Within the first 10 mins we smashed out a 3-step plan to improve your listing - introduced by Daniela and eagerly backed up by myself. Daniela's enthusiasm towards branding on Amazon radiates through this episode and I encourage any owner to get their notepad out as this is crammed with valuable nuggets for you to go and implement.
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In this episode we discuss:
[0:21:00] Daniela Bolzman: I think it's the person who, to be honest, I think everybody needs someone like this in their corner. I think a designer is solely focused on design. It's what's interesting is when I look at the structure of our team, every single person that works with with us, that mindful goods, they have a very singular focus. Our project manner managers Onley doing project management our designers Onley doing design our creative directors on Lee doing creative directing That's it. Our our copywriter Onley coffee sdo Onley ASIO Every person becomes a master what they're doing and everyone together, they know their part and they pass it on to the next person. Kind of like an assembly line. But everyone is part of this puzzle now. Every brand needs the person who's gonna understand all of these pieces and be able to say, Well, there's 100 50 pieces that you need, but really, where you are in phase one, you only need these 10. So let's just start with the 1st 10 because otherwise you're gonna talk to five people there are going to tell you to dio 20 different things and you're gonna think that you know, you're never gonna get all this stuff done, you know, But as an entrepreneur, there's always gonna be a million things that you have to do is a brand builder. There's always interview million things you got to dio. It's about understanding and prioritizing what matters now with the stage that I'm at in this moment
[0:22:22] George Reid: Yeah, I got someone who can give you focus is probably a big element of that because it different points in that brand journey To begin with your thinking. Well, we need someone who understands the operations because that could be detrimental to your success, that then, once we've got product, we want branding person. And then once you've got the branding nailed, we need a traffic person on. But I think it's a nice for looking at it because a lot of people are answering this question. That's why I enjoy it with what somebody's gonna do. Content like cool and actually interviewed some kind of Amazon folks before I launched a podcast on their mindset was one of the first one that I thought was great was like someone who's gotten ability to learn new skills. So it's like we can all learn the copyrighting right. If there's enough trading out there to learn how to write copy for an Amazon listing. So the tenacity on the ability to pick up information like you maybe not gonna do the top 10% of the people who do copyrighting like within your team that you can get a very, very good thing who takes office another three things you just went through there. So it's kind of that mentality is perhaps what you're saying you're looking for, um, I just putting words in your mouth.
[0:23:35] Daniela Bolzman: No, I think that that's an interesting perspective. I think there's two schools of thought on that, right? A solo entrepreneur, I think, absolutely in the beginning have to be self starter, and you have to be learning all the time. But as you start to grow, I almost think you become more and more. You have to become a delegator. And I think this is one of the hardest things for me to learn personally. And what's interesting is I notice is very cultural. So I'm curious about your experience in this, but, um, having lived in the US and having been raised in the U. S. Um, I was raised to do my own laundry and wash my dishes and make my bed, and I do all the things I learned to do all the things, and I and I learn it. If I don't know how to do it, I learn it now. I come to Peru, where my brothers have been raised in a different culture and they're both entrepreneurs as well and their natural instinct because they didn't grow up washing their own clothes or doing their, you know, you know, doing the dishes or anything like that. They have been raised in an environment where they learn to delegate from a very young age. And so when they think of an idea or something that needs to come to market, they're instantly trying to identify what are all the holes in the plan and who is gonna who's gonna plug them, you know, and it is a completely different mindset, and I had to almost break my American mentality to get to that place that help me scale my business, you know? And I think everyone needs to go through that.
