everyone has their own unique views and needs when it comes to financial success if you'd like to leave your financial woes behind and live a life of Financial Freedom you've come to the right place welcome to saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton the show will help you with the ins and outs of money we talked about financial issues that could be costing you thousands of dollars and keeping you up at night we talked about money tax reduction saving more spending less 401K risk management retirement and everything under the sun that relates to you having a healthier happy relationship with money now here is your host of saving with Steve Steve Sexton hello welcome to this evening with Steve show were talking about the ins-and-outs of money pretty much everything under the sun it relates to you having a healthier happier relationship with money my name is Steve sex and I want to thank you for joining us today now how would you like to learn how to speak pervasively to co-workers your boss executive team
the potential new client a group of people who you want to have them utilize your service and the thing is if you don't speak persuasively you might not get the promotion you might not get that client you might not get that project that you want the community to do that's going to fund a new park for all the kids don't worry we have Master speaker trainer International speaker and author RB Robinson here to teach you how to become a speaking Superstar and you know what here's the big thing she also runs is very cool podcast called the million-dollar speaker now she's going to be here today today also be talking about how to significantly reduce required minimum distributions are retirement and oh by the way you know the pandemics here it's pushed a lot of people to get it and look at alternative ways to create Revenue like other sources of income did you know Amazon is increase their customer base by five fold the last year many viewers at saving with Steve
hey how can we learn how to sell on Amazon so if you want ever wondered how to make money in Amazon we have Jason boys who have the 20 years of experience being a top seller on Amazon and the master book the Amazon jungle walk us through how to successfully become an Amazon third-party reach out let's go back to RB I am unbelievably excited about this RV she's the owner of a public speaking company to help people Market themselves so they can generate unlimited leads attract more clients grow their business fast but here's a big thing about public speaking what you don't realize is you have a personal story and that story can save somebody's life
can heal them save their business save their soul there's many things public speaking can do and that's just a few RV it's been doing this for a very long time she can help people lemonade that fear also help people to learn how to write a speech with some simple steps with a lot of people don't realize is public speaking you might be afraid of it but it's a skill like anything else and quite frankly when you first do something pardon my French you're going to suck okay but you're going to get better and better and better at it that's why we have our brt welcome to the show thank you it's great to be here just jumped into becoming a public speaking coach so how did that get started for you great work thank you for asking me because I didn't plan on being a coach it wasn't something that when I drop like I'm going to be a public speaking coach
it happened by accident my degrees in Information Systems I'm happy and I went to work at a college for a company by the name of Deloitte Haskins & sells now Deloitte one of the big PP a sperm and I wasn't a CPA my job was to set up financial accounting systems on microcomputers we just got micro computers in and teach bookkeepers and controllers have automated accounting because up until then they were using a manual accounting system for the Revolutionary time and my boss came to me one day and said RB I want you to get out there and start speaking and tell people that were offering this brand new service I'll talk to myself a piece of cake. About public speaking or so I thought at the time but I didn't learn any clients they didn't get any any projects nothing and I knew that I better do something fast because I can lose his job
why do you know what I was doing wrong I just need going out there and speaking and had no clue I'm so one day this woman comes up to me after one of my cows and she said honey I hate to tell you this and I'm like they didn't do it right the shoe to drop and she said tell me do you know that after every sentence you say okay and I just my jaw dropped her hair was okay but I got it even out mom is that I was a problem did you think if I could fly at my job didn't make me a public speaker that I needed to respect this thing called public speaking why decided in that moment that I was going to get trained not only came to I was going to master it I took classes anything with public speaking communication of the title I cook and I hired a coach and I read books I did everything I could and then the most amazing thing happened the better I got the better Michael
I've got a new more clients I got am in my colleagues wanted to know what I was doing I started teaching them then the big boss wanted me to teach these group communication skills to other Consultants of where a public speaking is born with in Corporate America for me and then I used it throughout my 23 year career not only to get clients flipper upward mobility within my own grave and so then once after 23 years I was at the highest I could go without being a CPA and that was a senior manager and by then the industry was so full of Consultants it just wasn't any fun anymore I wasn't trailblazing anymore so I decided it was time to make a change but I didn't know what kind of change to me so I prayed about it and God said public speaking the 17 years ago I left Corporate America started my own business and I since that time I have trained over 5,000 does who told her not to do her coaches Consultants you name it and given over
beaches all over the world and I don't impress anybody impress upon everyone that you can do at this too can be a lifestyle if you choose that you two can you speaking to change the world save lives and make a difference of something funny and it's so funny because I have a son he's a senior he's top of his class or electrical engineering his worst class was to public speaking he got to be he was so happy if it's actually got to be but he just said she know it all these other people look like they're on TED Talks you know engineering friends they're they're afraid to standing up in front of people and talking with the reality is there probably could be better at it because they already have a process just like you and I T because once you learn the process your golden amen that's it and and when I got out of corporate America and into the public speaking Arena I look for systems and processes already there
