648: Most Sellers Launch Their Products Wrong (Here’s the Better Way)

00:00
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, Tony and I get into why so many people launch an e-commerce product completely backwards, building the entire thing and then going, all right, now where are the customers? We talk about how brutal meta costs have gotten and share this inspiring story of someone who did a seven figure launch without spending a dime on ads just by building a community for a year before she ever even mentioned her product. Enjoy the episode.

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But before we begin, I just wanted 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 at mywifequitterjob.com slash community and I would love to see you there. That’s mywifequitterjob.com slash community. Now onto the show.

01:02
Welcome back to the My Wife, Quit Her Job podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about launch strategies for an e-commerce product. I think that a lot of people do things backwards. They launch a product and then they go, okay, where are the customers? Yeah, this is question I see in the course all the time in profitable online store. People get very excited. They have an idea. They do all the manufacturing and then the product arrives in their garage.

01:30
right or on Amazon and they’re like, okay, now what? Why is it anyone buying? Why am I not getting any traffic to my Shopify store? I feel like I this on that damn movie field of dreams. I think we’re like aging ourselves by talking about this movie, like Kevin Costner movie, the Kevin Costner movie where if you build it, they will come right? Yeah, that was the key takeaway of that video of that movie for me. And I think everyone thinks that that’s the case. Yeah, and I think that’s

02:00
Unfortunately, all of the different I mean, there’s so much content out there right about e-commerce on YouTube and TikTok and how to start a business. And a lot of people are like, you you just got to find your product, you just got to get it. And, then people will buy. it’s like, well, not really. um And then I also I’ve seen this thread a lot in the ECF forums recently about people like blowing through meta spend and just I mean, everyone knows the costs have gone up. It’s not 2020 anymore.

02:29
And I think if you don’t have a large jackpot to pull from for advertising, then you’re in trouble to launch a new product. Unless you’re on Amazon. So the Field of Dreams model worked for Amazon, but it’s working less now because Amazon’s squeezing sellers and they have been for like the last 10 years. And what was funny about meta ads is there was this point when Timu and Shein got hit by the tariffs when the ad spend

02:58
or the costs actually dropped for a little bit. But I think you’re right. I think they’re back. I haven’t actually checked my CPMs lately, but yeah. I mean, it’s crazy to read through the forum. One day I just kind of went in a rabbit hole on Meta in the ECF forums and there are people that are like, we’re not advertising on Meta anymore. Like we can’t afford it. And I was like, well, like I’m not sure if that’s the, mean, these are like seasoned sellers, right? So I don’t know enough about their business, but you know,

03:27
to the fact that it’s gotten so expensive that some people are saying like, it’s just not affordable is is crazy, right? If think of how quickly the things have shifted from even just a couple years ago till today, which brings us to the topic of today’s podcast. The reason we decided to film this episode was because there was someone on on that forum, ECF forums, which I recommend if you guys want to apply, I think you have to make

03:55
a million dollars in order to join that form. But she spent zero money on launching this product and it ended up being like a seven figure launch or something like that. I don’t remember the exact details, but the point is that she started creating organic content for an entire year before launch. So she had the audience and she built that product specifically for that audience. And if you’re going to launch a product, that’s the way to do it. So I think this is crazy.

04:25
because she basically spent a year building an audience and she said in her post that she did not mention her brand one time. Like she didn’t talk about what was coming, which I don’t necessarily think is a bad strategy, but she went all in on building the community and building a group of people who were very loyal. And I do think, you you and I both coming from like the blogging background is that community aspect is the one

04:55
Um, as like Chuck Mullins, he likes to say the moat, right? Of your business. If you can build a community of people who are passionate about what you’re talking about, it’s not that hard to transfer that into being a community member to being a customer. I think the difference between my strategy and her strategy, cause I launched my class based on the audience I had built for two years on my wife, could her job.

05:22
I think the difference between me and her was like, I had no plan. Like I did not want to sell a class I remember. And I was just creating content for the sake of creating content and building that audience. It sounded to me like she had a plan like, I’m going to do this for a year. I’m going to a community and then I have this product in the wings and I’m going to launch.