[0:25:03] George Reid: Yeah, like it's It's true. It's the same in the UK, like the culture certainly is is obviously different from family to family. But you're typically always dragged up in such a way that you do do everything yourself, and you're kind of become quite self dependent. But its side the conversation this week with one of the chaps of working with Who's scaling really well on Amazon. These still is pulling in close, just shy of 200 k a month, but he's still trying to everything himself on, but it is very difficult and just doesn't quite know how to kind of offload things. And that was part of the discussion. So many people on probably hit that point on the line. Okay, Wendell, I offload at what stage oil flowed and its re training of the mind. Like I honestly, at this point in time, I look at how I can automate processes. Hi can get things out to other people all over the world. It's certainly a challenge, I think, for people who were starting an Amazon toe toe. Let these things go and you could get shafted a few times when it goes wrong. But not having kind of a connective you towards, even from just one or two bad experiences like via you can be an absolute dream if you get them set up, right? Yeah. Okay. So that being said, what bad recommendations do you hear in your area of expertise? Most
[0:26:25] Daniela Bolzman: Oh, man, I think we just hit hit. We just hit home on one of them was basically, you know, if you if you do talkto five or 10 different consultants there are going to tell you different things. Um, and a lot of times, if if their specialty is, let's say, PPC advertising, their advice is gonna be You need to be advertising Well, obviously, you need to be advertising. But from my perspective, on the optimization side, if you're advertising before your optimized, you're overspending and it drives your bids up. So why would you be spending before your optimized? So I think I think all of these
[0:27:01] George Reid: and
[0:27:01] Daniela Bolzman: have it have a time in a place. And I think there's a foundation, which is optimization. Um, I think some of the the bad stuff that's going on is that there is just there. Everyone has an opinion, you know? So ultimately, you know, a brand builder and entrepreneur has Teoh have a plan and execute on that plan and has to find the best people to get to the next step. You know,
[0:27:30] George Reid: it's it's actually so true, isn't it? Like even when I asked some of the staple questions asked on the show on the show, there is some people's different backgrounds. What they see is a priority and therefore what they would advise is always based on their background and their experience. So you're right, Like people like you gotta advertise. That's the most important scale. Get someone who's gonna PPC. You're like, What's the point? Like you just gonna throw traffic towards something that doesn't convert? Um, so it's wasted money wasted. Spend a drop in your sales rack of anything that's a really interesting taken it off. And another podcast Earlier on that recording, he was like, You know, listen to multiple opinions before you make a decision. I guess the challenge with that is I spoke to a Brando Yes, days. Everyone's an expert and everyone saying this that any other. So it's obviously challenging to filter that out. That's what it comes down, finding someone who you trusts, who to give an overview of things you can ask an opinion off, and they're not in any way suede. I think that's something towards factor in with your decision making.
[0:28:38] Daniela Bolzman: Definitely. I went through a program called Techstars where, um, you know, there's about 30 days of mentor sessions where you are every single day, every hour. You are with a different mentor, and you go through this like whiplash of mentoring. And at the end of the day, yeah, you're building your network. But how? How, How much of that can you actually take in and soak in? How many of those people are you actually gonna resonate with and build longer term relationships with? And how how is someone else? How is 50 other people or 100 other people? An expert in your business? E like you're the expert in your business. At some point, you got to just tune everything else out and you gotta take ownership and say, this is the direction that we're going, and this is what's gonna happen. And I'm gonna make it happen, you know?
[0:29:28] George Reid: Yeah. I like the bloke I was chatting to who was having this issue about outsourcing. He was like, I know my business best, and I've just kind of being shooting from the hip for the last six years. But in the same token, you don't want your blinkers on, right? I think this is something I always critiqued about. People who work at Amazon. Having been there myself, is the blinkers are 100% all like I was only bothered about getting Sellafield prime launches. If someone said to me, or how can we increase conversions? I literally don't have a clue. How was I to know new images? I didn't have a clue. You were. You worked at Amazon, but it made no sense. I think this happens a lot. You can't have the blinkers on, but you also need to be focused and diligent and go and trust your your own kind of inner voice. Yeah, that's certainly kind of blinkers on blinkers off. You can switch between the two, right, because there's so much noise out there. But I personally use linked in a lot as a trusted source advice, much more so than I would ever even consider going to YouTube, for instance, to look for advice on a topic. That's my my opinion. I don't know what. What do you think when you're looking for advice on a particular topic? Where do you find yourself getting
[0:30:42] Daniela Bolzman: what I started doing was actually so I always believe people should be paid for what they're doing, right? Um, so what I started doing that started finding people that could help us in certain areas, and I asked them what other what other services, and I try to understand all the things that they offer, and I try to understand it that's going to solve my problem. And if I think it is, I suggested test and I don't really call it a test. But I say, you know, let's let's you know, let's let's try a small project together and see how we like working together. And I think in this time, especially where everyone is working remote and everyone wants to feel more independent and everyone, um is learning this different way of working everyone's, you know, having this new norm, so to speak. It's so important that we give each other this opportunity to see if if I even want to serve you as a client or you even want to work with me as a consultant, you know? And that's fair, right? Because we might have, um, engagement together, and we might realize like, Whoa, this is not a fit. Um, you know, this person just, you know, is not a fit period. Um, and so we kind of break out these, like many tests, and that actually gave me the idea to do the many audits which we offer in our site now, which is you know, if you want me to personally look at your listing, um, and give you the same 123 breakdown that I just gave it the beginning of this podcast. But actually spend my time out of my day. Going through it and giving you what I think is my two cents of when I look at this, I will break off this tiny little project for you at this tiny price based, you know, based on our regular pricing. Um, you know, just a fraction of that. So you can experience what it's like to work with us, So that so there's this test period between the two of us, and we understand Is this a fit? Yes or no? Is this person does this person care enough to even look at my business and give me quality advice? Yes or no? You know, because anyone's gonna take your money, you know?