recreate the wheel well there wasn't any the closest that I found one Steve was Howard beginning man or men but no one would tell you what to put in the beginning that alarm on so I came along and I'm telling you exactly what steps to create a persuasive presentation that will get your business and change lies and get people you know if you're just trying to get people to think like you do don't like you do whatever it might be the system will do it I want to help listeners understand the process by how you would go about coaching somebody to speak well in public first of all I would introduce them to my system and before we do my speaker system which has the signature thought that's the talk that you just give up over and over and over to get business first of all I would teach you how to do your core message which is also another formula that I put together the core message is what some people call the elevator speech but I called the core message
was it the essence of what you do and from there it's like your heart and from there everything else comes your professional Story the title of your tongue everything stem out of that core message the once we got that right the very hard and what it is you do for client then we start in the formula and or at the system for develop the actual speech putting it together step-by-step okay when somebody is writing a speech even if it takes me a long time to write a speech if I'm doing something different and quite frankly when I started the first interview identity V the comment that I got as they look like a cheerleader cuz I was always using my hands
they said it was passionate so it was good
how does somebody get used to a room and get comfortable being onstage practice practice training training page first of all get trained because a lot of people will step on stage especially business on her because business owners don't look at themselves as speakers so they think that they can just get away with murder and you can't because if you step on stage when you're a not trained be not practice c not prepared then you're going to lose this if you have the opposite effect so you want to make sure and reputation and future opportunity so if to cost me to go out there without being trained rehearse and of course out well prepared once you learn once you've been trained then I recommend that you practice 1 hour for every two minutes of presentation so that means if you're going to do a 30-minute speech to you
need to practice 18 hours that's what makes you girl that's what actually makes you go from good to great that's what helps you that always know your speech you become the screen still get nothing to throw you off you won't forget what you're going to say which is always up here and you will have that kind of confidence to deliver I'm not only a great speech for yourself but really for your body is your pants with Blazer and when I talk about practicing and talking about practicing it out loud not reading it not writing out your speech I am against writing out your presentation because then you become a prisoner of your own Alexander words so dull outline on lake and then just say it so many times out loud that you will be coming off like that song the drummer in the car I was listening to that popular song on the radio and before we. We're driving around in it and it was like we never set out to learn all the words
I know all the words that's what happens to our brain when we hear something over and over and over. I recommend you speak it out loud walk around your office walk around the park walk around wherever you need you are going to work do you need to hear the steps of stick with this will be right back more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come on the saving with Steve show
don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve sex and post of the saving with Steve show where did he talk about the in an ounce of money does Financial issues that could be costing me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tune into the saving with Steve show join me Steve section of the saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon
welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton hello welcome back we're going to have some more with RV Robinson I truly appreciate you letting your friends family and Associates know about her show all the replays are available at standing with Steve. Us if you're enjoying the stories of helpful information inside on saving with spell encourage you to subscribe to your YouTube channel so you never miss a show check out a few bar Philly is it UK help radio bbsradio talk radio New York City New York City as well he 360 via Las Vegas TV network all these networks are dedicated to empower you to solve problems uplift your spirits live alive or personal and Financial Freedom hey you can also follow us on Facebook join the saving with Steve Sexton insiders Club sitting with Steve. Us and get all replays exclusive access to her after the show videos guest gifts and see all the behind-the-scene we're back here
RB Robinson we were talking about this is like a muscle and you were just talking about practicing and practicing and practicing it but it's like working out I thought to myself you know what I bring Benny speeches and all that kind of stuff but it was really interesting that when I started thinking about how much time I actually spent going through it it was a lot more than 15 hours
and it's one of those things were and I'm not saying this is everybody people told me that that was outstanding when I've been completely prepared but had some sort of thing happened just before like horrible day the whole shot and you're rushing and grinding through your day and all the sudden you're there you got four minutes before you walk on stage and for some reason that's the best leather and sometimes for me that's the most authentic things go very very well and people believe you just did that you know I'm curious do you have a free speech routine yes I do have a priest speech booty and I recommend that everyone create their own this is mine I'm not recommend but this is for you but I've been on stage with lot of speakers I've seen their priests teach routine also and I can share that with you but my personal want is a mantra where I