05:43
Yeah, there was definitely a coordinated effort on her part. wasn’t like, I because there are people and we know, mean, like my son is one of them, right? Like accidentally builds this giant community, right? What didn’t have like, oh, I’m going to start doing this. And my end goal is to launch this. She has a wellness product, right? m There are lot of people we know who accidentally build communities because of their passion for something or because their expertise. And so.

06:11
there are probably some people in that boat, right? Who already have built this community accidentally. And it’s like, well, we all know that just monetizing the community through ads and TikTok revenue is probably not the safest and best business model that you can put out there. So I like the fact that she focused initially on the community building side, knowing obviously at the end that she did have a product that she wanted to sell. The thing is it takes a lot of patience to do that.

06:41
Like when I launched Bumble Bee Linens, if someone were to tell me, you got to build content for a year before you start even mentioning your product and making any sales, I would have a lot of problems doing that. So I think if someone in our course who’s done that to some degree, not at the level that this person did it, but if we look at Zachary, Christina, she built Instagram and TikTok, I believe, uh with

07:10
pet related content. has a pet product. think now it is, I think it’s available now to buy. But she kind of did that in a, and not as like complete focus sort of way, but it definitely is something that I think is doable, but it takes a lot of commitment. But here’s the thing. Yes, it is hard to post for a year and get content out, but it is so much easier to do that today than it was five years ago because you have AI. I think in Christina’s case,

07:40
And maybe anyone listening out there, once you come up with a product and it’s in production, that whole process can take months. Yes. In the meantime, maybe that’s a good time to do it. Once you have the product defined and your orders coming, you know, you probably have like a three or four month window. You should just start creating content right away. Well, we get that question a lot, too, of which do I do first? Do I set up my Shopify site or do I do this or do I start creating content first? And it’s like, well, if your product is in production or if you’re

08:09
you know, working towards that on one side, you should be creating the content on the other side, because it’s easier than ever to do that with all of the tools and schedulers and everything that’s available to people that weren’t there 10 years ago. Yeah, so let’s talk about the strategy on how to do that, because it’s pretty overwhelming for a lot of people, you know, telling someone to just create content, right is one thing, uh implementing it is another.

08:37
And there’s a bunch of e commerce folks that I follow on TikTok. I don’t know if that’s the case for you. ah And the strategies that work the best, at least for me to even follow them, is that they just do their day to day in the job, and they just talk about what’s going on in their mind. And they talk about, like hurdles that they’re having with their business. So there’s this scrunchie company that I follow.

09:05
Did talk about this in the past? I have. don’t know, but I just like because your hair is so long or what are we doing? So obviously I’m not into scrunchies or anything, which is the case in point here, right? Like I’m not into the product or anything, but I would definitely support this woman. Like if she needed something, like if my daughter needed a scrunchie, I’d probably buy from her. Yeah. She’s just this solo. Well, she was a solo founder. Now she has like a pretty big operation, but she hand makes scrunchies. Okay. And

09:35
like there’s there’s a whole bunch of like hurdles she’s had an obstacle she’s had with her business, but in doing so and just sharing her day to day and I’m pretty sure she just filmed something. Well, she’s much more sophisticated now. But back in the day, she just put up her phone, film like a short little minute clip, like every day. Yeah. Before she started work. And granted, she’s pretty, I mean, she’s not like an actor or anything. But she’s

10:03
pretty genuine on camera and she stumbles. I don’t even think she, in the beginning she edited her stuff at all, but just the fact that she was telling us about her business and all the problems she’s had with it, it made me like, know, feel like I knew her in person. Yeah, so that’s definitely one angle you can take is sort of the founder journey. Yeah. So basically you’re letting people in on the very beginning, right?

