In this episode, Seth, the co-founder and CEO at Just One Dime, will share his personal experiences and advices to start a business on Amazon or e-commerce. Seth Kniep founded Just One Dime, a platform that trains entrepreneurs on building profitable Amazon stores and e-commerce companies, in 2016, and is continuing to help investors and entrepreneurs to leverage innovation, capital, and vision. Listen to learn more about his valuable tips.

Three valuable insights:

• COVID-19 is the biggest shift of money in the history of the world, where money's moving from brick and mortar to online.
• Speaking of ROI, besides money, we often forget that there's another asset we need to think about: Time.
• The ideas are worth a dime, a dozen. Everyone has ideas. What matters is not the idea, but execution of the idea.

Simon (00:19):

Welcome everybody to the Strategy Show, our guest today was living that death by paycheck cycle and 24,000 in depth. Seth, walk the streets with a single dime that set on doubling it. Today, Seth's team manages over 100 million in annual revenue for name brands and silent investors on the Amazon platform. The co-founder of just one dime, Seth, has trained over 100,000 entrepreneurs in over 150 countries. Many of whom are multimillionaires today. Seth Kniep built and scaled the Amazon store for one of the sharks from the shark tank TV show runs a sourcing team in China and multiple fulfillment centers across the US and was requested by two countries to train their top businesses headquartered in Austin, Texas, Seth is raising an army of investors and entrepreneurs who leverage innovation, capital, and vision to help the human race for future generation. Welcome everybody Seth Kniep.

Seth (02:02):

Thank you so much. So honored to be on your show Simon, and thank you for having me

Simon (02:06):

So cool to have you here, Seth, what are you currently creating?

Seth (02:11):

Right now? I am writing a book, and the name of the book is How to Build a Fortune, selling on Amazon and taking all my years of experience, all the mistakes I've made, all the victories I've had, all the failed products that I've learned from, and I'm putting it into one single book. And an interweaving into the how to tactical steps, my story, how I did it, how it was very different back in 2014, when I began compared to 2020 today, team of multiple people who now work as a team with me so we can build Amazon stores for investors.

Simon (02:49):

Beautiful. And what have you, what have you experienced in this funky year and how are you navigating it?

Seth (03:01):

I love the question Simon. You said this is a funky year and I agree with you. Well, first of all, I listened to a lot of funky jazz music, it helps, not kidding, pun intended, but in all seriousness. So this year has helped our Amazon stores and the stores that we're building for our investors. It's actually grown, them, and it's sad, but it's reality. The money is shifting there. In my opinion, this is the biggest shift of money in the history of the world, where money's moving from brick and mortar to online. So at the same time, while people are losing their jobs and those of you guys who have jobs, you were blessed, like, thank God for that, that is so amazing. But a lot of people have lost their jobs because the need, the cash is moving from the brick and mortar to the online e-commerce space. And because we were already in that space, it's given us a huge advantage. In fact, there was a lot of things we didn't change at all. We just noticed the sales began to increase when COVID hit. And so as much as it's hurt some, it's also been a huge advantage for Amazon sellers.

Simon (04:06):

So I'm super curious about the Amazon thing, but let's start by the beginning. So you have experienced low points and you will know how to work from the bottom up. What did you learn from that years for, for the current situation?

Seth (04:25):

Yeah. Great, great question. So I'm going to go back to 2010. From 2010 to 2014, I like to call those my wandering years. That's when life was extremely difficult for me, not just in finances, but even in my relationships. As a father, as a husband and managing my money, and my relationship with my boss. So everything seemed to be just falling apart during that time. That's why I call it the wandering season. I was struggling with a major identity crisis. What was I supposed to do for many years? I thought I was supposed to go in full-time ministry and I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to. I was supposed to be an entrepreneur, but to think like an entrepreneur, it required me to start thinking differently. And that's why I started with a single dime. I knew that if I started with a dollar or with $10 or with a hundred dollars and said, I'm going to double that.

Seth (05:14):

I knew that that actually is much faster mathematically, but the reason I wanted to start with the dime is because a dime is the highest value coin in us currency for its size. Therefore, I knew that by starting with a dime, if I could faithfully double that dime and celebrate going from 10 cents to 20 cents, as much as I would celebrate going from 200 to $400, or from 500,000 to a million, then I could continue. I needed to be able to celebrate the little wins. But my problem was, I took so many things for granted. I was looking for someone to come in and rescue me and give me my big break. And so that's why I walked around and just begin to double a dime, asking random when it got to $400. I used that to purchase my first inventory and begin selling cremation urns on eBay, which didn't do very well.