two things first by step on stage I do one thing I pray about it and I think God give me a shout of the hell with you. I'll give me a shout of all this is that all I do know is that the Red Bull Holy Spirit and then before I step on stage I say I'm the best I'm the best I'm the desk and I don't stay at a beagle I say it because my audience deserves the best and so does your I am every time you step on them I know things happen like you said something happening here like all Jared or whatever that's going to happen once in awhile but for the most part we can control what happens to us another words it by all the speech I'll make sure that I have a light morning that I can just get old get up at ease and get ready at ease and I'm not rushed and brazel I don't try to cram so much stuff in my schedule like today is Dubai have three speaking engagements you're one of them
walk two more until I created my day so that I can come in today. Full energy full attention playing my AJ so you can plan your day like that around your speaking engagement then you'll be left frazzled and there won't be time for these other things to County come in and bother you and get you off because life works that way it's going to try to knock you off your feet again a mantra of some kind and kiss you propelled into speaking now I've seen a couple other speakers that what they do it they taste. Get some rest before they go in and some of them you know pray or whatever but whatever propels you and it's going to be different for everybody that's what you want to do but still talk is so important do not step on stage or even close to the stage and tell yourself you're nervous or you're not prepared if you're not ready you need to get ready because that audience deserves the best from you
funny My Little Mantra is I actually like to get there about 45 minutes early if it's a 30-minute talk and I like to walk around the stage look out the strange and say hello like my old sound check and then I go off in my corner and do my speech not to myself but out loud to the wall and I and II practice everything from my hand gestures to my jokes try not to laugh at myself but I thought that's really cool one of the biggest things that's happening right now because the pandemic is speaking virtually in tirely different environment because people can look at the TV their cell phone they can go all different directions there's a process of that was some of the chips that you can help some of our listeners when they're dealing with that glad you brought it up because it's so different first of all and I'm going to get to how to keep your audience engaged as well but first of all
Snow White the speaker you're in control of everything now see when we would go in the live room we would maybe speak in Ono speech on a stage or maybe in a restaurant we had no control said no control over the sound no control over the environment no control over the crowd or anything really just only our message but in this environment were in charge of everything that is very important and make sure you have lights I've seen so many speakers present in the dark if it is going to be on some video you have to make sure you have a professional microphone so that people can hear you in a resume to describe something that in wide world we didn't have to worry about unless it was a big crowd and it was always provided for us and me the PowerPoint or the computer it was provided for us now guess what you're going to use PowerPoint video or anyting else during your presentation you better make sure you have a strong internet because there's nothing more frustrating to the IRS then for you to be frozen
Ben in descendants number one you're in charge of everything and just know that you're going to speak in this environment you need to invest in some possibly some new equipment number to to keep your audience engaged because yes we are so competing with emails and people that have two screens in their path listening to us and have nots you have to bring on your A game every single time you acted in what I do to help me is I stand up so I have a stand-up desk because if I spoke on a live stage I would be standing up that's going to help you to have that kind of energy you need to make sure you're well practiced in your well reverse do not read the screen we can see you reading right or a teleprompter be a professional speaker and know your material and just think of your audience when you know your material than you are free and you can get in that zone I'm not Zone will take you all the way
green that's why I called speaking out of the box when you're in the Box you actually Reach people through the screen and pulled them in to be with you and they don't want to do anything except be with you but that's one of the tricks you just got a really imagine yourself going through that computer screen reaching somebody's not their neck but reaching out to them and touching and touching her heart what I'd like you to do is comment on PowerPoint because I've been in a few presentations were quite frankly it was Death by PowerPoint so I mean it was woo I was let me share that the PowerPoint like everything else has changed on when you're on the in the living room for 30 minutes Peach I tell people my oh my you're not getting power but that's what is the kiss of death but guess what in this environment I do accept it and train it but here's the key
after bead pictures nobody wants to see words on your PowerPoint I don't care how elegant you are to stay away from words and pictures do the talkin videos are really powerful the Open Heart in this environment and then what I would recommend is a hybrid so that it's not all PowerPoint to start out where you're starting out with just you and you have the the house Spotlight you so you're bigger than life so no one in Okemos take you in a room of a hundred people and then you should you do your thang use you do your attention Grabbers you doing story build rapport with your audience then when you get to the meat portion and I teach my system kind of like a sandwich for the cases reported the bottom and the middle is the meat are your educational pieces that is on PowerPoint so you switch over like you're you're like this and then you just to let me share my screen
bumbler fumble with your PowerPoint nobody cares because you've already built report you've already given them Great Value they already feel like they know you so you can Bumble and Bumble I mean there's nothing worse than a speaker go on and here's RB and then I'm going to be like in the region on Zoom for a year and I still don't know what I'm getting now it's our first and then you can Bumble and Bumble your way into the content and then boom give him the contact then at the end before you're ready for your clothes you get out of it again show your face make sure everybody's good look around whatever and if you don't have questions that's a good time to have them if not you go right into your clothes helping me your clothes is one that you don't need a PowerPoint now I would like to talk about closing because it's so different in this environment
