557: Why You’ll Never Get Anywhere In Business If You Don’t Stop THIS Habit!

00:00
You’re listening to the My Wife, Quit or Job podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. Now today, Tony and I are going to cover a topic that plagues almost every single entrepreneur that we know. And we’ll do a deep dive into what this is and how to avoid falling into this common trap of entrepreneurship. But before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets are now on sale for Seller Summit 2025 over at sellersummit.com.

00:25
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.

00:52
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 nine 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 going to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 6th to May 8th, and right now this is the cheapest the tickets will ever be.

01:20
And finally, if you haven’t picked up my Wall Street Journal bestselling book, The Family First Entrepreneur yet, it’s actually available on Amazon at 38 % off. 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. Now onto the show.

01:56
Welcome to the My Wife, Quitter Job podcast. Today, Tony and I are going to talk about probably the bane of every entrepreneur’s existence. so today we’re going to be talking about shiny object syndrome, how to fight it and how to not succumb to its allure. To its awesomeness. So this, I agree with you. think this is, this is one of the top two problems entrepreneurs face. I think the top

02:26
The tie with this is like the self doubt component of being an entrepreneur. People just don’t think that they’re able, you know, they’re not gonna be successful so they procrastinate. But shiny object syndrome to me is just a form of that procrastination. I have to fight it every day. Just remember the other day I was telling you, hey, all these apps that I’m writing for Bumblebee linens, I’m thinking about turning that into a company. And then you were like, do it.

02:52
And then I was like, okay, maybe I will. actually went through this down this rabbit hole, uh, figuring out all the tools that I need to make it scalable, to have lots of customers. And actually that was the easy part. And then I went to chat. played tennis with one of my buddies who’s an engineer and he was like, yeah, that’s the easy part. All the technical stuff is the easy part. The hard part is dealing with customers when something goes wrong and whatnot, you’re to need a whole team. You’re to be, you know, and I was like, Oh, you’re right.

03:22
You’re right. Maybe I should do this once the kids go to college. That’s not too far off though. That’s true. You are, I would say worse than I am, right? Oh, I’m so bad. In fact, was just, I think we’ve talked about this on a couple other podcasts. I’m doing that Amazon program right now where you’re getting a bounty for the videos you create.

03:49
Last week I ordered like 40 products on Amazon to review. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And there’s some stipulations and stuff like that. A lot of it’s like, uh, embargoed. So I can’t like talk in great detail about it, but basically you’re, you know, reviewing products, vertical shorts for Amazon that they’re going to use. And, uh, so this morning I was like, I got to get up and I’ve got to, um, start recording. Like I’ve got to start because there’s a time limit of how, of when you can do this. So.

04:18
You know, I have all the products arrived over the weekend. start unpackaging them and there’s some specifics on what you can use. Like the products have to be in a certain category and price point and all this type of stuff. So anyway, I start like getting ready to create the video. And my whole thought was like, I need to knock out like 10 videos at a time, right? Because they’re short videos. So it’s not like they take a long time to film. The actual hardest part about this is

04:45
getting everything in in 30 seconds. Like I was like way too long winded on a lot of things. But as I was starting to do this, I had to go back to Amazon and look stuff up. And then I was like, what if I did this? And immediately was like in another like complete Amazon project idea that I had. Right. And I was like, what if I did this and that? And I’m like, I’m literally it’s guaranteed money, guaranteed money to make these videos. Yet here I am rabbit trailing off of something that I will never do.

05:12
Um, but it was seemed cool for like five seconds. And I was like this morning, I was like, I have like, gotta be with, you know, I got to record this at 11 o’clock, right? And like, I got a very limited time window and here I am wasting 30, 45 minutes on the rabbit trail of this whole other, you know, project that’s not guaranteed money. I’ll probably never do it. And it just like, I’m sitting here like with, with like, it’s like, what am I doing? Why am I not able to just complete the task?

