selling Mosquito Nets With Maria Finch

00:00
You’re listening to the My Wife Could Her Job podcast, the place where I bring on successful bootstrap business owners and dig deep into what strategies they use to grow their businesses. Today, I have my longtime friend and student of my Create a Profitable Online Store course, Maria Finch, on the show. Now, Maria is one of my favorite students and she’s gone through so much adversity in business and life and she’s prevailed through it all. She’s a fighter, a mindset coach, and a proud owner of a mosquito net business that she’s grown to a healthy six figure income. Now, in this episode,

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We’re going to learn about her story and how she did it. But before we begin, I want to thank Klaviyo for sponsoring this episode. Always excited to talk about Klaviyo because they’re the email marketing platform that I use for my e-commerce store, and it depends on them for over 30 % of my revenue. Now you’re probably wondering why Klaviyo and not another provider. Well Klaviyo is the only email platform out there that is specifically built for e-commerce stores, and here’s why it’s so powerful. Klaviyo can track every single customer who has shopped in your store and exactly what they bought. So let’s say I want to send out an email to everyone who purchased a red handkerchief in the last week.

00:59
Easy. Let’s say I want to set up a special autoresponder sequence to my customers depending on what they bought piece of cake and there’s full revenue tracking on every email sent. Klaviyo is the most powerful email platform that I’ve ever used and you can try them for free over at klaviyo.com slash my wife. That’s K-L-A-V-I-Y-O dot com slash my wife. I also want to thank Postscript for sponsoring this episode. Now if you run an e-commerce business of any kind, you know how important it is to own your own customer contact list.

01:26
And this is why I focus a significant amount of my efforts on SMS marketing. SMS, or text message marketing, is already a top five revenue source for my eCommerce store, and I couldn’t have done it without Postscript, which is my text message provider. Now why did I choose Postscript? It’s because they specialize in eCommerce stores, and eCommerce is their primary focus. Not only is it easy to use, but you can quickly segment your audience based on your exact sales data and implement automated flows like an abandoned cart at the push of a button.

01:53
Not only that, but it’s price well too, and SMS is the perfect way to engage with your customers. So head on over to postscript.io slash Steve and try it for free. That’s P-O-S-T-S-E-R-I-P-T dot I-O slash Steve. And then finally, I wanted to mention my other podcast, which I released with my partner Tony. And unlike this podcast where I interview successful entrepreneurs in e-commerce, the profitable audience podcast covers all things related to content creation and building an audience. No topic is off the table, and we tell like how it is in a run entertaining way.

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So be sure to check out the profitable audience podcast on your favorite podcast app. Now onto the show.

02:34
Welcome to the My Wife, Quitter, Job podcast. Today I’m thrilled to have Maria Finch on the show. Now, Maria is a student in my Create a Profitable Online Store course, and she runs a six-figure business selling mosquito nets online. Now, out of the 5,000 students in my class, Maria is one of my favorites, and I have to say that she has had to overcome some pretty crazy obstacles on her entrepreneurship journey, including run-ins with Amazon, copycats, a health scare as well. But here’s the thing about Maria.

03:04
She’s a fighter and she’s also a mindset coach and she helps people avoid getting mind F’d with her, with their businesses. So in this episode, we are going to learn how she started her mosquito net business and the techniques that she uses to combat overwhelm. And with that, welcome to the show Maria, how are doing today? Hi, Steve. Thanks so much for having me. I’m doing great. I’m so happy to be here. Yeah, Maria. So for the people listening, how did you get into the mosquito net business, which is pretty random.

03:33
in my book at least. Yeah, it is certainly random. I can’t tell you how many people when I told them that I had a business and they’re like, oh, what’s that? I said, mosquito nets, maybe like mosquito nets. So like most people or many people, I think who are in your beautiful course, I started with Jungle Scout and I put in the parameters about, you know, price and weight and all of those kinds of things.

04:03
and then hit go. And of course you come up with a bazillion different options, which can be very overwhelming. But what I did was I just, went through options and, then for things that jumped out at me for whatever reason, then I put those into the category where you can track them for a little while. And mosquito nets was one of the things that jumped out at me. It jumped out at me because

04:31
I’ve lived all over the world, including places where a mosquito net is essential for health and safety because of mosquito-borne disease. So it was something I could relate to and relate to my past. I also majored in biology as an undergrad, so I liked the science part of it. So that one kind of jumped out at me as like, oh, this is really interesting. So I followed that and a number of other ones. And then I kept coming back to that one.