and after a year I feel like I've got it down so used to be on the live stage that we would more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come on the saving with Steve show
don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve Sexton post of the saving with Steve show where did he talk about the ins-and-outs of money those financial issues that could be costing me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending less your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tune into the saving with Steve show join me Steve sex and out of saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon
welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton welcome back this is saving with Steve show we're back with RB Robinson and you know what she's talking about probably the most important part that close stage is yours probably a few more years in here before we can go to real big life of them sitting over there getting to be smaller but real biggie also in the clothes we used to do I'm the life stage collect business cards do a raffle we would collect 100% of the business card that's not going to happen in the virtual world I tested it you're lucky to get 25% doing a giveaway they can do still do a giveaway you can put in your link for a strategy session you only get two or three leaves where the old
Tri-State you would get 5 so it's about 50% or less of the kind of response if you're selling on the stage in this environment let me give you the tracking the secret sauce for that this is what I've experienced in my life. I just did a one-day event my clothes 40 per-cent of the rent right one of my my top secret sauce to one of my students whose brand new she's in my Mastermind and she did her very first webinar and she only she got 10 people there and she sold 60% of them. Doesn't hurt when it's your very first webinar I do believe this I know this works that's true so here is the secret sauce make sure you do all bonuses but not too many more bonuses you add the less attracted it is because people are overwhelmed and may God watch all those videos I'll never deny me and I had to try this the hard way right
me trying but I'm giving you for free here and that is so just a couple little bonuses that people can easily watch if it's a video or go and get and then you have the big price of whatever it is I'm you want to drop it like 3/4 of the cat and dropping prices isn't new but I'm talking about being real and real value so I have a $4,000 speaker training which I've had for years and that's what it is it's board a $4,000 in the pandemic nobody's going to spend 4 days with me so I dropped it to a we can create your speech in the weekend and you think I'm dropping half-price I dropped it down to 997 and people bite like crazy and how can I do that because I cut out two days I get off at 90 minute lunches and I and I can do it that way to sitting in my home I'm with my husband and my dog so I can afford to take left and give more so think of
backdrop of 3/4 and people will buy some cows come home. Wonderful's RV I need you to start telling people how they can connect with you where they can go to watch and see your million-dollar speaker podcast the holeshot million-dollar speaker podcast iTunes iHeartRadio speaker all of the popular and then talks podcast that you can go and see them anywhere to get a hold of me you could just email me and that's r v a r v e at RV robinson.com or reach out to me on LinkedIn Facebook I'm everywhere again it's r v a r b e Robinson, I'd love to hear from you if you're listening to new level with a d business personal public just learn to be a good speaker it'll make all the difference in their world and since his money this shows about the ins-and-outs of money this can make a big difference in the air
turn out to be your mother I want to thank you for joining us today thank you so much for being here I hope you have a wonderful week and stay safe and healthy okay National speaking trainer and if you want to make your life a little bit better because you learn how to speak of right way so you can get more clients that promotion and so on you want to go check out RB Robinson I think that was wonderful helpful hands especially that that close never even thought of that now today one of the biggest topics is wow I've got these required minimum distributions I've got to take him but geez I want a lower abs I don't really need them I think the big thing of people need to understand is retirement plans are wonderful vehicle to help you save for the inedible retirement by providing a tax referral on the deposit you make in the interest you grow and it how much money and accumulate which is great but Uncle Sam makes you pay for the benefits by requiring you do with raw
money from your account what do you need or not at age 72 as we all know it's called required minimum distribution promise if you decide not to or forget to take your requirement and distribution you could be assessed a penalty from 6.5% to all the way up to 50% of your requirement distribution now I'm going to run through quick little list of different things you could do to reduce your required minimum distribution now the first one is just to keep working to avoid taking required minimum distribution if you keep working you can delay taking that rmd from your retirement account providing you're still working and your 401k is under the employer-sponsored retirement plan. Keep in mind if you have an IRA or an old 401k
we still going to have to take your required minimum distribution I know this but there's a way to get around that now the way to avoid having to take your rmd at all
is the have your old IRS in your old 401K transfer to your current employer sponsored 401K that way you don't have to take rmd use until you stopped working I know a number of people who have consistently built a large 401k and consistently will keep contributing to it and all that kind of stuff because they don't want to take it they wanted to go out to the ones they love and they keep working until they're physically not physically able to keep in mind here you can be part of a 401k program you might only be part-time I know some people at Home Depot close in other places in a 401k but you're only working 20 hours a week or 15 hours a week but they still have it and the reason why they're working there is they don't want to have to take required minimum distributions cuz it's too big what are the next things there is this you can also donate your required minimum distribution to charity that you can avoid taking the required minimum distribution you could try donating them to charity to read the eye
I'm texting you on it the IRS allows charitable donations up to $100,000 these donations are tax-deductible providing it's donated to a qualified tax exempt organization like a 501 c 3 you'll need to keep records received paperwork if you're audited but here's a big fig
