527: Insider Perspectives And Ecommerce Trends From 7, 8 & 9 Figure Sellers At ECF Live With Toni Herrbach

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You’re listening to the My Vibe Could Her Job podcast, the place where I bring on successful bootstrap business owners and delve deeply into what strategies are working and what strategies are not with their businesses. in this episode, Tony and I were at the eCommerce Fuel Conference in New Orleans, and we’ve broken these episodes into two parts, but this first episode is gonna cover the gossip and the chatter among the seven, eight, and nine-figure eCommerce sellers at the event and some of the trends that we were seeing. But before we begin, I wanna let you know that tickets for the 2024 Seller Summit

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are almost sold out over at SellerSummit.com. The Seller Summit is the conference that I hold every year that specifically targets e-commerce entrepreneurs selling physical products online. And unlike other events that focus on inspirational stories and high-level BS, is a curriculum-based event where you will leave with practical and actionable strategies specifically for an e-commerce business. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches of their business, entrepreneurs who are importing large quantities of physical goods, and not some high-level guys who are overseeing their companies at 50,000 feet.

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Now I personally hate large events, so the Seller Summit is always small and intimate. Every year we cut off ticket sales at around 200 people, so tickets sell out fast, and we’ve sold out every single year for the past eight years. Now if you’re an e-commerce entrepreneur making over $250k or $1 million per year, we also offer an exclusive mastermind experience with other top sellers. The Seller Summit’s gonna be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 14th to May 16th, and right now, this is the last time you’ll be able to get tickets, because they are almost sold out, so go over to SellersSummit.com.

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Also, if you haven’t picked up my Wall Street Journal bestselling book, The Family First Entrepreneur yet, it’s actually available on Amazon at 50 % off right now. My book will teach you how to achieve financial freedom by starting a business that doesn’t require you to work yourself to death. Plus, you can still grab my free bonus workshop on how to sell print on demand and how to make passive income with blogging, YouTube, and podcasting when you grab the book over at mywifequitterjob.com slash book. So go over to mywifequitterjob.com slash book, fill out the form, and I’ll send you the bonuses right away.

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Now onto the show.

02:05
Welcome to the My Wife, Quit a Job podcast and a brand new segment to the show called Profit of Audience, where Tony and I riff about content, building an audience, all the above. So today we just happen to be in the same room at the eCommerce Fuel Live Conference, which is one of our favorite events. Yeah. This is actually year number 10. For you. For me, I’ve been here. I’ve been coming to this event for 10 straight years, which is pretty crazy. I think this is my ninth year. Oh really? It is. the first ECF was in Austin.

02:34
Yes. The second one was in Nashville and that is when I had just started selling, but I had such a crazy launch that I met the revenue requirements to join ECF. You told me to join. so this ECF was my second ever e-commerce event that I went to. Right. Outside of startup bro. That was the first one. was the first one. We don’t count that. I still think that that was my favorite conference of all time. Yeah. Cause you got, you were a speaker and you got the royal treatment. Well, no, it’s not that it was just.

03:01
They just spent so much money on it and lost so much money on it. It was so extravagant. My room was a suite. I think I had a two bedroom suite. They booked me at, was that the Ritz? was the Ritz. Ritz. So awesome. Anyway, we are going to talk about today, you kind of what we learned and I am actually curious because this is the first time at an event where we haven’t really been hanging out at all. I know. I feel like I haven’t seen you the whole time. So I’m curious what the chatter has been.

03:30
around the people that you’ve been hanging out with. Are we gonna be honest about the chatter? Of course we are. Oh, and Tony led a, I don’t know what you’re I’m still leading, I’m still leading. I’m not done. Tony’s actually working this event as one of the- House leaders. House leaders, yes. So she’s here to facilitate conversations, is that what you do? Yes, yes, and organize a bunch of e-commerce nerds. that’s it. I said yes, and that was January Tony that said yes. March Tony is questioning why she said yes.

03:59
So, Patrick, who is Andrew’s right hand COO, reached out and asked if I would be willing to lead a house. Having been in a house last year, I think last year was the first year they did it. And if you’re not familiar with what we’re talking about, it’s similar to masterminds, similar to what we do at Seller Summit with the masterminds, although there’s more people in a house. I think there’s 25 people in each house. And so your job as the house leader is to facilitate conversation.

04:27
organize people into smaller groups to talk about specific topics and just heard the cats, which I was actually pleasantly surprised with my group with Team Ocean. So I love this group. They actually were really great yesterday about not talking over each other because when you get in a group like this, the temptation is that everyone has so much to say and everyone wants to learn so much that everyone talks all the time.

04:52
and everybody loses their voice by the third day. I mean, if you’ve been to Seller Summit, it’s the exact same way. So I thought, you expect me to keep these people in line and actually have conversations and have them be quiet at certain times. As soon as I said yes, I was like, this was a terrible idea because I know what it’s like to try to get these people to do stuff. It’s hard. So give me the dirt I want to hear. I’ll share what I’ve learned too. OK, so the dirt from my ocean house is everyone is mad at Metta.