04:59
And so I put together my research and I sent it to you. And you said, you said this looks worth investigating further. And so I was like, okay, let me do that. Perfect. And you were also in the Peace Corps also, right? Is that why you traveled all over the world? Yeah, that’s part of the reason I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I was also an associate Peace Corps director, both of those in Africa. And then I’ve also worked in Asia. I’ve been lots of lots of places where mosquito nets are important. Okay, yeah.

05:29
That’s what I was getting at. so your motivations for starting the business, were you working at the time? Did you not like your job? Why did you want to start a business? So I had been in what I call the traditional workforce for my whole career. And I, the, the last boss that I had was just so bad that I finally said, you know what? I’ve had enough of having bosses. And so I am going to work for myself.

05:59
I had actually, while I was in graduate school, I had developed a first business, which was a cultural travel company and it was just getting going and then September 11th wiped me out. But having done that and having taken courses at the graduate school level in entrepreneurship, I was comfortable saying, okay, this is a path I wanna go back down. So basically I was just like, I am not working for anybody else anymore.

06:28
And what can I do for myself that I can work from anywhere? I have control over my day. And I had seen the buzzword online of a lifestyle business. So like, I’m not looking to be the next Uber. I want to have a business that gives me a life that I enjoy and affords me the life I enjoy.

06:55
So I did a lot of research on options and courses. And in that research is how I found you, Steve. So I looked at a bunch of courses about online stores and you won the prize because I really liked how you came across on your videos. There wasn’t a lot of fluff waste of time. was like, here’s how to do this. Here are the steps.

07:23
go do it and that totally matched with me. So I signed up for your course that was six years ago and that was six years. I can’t believe it. Yeah. was a fabulous investment. Well, thank you Maria for that endorsement. So aside from asking me to evaluate your niche, what else did you do to kind of validate that this was going to work or did you just kind of just go for it?

07:49
I just went for it. So basically I looked at this and I said, I just, I just felt like it was meant to be because it combined so many of my interests. So it was like, was relevant to having lived overseas. It was relevant to science. So it was just like, this is something I can really sink my teeth into. And when you said, give this a whirl, I’m like, I’m going to give it a whirl. So I just started looking for manufacturers. Okay. So how much did you spend?

08:18
your first order and how did you find your first manufacturers? So I went on Alibaba and I checked the boxes, you know, for the higher level, so like the gold level and I forget what it’s called exactly, you know, all of the higher level things. And then what I did was I used a template that you had provided in the course about how to approach them.

08:46
And I think I contacted probably 10 of them. And one of them, I really liked the way she wrote me back. So I started an email correspondence with her, keeping in mind the things that you had mentioned, which were check their English level, how responsive are they, do they pay attention to details, like all of those kinds of things.

09:10
And so I got a good conversation going back and forth with one of them that really stood out to me among the various numbers that I contacted. Some I never heard back from. I mean, I probably heard back from four or five, I would say, out of the 10. And then once that happened, I again followed your model. So I decided to start with samples. I didn’t want a single sample. I wanted at least 10.

09:39
They were willing to do that. So I bought 10 samples and I think that was like, it was like 10 samples plus air shipping. was like 150 bucks, something like that. Yeah. It wasn’t that much money. In the meantime, I started to build an Amazon listing. Oh, okay. How much, how many did you order for your first bulk order? I’m curious.

10:04
My first bulk order. So this was again in consultation with you. So I had done sort of the test run. I, what I ended up doing, my, first order I got was just samples that existed. And then right away I decided I was going to design my own because I wanted to be the sole seller from the beginning. I went back and forth with the manufacturer with drawings, et cetera, and then designed my own. got an order of those. put those up.

10:32
those sold right away and I was able to raise the price every day. So was like, okay, this is good. And then I chatted about it with you and I decided to order a full container. I ordered. So I don’t remember this conversation. mean, that’s fine. It was six years ago. So I ordered a 20 foot container full. Wow. Yeah. So, I mean, I just went for it. I just totally went for it. And the truth is that initial. So, I mean, you,

11:02
When I talked this over with you, were like, okay, here’s the, you’re like, if you order this container, and I mean, I had the ability to do that. That’s one of the key qualifiers there. So you said, if you order the full container, like you’re gonna get better pricing. And you said to me, you’re like, I can’t promise you how long it’s gonna take you to sell a full container with. And that was a very, very important thing to say.

11:31
because it took me longer than I would have guessed. And if I were to go back and do it again, I probably would have started out with a small order, but know, hindsight’s 20-20. So yeah, so I just went for it. Wow. Okay. And you’re not a design, you’re not a mosquito net designer, are you? How did you? I am now. You are now, but at the how did you communicate back and forth with the manufacturer with your design?