you could do a qualified charitable transfer that means you're transferring money directly from your IRA 401k to your church in your favorite charity best way to do it you're going to get a letter from the church services you donated this much thank you very much and you're going to need that or your tax that you do have the ability to do up to $100,000 a year and that's a different than you donating cash out of your wallet if you donate cash out of your wallet you'll have you'll be able to deduct up to 60% of your adjusted gross income in 50% if it's non-cash item next way reduce the required minimum distribution by utilizing a qualified longevity annuity contract it's affectionately called A qlac a qlac is a deferred annuity contract designed to keep you from out living retirement saving you can find a qlac with your money from that you saved in your 401k or IRA you must begin taking distributions on
or before your 85th birthday all the money that you put into a qlac is excluded from your required minimum distribution calculation you can contribute 25% of your IRA or 401K up to a maximum of $135,000 if you do this you want to make sure you speak to your financial advisor this very very important to make sure you understand all the ins and outs but that's one way of separating almost $135,000 away from having to take required minimum distribution on it if you do have a much younger spouse you could lower your required minimum distribution how is this done if you're married and your spouse is 10 years younger than you with your male or female doesn't matter you could be eligible to reduce the required minimum distribution amount now example of a client at the 75 years old she's married to gentleman who's 50 years old but actually been married for almost 30 years
Jindo is she named her husband as the sole beneficiary allowing her to utilize The Joint life expectancy table or her required minimum distribution this isn't publication 590 the IRS code the end result instead of taking out $21,844 for required minimum distribution and paying taxes on it
she only had to take out 14400 that means she had $7,000 that was not taxed that's reducing a required minimum distribution very interesting very very important the next thing is you can skip the rmd by converting your 401k into a Roth IRA or Roth IRA is the only retirement plan where you don't have to take a required minimum distribution and you don't have to pay taxes on any of the withdrawals providing you follow through with a five-year-old keep in mind when you convert from an IRA to a Roth you're going to be paying current tax rate you could increase the amount of money you pay on Medicare and you have to look at the five-year rule one of the things I will say about that there is a sweet spot when you're doing a Roth conversion it's usually from the time that you retire until you hit their 72 Kobe retire at 62 and you have to take your car and get distribution at 72 you have 10 years
to start converting money over so you have to figure out strategically this was tactically which the best way to do this so you have pay the least amount of taxes find out when people do it when they're retired is there usually in a lower tax bracket cuz they're not learning as much money because they don't mean as much money so it makes it a little bit easier that's the tip for the day went to stick with this order be right back with some Jason boys and again we've already have RB Robinson's estate with this will be back there shortly more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come I'm not saving with Steve show
don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve Sexton post of the saving with Steve show where to be talked about the in an ounce of money those financial issues that could be cost me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tune into the saving with Steve show join me Steve sex and out of saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon
welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton hello welcome back to the shaving with Steve show as you know we have Jason voice what I like to do is just share a few facts about Jason he's entrepreneurial nationally-recognized he's considered one of the leading advocates for Amazon is a third-party seller but you don't know when she began selling direct to Consumers Bowie retailers in 2002 and Amazon in 2003 mean he's been through the ins and out he knows what doesn't work he's probably been kicked in the face more in a few times and he's probably laughing about that right now because we know when you first start something you're really going to suck and then you started learning and get better and better and better and you building Jason has bootstrap sterile is owned Brands to success with a 7-step method developed over a decade have a real-world trial and error these methods help Jason
Japanese become top 200 Amazon Seller a top 1000 e-commerce a recording the internet retail magazine there's 20 years of experience Jason also co-founded a company called Avenue 7 media where he supports Amazon as a seller to find new products Jason's also become a go-to expert for me to sources speaking to understand the Amazon experience from a seller's point of you ain't been on CNBC PBS Frontline Bloomberg News Washington post as well as the New York Post Oak Basin welcome to the show thank you for being here all the thanks for having me Steve sorry about that long intro I need to start nothing up but I want people to understand that you've been through the trials and tribulations like everybody else you might have a little bit too fast or you didn't and you had to fight and grind your way through it like anybody else starting a business and then you develop the skills to make it work you Source out products to see if they're going to say
you created this wonderful book called the Amazon jungle it's the ins-and-outs of how to sell on Amazon how to create a brand find the product and then hey if you're looking for an exit strategy how to sell to somebody's looking to take over there so I ain't got to just wonderful by the question is how did you get started that's a great question I had to I had to really think back in my memory banks are for second Steve to remember how we got started the real story is it was my brother's idea back in 2002 I was just getting ready to leave the Marine Corps I came home for dinner my brother said that he had this crazy idea to start up a basketball company he even had a name it was called super duper hoops.com and I was like like I'm going to be out in the range in 30 days I'll do it with you and and we started that way my brother was just waiting tables when he decided to launch this business and made a contact in Pasadena with a company called Overture now Overture was one of the inventors of pay-per-click advertising later on Yahoo