10:32
Here I am in my back room sewing scrunchies with my $400 sewing machine. And then here we are with three sewing machines. You can show the whole journey. Here we are with our very first order. Here we are picking out fabric. Here’s why we like this fabric. Here’s why we do this. So it gets people really invested in your brand. It also gets people to cheer you on. Yes. Because you, someone who will never buy a scrunchie for yourself,

11:02
is very invested in this person’s success. You want them to be successful and if you have an opportunity to help them be more successful, you’ll probably take it because you’ve invested a lot of time into their founder journey. Yeah. 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

11:30
on how to get started in e-commerce 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. 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. I remember I wanted for at least

12:00
This year she put out a video. She’s like, I’m just totally burned out. Like I’m tired of hand making these scrunchies. She’s like, I’m doing a liquidation. It’s literally one is sewing one line lady. You can do it. It’s actually a little more complicated. I’ve many scrunchies. I’m sure you have, but when you make thousands of them, I’m sure it’s like a family operation. Yes. I know all about that. She did this sale. Just she’s like, I’m taking a break sale. And then she came back like two months later.

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but she had made a ridiculous amount of sales. And I’d like to think that she’s genuine, in the back of my mind, I’m like, huh, was this all planned? So my best advice for people uh who want to take the founder route, we have someone in the course who sells My Bobette, which is a hair cutting system for fine hair. uh She’s making founder content right now.

12:57
doing a great job being very consistent with the videos. I would say if you’re going to make founder content, it’s important to be genuine, but be the best genuine version of yourself. What does that mean? So I think that you like I think you need to show the good, bad and the ugly, but I think you need to minimize like what ugly you show. So.

13:19
I don’t think everyone needs to see the worst parts of things because I think sometimes people are like, I need to be totally genuine. And then it’s like, no, no, you don’t. People don’t need to see all of that. um I think what gets people addicted to founder stories is something that’s interesting, right? it’s so there’s so with the sewing thing, there’s movement, right? Like she’s sewing.

13:43
you’re like, wow, this person’s doing this. In a world where everything feels very automated, she’s still making something by hand, right? But what you don’t wanna see is her in slow motion having to rethread the sewing machine 22 times, right? Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. But what do you mean by the ugly, too? There was one time when an order arrived late or the fabric was all wrong, stuff like that’s fine. That’s fine, that’s not. But I’m saying you want it to be a good version of yourself. ah You don’t wanna show like,

14:13
Like how many mistakes maybe maybe orders arrive wrong all the time for her. Like, let’s not show all of that. Right. OK. You show what. But I think people sometimes people take stuff that we say very literally. And so it’s like you said to show the ugly. It’s like, well, no, not that ugly. uh So I just think you need to be uh discerning and and how you present because you want people to have a favorable view of you or your company. Sure. Of course. Of course.

14:42
So that’s just one type of content for the types of e-commerce brands that I follow. Another type is to just be entertaining, right? And not even talk about your product. I feel like this is the hardest thing for people to do and most people cannot do this. That’s my advice. Like if this, you think that you’re entertaining, ask five friends. Well, okay, let me give you, so let’s use Christina as an example. Okay. So she stills these, uh

15:11
nail clippers for dogs where there’s like a built-in magnifying glass. And so all of her content is just pet related content, which works really well, right? Cute pets. Cute pets are entertaining for sure. Oh, so, okay, right. So you don’t have to be entertaining. What you do has to be entertaining. But I think too many people these days think that because of the rise of the influencer culture, right? And like, in fact, for some reason, I don’t know how I got on this side of TikTok last night.

15:39
I saw a Charlie D’Amelio video. Do you know who Charlie D’Amelio is? OG. The OG, right? And she basically got started doing like dances and stuff on TikTok. Well, she’s still doing dances, but she’s like 157 million followers. Like it’s some ridiculous amount. But I’m like watching like I got like in the rabbit hole of Charlie D’Amelio and I was like, I’m not her demographic and I’m sure she’s fantastic. She’s not for me. Right. And but most people

16:07
are not going to see the Charlie de Mille level of success by just turning on your camera and dancing, right? Or turning on your camera. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work for me. You’re like, nobody watches my dances. I’m so mad. But but I think some people think that like, oh, being an influencer or building a thing is just getting on and talking or just, you know, getting on and being funny. Most people aren’t funny. Most people aren’t entertaining alone. And so.

16:33
And but there are people who are 100 percent you and I have talked with many students in our class where you’re like get yourself on video immediately, right? Like you’re engaging and charismatic. But I would say as a general rule, if you I would ask, I literally would ask five friends, like, do you think I’m entertaining? Be brutally honest with me, because what I have seen in the past two is people who do this and are not. And so they they can’t get the engagement level in their videos because.