11:57
I literally drew drawings and took photos of them and I did everything by email. So we just went back and forth by email. They kind of created a sample mock-up. They sent me photos and I would say, okay, I want this to be bigger. I want this to be smaller. I want the rope to be this size, you know, because there’s ropes that are included to suspend it. So we just went back and forth with all the details. Like I became a mosquito net designer. And the truth is,

12:26
having lived overseas and having used lots of mosquito nets, like I knew what I wanted. okay. How many iterations did it take? There was quite a lot of back and forth. I mean, I would say that the, from the time I started doing, you know, going back and forth with designs, it might’ve even been a couple months. I mean, partly, you know, I had other things going on, so it wasn’t like I was doing this all day, every day.

12:54
So it took a little while. And then once we had a design set, then they sent me a sample or two. And I think I got samples of the first design at least twice. So I was pretty careful because I had something very specific in mind. And I wanted to make sure that if I was putting my name on something, I wanted it to be of the quality and of the design that I was looking for.

13:22
Yeah, the reason why I’m asking is I’m often asked what the timeline is. So the initial idea to getting the first product for sale, how long did that take you? That was faster than you would think. So, um, I mean, I sold the samples. So the first samples that I ordered, like the moment I put them up on Amazon, they sold. Okay. And you didn’t do any advertising. You just put them up. no advertising. Wow. Okay. That was six years ago, though. I don’t know that it would go that way now. Correct.

13:51
Absolutely. Yeah. All right. And so the sample we’re talking like a couple months then

13:58
I mean, with the first samples, not. Yeah. mean, probably a couple months. Yeah. was, it was a couple months. It was not long at all. Okay. And is Amazon your primary driver or I know you have your own website. It is. Yeah. I mean, I, this is something I have, I have really struggled with. Um, so I, I knew from the beginning that like, I didn’t want to be dealing with fulfillment. And so.

14:27
I decided to go the Amazon route with the intention of doing bigger bulk orders like business to business orders from my website. And in the end, it’s actually just worked that pretty much everything goes through Amazon. do still have aspirations to change that, but at the same time, like Amazon has worked well for me. So I’ve, you know,

14:57
I mean, definitely when you talk about the importance of diversifying and everything, like there are times when I have my heart and my throat, but Amazon has worked well for me. Okay. And I know you’ve had a couple of run-ins with Amazon, but you’ve actually managed to navigate through all of them. I have. Yeah. mean, I, so I think unfortunately selling on Amazon, like it challenges are automatic. Amazon is a giant machine.

15:27
and things go wrong in that machine regularly. So like the very first thing that happened to me was with my very first product, they had raised the fees. And when I saw what they raised the fees, I’m like, nope, this isn’t correct. And so I emailed them and I said, this is not correct. I’m being overcharged. And I went back and forth and round and round and round. And eventually I…

15:53
got sick of dealing with Amazon, Seller Central or whatever they call it. I contact, I sent an email to Jeff Bezos and got through to his team and then finally got that corrected and got reimbursed for all of the fees they had overcharged me. That was the first one. I remember. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have any, have you already had any run-ins with like just people copying you outright or knocking you off? So I’ve had, I’ve had, um,

16:20
I’ve had numerous piggybackers and should I explain what that is or people know what that is? People probably know what it is. Okay, okay. So yeah, so I’ve had numerous piggybackers and so I just, you know, I wrote the cease and desist thing and sent that off and usually that took care of it. Once my brand was trademarked and registered, I had at least one time when somebody piggybacked off of that and that

16:49
That’s different because then you just email the brand thing and you’re like, yo, these people are not mine and that takes care of it. So getting your brand trademarked really is a big it’s it’s an important thing to do on Amazon. Once you you know, once you have proof of concept and whatever, I think it’s a really worthwhile thing to do. You mentioned getting larger bulk contracts. Do you have any of those also in addition to Amazon? Because I remember we had talked about this a little bit in the past.

17:18
Yeah, so I, um, I don’t have any right now. No. And I have the ones that, so I have a number of us embassies that buy from me, but it’s always ended up being a timing thing where they could get stuff from Amazon faster just because the way shipping worked. Um, so yeah, so I have really done everything with Amazon. Okay. Cool. Today. That could always change. I’ve actually

17:47
wondering though, if you were to, if you were started all over again, would you still have taken the same path? All Amazon or, cause I know like you had some constraints and then you had some other things that came up in your life. It’s. Yeah. I mean, I think that, I think that Amazon is a great way to start because it, it builds your momentum. get to prove your products.

18:15
I think if I hadn’t had some of the challenges that came into my life, I probably would have put a lot more time and energy into selling off of Amazon as well. And that is a goal going forward. So I wholeheartedly believe in what you teach, which is, you know, having your own store is definitely your goal.