Overture and the technology was license by Google who perfected it and turn it into AdWords and so these guys at his little office in Pasadena my brother I would go there once a month and say hey how can we get traffic to your website and it was just it was amazing back then it wasn't just Google it was Alta Vista and whatever Vista all these other different segmented search engine than we are on the first page of all of them and at some point after our first year of business we got a phone call from Amazon and they said hey we want you to sell your basketball hoops on our website and I said what are you talkin about I just bought a VHS tape off of your website you guys sell books and media what are you doing selling sporting goods and they said yes and he laughed and he said yeah look what just launched several categories were going to be a third party Marketplace Amazon's goal was to be like eBay when they first launched if you can imagine that eBay at the time and all the way back in 03 was the 800-pound gorilla Amazon took off and has never looked back one of the things that I've always wanted to know because talk to somebody yesterday
at this very topic and she sells craft items that you put together for kids that are in college that you send them during Thanksgiving in the brakes and stuff like that cuz Mom and Dad aren't there and she tried to do that but it didn't really work out and there's a lot of things obviously she doesn't know what are the things that people don't know that they should know about operating as a third-party really reseller on Amazon that's a great question a big topic we need a couple hours to talk about it then package deal I know we don't have that I'll try to give you a brief don't realize this but the majority of the sales that happened through Amazon.com come from what's called third-party sellers now these are folks who are either reselling somebody else's brand or when I like the outlet in my book the Amazon jungle is creating your own brand I think that's the strongest ways you can be as a third-party seller but essentially your listing your product on amazon.com if you still own title to the in
until it sells Amazon sales at its customer either Amazon can do the Fulfillment through what's called FBA fulfillment by Amazon or you can fill it out of your own garage which is what I did starting now to go back in 2002 out of my apartment or your own Warehouse etcetera it's just great because you tap into Amazon's enormous network of Shoppers their expertise and eCommerce space and if you can create a product that unique that's different that's priced right at the Amazon Shoppers like and review well you can really make a lot of money on amazon.com so there's probably about probably I probably ask your your friend probably five or six questions to help them zero in on what they need to do I can tell you what does it work on Amazon any longer when I started Amazon back in the Stone Age Steve we were doing what's called dropshipping which is a just-in-time inventory model and so we would list the products we sell it and then we'd send it to the manufacturer or the Destroyer
and they would ship our product directly to the consumer before we even had to pay for it so we collect the money would get the sale and then we would ship the product to the consumer and we didn't have to pay it until 30 days later it was a great cash flow model I had a lot of customer service problems like the person that we shipping to your consumer consumer and sometimes you order a blue in the ship a red one that consumers I'm happy or one of the other clients comes in a bicep all their inventory so we thought they were in stock and we sold something is not in stock that would create a really bad situation and so that's how I went from $100,000 million to 2 million to 4 million in the first couple of years and the drop-ship model but you can't do that anymore and you can resell you can sell somebody else's product and attached to somebody else's listing on Amazon but even that's harder and harder especially if that brand is defending its brand on Amazon the best way to have success on Amazon in off all the steps in the book it's develop your own brand one of my favorites
what is different is better than better make sure that what you're showing on the search results page pops off the page that it's different and you're offering value above and beyond with some of the other Amazon sellers are offering use Amazon Fulfillment Network so that your listing can have the prime badge your product when the Amazon Shopper buys it will show up a day or two later at that Shoppers door and then you got to find ways to drive traffic in the last thing I would say is listen to those product reviews read every one of those negative product reviews and if a Shoppers got a problem and then another Shopper and in six or seven other Shoppers got a problem solve it and thank them thank them for their negative review thank them for telling you what's wrong with your product so that you can make it better make it better when you reorder it or make it better when you make the next batch and then update your listing to show new and improved for 20 21 right either rid of process is what one of the processes that helped us build our own brand and to the point where we were only getting four and a half
Stars okay so I know you also get into products and you helped us or others factors that you look at when you're identifying a product that you think would go well on Amazon absolutely the biggest thing and I tell the story in the book where I thought I had this bright idea to create a new product line we were selling home Recreational Equipment I had the bright idea it was some of these smaller tables to have folding legs cuz moms and dads didn't want this table to be a permanent piece of furniture so you take it from under the bed or the closet you fold your leg up and the kids played it when they're done they fold them up and put it away I thought that was a brilliant idea. But I missed one important step after I'd spent probably hundred thousand dollars in inventory and bring in a container load of stuff right nobody bought one that just sat there and collected right so the piece that I was missing and I learned it after I'd made a huge mistake was going Amazon and find out what the market is for your project
before you launch it before you invest your time and treasure into making it a product and so there's some ways to do that there's a lot of great Chrome extensions that are out there that you can use now one is jungle Scout mother a jungle Scout just raised 110 million dollars I think Ted to build a market Dennis you can really get a lot of good Market data from your competitors on Amazon before you decide to enter that market the first thing I'd do is how much are my competitors doing in monthly revenue is it a big Market are they doing $1,000 a month that's not big enough or they do in ten thousand to a hundred thousand a month or a million a month now that's a big Market even if I come in there and get 10% of that market I got myself a sizable scute a good seller in a big booty