05:40
I have another example too. You can have shiny object syndrome even in your own business that’s already running. Yes. So this whole printing on linens and handkerchiefs, I thought it’d be like super simple and it was fun because I wanted to actually get one of these printers. Like, yeah, actually that was the motivation for doing it really. I just wanted to play around with these cool printers. But now it’s, it has slowly become the bane of my existence. Mainly because I haven’t

06:08
It’s much more complicated than you think and delegating it is a little bit more involved. And I’ve taken apart the printer. I had to take apart the heat press the other day because things just keep breaking. Yeah. And it’s just really annoying. did I really need to do that? mean, know, embroidery is still our bread and butter. We already have that. But I don’t know. It’s taking away my time from other things right now, which is really the…

06:37
the main bane for every entrepreneur’s existence, I think. It’s fun, right? In the beginning, I had a blast in the beginning. Yeah. Oh, I remember when you were like learning how to do everything and you were like creating all this stuff, you thought it was amazing. And for the first 15 minutes this morning, I was like in, in fun town, right? Like, Ooh, da da da da. And then I was like, crap, now I’ve got this much time left. And I wanted to get videos edited too before I recorded. So I was like, I have just cut my time in half for absolutely no reason.

07:05
So this is, so do you remember like, I don’t know, was probably, I don’t want to say 10 years ago, but it was probably close to 10 years ago. We did a podcast with Austin Bronner. Yeah. And I think it, I think this was during this recording or in our conversations with him where he talked about, he only did one thing and got really, really good at the one thing. And then he didn’t move on to the next thing until he got like, he was the best at this thing.

07:35
And I started thinking about that and I was like, I remember when he said it, was like, yeah, like everybody I know that’s had like a crazy amount of success has only done one thing. And I think about like our friend, Wang, who we talk about a lot on the podcast, but back when he had his blog, Bargain Earing, he was like the AB optimization tester, right? He had this whole complex, you know,

07:59
procedure that he did on every landing page, right? And that was his, like, he was the expert and his expertise in doing that and understanding the results and making changes based on that very specific thing made him millions of dollars, right? And if Jim would have been like, hey, let me start my Facebook group and hey, let me, you if he would have started, maybe I should get on print on demand and make bargaineering t-shirts, whatever it was, right?

08:25
he probably wouldn’t have seen the level of success. And I see that with lots and lots of people, right? That just completely stay focused on one thing. It always works out for them, right? It never doesn’t work when you do this. So then why are we all so tempted to still run and chase every other thing? I think it’s fear. Because I always think diversification in case one thing goes down.

08:52
And in a lot of cases, I’m glad that I have diversification, but I I do, I think you’re right. The people who have focused, like remember when we had Spencer Jan come talk at Seller Summit. So he’s the founder of Solo Stove, which is now a, I don’t know, billion dollar company or hundreds of millions of dollars. And when he started Solo Stove, he actually had a $4 million a year apparel business.

09:18
And I don’t know how much of that was profit, but let’s just say it was a million, right? A million dollars a year, but then he decided to shut that down to focus on Solo Stove. And at the time, think Solo Stove was around the same size. Yeah. And I think that was one of the best decisions that he made. Although if it were me, I’m not sure if I could have made that same decision. Yeah. mean, looking back on it, it’s probably the best decision to have made in his life, but it was a billion dollar good decision.

09:48
But in the moment, I think it’s really hard. what I see it, and he’s, there’s a lot of people like him who have to pick, like you have to get to a point where you have to make a choice in your business. But what I think we see a lot and probably a lot of people who are listening are the people who are just starting out. Cause we get this question all the time. I have two different ideas. I have two different projects. have two different, can I start two different websites? Can I start two different social media channels?

10:15
And our answer is 99 % of the time, like absolutely not. Because that’s the easiest way to get sucked into shiny object syndrome, right? Is to have your thought, your time, everything divided from the beginning. It’s gonna happen naturally as you go and create, but to start out that way, to me you’re just setting yourself up to not be able to be successful at either one. I mean, that’s a common question I get asked too.

10:43
Should I start on Amazon or should I work on my website or should I just do both at the same time? And I think people just underestimate how much work is involved in getting a website up, tweaked and everything. So definitely always one at a time. Like pick one or the other. Cause otherwise neither one of those channels are going to work for you. Just in my experience. And I’ve been teaching my class for, man, it’s been 13 years now. It’s crazy.

11:12
It’s a long time. I think about our, and I’m not picking on our student, Sean, but I think about Sean. He’s selling stickers right now on Etsy. Sean, to me, always has a shiny object. Hey, Sean, shout out. We still love you. Every time we talk to him, he’s always got something else, some other idea that he’s thinking about or wanting to do. To me, it’s like if Sean would just go all in on the stickers.

11:38
right, are all in that niche. Maybe it’s not just stickers, maybe there’s other types of things you can do with that. I’m not super familiar with that type of product creation. if you think about in general, like how much time we spend thinking about doing other things, researching other things, if we would have just taken those exact same amount of hours and put them into what we’ve already started, like how much further ahead

12:02
would we be and I know it’s ridiculously further because this morning after I stopped messing around and I was like, I gotta get focused. In the matter of an hour, I filmed I think seven videos and edited four and have four published now. So like in an hour, right? Now these are not like high editing quality. mean, these are very simple to type stuff but like when I just said like, I’m not gonna do anything else, this is my one priority right now.

12:30
I was able to just churn through so much. And I think for people, if they can just stay focused, they will see that same level of, know, not necessarily success, but at least productivity when they can stay focused. Yeah. I was just looking back because I have Bumblebee Linens and my wife quit her job, And I think for the longest time I was able to do both because Bumblebee was kind of just maintenance.

13:00
Yeah, in a way. But this like whole printing thing has occupied so much time now that, yeah, I don’t know. I can think of another example too. Nathan Barry, who was actually just on the show maybe like a month ago, he had this thriving core space business. It was generating, you know, seven figures every year. And then he had ConvertKit, which I think at the time was not generating that much money at all.

13:28
maybe six figures in annual revenue, but he decided to drop his course business to focus on ConvertKit. And today it’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The problem is, is I can’t seem to do that. So maybe we should talk about some strategies on how to avoid. Maybe you’re not the right person to ask either, but I have my methods on trying to curb it. I don’t have it under control completely, but I’m just curious how you do it. You have less time than I do.

13:57
I do. Well, and that’s one of the ways I curb it because I realize, like I think to myself, do I really want to work on a Saturday? Do I want to, if I spend time chasing something on a Wednesday morning, that’s going to equal working on something that’s important and I have to get done on a Friday at five o’clock. Right? So I try to in my mind, just like rationalize the time spent and it’s like, and I, I,

14:24
This is the other thing is I feel like, especially if you’re an entrepreneur, you have to allow yourself a little space to chase the shiny objects, but that has to be on your downtime. That has to be something that you do for fun. One of the things that I’ve always wanted, you know this, I’m like super into real estate. I’m super into all these like renovation stuff. And I was like, oh, I should do something with that, professionally. But I’ve had, and so I will find myself on rabbit holes, rabbit trails, you know.

14:51
looking into maybe I could do this, maybe I could start a YouTube channel, maybe I could do whatever. And I’m all, but like that’s not my bread and butter. That’s not what’s making me money today, right? It’s actually costing me an arm and a leg right now. So what I’ve told myself is like, Hey, this might be something for you in the future. This might be something that you can do down the road, but that’s what you can do on Wednesday night. You know, that’s what you can do on Sunday when football’s on. Like that has to be done in your free time and your working hours have to stay for the things that are

15:19
currently making you money or have the immediate potential to make you money. So like the Amazon videos, don’t make, making the video doesn’t make me money, but there’s potential to make me money, right? So I have to stay focused and that’s just what I have to force myself to do is let’s just say, we’ll just throw this out there Monday through Friday, nine to five, I will only engage in like money making activities. And then in my free time, I can do whatever I want. I can research every vlog out there on home renovation or

15:49
buying castles in Scotland or whatever it is. So that’s one thing that I’ve decided like to force myself in that box.

15:57
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.

16:26
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.

16:38
Yeah, for me, I, well, now I’m one, I talk to my friends and get a thorough assessment of how much time it’s going to take. And if I want to take something on, I’ll usually drop something else. But dropping that other thing can be really tough. It’s easier for me if that thing isn’t making money already. Yeah. But if that thing is making even like a, even a little bit of money, actually, I don’t know, I struggle with it.

17:07
But that’s generally how I do it. I try to get an overall time assessment. And you know me, usually like, so back in the day, I guess for last 10 years, I like to have two days free, like Thursday and Friday. And any new thing eats into that time. And I think every entrepreneur needs to have like, at least one day of buffer, just in case there are fires to fight.

17:31
And this year at least. I think that’s unrealistic for most entrepreneurs. unrealistic to have? One full day of a buffer, yeah, for sure. Just to fight fires? Yeah. Okay. Well, that’s how I like to do it. No, I know, but you’re a lot further along in your entrepreneur journey than most people. Most entrepreneurs are still doing everything and they don’t have systems and processes set up like you do. They should read your book. No, but all those things took time, right? In the beginning.

18:00
I don’t know, even right now, I just put in like, I put in two new things, actually in the last couple of weeks that I used during those buffer times. So those buffer times aren’t necessarily, I’m not like sitting on the beach or, you know, lying outside. Those are buffer days where I’m actually thinking about how to make things better. I think everyone needs to have one of those days. Like an efficiency day is what I like to call it. I think that’s a good idea in theory.

18:28
I don’t think that’s okay. just, most entrepreneurs that I know that are in the like, let’s just say middle entrepreneur stage, right? You’ve created something, you’re making some kind of money, but you’re not to the point where you can like either quit your day job or be on kind of cruise control. Those people don’t have a lot of buffer time because they’re still trying to balance maybe another job that’s bringing them in, you know, their mortgage payment or, uh, you know, just

18:57
Basically, we hear this from people from all time, I’m doing everything. I’m trying to figure out ads, I’m trying to figure out email, I don’t understand Facebook, I don’t know how to code, right? People are just really overwhelmed with getting started. So those are all shiny objects in my opinion. Okay. Right? You launch your business, you’re trying to run Facebook ads, Google ads, social media, whatnot. Those are all shiny objects within the business. Yeah. Right? You just have to pick one and do it. Yeah.

19:27
And what I mean by this buffer that I’m talking about is, and we faced this too, there was a point in Bumble Bee Linens life where we were just spending all of our time fulfilling orders. Like that would be all of our time. And we’d get everything out the door and we were just too exhausted to do anything else. And that was just not sustainable, which is why like, you you need that period to figure out how to make things better. Otherwise you’re just going to be on the same track and just burn yourself out. Yeah, I agree with that buffer time. I just don’t want anyone listening to get

19:56
like discouraged because that doesn’t seem realistic. But I will say, if you want buffer time, you have to conquer your shiny-odd syndrome. Because I think one of the reasons why you’re able to have the two days is because when you’re working, you’re so focused on the work that you’re doing. Like you’re known for locking yourself in your office, one small light bulb above the computer.

20:25
No, okay, so the other thing is you sacrifice some revenue. Like you have to be willing to, you know, take less money, but you know, leave some money on the table in order to do this too. Yeah. But I think, I think people don’t understand how much time chasing these things cost them, even if you’re not physically typing in and researching something, right? Like, let’s just say you’re working on your next video.

20:54
right from my wife quit her job. But in the back of your mind, you’re like, how can I print on hats? I should go into the hat printing business because the margin on hats is 85%, blah, blah, blah. So like the creation of the my wife quit her job video that’s about Temu, right? Or something not about hats, right? Is going to take you two to three times longer because your mind is still over here, right? Thinking about this. And that’s where shiny object syndrome kills your productivity.

21:22
because instead of being like laser focused, make that video done. So then you do have that buffer day or even you have a buffer afternoon, right? Where you can think about like, hey, let’s research hats. Let’s get the cause. Let’s find a supplier. Let’s check out if my printer can handle hats, whatever it is, right? You put that over there in that little bucket. And then when, you know, to make the video, you’re focused on the task at hand and not, you’re not giving anything brain power, manpower to the other idea.

21:51
You know what I need for my business? I need a mind sweeper. So what I mean by that is like the shiny object part is the fun part, right? And I can say this for almost everybody, the grass is always greener on the other side. So you get into it, it’s always exciting in the beginning and you’ll start something. And then I just need someone to just hand that off to. Take that into the sunset.

22:18
And so I forgot what my point is, but.

22:24
If you don’t have the mind sweeper in your thought, like this is going to be the most amazing thing. I can say with confidence that it’s only going to be fun for like the first period and then it’s going to suck. Yeah. It’s just the way it is. So just be aware of that whenever you’re thinking about starting something new. one of the ways that, cause I am definitely guilty of shiny object, although I think I have it in, I think I have it under control. I have it in containment.

22:53
One of the ways that I get it out though is with our course. Because I explain, love business ideas. I love thinking of new ways to make money. Like I literally talked to the air conditioner guy about how to sell better, right? Like I just want to talk about this all day long. Have you thought about this? Put this up, set this on your website, whatever.

23:15
So what I found is when we teach the course and we do zoom calls and we do coaching and we do Friday check-ins and we’re interacting with our students all week long, right? And the Facebook groups, you know, everything I’m able to sort of let that creative outlet go for them. Right? So we were talking to somebody last week about some business ideas that he had. And I was like, wait, you could do this, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was able to like, get out some like creative ideas.

23:44
And like after the phone call was over, I haven’t thought about it again, right? Like I got, like I was able to like brainstorm and feel creative. And then I was like, okay, back to my regular scheduled, you know, job. Um, and so I find that with the course, it allows you and I both to like give people ideas and brainstorm and kind of chase shiny objects with them. And for them, it’s not a shiny object. It’s a business, right? A business plan.

24:09
And then we can just go back to our own little worlds and we don’t have to think about what they’re doing. Right? Like that’s now it’s their problem to solve. It’s theirs to figure out. And then we can go back to our, our regularly scheduled day. So you’re pushing your shiny object syndrome onto our poor students. No, no, because a lot of them have a, have a very base idea, but they don’t have the execution or.

24:37
They have a skill, but they don’t know how to monetize it. Right. So I feel like these calls and these brainstorming with our students actually allows us to be really creative. Cause like there’s stuff like stuff we’re never going to do. Right. Like, um, like we’re talking to Johnny about his, he’s really into that certain type of camper. Right. Right. And we were talking, we were talking about, you’re like, you could get sponsorships and blow it. Like we’re giving them all these ideas. And I’m like,

25:01
Like that would be something that like we could shiny object ourselves like, hey, I’m super into XYZ. We could do this and I could get a sponsorship and I could set up a portal and blah, blah, blah. You know, and so I think that that for me is an outlet. And I think for entrepreneurs who don’t teach a course, which is most people like that’s a, that’s a mastermind group, right? That’s a focus group that you can join and be a part of. That’s when you go to an event like seller summit, right? And so you can be around people and you can enjoy their

25:31
passions and the things that they’re into and you don’t have to, you’re not committing to anything. You’re not on the journey with them. You’re just a part of it for a short period of time. And I think that’s actually a really helpful way to combat it. It’s also a really great way to go, I will never do that. Right? Because you talk to people who have, you know, similar concepts to what you have and you’re like watching them in just this like muddy cesspool and you’re like, yeah, I’m so glad I’m not selling stickers.

25:59
right? Or whatever it is, I think that’s actually really helpful to kind of manage it. I don’t ever think you can just throw it out. You know, what’s funny is my one on ones without you are completely different. I spend most of the entire consult trying to talk people out of things. Like they’ll come on and say, Oh, I want to start out with this brand and I want to be really grand. Then I want to have this huge launch.

26:26
And then I want to reach out to, you know, larger companies and get a license. I’m like, Whoa, hold that. Hold the phone here. You got to make the thing first. And then you got to put out the feelers and whatnot. So I’m usually reining people in. Okay. But I guess it’s just the nature of the beast, right? With e-commerce, I think you need to rein people in with content. People aren’t aware of all the opportunities. Yeah. Available to them. And that that’s why you have to, but you’re, right. I, I do enjoy,

26:55
you know, giving out advice and plans and not having to be the one to actually follow through on it. Right. It’s like when you’re talking about the mind sweeping, it’s like that’s their problem now. we and not it’s not really a problem for them. Like it’s something that they can execute on and help them, you know, build something profitable. But to me, that just really fulfills the shiny object syndrome because we’re able to like go through it with other people. But then we don’t still have to carry it.

27:25
as our own, you know, in our own businesses. Yeah. Which is actually why this is a perfect shiny object syndrome is 50 % of the time when we’re on a call, I’m like, oh, I would love to do like coaching. Because I just like, I love some of those phone calls, right? Because it’s like, you just see a light come on in people and you’re just like, this could change their life. This could, and I, and I have people in my life that I have like, not because of me, but like who I’ve mentored in the past and like,

27:55
their lives have changed based on the businesses that they’ve started and the things that they’ve accomplished. And when you see that and you see it over and over again in people, it’s cool to be just like a tiny part of that. And I was like, oh, but then like shiny object, right? I’m like coaching. Okay. So what are you going to charge to coach somebody? I don’t know. Like, I mean, we have a friend who’s charging $5,000 a month. I think you get four calls, right? It’s not, not a bad hourly, not a bad hourly rate. Yeah. But at the same time, like,

28:24
how many people can you do that for, right? Like, and obviously this person is in a position where that fee is warranted, right? Most people can’t warrant $5,000 for four phone calls, however. So let’s just say you can warrant $500 for four phone calls, right? So four phone calls are an hour each, you’re making a hundred and what, 25 an hour.

28:48
Then, okay, so then how many, how many clients can you take on and you start like doing the math and we were talking about earlier, like, okay, well, is this really scalable? Is this something that like, if I add coaching and I’m taking away five hours a week for $500, if I spent five dedicated hours on, let’s just say for you, YouTube videos, would you make $500 a week for five hours of YouTube filming and editing? Like the time that it would take you, you’d make way more than $500 a week, right? So.

29:17
When you start like trying to figure out, well, if I do this and like the math doesn’t work anymore for me, it might, it might work for some people. And so it’s like, but then you spend all this time like, well, I guess I’m not going to do coaching. Plus we already do it for the course and that’s fine. Um, but that’s where the shiny object syndrome comes in, right? Cause you’re like, this is really cool. I like it. Let me do this. Well, I do all the stuff and now I’ve wasted an hour. Okay. I’m not doing it. going to be selfish here. Talk me out of this software thing that I’m okay.

29:47
Let me just run to by the audience. So you’ll notice, and a lot of you guys are in Shopify, I’m sure. Shopify apps costs a ridiculous amount of money for what they do. Uh, by the, the, project that I was just recently working on is I created this loyalty program that a commercial loyalty program, they charge upwards of $300 plus four that I coded in a week. There’s no reason these apps should cost that much. So I was thinking about just taking all these little features that I make for bumblebee.

30:17
turning them into a product I service and just charge like a flat rate for all of it.

30:25
and essentially disrupt this particular no no no recurring but it basically just disrupts like all these Shopify apps that are charging gobs of money

30:36
I just do it for fun because I like it. actually think that’s a really good idea. Do you really? I do for a couple of… So here’s why. Okay, do you want to go with why it’s a good idea or why it’s a bad idea? Give me both. Okay. So here’s why think it’s a good idea. I think there’s a need. Like the Shopify app store is insane.

30:56
You and I both know we were looking at that rewards program on the app store. It’s $200 a month for like the basic features, right? You’re not even getting like the premium stuff. For the premium is several hundred dollars a month. And that’s not just that. That’s just one app that you’re using in Shopify, right? Then you want to use, I mean, I like one click up, so I don’t want to dog Ezra stuff. It’s a great product. But like, once again, it’s percentage of your revenue.

31:21
you know, and then you get another app on there and you’re like, Oh, I need a, you know, combine order app and I need a whatever app. Like you start adding up and now you’re paying a thousand dollars a month in apps on Shopify. Right. Yeah. So I love the idea of being a disruptor. Right. mean, one click upsell at a basic level, probably not as many features that Azure has obviously, but you just want basic one click upsell functionality. That’s actually really easy to write. Yeah.

31:47
Yeah, they’ve got some cool functionality with AI and things like that. And that’s one of those apps where I feel like, listen, it will make you the money back. So you kind of pay it begrudgingly because you make way more than that in your revenue. But a lot of these apps, it’s a little bit ambiguous, right? Like the back in stock app, right? Like all the $9 a month, $15 a month, $25 a month. And then you get into the crazy like, and a lot of these apps, it’s like, yeah, we’ll give you the basic app for $15 a month. But if you want any features at all, it’s a hundred, right?

32:17
And so I think a disruptor in the space would be awesome because it, especially for people who are just getting started, right? Cause some of these apps I feel like are maybe not critical to your success as a store owner, but they’re very impactful on your bottom line. So it’s like, it’s hard for me to say, yeah, get Shopify, pay whatever that is per month, and then get a suite of $500 a month in apps.

32:44
just to get started and oh, by the way, you don’t have any traffic. So run some Facebook ads and you oh, and you also invested in product and blah, blah, you know, now you’re like thousands of dollars in and you don’t even know if someone’s going to buy something from you. So I like the disruption aspect of it. What I would like to know before I would go any further in this is like talk to Ezra, talk to some other people that run Shopify apps. Like what’s the true customer service cost?

33:13
Because building the app is easy. We’ve talked about that. Like I’m on customer service with OneClick Upsell probably twice a month, right? Which isn’t a lot. That’s very often. You think? When was the last time I talked to Klaviyo customer support? Never. I talk to them all the time. Do you? So you have problems all the time? I write so much more than you do though. But what does it have to do with like the tool breaking?

33:40
Well, it’s not just about the tool breaking. It’s about like, hey, we’re trying something new. We’re doing this. We’re setting something up. Is it set up correctly? Is it like, there’s just so many variables. Plus I have multiple people, right? So like, okay. But one click upsell, such a basic service. Like what, do you, what do you need to talk to them about twice a month? Like, uh, orders coming through incorrectly. you the lady who’s like lonely? No, just needs to chat with someone. Ezra, are you there?

34:10
No, maybe once a month, but there’s definitely some communication. So to me, it’s like, especially when you’re setting it up. remember when I set up bold apps as a big Shopify app developer. I remember setting up, I don’t remember which app it was, and this was for a client a long time ago, and something wasn’t working correctly. And I knew that I had set it up.

34:35
right, but it was like one of those features where if you’re on this theme, there’s a glitch because of this and you got to go into the liquid and do all these things. like there was knowledge base about it, but it wasn’t enough information for me to like, plus I didn’t want to break everything. And so I was on chat with them a lot for probably like a five day period. And then once it got fixed, it was fine. So I would be curious as to what is the true time cost for customer service and that thing, because to me, that’s the only

35:04
downside of doing this. building it is easy, know, so to And maintaining it is easy-ish, right? You’ll have to make some updates, you know, stay in the loop on things. But the fact that there’s a human element of humans using the product is where like it all falls apart. Yeah. Actually, I did talk to Ezra once and he told me that the SaaS business that he has,

35:34
was the hardest business that he’s ever, ever created. Yes, that’s what he said. Way harder than e-commerce, way, way harder than e-commerce. Why? Those are the exact words that he told me. Because it’s a commodity is what he said. Like anyone could just code anything, right? Yeah. in point, I just did something in a week, right? Yeah. And so anyone can just…

35:59
come up and compete against you doing the same thing. So you constantly have to be investing in engineering resources to stay ahead. Yeah. But my philosophy would be different. Most people just I’m just going to code like the bare minimum of what you would need based on like what I teach. You don’t need all those bells and whistles. They just make your life more complicated. Yeah. And you know, I’ll just do it kind of for fun. And I know people listening to this are probably like, yeah, you’re weighing over your head. Possibly true. But I think the hardest thing you are.

36:27
What? I have like so many ideas already for you right now. Like, what if you did this? Okay, here we go. Here we go. channel your shiny object syndrome on me. No, seriously. You need to like get the like five basics, right? Five basic apps that you need to start a store. Exactly. And just stop right there. Code them up, right? Get them going. You sell them to the course members, right? You sell them to people in your course first, right? So that’s your beta group.

36:53
I think you have to sell it. was first, I was going to say, give it away for free, I was like, no, there’s actually, there’s actually hard costs involved in these things. So like you have to sell it, but you sell it at a price. It’s like, let’s just talk about the loyalty app. That’s 200 bucks a month for the loyalty app. You sell the whole suite of five apps for $99 a month. Right? That’s exactly what I was thinking. Hey, we’re doing this. We’re doing it. It’s on. No, but you start with the course people because those people you already have to coach up anyway. Right. So they’re already like in your customer service dashboard.

37:23
You probably need one customer service person that understands the technology to help you. But I think you could probably do it with those two components. If you are willing, this is the negative that I was going to tell you. What you would need is you have to probably give up one of your days initially. Or give up one of my projects. Sure. I’m actually fine doing that. This is something I’ve always wanted to do. I know. You’ve been talking about this since I met you. I’ve just been scared.

37:51
You were like, well, my kids graduate. I’ll do this. This is what you told me. Yeah. But I’ve been scared. now actually, thanks to AI, I feel like I’m pretty invincible. Yeah. Because I don’t need to like do the research now and remember the syntax and what’s out there. It’s just much easier now. I also think there’s a benefit. And I think bold with Shopify does this correctly is they have those suite of products, right? I think creating a suite of apps where

38:20
You’re like, okay, we do these five things. I like bold apps. When I was doing Shopify stores, I was like, we’re getting all of them. Because once you’re integrated, it’s just much easier because you’re familiar with their interface. I think having a couple is the smart way to do it because if you get a one-off, then people will leave you much easier. But if you have a suite of products, people don’t leave. That’s true.

38:48
Especially a suite of apps that do the basics that are way cheaper than everyone else for just a single app. Yeah. Plus I love that recurring revenue. I know we don’t do it for our courses and I feel fine about that, I remember talking to Jim Wang once again about the $5 meal plan.

39:09
This was like they had launched and it was running. At this point, it was basically on autopilot. They had a VA basically running the entire thing because they have a recipe database of like a billion recipes. Jim’s like, I just cash checks every month. I was like, five bucks a month, you’re cashing checks. Anyway, I like the recurring revenue model. I I do too. I can’t help you.

39:37
Don’t come to me for shiny object coaching. We recorded a shiny object syndrome podcast and now I’m off to do a new project. Here’s the thing though. I don’t think something like this is shiny object and here’s why. Okay, I’ll explain. It totally is shiny object. It’s not. It’s not. Literally when I met you, you told me you wanted to do a SaaS product. This is 10 years ago.

40:03
And you said, but the time it takes to do it is so heavy. like these, and we were talking about Greg Mercer, right? Cause at that point, Jungle Scout was still fairly newish. Um, and Greg was working a ton and I don’t even know if he was married back then, but like he was spending all of his time on Jungle Scout. And you’re like, I got into this business to spend more time with my family. So it doesn’t make sense to create a SaaS product that will take me away from my family even more. Made sense at the time.

40:32
But that was 10 years ago. It’s a completely different world now. Also, your kids are older, right? So your kids aren’t taking up the same type of time. more time now. They take more time. I totally agree. this isn’t like SaaS products today aren’t what they used to be in that like the way you want to do it. You’re not talking about developing the next Helium 10, right? Or Carbon 6. Like you’re like, hey, I want to do this. Like it’s kind of like Spencer Hawes with his plugins, right?

41:02
Yeah. He created link whisperer. You know, he’s doing that. So I don’t think it’s a shiny object because it’s something that you’ve always had in the back of your mind as like another step for you in your business. Like, do you think your book was shiny object? I actually do. Yes. Yes. book was a bucket list, which made it different in my mind. Yeah. So your book to me was shiny object because it didn’t really, you weren’t, cause you didn’t want to go on the speaking circuit. You didn’t want to become like a paid, you know, celebrity type person, like

41:31
Most people that write a book want to get like paid speaking gigs and want to do these types of things. You didn’t want to do any of that. So the book and the time that it took and all the effort didn’t have like a long-term monetary gain for you. It was a personal gain and that’s fine. But to me, the book was far more shiny object than this idea, which to me is like a retirement plan. A retirement plan. Well, the book was shiny object, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but it’s also a one-off thing.

42:01
Yeah. This is like a long-term commitment type of thing. Yeah. Right. It will probably require some engineering staff to eventually. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, all right. We got off track folks. Uh, shiny object syndrome bad, uh, email Steve with your request for apps. He’ll be taking a, we taking requests. I know. I, I think that.

42:30
It is, okay, so it’s a little shiny object, but at the end of the day, if your shiny object syndrome is part of your long-term monetization plan, then I would encourage people to make the space for it. But if the shiny object syndrome purpose is to distract you from the things that you know you need to do to grow your current business, walk away.

42:57
Hope you enjoyed this episode. For more information and resources, go over to mywifecoutorjob.com slash episode 557. And once again, tickets to Seller Summit 2025 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 to sellersummit.com. And if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to mywifecoutorjob.com and sign up for my free six-day mini course.

43:25
Just type in your email and I’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.