18:42
And Amazon can be a subset of that. I mean, just the whole diversification I think is really important. So yeah, I mean, I still, that’s still my intention. A couple more questions just about your Amazon business. How many skews do you have? Three. Three. Okay. Are there any plans to add more skews or? I think about it. mean, essentially I do a lot of research. So I look at like,

19:12
how are people using mosquito nets? What’s a unique model that I can offer? I have zero interest in competing with what already exists. So my products are unique. There are people who have tried to, who’ve taken my idea and tried to, you know, make some version of it. And I mean, you know, people can,

19:39
At the time that I started, there was more room in the market. Um, so they could, they could take a piece of market share, but I still rank above them. Um, and my philosophy was I want something unique because selling what everybody else is selling is just not interesting to me at all. And so far I haven’t yet found the next mosquito net thing that I want to do, but I, I

20:07
I am always thinking about that. And I definitely, if I came up with an idea, I would go through the sample process, try it out. You know, I would, I would do it. Absolutely. I guess what I’m trying to get at is what are your aspirations for your business? Was it just to quit your job and, know, have more time or do you have aspirations to grow it much larger? So my first aspiration with my business actually was to, um, well, so it’s to provide

20:36
great protection from mosquitoes because especially people in United States don’t realize that mosquito-borne disease is everywhere, including in the United States. I’ve lived all over the world, but the only mosquito-borne disease I personally have ever caught was in the U.S. I got West Nile virus. yeah, this was before I started this business. So I got West Nile in the U.S. and it was

21:05
I was lucky that it was a relatively mild case. So, I mean, I had to go to the emergency room, but I didn’t end up in the hospital or anything like that. I mean, people actually die of West Nile, not lots of them, but it can happen. I wanted to be providing people with protection. Like that was a big goal. So I wanted to be contributing something to the world that is a useful, helpful thing.

21:30
I also wanted to be providing education about mosquito-borne disease. So I’ve used my website and my Facebook page for that. So putting up articles about mosquito-borne disease, how to protect yourself, the latest in mosquito net research, or mosquito research, all of that kind of stuff, like that’s also very interesting to me. So I approached it from, I mean, I like to think of it as a holistic approach. So it’s not just a product, it’s also,

22:00
Why is this product important? And how will this product help you and your family? Did I answer your question? I lost track. So it sounds like as long as you’re meeting your mission, you don’t really have revenue or income goals. You’re not aspiring to turn this into like the next. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I really looked at it and I said, I want what I, so my definition of a lifestyle business is a business that

22:28
gives me enough income that I’m comfortable and that is interesting to do that has a, I’m value-based. So the product and what I’m doing is based on my values. And as long as all of that’s being met, I’m, you know, again, I’m not looking to be the next Uber. Like, sure, I would, I’m certainly game to grow it, but another thing is like,

22:58
I don’t want to have staff. So I want to grow it only in a way that I can still manage it. Actually. That was my next question. So you’re just a one woman show. I am a one woman show. Although, mean, although I absolutely consider everybody that I work with. So my manufacturers, my shippers, my warehouse as part of my team. Now that your business is in kind of steady state, how many hours would you say you devote to it? So

23:26
That really varies on weeks where things are pretty quiet. I might devote 10, but then there are weeks where maybe I’m devoting 40. It just sort of depends on what’s going on in the moment. In the beginning, there were weeks where I spent a lot more than 40 hours, but part of that is I’m a lifelong learner. So I was

23:55
learning as much as I could about advertising keywords, know, everything I could, I was just like a sponge of like, let me learn as much as I possibly can to make this really solid. I still continue to devote time to learning every week. And there’s always more to learn. And I think that’s a really important part of staying successful in something like this. Yeah, absolutely.

24:26
If you sell on Amazon or run any online business for that matter, the most important aspect of your long-term success will be your brand. And this is why I work with Steven Weigler and his team from Emerge Council to protect my brand over at Bumblebee Linens. Now what’s unique about Emerge Council is that Steve focuses his legal practice on e-commerce and provides strategic and legal representation to entrepreneurs to protect their IP. So for example, if you’ve ever been ripped off or knocked off on Amazon, then Steve can help you fight back and protect yourself.

24:54
Now, first and foremost, protecting your IP starts with a solid trademark and Emerge Council provides attorney-advised strategic trademark prosecution, both in the United States and abroad for a very low price. And furthermore, the students in my course have used Steve for copyrighting their designs, policing against counterfeits and knockoffs, agreements with co-founders and employees, website and social media policies, privacy policies, vendor agreements, brand registry, you name it. So if you need IP protection services, go to EmergeCouncil.com and get a free consult.