05:21
Really? Nothing’s really changed dramatically recently. I’m at a loss at this one, right? Because I don’t use it. but that is the it was funny because we went around in the circle and gave a quick introduction and then there were just a few pieces of commentary but everybody’s commentary was about meta and I need to figure out a way to stop relying on ads and I’m unhappy and every time someone would say that you could see the group like collectively nod.

05:48
So it was like, not only was the person speaking unhappy, multiple other people were in agreement. And as we went along, that was definitely an underlying theme. So we had two people in my group. One is in the high fashion industry and the other one is in some pet products. I can’t remember what she was complaining that Meadow was working so well for her two years ago. And then one of the iOS updates basically destroyed that. And she was just looking for some guidance on how to move forward.

06:18
don’t know if she was pissed at Metta. This is more Apple’s fault than anything. Yeah. Yeah. And I think maybe that’s where people are. That’s where their anger should be directed. I think the bigger issue in all of that was that people have realized with some of the changes in the ups and downs that their business is completely reliant on it. Without it, they would not have a business. They would not be able to pay people. That’s really interesting because that sounds like Amazon. Right. Right. Yes. It felt very familiar.

06:48
Yeah, which I guess it just goes to show that you need more than one channel just just in case something goes wrong, right? Yeah, the next one I’m hesitant to talk about but you said nothing was off limits. Sure. People are upset with Klaviyo. I was gonna that was mine. I’ll let you go then. Well, in my case, and it’s it’s weird because Klaviyo has sponsored Andrew, who’s the founder of ecommerce fuel. They sponsored me they sponsored my podcast for three years. They used to sponsor seller summit. Yep. But all of a sudden when they went public,

07:18
It seems like a lot of things went downhill and maybe they’re just focusing on their larger enterprise customers. So this is actually the first year that Andrew has allowed a non-Claveo email marketing company to sponsor the event. And that company is Sendlane. And I’ve been annoyed with Clavio for different reasons, but I’m actually going to go and get a full demo from these guys. actually chatted with them in the booth for a long time and they say they’re

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going to be 30 to 50 % cheaper than Klaviyo for equivalent functionality. So I’m going to give them a shot. I don’t know what happens when companies go public or they get bigger, but I think they’re under so much pressure to grow, grow, grow. That like the smaller guys, and by small, mean like the seven figure sellers. These aren’t small guys. They’re not small, but small in comparison. Like I’m sure they’re going after like the huge companies, The hundred million dollar companies, the billion dollar companies.

08:16
I think in my group, people were upset about the pricing. Yes, exactly. And then feeling like they weren’t. It’s a weird positioning, right? Because people will say, I feel like I’m not getting my money’s worth. But let’s just say you’re spending $3,000 a month on Klaviyo to make $100,000 in email revenue. Those same people are spending $50,000 a month in ads to make $100,000 in revenue. So at the end of the day,

08:43
Any email is better than no email, right? Like anything that you’re doing. However, I think people who have been with Klaviyo for a while are frustrated because things have gone down a little bit. Even customer support time is longer. So remember if you ever get on chat with them, that takes a lot longer. They have changed some of what they do. So you have to go through the AI bot, which I know a lot of companies do that. But to me, it’s like if you’re a certain amount in Klaviyo, you don’t want to go through 10 minutes on a bot.

09:12
to get, because at that point, I already know the knowledge base. don’t, you know, I’m not going to find my answer there. anyway, there’s a lot of irritation at Klaviyo and it’ll be interesting to see how SendLane does. I mean, we won’t know, but- We’ll know for like another, I think my appointments were next week actually. Yeah. Yeah.

09:30
to see if people are angry enough to switch because as you and I both know, it is a pain to switch email service providers. It is. And I think one of Send Lane, what they were trying to explain to me is they have white glove onboarding service if you’re going from Klaviyo because they have to do that, right? So one of the interesting moments yesterday in our round group session was people were talking about affiliate marketing versus influencer marketing. And

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there were a lot of people that hadn’t had great luck with affiliate marketing, but they were looking at affiliate marketing as influencer marketing. So basically they had reached out to an influencer and asked them to promote something for a percentage of the sale. So that’s really affiliate marketing, but I, know, we kind of suggested going through an agency and not really an agency, a service like share a sale or, um, something like that versus the one-offs, right? Trying to contact people directly.

10:24
then I dropped what everyone thought. I didn’t think this was a knowledge bomb, but everybody in the group thought it was a knowledge bomb. And it’s probably because you and I come from a content creator background. But I explained to them, I said, there’s two types of people creating content on social media and YouTube, TikTok, whatever. We have true influencers and we have creators and influencers are people that are telling you what they ate for breakfast, what they wore on vacation.