[0:32:38] George Reid: Yeah. Yeah, well, you'd like to think that some people, some people may not, but no interest into the time. They probably will if you there with your checkbook. So I think that's such an interesting thought posts. I certainly agree with it hired lots of virtual assistance or freelance offshore, or even people who were kind of much more expensive on their money. Maybe managing Facebook cats. It's very difficult to kind of get a read on each other on those many projects. I think as a brand own, if you're if you're listing or whatever the case may be to go. Okay, let's set up what would be a mini project for my business. And that could be okay, right? This singular bullet point, for instance, Or that could be one test and you would give it to 10 people or five people anything like that. So you can understand. How do they communicate? What's the response time, like how precious our thereabouts it are there, over over communicating or all these little things that I think the military issue to use, obviously a brilliant example of it because you also found out from your client. Actually, these guys gonna be a fucking nightmare. I don't I don't want to work
[0:33:45] Daniela Bolzman: with them. We'll also tell your own team members we we work with amazing, talented designers. Everyone on our team is remote. Everyone, our team is a freelancer. Everyone on our team wants to be their own boss and have their own independence. And we kind of have this little tribe of of us, you know, independent people that want to live this lifestyle, right? And so when I start working with designers, they might have the most impressive portfolio in the world. But they just might not kick butt at doing what we dio, and it just might not be the right process for them. And there's there's just a few things that just might not be the right fit. And so it's only fair for both parties to, you know, experience a small piece of it together rather than going through like a traditional hiring process where we're negotiating a salary and you bring someone on board them and you don't know, you know, like wait, not all over. Designers work out, and I look at their portfolios. I'm like, Wow, this is exactly what we're looking for. This is you look at the for whom you know and think they are going to be a rock star at helping our clients, and they're not always a rock star, so you know this. This is like one to mitigate the risk.
[0:34:56] George Reid: Yeah, I know. I completely agree with that. And when we talk about rock stars on Amazon, you certainly get kind of rock star listings. Rock star content all over the place, right? But when I find personal, but I'm looking for examples, Tiger asked a lot in the academy. George would be a good example for this would be a good example. Could you share a good example? Where do you go look for examples right now off great content or great kind of funnels or great whatever. What are you looking for? Where you going to find that on Amazon? And do you have kind of any great examples which you could share to that?
[0:35:32] Daniela Bolzman: Sure. Well, it really depends on what I'm looking for. So, for instance, if I'm and it depends on the brand, right, so there's brands that come to us
[0:35:41] George Reid: that
[0:35:41] Daniela Bolzman: they have nothing, and there's brands that come to us and they have everything, but they've never put it into a style guy. And then there's a third category of brands that have everything on point. They have a style guide and the most unbelievable folder system you've ever seen, right? And they know exactly where they want every single comma and, you know, color and line of their design. Those other easy Does it give you exactly what they want? The 1st and 2nd ones are a little bit more difficult. The first ones, 20% of brands it come does have nothing. So we get to kind of help give them an identity or what we call like a mini look. Because we're not we're not branding firm per se, but if you want to go to a branding firm, they're out there. They're 10 to $50,000 a pop. We are not them, but we're also not fiver, you know what I mean? So we're kind of in that middle ground, and so it depends on what we're building. But let's say we're building, um, give you my insider pro tips. One thing I like to do is go to creative market, and I like to look up Instagram instagram themes. Instagram puzzles, instagram stories, and I like to just like scroll through them and just get my wheels spinning. And that really shows you like because you can sort by what's popular. You can sort by, you know, by design style. You can start by all these different things. And you can really, um, give yourself an opportunity, Teoh. Find a few different looks that might work for for a brand, right without having to go is really expensive. You're not like copying everything, but you're kind of saying, okay, this is kind of the vibe, because these colors were This is kind of the vibe because these fonts work and this is kind of the vibe, because the way that they have the layout of the images work. So if you combine all three, I think this could work for your brand storytelling, right? So it's like, one way, um, another thing I like doing that I've been doing lately is I've been looking up instagram ads. So basically like like top 20 top top, you know, top 10 Instagram ads of 2020 of 2019 and just like what? Brands like Starbucks is a great one to watch. Like if you go look at their instagram feed. Um, if you look at the video content on there, I like Teoh like cruise through and and think of it like snack herbal video shorts, you know, So that really helps us. A video content ideation when we're thinking about like, brand storytelling is one thing, right? That's a totally different type of content. When you're talking about video shorts, I'd like to look a little snack. Herbal Instagram videos Teoh be able to take, Let's say, the very few assets that a brand might have, like lifestyle images and maybe, just like a fuse video snippets and make something out of nothing, really. You know, like, what are all the different ways that we could reconfigure this content to make a 15 or 32nd video? That's interesting, you know?
