638: The Ecom Strategies Worth Stealing from Sellers Summit 2026

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Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. In this episode, we’re going to go over key takeaways from Seller Summit 2026 in Fort Lauderdale, walking through every session from AI powered ad creative and TikTok shop launches to sourcing strategies, Reddit SEO, and what buyers actually care about in the current M &A market. And by the end of this episode, you’ll have a full picture of where e-commerce is headed and a list of things you can actually put to work this week. But before I begin,

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I just want to take a second to mention that I have a free e-commerce community that I’m incredibly proud of and would love for you to be a part of. It is a place where real sellers come together to share wins, troubleshoot problems, and support each other through the ups and downs of building an online business. You can join completely free over at mywifequitterjob.com slash community, and I would love to see you in there. That’s mywifequitterjob.com slash community.

00:58
Welcome back to the My Web Quitter Job podcast. Tony and I just got back from Seller Summit and I’m tired. I’m still excited though. I’m still amped. I know. I love the post conference high. It like you can write it for like three or four weeks if you’re strategic. So I actually didn’t even look at emails pretty much for like the last five days. And then I tried the other day and I think it was like thousand emails or something like that. Pretty crazy.

01:25
Okay, I thought you were gonna say conference emails. like, because I always love reading the post conference emails. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, so this time it was it was gonna be like the last Seller Summit. And so we got all these you saw them, right? We got all these emails saying, hey, don’t don’t don’t stop the event. Which event are we going to go to? Yeah. And it was just this huge outpouring of love. I want to say. Yeah. So what I what I realized

01:54
when I was there is that there aren’t actually a lot of e-commerce events that are like ours. And there are a couple other really good events. I’m not, you know, we don’t like to knock other events and things like that, but we do definitely have a different environment. And I think for a couple of reasons, one, we are not like for only beginners, right? So if you’re a beginner, you can come and you feel absolutely welcome and you will learn a ton and you’ll get yourself a head start in your business.

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However, our attendees are primarily not beginners, right? Most people have a product and they’re already selling. Now, within that window, we actually do have like a huge variety, right? We have people that are, you know, still in those early phases. You’ve got one or two products, you’ve got your Amazon listing or you got your Shopify listing up, but you’re not like doing it full-time. So we have a people that are in that space, but we also have a large percentage of people who this is their full-time job. They are full-time sellers and it varies between like,

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a lot of solopreneurs or people who have like one or two VAs up to like, there are some people that come with like really big teams, right? Have multiple employees and things like that. And I think that is one thing that makes us a little bit unique is that a lot of events cater to like only beginners, only like eight figure sellers and the people in the middle get lost. And I think that is like the people that I heard from specifically were all the people in the middle, people doing a half a million dollars a year.

03:22
Right. Who feel like they don’t really fit in at a lot of other places. And then the other thing I think, too, is that sometimes you can go to these events and they feel very like bro fest. Right. And we’ve talked about this. I don’t know if talked about on the podcast, but we’ve talked about it personally. Our event is definitely 50 50, like 50 percent female, 50 percent male. And so I feel like there’s it doesn’t give that same vibe as some of those events where.

03:49
It’s like, let me get the money gone, you know, and people are like, you know, all that stuff, which I just feel like that there’s a place for those events, right? Like, and if that’s your thing and also there’s a place, I think some of those events are more like motivation and cheerleading. And that’s, I mean, we want to motivate you, but we’re definitely not like on the stage, you know, with a t-shirt gun, even though I want a t-shirt gun so badly, I want to shoot t-shirts out at Seller Summit. But anyway, I think those two things really make it an event where people feel very comfortable.

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And so to me, that was the question I got from a lot of people at the event. Like, hey, I heard this might be the last year. Like, where am I going to go? These are my people, you know, that kind of thing. And I started thinking about it. was like, yeah, you know, definitely is a little bit of a one of a kind in that respect. I want to say the females outnumbered the men. We should we should check. I think they did. I didn’t want to say that. It’s also hard to tell because like we don’t obviously count. And sometimes with names like obviously I have a name that could be either right. um

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So anyway, I think we probably are definitely a skew a little more female, although obviously guys are always welcome. Yeah, so we’ve been running this event for 10 years and I want to say this is among like the top three. Yes. me this past year. I agree. And a couple of things we did to switch it up this year was we made everything single track. Yeah. And we shortened the talks to 30 minutes and we added in more networking time.

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which I believe were some of the gripes about like the prior year, like people did not like having to choose which talk they had to go to at any given time. And you know, it’s I hate saying these things because like I’m the one who schedules everything. So I feel like I’m like, oh, feel sorry for me. I’m not saying that. But what I don’t like is that it’s really hard to figure out what talk you can put against another talk because.

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In an ideal world, you’re like, OK, we have a Shopify track, we have an Amazon track, right? But there’s a lot of topics that really cover both, right? Like they’re really more marketing specific topics or like JK’s talk, right? Sourcing, right? Whether you sell on Amazon or you sell on your own site, that talk was applicable. So it’s like, well, where do you put that talk when you have two tracks? Right. And then what would happen is sometimes you would have a talk that was like. So Tiffany Ivanovsky is a perfect example.