25:24
And if you tell Steve that I sent you, you’ll get a $100 discount. That’s E-M-E-R-G-E-C-O-U-N-S-E-L.com. Now back to the show. Let’s actually switch gears on that subject to challenges. What would you say was the hardest part in this whole process for you?

25:45
I think the hardest part is dealing with Amazon. Okay. mean, so, you know, getting started, I mean, of course getting started is hard. I think that in any entrepreneurial venture, you’re taking a leap of faith and you’re taking multiple leaps of faith. And so each time you’re going to take a leap of faith, like you got to buckle up and do that. And that’s hard.

26:14
Like that’s not something that people can just do in their sleep. Like you’ve got to, you’ve got to decide like I’m going to do this and I’m going to do this all the way. And I think without making that decision, if you doubt yourself, I think that makes everything harder, but just deciding to really go for it. Like that can be a hard decision. You know, actually that’s one of the hardest parts about teaching my class. Like everyone’s super excited when they sign up, but then sometimes they bulk.

26:43
at that first big order or they bulk at launching, even though they’ve done all the other work. So did you have any of those issues? Did you have any doubts? And how did you overcome those doubts? Sure. I mean, I I’ve had doubts all along. Like, I think doubts are a normal part of doing something like this. I think that it really depended on what decision. So I sort of look at the.

27:12
where doubts come up are always when you’re making a decision. So, you know, so first decision was what course do I sign up for? That was a leap of faith. And I just said, okay, I like Steve the best. I’m going to sign up for your course. But, you know, I had to just, I mean, basically I just said, okay, if I’m going to do this based on the research I have done, this is where I think I’m, this is the person who I think is going to help me be successful. And so

27:41
I’m gonna take the leap of faith and sign up for this course. With my manufacturers, there you’re taking leaps of faith all the time, because you’re like trusting that you’re gonna, that they’re gonna do what you want them to do. I’ve done a lot to work with them to really build those relationships, because I think that’s really important. And so that gave me security.

28:08
So can be more specific? Like what are some of the things that you did to build a relationship with them? Yeah, absolutely. So one of the one of the things one of the skills that I had already developed in life that I could bring to this was that I have a lot of experience in other cultures. And so I, I my manufacturers are in China, and I already knew that building that relationship was very important from their perspective as well.

28:37
So that meant that once we got through the initial, you know, the initial back and forth, then I started to say like, how’s your family? You know, how’s the weather there? What challenges are you guys facing in your business? You know, I tried to, well, not tried, I mean, I did, I just started asking questions beyond the immediate what was, what I needed to get done.

29:07
And I mean, I think this is true with anyone in life. When you start to tap into that energy or just being more personal, it changes how people interact with you and it builds trust. so this has been very important because, know, so I have placed, I mean, reasonably large orders and those are always inspected by a third party inspection company and

29:36
One time the inspection came up and it was like, yeah, this is really a problem. So I contacted the manufacturer and they were like, you’re totally right. You had told us this was going to be checked. This is completely on us. They opened every single thing, checked every single one, repaired any of them that were not done correctly. And I mean, this was thousands. So, and they did that on their own dime. That did not cost me anything. The only thing I paid for was a second inspection.

30:05
That was only because of our relationship.

30:10
So walk me through that first container purchase actually. You had to have been nervous then. Oh yeah, no, I was just, well, so this is the thing is that I had wanted to have my own business for a while. And so I was really excited about it. So I was excited about it and at the same time was like, this is a leap of faith.

30:40
And I just, I guess that I’m good at if I decide that I’m going to do something, then I decide that all the way and I’m 100 % in and I don’t let myself have any doubt. I mean, you might have a doubt kind of picking at you, but you just say, nope, nope, this is what we’re doing. Okay, wow.

31:08
Does that sound nuts? mean, maybe I’m nuts. I mean, it’s pretty admirable. I’m just trying to think of all the objections that I get from it because I’ve been teaching this class since 2011 now. Right. So it’s just very interesting to get your perspective. The other complaint or gripe I should I should say is, someone gets their product and they have it. It’s all good. But then when it comes time to actually sell it, there’s like a whole bunch of different paths you can take. Right.

31:36
And a whole bunch of skills that you have to learn kind of all at once and it can be overwhelming. Yes. So and I know you kind of coach people through these things. How did you battle like the fire hose of knowledge that was required?

31:51
So I think, guess, so, I mean, I had some time because I had ordered this container and it takes a while for a container to get here and everything. So in that time, I devoted myself to watching as many of the videos in your course as I could and learning as much as I could. like I built the listings.

32:18
or the listing for that first product, I built that listing. I started to learn some stuff about advertising. I basically like, I think the way I approached it was what’s most important for me to know first, and that’s what I learned first. And then just kind of built on that. So- Did you take your own photography?

32:42
So what I did there is I have a dear friend who is a professional photographer and I traded with him to take the photos for me. Yeah. Okay. And then you mentioned prioritizing the order with which you were learning things. What was like first on that priority list?

33:01
gosh, I mean, that’s going back in time always. know it is. So I think first, you know, so first was under because I was starting on Amazon, and I do think that’s a good way to start. So first, it was learning, like, how do you build a listing? What are all the different elements that go into that? How do you make sure you’ve checked all those little boxes and, you know, that you’ve got keywords in the right place? So that was another thing was like learning about keywords, like,

33:30
what tool are you gonna use? How are you gonna decide which keywords you’re gonna use? That was an important thing. So I think the first things I learned, they were all about like, how do I make this listing as strong as I can from the get go? Okay. And then, yeah, I would imagine just as new obstacles came up, you would just learn how to overcome them, just kind of piece by piece. You didn’t just like watch every video in the class, right?

33:57
No, mean, there’s, there’s too much in there. is too much in there. Yeah, no, I mean, I really went, I went from thing to thing. So it’s like, I got the thing up and you know, whatever. And then it was like, okay, I mean, I think before it had arrived, I started to learn about Amazon, about advertising on Amazon, because I knew that I was going to do that pretty quickly. So I started to learn about that. You know, there’s always more you can learn about keywords.

34:26
Um, at the same time, like I was building my website, so I remember watching a lot of play. technically you don’t need a website anymore, right? To get brand registry. Uh, what was your purpose of having the website? So when I started, I mean, I was going to do both Amazon and my website. When I started, that was my intention. Got it. Got it. And, the other thing, the other reason why I wanted the website

34:52
is for the other half of my mission, which is educating people about mosquito-borne disease. So I really wanted to get the blog going. Oh, got it. OK. Because I think on your website, you’re pointing your links to Amazon, right? You don’t. am correct. OK. Yeah. And for anyone who wants to do business orders with me, there’s just a way that they can contact me. Got it. OK. All right. I see. So the the website really was for the content. Yeah.

35:19
That’s why I started it right away because for me, the product and the importance of why you need this product went together. And the way I could put that out there was my blog. What platform did you choose? curious for the website. So it’s WordPress, Bluehost. Yeah. Okay. And that was another thing. Like I watched all the videos about that and learned how to do that. Well, I was going to ask you, are you a technical person?

35:47
I’m not well, no, I’m not. I’ve never taken computer anything. I just, I’m a detail person. So I think that was an advantage because there’s so many details in there. But with everything, like I am self-taught. I just was like, okay, I’m going to do this. I didn’t want to pay somebody to set up a website. So I watched your videos. I followed them and I did it. Nice.

36:14
I mean, you make it sound so easy, Maria, but I know that there’s had to have been some struggles there. sure. Oh my gosh. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to throw my computer through a wall when I was trying to make a because, know, it’s like it’s I mean, WordPress is, don’t think, particularly intuitive. So, so, no, there’s a lot of challenges there. And I mean, I guess the

36:39
So for me, the motivation was I didn’t want to pay somebody to do it. And I also wanted to have the knowledge myself. So we’re a lot alike in that respect. You can pay people after you have the knowledge, but not before you have the knowledge. Yeah. I think that, I mean, I, yeah, I like knowledge. So, and, know, and the fact that I can, anytime, like I can put up a website, I love having that skill. Yeah. Maria, there’s a lot of people listening to this that

37:09
are still on the sidelines or they’re stuck in analysis paralysis. What advice would you give these people? So I think that I think you’ve got to tune into your own like gut sense. So you got to say, do I really want to do this and then go with the first answer that comes to you? So I think it’s so easy to overthink everything. But if you just make yourself really quiet,

37:39
and then you ask yourself a question and whatever that answer is, I think is the correct answer. Cause I think if you’re quiet and you’re really listening to your own inside thoughts, you’re gonna get the right thought. So if you, you might have, you know, family members or whoever saying, oh, that’s crazy. It’s too risky. It’s, you know, you can never make this work. Like how are you ever gonna do that? You’re never gonna go for it.

38:07
You got to shut all that out and just say, what do I want? What do I think I can do? And then take the leap of faith, like believe in yourself and take the leap of faith. When you were doing product research,

38:24
I know there’s a lot of students have this problem. Like they have a bunch of things on the table and then they have problems deciding what or finally making decision on something. Did you set any like timelines for yourself to make a decision or did just one product just speak to you and that’s the one you went with? So I did the tracking on Jungle Scout probably for a couple of weeks. I mean, I’m sure you had a video about it and you said you knew how to recommendation that I followed that.