10:52
what they did on a Tuesday, what brunch spot they went to, those are influencers. And influencers actually don’t convert very well for most brands. So when you go out, we’ve had people that have had Kim Kardashian post their stuff and they didn’t see a lot of sales. I said, then you have creators and creators educate. So influencers entertain, creators educate. And I was like, think about it that way. And I said, if you find someone who’s educating people, and the first person that came to mind is our friend Jamerill, who does the large family cooking.

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and she educates people on basically bulk cooking. If Jamerill talks about a bowl or a pot, it sells, right? And we know it sells. It’s because people aren’t just following her for entertainment purposes only, they’re following her to learn. And it was like, you could see the light bulb in everybody because they lumped all those people into the same category, right? To them, they’re just all influencers.

11:44
And so then I unfortunately had to use you as an example, which I I don’t want to give you any more credit than you already get in life. Okay. So you use me as a positive example. example. Yes. I use you as the influencer. There’s Steve again talking about his V-necks. No, but I talked about how on your YouTube channel, it’s solely for the purpose of educating people on e-commerce. And so people who follow you on YouTube and are watching those videos are coming to learn. And so when you do a video on using big commerce,

12:13
The chances of you converting people to big commerce are significantly higher because people are there with a purpose already, as opposed to just scrolling mindlessly on YouTube and be entertained. And you could just see the people’s, like the doors were open for them because they had all just been going after influencers. People who are talking about what they ate for breakfast or pictures of them driving around their neighborhoods, whatever it is. And those people we know don’t convert. But if you’re looking to find educators to talk about your products,

12:41
It’s a totally different ballgame and you can actually get your products to convert with those types of content creators. So for the people I talk to that say they’ve tried influencer marketing and it fails, the first question I always ask is how many people have you reached out to? Yes. And it’s usually like three or four. I mean, the hit rate is going to be pretty low. you got to, it’s almost like a shotgun approach and then hopefully you find one and then you press that relationship. Yeah. Right. I remember what I was going to say about Klaviyo now.

13:09
So we had this discussion at the table where I do my annual, I shouldn’t say annual, quarterly, you know, deliverability tests where I take Glock apps, which is this app that tests deliverability. Mainly I did this recently because that change just happened, right? Where you had to do DKIM, DMARC and SPF in order to get deliverability out for Gmail and Yahoo, right? So I did it for my Klaviyo account. And I noticed that on, I usually run the test like three times on two out of the three,

13:38
Clavio used an IP that was on a blacklist. And so I think I brought that up in office hours during Zoom. And it turns out a lot of my students who tried the test, because they just followed my directions, they was like, hey, these IPs are on a blacklist. Is that bad? I’m like, well, it’s not good. So I actually brought it up at the table I was sitting at. And one of the guys who does very high volume email, a very large company, he says that Clavio has three tiers, bronze, silver, and gold.

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And if you’re on the gold tier, they pretty much guarantee the best deliverability and they’ll just kick out anyone who has emails that are that go to spam. So it’s very hard to get in that gold tier. You have to be a large company that does high volume. Yeah. And if you so much as send like a couple of emails and have a pretty high spam rate and by high spam, I mean over point one percent, you get degraded down a tier. And the lowest tier is what they call bronze. And there’s no knowledge about this, right? It’s not like they advertise this, but

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If you’re small, and I don’t know if this is unique to Klaviyo, I’m sure all the email providers do it, but we were just talking about Klaviyo because everyone’s on Klaviyo, then their IPs might be on Blacklist. They don’t scrub those IPs as much. And so I don’t know what the solution is, because no one really knows the answer to this, but I think you have to be a larger customer in order to get on that list. And when you’re small, can’t really, it doesn’t make sense to get a dedicated IP.

15:05
I was going to ask you, is your client on a dedicated? No. Because we were talking about like, I think to make getting a dedicated IP for email makes sense. think you have to do like 5 million email sends a month or 5 or 10 million. can’t remember what it Oh, we might be able to get one then. It makes sense to get one. That way you’re in control of your own. Yeah. Because I think last year we sent 60 million emails.

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I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store, I put together a comprehensive six-day mini course on how to get started in ecommerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text-based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be obtained at mywifequitterjob.com slash free.

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just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show.

16:11
So I did the same test on Drip, which is what we use for blogging. And the three tests, they were clear. So does that mean that they’re, I don’t know, maybe on a higher tier for Drip? I don’t know. I don’t know. You know, it’s funny, total side note about nothing, but I have like a win. So I went on Drip the other day to send something and I never checked my subscriber count. I just, I never look at it. And I gained 4,000 subscribers over Christmas.

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I had no idea. Happy Housewife? Yes. Oh. I was like… Wait, are you not emailing weekly? I’m emailing like every other week. So I’m not emailing as frequently anymore. But now I’m upping it because I was like, oh, and I know exactly where it’s coming from because I get replies to the flow. So it’s a holiday-themed lead magnet. So the people start responding to me and then I get those in my inbox. But it happens every year, so I don’t even think about it.