17:01
They just, have to have something else involved in this. can’t just be them talking. All right, well, let’s say you’re not entertaining. Yes. And you’re, you’re not, you don’t run the type of business where you could tell your founder story really easily in a demonstrable way, like the scrunchie company. Yeah. So I think, so actually Christina is actually very entertaining. She is. yeah, she’s very entertaining. I feel like she’s done a good job like,

17:30
with the pets, right? She has this weird menagerie of pets at her house. They have like a bird and a dog that uses like some sort of walking device and a new puppy and a horse and like they have a lot of and they do a lot of work with like animal shelters. So.

17:48
There’s something that, while Christina is very entertaining in my opinion, her life is very entertaining, right? They have all sorts of like weird animal adventures and they’re doing and they’re helping the shelters and they’re doing all these things. So documenting what you’re doing, that’s in, and pets are really, I mean, here’s the hard thing. Pets is a very competitive space in e-commerce. However, pets are very popular, right? So like the amount of dogs I saw in New York City last weekend, one morning we counted them for fun.

18:18
We got to a hundred and nine dogs, right? That we me and my little granddaughter were counting dogs. It’s like, why are you owning a dog in a city where you like you have to take it out so can pee and poop and all these things? But like people love their pets. And so people are really like we literally have made a game out of counting dogs, right? People like watching dog videos. They love talking about their dog. They love sharing pictures about their dog or their cat or fish or whatever they have. And so I think if you can do something that’s, you know,

18:46
attach on to something that’s entertaining. So pets, people like to watch cooking, right? The one lady on TikTok, Melissa, literally built her whole audience on folding laundry, right? Teaching people how to fold towels and sheets like really well. uh People watch that stuff. So I think that’s another angle, right? Is you maybe you’re not personally super entertaining, but you can do something that people will watch and engage with.

19:15
So how would you address, and I get this question at least once a week, like I don’t wanna be on the camera. Okay, I had an epiphany about this last night. I almost texted you. Okay, I’m glad you didn’t, because I was. I know, I know you’re super jet lagged. I know, I was like, I don’t wanna interrupt the zen that’s happening right now, possibly. I think being on camera is your way to break through AI, and I think you’re.

19:42
Like you have to be in the witness protection program to not be on camera at this point. I think it is, I think it is the like the magic key. It’s the magic circle tool for growing your audience. I’m sorry. I asked what if you don’t want to be on camera and you said now you have to be on camera. I, you have to get up, go to therapy, figure out how to be on camera. I thought you were going to say something like just create an AR avatar of yourself, which actually works remarkably well now. does work remarkably well, but there is something about

20:12
a live real human that you can touch. What about a live real AI human? Good. You saw my I did. did. Yeah. I know. I agree with you. I’m just playing devil’s advocate here. But there are people who are just not going to do it. There’s people are not going to do it and find another profession. Honestly, that’s how I feel about it right now. Because so OK, think about it. Every platform now you have to check a box. I actually uploaded a video to Pinterest this morning.

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like a YouTube video, like, it said you had to click that if it was an AI video in Pinterest, like every platform is asking you to verify that it’s not AI or that it is. um And I think, OK, so my son is a good example. He doesn’t ever show his face. He makes AI cartoons, but he’s got another angle in that he’s funny. Right. So like, yes, you can build a brand without showing your face, but you better have a really good talent. Right. Like you better be really interested, interesting, really knowledgeable.

21:10
I think about like Kellen, right, who makes these Pokemon videos about a very weird video game. Like there’s still opportunity there, but you have to be like at the top. Right. When you get started to get people to like latch on, you have to have like a uh real outlier as far as what your knowledge is or what your, you know, talent is. I don’t know if I feel that way per se, because like if you look at

21:40
Like it doesn’t have to be your personal face, right? It could be just a human. That’s what you’re saying, right? Yeah, I mean, you could have like a brand ambassador, I guess. You’re talking about like having someone go on for you. You can have someone go on for you or you can even go like the UGC route and put together these carousels, which I’ve seen certain companies do. But yeah, you’re right. Like the genuine authentic stuff is what I get in my feed.