[0:38:30] George Reid: Yeah, this you cut some great things and creative markets Really good. Always looking for those examples. Another one is dribble with three bees. They correct their phenomenal designers on there, and somebody like the rendering. Work on there is brilliant as well. But more for inspo crates of a folder. Another good one is a company called Lumi L um I on YouTube. They do unboxing their honestly just go to regularly six. I enjoy the whole experience. I'm sad like that, but they have shown up what these big brands are doing and how they're in boxing it and it just gives you ideas and enough people just going, I'm just gonna sit in my bedroom on my own. And I'm just gonna find out my own idea by thinking and brainstorming, which is fine. But go look with some inspirational loom is great for
[0:39:20] Daniela Bolzman: that. Designers have in your world get inspired by what's out there on the Internet. So
[0:39:24] George Reid: exactly right. And then the other born would be for me signing up to email lists. Oh, cos you like and see what emails descending so low I I'm Senate one Boom by Cindy Joseph I don't buy any of their products to sort of make up the stuff that I don't think I need, that you never know. You never know like we will change so but they consent is kind of ran by Ezra Firestone, some just watching under the stuff that he's putting out through that he's obviously got some saying it, and it's interesting to be like OK, there, drip feeding this sort of content on its good inspiration for you to sign up to other brands in your leech to see what competition's doing, also signing up to other niches. I think CPG brands of Amazon typically do better with regard to the content that other brands because it's more valuable for them to nail the concept because of the repeat purchase potential. So I was looking TPG bones.
[0:40:23] Daniela Bolzman: I started watching more supplement companies, but like the cooler, edgier ones, you know, like like the mushroom coffees and, like, you know, like for stigmatic and genius brand and really like just by one of their products and watch the experience that they deliver you with emails with chap pots with the insert with a sticker on the package, you know, with scannable little stickers. You know, text message stickers like all of these different, you know, because if you think about it, this is the most competitive category on Amazon is the supplement companies, so they have to be ahead of the game. And if you keep an eye on them, you can really get the the latest and best practices that are out there and try to understand and reverse engineer what they're doing a little bit.
[0:41:12] George Reid: So you selling me over improve at the moment you got about 50. He'll owes a protein powder, 3000 protein bus because you continuously testing these things, you don't know what to do with them. They're just gonna sat.
[0:41:25] Daniela Bolzman: No, but you know what? Before I came over here, I actually have a box of all the inserts that I got from brands that that I that I thought was interesting. And I saved them all in a box because I want to do like a, you know, like insert hall video at some point where kind of like go through me like this is cool because this is cool because and, you know, some of the ones, They're just like they use humor. Some of them are using codes. Some of them are using, like, bright colors. And, you know, it's all the ones that are just really interesting that catch my eye are the ones that I save in the box and so actually have them in my in my backpack. I brought them with me to Peru because I thought, Well, um, in Peru, maybe I'll shoot the video. Haven't done it yet, but I like you know, what I dio
[0:42:12] George Reid: is because I went through a phase of being fascinated by the inserts anyway. But I think always studying and like whether it's a magnet insert so it sticks in the fridge for longer. Like even with the insert, I typically have a good rule of thumb a black. Would you put it on the fridge? And if you wouldn't be having done a good enough job, it's a nice ruler thumbs. But do I want to throw it away? No, I don't know why I don't want Teoh. Just don't. If someone said, Write down why you don't want to I would struggle to write it down, but I just I'm just gonna put it there for now until I move it over to that part of the desk and I just nudge it around the house. But it looks nice and it's pretty, and that's kind of your front of mind from a brand perspective, for for a long period of time
[0:42:56] Daniela Bolzman: did they make me taken action? So do you think? Did I actually text message? Did I actually take a picture like sometimes some of them are just all about like, well, you post a picture on social media and I have done that a couple times for some of them. And, you know, there's some that ask, and I don't do it. But there's something that asking such a clever way that, like, that's brilliant. I'm gonna do it, you know?
[0:43:18] George Reid: Yeah. Yeah. Invoking that emotion, therefore, creating an action. So I've got one final question for you, Danielle X unconscious of the time you've been spending in that little closer of yours now. So I want to finish on one of my favorite questions, and I'll let you go and enjoy the rest of your your even. What do you think? The biggest threat to an Amazon businesses right now?
[0:43:45] Daniela Bolzman: Um, Amazon. Uh, so I think that alone? Yeah, no. So I think there's just there's a lot of things that can go wrong, and it's hard to mitigate all the things that can go wrong. Because not only is Amazon always changing their policies, they're always changing the environments changing right now with co bid eso you know, them only allowing, like 100 units or 200 units, in some cases being, you know, shipped. That's going to create bottlenecks for the holidays. Um, that that alone can destroy a lot of brands. We were talking earlier about listing suppression. An image can get your listing suppressed. I mean, listing suppression is usually just a quick fix. But still, you know, it's it's all of these little things that that add up. And then there's the the ultimate threat of, you know, Let's say you do make it past all these hurdles and you do become a success. And then you're worried about Amazon creating a product just like yours or a million other Chinese sellers creating a product just like yours. Um, both of them are equal threats in my mind. And so I think, ultimately, a lot of times I advise clients that, you know Amazon is a great place to start. It's a great channel toe have always in your back pocket and as maybe even your front runner. But ultimately everyone should be understanding the unit economics of their own consumer driven website. You know, and and I'm not having all your eggs in one basket is is definitely crucial for e commerce. You know, survival in the long haul,
[0:45:26] George Reid: I think, Yeah, I echo your thoughts massively with both. Both threat Obama's and Chinese manufacturers coming on in selling and you're you're right by disgusted with David the other day on the show about having that single point of failure. And it's always divers find split or hedge. Hedge your bets a little bit. Reduce that risk by building other assets and the assets. The big one like you can't just rely on the Amazon traffic. You've gotta look okay. How are we going to get a Facebook final going so we can collect other assets like email addresses? How can we get traffic and sales coming in from eBay, Wal Mart bricks and mortar B two B Just so you're not relying on board because Amazon can like that. Switch off all of your revenue and that could just cripple the business right on. But I think there's there's threats out there, but mitigating the risk of that is diversifying your channels as well as for May I always talk about building that moat. You know, if there was a great David dapper documentary a while ago, and it was the polar Blair literally crawling down at this cliff face looking for for X, and I could have a big just like the polar bears, Amazon or Chinese seller, and he's just continuously looking. So what are you doing to protect yourself?
[0:46:41] Daniela Bolzman: And
[0:46:41] George Reid: they were like position of their eggs on a cliff face. And so this is what we do it. It's the same, like is building that moat. So when someone is looking for a product there in the hunt mode of a product they can replicate or steal or mimic if they look at yours and I like these guys have a monster following Instagram, they're doing everything right there. Content is flawless that repeat purchases. Great. I'm just gonna leave that one. Actually, it's not worth my time. It's not worth the hassle. And you can even win against big brands or even the lots of Amazon. If you do that, correct,
[0:47:15] Daniela Bolzman: right? I think you get into an area where you might think you have to do all these things just off of the few things we just mentioned right now. But really, it's about, really. It is just about thinking through, like when you're going to add another channel. How is the smart way or the way that you as an entrepreneur brand builder, most comfortable doing it. And I mean, if you look at the perfect example of what cove it made every single human realize with what is it like? I don't even know what percentage of people in the U. S that are not even working right now. Having a diversified income, whether you're a business owner or not is super important, you know. So these are lessons that we learn that everyone is learning right now. So it's something Teoh have at the forefront of your mind when you are starting a business that it's not just about Amazon, it's about building a business that can survive beyond that. So even in my business, you know, we have multiple streams of revenue.
[0:48:09] George Reid: Yeah, exactly. Daniella, thank you so much for coming on. Star really enjoyed today to share, and I think probably one of the most actionable podcasts we've recorded today. Hopefully, people are stopping us. They've been walking and taking notes. That is my goal for all podcast episodes. So thanks again for coming on. And thanks for showing us your your home there. It's great to see. Um what what's going on over in Peru and thought the
[0:48:38] Daniela Bolzman: founders from now.
[0:48:40] George Reid: Yeah, I think. What activity is gonna go through the roof?
[0:48:46] Daniela Bolzman: All right, well, you take care.
[0:48:51] George Reid: Hey, guys. Just a quick one. If you are enjoying a podcast on either have some actual next steps or new ideas I'd really appreciate if you could one subscribe to the show and leave us. Review. These are really, really important to us. As you probably know, being in the Amazon world on two. If you're looking for additional support with your brand, head over to the website. It's always day one dot co dot UK. We've got links to other Resource is as often our guys speak soon.
Thanks,
George
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