Market Size Matters make sure that your idea is something that Amazon Shoppers are already looking for Amazon's a tough channel to Discovery right to teach a shopper about a new type of Prada TV social media Instagram those are better channels for that on Amazon make sure there's a market in your category and then once you identify that it's worth your investment make something cooler make a different don't be an also-ran because you won't be able to compete on price with the Chinese factories loading up on Amazon make it cool make it different price high in Justified we're going to take a break more with Jason boys this is wonderful this is outstanding so this will be right back more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come on the saving with Steve show
don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve sex and post of the saving with Steve show where did he talk about the in an ounce of money does Financial issues it could be costing me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tuna to the saving with Steve show join me Steve section of the saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon
welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton hey welcome back to the saving of Steve shall we have the author of the Amazon jungle Jason voice with us Pearls of Wisdom actually more like pull the gold before we truly thank you for tuning in I appreciate you letting her friends and family Associates know about the show we had 423000 listeners last week all the replay the available at 7 was Steve if you're enjoying the stories and helpful information inside was saving a Stevi encourage you to subscribe to your YouTube channel they never miss a show check out a few of her feelings that you can help radio bbsradio talk read a New York City e360tv Las Vegas TV all these networks are dedicated to empower you to stall problem uplift your spirit and live a life of financial personal freedom and you can also follow us on Facebook at the shaving with C-section Facebook page or get all the list of the shows at saving with Steve. You
we're back with Jason boys one of the things that I wanted to ask you about is there's keys to strategy for building brand it could save somebody 15 years to build a brand could take somebody 6 months at all depends on how they do it right what's the best strategies when you're looking at Amazon to do something like that well you know I learned from the master my good friend and co-author Rick's is Arie who built billion dollar Brands like the George Foreman grill OxiClean a Sonicare GoPro cameras Etc you know there's one quote that he share with me years ago that is stuck in my mind I probably uses quote weekly it's that features tell benefits sell and that that could be translated to building your brand to and out lie in the book also how how to get in touch with your brand and you have to start with what's your what's your authentic story in today's day and age
airport in a while because it covered I used to go up and I'd see what y'all young people are standing on their phone hey when you buy something where you go and what are you do right and I'll say what I either buy an Amazon or I go to the Brand store and sometimes I go to Amazon and go to the Brand store then come back and buy on Amazon I'm like what are you looking for when you go to the Brand store you like I want to know the story I want to know why this company exists what's their purpose how were they invented in what problem or benefit are they going to bring me as a brand and when you can identify that story there's many different kinds I mean this story has been replayed over and over and over again but how many times have you heard a brand story where they say I was a user of this kind of product it left me wanting and I knew I could do better write the most recent one that I heard was on the radio driving my kids to school the other day it was like the 24-hour line for something like that you're the couple started this company because they were blinds and had a miserable experience and I knew they could do better and now do you know nine-figure of your business the same thing exactly right that story is
other times you know the product didn't exist and they knew it could exist until they brought it to light until telling your your authentic store in fact I tell my personal story which is a little rough at times when I wasn't always on the up-and-up when I was a teenager I tell a little bit of those stories but it's authentic to me and I wanted everyone to know you got to be brave and tell your real story and that's like sort of the Seminole C in terms of branding in the next pieces when you go down into your products you want a weed that brand throughout your products you want to talk about the benefits benefits that use a brand bring in the benefits of the product bring I'll tell you a good story when I first met Rick you're having coffee and Issaquah coffee house outside of Seattle and I showed him I'm selling a table tennis table and I showed him the listing on Amazon he's like wow okay and it looks like a factory spec sheet Steve I mean is like dimensions and thickness of Steel and all that so you could literally have copies of product and made it a factory with wood would show them the listing and then there was a video showing you how to put the thing together and Rick ozone it looks like work
man that looks like a lot of work and you just kind of smiled at me basically he was saying Jason this is the worst listing I've ever seen in my entire life flight I don't know anything about the brand I don't know what your story is and you're not talking about what the benefits are and so I sat at his feet and I learned how to do the following we came back a couple of weeks later we redid the listing and instead of showing the specs in the size and dimensions you know we put is our main tagline bring friends and family together that's the benefit of a table tennis table and don't buy a ping pong table for the specs you buy it because you play with your friends you play with your family and you make memories right so we did that we put some images of some apps birational people smiling and enjoying your family smiling and playing on a ping pong table together and are seals went through the roof right that's Brandon merchandising and it starts with your story your authentic storage sometimes even painful stories can really resonating connect on an emotional level