Seth (06:05):

Then it began to sell them on Amazon. And they started doing very well. And that's when I knew Simon, I can do something here. In the process, I started an e-cigarette vape business, which failed miserably. I sold it. I can tell someone, I sold a company for $35 a debate, but I also began to take the money I made from Amazon and invest it into condos here in Austin and rent those out as short-term rentals on the Airbnb platform. But all of this began with that dime. I knew I needed to learn to be faithful in little things, and this would help me to change and how we manage my money, how I manage my kids, how I manage my relationships, that it really was a change from the inside out. So when we go through hard, I mean, there was a time in our company just when we were really hurting, we had to reduce salaries.

Seth (06:52):

We had to let some staff go. We were hurting financially, but this was years later, our Amazon stores were doing great. Our coaching company was not, what did I learn from it? Well, if I could be broken on the street with the dime, then I can definitely succeed in this situation as well. So learning that when your company or your finances go down, that doesn't mean the death of you or you failed, it simply means you hustle. You're going to learn from it and you have to go lean for awhile. You have to cut some of the fat and get rid of the extra expenses you don't need and just focused on how can I make sure we are cashflow positive so that we can survive. So when COVID hits, it actually helped us. It didn't hurt us, but the mindset, you know, what's going on in the world.

Seth (07:34):

I don't watch much mainstream media anymore because it's so negative. I mean, mainstream media and I don't care if you watch CNN or Fox, they make money by sharing negativity. And Simon, I cannot live happily as a person. If I am reading the news, I'll never forget listening to the speaker. He was so good. He said, tell me this. He said, I want to know how many of you feel better about the United States of America after watching mainstream media, doesn't matter what year it is. Doesn't matter what election it is. Doesn't matter if you're liberal, if you're conservative, it doesn't matter. You will always feel more negative because mainstream media makes money off of being negative. So I had to cut that out and focus on people, individuals, my staff, my business partners, my students, because those people are not negative. And when they're going through a negative time, I can give them hope and words of advice and encouragement, because I know what it's like to suffer. I know what it's like to have nothing. And I know what it is like to have a lot. And I've had to learn contentment how to be content as a human, whether I have millions or nothing. I am still here. I am still blessed. I am still drinking black tea. I'm good to go.

Simon (08:43):

Contentment is really relevant right now. And I, we started our company very early in. Our philosophy is very lean. We always were quite lean. And then COVID and a lot of it was stripped away. Of course, also a big cash crunch. And then I was revisiting all the expenses and so that we were not lean anymore. Because when you ride a big wave of success, then it might happen that you forget about the contentment. Then you bring in too much input and you plan for too much, you know, overhead and too many buildings and stuff that really works under the assumption that growth will go on and on, but there could be another assumption and say, okay, what's the minimum growth that we need. And what is the leanest way we can go on? What did you see in these years that you now are applying to your team to your work? Did you learn something from those years that you now are applying to your team?

Seth (10:02):

Sorry. I didn't understand the question. I understand. Okay. yes. So what I'm applying to my team is asking this simple question, where is your ROI? In other words, if you put time or money or effort or energy, or thought into something, which actions are getting to give you the best return on your efforts, I'll give you an example. So just yesterday, our team approached me and said, hey, Seth, I have an idea for better thumbnails when we post YouTube videos. And it was actually a great idea. These thumbnails were going to go on Instagram and we're going to have a couple of them. And one thing I reminded them, I said, look, this is a great plan. You've thought it through. It looks beautiful. It's amazing. But after all is said and done, if it doesn't result in better conversion, then we scrap the idea and we find something that works better.

Seth (10:53):

So let's test it. So it doesn't matter how amazing, romantic, or sexy an idea is. If it's not tested and it's not getting us the ROI we're looking for, then we have to be willing to divorce ourselves from our emotional attachment to this brilliant idea and focus on what's actually gets results. It's a funny thing, but sometimes we'll come up with this idea, and Simon we're like, man, this is going to be amazing, people are going to love this. And then we go test it and like, wow, that did really terrible. Like you never really know. Or an Amazon we'll switch out a photo. Cause we think this photo man, it's going to really convert. And it doesn't. So what I've learned and what I'm teaching our team is never emotionally attach yourself to a strategy just because you think it's great because it really doesn't matter if you like it.