38:53
But mosquito nets jumped out at me. And so I was like, yeah, that sounds good. I think that I would really encourage people to go with what’s unique. I agree. Yeah, because I think, you know, I would say don’t waste your time jumping into a category that’s already really saturated and doesn’t have room for you to put your own stamp on a product.

39:23
So, mean, I know I always get this confused. What’s it called when somebody, you you take something and you put your own label on it? Is that white label? White labels, my definition of white label is when you take something exactly the way it is and you put your brand on it. Okay. Yeah. So I, I, I think, I mean, I think that can be a great way to get started, but I think you want to quickly decide how would I make that mine? Cause I think being unique is really important.

39:52
You know, I’m just thinking about mosquito nets right now. How do you stand out on Amazon? Is it like the design that you have or? Yes. Okay. So it’s obvious from the photo that yours is different. Cause I don’t know anything about mosquito nets. I was shopping for them. Yeah. Yeah. So on, on one of my products right away from the photo, it’s different. Okay. On the other two, I would say that you

40:21
between the photos and the bullets, then you see how it’s different. see. And so, and I think that another thing that I have done is I sell at a higher price point. So that my next question actually. Yeah. So I decided that what was most important to me was quality. So I looked for manufacturers who could produce good quality. made it clear to them that quality that I was selling a premium brand

40:51
And that quality is absolutely essential. And so and then I priced higher. And I think in the way that I looked at it is I’m going after the segment of the market that will pay more. You know, it’s funny now these days when I shop on Amazon, I never buy the cheapest product, especially for something like mosquito nets. I want to work. So I’m actually willing to pay more for a higher quality version of

41:20
practically anything that I buy actually now on there because it’s flooded with too many cheap products where people cut corners. It’s really true. One of the things that I did early on was I bought some competitor mosquito nets just out of curiosity and they’re garbage. Yeah. And so that made me feel that much more secure in like, okay, I’m selling a higher quality product and I am selling that at a higher price. And I, didn’t have time to touch on all this in the interview, but

41:50
the most difficult times that you had, I imagine there were times where you wanted to give up and what made you keep going? Yeah, that’s a really good question. So I have hit that point multiple times. usually when it happened, it would be some really big mess at Amazon where I would just be like, you know what? I don’t want to deal with this anymore. This is just not worth doing.

42:20
Um, it’s, know, fighting with them goes against my own values, blah, blah, blah. But then what would happen is I would simmer down and I would say, okay, let’s remember why we’re doing this and what the, know, what the bigger goal is and recognize that everything in life is complicated, you know? So there is no easy path out there. Like there’s no just, you know,

42:48
skip down the rainbow path kind of thing. then I would just, I would give myself some time to collect myself. So I might have a few days where I would glance at it and not do it, anything else and just take a break from it. And then I would be like, okay, get back on the horse and keep going. And to set the proper expectations for people who want to start a business, like realistically speaking,

43:18
profits? Um, so the first year was really about learning. Okay, right. There was a lot to learn. And in the first year, my first year started in June, essentially. So the first six months was about learning, but I started making profits in the very next year. Okay. Okay. And today it’s since you have three skews, and those three skews have been around for a while.

43:47
It’s just really about just managing the account at this point and making sure that the warehouse is is stocked. Right. Have you have you had any supply chain issues due to what’s been going on? I have. Yeah. So I had with one of them in order was supposed to be produced before this was in 2021 in order was supposed to be produced before the Spring Festival and they weren’t able to get it done. So it went.

44:15
after the spring festival and then shipping, there were a bunch of problems with shipping. was before shipping turned into the mess that it is now, but there were just some problems that happened. So it took me much longer to get it than I had anticipated. And so I lost like probably six weeks of mosquito net season sales, which was really a bummer. And then, but then I learned from that.

44:42
So then the next order that I needed to place for another mosquito net, I contacted the manufacturer six months before I needed it to say, a 40 foot container. So I contacted them well in advance and I said, okay, when does the order need to be produced in order for me to get it by this date? And they just said, place the order now, like everything is crazy. And

45:12
Um, but then I got, I got it in time so that I’m fine for this mosquito season. So, okay. Cool. Maria, thanks a lot for sharing your experiences with us. Um, it’s, I’ve been doing this for so long that sometimes I lose track of like the very beginning and like what I was thinking in the very beginning. So, and everyone wants to always hear from, you know, someone else outside of me. You know what I mean?

45:40
Yeah, no, I think I think that’s natural. It’s like, you know, just another perspective, another experience. mean, you know, I, I mean, I have so much admiration for you, and everything that you’ve built. And I, look at it, I think, wow, like, is my never going to be that big? mean, I’m not sure I really have that aspiration. But my mindset has changed completely. I would say the last three to four years, I have enough, there’s no reason to

46:10
kill myself trying to make more money when I don’t even spend the majority of the money, right? So why not just kick back and enjoy what you got and hang out with the fam for the years that they have left before they go off to college, which is gonna be very sad. Yeah, course I understand that. Yeah. So Maria, tell me what else you got going on and yeah. Well, so one of the things in my life that has been really important and

46:38
part of what has made me successful in my Amazon business is learning how to silence what I call mind cluck. So it’s just, you know, the thoughts that come into your mind that put you down in some way or take the wind out of your sails. And I have really learned how to do that. And I think that that’s something that everyone on earth faces. And so now, in addition to selling mosquito nets,

47:08
I am coaching people how to silence their mind clock. So my coaching business is called Silence the Mind Clock. And I think this is a really important thing for anyone attempting entrepreneurial anything. I mean, it’s useful for anyone. And it is a passion of mine to help people tune into that inner gut sense and really listen to that and quiet.

47:34
the voices of doubt and second guessing and things that come from other people’s opinions and things you read, watch and listen to and, you know, trying to meet some ideal that maybe you don’t even really believe in, et cetera. So that’s what I, that’s another thing I’m doing now. So Maria has actually given a lecture in during office hours for the course and it was very well received. When I first started my course, I vastly underestimated all the mindset issues that people have.

48:04
Yeah, because for me, it’s always been about like, hey, if I know what I’m going to do, then I’m just going to do it. Uh huh. But for a lot of people, you know, the opposite is true. They might know what they need to do, but then they have problems actually just doing getting started doing it. And it’s all right. Right. So, you know, that’s so true. I mean, I think, you know, when I look back at so really every decision point, like any decision, any big decision you’re making in life,

48:32
you’re always gonna have some kind of voice talking to you and it’s just choosing what do you tune into. So are you gonna go with self doubt and then be like, oh, maybe I’m not gonna start this business now or maybe I’m not gonna launch this business now or launch this product now or are you gonna go with the voice that’s like, yeah, do it, go for it. So I have really worked on tuning into that voice so that it’s like, yeah.

48:58
Go do it. Go after your dreams. Go create the life you really want to have. Um, cause you know, no one knows how long we’re all here for. And it’s like, you want to make the most out of it while you can’t. Absolutely. So, Hey Maria, I know, um, you’re willing to talk to folks. Uh, where can people reach you? Yeah. So, um, you can go to my website, which is silenced, the mind cluck.com or feel free to just email me directly. That’s Maria at.

49:27
silence themineclub.com. And I offer free 30 minute consultations to talk about what whatever challenge you’re facing, whatever, you know, whatever goals you’d like to reach and to see what I can do to assist. Yeah, and I will say this Maria has a really nice soothing voice, in case you haven’t been able to tell in this podcast. And she has this way of talking that

49:55
puts your mind at ease. Oh, thank you. That’s a quick plug for you. I because I’ve interacted with you more so than I would say other students in the class, the majority, I would say. And it’s always very pleasant. Like just hearing your voice actually makes me calm. Oh, that’s really nice. Thank you. you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing your experiences very candidly. And I appreciate you.

50:21
Thank you. appreciate you, Steve. Thanks so much for having me on here and good luck to everybody out there in going after your dreams.

50:32
Hope you enjoy that episode. Now when it comes to running a successful online business, it’s often our own minds that get in our own way. Maria is an amazing person and she’s got a lot of helpful advice on how to avoid mind-cluck. For more information about this episode, go to mywipecoderjob.com slash episode 412. And once again, I want to thank Klaviyo, which is my email marketing platform of choice for e-commerce merchants. You can easily put together automated flows like an abandoned card sequence, a post-purchase flow, a win-back campaign, basically all these sequences that will make you money on autopilot.

51:01
So head on over to mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIYO. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIYO. I also want to thank Postscript, which is my SMS marketing platform of choice for e-commerce. With a few clicks of a button, you can easily segment and send targeted text messages to your client base. SMS is the next big own marketing platform, and you can sign up for free over at postscript.io slash div. That’s P-O-S-T-S-E-R-I-P-T dot I-O slash div. Now, we’ll talk about how I these tools on my blog.

51:31
And if you are interested in starting your own eCommerce store, head on over to mywifequitterjob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.