17:08
And so I logged in the other day and I was having, I was having some issues. So I was having my tech guy work on stuff. So while I was poking around, I was like, look at that 4,000 people over, you know, a six week period. So get your lead magnet set up. work side note side. That was our, that was our advertising for the, the podcast back to our regular scheduled show. Yeah. So just the overall sentiment of several of the people I talked to was they were kind of not having the best year. Did you get that idea?

17:39
So it’s interesting in my group, either everyone people had a terrible 2023 or they were having a terrible 2024. So if they had a good year last year, this year has been terrible. Or if they had a bad year last year, they feel like they’re on an upswing. Like two people in my group very specifically were like, that was the worst year of my life. What business like business wise. Right. But I also think sometimes when stuff in business goes bad, personal life goes like everything tends to follow. Right.

18:08
If your personal life goes bad, sometimes you’re busy. So they kind of work together. And so two people were like, this was the worst business year I’ve ever had. And then a couple of people were like, we thought we had made it through, they made through all the Google changes and Facebook changes and all that stuff. And then this year has been absolutely terrible. I mean, we’re only two months in, but things aren’t looking good. Yeah. mean, Google just released another update while we were here. So I’m anxiously awaiting that. I think…

18:37
So of the people who are doing well, there’s a bunch of people who are doing well. The people who are doing well have kind of like a moat. So there’s this one guy who sells, you know those outlets that go in the drawer so you can plug in like your hairdryer in the drawer? No, I do not know about this. You know, instead of having like a cluttered bathroom counter, you keep everything in a drawer and the electrical outlets actually in the drawer. Yeah, I just never knew how it worked. Yeah. And then you install it and it’s all hidden, right? Yes.

19:06
his business is taking off because he has that proprietary design technology. And he’s got all these contractors that are rebuying and installing a bunch of homes. So he has that moat of the contractors. He’s got the moat of the design and he’s essentially pretty secure in his business. It’s going to be hard to kick him off that market. One of the things that I guess I’ve never noticed this before about ECF people, but

19:33
Most of them have multiple businesses. not the people, the people that are doing 50 million plus, I mean, there are some big time sellers here. But there are a lot of people that are under 10 million. And what I found in every conversation that I have, so last night I went to a women’s dinner, I was at the women’s breakfast this morning, led the house yesterday. So I’ve been in a lot of small groups more so than I probably normally would at event like this. Because normally I go to dinner with you, right? And we don’t even need to talk anymore.

20:03
So, a lot of people wouldn’t, because a couple of times we went around the circle and said, just, you know, who are you? What do do? And I would say 50 % of the people had at least two things, two completely separate things going. Whether it was like one girl sells compression socks, but she also had a secondary business. One girl does the data mining. Actually, I think she’s giving a talk, but she had another business too. Like all these people.

20:32
like our friend Blake who sells the face paint actually has four e-commerce stores. Really? He sells face paint. He has a store that sells flags like the decorative flags that you put up. Uh, and then two other stores. can’t remember what they are, but a lot of these people, people I talked to yesterday, Heidi, I can’t remember her husband’s name. They have a main business and then they, then they also sell odds and ends in a completely separate business.

20:58
So I’ve never, maybe either I’ve never noticed it before, I just haven’t had these conversations, but I was shocked at the amount of people who were running multiple e-commerce businesses or e-commerce businesses and other offshoots of those businesses. That’s interesting. Because I often am asked, like, why don’t I just start a bunch of e-commerce businesses? Yeah. And I don’t think I would ever start two e-commerce businesses, let alone multiple. I agree. Because it’s a lot of work.

21:27
And it’s much easier to just focus on one than just have to spare product lines, right? Yes. Although I felt good because I often come here and I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way because we’re sort of in the same boat. But I mean, for a long time, I had my jewelry business. So I had an e-commerce store, but then I also had my blog totally unrelated. And then we also had the course totally unrelated. Then I also had two conferences, one related, one not, know, podcast, whatever it was. Right.

21:56
And so I always felt like, oh, here I am, Mrs. I’m all over the map. And everyone else is here is like, I do one thing. I get up every day and do one thing all the time forever and ever. And then this year I was like, oh, like I can relate to you because I’m doing four completely separate things. But it was interesting to me how many people, and I feel like I would have noticed that before because I always felt out of place. And so that was really interesting to me. And I wonder if people are trying to…

22:22
protect themselves, right, by having multiple, so if something goes down, you know, something else will pick up for them. So I don’t know. I don’t know if you noticed that. I didn’t notice that in my group, but what I did notice in my group is that a lot of them are making most of their money from social media. Interesting. Right? So Instagram, organic Facebook reels. Okay. So Patrick’s wife, nail polish company.