Seth (11:42):

What matters is do your followers, your customers who are buying your Amazon products or who investing in your company to build Amazon stores for that's what matters the most? The ROI, what is the return on the investment I give? And just one more thought on this really quick, Simon, cause I think it's such a brilliant question. I think it's easy for new entrepreneurs to only think of ROI in terms of money. In other words, if I spend $10, am I going to make 10 more? Okay, that's great. And I think it's natural, very natural for new entrepreneurs to think only in terms of money when it comes to ROI. But we often forget that there's another asset we need to think about. And that is time. And in other words, if I was to spend a hundred hours on a project, will I get the return of investment that I'm looking for based on like, I could actually make more money on some projects, but because it takes so much time versus a different product we're going to launch, which takes less time.

Seth (12:41):

The ROI on this one is actually greater because once I spend a second of my life, I never get it back. It's gone forever. I can get a refund on money. I can't get a refund on time. And I think it's easy for new entrepreneurs to value money too highly and value time too lowly. And then over time you begin. I mean, this is why I didn't do FBA for a while. Simon, I was shipping all the products myself, my whole family would line up. We had the tape out and we would tape up every single package and we had shipped them out. And we got to a point where we were shipping a hundred products plus a day and it was killing us. Like we had no time left. And then I thought, wait a minute. The reason I've been resisting sending my products to Amazon's fulfillment center for so long is because Amazon's going to take some of that cost out. They're going to have some of that fee taken out. But I had to rethink Simon to think, wait a minute, is it worth it to me to take time away from my family? See what I mean? It was starting to impact time with my family, which is another asset. So the ROI was no longer worth it. Then what's funny, even though Amazon does charge more, if you have them fulfill the orders for you, it, the product actually converts better because now it has that prime badge on the listing on Amazon,

Simon (13:51):

We will learn so much about that Amazon business in the next minutes. I am excited just before we go there. Who do you nominate for the strategy award?

Seth (14:03):

This is a very difficult question for me. And you did prepare, you told me in advance. I do have an answer because there are four individuals who I think deserve it, but I would like to give it to Dan Rodgers.

Simon (14:17):

Dan Rodgers. Yeah.

Seth (14:19):

Dan Rodgers. He's from South Africa. He now lives in London. He creates a lot of content for Amazon followers. He has been my student. He has been my business partner and he's also become my friend and Dan Rodgers has gone through a lot. And when I say gone through a lot, I don't mean just good fluffy stuff. I mean difficult stuff. And because he has never given up because of his resilience and because of his strategical thinking to always find a solution, I think he is worthy of that honor. Dan Rodgers.

Simon (14:55):

Thank you. And now let's go to Amazon. Let's start really, as if we knew nothing about that. What's the business? Who is it for?

Seth (15:06):

Absolutely. So the business is for what is called a third party seller. In other words, if I go to Amazon to buy a product, there is the statistics say, according to Amazon, that over 50% of those products purchased are being purchased from a third party seller. And a third party seller is someone like myself, who, launch products. We build products. We have them built by manufacturers. We ship those products into Amazon's fulfillment center. It's like this big warehouse and they're all over the US, and in other parts of the world now as well. And then when Bobby McGee, our favorite customer buys that product. I get paid for it. Amazon gets paid for it and I already paid the manufacturer. So in other words, it's an opportunity if you want to launch a physical product, a product that you can see touch and feel. Amazon is the fastest way I know of making money today. And I've been doing this for years now and I've tried many different things, but I don't know of any other path that is more, long-term scalable than launching a physical product on Amazon. And it's funny when people, Simon, they'll say, aw, Amazon saturated. I love it. When they say that, because they'll say people are buying products on Amazon making us third party sellers rich.

Simon (16:27):

And this is, you do this and you also teach this, right?

Seth (16:31):

Correct. So we sell an Amazon when I say I'm referring to. So right here, we're in Austin. Our headquarters are here in Austin, Texas. We have members, followers, students coming by every week just to say, hi, how are you doing? They want to meet us in person, which is wonderful. So when I say we, I'm referring to our staff here and we have a total of 37 staff around the world, we have people in London. We have people in Russia. We have people in the Philippines and where we have a bunch of teams. So what we do is really three things: we sell on Amazon, we teach people how to sell an Amazon, and then we build Amazon stores for people who have a lot of capital, but they don't have the time or want to deal with the hassle of trying to learn how to sell an Amazon. So they'll say, look guys, you know, I got 80,000 or 60,000 or a million dollars. I want to invest in this, and then it's our job to get them speaking of ROI, a really good ROI on that investment that they made.

Simon (17:32):

Nice. Yeah. Tell us about some success stories in people working with you and what you could achieve.

Seth (17:39):

Absolutely. So one of my favorite success story is Brett George. Brett George is one of our students. He joined us a little over a year. He has an extremely successful store on Amazon. He launches a lot of products there, but what's most interesting about his story is he came up with this patent and this patent is I can't, I'm not going to share what it is cause I'm not allowed to. But let me just say, it's very, very valuable. And he got it registered and approved and everything. And an automotive company approached Brett and said, hey, Brett, we would like to pay you 16 and a half million to buy your patent. And here's the success part. The success part is not how much they offered. That's great. Sure. Here's the success part? Simon, Bret said no. And the reason he said no is because he sees a future opportunity to take that patent and run with it and launch products through it. And he believes he will make far more than 16 and a half million that this big, huge, massive automotive company offered him for. That is just one of many. And I want to add to that one thing, Brett, I mean, Simon, sorry. It is not easy to build a business. There's a lot of people out there who are saying, it's easy. Just follow these three secrets or these three steps. And it's easy. It's not, it's hard, but has there ever been anything you did in your entire life that was worth doing that was easy?

Simon (19:16):

Doesn't come to my mind right now.

Seth (19:19):

I mean, I was asking it just generically, but yes, exactly.

Simon (19:22):

I was really thinking and I have definitely never built a business that was easy to build, but I think of things in my life that are easy and worth it. But I guess we’re talking business here, right? So beautiful. What did you recently change your mind about?

Seth (19:46):

Multiple things? I'll give you one. So we had investors approach us and they were willing to give us $20 million to build multiple stores. They wanted four stores and multiple product lines on each of those stores. They represent a very large company. And even though we liked them as people a lot, we did not feel they would be great business partners to scale with. So nothing against them personally, but we turned it down. And that was a very difficult decision because you know, 20 million may not be a lot to someone like Mark Cuban or Kevin O'Leary, but that's a lot to me I'm a multimillionaire, but 20 million, like that's getting up there. And we said no. And the reason we said no is because we had to ask yourself a very simple question: One year from now, Seth, and this was a big team decision. I did not make this on my own.

Seth (20:38):

It was me and three other teammates. We sat down and we said, look, can we see ourselves working with these investors one year from now and enjoying it and growing with them, or do we think it's going to be a pain in the neck? And the decision was we're not going to enjoy it. Their mindset was so different than ours and how they do business. It didn't align with the values that we hold dear to our heart. So we said, no, that was a hard decision. Now, if you would ask me this question, Simon, excuse me. If you had asked me a… COVID, sorry, no just joking. If you had asked me this question two years ago, maybe 18 months ago, I probably would have handled it very different. I probably would have said, you know what? No, we'll go with it. This is a great opportunity. But what I'm learning and continuing to learn at 42 years old is that even though some opportunities look amazing, just because it looks amazing and the money opportunity is high. It is not worth sacrificing precious time or relationships in order to get there if the cost in those assets is going to be too high.

Simon (21:53):

One of your favorite books, which happens to be also one of my favorite books is The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. And I'm curious, how do you apply it? How do you live it?

Seth (22:08):

Thank you for this question. Because people ask me this a lot. People who've read the book, like how does that apply to Amazon? Because you're really not like the assembly line. So let me just give context first. So The Goal talks about going from raw materials to sales and how to optimize the process from the beginning of the, it's almost like you're standing in a factor and Eliyahu who has obvious experience in a factory. It's like you're standing there and he's teaching you. Here's how to make the most of that entire process. This process, even though we don't own a factory, Simon, even though we are not technically the manufacturer, like we are working with manufacturers, the principles apply to every business. And here's my favorite part where he says, what is your bottleneck? In other words, let's just say the beginning of a process of launching a product on Amazon.

Seth (22:58):

First, we do product research. Then we decide, we find the product. Then we decide on differentiation. Then we find a manufacturer and then we decide how to launch the product. So those are all steps in the process, which one of those steps is holding up, what's coming behind? That's your bottleneck. And in my mind, I assumed, Simon, that a bottleneck is a bad thing. And Eliyahu who says actually it's not a bad thing. It's simply where do you need to put your attention to? So let's just say, for example, the holdup was on the manufacturing. So the question is, how do I optimize and speed up and more automate that process? Because it's holding up by other products that are trying to get in and it's taking time away from launching and selling products, the marketing side of the company. And so he says in the book is if you focus on the bottleneck and automate it and find out what needs to be done, maybe you need to hire more staff to get more help.

Seth (23:52):

Maybe you need a sourcing agency. Maybe you need a sourcing assistant. Maybe you need a team in the country where it's being manufactured. Maybe you need to visit that country twice a year. See what I mean? There's so many ways you can automate the part of or speed up, optimize the manufacturing part of the process. Once you do that and that now the products are manufactured more quickly. There's less hold up. Well, guess what? You'll have a new bottleneck because there's always going to be one point in the assembly line process where it slows down the most. And what it does is the book has taught me how to prioritize, where I should be putting my focuses in the companies that we run. We do real estate. We build Amazon stores. We run a coaching company. We sell an Amazon, we're opening a software company. There's so many things we're doing, Simon. So it's very difficult because some days I get to the office and I feel like my mind is going to melt because there's so many things to do well, that book, the goal, the principles, show me what to do. Where's the bottleneck? Boom. We focus on that. And then I get the best ROI on what I'm doing.

Simon (24:58):

It’s strong. How do you find the bottleneck? Do you have a thinking process there at a discussion, checklist?

Seth (25:03):

Yes. So we create a SOP, standard operating procedure. We'd like to call the workflows for everything that we do. So we use Notion. This is the document application we use. And in Notion we have toggles. So every stage of every process we know from again, from raw materials, all the way to marketing, what does that process for the product and this doesn't just apply to physical products. It also applies to digital products, such as coaching, which is digital, it's not a physical thing. It's teaching. It's the same concept though. Once we have our SOP created, then we look at how much time it takes to get for the process of a product from beginning to end from raw material to in the hands of the customer, how much time does each process take. And when one of those segments in the SOP is drawing more resources from our staff than the other ones, and it's slowing us down and other staff are waiting, hey, I'm ready for this, I'm ready for this, or maybe even the manufacturer's waiting. That's how we know. So the system is based on resources, what is extracting resources from other departments, taking them away from what they should be focusing on because this department or this, this step in the process is not optimized well.

Simon (26:20):

Beautiful. And the first step in your value chain is market research. How can you do that quickly? And, with basically zero budget or low budget.

Seth (26:32):

Yeah, absolutely. So the easiest way, if you have no budget, let's say you don't even want to get a seller software tool. Like you don't have to have software tools like helium 10 jungle scout amaze out to succeed on Amazon. I didn't, when I started, I've launched many products without any software tools even today. So the first step is you simply need to find what products are selling well, how do you know they're selling well, based on how they're ranking. So let's just give you a simple example. If I am looking up, let's use this coffee mugs and I search Sweden Viking coffee mug. And I look at the BSR, which is the best sellers rating or best-sellers ranking. It's going, that number is going to tell me who is at the top, in that category. I know that the ones with the lowest number for that category, the BSR, the lowest number, it's like in a race.

Seth (27:23):

You know, if we're racing, the lower number is the winner. Number one is better than being number three, number four. So the lower, the number for BSR, the faster this product is selling. So it's based on context. I don't even have to know how many times it's selling per day. If I'm using this technique, Simon, if there here's the category and I see, okay, let's just say, there's a hundred thousand products in that category. The ones that are in the top 2000, I know we're selling very well. Another way is are they showing up on the first page of search results or at least the top page of the second page of the second page of search results. Once I know that now I know the demand is there. Now, when you said quickly, that word makes me nervous, Simon, because there are so many people, who they're looking for it quickly.

Seth (28:11):

I don't believe there is a quick way to do it. I really don't. And again, I'm not saying I know everything, but I've been doing this for so long, and I've lost so many products, I don't think there is a quick way to do it. There's an optimized way to do it. I think the real struggle is not getting enough data. I think the struggle is getting lost in the data. It's sort of like the shiny object syndrome. When I was a kid, I used to trap, I would trap raccoons. And one way we trapped them is you take a little ball of foil. You take foil, you crinkled up into a ball and you put it inside this little netting. So raccoons, they love shiny things and they reach out and they grab that foil and they can't get their handout.

Seth (28:46):

And that's how you trap them. And no offense to anyone who's pita or does not believe in hunting and everything. I'm vegan. But I still liked hunting and trapping as a kid. So I don't mean to offend you, but I'm just going to be blunt. And I am from Texas. So what would happen is the raccoon is seduced by the shiny object. Well, the same happens with the product researcher, they look at, Oh man, this is a cool product. This is great. And then they notice something else, Oh, this is a cool one. And then it's kind of like, you know, the girlfriend who can't stand it when the boyfriend's walk along, these always noticing another woman's butt. You know what I mean? Not to be crass, but like the hate that, right? They're always noticing something else. Instead of focusing on the one that they know is great, right?

Seth (29:28):

What happens is the original excitement about this product? Because the numbers are great. I can see the demand is high. It begins to fade because something else caught their attention. And all of a sudden my emotional attachment to this has begun to fade. And now I'm onto the next one. And then the next one, and then the next one, and just like, this can destroy someone when relationships, if they have that kind of thinking about relationships, it can also destroy someone's mind when it comes to product research. So the way to do it is to understand how you feel emotionally about a product is irrelevant. I'm not saying don't enjoy the product. I'm not saying don't obsess about it. And of course, you're going to get excited. I'm just saying it really doesn't matter for the future of the business. If you are emotionally controlled by the product.

Seth (30:11):

In other words, you're going to get so sick of this product that you launch, because you think about it. You talk about it, you obsessed about it. You get photos of it. You research keywords on it. You talk to manufacturers about it. You read reviews on it. You'd go into online groups about it. You're going to get absolutely sick of the product you're launching, but you cannot let that be reasoned to move on to something else because it's shinier or because, you know, that initial excitement has faded from the first product, and you have to keep going. That is how you don't… that is how you can speed up the process or not move too slowly. So again, the issue is not, not having enough data. It's being analytical about the data. Do the facts, show me that this product, Simon, has great demand. And if they do, then I need to now execute on that. Even though some days I love the product. And some days I hate the product, it doesn't matter because what I'm doing this for, I'm doing this to make money. I want to grow my wealth. And so I have to remember that the product, as much as I may like it, it's still a means to an end. Now don't apply that part to relationships because that would be bad.

Simon (31:17):

You have written a gift for us and for our community, which I am very excited about. But first, one of the controversial questions and discussions around Amazon right now, and the one is that it is so risky to inoculate against them stealing your ideas, stealing your product. If it's a good one, they will replicate it. Sure. And now there is this one score that says, okay, don't touch it, don't do it, it's bad. And then there's the other school, which says, well, supermarkets did it all the time. That's part of the business. Just be faster. Just be better. What's your take?

Seth (31:59):

Excellent question. And I want to rephrase it if you don't mind, Simon, it's a great question. Should I be scared of Amazon selling products? Should I be scared that Amazon's going to take my product ideas and steal them? Let me deliver some facts. Amazon's track record of succeeding with their own private label products is not nearly as strong as many would believe. We kind of just assume, well, it's Amazon. Of course, it's their platform, wrong. Many of their products have failed. They are a seller just like me. And even though this can cause some fear and trepidation at first, here's what I do. I don't care. I, if I believe in this, I'm going to sell it better and faster than Amazon, I treat Amazon like any other seller and the idea that Amazon is going to steal my idea, well, that's true of any competitor, unless they're infringing on a patent or a copyright or trademark, they have every right to steal my idea.

Seth (32:55):

I mean, let's be real. All of us are stealing ideas constantly. Now let me qualify by what I mean by that I'm sitting, I go to the bathroom, not to be crushed. I'm sitting there, right? And just waiting to pick up my phone and then notice that the toilet paper holder is annoying. Every time I have to change out the toilet paper. And I think, wow, I bet you, I could come up with a much better holder. I didn't get that idea just by myself. This other people who created the toilet paper holder and someone else is going to see that online. And they're going to try to create a superior version. So in that context, yes, your ideas will be stolen. But my only question is simply in response to someone who says that is if they're making money, why can't you too? Are you admitting that they're better than you?

Seth (33:37):

Are you admitting that they're because they're Amazon or even any other third party seller? You can't do it? One more thought on this. And I think you're going to love this fact, a lot of huge companies and I will refrain from naming them, a lot of huge companies have launched on Amazon and they got their butts kicked because third party sellers did a better job. Nobody would assume, well, these companies have got lots of money and brand value and experience in all of this. Well, they didn't know how to sell an Amazon. And as third-party sellers crushed them. And some of them left Amazon because they got so frustrated, not because third party sellers were stealing their idea, but because they were selling the same kind of product totally within right, and they did a better job of selling. So here's the thing. People focus on “They're going to take my idea.”

Seth (34:24):

No, no, no. The ideas are worth a dime, a dozen. Everyone has ideas. What matters is not the idea, but execution of the idea, you're going to have 10 different people all with the same idea, the same product, but one of them is winning. Why? Because she understands keywords, because he understands PPC, because they know how to build a listing, because they know how to connect with customers who buy that product and blow their mind, which results in five-star, organic reviews. And in the end, their product ranks better than anyone.

Simon (34:56):

This is so important because many people… And also, also right now in Q4 2020, they freeze up because they think, Oh, I have to keep this secret. And when it's perfect, that will cause if somebody knows they will steal my idea. It’s actually anybody can steal your strategy. And I say this as the seed, as the CEO of Strategy Sprints, but I say it publicly, everybody can steal your strategy, nothing happens. The execution matters. And so you can be faster because you are on the road already. So you have the knowledge, you have the position, you have this skills, you have the SOP, the workflows that are working together. And you have a team who is on a roll already. You have momentum and you have the speed of learning. So you see more, you'll learn more, you'll know more. And that's your advantage. So everybody can steal my strategy. Our strategies are even public. It's a notion page and call…

Seth (35:58):

It’s in your company name.

Simon (36:00):

Yes. And we have a notion page, it’s a public page. It says sprint planning, what we're up to? So there are there, what we are up to next year. Q1 is in there. Everybody can steal it and do it. Just, we will be faster. That's it. And we will be better because we know more because we have run more experiments and we know more.

Seth (36:21):

If you don't mind. One thing to what you said, that's so powerful. You mentioned how transparent you are about your strategies. I'm in your company is a strategy company. You talk about you're transparent and yet you guys are doing great. How is that? Well, I think people sometimes forget. They think like this I'm an Amazon seller. My hope is in my product. No, it's not. It's in your ability to execute. In other words, they, they remove the factor, the value of their unique perspective, their emotional intelligence, their IQ, their experience, their connections, their online, social, all those things. They can bring in a unique way that no one else can bring because they are unique. I believe at the core, at the seed of this belief that if someone steals my idea, I'm just going to die, and my company is going to go wonder at the seat of that. Belief is a sense that I'm not unique. I'm kind of like everyone else. And my only hope is in the product. What they've done is they've underestimated the value they can bring because every human on this planet is unique. And in my opinion, eternal and infinitely valuable. That's why I always say people are the most important asset when it comes to people, time, knowledge, and money.

Simon (37:34):

This is a very important thing. Also, especially in these times, everybody's unique and infinitely valuable. Now you have brought something very valuable for us. You have a gift that you want to share with our community.

Seth (37:47):

Yes, absolutely. So this is called a product research evaluation tool and the website is jod.com/pret or product research evaluation tool. Again, it's J O D stands for just one time, jod.com/pret. What it does, Simon, it is a simple Google sheet with formulas and tools that allows you… when you talked about product research, and we talked about your mind feeling like overwhelmed. It allows you to take all your research for launching a product, not just at an Amazon, anywhere in the world. And you put it into this sheet and you can evaluate objectively, not emotionally, which one has the greatest potential. And it focuses on all the most important market points that would impact the success of that product. And it's free.

Simon (38:53):

Strong. Thank you. And the… where can people read more, get more of your knowledge, find all your offers?

Seth (39:04):

Sure, absolutely. If they go to jod.com, JOD stands justonedime.com, that's where all our information is, what we do, who we are as a team, and there's a ton of free coaching. We do there and resources they can take advantage of.

Simon (39:21):

Beautiful. Who should be my next guest.

Seth (39:23):

Your next guest should be the one and only Patrick Cupillari. Patrick Cupillari, also known as prophet business gurus. You can find them on YouTube. I'm happy to send you his information later after this, if you'd like, you can find them on Instagram as well. Prophet, like a prophetic profit, business gurus. This guy focuses on providing content to teach people how to succeed in e-commerce and they also help to build Amazon stores for people.

Simon (39:58):

Beautiful. Thank you so much, Seth, for being on the show and come back soon.

Seth (40:03):

All right, Simon. Thank you so much for having me, man. I really enjoyed it.