22:09
for companies that tends to work really well. I think that’s what’s going to be the long standing solution. I think it’s how you’re going to break through a lot of the AI content. And I think as everything becomes more and more like AI focused, people are going to thinking that they could pick up the phone and call you. Obviously they can’t. I think the big hurdle is a person coming on camera and having to talk. Right?

22:38
So like if we take the case of like mini katana, which is a company that sells mini katanas, and you would think that that store would not make that much money, but they do really well. most of their customers come from short form content, like Instagram and TikTok. And oftentimes it’s literally just dudes in their yard hacking away at stuff. mean, that’s the content. It’s like a dream though. It’s like, why do you, like I like watching people paint.

23:07
the painting where they like, let me transform my room. And it’s like them just painting walls. And I’m like, this is so satisfying, right? Well, yeah. So that’s another case where the person doesn’t necessarily have to talk, right? They can just do like a time lapse of them painting a house and talking about their pain. So, I but I think, yeah. So I don’t think you necessarily have to be on camera. I think being on camera is the fast track. um I don’t think you have to be good. No one is good on camera to start. Nobody. um

23:36
I think you get better on camera the more you are on camera, the more videos you make, the more comfortable you become. However, a good way to start, think about, I don’t know if you know Serena from Thrift Diving. She’s a blogger friend that I’ve had for a million years. We used to actually used to be neighbors. So she basically started out by thrift diving, right? Like finding pieces of furniture at the thrift store, finding things to make over.

24:02
And she never talked directly to the now she’s fantastic on camera. in beginning, she never talked directly to the camera. It was all time lapse of her redoing furniture. Right. And I follow a lot of people even today that do a lot of like furniture rehab where they rarely like it’ll be like them slamming the car door and then walking into the thrift store with like money in their hand. So it’s like a first person point of view. And it’s like, let’s see how much what let’s see what we can get today for forty dollars. Right. And so they never actually

24:31
show their face. You see them, you see them doing the furniture, you see all that stuff. It’s all time-lapse and sped up and all that thing. But it’s never them going, hello guys, today I’m going to talk to you about how I restored this dresser for under $35. So I think there’s definitely ways you can do it where you’re not like the superstar. Here’s the other thing I was going to suggest. A lot of people choose to do voiceovers. And that’s much less intimidating. You’re not on camera, you’ve already taken the footage, and you’re just narrating.

25:01
what’s going on. And the way I see people do this is they just come up with a script and you can use AI to help you generate this script. And then you do the voiceover first, right? You record the audio and then you just put clips that just match what you’re talking about. So two people in our course who are doing this right now are Kelly and Renee because they both um do knitting, not knitting, crocheting. I’ll never get it right. They’re gonna come for me. um

25:28
But they primarily do hands and pans video view, right? So you’re looking at everything close up when we’re talking about something like crocheting or sewing or any type of crafting, you really don’t wanna see the person’s face anyway, you wanna see the procedure, right? You wanna see how to do something. So I think that’s a great way to create content that’s very authentic and still can be founder led without you just sitting in front of a camera and chatting.

25:57
I would say that that works. uh Would you do long form or short form? I would do both. Well, I mean, that’s intimidating for someone just starting out, right? I mean, if you’re intimidated, start with short form. It’s the easiest. um You know, I’ve been having this hurdle for a long time with the class, know, people hesitant to get started, people not wanting to do any sort of video. Yeah.

26:24
So what has made it less intimidating for you? Because you’ve started relatively recently compared to, like I’ve been doing video for, I mean you’ve been doing video longer but you didn’t get serious about short form and whatnot until relatively recently. So what’s made it less intimidating for you? So I think this is the key for everybody. I removed all the hurdles. Okay, what are the hurdles? So for me, and this is my, so everyone’s hurdle is different. Right? So for me it was,

26:53
getting like camera ready, right? So like, oh, I gotta like find something better to wear, do my hair, like all that stuff, right? So you hired a personal stylist. hired a stylist, no I did not. um The next hurdle for me, which has always been my hurdle and you know this is technology. Like it doesn’t like to literally today before we recorded, my mouse just stops working, right? Like it doesn’t matter. Like I have the worst technology luck in the planet.