22:50
had this one Facebook reel of her just mixing nail polish go viral. And she made a ton of money over the holidays just off that one reel. My group didn’t my group was like, we don’t get social. But also when I think about what the people sold in my group, it also matters what you sell. Correct. Yes. Nail polish is actually mixing nail polish. Awesome. Yeah. I had a lot of people in my group that did not sell products that I think would be amazing on social like one guy sells

23:19
tarps that you put on your furniture when you paint. Oh yeah. You know, it’s like a pure commodity. And so I was like, cause we were talking about, you know, branding and marketing and I’m like, I just don’t know how you market that on social media. Cause you’re just literally covering furniture and things like that floors. Yeah. That kind of reminds me too. There’s, certain products at Amazon that will not do well like tarps, example, I bet does pretty well on Amazon. Yeah.

23:46
But if you try to sell it in your own shop, unless you’re doing like an overall paint store, where you can cross all bunch of things, I think it’d be a little more difficult. Yeah, his main business, I think, is selling to hardware stores and contractors, things like that, which makes sense. mean, that’s a great… I’d rather sell to contractors than sell to individuals just randomly. But I feel like in my group, there weren’t a lot of people that sold those products that were real sexy for social media, except for Lindsay, who sells all those licensed rain gear and, you know…

24:15
basically art on umbrellas and things like that. Yeah, I had a conversation with a woman who sells fashion and they were just wondering what types of Facebook ads would work. I think just fashion is tough, right? I think it almost has to be an influencer play of some sort, right? I don’t know, have you talked to any apparel? Yes, I actually sat last night. So I sat across from this girl last night and she had on this fantastic jumpsuit.

24:45
And it was, I’m not even joking. I don’t know what a fantastic jumpsuit looks like. A jumpsuit is, I think it’s called a jumpsuit. It’s like a one, it was like a onesie. It was a onesie, but like really nice. And the colors were vibrant. Like it was just, it looked like a thousand dollar jumpsuit. And you know, like I like expensive clothes. So like I can, I can spot a $50 Amazon basics jumpsuit versus a, you know, designer jumpsuit. So I complimented her last night after dinner. said, I love.

25:14
your jumpsuit, it’s amazing. She’s like, oh, thank you so much. We were kind of walking in separate directions. So she ended up at breakfast with me and she was wearing another jumpsuit. And it didn’t even occur to me that she probably sold jumpsuits, which is stupid at ECF because everyone is usually wearing their brand if they have something like, whether it’s a handbag or a pair of socks. Anyone who sells apparel is wearing their apparel at ECF. And so she’s wearing another jumpsuit. So.

25:40
we’re going around the table. Everyone’s sort of talking about what they do and it’s her turn to go and she’s like, I sell jumpsuits. And I was like, you were wearing last night. I’m high end jumpsuits, high end jumpsuits. Wow. And they’re beautiful. The one she has on today’s really nice as well. And she does all of her sales from Instagram. Interesting. What’s it, did you get any hints of what her strategy was or no, cause was literally like they were digging the bell to come to the first session. I was kind of irritated because

26:08
She definitely has like a branded look and everything about her fits what she’s wearing. But when I saw her last night, I was like, that’s an amazing outfit. And then today, and she’s like, oh yeah, I use Instagram primarily to sell. And I was like, oh, this makes perfect sense because of what she’s selling. The fact that you noticed the jumpsuit means it would work well on social media, right? Yes. Just like one look and you know it’s high end. Whereas if you’re just selling kind of everyday staples for clothing, I’m talking about.

26:37
like Gap clothing, probably wouldn’t work as well on Instagram I would imagine, right? Right, but the girl next to me sold compression socks. See, I can see that working okay. Yes, because they’re designer, they’re designed, they’re not just the standard colors. But yeah, in the other thread that I got today, I didn’t hear this as much yesterday, was that one comment changes the trajectory of someone’s life.

27:03
And there were multiple people this morning at breakfast to the there was a girl who invented collapsible dog crates. Yes, I met her. Yes. She’s awesome. Yeah. But so she was this was like five years ago, I guess. And she had a dog and she was trying to collapse the crate and she smashed her finger trying to collapse the crate. And there was a comment like you should figure out how to make one that collapses easily or something like that. There was just like one random comment made. So she did.

27:32
And she developed this collapsible dog crate. Well, the girl in the compression socks sitting on the other side of me, she used to drive for work and she was in the car for like hours and hours and hours every week. And one of her friends is like, you should start wearing compression socks because you’re sitting so much. And she’s like, compression socks are for runners and old people, you know? And they’re like, no, no, no. And so then she ended up, but she thought they were ugly. So she developed stylish compression socks. And she even said, she’s like, it’s amazing how one random comment completely changed my life.

28:02
you know, gave her this business, made her all this money. And that’s kind of a thread that I’ve seen this week of, you know, one little spark, right? One little piece of information and people make a decision on it. You know, she invents a dog crate, right? She makes compression socks, whatever it is. And then they build these really successful, awesome businesses. Yeah, I had to make my wife cry in order to start my business, right? Start our business together. All it took is gallons and gallons of gems tears for…

28:31
So I had a highlight of my night last night as you know, I had someone come up to me. yes. Good old Ted if you’re listening. Thank you. I appreciate you more than you know. This is that we were at the party last night. Someone came up to me and said, hey, I listened to your podcast. And I was like, oh, thank you so much. And I was like, this is how Steve feels every time now. Like I’m getting it. And he’s like, he talked for a minute and then he’s like, yeah, you co-host it with some guy, right?