with the consumer there's a couple parts of the brake you want to bypass and branding the frontal lobe write a lot of stuff you talked about Steve is frontal lobe right we're going to be analytical work we're going to be disciplined right we with my world Randy to bypass that part of the brain when I go right into the feeling Center and we want people to have an emotional reaction when they look at our brand when they look at our product and that's the kind of stuff that gets customers coming back again and again and it feels eserve love marks right not like March love March for people was just you know like my Apple computer going to have to pry that away from my cold dead hands right I'm not switching to a brand and instead that's that's what a branding 101 in a nutshell. Just heard that one for my wife will be kind of brand is really Up Lift somebody spirit and make sure they can feel it as long as you can do that with the advertising an Amazon you'll do well and that's what you got to make a good product of your product is bad and it's getting bad reviews you had a fit
quickly tell people that you fixed it but no matter how good the branding is matter what kind of pixie dust you sprinkled over product if the product itself is difficult to use difficult to put together and it's not a good quality you're not in today's day and age the consumer has the power to make a great if you could do all of those things do great listing get it search then you can have real success on Amazon you have the Avenue 7 media company and what do you do with that company the way I described it in the most distinct away is we're your Brand's fully outsourced to Amazon Department we do everything from research competitors research keywords we do the Creator for the listings we drive traffic to your listings we handle customer service through the Amazon platform which is Relentless you have to respond within 24 hours 365 if you don't you get punished Amazon's a difficult platform they have a eye but pulling listings down accidentally all the time that can really hurt a clients ran so you know how many times will have the product back up before the client even know
so when not if Amazon takes down your listing we got a holistic health department that keeps your items listed in which every day when I get to work I'd look at my clients all of them and are they growing and are they profitable and if the answer is yes we're going to double down and what we're doing if it's not that's when we get in and we do our thing to correct those metrics okay so what is the process for you looking at somebody says hey I'd like to engage Avenue 7 media okay it's just not like I had got a product hey can I come over and show it to you or is it so what's that process it's a really simple process I myself have a 30-minute call with every Prospect I asked him to tell me about their brand their story their product and what are Amazon Go's are the best part of my day I love hearing the stories from entrepreneurs I love hearing these stories and then I'll tell them I say look I think we should continue the conversation I give to my fee structure in if it doesn't scare them away then I'll set up a second meeting where I will do a custom presentation sharing with them with the Amazon play book is
what I share in the book and then what the opportunity is in their specific Market vertical like I tell us two kinds all the time like I did the research
you're not going to make any money in this category there aren't Amazon Shoppers buying these kinds of products on Amazon in a big way don't waste your money go to Instagram being Instagram seller right or I will say my God this is a big category I just found three products that are doing more than a million dollars a month in revenue and their listings aren't even good we can take your product do our thing and we can get you doing that kind of business within the next year and so I'll have those kind of Frank conversations and then you know if they sign with us we put them under our wing and we take care of him where your Champion against this Amazon Beast right Amazon Amazon has not your friend Steve that you're not going to lift a finger they're not going to lift a finger to help you win right and but you got to be there because they own in my estimate half of the online market share if not more and if you're going to do it follow our strategies because you know what I've learned all of these very hard lessons losing my own money finding solutions to be able to make money and I'm sharing them with all
like my clients and we're executing it from Jason I want to thank you for I'm going to say the pearls of dolt so to speak our viewer lines probably going to just pop up here because this is so exciting how do people get ahold of you do they go to the website you have a call and how does it work the website is a great way to go Avenue the number 7 media.com you can reach out to me on LinkedIn it's Jason middle initial R Boise I'm going to give you my email to it's just Jason at Avenue the number 7 media.com if you're out there on your brand you had some struggles with Amazon and you think you want to be out there to shoot me an email and I'll be happy to get back to Jason thank you for spending some time with us today I wish you continued success day healthy say say probably can travel same to you as well congratulations on the success and I love the show thank you so much preciate it will see you take care of everybody that was Jason boy you want to go get that book the Amazon jungle if you have a product and you think you can go somewhere
you want to reach out because they can make all the difference in the world cuz a lot of people who they develop a product they think they've got something they're not sure but they don't have the wherewithal the knowledge to get to the next level and I encourage you to reach out to him again if you're looking to sell go get that book it's only $17 on Amazon is a four and a half Starbucks so and its way up there and many many many many categories again that was Jason boys will be Amazon jungle in Avenue 7 medium today my name is Steve sex and we had RB Robinson International speaking trainer talk about how to speak for basically you can make all the difference in the world and again it's all about the ins-and-outs of money to help you have a healthier happy relationship with money will look forward to seeing you next week thanks for being with us today bye bye thank you for joining us for the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton to learn more about the show and how to become a guest or sponsor visit saving with c
leave. Us that's saving with Steve. Us join us again next time as we continue to talk about everything under the sun that relates to you having a healthier happier relationship with money list has been the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton