00:00:10The Importance of Partnerships in E-Commerce
00:10:54Expanding E-Commerce Sales in Europe
00:16:47Navigating European E-Commerce Expansion
00:29:44Building Partnerships Through Networking
SOBRE ESTE EPISÓDIO
Unlock the secrets to e-commerce success with our special guest, Nick Penev, a veteran remote worker and entrepreneur behind ventures like Extreme Power Brands and Ecom Podsofts. In this episode, Nick takes us on his journey from early victories with the acai berry supplement to the strategic pivots that kept his businesses thriving amid digital advertising challenges. Discover how he masterfully shifted to affiliate and performance marketing and now advises companies through his business, Partnership as a Service. With Nick's guidance, you'll learn how to sustain and grow your e-commerce ventures by forging meaningful connections and partnerships.
Are you a US-based Amazon seller looking to break into European markets? This episode is a goldmine for you. We discuss the lucrative potential that awaits across the Atlantic, with some brands achieving up to 50% of their US sales or even surpassing them due to less competition and better profit margins. Leveraging tools like Zangor, Helium 10, and Jungle Scout, Nick shares actionable strategies for conducting market research and crafting a robust multi-channel strategy. Learn about the importance of VAT compliance and product localization to maximize your success in the expanding European marketplace.
We wrap up with a powerful narrative on the value of networking, featuring anecdotes and personal experiences that illustrate how meeting new people can catalyze your business growth. From discovering new products to finding reliable business partners, the importance of building a community through connections cannot be overstated. Whether you're hesitant to network or an introvert who prefers fiction over business books, Nick's advice is simple and motivational: "Just do it." Embrace the opportunities that come your way and watch your horizons expand.
Inglês
Estados Unidos da América
MOSTRAR NOTAS 🔗
TRANSCRIÇÃO 🔗
WEBVTT
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Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of our Velocity Sellers Podcast.
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I am your host, velocity Pete, and today we are joined by Nick Penev to talk more about general e-com.
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Nick has been on the work-from-home grind since 2010,.
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As he claimed before, it was cool.
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Love that little tidbit.
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He's also the co-founder of Extreme Power Brands, hello Tax and Ecom Hot Sauce, so he's got a lot of insight for us into just the general world of Ecom, especially as we get into the more turbulent times in quarter four.
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So, nick, thank you so much for coming on the show with me to talk about e-comm.
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Thanks, man.
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Thanks for the invite, and I'm always happy to chat with people.
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I told you that we're going to chat in September, but I'm very impatient.
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It's not a good quality.
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So I said, okay, let's do it next week.
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So just to kind of reintroduce myself, I'm not a Helotax founder, so I'm the co-founder of Extreme Power Brands.
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I'm the co-founder of Scale and Ecom Podsofts, and Helotax is just one of the companies that they advise, because I have a business called Partnership as a Service, so a partnership agency.
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We help companies to grow through partnerships in the Amazon e-commerce space.
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So they're actually my first client.
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I'm going to tell you how I ended up with them.
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But we advise over 30 companies.
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Right Now we work with probably 100.
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10 of the aggregators used to be clients of us when they had money.
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Now they don't have money.
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We don't want them.
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Nobody wants them anyway.
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But I'm sure you guys know that and you're right.
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I mean, I've been remote for the last almost 14 years.
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The last eight years, eight summers.
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We spent them on the Black Sea.
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You know we have a summer spot and actually my desk right now is a bodyboard.
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I'm not joking, you can see this one in the background yeah, my camera is going to fall off Whatever works right.
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Yeah, I mean, I have this approach with people.
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You know it doesn't matter, we don't need to meet in person, and it'll be, because some people claim that now, when you shake hands, now it's different.
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It's not.
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It's not different, no, it's based on what your promise, because you might shake a hand with somebody and do nothing.
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So I I judge people the same way.
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Now I meet people, I do stuff with them, and based on what to do.
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That's how I evaluate those relationships and this is probably how a partnership started out.
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Amen.
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Well, I'm excited to get more into that, the art of partnerships and sort of just really connecting with people and expanding your book of business, so to speak.
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I am also coming up on an anniversary of working from home.
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I guess it's been five years now, I guess, and maybe in September, that I've been a work from home employee, so happy to kind of share in that sentiment of anything.
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Anything can be a desk um, and I always say nice to meet you on emails instead of nice to meet you um.
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So it's uh definitely a lot of uh different, different aspects of of doing the remote work um.
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But yeah, no, I'm excited to talk to you more today about just really quarter four and really approaching that.
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So let me tell you no more before we go for q4.
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You know, because there was an econ white brand owner for 10 years.
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He had like 10 supplement brands, so that is the extreme power brands part of the business we actually developed.
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Uh well, it was one product big thing.
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You know.
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There was a product called acai berry, the so-called or acai berry, the magic brazilian fruit, which you was waiting there.
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Oprah was pushing that, dr ross was pushing up.
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He got in trouble with the congress, you know, because he was pushing all kind of like magic, like supplements, whatever.
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Anyways, we did very well because we got very.
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You know, we were paying once in per click on facebook and google.
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That was in like 2010.
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2011.
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Long story short is we got Rocky, we got Erlin and we started with like 5K and we had like 25 million viewers, and I'm based in Bulgaria now this is the poorest country in the EU and so we actually did very well.
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But eventually we sold everything because we started doing some other stuff, like crypto, like crypto, like side vessels, whatever and you got spoiled, you know.
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You got cocky when you're winning and eventually we sold everything.
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And when I did that, I was using this company, helotax, to do my vet components, so the equivalent of sales tax in the state.
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So I get to know the funds which are x amount of sales in the top.
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You've grown your company.
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You guys do a lot of partnerships and affiliates because in 2016, we stopped all paid marketing whatsoever Zero, you know.
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We didn't pay anything because Facebook and Google they keep on suspending our account.
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It's like, okay, man, fuck those guys, I'm not going to pay them.
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We pay them like millions per year and they just suspend their accounts.
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Okay, per year and they just suspend their accounts.
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Okay, we're done with them.
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And then we switched to affiliate and performance marketing.
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So when I saw the supplement business so I had like 20 brands at the peak uh, they, you know.
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They told me, okay, can you replicate that for a service provider which was helotax.
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So I said, okay, guys, I mean this is up.
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I mean I'm too young to retire.
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My wife told me to get the real thing going on, not crypto, not trading, you know anyways.
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And I said, okay, man, let's do it for you guys.
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And I came to support with partnerships.
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So I never sell anything, I never talk about commercials, I only meet people, do stuff with them and build communities.
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And I managed to do that very quickly, you know, for a couple of times, and in a matter of months we built a community of probably 300 companies.
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And companies start asking me okay, nick, can you do it for us?
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I said, okay, man, you just gave me an idea and we'll set up a business called Partnership Business Service.
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And what we're going to do?
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We're going to help companies to partnership.
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Let me tell you what I'm talking about, because Q4, there is Q4 every year and a lot of companies don't do partnerships.
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Partnerships is the best way to grow because it doesn't involve money.
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Of course, there are some paid partnerships, but in general, building partnerships is going to help anybody in any business to do very well.
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Some companies actually were saved by bankruptcy and this kind of stuff by doing partnerships.
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If you go back in history like Apple, microsoft just choose any big company.
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Usually they team up with a big company, like, I think, microsoft, it was ibm and many of those things you know.
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So in general, partnership is the best way to grow your business and a lot of companies are not doing that.
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But since q4 it you know it's probably now is probably the worst time in Amazon in the last few years because of different reasons.
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Now it's getting harder and harder.
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So for companies to succeed they need to focus on partnerships.
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And why is that?
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Because partnerships it involves work, it doesn't involve money, it takes time, but you know it's going to do very well in the long term.
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And I'm telling you all that because after I built my partner agency, I managed to build a partnership network of 1500 companies, like founders, like you guys.
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I built a newsletter with 28 000 sellers in a sas platform.
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So all those things I I did them without any paid marketing, just meeting people, doing stuff with them.
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We ended up doing some like commercial partnership, like jv partnerships with those guys.
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But the why I'm mentioning that?
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Because a lot of people are expecting, when they meet somebody, have something in return right away.
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And this is actually a better product, because when you meet people and you would like to get something in advance, you usually end up without getting anything in that part of the like, if anything.
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So the best way to grow any business is by giving, and I'm gonna tell why.
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I think that it's not because I'm mother teresa, I'm not running a charity, but because when you help out somebody, it's very likely that those guys are gonna return the favor.
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And here there's some psychology kicking in.
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You know, let's say, I meet you guys and make some connections.
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Those connections end up being valuable for you guys, even though I don't take money from you or the other party, I'm the person who makes the connection.
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So you, back in your mind, you're thinking okay, man, you know this guy made made me a favor.
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You know I need to return the favor.
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So I might never ask for the for you to return the favor, but if I do, it's very likely that you're going to do it.
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And then I'll give another example.
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I meet companies all the time.
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And I tell them okay, you work with this company, they're a competitor of ours.
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How many leads or referrals did you get from those guys?
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And I'm like, in the war moves, like the legal moves, I don't ask questions if I don't know the answer, and they say zero.
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I said, okay, war moves, like the legal moves, I don't ask questions if I don't know the answer, and they say zero.
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I said, okay, no, guys, what would you do if we send business to you anyway?
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If we can promote you with this and that, would you be willing to work with us?
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And they say, of course, no, hell, yes.
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I mean, why shouldn't I do that?
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So giving is is a very good way of actually growing.
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And actually there was somebody who said that I'm not sure who did that, but they said, no, nobody has gone bankrupt by giving you know in a way.
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So, and this you can also apply it in your business, though.
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By giving you know, if you're a brand owner, you know you can give, we can meet people, you can do stuff with them and you can actually help your business grow.
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And I'll give an example with that note, for example, like brands who want to expand to new markets.
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So they cannot do that most of them because they're scared, they don't know how, they don't have the right partners.
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So it's lack of knowledge, lack of connections.
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So if partnership are actually looking more into that, they would be able to actually see new opportunities, new markets and to expand to those markets.
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They would need to hook up with people that know those markets and they can kill them off.
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And no base.
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You guys work with a lot of amazon brands, so how many of your amazon sellers are selling in europe, for example, do you?
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have an idea off the top of my head, I would say maybe 20, 25 of them okay, okay, that's a very high percentage because, no, there is actually a like a newsletter, very popular one, a marketplace post, and they they actually did an article about that that only like less than one percent of us sellers sell globally on other marketplaces, so 90 percent of us sellers exactly now.
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You see my post I do that every week.
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I just saw your linkedin post about this, yeah yeah, I've been lying to people.
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I've been telling them that it's 2%.
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So that's complete bullshit.
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It's only 1%.
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So in other words, so anybody who is selling in the States, they're looking at Q4.
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To expand to Europe, it's kind of late because you but still, you should be there next year, because if you're not, just keep in mind that.
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No, the amazon us is a 400 billion mark, amazon europe it's around 70 billion, just germany and uk, and keeps on growing there's.
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There's money there and I think people don't realize that it's just not as much as the us, but there's still money to be made there, um and like kind of like.
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Again like your linkedin, like your linkedin post said it's a lot of paperwork, but why would you give up that money when maybe your competitors are there as well?
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I think that's kind of what the consensus is.
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Your competitors are not there.
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This is the thing, though, because, for one of my companies, we call that expansion to your book, and so we kind of opened eyes at no new company mostly US brands on Amazon about opportunity in Europe, and those who expanded already they're seeing like a minimum of like 20, maximum like 50% of what they do in the States.
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We even have some companies who are actually doing more in Europe, and the reason for that is very simple Because US, amazon, usa is the biggest market.
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This is the biggest playground Sogest market.
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This is the biggest playground, so all the big boys are there In Europe.
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Even though it's small compared to the USA, many of those big boys are not there yet, which means that you can actually go to Europe.
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One thing that a lot of sales results know is that they can actually transfer their reviews from Amazoncom to Amazon Europe, so, when you go to Europe're not, uh like you're already established, you can take the buy box right away.
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So, let's say, you're doing your established round bus too.
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The competition is very uh why?
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Very strong in the states.
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You can, let's say, 10 000 years.
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You go to europe, you'll be number one in all time, and even though the market would be smaller, you know you're going to give a higher profit margin.
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A lot of times actually sell your products for much more expensive.
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Because when we help companies to expand to europe, we do the so-called marketing opportunity report.
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We show them what is the demand for your product, what are the I mean, what are their competitors?
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And a lot of times the top seller in the category is not the cheapest product.
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Usually they're more expensive, you know, sometimes two to three times than the second and the third.
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And the reason for that is really simple europe has the highest average order value in the world.
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So chinese sellers don't like europeans.
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Europeans are crazy.
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They buy quality, expensive stuff.
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They don't care about the pricing, like germany, france.
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You know those guys.
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If they don't, if your product is, is is not about have good quality they're gonna choose the more expensive one.
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And, of course, because amazon may tries to make you know like very genuine, you know, uh, the reviews are gonna show that.
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So if you suck, you know, if your product is sexy, if you give it out for free, people are not gonna buy that.
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So so those are things that anybody who is selling in the states on amazon and not selling in europe.
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They should think about like 20 to 40 to 50 percent of what they do in the states.
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They can do that as an extra revenue in europe and, the most important thing, with higher profit margin because and they can easily see, check, check it out I mean they can use software like zangor, like clemton, general scout.
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They can easily see, check it out.
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I mean they can use softwares like Zangor, like Helium 10, general Scout.
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They can easily see the product research, they can see the category and they will be surprised that in some markets, no, there is no competition, there is demand.
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There is a lot of US brands, by the way, where there is a lot of demand and they're not even selling in Europe.
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So because of that, we even have like another solution where we kind of take brands that publish US companies doing like 1,000 plus reviews, doing 1 million plus.
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We buy their products and we distribute them across Europe.
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Why shouldn't we do that?
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There is demand for that.
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We just set up the listing.
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We have the product compliance, vat, we have all the legal stuff taken care of.
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So the US seller doesn't move their finger, you know they just we buy their stuff, we sell it.
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So there is always an option to expand to that.
00:14:08.197 --> 00:14:13.875
And I'll give you actually a quote from a partner you know who runs an agency like you guys.
00:14:13.875 --> 00:14:16.940
Sure, if they're quite sold on, but this was the beginning of 2024.
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If you guys don't take us international, we're going to offend the new agents.
00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:25.029
So, wow, and because we're going to offend the new agents, wow, but that's the truth.
00:14:25.029 --> 00:14:28.356
Because Amazon is great, but you should be omnichannel.
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Why mess up with my supplement business?
00:14:30.717 --> 00:14:34.676
We rely heavily on Google and Facebook ads.
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What happened?
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I'm not going to insult those guys, they just suspended our accounts several times.
00:14:41.298 --> 00:14:41.919
And what happened?
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We were forced to look for alternatives.
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So sellers should not put themselves in a position where they're relying too heavily on one channel.
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You get Walmart, you get.
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Amazon Shopify your own website.
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Exactly Shopify and Europe you know, see, this is an idea for Europe that, since we're talking about that Amazon in the USA, it has close to 50% market share, if I'm not mistaken right.
00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:07.822
Or close to that.
00:15:07.822 --> 00:15:12.836
Okay, in Europe Amazon has only 20% market share and it's growing.
00:15:12.836 --> 00:15:15.716
You'll be surprised that it's too early.
00:15:15.716 --> 00:15:25.413
So imagine, let's say, if you're not in Europe right now, if you want to go to Europe, you can just go back to Amazoncom, let's say, five or six years ago, when it was still early.
00:15:25.413 --> 00:15:29.375
Because Europe keeps on growing with like 10 or more percent each year, amazon.
00:15:29.375 --> 00:15:40.423
There is a lot of local marketplaces which Amazon is slowly taking actually market share from them, because in France there was a marketplace called Cedars-Camp which was number one a few years ago.
00:15:40.423 --> 00:15:45.947
Now Amazon is number one and Europe has 450 million population.
00:15:45.947 --> 00:15:54.183
So that's another hundred million on top of like what you guys have in the USA, so you can kind of double your customer base.
00:15:54.183 --> 00:16:00.958
Of course it's not easy because you do VAT, product compliance logistics, but the goal justifies the effort.
00:16:00.999 --> 00:16:06.119
Yeah, it sounds like it's well worth it to get over there and expand.
00:16:06.119 --> 00:16:09.235
I'm on team, I'm already on team.
00:16:09.235 --> 00:16:13.000
This has to be something that you would explore.
00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:29.517
I do think I will say this, though, before I go into anything else I do think you should finish and you should kind of really nail down the US and get really established there, kind of build a strong foundation before you get to Europe, before you really tackle that.
00:16:30.750 --> 00:16:47.599
But I do think it is well well worth it to get over there and really expand, especially into the simple ones like Germany they're not going to be simple, but the easy wins like Germany and the UK, where there is a lot of money there to be made and to be had and, like you said, your competitors probably aren't there.
00:16:47.599 --> 00:17:05.000
I would assume that a lot of people, again, going back to that LinkedIn post, might get tripped up by the amount of paperwork and the amount of logistics work that has to be done to really kind of set yourself up to be in Europe and to be in these EU countries.
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:12.018
So it seems like it would be worth it for you if you can afford it and if you can, you know, so to speak, deal with the hassle.
00:17:12.018 --> 00:17:20.459
It seems like it'd be well well worth it for you to get in there and really take advantage of the European marketplace.
00:17:21.790 --> 00:17:23.176
Yeah, not only the European.
00:17:23.176 --> 00:17:31.477
I mean, you guys see, if other markets close to this, like Canada, mexico, you guys can feel directly how it's like the NAR, if I'm not mistaken.
00:17:31.477 --> 00:17:33.596
So there's always options.
00:17:33.596 --> 00:17:37.278
But the main thing is that a lot of sellers are not looking into those.
00:17:37.278 --> 00:17:43.913
They don't even see what is the opportunity, they make assumptions that it's not going to work or they're scared.
00:17:43.913 --> 00:17:45.660
And I'm like that.
00:17:45.660 --> 00:17:46.674
I never think too much.
00:17:47.510 --> 00:17:48.413
Whenever I have an idea.
00:17:48.433 --> 00:17:49.397
I try to test it right.
00:17:49.397 --> 00:17:52.799
Of course, you can do a small test whatever, but otherwise no.
00:17:52.799 --> 00:18:05.776
I was reading somewhere that the face in people's life where they want to do something and they do that, it's called a void, and 90% of people don't do anything in this void and they never do the next step.
00:18:05.776 --> 00:18:08.916
So my advice is please see what is the opportunity.
00:18:08.916 --> 00:18:16.340
There is multiple people in Ethiopia, but that's what, and the most important thing, like we discussed earlier, think about that.
00:18:16.340 --> 00:18:21.232
99% of your competitors are not there, so you should consider that.
00:18:21.752 --> 00:18:22.934
Why wouldn't you be Exactly?
00:18:22.934 --> 00:18:27.280
Yeah, no, this is a great, great segue kind of into just in general.
00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:29.022
I'm also with you, I don't think too much either.
00:18:29.022 --> 00:18:44.153
You can ask my boss but I think this is great to kind of lean into the whole partnership and the whole just really your dynamic in terms of making connections and helping people out.
00:18:44.153 --> 00:18:46.742
I'm sure you've got a couple people in your network that are really good at expanding businesses into Europe or handling the tax stuff.
00:18:46.742 --> 00:18:55.403
So I'd love to talk more just about that in general, just about sort of how you kind of started this network and yeah, I mean let me tell you the story.
00:18:55.474 --> 00:18:56.116
So what happened?
00:18:56.116 --> 00:19:05.548
Like after, you know, we started doing the partnership stuff, I saw that there is big demand and, as they call it, like it's a blue ocean opportunity in Europe.
00:19:05.548 --> 00:19:14.320
But sellers are scared mostly users and I figured, if you talk to them about taxes, which is the one thing, so VAT is the first thing that you need.
00:19:14.320 --> 00:19:20.328
So it's VAT, product compliance, logistics and and translation, all sorts of things that you do, that's it you must do.
00:19:20.328 --> 00:19:26.002
And when you talk to companies about v80, they get scared because taxes no, here is about tax.
00:19:26.002 --> 00:19:26.663
I mean that's scary.
00:19:26.663 --> 00:19:28.375
No, nobody likes tax, it's a document.
00:19:28.375 --> 00:19:32.665
We do that totally wrong, you know, because I know that it's a good opportunity.
00:19:32.665 --> 00:19:34.538
You need to just show it in a different way.
00:19:34.538 --> 00:19:38.587
So what we started doing is we started showing those brands the opportunity in Europe.
00:19:38.587 --> 00:19:42.925
So we kind of showed them, like I mentioned earlier, how much money you can make.
00:19:42.994 --> 00:20:00.040
And once you start showing people the money, they don't care about the brokers, you know once they see how much money they can make and, of course, for those partnerships I decided that I'm going to build, obviously, which does the VAT compliance, which is the first broker.
00:20:00.040 --> 00:20:01.801
It takes three months to get the VAT.
00:20:01.801 --> 00:20:06.703
Getting one VAT in Germany is going to open the whole European market.
00:20:06.703 --> 00:20:10.144
So Amazon, you can sell on all the Amazon marketplace.
00:20:10.144 --> 00:20:12.201
You're going to fulfill from one country, then Germany.
00:20:12.201 --> 00:20:13.103
You have one VAT.
00:20:13.103 --> 00:20:26.226
So with one VAT you can open the whole European Union market, not only the countries where Amazon is present, because people from anywhere in the EU they can buy from a base in Bulgaria without having a market place.
00:20:26.226 --> 00:20:28.469
They buy from Amazon Germany and they get that in a few days.
00:20:28.469 --> 00:20:32.071
So that's it One VAT in Germany, you open the whole market.
00:20:36.016 --> 00:20:37.368
Then the next thing that you must do product compliance check.
00:20:37.368 --> 00:20:38.015
This is the broker number.
00:20:38.015 --> 00:20:44.436
It takes a few weeks weeks the most, usually a few days to get the product and planchex, labeling and all this kind of stuff.
00:20:44.436 --> 00:20:51.980
And once you have the product, the vet and the product compliance, you're gonna obviously arrange to move your stock.
00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:54.712
You know it doesn't issue based if you manufacture in china.
00:20:54.712 --> 00:21:03.116
We have partners who are gonna hold their stock in their china warehouse and they're gonna feed that to the ambulance and it'd be weekly, based on their how you call it like sales.
00:21:03.116 --> 00:21:05.086
They lost you know number of sales that you do weekly.
00:21:05.086 --> 00:21:17.002
So you don't need to order huge chunks of products, you just keep them in your warehouse, you feed amalan directly and then then you avoid the new placement fees, which you can do, by the way, in the usa, you know as far as you know.
00:21:17.002 --> 00:21:19.647
So you save money, you know, improve your cash flow.
00:21:19.647 --> 00:21:23.458
Second option you're not manufacturing in china, don't want to use this kind of companies.
00:21:23.458 --> 00:21:35.960
You have multiple prep centers for all their stock and they can obviously feed that time on api or you can do like fulfillment directly from them to like fbm or like clients across here.
00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:37.743
So, so obviously now VATs.
00:21:37.743 --> 00:21:39.347
You're waiting for the VAT.
00:21:39.347 --> 00:21:42.444
In the meantime you arrange the product compliance, you arrange logistics.
00:21:42.634 --> 00:21:48.042
The last but not the least is whenever you start selling in Europe, you must walk always your listings.
00:21:48.042 --> 00:21:49.259
Let's say you're going to sell in UK.
00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:57.458
British English is different than US English, so all the words are not the same, they have different meanings, so you need to walk horizontal.
00:21:57.458 --> 00:21:58.519
Another thing like germany.
00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:03.009
Germany is the biggest amazon market after dot, after dot, after the sa.
00:22:03.009 --> 00:22:09.839
So whenever you sell in germany, a lot of people don't know, but there's eight, eight million people, turkish speakers, in germany.
00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:16.519
So whenever you sell there, you need to have your keywords translated to german is uh, turkish?
00:22:16.519 --> 00:22:19.647
Otherwise you're missing from the whole country like 8 million people.
00:22:19.647 --> 00:22:36.903
So those are small specifics that you need to do in each market, which, of course, you might say scare people, but they shouldn't scare them, because Amazon provide all kinds of tools which suck, so you need partners to help you who will cause them because they're native speakers.
00:22:36.903 --> 00:22:47.701
And there's other specifics, of course, about the type that you write your ads on, because, for example, in Germany they like discount offers, deals, whatever, but they don't like to tell them that your product is the best, for example.
00:22:48.243 --> 00:22:48.484
Yeah.
00:22:49.478 --> 00:22:50.903
And there's all kinds of specifics.
00:22:50.903 --> 00:22:59.143
And once you establish that let's say, you get the VAT, you get all the product components, you're ready to start selling in like three months then what you do?
00:22:59.143 --> 00:23:00.885
You start selling from germany.
00:23:00.885 --> 00:23:02.969
You can sell across the whole european.
00:23:02.969 --> 00:23:13.221
You don't need multiple v80s, which is something which amazon was advising sellers for a long time whenever they sell in europe, to get multiple v80s.
00:23:13.221 --> 00:23:14.243
This is bullshit.
00:23:14.243 --> 00:23:16.317
Amazon makes more money without the desktop.
00:23:16.317 --> 00:23:24.958
But then actually amazon is discontinuing their vt services from end up of talk, and the reason why they're doing that is, of course, they make money from the fees.
00:23:24.958 --> 00:23:29.307
But this is not, uh, this is not the the right way to do.
00:23:29.307 --> 00:23:35.531
So, setting up selling across europe to get started, you just need one vt in germany, that's it.
00:23:35.531 --> 00:23:42.849
You can set up uk as well, but since uk is non-eu, I mean of course you can do it because it's an english-speaking market.
00:23:42.849 --> 00:23:46.402
But to open the four european, you just need germany and then you start selling.
00:23:46.422 --> 00:23:48.205
You know people start buying your products.
00:23:48.205 --> 00:23:57.622
Let's, you know people are likely like your product in france, in italy, so when you validate their demand, then you kind of branch out from germany.
00:23:57.622 --> 00:24:00.288
So so Germany will be your home base in the EU.
00:24:00.288 --> 00:24:08.315
You start selling from there and then, based on the demand in the different markets, you kind of branch out and set up FBAs in those countries.
00:24:08.315 --> 00:24:11.285
When you set up FBAs, you must register for VE.
00:24:11.285 --> 00:24:13.044
This is a requirement with Europe.
00:24:13.044 --> 00:24:19.303
So you kind of branch out and just step by step you can start selling across the European Union.
00:24:19.303 --> 00:24:27.819
And the good thing about that is that when you're a non-e-company, amazon is gonna collect the VAT and pay it at the tax authority, so you don't need to bother with that.
00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:34.660
The only obligation after getting the VAT is to do the monthly VAT returns, which is done by KaleoTax.
00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:38.021
So just to summarize what I'm talking about here, it's not that hard.
00:24:38.021 --> 00:24:40.667
You just don't have the right partners to do it for you.
00:24:41.295 --> 00:24:42.657
Yeah, and it's just all about.
00:24:42.657 --> 00:24:47.161
It's not what's the phrase, it's not who you are, it's who you know.
00:24:47.161 --> 00:25:00.911
Exactly, exactly, and that really comes into play, I would think, with your again, just the whole idea of creating this partnership network and getting people to kind of help you out with things that you aren't an expert in.
00:25:03.076 --> 00:25:08.647
Exactly because for this Blueprint Expansion Blueprint I met a guy from Brooklyn.
00:25:08.647 --> 00:25:18.459
Brooklyn is the USA Amazon capital, so the guy was doing current billion in the States and he was moving 2,000 SKUs from the usa to europe.
00:25:18.459 --> 00:25:25.184
So so he he was in big trouble because somebody was doing product compliance for him.
00:25:25.184 --> 00:25:27.199
He was not doing it well, so what I did?
00:25:27.199 --> 00:25:33.823
They connected with my partner who does the product compliance and I got an email from him like two weeks after at the clinic thanks for connecting.
00:25:33.823 --> 00:25:38.188
And we exactly this guy is a live c so he was struggling with that.
00:25:38.188 --> 00:25:50.165
Just by making one connection, I was able to help out this guy, and the reason for that is that many sellers don't have the right partners and I'm trying to actually change up them here like whatsapp group.
00:25:50.165 --> 00:25:57.317
You know, I need to invite you guys, by the way, now um, probably it's up after we meet so you see velocity sellers on there soon enough.
00:25:57.978 --> 00:26:04.164
Yeah, I mean I want to invite you and the deal for the community is like that Nobody knows everything.
00:26:04.164 --> 00:26:08.991
I don't know everything, but I have partners who know everything.
00:26:08.991 --> 00:26:11.984
So when I have an issue or somebody is asking for something, what do I do?
00:26:11.984 --> 00:26:16.675
I just connect with some guys or just talk to some guys and we get the resolution.
00:26:16.675 --> 00:26:18.416
And this applies for all kind of stuff.
00:26:18.416 --> 00:26:23.618
For example, I'm not sure if you know Don Henning from a creamy the name sounds familiar.
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:25.700
Anyway, he's based in New York.
00:26:25.700 --> 00:26:27.181
I think you guys were based in New York, even.
00:26:27.181 --> 00:26:28.060
What mistake.
00:26:28.060 --> 00:26:30.383
Okay, so he's based in Long Island, new York.
00:26:30.383 --> 00:26:32.042
He's like a funding for Amazon, say word.
00:26:32.042 --> 00:26:36.144
So he asked me Nick, I would like to charter, yeah, in the Mediterranean.
00:26:36.144 --> 00:26:37.105
Do you know somebody?
00:26:37.105 --> 00:26:40.886
No, man, but I know a guy who knows such a guy, so they made the connection.
00:26:40.886 --> 00:26:46.930
So that's what we're doing, even though it's focused on Amazon Econ stuff.
00:26:46.930 --> 00:26:48.490
We can help with anything.
00:26:48.490 --> 00:26:50.152
We just need to ask.
00:26:50.152 --> 00:26:53.932
We're not going to say no, we're going to say okay, man, let me connect with this.
00:27:03.575 --> 00:27:05.769
And my advice is for anybody who is building like an amazon business or an agency or whatever.
00:27:05.769 --> 00:27:08.234
They should have a network of people who can help with everything, and the one thing is they should never stop building the net.
00:27:08.234 --> 00:27:10.663
You know, I'm calling that pumping new blood in the system.
00:27:10.663 --> 00:27:21.808
You need to keep on meeting new people, doing stuff with them eventually, because you never know, you might get an idea about your business, you might get like a new business partner, all kind of stuff.
00:27:21.808 --> 00:27:23.251
I mean so.
00:27:23.251 --> 00:27:28.502
So that's my advice to people like you, for you know, just think about europe.
00:27:28.502 --> 00:27:33.042
You know, if you're not, if europe is too far away for you guys think about, like canada, mexico.
00:27:33.042 --> 00:27:38.643
But there's other markets, like japan, even though japan is very hard because of language and all this kind of stuff.
00:27:38.643 --> 00:27:41.443
You got to really understand that language.
00:27:42.036 --> 00:27:48.009
Yeah, you got to connect with someone in your network that really knows Japan and English enough to make it, like you said, localized.
00:27:48.009 --> 00:27:48.615
So it's not.
00:27:48.615 --> 00:27:55.394
People aren't getting thrown off by kind of what you've got, you know, on your listing and on your bullet points and all that kind of good stuff.
00:27:55.394 --> 00:28:09.520
So, yeah, no, there's a lot that goes into it, more than I think people it again, we're not saying here it's easy to expand to europe or it's easy to expand in any new marketplace, um, but it's definitely worth it if it's something that you can endeavor and something you can put the resources into.
00:28:09.520 --> 00:28:12.488
So, yeah, very cool exactly now.
00:28:12.575 --> 00:28:16.586
Look into all the cool, the big brands like nike, mcdonald's those guys are global.
00:28:16.586 --> 00:28:22.994
You know all the goal for all companies is you start local and you go global.
00:28:22.994 --> 00:28:28.124
Big brands, they go on the channel and this is actually a question about money.
00:28:28.124 --> 00:28:38.493
Let's say you start your business, eventually you would like to sell the business Companies for international companies, for actually brands for international, and they are multi-channel.
00:28:38.493 --> 00:28:45.259
The multiples are current, so you're more valuable, even though aggregators don't buy for 10x like before.
00:28:45.298 --> 00:29:07.805
You know, still, eventually, if you build a quality brand, you must be international and omnichannel and that's what it's more absolutely, it's a great, great points again on just what to do next after you again have established yourself in the US that's again where you started and really just where to take your business from there.
00:29:07.805 --> 00:29:25.298
Yeah, no, very cool, very, very cool, very good stuff the whole idea of not only the networking, but really just the idea of community and really why it's so essential for a business to not just sort of exist by itself and kind of.
00:29:25.298 --> 00:29:27.535
We talked a little bit about it already, about how not everyone can do everything.
00:29:27.535 --> 00:29:32.027
But what about more in terms of just kind of where, the, where, the, where the world is going?
00:29:32.027 --> 00:29:39.636
Why is it so crucial now, especially to to really be connected with more people and, and you know, kind of help each other out a little bit?
00:29:39.837 --> 00:29:41.958
Yeah, I mean, like I said, help each other out.
00:29:41.958 --> 00:29:47.844
Actually, what I think about meeting new people is that I get ideas.
00:29:47.844 --> 00:29:52.901
Now I know I found it my business right now after I met somebody.
00:29:52.901 --> 00:29:57.085
Then I found my other business after I met somebody.
00:29:57.085 --> 00:29:59.825
So I keep on getting ideas and try to execute those.
00:29:59.825 --> 00:30:03.720
So you should think that I've met a few guys who told me okay, I have everything, I know.
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:06.643
So that's a bit my mindset.
00:30:06.643 --> 00:30:13.442
I know you should have all the like the eternal word in your mindset yeah, I know shit and I will not warn stuff.
00:30:13.481 --> 00:30:14.384
So how do you do that?
00:30:14.384 --> 00:30:15.386
Some people read books.
00:30:15.386 --> 00:30:23.679
I mean, I read books, but my books are funny books.
00:30:23.679 --> 00:30:25.665
I read like Graham books, michael Connelly, like Stephen King, this kind of stuff.
00:30:25.665 --> 00:30:26.809
I don't work business, I don't read business.
00:30:26.809 --> 00:30:26.990
I read.
00:30:26.990 --> 00:30:28.114
I meet people and that's how I learn new stuff.
00:30:28.134 --> 00:30:34.924
I might meet like a solution, like a new product, new idea, and that's why you know people do this, this conference.
00:30:34.924 --> 00:30:35.946
Like networking, because you meet people.
00:30:35.946 --> 00:30:37.328
Sometimes you know you why you know people do this conference.
00:30:37.328 --> 00:30:38.490
You know like networking, because you meet people.
00:30:38.490 --> 00:30:39.050
Sometimes you know you can.
00:30:39.050 --> 00:30:41.474
You might meet your next business partner there.
00:30:41.474 --> 00:30:43.040
You can team up with somebody.
00:30:43.040 --> 00:30:46.125
For example, let's say you're selling, you have a product in the States.
00:30:46.125 --> 00:30:50.446
Then you meet a guy who likes your product and they would like to distribute your product.
00:30:50.446 --> 00:30:53.396
I've met several of those guys, by the way, when I was in London last year.
00:30:53.396 --> 00:30:57.618
You know they come to Europe so they can meet partners who can actually distribute their product.
00:30:57.618 --> 00:31:00.461
So there is a lot of opportunities that you can form.
00:31:00.461 --> 00:31:05.604
You know, besides helping out like on the operational side, also on the growth side of your business.
00:31:06.365 --> 00:31:09.205
And you will never do that if you're not willing to meet new people.
00:31:09.205 --> 00:31:16.250
You know you can go to like local, like meetups, big conference or just virtual stuff or like webinars or whatever.
00:31:16.250 --> 00:31:17.651
So there's always a way.
00:31:17.651 --> 00:31:24.900
Of course some is more expensive, some is cheaper, but there's always ways for you to meet new people and do stuff with them.
00:31:25.843 --> 00:31:26.505
There it is, folks.
00:31:26.505 --> 00:31:28.642
I would say that's the lesson of the day.
00:31:28.642 --> 00:31:29.837
Is that?
00:31:29.837 --> 00:31:31.964
Why read books when you can meet new people?
00:31:31.964 --> 00:31:35.563
Exactly that's what they asked me.
00:31:36.056 --> 00:31:37.801
What was the book that changed my mind?
00:31:37.801 --> 00:31:39.637
I haven't read such a book, I mean.
00:31:39.637 --> 00:31:51.920
But I meet people who don't change my life, but they change how I see stuff, my business idea, because four years ago I was actually for in a little bit.
00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:53.366
I was running an e-commerce business.
00:31:53.366 --> 00:31:54.049
I was selling that.
00:31:54.049 --> 00:31:55.395
I had no idea what it was.
00:31:55.395 --> 00:31:56.761
Then those guys saw me okay, can you help with that?
00:31:56.761 --> 00:31:58.088
I had no idea what I'm going to do.
00:31:58.088 --> 00:31:59.315
Then those guys told me okay, can you help with that?
00:31:59.315 --> 00:32:04.259
I had no idea what I'm getting so fast forward like.
00:32:04.259 --> 00:32:10.414
Four years later, we have a partner agency, we have a network of 1,500 founders, a newsletter and a SaaS platform.
00:32:10.414 --> 00:32:13.798
None of that would have happened if I didn't meet those guys.
00:32:14.601 --> 00:32:19.395
Of course I mean you get, I mean mean you need to execute your idc, that one, just keep on like that.
00:32:19.395 --> 00:32:26.576
But sometimes you need to meet people to actually just and to actually change the, the style of today.
00:32:26.576 --> 00:32:31.576
No, because I wasn't, I was not in a bad shape when, when, when this happened, that I just sold.
00:32:31.576 --> 00:32:35.664
Maybe this I was I, it just was like quarter million playing.
00:32:35.664 --> 00:32:38.740
I'm saying playing, not trading we go future.
00:32:38.740 --> 00:32:40.678
So I was, I, I was in trouble.
00:32:40.698 --> 00:32:46.558
That's why that's why my wife told me to get the, get the new product now, stop doing dealing with some of the dollars.
00:32:46.558 --> 00:32:52.739
And so I got lucky and I kind of uh got the idea in a way and I'm like that.
00:32:52.739 --> 00:32:57.759
I mean, I'm not saying that everybody should be like that, I'm just getting it started executing that.
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:00.967
But for partnerships, the a lot of times it doesn't involve any money.
00:33:00.967 --> 00:33:05.142
So that's why I like you meet people, you can start doing some stuff.
00:33:05.142 --> 00:33:13.563
Eventually, you can expand on that, you can invest money, whatever, but it starts with meeting somebody, just a short chat like we're doing right now.
00:33:13.563 --> 00:33:14.836
It's not a podcast.
00:33:14.836 --> 00:33:25.494
You meet somebody, tell them what to do, tell their relative what to do, ask them how you can help, vice versa, and you'll be surprised how often you can actually do a lot of stuff after that.
00:33:26.315 --> 00:33:27.662
I couldn't say that better myself.
00:33:27.662 --> 00:33:44.942
Yeah, no, Nick, I want to thank you for coming on today to talk to us about just the idea of creating this network and creating these partnerships and really the importance of them on top of other many things, including expanding into Europe, and that was really a good final thought.
00:33:44.942 --> 00:33:51.306
But any really final final thoughts for our viewers on just the idea of creating a sense of community?
00:33:52.915 --> 00:33:53.463
Community.
00:33:53.463 --> 00:33:55.760
I don't know where it is, but I'm going to quote Nike.
00:33:55.760 --> 00:33:59.093
You know, expand Europe, just do it, that's it, just do it, that's it, just do it.
00:33:59.093 --> 00:34:04.344
And meet people you know that's something that you should do all the time, you know, even if you don't like it.
00:34:04.344 --> 00:34:06.559
So meet people and just do it.
00:34:06.559 --> 00:34:07.785
Expand Europe, that's it.
00:34:08.414 --> 00:34:09.980
Nick, really thank you so much for coming on.
00:34:09.980 --> 00:34:10.722
I want to thank you.
00:34:10.722 --> 00:34:15.878
You know it was a great episode and thanks everybody for watching.
00:34:15.878 --> 00:34:17.101
I'm Velocity Pete and we will see you next week.
00:00:10.172 --> 00:00:13.957
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of our Velocity Sellers Podcast.
00:00:13.957 --> 00:00:19.792
I am your host, velocity Pete, and today we are joined by Nick Penev to talk more about general e-com.
00:00:19.792 --> 00:00:25.129
Nick has been on the work-from-home grind since 2010,.
00:00:25.129 --> 00:00:26.852
As he claimed before, it was cool.
00:00:26.852 --> 00:00:28.175
Love that little tidbit.
00:00:28.175 --> 00:00:41.493
He's also the co-founder of Extreme Power Brands, hello Tax and Ecom Hot Sauce, so he's got a lot of insight for us into just the general world of Ecom, especially as we get into the more turbulent times in quarter four.
00:00:41.493 --> 00:00:46.448
So, nick, thank you so much for coming on the show with me to talk about e-comm.
00:00:47.631 --> 00:00:48.152
Thanks, man.
00:00:48.152 --> 00:00:51.228
Thanks for the invite, and I'm always happy to chat with people.
00:00:51.228 --> 00:00:54.847
I told you that we're going to chat in September, but I'm very impatient.
00:00:54.847 --> 00:00:57.966
It's not a good quality.
00:00:57.966 --> 00:00:59.640
So I said, okay, let's do it next week.
00:01:01.442 --> 00:01:07.507
So just to kind of reintroduce myself, I'm not a Helotax founder, so I'm the co-founder of Extreme Power Brands.
00:01:07.507 --> 00:01:19.144
I'm the co-founder of Scale and Ecom Podsofts, and Helotax is just one of the companies that they advise, because I have a business called Partnership as a Service, so a partnership agency.
00:01:19.144 --> 00:01:22.965
We help companies to grow through partnerships in the Amazon e-commerce space.
00:01:22.965 --> 00:01:24.361
So they're actually my first client.
00:01:24.361 --> 00:01:26.204
I'm going to tell you how I ended up with them.
00:01:26.204 --> 00:01:28.347
But we advise over 30 companies.
00:01:28.347 --> 00:01:29.890
Right Now we work with probably 100.
00:01:29.890 --> 00:01:33.575
10 of the aggregators used to be clients of us when they had money.
00:01:33.575 --> 00:01:34.656
Now they don't have money.
00:01:34.656 --> 00:01:35.337
We don't want them.
00:01:35.337 --> 00:01:36.599
Nobody wants them anyway.
00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:39.861
But I'm sure you guys know that and you're right.
00:01:39.861 --> 00:01:43.545
I mean, I've been remote for the last almost 14 years.
00:01:43.545 --> 00:01:46.346
The last eight years, eight summers.
00:01:46.346 --> 00:01:48.748
We spent them on the Black Sea.
00:01:48.748 --> 00:01:52.512
You know we have a summer spot and actually my desk right now is a bodyboard.
00:01:52.552 --> 00:01:57.936
I'm not joking, you can see this one in the background yeah, my camera is going to fall off Whatever works right.
00:01:57.956 --> 00:02:00.658
Yeah, I mean, I have this approach with people.
00:02:00.658 --> 00:02:06.953
You know it doesn't matter, we don't need to meet in person, and it'll be, because some people claim that now, when you shake hands, now it's different.
00:02:06.953 --> 00:02:07.296
It's not.
00:02:07.296 --> 00:02:12.219
It's not different, no, it's based on what your promise, because you might shake a hand with somebody and do nothing.
00:02:12.219 --> 00:02:15.340
So I I judge people the same way.
00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:18.000
Now I meet people, I do stuff with them, and based on what to do.
00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:22.468
That's how I evaluate those relationships and this is probably how a partnership started out.
00:02:23.210 --> 00:02:23.490
Amen.
00:02:23.490 --> 00:02:32.949
Well, I'm excited to get more into that, the art of partnerships and sort of just really connecting with people and expanding your book of business, so to speak.
00:02:32.949 --> 00:02:36.569
I am also coming up on an anniversary of working from home.
00:02:36.569 --> 00:02:45.018
I guess it's been five years now, I guess, and maybe in September, that I've been a work from home employee, so happy to kind of share in that sentiment of anything.
00:02:45.018 --> 00:02:51.432
Anything can be a desk um, and I always say nice to meet you on emails instead of nice to meet you um.
00:02:51.432 --> 00:02:57.391
So it's uh definitely a lot of uh different, different aspects of of doing the remote work um.
00:02:57.391 --> 00:03:02.241
But yeah, no, I'm excited to talk to you more today about just really quarter four and really approaching that.
00:03:02.962 --> 00:03:06.382
So let me tell you no more before we go for q4.
00:03:06.382 --> 00:03:10.151
You know, because there was an econ white brand owner for 10 years.
00:03:10.151 --> 00:03:16.804
He had like 10 supplement brands, so that is the extreme power brands part of the business we actually developed.
00:03:16.804 --> 00:03:19.252
Uh well, it was one product big thing.
00:03:19.252 --> 00:03:19.554
You know.
00:03:19.554 --> 00:03:26.763
There was a product called acai berry, the so-called or acai berry, the magic brazilian fruit, which you was waiting there.
00:03:26.763 --> 00:03:29.092
Oprah was pushing that, dr ross was pushing up.
00:03:29.092 --> 00:03:35.631
He got in trouble with the congress, you know, because he was pushing all kind of like magic, like supplements, whatever.
00:03:35.670 --> 00:03:38.103
Anyways, we did very well because we got very.
00:03:38.103 --> 00:03:41.813
You know, we were paying once in per click on facebook and google.
00:03:41.813 --> 00:03:42.962
That was in like 2010.
00:03:42.962 --> 00:03:43.966
2011.
00:03:43.966 --> 00:03:58.447
Long story short is we got Rocky, we got Erlin and we started with like 5K and we had like 25 million viewers, and I'm based in Bulgaria now this is the poorest country in the EU and so we actually did very well.
00:03:58.447 --> 00:04:07.366
But eventually we sold everything because we started doing some other stuff, like crypto, like crypto, like side vessels, whatever and you got spoiled, you know.
00:04:07.366 --> 00:04:10.099
You got cocky when you're winning and eventually we sold everything.
00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:18.363
And when I did that, I was using this company, helotax, to do my vet components, so the equivalent of sales tax in the state.
00:04:18.363 --> 00:04:21.533
So I get to know the funds which are x amount of sales in the top.
00:04:21.533 --> 00:04:23.788
You've grown your company.
00:04:23.788 --> 00:04:31.949
You guys do a lot of partnerships and affiliates because in 2016, we stopped all paid marketing whatsoever Zero, you know.
00:04:31.949 --> 00:04:35.466
We didn't pay anything because Facebook and Google they keep on suspending our account.
00:04:35.466 --> 00:04:38.329
It's like, okay, man, fuck those guys, I'm not going to pay them.
00:04:38.329 --> 00:04:41.605
We pay them like millions per year and they just suspend their accounts.
00:04:41.605 --> 00:04:49.149
Okay, per year and they just suspend their accounts.
00:04:49.149 --> 00:04:49.391
Okay, we're done with them.
00:04:49.391 --> 00:04:50.680
And then we switched to affiliate and performance marketing.
00:04:50.615 --> 00:04:53.047
So when I saw the supplement business so I had like 20 brands at the peak uh, they, you know.
00:04:53.047 --> 00:04:55.307
They told me, okay, can you replicate that for a service provider which was helotax.
00:04:55.307 --> 00:04:56.851
So I said, okay, guys, I mean this is up.
00:04:56.851 --> 00:04:58.437
I mean I'm too young to retire.
00:04:58.437 --> 00:05:03.869
My wife told me to get the real thing going on, not crypto, not trading, you know anyways.
00:05:03.869 --> 00:05:06.192
And I said, okay, man, let's do it for you guys.
00:05:06.213 --> 00:05:07.644
And I came to support with partnerships.
00:05:07.644 --> 00:05:14.173
So I never sell anything, I never talk about commercials, I only meet people, do stuff with them and build communities.
00:05:14.173 --> 00:05:22.223
And I managed to do that very quickly, you know, for a couple of times, and in a matter of months we built a community of probably 300 companies.
00:05:22.223 --> 00:05:25.593
And companies start asking me okay, nick, can you do it for us?
00:05:25.593 --> 00:05:30.589
I said, okay, man, you just gave me an idea and we'll set up a business called Partnership Business Service.
00:05:30.589 --> 00:05:32.447
And what we're going to do?
00:05:32.447 --> 00:05:33.939
We're going to help companies to partnership.
00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:42.889
Let me tell you what I'm talking about, because Q4, there is Q4 every year and a lot of companies don't do partnerships.
00:05:42.889 --> 00:05:46.959
Partnerships is the best way to grow because it doesn't involve money.
00:05:47.860 --> 00:05:56.067
Of course, there are some paid partnerships, but in general, building partnerships is going to help anybody in any business to do very well.
00:05:56.067 --> 00:06:02.892
Some companies actually were saved by bankruptcy and this kind of stuff by doing partnerships.
00:06:02.892 --> 00:06:07.932
If you go back in history like Apple, microsoft just choose any big company.
00:06:07.932 --> 00:06:14.915
Usually they team up with a big company, like, I think, microsoft, it was ibm and many of those things you know.
00:06:14.915 --> 00:06:19.889
So in general, partnership is the best way to grow your business and a lot of companies are not doing that.
00:06:19.889 --> 00:06:28.206
But since q4 it you know it's probably now is probably the worst time in Amazon in the last few years because of different reasons.
00:06:28.206 --> 00:06:29.807
Now it's getting harder and harder.
00:06:29.807 --> 00:06:33.470
So for companies to succeed they need to focus on partnerships.
00:06:33.470 --> 00:06:34.312
And why is that?
00:06:34.312 --> 00:06:43.160
Because partnerships it involves work, it doesn't involve money, it takes time, but you know it's going to do very well in the long term.
00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:51.721
And I'm telling you all that because after I built my partner agency, I managed to build a partnership network of 1500 companies, like founders, like you guys.
00:06:51.721 --> 00:06:56.271
I built a newsletter with 28 000 sellers in a sas platform.
00:06:56.271 --> 00:07:02.973
So all those things I I did them without any paid marketing, just meeting people, doing stuff with them.
00:07:02.973 --> 00:07:07.387
We ended up doing some like commercial partnership, like jv partnerships with those guys.
00:07:07.788 --> 00:07:09.956
But the why I'm mentioning that?
00:07:09.956 --> 00:07:15.531
Because a lot of people are expecting, when they meet somebody, have something in return right away.
00:07:15.531 --> 00:07:23.819
And this is actually a better product, because when you meet people and you would like to get something in advance, you usually end up without getting anything in that part of the like, if anything.
00:07:23.819 --> 00:07:28.593
So the best way to grow any business is by giving, and I'm gonna tell why.
00:07:28.593 --> 00:07:38.882
I think that it's not because I'm mother teresa, I'm not running a charity, but because when you help out somebody, it's very likely that those guys are gonna return the favor.
00:07:38.882 --> 00:07:40.689
And here there's some psychology kicking in.
00:07:40.689 --> 00:07:43.103
You know, let's say, I meet you guys and make some connections.
00:07:43.103 --> 00:07:51.343
Those connections end up being valuable for you guys, even though I don't take money from you or the other party, I'm the person who makes the connection.
00:07:51.343 --> 00:07:56.324
So you, back in your mind, you're thinking okay, man, you know this guy made made me a favor.
00:07:56.324 --> 00:07:57.466
You know I need to return the favor.
00:07:57.466 --> 00:08:03.961
So I might never ask for the for you to return the favor, but if I do, it's very likely that you're going to do it.
00:08:05.071 --> 00:08:06.416
And then I'll give another example.
00:08:06.416 --> 00:08:07.689
I meet companies all the time.
00:08:07.689 --> 00:08:12.276
And I tell them okay, you work with this company, they're a competitor of ours.
00:08:12.276 --> 00:08:16.740
How many leads or referrals did you get from those guys?
00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:22.978
And I'm like, in the war moves, like the legal moves, I don't ask questions if I don't know the answer, and they say zero.
00:08:27.910 --> 00:08:30.158
I said, okay, war moves, like the legal moves, I don't ask questions if I don't know the answer, and they say zero.
00:08:30.158 --> 00:08:31.189
I said, okay, no, guys, what would you do if we send business to you anyway?
00:08:31.189 --> 00:08:32.043
If we can promote you with this and that, would you be willing to work with us?
00:08:32.043 --> 00:08:32.527
And they say, of course, no, hell, yes.
00:08:32.527 --> 00:08:33.691
I mean, why shouldn't I do that?
00:08:33.691 --> 00:08:37.365
So giving is is a very good way of actually growing.
00:08:37.365 --> 00:08:45.283
And actually there was somebody who said that I'm not sure who did that, but they said, no, nobody has gone bankrupt by giving you know in a way.
00:08:45.283 --> 00:08:49.280
So, and this you can also apply it in your business, though.
00:08:49.280 --> 00:08:57.599
By giving you know, if you're a brand owner, you know you can give, we can meet people, you can do stuff with them and you can actually help your business grow.
00:08:57.669 --> 00:09:07.155
And I'll give an example with that note, for example, like brands who want to expand to new markets.
00:09:07.155 --> 00:09:09.586
So they cannot do that most of them because they're scared, they don't know how, they don't have the right partners.
00:09:09.586 --> 00:09:11.674
So it's lack of knowledge, lack of connections.
00:09:11.674 --> 00:09:22.082
So if partnership are actually looking more into that, they would be able to actually see new opportunities, new markets and to expand to those markets.
00:09:22.082 --> 00:09:26.234
They would need to hook up with people that know those markets and they can kill them off.
00:09:26.234 --> 00:09:28.057
And no base.
00:09:28.057 --> 00:09:33.919
You guys work with a lot of amazon brands, so how many of your amazon sellers are selling in europe, for example, do you?
00:09:33.941 --> 00:10:00.376
have an idea off the top of my head, I would say maybe 20, 25 of them okay, okay, that's a very high percentage because, no, there is actually a like a newsletter, very popular one, a marketplace post, and they they actually did an article about that that only like less than one percent of us sellers sell globally on other marketplaces, so 90 percent of us sellers exactly now.
00:10:00.397 --> 00:10:01.864
You see my post I do that every week.
00:10:01.864 --> 00:10:05.456
I just saw your linkedin post about this, yeah yeah, I've been lying to people.
00:10:05.496 --> 00:10:07.042
I've been telling them that it's 2%.
00:10:07.042 --> 00:10:08.763
So that's complete bullshit.
00:10:08.763 --> 00:10:09.610
It's only 1%.
00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:13.894
So in other words, so anybody who is selling in the States, they're looking at Q4.
00:10:13.894 --> 00:10:24.827
To expand to Europe, it's kind of late because you but still, you should be there next year, because if you're not, just keep in mind that.
00:10:24.827 --> 00:10:35.692
No, the amazon us is a 400 billion mark, amazon europe it's around 70 billion, just germany and uk, and keeps on growing there's.
00:10:35.893 --> 00:10:42.961
There's money there and I think people don't realize that it's just not as much as the us, but there's still money to be made there, um and like kind of like.
00:10:42.961 --> 00:10:49.859
Again like your linkedin, like your linkedin post said it's a lot of paperwork, but why would you give up that money when maybe your competitors are there as well?
00:10:49.859 --> 00:10:52.519
I think that's kind of what the consensus is.
00:10:53.032 --> 00:10:54.197
Your competitors are not there.
00:10:54.197 --> 00:11:13.674
This is the thing, though, because, for one of my companies, we call that expansion to your book, and so we kind of opened eyes at no new company mostly US brands on Amazon about opportunity in Europe, and those who expanded already they're seeing like a minimum of like 20, maximum like 50% of what they do in the States.
00:11:13.674 --> 00:11:21.658
We even have some companies who are actually doing more in Europe, and the reason for that is very simple Because US, amazon, usa is the biggest market.
00:11:21.658 --> 00:11:24.341
This is the biggest playground Sogest market.
00:11:24.341 --> 00:11:27.792
This is the biggest playground, so all the big boys are there In Europe.
00:11:27.792 --> 00:11:35.198
Even though it's small compared to the USA, many of those big boys are not there yet, which means that you can actually go to Europe.
00:11:35.198 --> 00:11:47.740
One thing that a lot of sales results know is that they can actually transfer their reviews from Amazoncom to Amazon Europe, so, when you go to Europe're not, uh like you're already established, you can take the buy box right away.
00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:50.412
So, let's say, you're doing your established round bus too.
00:11:50.412 --> 00:11:54.261
The competition is very uh why?
00:11:54.261 --> 00:11:55.385
Very strong in the states.
00:11:55.385 --> 00:11:56.769
You can, let's say, 10 000 years.
00:11:56.769 --> 00:12:06.230
You go to europe, you'll be number one in all time, and even though the market would be smaller, you know you're going to give a higher profit margin.
00:12:06.331 --> 00:12:09.480
A lot of times actually sell your products for much more expensive.
00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:15.421
Because when we help companies to expand to europe, we do the so-called marketing opportunity report.
00:12:15.421 --> 00:12:21.902
We show them what is the demand for your product, what are the I mean, what are their competitors?
00:12:21.902 --> 00:12:25.991
And a lot of times the top seller in the category is not the cheapest product.
00:12:25.991 --> 00:12:30.312
Usually they're more expensive, you know, sometimes two to three times than the second and the third.
00:12:30.312 --> 00:12:35.072
And the reason for that is really simple europe has the highest average order value in the world.
00:12:35.072 --> 00:12:37.418
So chinese sellers don't like europeans.
00:12:37.418 --> 00:12:39.022
Europeans are crazy.
00:12:39.022 --> 00:12:40.913
They buy quality, expensive stuff.
00:12:40.913 --> 00:12:42.856
They don't care about the pricing, like germany, france.
00:12:42.856 --> 00:12:43.458
You know those guys.
00:12:43.458 --> 00:12:49.793
If they don't, if your product is, is is not about have good quality they're gonna choose the more expensive one.
00:12:49.793 --> 00:12:56.743
And, of course, because amazon may tries to make you know like very genuine, you know, uh, the reviews are gonna show that.
00:12:56.743 --> 00:13:01.116
So if you suck, you know, if your product is sexy, if you give it out for free, people are not gonna buy that.
00:13:01.577 --> 00:13:07.658
So so those are things that anybody who is selling in the states on amazon and not selling in europe.
00:13:07.658 --> 00:13:12.075
They should think about like 20 to 40 to 50 percent of what they do in the states.
00:13:12.075 --> 00:13:23.302
They can do that as an extra revenue in europe and, the most important thing, with higher profit margin because and they can easily see, check, check it out I mean they can use software like zangor, like clemton, general scout.
00:13:23.302 --> 00:13:23.666
They can easily see, check it out.
00:13:23.666 --> 00:13:24.472
I mean they can use softwares like Zangor, like Helium 10, general Scout.
00:13:24.472 --> 00:13:32.802
They can easily see the product research, they can see the category and they will be surprised that in some markets, no, there is no competition, there is demand.
00:13:32.870 --> 00:13:38.094
There is a lot of US brands, by the way, where there is a lot of demand and they're not even selling in Europe.
00:13:38.094 --> 00:13:49.562
So because of that, we even have like another solution where we kind of take brands that publish US companies doing like 1,000 plus reviews, doing 1 million plus.
00:13:49.562 --> 00:13:52.384
We buy their products and we distribute them across Europe.
00:13:52.384 --> 00:13:53.485
Why shouldn't we do that?
00:13:53.485 --> 00:13:54.547
There is demand for that.
00:13:54.767 --> 00:13:55.647
We just set up the listing.
00:13:57.910 --> 00:14:01.059
We have the product compliance, vat, we have all the legal stuff taken care of.
00:14:01.059 --> 00:14:06.196
So the US seller doesn't move their finger, you know they just we buy their stuff, we sell it.
00:14:06.196 --> 00:14:08.197
So there is always an option to expand to that.
00:14:08.197 --> 00:14:13.875
And I'll give you actually a quote from a partner you know who runs an agency like you guys.
00:14:13.875 --> 00:14:16.940
Sure, if they're quite sold on, but this was the beginning of 2024.
00:14:16.940 --> 00:14:20.559
If you guys don't take us international, we're going to offend the new agents.
00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:25.029
So, wow, and because we're going to offend the new agents, wow, but that's the truth.
00:14:25.029 --> 00:14:28.356
Because Amazon is great, but you should be omnichannel.
00:14:28.356 --> 00:14:30.717
Why mess up with my supplement business?
00:14:30.717 --> 00:14:34.676
We rely heavily on Google and Facebook ads.
00:14:34.676 --> 00:14:35.418
What happened?
00:14:35.418 --> 00:14:41.217
I'm not going to insult those guys, they just suspended our accounts several times.
00:14:41.298 --> 00:14:41.919
And what happened?
00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:44.318
We were forced to look for alternatives.
00:14:44.318 --> 00:14:50.197
So sellers should not put themselves in a position where they're relying too heavily on one channel.
00:14:50.197 --> 00:14:52.573
You get Walmart, you get.
00:14:53.336 --> 00:14:55.301
Amazon Shopify your own website.
00:14:55.341 --> 00:15:06.500
Exactly Shopify and Europe you know, see, this is an idea for Europe that, since we're talking about that Amazon in the USA, it has close to 50% market share, if I'm not mistaken right.
00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:07.822
Or close to that.
00:15:07.822 --> 00:15:12.836
Okay, in Europe Amazon has only 20% market share and it's growing.
00:15:12.836 --> 00:15:15.716
You'll be surprised that it's too early.
00:15:15.716 --> 00:15:25.413
So imagine, let's say, if you're not in Europe right now, if you want to go to Europe, you can just go back to Amazoncom, let's say, five or six years ago, when it was still early.
00:15:25.413 --> 00:15:29.375
Because Europe keeps on growing with like 10 or more percent each year, amazon.
00:15:29.375 --> 00:15:40.423
There is a lot of local marketplaces which Amazon is slowly taking actually market share from them, because in France there was a marketplace called Cedars-Camp which was number one a few years ago.
00:15:40.423 --> 00:15:45.947
Now Amazon is number one and Europe has 450 million population.
00:15:45.947 --> 00:15:54.183
So that's another hundred million on top of like what you guys have in the USA, so you can kind of double your customer base.
00:15:54.183 --> 00:16:00.958
Of course it's not easy because you do VAT, product compliance logistics, but the goal justifies the effort.
00:16:00.999 --> 00:16:06.119
Yeah, it sounds like it's well worth it to get over there and expand.
00:16:06.119 --> 00:16:09.235
I'm on team, I'm already on team.
00:16:09.235 --> 00:16:13.000
This has to be something that you would explore.
00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:29.517
I do think I will say this, though, before I go into anything else I do think you should finish and you should kind of really nail down the US and get really established there, kind of build a strong foundation before you get to Europe, before you really tackle that.
00:16:30.750 --> 00:16:47.599
But I do think it is well well worth it to get over there and really expand, especially into the simple ones like Germany they're not going to be simple, but the easy wins like Germany and the UK, where there is a lot of money there to be made and to be had and, like you said, your competitors probably aren't there.
00:16:47.599 --> 00:17:05.000
I would assume that a lot of people, again, going back to that LinkedIn post, might get tripped up by the amount of paperwork and the amount of logistics work that has to be done to really kind of set yourself up to be in Europe and to be in these EU countries.
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:12.018
So it seems like it would be worth it for you if you can afford it and if you can, you know, so to speak, deal with the hassle.
00:17:12.018 --> 00:17:20.459
It seems like it'd be well well worth it for you to get in there and really take advantage of the European marketplace.
00:17:21.790 --> 00:17:23.176
Yeah, not only the European.
00:17:23.176 --> 00:17:31.477
I mean, you guys see, if other markets close to this, like Canada, mexico, you guys can feel directly how it's like the NAR, if I'm not mistaken.
00:17:31.477 --> 00:17:33.596
So there's always options.
00:17:33.596 --> 00:17:37.278
But the main thing is that a lot of sellers are not looking into those.
00:17:37.278 --> 00:17:43.913
They don't even see what is the opportunity, they make assumptions that it's not going to work or they're scared.
00:17:43.913 --> 00:17:45.660
And I'm like that.
00:17:45.660 --> 00:17:46.674
I never think too much.
00:17:47.510 --> 00:17:48.413
Whenever I have an idea.
00:17:48.433 --> 00:17:49.397
I try to test it right.
00:17:49.397 --> 00:17:52.799
Of course, you can do a small test whatever, but otherwise no.
00:17:52.799 --> 00:18:05.776
I was reading somewhere that the face in people's life where they want to do something and they do that, it's called a void, and 90% of people don't do anything in this void and they never do the next step.
00:18:05.776 --> 00:18:08.916
So my advice is please see what is the opportunity.
00:18:08.916 --> 00:18:16.340
There is multiple people in Ethiopia, but that's what, and the most important thing, like we discussed earlier, think about that.
00:18:16.340 --> 00:18:21.232
99% of your competitors are not there, so you should consider that.
00:18:21.752 --> 00:18:22.934
Why wouldn't you be Exactly?
00:18:22.934 --> 00:18:27.280
Yeah, no, this is a great, great segue kind of into just in general.
00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:29.022
I'm also with you, I don't think too much either.
00:18:29.022 --> 00:18:44.153
You can ask my boss but I think this is great to kind of lean into the whole partnership and the whole just really your dynamic in terms of making connections and helping people out.
00:18:44.153 --> 00:18:46.742
I'm sure you've got a couple people in your network that are really good at expanding businesses into Europe or handling the tax stuff.
00:18:46.742 --> 00:18:55.403
So I'd love to talk more just about that in general, just about sort of how you kind of started this network and yeah, I mean let me tell you the story.
00:18:55.474 --> 00:18:56.116
So what happened?
00:18:56.116 --> 00:19:05.548
Like after, you know, we started doing the partnership stuff, I saw that there is big demand and, as they call it, like it's a blue ocean opportunity in Europe.
00:19:05.548 --> 00:19:14.320
But sellers are scared mostly users and I figured, if you talk to them about taxes, which is the one thing, so VAT is the first thing that you need.
00:19:14.320 --> 00:19:20.328
So it's VAT, product compliance, logistics and and translation, all sorts of things that you do, that's it you must do.
00:19:20.328 --> 00:19:26.002
And when you talk to companies about v80, they get scared because taxes no, here is about tax.
00:19:26.002 --> 00:19:26.663
I mean that's scary.
00:19:26.663 --> 00:19:28.375
No, nobody likes tax, it's a document.
00:19:28.375 --> 00:19:32.665
We do that totally wrong, you know, because I know that it's a good opportunity.
00:19:32.665 --> 00:19:34.538
You need to just show it in a different way.
00:19:34.538 --> 00:19:38.587
So what we started doing is we started showing those brands the opportunity in Europe.
00:19:38.587 --> 00:19:42.925
So we kind of showed them, like I mentioned earlier, how much money you can make.
00:19:42.994 --> 00:20:00.040
And once you start showing people the money, they don't care about the brokers, you know once they see how much money they can make and, of course, for those partnerships I decided that I'm going to build, obviously, which does the VAT compliance, which is the first broker.
00:20:00.040 --> 00:20:01.801
It takes three months to get the VAT.
00:20:01.801 --> 00:20:06.703
Getting one VAT in Germany is going to open the whole European market.
00:20:06.703 --> 00:20:10.144
So Amazon, you can sell on all the Amazon marketplace.
00:20:10.144 --> 00:20:12.201
You're going to fulfill from one country, then Germany.
00:20:12.201 --> 00:20:13.103
You have one VAT.
00:20:13.103 --> 00:20:26.226
So with one VAT you can open the whole European Union market, not only the countries where Amazon is present, because people from anywhere in the EU they can buy from a base in Bulgaria without having a market place.
00:20:26.226 --> 00:20:28.469
They buy from Amazon Germany and they get that in a few days.
00:20:28.469 --> 00:20:32.071
So that's it One VAT in Germany, you open the whole market.
00:20:36.016 --> 00:20:37.368
Then the next thing that you must do product compliance check.
00:20:37.368 --> 00:20:38.015
This is the broker number.
00:20:38.015 --> 00:20:44.436
It takes a few weeks weeks the most, usually a few days to get the product and planchex, labeling and all this kind of stuff.
00:20:44.436 --> 00:20:51.980
And once you have the product, the vet and the product compliance, you're gonna obviously arrange to move your stock.
00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:54.712
You know it doesn't issue based if you manufacture in china.
00:20:54.712 --> 00:21:03.116
We have partners who are gonna hold their stock in their china warehouse and they're gonna feed that to the ambulance and it'd be weekly, based on their how you call it like sales.
00:21:03.116 --> 00:21:05.086
They lost you know number of sales that you do weekly.
00:21:05.086 --> 00:21:17.002
So you don't need to order huge chunks of products, you just keep them in your warehouse, you feed amalan directly and then then you avoid the new placement fees, which you can do, by the way, in the usa, you know as far as you know.
00:21:17.002 --> 00:21:19.647
So you save money, you know, improve your cash flow.
00:21:19.647 --> 00:21:23.458
Second option you're not manufacturing in china, don't want to use this kind of companies.
00:21:23.458 --> 00:21:35.960
You have multiple prep centers for all their stock and they can obviously feed that time on api or you can do like fulfillment directly from them to like fbm or like clients across here.
00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:37.743
So, so obviously now VATs.
00:21:37.743 --> 00:21:39.347
You're waiting for the VAT.
00:21:39.347 --> 00:21:42.444
In the meantime you arrange the product compliance, you arrange logistics.
00:21:42.634 --> 00:21:48.042
The last but not the least is whenever you start selling in Europe, you must walk always your listings.
00:21:48.042 --> 00:21:49.259
Let's say you're going to sell in UK.
00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:57.458
British English is different than US English, so all the words are not the same, they have different meanings, so you need to walk horizontal.
00:21:57.458 --> 00:21:58.519
Another thing like germany.
00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:03.009
Germany is the biggest amazon market after dot, after dot, after the sa.
00:22:03.009 --> 00:22:09.839
So whenever you sell in germany, a lot of people don't know, but there's eight, eight million people, turkish speakers, in germany.
00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:16.519
So whenever you sell there, you need to have your keywords translated to german is uh, turkish?
00:22:16.519 --> 00:22:19.647
Otherwise you're missing from the whole country like 8 million people.
00:22:19.647 --> 00:22:36.903
So those are small specifics that you need to do in each market, which, of course, you might say scare people, but they shouldn't scare them, because Amazon provide all kinds of tools which suck, so you need partners to help you who will cause them because they're native speakers.
00:22:36.903 --> 00:22:47.701
And there's other specifics, of course, about the type that you write your ads on, because, for example, in Germany they like discount offers, deals, whatever, but they don't like to tell them that your product is the best, for example.
00:22:48.243 --> 00:22:48.484
Yeah.
00:22:49.478 --> 00:22:50.903
And there's all kinds of specifics.
00:22:50.903 --> 00:22:59.143
And once you establish that let's say, you get the VAT, you get all the product components, you're ready to start selling in like three months then what you do?
00:22:59.143 --> 00:23:00.885
You start selling from germany.
00:23:00.885 --> 00:23:02.969
You can sell across the whole european.
00:23:02.969 --> 00:23:13.221
You don't need multiple v80s, which is something which amazon was advising sellers for a long time whenever they sell in europe, to get multiple v80s.
00:23:13.221 --> 00:23:14.243
This is bullshit.
00:23:14.243 --> 00:23:16.317
Amazon makes more money without the desktop.
00:23:16.317 --> 00:23:24.958
But then actually amazon is discontinuing their vt services from end up of talk, and the reason why they're doing that is, of course, they make money from the fees.
00:23:24.958 --> 00:23:29.307
But this is not, uh, this is not the the right way to do.
00:23:29.307 --> 00:23:35.531
So, setting up selling across europe to get started, you just need one vt in germany, that's it.
00:23:35.531 --> 00:23:42.849
You can set up uk as well, but since uk is non-eu, I mean of course you can do it because it's an english-speaking market.
00:23:42.849 --> 00:23:46.402
But to open the four european, you just need germany and then you start selling.
00:23:46.422 --> 00:23:48.205
You know people start buying your products.
00:23:48.205 --> 00:23:57.622
Let's, you know people are likely like your product in france, in italy, so when you validate their demand, then you kind of branch out from germany.
00:23:57.622 --> 00:24:00.288
So so Germany will be your home base in the EU.
00:24:00.288 --> 00:24:08.315
You start selling from there and then, based on the demand in the different markets, you kind of branch out and set up FBAs in those countries.
00:24:08.315 --> 00:24:11.285
When you set up FBAs, you must register for VE.
00:24:11.285 --> 00:24:13.044
This is a requirement with Europe.
00:24:13.044 --> 00:24:19.303
So you kind of branch out and just step by step you can start selling across the European Union.
00:24:19.303 --> 00:24:27.819
And the good thing about that is that when you're a non-e-company, amazon is gonna collect the VAT and pay it at the tax authority, so you don't need to bother with that.
00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:34.660
The only obligation after getting the VAT is to do the monthly VAT returns, which is done by KaleoTax.
00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:38.021
So just to summarize what I'm talking about here, it's not that hard.
00:24:38.021 --> 00:24:40.667
You just don't have the right partners to do it for you.
00:24:41.295 --> 00:24:42.657
Yeah, and it's just all about.
00:24:42.657 --> 00:24:47.161
It's not what's the phrase, it's not who you are, it's who you know.
00:24:47.161 --> 00:25:00.911
Exactly, exactly, and that really comes into play, I would think, with your again, just the whole idea of creating this partnership network and getting people to kind of help you out with things that you aren't an expert in.
00:25:03.076 --> 00:25:08.647
Exactly because for this Blueprint Expansion Blueprint I met a guy from Brooklyn.
00:25:08.647 --> 00:25:18.459
Brooklyn is the USA Amazon capital, so the guy was doing current billion in the States and he was moving 2,000 SKUs from the usa to europe.
00:25:18.459 --> 00:25:25.184
So so he he was in big trouble because somebody was doing product compliance for him.
00:25:25.184 --> 00:25:27.199
He was not doing it well, so what I did?
00:25:27.199 --> 00:25:33.823
They connected with my partner who does the product compliance and I got an email from him like two weeks after at the clinic thanks for connecting.
00:25:33.823 --> 00:25:38.188
And we exactly this guy is a live c so he was struggling with that.
00:25:38.188 --> 00:25:50.165
Just by making one connection, I was able to help out this guy, and the reason for that is that many sellers don't have the right partners and I'm trying to actually change up them here like whatsapp group.
00:25:50.165 --> 00:25:57.317
You know, I need to invite you guys, by the way, now um, probably it's up after we meet so you see velocity sellers on there soon enough.
00:25:57.978 --> 00:26:04.164
Yeah, I mean I want to invite you and the deal for the community is like that Nobody knows everything.
00:26:04.164 --> 00:26:08.991
I don't know everything, but I have partners who know everything.
00:26:08.991 --> 00:26:11.984
So when I have an issue or somebody is asking for something, what do I do?
00:26:11.984 --> 00:26:16.675
I just connect with some guys or just talk to some guys and we get the resolution.
00:26:16.675 --> 00:26:18.416
And this applies for all kind of stuff.
00:26:18.416 --> 00:26:23.618
For example, I'm not sure if you know Don Henning from a creamy the name sounds familiar.
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:25.700
Anyway, he's based in New York.
00:26:25.700 --> 00:26:27.181
I think you guys were based in New York, even.
00:26:27.181 --> 00:26:28.060
What mistake.
00:26:28.060 --> 00:26:30.383
Okay, so he's based in Long Island, new York.
00:26:30.383 --> 00:26:32.042
He's like a funding for Amazon, say word.
00:26:32.042 --> 00:26:36.144
So he asked me Nick, I would like to charter, yeah, in the Mediterranean.
00:26:36.144 --> 00:26:37.105
Do you know somebody?
00:26:37.105 --> 00:26:40.886
No, man, but I know a guy who knows such a guy, so they made the connection.
00:26:40.886 --> 00:26:46.930
So that's what we're doing, even though it's focused on Amazon Econ stuff.
00:26:46.930 --> 00:26:48.490
We can help with anything.
00:26:48.490 --> 00:26:50.152
We just need to ask.
00:26:50.152 --> 00:26:53.932
We're not going to say no, we're going to say okay, man, let me connect with this.
00:27:03.575 --> 00:27:05.769
And my advice is for anybody who is building like an amazon business or an agency or whatever.
00:27:05.769 --> 00:27:08.234
They should have a network of people who can help with everything, and the one thing is they should never stop building the net.
00:27:08.234 --> 00:27:10.663
You know, I'm calling that pumping new blood in the system.
00:27:10.663 --> 00:27:21.808
You need to keep on meeting new people, doing stuff with them eventually, because you never know, you might get an idea about your business, you might get like a new business partner, all kind of stuff.
00:27:21.808 --> 00:27:23.251
I mean so.
00:27:23.251 --> 00:27:28.502
So that's my advice to people like you, for you know, just think about europe.
00:27:28.502 --> 00:27:33.042
You know, if you're not, if europe is too far away for you guys think about, like canada, mexico.
00:27:33.042 --> 00:27:38.643
But there's other markets, like japan, even though japan is very hard because of language and all this kind of stuff.
00:27:38.643 --> 00:27:41.443
You got to really understand that language.
00:27:42.036 --> 00:27:48.009
Yeah, you got to connect with someone in your network that really knows Japan and English enough to make it, like you said, localized.
00:27:48.009 --> 00:27:48.615
So it's not.
00:27:48.615 --> 00:27:55.394
People aren't getting thrown off by kind of what you've got, you know, on your listing and on your bullet points and all that kind of good stuff.
00:27:55.394 --> 00:28:09.520
So, yeah, no, there's a lot that goes into it, more than I think people it again, we're not saying here it's easy to expand to europe or it's easy to expand in any new marketplace, um, but it's definitely worth it if it's something that you can endeavor and something you can put the resources into.
00:28:09.520 --> 00:28:12.488
So, yeah, very cool exactly now.
00:28:12.575 --> 00:28:16.586
Look into all the cool, the big brands like nike, mcdonald's those guys are global.
00:28:16.586 --> 00:28:22.994
You know all the goal for all companies is you start local and you go global.
00:28:22.994 --> 00:28:28.124
Big brands, they go on the channel and this is actually a question about money.
00:28:28.124 --> 00:28:38.493
Let's say you start your business, eventually you would like to sell the business Companies for international companies, for actually brands for international, and they are multi-channel.
00:28:38.493 --> 00:28:45.259
The multiples are current, so you're more valuable, even though aggregators don't buy for 10x like before.
00:28:45.298 --> 00:29:07.805
You know, still, eventually, if you build a quality brand, you must be international and omnichannel and that's what it's more absolutely, it's a great, great points again on just what to do next after you again have established yourself in the US that's again where you started and really just where to take your business from there.
00:29:07.805 --> 00:29:25.298
Yeah, no, very cool, very, very cool, very good stuff the whole idea of not only the networking, but really just the idea of community and really why it's so essential for a business to not just sort of exist by itself and kind of.
00:29:25.298 --> 00:29:27.535
We talked a little bit about it already, about how not everyone can do everything.
00:29:27.535 --> 00:29:32.027
But what about more in terms of just kind of where, the, where, the, where the world is going?
00:29:32.027 --> 00:29:39.636
Why is it so crucial now, especially to to really be connected with more people and, and you know, kind of help each other out a little bit?
00:29:39.837 --> 00:29:41.958
Yeah, I mean, like I said, help each other out.
00:29:41.958 --> 00:29:47.844
Actually, what I think about meeting new people is that I get ideas.
00:29:47.844 --> 00:29:52.901
Now I know I found it my business right now after I met somebody.
00:29:52.901 --> 00:29:57.085
Then I found my other business after I met somebody.
00:29:57.085 --> 00:29:59.825
So I keep on getting ideas and try to execute those.
00:29:59.825 --> 00:30:03.720
So you should think that I've met a few guys who told me okay, I have everything, I know.
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:06.643
So that's a bit my mindset.
00:30:06.643 --> 00:30:13.442
I know you should have all the like the eternal word in your mindset yeah, I know shit and I will not warn stuff.
00:30:13.481 --> 00:30:14.384
So how do you do that?
00:30:14.384 --> 00:30:15.386
Some people read books.
00:30:15.386 --> 00:30:23.679
I mean, I read books, but my books are funny books.
00:30:23.679 --> 00:30:25.665
I read like Graham books, michael Connelly, like Stephen King, this kind of stuff.
00:30:25.665 --> 00:30:26.809
I don't work business, I don't read business.
00:30:26.809 --> 00:30:26.990
I read.
00:30:26.990 --> 00:30:28.114
I meet people and that's how I learn new stuff.
00:30:28.134 --> 00:30:34.924
I might meet like a solution, like a new product, new idea, and that's why you know people do this, this conference.
00:30:34.924 --> 00:30:35.946
Like networking, because you meet people.
00:30:35.946 --> 00:30:37.328
Sometimes you know you why you know people do this conference.
00:30:37.328 --> 00:30:38.490
You know like networking, because you meet people.
00:30:38.490 --> 00:30:39.050
Sometimes you know you can.
00:30:39.050 --> 00:30:41.474
You might meet your next business partner there.
00:30:41.474 --> 00:30:43.040
You can team up with somebody.
00:30:43.040 --> 00:30:46.125
For example, let's say you're selling, you have a product in the States.
00:30:46.125 --> 00:30:50.446
Then you meet a guy who likes your product and they would like to distribute your product.
00:30:50.446 --> 00:30:53.396
I've met several of those guys, by the way, when I was in London last year.
00:30:53.396 --> 00:30:57.618
You know they come to Europe so they can meet partners who can actually distribute their product.
00:30:57.618 --> 00:31:00.461
So there is a lot of opportunities that you can form.
00:31:00.461 --> 00:31:05.604
You know, besides helping out like on the operational side, also on the growth side of your business.
00:31:06.365 --> 00:31:09.205
And you will never do that if you're not willing to meet new people.
00:31:09.205 --> 00:31:16.250
You know you can go to like local, like meetups, big conference or just virtual stuff or like webinars or whatever.
00:31:16.250 --> 00:31:17.651
So there's always a way.
00:31:17.651 --> 00:31:24.900
Of course some is more expensive, some is cheaper, but there's always ways for you to meet new people and do stuff with them.
00:31:25.843 --> 00:31:26.505
There it is, folks.
00:31:26.505 --> 00:31:28.642
I would say that's the lesson of the day.
00:31:28.642 --> 00:31:29.837
Is that?
00:31:29.837 --> 00:31:31.964
Why read books when you can meet new people?
00:31:31.964 --> 00:31:35.563
Exactly that's what they asked me.
00:31:36.056 --> 00:31:37.801
What was the book that changed my mind?
00:31:37.801 --> 00:31:39.637
I haven't read such a book, I mean.
00:31:39.637 --> 00:31:51.920
But I meet people who don't change my life, but they change how I see stuff, my business idea, because four years ago I was actually for in a little bit.
00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:53.366
I was running an e-commerce business.
00:31:53.366 --> 00:31:54.049
I was selling that.
00:31:54.049 --> 00:31:55.395
I had no idea what it was.
00:31:55.395 --> 00:31:56.761
Then those guys saw me okay, can you help with that?
00:31:56.761 --> 00:31:58.088
I had no idea what I'm going to do.
00:31:58.088 --> 00:31:59.315
Then those guys told me okay, can you help with that?
00:31:59.315 --> 00:32:04.259
I had no idea what I'm getting so fast forward like.
00:32:04.259 --> 00:32:10.414
Four years later, we have a partner agency, we have a network of 1,500 founders, a newsletter and a SaaS platform.
00:32:10.414 --> 00:32:13.798
None of that would have happened if I didn't meet those guys.
00:32:14.601 --> 00:32:19.395
Of course I mean you get, I mean mean you need to execute your idc, that one, just keep on like that.
00:32:19.395 --> 00:32:26.576
But sometimes you need to meet people to actually just and to actually change the, the style of today.
00:32:26.576 --> 00:32:31.576
No, because I wasn't, I was not in a bad shape when, when, when this happened, that I just sold.
00:32:31.576 --> 00:32:35.664
Maybe this I was I, it just was like quarter million playing.
00:32:35.664 --> 00:32:38.740
I'm saying playing, not trading we go future.
00:32:38.740 --> 00:32:40.678
So I was, I, I was in trouble.
00:32:40.698 --> 00:32:46.558
That's why that's why my wife told me to get the, get the new product now, stop doing dealing with some of the dollars.
00:32:46.558 --> 00:32:52.739
And so I got lucky and I kind of uh got the idea in a way and I'm like that.
00:32:52.739 --> 00:32:57.759
I mean, I'm not saying that everybody should be like that, I'm just getting it started executing that.
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:00.967
But for partnerships, the a lot of times it doesn't involve any money.
00:33:00.967 --> 00:33:05.142
So that's why I like you meet people, you can start doing some stuff.
00:33:05.142 --> 00:33:13.563
Eventually, you can expand on that, you can invest money, whatever, but it starts with meeting somebody, just a short chat like we're doing right now.
00:33:13.563 --> 00:33:14.836
It's not a podcast.
00:33:14.836 --> 00:33:25.494
You meet somebody, tell them what to do, tell their relative what to do, ask them how you can help, vice versa, and you'll be surprised how often you can actually do a lot of stuff after that.
00:33:26.315 --> 00:33:27.662
I couldn't say that better myself.
00:33:27.662 --> 00:33:44.942
Yeah, no, Nick, I want to thank you for coming on today to talk to us about just the idea of creating this network and creating these partnerships and really the importance of them on top of other many things, including expanding into Europe, and that was really a good final thought.
00:33:44.942 --> 00:33:51.306
But any really final final thoughts for our viewers on just the idea of creating a sense of community?
00:33:52.915 --> 00:33:53.463
Community.
00:33:53.463 --> 00:33:55.760
I don't know where it is, but I'm going to quote Nike.
00:33:55.760 --> 00:33:59.093
You know, expand Europe, just do it, that's it, just do it, that's it, just do it.
00:33:59.093 --> 00:34:04.344
And meet people you know that's something that you should do all the time, you know, even if you don't like it.
00:34:04.344 --> 00:34:06.559
So meet people and just do it.
00:34:06.559 --> 00:34:07.785
Expand Europe, that's it.
00:34:08.414 --> 00:34:09.980
Nick, really thank you so much for coming on.
00:34:09.980 --> 00:34:10.722
I want to thank you.
00:34:10.722 --> 00:34:15.878
You know it was a great episode and thanks everybody for watching.
00:34:15.878 --> 00:34:17.101
I'm Velocity Pete and we will see you next week.
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