29:01
So anyway, I pointed you out. I was like, he’s over there somewhere. No, you didn’t say the second part of what you said. OK, so Steve was walking in with Kevin, who is also Asian. Another Asian guy, yeah. And I was like, yeah, he’s over there. I just waved at both of them. Like, I’m not even going to tell you who it’s one of those Asian guys. It’s one of those Asians guys walking through. Highlight of my week at ECF. So one thing I was actually kind of surprised about is the amount of people that I talked to that do not do content is

29:29
pretty high. Yes, right. It seems like they just sell and I always wonder how they get their business but it’s either through ads. It’s mostly ads actually. Yeah, it’s all ads. And they’re not doing any content. They don’t really know how to do the content or even short form or video. So I think that’s like a huge gap that people have to figure it out. So this was another aha moment that I had in at breakfast this morning because we were talking about that exact thing because most of people at my breakfast table

29:58
all were content create, like they all created content around their products, which is rare because most of the people that I’ve talked to before that were not making content about their products. And so we were kind of throwing around ideas on why it’s so hard for people to build the brand side of it. And I said, well, if you think about it, let’s just take selling on Amazon versus selling on Shopify or BigCommerce. You can basically outsource everything on Amazon. You can hire someone to do your listing. You can hire someone to optimize your listing. You can hire someone to do PPC.

30:27
And you can find companies that do really good jobs in all of those things, right? There are quality companies out there. So you don’t have to figure, like once you get a product idea, you can have other people do a lot of your work for you or help you along or get you started. But with branding, to pay a company to create a brand story for you, and first of all, there’s a lot of really bad companies out there. And two, if you get a good one, they’re very expensive. So it’s not as easy to…

30:55
create a brand around a product and a story without spending a whole lot of money. Most people don’t have a whole lot of money to spend initially. So I think that’s why people struggle because unless you’re naturally drawn to branding and content and in that storytelling, it’s not something that you can just, okay, let me hire a PPC company. Right. Right. And so I think that’s why people get hung up on it because it’s not something that comes naturally to everybody. And it’s really hard to outsource. Here’s some objections I heard at my table. They’re like,

31:25
how much content could I possibly make about this product? And what I was trying to tell them is that you don’t make it about the product. You just try to target the people who would buy it and just get them to like you and then just kind of casually mention your products. Because I was kind of outlining my social media strategy for Bumblebee, which hopefully will get implemented sometime this quarter or the latter half of the year. I’m just going to talk about the business, just funny things that happen and whatnot. And just over time, people will want to just follow the story or the day to day.

31:54
And whenever they think about buying a keepsake or something, they’ll think about my store. That’s the long-term strategy. Yeah. Well, so we met up with Anja, who came to Sellers Summit last year, sells first aid kits for moms. And she was talking this morning, we were talking about the branding thing, and she said, you know, content’s a huge part of our strategy. What they do is because it’s a first aid kit for moms, but it’s sort of a, actually, you’ve got one in your bag. It’s portable.

32:20
And so basically they create content for, yeah, there it is. got it. I got it right in of me. So look how small it is. It’s the size of, I don’t even know what that’s, you know. It’s like a coin purse if anyone carries coins anymore. If anyone has a coin purse laying around, that’s the, This is something that Jen would love because it’s kind of fashionable, right? Yeah. So they, so the, the, the selling point of her first aid kits is that they are fashionable. They are

32:49
portable so you can take them when you’re traveling if you’ve got your kids, you know, if you’re doing like around town playgrounds, things like that, they’re easy to take along with you. And so they do content on, you know, things to do with your kids traveling ideas. So their content is not about the first aid kit. It’s not about how to put a bandaid on. It’s all about

33:12
what moms who would buy that first aid kit are doing. So travel tips and it’s all seasonal, right? So right now they’re coming up on spring break. So what they’re doing now is talking about, you know, traveling spring breaks, travel ideas and the things you need to pack and stuff like that. And then they weave in obviously the first aid kit. And I think people don’t always think about it that way, right? They think they have to talk about everything in that first aid kit and how you use it. And, know, the difference in cotton balls or whatever it is, which no one cares about.

33:39
What they how they’re going to find her is through looking for travel ideas and then seeing this first aid kit and thinking, oh, I totally need to bring that with me on my trip. And it’s cute. And you can have there’s a bunch of different color options to for it. So are they doing video content or I did not ask her if she was doing video content. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, this is a it’s a really cute idea. And I guess unless she creates a it’s so essentially I know you guys can’t see it because the podcast, but

34:07
It’s a very stylish little bag and then inside is like antibiotic ointment, band-aids, and then like hand sanitizer and the balm and that sort of thing. It’s essentially just a stylish first aid kit. Yeah. And they sell refill packs. So obviously that’s how they get their customers back. Right. But yeah, I mean, think it’s a great idea. And I like that her idea around it is not to talk about like how to use the first aid kit, but what moms are doing in that phase of their life. Yeah. And absolutely correct. mean,

34:37
in order to make it work, you can’t really talk about your product because then it’ll come across as a pitch anyway. Right. Yeah. Unless your product is stands out in some way or or uncomplex and you have to explain the complexities of the product. Unless you’re you’re an IKEA furniture and you need to give people step by step instructions that have been together. Yeah. The other thing I maybe this is normal for UCF, but there’s most of the people here do not depend on Amazon.

35:06
Yes, for the revenue. They’re all D to C. So it’s funny because I was sitting at the table with Getita. Getita is a very well-known company in the Amazon space. Yes. But everyone at the table during lunch was like, oh, so what do you do? I’m like, you’ve never heard of They literally go to every single event. They do. They do. Yeah. So how can you not have heard it? So I think the people at ECF are just generally better off because they have their own brands in their websites.

35:32
What’s funny is, is in my house yesterday, there were a large group of people that wanted to get on Amazon. So they were, and this is, we talk about this all the time, but like, if you don’t sell on Amazon, you think you need to be on Amazon. If you sell on Amazon, you think you should be off of Amazon. No one’s ever happy. But yeah, there were several people that are like, I know I should be on Amazon because they know people are searching for them on Amazon. And I do agree with that. Like, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be selling on Amazon.

36:01
But that was actually one of the breakouts in my house was there were probably five or six people that wanted to know more about Amazon and getting on Amazon and how that would work. Well, I was sitting at lunch and someone was just kind of dipping their toes in Amazon. They were doing Merchant Fulfilled. And the question I was asked was, do you think I should do FBA? And I’m like, I think you’ll get probably three X to sales and much more visibility. If you do go FBA.

36:29
And he was like, so is it better? Like, is it easier? And I’m like, well, well, well, you know, that’s, a very loaded question there, right? Yeah. Cause FBA will introduce some other problems, but in general, it is better to do FBA. then again, there’s all these new fees that they introduced this year as well. it’s just funny how it’s completely different. Like, cause I go to Amazon conferences as well. It’s always the opposite. Like you said, everyone wants to have their own store and here people are just kind of dipping their toes in Amazon.

36:59
And the other thing that we get got here, which we get everywhere we go is, we thought you were an Amazon conference for seller summit. Oh, yeah. For seller summit. Yeah. Which I think is funny because we’ve never advertises in Amazon. We’re not an Amazon conference, first of all. And then, too, I don’t feel like any of our branding is around. We have Amazon sellers and we probably do Amazon Sessions because we do think Amazon is an important part of the e-commerce world. But we’re I mean, half of our attendees don’t sell on Amazon.

37:28
So it’s just funny that we’ve somehow been branded this way. is because I think we have sponsors that are Amazon sponsors. Whereas I don’t think I’ve ever heard an Amazon session at ECF. I don’t think I have either. Right. And I don’t think there’s any Amazon sponsors aside from Getita. Yeah. Here. You’re right. So when I went to the ECF Austin, like one day event, they did have an Amazon session. Oh, OK. It wasn’t like selling on Amazon. That was more like a strategy.

37:56
optimization sort of thing. But yeah, I agree with you. I don’t think there’s ever been an Amazon session here. Yeah. Actually there’s, are some people that I talked to who we’re all friends with that don’t really sell anymore, but they keep coming back to the event. Yes. That group is getting bigger. Well, one of, one of those people is what got me, who got me started on Amazon in the first place. Lars. Yeah, Lars. And you know, he’s getting off of Amazon and it’s just, I’m still very appreciative. Yeah. And, uh,

38:25
Who else? There’s so many people at this event that got me to where I am today and I never would have met them had I not gone to UCF. Yeah, I think it’s a great event. It’s fun to see people. I’ve met actually probably this I’ve met more new people this year or not new people, new to me people this year than I have in the last several years combined. And that’s because I won because I’m leading the house. So I was forced I was forced to be friendly, but also

38:53
I just, I made a decision because I’m like, well, if I’m leading this house, I can’t just sit back and listen. And so I went to the dinner last night, which I normally wouldn’t do. I went to the breakfast this morning, which I normally don’t do. I didn’t even eat breakfast. just sat there. I’m in my no breakfast phase right now. But yeah, it’s, it was interesting. I feel like I’ve met a lot of people and I’ve, it’s very interesting to like see the changes in ECF over the years. Like it’s changed a lot.

39:21
One of the ways I think in a very positive way is there’s a lot more females here. Yes, I did notice that this year. Dana and I joked that the first CCF, was, or not the first, the first one I came to, it was me and Dana and Miracle and Carol Reigns and we think one other person at that event. So it’s nice to see other female entrepreneurs attending because we know they’re out there. Right. And we know they’re out there because they come to Seller They do come to Seller Summit. And that was what was so funny is that

39:49
You know, I spend a lot of time with Dana at this event and she’s such a Seller Summit cheerleader, which I greatly appreciate. But every time someone would say, oh, there’s a lot of there’s so many more females here. And Lindsay said something like, oh, I think it’s up to 10 percent. And Dana’s like, Seller Summit’s 50 percent. Just like matter of fact, I was like, we might be over 50 percent at this point. don’t know. Actually, for this year, we might be. Yeah. Yeah. Which is strange. I guess it’s just.

40:17
by nature of the title of my podcast or our podcast blog and that sort of thing. We just attract more more females. You know what I discovered? Females is not politically correct. You have to say women now. Did you know that? No, I had no idea. So I got to watch myself. say women? Women. Well, you could say whatever you want because you are a woman, but I can’t say females. I can’t keep this. It hurts my brain. It’s too much. I agree. But I am excited about Seller Summit. And there’s actually a number of people here that

40:47
didn’t know about Seller Summit at all. It’s a shock and a travesty. Well, no, maybe because we’ve been doing it for eight years now, right? But there are a couple of people I’m pretty sure are coming now after I talk to them. One thing that… So I took this cooking class. Yeah, I have met everybody who was in the class with you. I’m not joking. Everybody I meet… Because one of the easy icebreaker questions at ECF is like, oh, what adventure did you do?

41:13
If you don’t really know how to start the conversation, that’s a good one because then they can tell you, I went kayaking and there was a gator under the boat or something like that. So everyone I’ve met is like, I took the cooking class. was like, did Steve do any work in the cooking class or did he make? Here’s what happened in the cooking class. There was three vegetables on a cutting board. There was an onion, there was a pepper and there was a celery. OK. And that’s the only thing we did. We cut that up and then we threw in the pot and outcome came jumbo and jumbo. That was delicious.

41:42
No, seriously, that’s the only thing that we did. Oh, no, I got to stir the pot. Oh, you stir, huh? How came delicious food? It’s like I have no idea how we are from this piece of celery to that. But I just like that we were supposed to record this yesterday. I run into you in the lobby and you say to me, I’m really hungry, so I’m going to the cooking class. And I’m thinking to myself, you do know that a cooking class requires cooking before you get to eat.

42:09
Like you’re not eating for two more hours Yes, I grossly misjudged how long how long we laughed about that all afternoon Brian was like you think Steve’s eaten yet. I’m like, nope Actually by the time I ate it was dinnertime I because I had a dinner with quiet light at five and so yeah, and we finished at five. In fact, I was late. Oh, that’s a quiet light, but um Yeah, I’m actually after going ECF. I’m really looking forward to seller summit now, which is in just

42:39
Two months. May 14th, May 16th. And I’m looking forward to the mastermind in particular. I am too. And I think the houses here at ECF got me more excited for the mastermind because with the houses at ECF, you’re breaking into these smaller groups. And that’s basically what our masterminds are, groups of under 10 people, 10 or under, and getting together for an entire day in a room. As we joke, we lock you in a room and don’t let you in until all your problems are solved.

43:08
And just the friendships that are developed. We actually heard this from a Seller Summit attendee this weekend or this week that they she formed a mastermind. Yes. Out of Canadians. So we’re not invited. But just seeing the friendships that are formed in those masterminds and then seeing how a lot of them carry on after Seller Summit, because we don’t facilitate that. I mean, that’s facilitated by the attendees. And to me, that made me so happy to hear.

43:36
because that means that they really did form those connections during the mastermind time. And those friendships will now become, it’s kind of like how you and I and Dana and Lars and Mike, like we’ve made these friendships years ago and through events like ECF and Seller Summit, the friendships just continue to deepen. And now like I see, I’ve seen everybody but Lars basically at other events or other things throughout the year or years, because it’s like a real friendship. It’s not just people you run into at a conference.

44:05
Yeah, and one thing that I’ve just realized also is that, you know, the houses that that mastermind part of ECF is only for like a couple of hours. Yeah. And it just made me realize that that’s the part I value. Yep. Chatting in a more intimate environment with other people as opposed to the breakout sessions. Yeah. Which we’re actually recording this during a breakout session right now that that that that we’re missing. So, yeah.

44:29
If you guys want to participate in a mastermind, make sure you go over to sellersummit.com. We’re almost sold out of masterminds. We are, yeah. So hope to see you guys there.

44:41
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Now, if you missed ECF Live and you want to attend a conference of like-minded entrepreneurs, then join me at Seller Summit. For more information about this episode, go to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 527. And once again, tickets to Seller Summit 2024 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com. If you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go over to sellersummit.com. And if you are interested in starting your own e-commerce store,

45:11
head on over to mywipequitterjob.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.