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Tiffany doesn’t matter what she’s talking about. People like to hear her talk. She’s just a favorite. So you got mad at me last year because I put you at the same time as Tiffany. That’s the real reason we went single track. But the problem is even people who will never do what Tiffany does want to hear her talk because she’s got so much energy and she’s really a motivating person just for e-commerce in general.

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So I think the one track definitely solves that problem. And also if it’s a topic that like, you’re just like, I do not care, I will never do this in my whole life, then that’s your time to go talk to sponsors or go time to have like, get a coffee with somebody. It gives you a little bit of extra, check your email, right? Like catch up on a little bit of work. And because the talks are only 30 minutes, it’s not this huge time gap, right? Where you’re like, what am I gonna do for two hours? It’s like, no, you’ve got 30 minutes. Go to the bathroom, check your email.

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talk to Steven Weigler and come back in. And I know the speakers liked it also. Yes. Because they’re speaking to a full room. Yes. And when there’s more people in the room, you just naturally feel more energized talking on stage. At least I do. No, I thought the energy from our attendees was fantastic. Like they were all very much into it. um Yeah, so I thought the one room part of me was like, why didn’t we do this sooner? Yeah, I know.

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And also, I know the 30 minute talk thing was something that I took from a couple other events I’ve been to in the past year. And what I realized was and we have like this is no shame on our speakers. Our speakers are phenomenal. But someone like Brett Curry, who is like so knowledgeable, knows so much and you give him an hour talk, he is going to fill that hour. Right. And he’s going to fill it like he has hundred and twenty two slides.

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it’s all gonna be awesome, but there’s no possible way you can do all of that, right? There’s just no way you can walk away from that and go, I’m gonna do everything Brett said. But when you give Brett 30 minutes, he focuses on one or two things, and then people are more likely to take that action, they’re more likely to be successful. And so I think it helps speakers, right, like narrow down what they wanna talk about instead of saying, hey, you’ve gotta fill a full hour. And it helps attendees where it’s like, hey, I can come away with this talk with two things and be successful.

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I know it helped me out a lot because for some reason I tend to condense everything down naturally. Yeah. So it’s actually hard for me to fill up an hour. Like I can cover like three topics in an hour. I I was like, do you need a little extra time? You were like, no, no, I do not. No, it was was perfect. Yeah. So all right. Should we talk about some of the sessions? Yeah. Well, we already talked about J.K. a little bit, but his talk was one where I was like, I mean, I’m not an e-commerce like I don’t have my own store anymore.

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But I do. But anyway, yeah, I work with e-commerce sellers, though, and I interact a lot with people that are in e-commerce. He gave I think he had five tips. Once again, great. Five very actionable things you could do about how to get your costs down. And some of them were like, oh, yeah, why am I not doing that? Like one of the things was like shrinking your packaging, right? Like changing the way you package your items. And you listen to that and you’re like, oh, yeah, like.

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Like those types of talks are my favorite because it’s like this stuff is so easy to do. I can go home tomorrow and make that change and immediately save.

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Have you ever wondered how much your business is actually worth? Now I sold one of my businesses through Quiet Light and honestly, just getting that initial valuation changed everything for me. Not because of that number itself, but because of what came with it. My advisor walked me through exactly what buyers would be looking for, how I needed to restructure my accounting, what documentation I was missing, the gaps in my financials that might kill a deal before it even starts, and stuff that I really had no idea that mattered when it came to selling a business.

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And here’s the thing, I wasn’t even ready to sell yet, but knowing what I needed to fix meant that I could actually start preparing and I now had a roadmap. Everyone at Quiet Light has built or sold businesses themselves. So my advisor told me what needed to change, it was actually coming from real experience sitting across from buyers. And by the time I was ready, everything was positioned right and we attracted serious buyers. So if you’ve been thinking about selling someday, even if that day feels way far off, just getting a free valuation from Quiet Light

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will make a huge difference. You’ll learn what you need to fix right now so you’re not scrambling later. And if you’re interested, go over to quietlight.com. I mean, there was some negotiation tactics too that he went over. Like that are just no brainers. You just have to ask for them. Yeah. So what was funny about JK’s talk was uh last year at seller summit, we had a couple of talks about, cause it was at the height of the tariffs last year and we had talks on how to source from the USA. Everyone, you know,

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the trend was sourcing away from China. Well, it turns out, like during my keynote, I just had everyone raise their hands. How many of you guys changed your sourcing away from China? Nobody, right? It was like two people or something. Because it’s hard, right? China makes everything. And so that’s why I thought JK’s talk was really applicable. Like if you can’t switch or you’re not willing to switch, at least get a better deal with what you’re sourcing. Yeah.

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And I thought what I what I like about JK one, he’s been a long time. I think he said this was his fifth cellar summit and he’s always come to the events. He’s always provided a lot of value to our attendees. And it was really fun to see him up on stage this year. Absolutely. And he’s been in actually my class for a decade almost. Yeah. Yeah. So that was fun. And then the next speaker that we had, it was funny. You told me we were going to have Jeff Skolnick talk about Reddit. And I was like, what? Like, nobody cares about this. And I was

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Obviously, lovely person. I really enjoyed getting to know him. But the whole time I’m like, is this going to be like, why are we doing this talk? Like, who’s on Reddit? Well, let me tell you, I had more people come up to me about Jeff’s talk than any other, even my own talk at the event. People came up to me. was like, you’re going to tell me how great I did. No, you’re going to tell me how great Jeff did. Thank you very much. People were so fascinated. And I think that’s the other thing that like makes us a little bit unique is we kind of go out like.

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on limb with some talks, right? Like, hey, this is something people are doing. It’s a strategy that works. We’re going to give you a 30 minute talk on it. He did an excellent job of giving you strategies of how to make Reddit work. In fact, one of my clients yesterday was like, so I went on Reddit and I was like, oh no. uh But anyway, fascinating talk. Definitely something I wouldn’t say if you didn’t attend the event, you got to get the recordings because that talk alone was really.

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an eye opener on something that I would say most of your competitors probably are not doing. Let me just give the background on that. The reason why I asked Jeff to talk about Reddit is because ranking in AI search is becoming a lot more important. Right. Very few people are clicking on the 10 blue links and more people are looking at the AI overviews when they’re shopping. And so the way you get on AI overviews is by ranking in Reddit or not ranking in Reddit, just showing up in Reddit. Yeah. ChachiBT

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Gemini and perplexity, they all rely heavily on Reddit content. So that’s what the talk was all about. And I love that he just told you exactly like if you’ve never logged in on Reddit, he told you exactly what to do to not be spammy. Right? That’s the other thing. um What’s funny is I used to actually be pretty big on Reddit way back in the day. know Christina. No, no, not as Christina as myself. Actually, and I actually got a large amount of traffic to my blog from Reddit way back in the day.

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Yeah. And then I got banned. I got shadow banned. Right. Because at Reddit, they’ll ban you without telling you. And then all of a sudden, like your your account doesn’t do anything and you you’re still alive. But in fact, you’re not. So, yeah, that was a really interesting talk. And literally, I had more people come up to me about that talk than any other talk at the event, which was shocking to me. But he’s he’s a really good teacher, too. You just kind of want to listen to him and learn. And I really liked his approach.

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And then of course, another Jeff, we had two Jeffs back to back, Jeff Oxford, who talked about SEO and AEO. And I don’t know, Jeff always just does such a great job. And I love that he only had 30 minutes because he’s another one that can deliver a full hour of just like absolute crushing information. But you kind of are like, I can’t do this. But like with a half hour, I walked out of there and I was like, oh, yeah, this isn’t that hard.

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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 attained 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. What I was fascinated about his talk in particular is everything he teaches is backed by evidence that he gathers. He doesn’t just pull random stats across the web. He has enough clients and enough, he actually writes all his own apps too, believe it or not. And he gathers these stats and he proves

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everything that he’s doing. So I trust him for everything that he does. Yeah. And he’s so great. Like another thing that I like about both Jeff’s, but Jeff Oxford’s been to several seller summits is that he’s always available, like during the event, talk to you, roundtable, really help people. I especially because he does. That’s what he does for a living, right? He has an agency, but he’s more than happy to chat with people, give them take a look at their website.

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and give them some really good advice. So I felt like that was another one where you left with like one or two really practical things that you could implement right away. So what was funny is he wasn’t sure if he’d have permission to come to Seller Summit this year. So he actually brought his entire family. know he brought his whole family. Yeah, because the the venue is right on the water, like on the beach. So his family went on the beach while he gave his talks. So it worked out. Yeah, it’s definitely like if I was speaking to Seller Summit and I wasn’t like.

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running the event, I would 100 % make it a vacation. Like it’s just so nice over there. The weather was much nicer this time too, because we moved it up a couple of weeks. a little bit, a little bit cooler for those of you who are not from Florida. And then we had Ian Page, who, oh my goodness, TikTok shop. Let me set the stage for that real quick. OK, Amazon is losing discovery and research.

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What I mean by that is people aren’t discovering new products on Amazon anymore. They’re discovering it on TikTok, Reddit, and then they’re doing research on AI. And then when they know what they want to buy, then they go to Amazon. So TikTok shop is a huge opportunity for a lot of people. Yeah. So the one thing I really liked about Ian’s talk, and I feel like some, especially because Ian runs an agency, right? Bullseye Seller is one of our sponsors. They sponsored last year, really great team.

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I feel like a lot of times when you have an agency talk, they like cloak everything with like, well, the price varies, it depends. Like he was like, if you want to do this, it’s going to cost you X amount of dollars. If you want to do this, it’s going to cost you this. If you don’t have an audience, it’s going to be this. Like he was like very honest about like not necessarily like it wasn’t like we’re going to charge you, but like this is how much you’re going to have to spend to get your products out there, run advertising, do all these things.

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And I feel like so many times people that have like an interest in you working with them, which obviously he does. um One, he was like, don’t work with me, work with me. Here’s how you do it. Right. So first of all, like I love that approach. And then two, you know, for like the most extreme tier, I think it was like close to almost 100 grand. Right. Not to pay him, but to like what you’re going to spend as a store to get it up and going. And to me, I was like, thanks for like actually telling us the truth.

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and not making everything sound like this big fairy tale of TikTok, right? Where people are just gonna go and it’s gonna be free money and you know, all these things and everyone’s gonna immediately buy all your products. So anyway, I thought he presented a really realistic view, also a very doable view. um So most agencies go up on stage and they make it sound so complicated that you hire them. That’s the typical MO of an agency. The reason why Ian and I get along so well,

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is because he actually tries to talk you out of it. Yes. Right. He gives you like the nitty gritty of everything. And then he you’ll notice like he provided both costs. Like if you were to do this on your own, which is totally doable, he said, this is how much it’s going to cost you. If you hire an agency, this is what’s going to cost you. Here are the benefits of going with an agency. Here are the benefits of not. Yeah. The whole time he was giving the talk, though, you one of my clients was there and.

19:18
I in my mind, I’m like, don’t don’t say you want to start TikTok. Don’t say you want to start TikTok. Don’t like don’t make it so easy that. But yeah, and I think it’s interesting because I feel like people right now have a love hate relationship with TikTok, right? It’s it’s feeling a lot like Amazon. People either like are like, love it or I can’t stand it. But I definitely think that it’s a place where you need to be as a brand.

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I don’t think you can avoid it for much longer. Depending on what you sell, of course. And he was very specific about that, too. Right. If you sell in these categories, it’s pretty much a no brainer. If you know, there’s definitely categories where you should not be. It’s something you need to worry about. Yeah. And then we already kind of talked about Brett Curry, but YouTube has a similar model as TikTok shop. Like you get creators, affiliates, and it’s just another platform that’s.

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I think they’re playing a little bit of catch up to TikTok, but it’s up and coming. you know, Google and YouTube have a lot of money to throw out the problem. Yeah. And then Chuck Mullins from Quiet Light got up and talked about basically the state, the state of selling your business. And he, you know, I really like I don’t know what is maybe it’s my personal preference, but I love talks when he’s like, have company A, company B, company C. Here’s what they have.

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which one sold for the best multiple? And you have to like kind of I’m like, I wanna win so badly, although I have no idea what the answer is. I’m like so competitive. um But it was really interesting. Like what companies, the company that you like think on the surface sells for the most or the best multiple was like the least. And so just hearing it from someone who does this every single day, day in, day out, um of the things that you.

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need to be thinking about if this is in your roadmap for your business. The other thing, and I loved this analogy, is he said, too many people think about selling your business like selling your house, right? You put flowers in the front, you paint the walls, you repair everything. And he was like, absolutely do not do that in your business because people are looking for a fixer-upper, right? Like that’s what makes your business valuable. If your business is absolutely perfect, people don’t see an opportunity.

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versus what people are used to selling, right? A house, most people have bought and sold a house or two in their lifetime. You’re like conditioned to like, oh my gosh, like get rid of everything, remove all our family photos, paint all the walls, the broken light socket. And he’s like, don’t do anything. Like obviously there’s certain things you need to do to make it sellable. to me, was like the most, uh that was the best point. And then the second best point was make your business um so that someone can get an SBA loan.

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Yes, I was like, I mean, it makes total sense, right? But if like someone can get an SBA loan, the ability, the quicker it sells, the better the multiple like the details were really interesting. So definitely worth a listen, because I even though I’m not selling a business anytime soon, I was like, wow, this is all like really good information to just have if you ever are thinking that that is in your in your path at some point.

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I mean, I think that’s gonna be the end goal for a lot of people’s businesses, selling it, right? And there’s actually a lot of things that you need to do before you’re able to sell or to maximize your selling power. And so if you guys are listening to this and you have a business, I would advise that you go just make an appointment with Quiet Light and just get your business evaluated to see how much it’s worth. Like, I’m always curious how much my business are worth and I’m sure you guys are too. And then they’ll set you straight on like the best practices

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because maybe you’re not ready to sell right now. But if you want to sell within like the next three years, there is a series of steps that you need to take to make sure you get like the maximum valuation. And I’ve talked to a couple of people who have like longtime sellers, some of the attendees who are not ready to sell right now, but are in the you know, it’s definitely something that they are thinking about in three to four years. And they have all met with either Chuck or Ian or Pat was there last year. And basically, they pointed out some like red flags right in their business where it’s like, hey,

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this is something that you do need to fix in order for it to be sold. And so they’re now like basically changing a little bit of their strategy moving forward so that they can do that. So I think that alone is like very valuable to have them there. Yep. And then we have Scott Cunningham. Oh my gosh. Like what is the like I didn’t realize he was such a rock star. He got like mobbed after his talk. You can tell that that guy speaks regularly. Oh my goodness. Yes. Yeah. I had just met him.

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maybe a couple of months prior and we instantly hit it off because we had the same principles and same values, right? Own your own store, own your own email list, the brand, storytelling and all that stuff. So he gave a really amazing talk on how to use storytelling to boost your business, specifically with meta ads, email marketing and that sort of thing. He also gave everybody his free AI tool that basically

24:24
Everything that he talked about, it allows you to do those things within this tool, kind of following the story brand model. Yeah. Now, I have a question for you. We might have to edit this out. I don’t know. If people buy the recordings, do they also get access to that tool or was that a 10 day deal? They do. OK, they do. I didn’t want to like jump the gun. But it’s funny because like as soon as he gave this really great presentation and then he’s like, I’m going to give you the framework.

24:51
you know, at the end. as soon as he put that QR code up, it was like the Wild West of cell phone photos, right? Like everyone’s like whipping out their phone, taking the photos ah anyway, get grabbing that QR code. So that’s exciting. I’m glad he’s given that’s very generous or generous of him to give that away to everybody. Absolutely. Yeah. And that wrapped up day one. Yep. And I will say we uh it’s kind of become a little bit of a seller summit tradition. I don’t remember exactly how it started, but

25:20
We do tacos and margaritas at the Mexican restaurant for everybody. um So I don’t know any other conference that feeds people dinner. So Pat, ourselves in the back for that one. And shout out to Pam and Rick from HYC. Oh my gosh. Shout out to Pam and Rick from RPC. Oh my goodness. We’re going to have to edit that one out. So let me just, just a quick, quick story about that. Like when we first started Seller Summit in 2016,

25:49
It was very hard to get a sponsor. Yes. Like no one wanted to take a chance on a conference that had no track record. And Pam was one of those people who took a chance on our company. And so I’m very appreciative. Yes. And so they sponsored our Taco and Margarita night. um It’s one of my favorite parts of the event because like the first day is over. People have started to network and meet friends and things like that. So everyone is like I feel like Tuesday night it’s a little bit of like.

26:17
You’re trying to figure out who you know, trying to find people. You’re like, you know, people first timers are sometimes a little nervous. And I’m always trying to find first timers to say hello and like kind of connect them. By the second night, everybody is like best friends and I’ve been removed from that. Like no one wants to talk to me anymore. but I love that night. And I will say, Pam, if you haven’t met her, holy cow. Like she just is she just can go and go like I’m like, do you sleep? Do you need to like take a break from talking to people like I?

26:47
I think the very last night of the event, she was like up on the top. We were up on that deck and she’s like has a little circle of like people that she’s helping. And she even told me she’s like, none of those people are going to work with me. And she’s like, but she’s still like, you know, absolutely giving them all the information, helping them out with their logistics. And yeah. And the other funny thing is she brought all this swag this year, like water bottles and all this stuff. And people thought she was selling it. So we had to make a sign that said free.

27:16
Because people thought she was selling RPC swag. were nice. were super nice. Stanley’s? don’t know about water Yeah, water bottles and these little, I love those little clear pouches because you can use them when you fly. so people were trying to pay for them. So Arden had to make a little tag that said this is all free. So anyway, Wednesday night wrapped up with uh a dinner party. And of course, I tried to go to bed at a decent hour. I don’t know what time.

27:44
Everyone shut down the restaurant there, but that was always a fun night. Plus I had to get ready for Thursday because we had another full day of sessions. And yes, so we started off the morning with Liz and Dana. Yes, they were talking about how to take customer feedback and convert those into AI generated videos. I actually ran through their talk yesterday and implemented some of the videos. Awesome. And it works really well. Like this will save a tremendous amount of time.

28:13
for meta creatives, meta videos, or even just like short promotional videos that you’ll have on your website. It was amazing. Yeah, and what I loved about it was they used one of our attendees, Kelly Dream. That’s right. They used, and actually they used some of your stuff too as a demonstration. So instead of just kind of doing all theory and not anything practical, they actually took products that people are selling.

28:39
ran through, got the reviews off the website, ran it through all the tools that they’re talking about, and it really is doable. It’s not something that you’re like, oh well, you I’m probably never gonna do that. Like 100 % you could do this, like you said, you did it in afternoon. People could easily. I mean, I ran through it yesterday. It took about 30 minutes, and what’s nice is I kind of felt like a director. So you produce a video and then you just tell it in just regular words.

29:07
what you don’t like about it and then it fixes it on the fly and gives you a video that you can use for like an ad or or whatever social media. Yeah. So that was awesome. And I have to say, I told Liz this, um you know, yesterday and after the event, I mean, we’ve known Liz for a long time. Last year, gave the closing keynote. She did a phenomenal job. And I hate it. I don’t want to get too far off tangent, but people don’t like to make videos. People don’t like to do the webinars. People don’t like to go live.

29:35
I will tell you the difference in Liz’s like stage presence in the last like 18 months because she does webinars every week. She goes live every week. She does office hours is like she was good before. She’s fantastic now. Absolutely. She’s like a she’s like a paid speaker, right? Like someone that does this for she got up there and she had like this stance and I was like, oh, oh, we’re like big time, right? Like anyway, so I just want to say to people who are like nervous because we’re going to talk about this in a minute with Tiffany’s talk.

30:03
People who are nervous about getting on video, making content, all those things, man, the more you do it, the better you get. you can look at Liz as a great example of someone who started off pretty good and is now phenomenal. Yeah. Which leads us to the next talk, which I thought was phenomenal. Leah Segovio. Yes. He was giving out these automations that allow you to clone any Facebook ad that you see and just insert your product into it.

30:32
Yeah. And he came out with this hat, this money hat, broke the ice immediately. It was hilarious. my goodness. Yeah. It was like this. I don’t even know. was like had battery powered or something. He had like flashing lights. It was. Yeah, I liked it. It was fun. But I thought it was amazing the output that was. So I think he actually went through a complete example where he found an ad.

30:54
for I believe it was a deodorant or something like that. I can’t remember what it was. He’s had a couple. He had a weight loss one and a deodorant one. And then the one I won’t ever, no one in the audience will forget is the baby carriage. Yes, the baby carriage. But what he did is he was like, okay, I sell a product that’s a competitor to this. He took an ad that he found from Facebook ads library and then switched his product in to that ad. And he created this automation in 8N that he handed out freely to the entire audience.

31:24
that automatically generated these ads. Yeah, yeah. Pretty amazing. um And you have to watch his talk because he gave some examples of when AI goes wrong and when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong. Right. And I will say, like, it’s funny because like some of the stuff that we saw from that, I felt like was like, oh, that’s not that’s good. It’s not great. But also, I remember seeing stuff last year, not from him, but from other people where it was like.

31:49
It’s so much better today than it was even six months ago. I can’t even imagine where it’s going to be in another six months. Yeah. I mean, we say that all the time. It’s been true for the most part. Yes. Were you the next speaker? I I was the next speaker right after the break. I paying any attention. You guys know how I feel about the Shopify app store. I actually had some numbers to back me up this time. Sixty percent of the apps in the app store are very easy to code up yourself. Yeah.

32:18
The remaining 30 to 40%, maybe you should pay for, but there’s a lot of people out there. Actually, in the audience, asked, how many of you, what’s funny, I use these examples of specific Shopify apps that are just total rip-offs. And I was like, how many people are using these apps? And actually, a whole bunch of people were using them. So I taught them how to vibe code those apps, basically, live on stage. Yeah, that was a good…

32:44
I mean, I felt like I already knew the talk only because you and I talk about this like every single week with each other of like, you’re like, what app are you using that I could code this week? And I’m like, try coding this thing. So anyway, I thought it was a great talk. And I felt like once again, it was just enough information so that people can go home and at least replace, at least get started, right? Even replacing one or two one of their $20 a month apps. Yeah. Because once you do one, you’re empowered to then take it a little further and

33:14
do something a little tougher the next time around. And it was a level playing field. Like I went through the whole process without even looking at the code, just as a regular user. And that’s when I need my t-shirt gun and I can shoot out. just a little bit of code t-shirts to everybody in the audience. OK, moving on. So I asked Isabella to talk because she has this amazing framework.

33:42
for doing product research. And her track record is amazing. If you follow her method of product research, you’re almost guaranteed that your product that you launch is not gonna be a flop. And what’s cool is she handed out this AI app that she developed where you enter in some parameters from uh popular Amazon research tools and it will give you a number that’s like a probability of success. And so I thought that was very valuable.

34:10
And I love that she did a live demo on stage. Yes. And the whole time she’s like she had already set it all up and she’s like, I hope when I click go, it doesn’t like reset itself because everything had already been populated in there. But it was really interesting. And yeah, I think if you’re if you’re interested in and launching new products on Amazon or even getting started on Amazon, it was definitely a talk that you need to need to hear. Yep. And then we had another one of our O.G.’s. Yes. Give a talk. Chris Schaeffer.

34:40
He talked about the one-person content machine. Now, if you were to talk to a lot of the larger e-commerce companies, they have full teams that are dedicated to content, right? But thanks to AI, it does not have to be that way anymore. And so you could put out the same similar output to an entire team by yourself now if you follow Chris Schaeffer’s methods.

35:04
Well, first of all, you just loved Chris Schaeffer, right? Like he comes every year. He’s he’s the last person to leave. He talks, you know, he wants to help everybody. His mastermind. I mean, I don’t even know what happened in that room, but like, I’m pretty sure that they’re all now got matching tattoos and our best friends for life. Like they hung that that group hung out the whole time. I don’t know if you saw that. They were like fast friends and they’re starting. They’re going to meet throughout the year. And, you know, he just rocked it in there. And then

35:33
I feel like with Chris’s talks, he does all the content generation for like six companies, six e-commerce companies, he was saying. It’s everything that he’s doing. So you know that it’s possible because he’s the only one doing it. So anyway, that’s what I like about Chris is he’s never showing you something that he isn’t already doing and working through. And so it’s always very practical, useful information that you can. And also piggybacked on some of Dana Michelle and Liz’s stuff with Remotion.

36:02
So anyway, there was like a tie in there that was nice that we didn’t even know was gonna happen. So I actually checked out his freebies, you know, that he was giving out. There was actually a lot of stuff in there and he did not gate it in any way. You click on it and you just get it all. Yeah, it’s pretty nuts. So I guess we’re giving those to the virtual passes too. They get that. They do. OK, wow. They get all the freebies. This is getting to be too good to be true. I feel like an infomercial. And then we had Dave Bryant who

36:31
I had never met. In fact, I thought he was Asian. um I was like, right. Yes. And I also thought he was I didn’t know he was Canadian. So I was thoroughly confused when I saw his photo and realized that uh he was not uh Asian. You disappointed he wasn’t Asian? A little, obviously. But he I told him, said, I don’t know why I thought you were Asian. He said, well, I guess Mike Jackness had had another partner that was Asian, and that’s probably why I was confused. um Did he?

36:59
I don’t know. That’s what he said. Oh, sorry. So just an intro. Dave runs Ecomacrew. Yeah. And he’s been on the pod a bunch of times. So you guys probably know who he is. Yeah. But Mike used to be like the main spokesperson, I would say. Yeah, not anymore. Not anymore. So, Dave, uh I wanted to see him speak. And I actually, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting him to be that amazing.

37:24
No, so I want to say like no one ever can top Tiffany for like laughs and audience like response. He was very close. I mean, he had people like shouting and laughing and yelling. mean, he did talk about his whole knitting.com saga. And um yeah, it was it was a very interesting talk. was about what to do when your audience turns on you and how to basically survive it, which I think in this day and age is something that happens to more companies than used to because of the rise of social media.

37:54
Right? Like one thing on social media can basically take a company out of business. And so he basically talked through the stuff that happened with them and knitting.com and what their plan of action and how they move past that and to build a successful company. But yeah, one amazing on stage to super nice guy. Just like I’ve never met a Canadian that I didn’t like. That’s true. Because also I was like, what is this? The Canadian show we had Scott and J.K. and Dave. I didn’t think about that. Yeah.

38:24
I was like, Steve’s doing something here. I don’t know what it is. But anyway, I was it was excited to finally meet him because I had heard so much about him. And it was also interesting to hear the story from his point of view and not Mike’s because I had only heard Mike’s point of view. Right. And it was a little bit different. But Dave is an amazing speaker. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely crushed it. And then, of course, Tiffany, I know you put her last because just to energize the room. Yes. Yes.

38:53
She’s, oh my goodness. It’s hard to, it’s hard to, like, what do you even say about Tiffany? She just gets up, doesn’t matter what she talks about. ah This year she talked about the halo effect and how it’s kind of like, it was interesting because we definitely try to get talks that piggyback or build, but this year it just worked out so perfectly because it was like, and this was on purpose, is day two was all about like increasing your presence, building the efficiency right with AI, using the tools.

39:21
And then Tiffany kind of wrapped it up with this like, you need to be everywhere and this is why. And showing us how, you know, it’s kind of similar stuff from the day before with like, you know, people are finding you on TikTok, but buying you on Amazon and how you create that content. And once again, just giving people she did a live, she did a big TikTok recording in front of the whole audience, you know, show people how it’s OK to mess up, keep going um and basically explain why it was so important to

39:51
be putting yourself, your brand out there and um really, really like casting that wide net. Like I said, like I could watch her do anything. Right. The prior year, she actually went on with my wife and did some live selling on stage. I thought was pretty amazing also. Yes. And she I think she might have topped that performance with this one because she had all these video examples. Yes. And she even recorded a live one on stage to.

40:19
Yes. And her example, she always talks about one of the things I love about her. She’s just so real. Right. Like and she talks about how if you are making these recordings where your brand and that sort of thing, like if you mess up, it’s OK. You should just keep continue to post and post those things. And she showed a couple of her mistakes. One of the ones is when she swallowed a bug when she was live. Yes. And she was like choke. Anyway, like the videos are so funny. She’s I love that she’s OK to be embarrassed. Like she doesn’t get she’s probably embarrassed, but like

40:48
She’s like, hey, this creates engagement. And so what you want is engagement for your brand. So it’s OK to post those things. And then finally, we had the last speaker of them all. The closing keynote was none other than Tony. Yes, it was so much fun. I had so much fun up there. You were not nervous leading up to it at all. I don’t know why. Oh, I do know why. Why? I do know why. So two things happened.

41:14
So I was nervous. So first of all, I knew that I had to start working on this talk like six months ago, because if I didn’t, I would be a wreck, because I have so much else going on like the week of the event. Like I couldn’t be like working on the talk. So that was number one. So I started it a long time ago, which was good, because it gave me lot of time to like iterate on it. Number two, Dana Jean-Zemes, our closing keynote from 2023, sent me an article that she had written early that week. And basically it was,

41:43
With public speaking, when you get on stage, everybody in the room wants you to succeed because no one wants to sit through a bad talk. And I was like, that is so true. Like, I don’t want to sit through a bad talk. So everybody in this in the audience is cheering you on. They want you to be good because they don’t want to listen to someone who’s bad. Right. So it kind of like calms the nerves a little bit, knowing that like everybody in the audience is cheering for you. And then finally.

42:10
My kids were there, which was really cool. Yes. Not all of them, but a couple of them were there. So that was kind of fun. And also, like my son is like, you know, that wasn’t totally true. You were screaming at us the whole time. We were trying to pack orders. I’m like, everybody in e-commerce knows that. That’s I didn’t need to share that information. um But so that was really cool. But Mike Barnhill had to had to go to a meeting on Thursday. And so when I was talking to him on Wednesday night, he was like, yeah, I got to dip out like at lunch. I’ve got this meeting. And I was like, oh, my gosh, you’re so.

42:39
I had had a conversation with someone previously how having Mike Barnhill in the audience is the most empowering thing that you can have when you speak, because he is like 100 % locked in. He is engaged. He is the person you want to make eye contact with because he is like all there. Right. your biggest fan. He is your biggest fan. No matter who you are, he is your biggest fan. Right. So then he tells me he’s not going to be there the night before. And I was like.

43:03
was planning on locking in on Mike Barnhill and just being like, this is the Mike Barnhill talk, right? And so I was like, oh, are you kidding me? And, know, and we just talked about it he’s like, well, maybe I could. like, but I would have to change my flight because he was supposed to fly out of Miami and all this stuff because his meeting was in Miami. So sure enough, that dude paid money, changed his flight, came back to Fort Lauderdale for the closing keynote. And when I looked out and saw him in the audience, I was like, I’ve already won. Like, yeah.

43:32
This is like, like this means more to me, right? Seeing people that like have been so impactful in my life, like in the audience, either as business friends, you know, whatever. um So, yeah, it was really fun to get up there. I don’t want to give too much away for people, but like I basically said, hey, don’t go out of here with a big list. Yeah, no, there was was more to it than that. It’s really hard to do a closing keynote also. Very hard. It’s very hard. But you you managed to wrap everything up nicely.

44:01
some very good takeaways with your infinite wisdom. mean, we’ve known each other for over a decade now. You’ve been through a lot coping with it. And shout out to Mike Barnhill, lead singer of Hydrofighter. He has an album coming out, I think, in the next month or so. it’s actually I actually really enjoy his music. So I always like giving him a shout out. I wear my Hydrofighter shirt very proudly. I know I need to get a Hydrofighter shirt.

44:28
But anyway, yeah, so and then Mike in that whole conversation, he told me something else that I actually I was like, you know what? This is like some of the best life advice I’ve ever heard. And he basically said, I wake up every day thinking that this could be the best day of my entire life. And I was like, that. was like, what? Like, I like up thinking this could be the worst day of my entire life. It’s true. You’ve been beaten down by the rigors of life.

44:56
He told me that on Wednesday night and I woke up Thursday morning and I was like, today could be the greatest day that I’ve had in my entire life. That’s there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be. Right. Yeah. And I have been like kind of carrying that all since Seller Summit’s over. And like each day, I mean, like every day is not a great day. Right. But like I was like, you know what? You got to start the day that way. If the day beats you down, it beats you down. But like I’ve been kind of on that path in the past week or so. And I’ve like I feel like I’ve been riding like the high.

45:26
because I’m like, yeah, you never know what’s going to be the greatest day of your life. And I joked about it in my talk about like our once in a lifetime, you know, warriors game and how like, you know, business creates opportunities for you. Right. It gives you opportunities to do things that maybe you never thought were possible, whether it’s financially.

45:43
time, opportunity, the people you meet, and you’ve got to take advantage of those things, right? You can’t get caught up in the day to day. So for me, that was the biggest lesson I took away from Seller Summit. All the talks were fantastic, but waking up every day like it could be the greatest day of your life is probably one some of the best advice I’ve ever heard. I think everyone needs a little bit more Mike Barnhill in their lives. Closing keynote for 2027. Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I it’s assuming there is a 2027. But anyway. It’s been brewing. It’s been brewing in my head.

46:14
We are selling the virtual passes for Seller Summit 2026 on the website. And we’ll probably leave that open for maybe a month or so. Videos are getting edited. They should be up very soon.

46:29
Hope you enjoyed this episode. The virtual pass for Seller Summit 2026 is still available if you want to catch all the sessions. Go to sellersummit.com. And for more information and resources, go over to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 638. And once again, if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to mywifequitterjob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.