27:18
And I know that about myself. I know that things just stop working on me all the time. And it’s probably user error, but let’s just chalk it up to the fact that I’m a Mac user and then everyone that’s not a Mac user will be happy about that. And so for me, I rent out a studio to record. And it’s honestly been an absolute game changer because for me, talking on camera isn’t hard. Coming up with the scripting isn’t really that hard for me. um But the hard part for me was like.

27:47
getting ready and recording and actually making sure that I mean, you know, like when we started profitable audience, I think one of the times I recorded the first lesson, my mic wasn’t working. And you’re like, I hate to tell you this, but the mic wasn’t on. And I was like, what? And so I removed it. And obviously this is not it costs money to rent a studio like it’s not it’s not actually that expensive when you think about it. But I basically rent a studio out one day every three months. We record and we have

28:16
between 15 and 20 videos to then work with for the next three months. And we basically have a cycle where we do it every three months. um And that for me was like now it’s just, it’s literally easy. um We roll in, we show up, we record in three hours, we walk out and we have it edited by somebody. was another hurdle is the editing, you know, just depending on your personality that may or may not be. um But a lot of people don’t edit their videos, right? A lot of people take basically

28:46
close to the original form and put that out there too. I think that’s fine. um Because there’s two of us talking, the editing makes more sense to have like, you one person than the other person. But yeah, I rented out a studio and that’s how I do it. it’s, mean, I’ve been, I’ve recorded 120 videos in a year. More than that actually. Let’s talk about the three different models. So me and you are opposites, right? Like I could never rent out a studio and just record for two days straight. I would die.

29:14
Like I barely have enough stamina actually to record maybe two videos back to back to my videos back to back. Yeah. I started losing my voice after 20 minutes or so. Yeah. And I don’t know why this is just my personality, but even though I’m recording to a camera, like on a teleprompter or whatnot, I feel like I need to project like I’m on a stage. Yeah. I think that’s what drains my energy. anyway, so the way I do it, my problem has always been uh

29:44
one setting up the equipment, but more it’s all mental, right? Like I don’t have any problems with the tech. What I have problems with is getting my butt out of bed and actually recording stuff, right? It’s of like when I work out, like I’ve worked out consistently for like the at least once a week for like the last 35 years. And I found that the easiest way for me was to have my weights and everything in the house. Because I had no excuse not to roll out of bed into the garage, although sometimes it’s hard for me to get to the garage.

30:14
But the point is I have everything set up where I just hit a button and I just record. Yeah. And that has been like the, game changer for me. Yeah. So similar to your tech, right? It’s always like before I had to set up lights and everything, it would take me 20 minutes. And then any excuse I had for like not doing it was, yeah, I was like, ah, don’t have 20 minutes. I don’t feel like setting everything up. Yeah. Or you could create content like our friend, Jim Wang.

30:40
where he goes on a walk, I think every day. he goes on like every day. He takes his phone and he just records directly on the TikTok platform. Yeah. He just does it one sentence at a time, I think, or two cents. He’s pretty eloquent, but he probably does it two cents at a time because I see jump cuts. And the way TikTok works is like, if you don’t like that clip that you just did, you just delete it and just record it again. Yeah. And so instead of recording like one monolithic thing and editing it,

31:08
You’re recording a series of short sentences together and when they’re all stitched together, it actually looks really good and natural. And I would say for that for that method, which I actually think is a really fantastic method. If you feel like you want to just be off the cuff, right. And for what Jim’s doing, makes he’s got like deep, deep knowledge of like personal finance. um Personally, I hate doing that in the TikTok app.

31:34
because I’m not good on the TikTok app, but I’ve watched my kids, right, who make TikToks do little videos where they edit and it’s like, like little Rubik’s cube, right? So it’s really a learning curve. So if you’re like, oh, that’s too difficult, it’s not that difficult, it’s just that you haven’t done it enough, do it 10 times and it will be very easy. ah I think it’s just a matter of getting used to the platform. I made all of my early TikToks that way. Yeah. Actually, I would just, cause I,

32:04
I used to walk and do them or I’d purposely go to the backyard because I wanted to change the scenery. Yeah. And as long you have like this outline in your head, recording in like short bursts is actually quite doable. Yeah. Cause my problem is, is if I have to, if I have to talk for like even 30 seconds straight, I’ll stumble. Yeah. But if all I have to do is just speak like two sentences at a time, it’s way easier. Yeah. And so granted like a one minute video might take me five minutes to film.

32:34
May probably less than that using that other method. Whereas the way I do it now is, I guess, like the poor man’s lazy way. Like I just have this on the teleprompter and I just do like 15 in one take. So I think a teleprompter is also a uh good way to get over the hurdle. Yeah, we have a lot of people who say, I don’t know what to say or I freeze up on camera or I go blank. Like I go blank regularly. That’s just part of my you know, blank less than the average person.

33:03
I feel like I go blank all the time. the teleprompter is like a, like I remember when teleprompters used to be expensive. You remember like back in the day when you’re like, I 250 bucks on my phone like I’m gonna buy a teleprompter. It’s like really? And a ring light? That’s like 400 bucks. Now it’s like, oh, it’s on prime day. Get it for $22, whatever. Actually, the last teleprompter I bought for my daughter, I think I spent $25 on it. Yeah, so cheap. Yeah.

33:30
So like to me, a teleprompter is an easy way to get over the hurdle. Another way to get over the hurdle, and this is one, if you are like, if you’re not like, I’m not ready to commit to running a studio, I totally get that. But if you’re like, technology hates me, literally use your phone and a cheap wireless mic from Amazon. um I feel like technology bites you in the butt when you start to get like using more complicated equipment.

33:58
Right? It’s rare that I’ve ever filmed anything with my phone that it hasn’t worked. oh So I would say if you’re like, I’m just not a technology person, use a phone, use a cheap Amazon mic. um You already have the phone. You could probably spend under $30 for the mic and it will sound just fine for you to publish that content. Actually, there are these four people on TikTok that I follow regularly that cover technology, AEO and AI.

34:25
And all they literally do is they just they’re holding their phone. Yeah, sometimes they have like a little a little Why am I drawing a blank? What’s the tripod? Yeah, they like, don’t know what it says that you’re talking about. You have a tripod and they’re just literally holding. Yeah, like a little lav mic. Yeah. And that that’s what they’re actually that’s the way I used to film to Yeah, back in the day. And it I watch it because the content is really good. But

34:55
They literally do no editing whatsoever. There’s no animations. They put the text, I guess, the transcription on there, but that’s about it. And they just do really well. One of them is this Asian guy who talks about investing. And he’s literally just, I’m pretty sure he’s at his day job. He just kicks back and he just records like a 30 second thing. Another dude I follow, I don’t know if you’ve seen this guy, I can’t remember his name is, but it’s this Asian dude who,

35:24
I don’t watch just Asian dudes, by the way. was gonna say, you’re gonna be surprised, but my feed is not Asian dudes. So this Asian guy, he’s married to this really young blonde, but the blonde girl, all she does is interview him. She’s like, SpaceX just went IPO, what do you think about it? And he just gives his little 30 second ditty. And that guy has millions of followers. it reminds me of the, I don’t know if you’ve seen the high worth divorce lawyer.

35:53
Yes, that guy’s all over my feet too. so he is someone who I think is doing a fantastic job of like building a personal brand. um He published, so he basically, he’s running a studio, right? He’s taking the studio, or maybe he has it in his law offices, who knows, right? But when he’s making his own content, he is like in a studio setting, but he’s not using a teleprompter. He’s obviously an attorney. He could probably talk for hours, right? Yeah. But he’s like one, um

36:22
like one topic, right? And then he pontificates on the topic for like two to three minutes. So the one I saw this morning was um why I don’t want to be married to another lawyer, right? He’s like, why would I want to be married to someone who was so invested in their work like I am, who has to check their phone every five minutes, who has to do it? And he did like this two minute spiel about how, you know, he wants to be married to someone who doesn’t work like he does because he feels like that would be incompatible, you know, not compatible, right? And I was like,

36:51
mesmerized in this whole thing. was like, that’s a really interesting take, right? On things and, but he’s a divorce lawyer, right? So he’s building up like, you know, he’s just continuing to build that authority and clients. The other content he puts out, and I’m surprised in this too, where he’s on like a podcast. So he’s putting clips of himself from podcasts where people ask him specific questions about marriage, divorce, that kind of stuff. But once again, he’s just one topic talking off the cuff.

37:18
about something he’s an absolute expert in, right? Like he’s clearly an expert in divorce. But that’s just another way to, I mean, like, I don’t have enough money for him to be my attorney. But he already divorced. I I’m just but I’m saying like, like, but you better believe like, if I was in New York City, I think that’s where he’s based out of and I was like a high net worth individual, I would immediately he would be the person I would think of, right? Because he’s Yeah, so tying this back to e commerce.

37:47
Let’s say that lawyer dude decided to sell some sort of divorce related product. I don’t know what it would be. It would be able to sell like gangbusters. Absolutely. And that’s the point because he’s already built the trust. And a lot of people actually do things backwards. Like if you do the research on a product but you’re not sure whether it’s going to sell or not, oftentimes, and this is kind of how I started my class, right? Started creating content, built an audience, and then people started asking for the class because I had zero plans for putting that out.

38:18
So I think, so this is like to wrap, kind of wrap around the person we were, the person that we saw the post in ECF. um It reminds me of Shaleen, who we reference a lot, but she basically got her start as a fitness instructor, right? In the fitness space, working for like Beachbody or somebody, I don’t remember exactly, I think it was Beachbody. um And then over time, she like moved away from that, but she had built this like audience, right?

38:44
of people that were interested in fitness and health and had watched her videos. And she did a really smart pivot. And I’ve seen a couple other people do it too. She’s probably done it the best of anyone I’ve seen is that she basically pivoted and started talking about like aging. Right. Because all her audience is also aging. Right. They’re all you know, they were 30 when they started following her. Now they’re all 50. Right. And so now she doesn’t she does sell she sells workout stuff, but it’s not the same. But she basically

39:14
had this audience that she shifted with, right? And now sells, you know. Does she sell her own products? She’s mostly affiliate, right? She does sell her own products. She has a paid community. um She used to sell journals. I don’t think she sells those anymore. um I can see her coming out with, I feel like she’s priming it to come out with like more physical type stuff, because right now her stuff is primarily digital um courses, memberships, things like that.

39:44
Um, but I think that’s the beauty of having that community, right? Is that now whatever she decides to do next, as long as it’s, she stays in her lane, right? Of, you know, wellness, health, aging, she can sell to this audience. Just like the posts that we read in ECF, this person built this community of people that were very much into the wellness space, which once again is a very saturated and highly competitive space. But when you have a community.

40:13
It’s actually what Derek Halpern did with Trubani, right, where he partnered with an influencer who already had a community of people who would buy these products. And so when they went to market, they had the ability to tap into this community of like very loyal, very rabid fans. And I mean, we’ve heard we’ve heard stories of this where you don’t have to spend like I don’t think this lady spent any money on advertising. Yeah, right. She went straight to her community. So I think.

40:42
taking that time, building up that community. And basically, this wasn’t about a founder story. This was about a group of people that all shared a commonality, right? So whether it’s, in her case, it was wellness. I’ve seen people, you know, back in the day, Jennifer Garza did it with keto, right? She had a huge keto community that she was able to launch a cookbook to and some other products. um

41:05
know, Aaron Chase did it with $5 dinners, right? Build a community of people who wanted to save money and feed their family, you know, good meals. So I think if you can build that community and work on that and create the content, it’s going to be a lot easier to sell your products to those people. Absolutely. And you don’t even need to have it figured out what you want to sell because the community will push you in the right direction. think Shalene can just launch anything. Yes. Literally anything. Yeah. And I think people would buy it. Hope you enjoyed this episode.

41:34
I still believe that content and community are going to be the key differentiators to the success of any business. For more information and resources, go over to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 648. And once again, if you’re interested in starting your own eCommerce store, head on over to mywifequitterjob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.