John Gill 4:06

Where do I begin? And that setup was, you know, you set the bar really high. I can meet the expectations. But you know, first, you know, you were talking about in the intro, you’re talking about all the hurdles and struggles and the mistakes. And as you’re saying that I’m saying good, because that’s where we learn. That’s where we learn. And you know, the other my other thought was getting line Powell we’ve all you know, the interesting thing about entrepreneurship is what I realized that that ice in your veins you really do. It’s not for the timid, you know, because crap will happen. You know, you will get knocked to the ground. But the idea is just getting up learning from your mistakes and moving forward. Because that’s it to me, it’s a journey. You know where I am today has nothing to do with where I’m going to be, but it’s but I’m not going to get there a lot As I go through these struggles, you know, I think that, you know, if you didn’t have any struggles, I think that’s a disadvantage. I really do. You know, because, again, we’re all unfinished products, we all have goals, dreams and desires. And in order to get there, we have to go through these trials. So I’ll leave it at that. But as far as the journey, it’s kind of an interesting story. So as you mentioned, I had a very successful telecom business. And the mistake that I made is I wasn’t paying attention to the trends. And so I was licensed carrier for prepaid calling cards, you know, to make international phone calls. And what I didn’t see happening was ending and in a prepaid calling card industry, the biggest market was actually Mexico. And, and everybody was calling cell phones. And back then the cost to for one minute to call a cell phone next was about 25 cents. So then what happened is the price started to drop. And then what happened is now cellphone carriers were say, for 10 bucks, unlimited calls to Mexico, there was a calling card business, and then you had the technology. And again, this is with everything, you know, the VHS, you know, they kind of all go away with the dinosaur, but people start using Skype, and WhatsApp and, and all those VoIP programs. So I got kind of caught with my pants around my ankles and wasn’t ready. And it’s my fault. So what had happened is, is that I went from that to, I was doing consulting started consulting business. What happened was his I received an email from an internet marketer. I’m trying to remember his name, Andy Jenkins, Andy Jenkins, he was known as what Video Boss or something like that. The crazy thing was, I wasn’t on his list, where did they get this email? And what the email was doing is he was promoting the the first ASM Amazing Selling Machine course. And so look, you know, look pretty interesting. You know, I gave my information. And then I started getting, you know, the regular videos, emails, promoting the launch of it. And at the time, my wife, who’s from Ecuador, she felt like she wasn’t contributing, she wanted to contribute more. And she didn’t know what to do. So I showed her this email, and I said, Look at this, your two favorite things, the internet and shopping, this could be perfect for you. So what she had said during that time is, yeah, it looks great. But you know, I don’t have any business background English isn’t my first language. So don’t worry, honey, I’ll watch it with you. And you just, you know, any questions? I’ll help you, I’ll explain to you, I’ll guide you, whatever i You got my support. So that particular course had eight modules. And they would, they would release one per week. So by the time the module two came along, halfway through, she’s like, I’m out. I’m out. But because I was watching it with her, it’s like, Wait a second. This makes sense. This makes a lot. I didn’t know squat about Amazon. Really, at that time, which was 11 years ago, I would can honestly say that I maybe used Amazon four or five times, maybe, maybe I wasn’t buying from Amazon. So but again, watching as I said, this makes sense. I can do this. And so I took over from there. And, and again, I just put the notes. And the thing about one of the things about me is I’m not the best learner, I think I got ADD or something like that. So I literally watched every video at least 10 times in order for it to sink in, you know, and I told that story. Pete some people, they laughed at me. And I said, you know, how bad do you want it? Big deal. I watched it 10 times, I don’t care. But that’s what it took for me to understand it. And that’s what it takes. Because I wanted the result, I wanted the result. And so I was very fortunate as part of ASM one anomaly course, for beginners phenomenal course, great foundation. And I was very fortunate. My first couple of products were huge successes. And that led me to, you know, ASM inviting me to speak at their events in front of 1000s of people. And then from that, you know, I was invited to speak in different countries. And then, because I spoke at so many events, I started to see patterns, and started to understand what the attendees, these Amazon sellers, were looking for what they wanted. And at the same time, what they didn’t like about the events that I was speaking at. And it was kind of by accident, I had a bunch of people that were asking me if I was doing any events and pushing you to start. So I did and my events were amazing. Now, that kind of sounds a little cocky. But let me finish by saying not because of me, not because of me. Where I was fortunate. I think this is a very, very important aspect is that one of the things that I’ve learned early on in life as an entrepreneur is the importance of networking. And I can’t emphasize that enough. I am so fortunate and so blessed to be surrounded by some of the smartest and greatest people that I’ve ever met some of my best friends to this day. 63 years old. To this day I met in this business so You know, I’m fortunate enough that if I come across any struggle, any challenge, any question that I have, I can pick up the phone or, or an email, WhatsApp, whatever. And I can get answers from some of the smartest, most successful Amazon sellers out there. So I can’t emphasize enough the importance of networking, get around people that are doing what you’re doing, and that are successful at it. And again, bring value to them. And then the value comes back. You know, actually, Tony Robbins, who’s one of my favorites talks about this, one of the shortcuts to success is find people that are successfully doing what you’re doing, and model them, they created a roadmap, just get that map and follow. That’s the shortcut to success. And so, you know, that’s always been something that I focused on. And it’s and it’s worked well. But that led me to doing these events. So I’ve done I think 14 Three Day events, a handful in China, a bunch in Cabo, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Miami, and again, and I’ve been very fortunate that a lot of the people that attend great people, phenomenal people actually have very, very smart Amazon sellers, and most of which I’m still connected with to this day. So it was you were asking me, you know, is there value in having a mastermind creating a mastermind or being part of a mastermind? Absolutely. But it has to do with the quality of people that are inaccurate? You know, so I had one group that I created, that was just high level sellers, super high level sellers. And it was a year long. Pro program, we had the quarterly get togethers in different places around the globe. And the crazy thing, the most amazing thing about that was there was nothing with this group of 52 people. There was nothing no problem, no question that we could not answer a soft, you put all those smart people together, there’s nothing you can’t figure out. And, so much came from that so much success came from that from everybody involved. So that’s my story when it comes to networking, and I’m sticking to it. It’s mission critical. So again, so that led me to your question was, you know, the history, you know, doing the masterminds, and doing these live events, and and then now have kind of backed off from that, and really focusing on some other businesses that I that I have, and, and and refocusing on my Amazon business, because there’s just so much opportunity there. It’s just a phenomenal opportunity.

Josh Hadley 12:28

I love that. So, John, you know, you’ve you’ve basically seen Amazon, how it’s grown over the last decade, and it’s changed drastically, right? I mean, Amazon has evolved, it’s more competitive. It’s not as “easy,” quote unquote, as it once was. But yet, what you just said is like, there’s still tremendous opportunity within Amazon, is that still something you believe, even though it’s more competitive than it ever was 11 years ago?

John Gill 12:58

absolutely, positively. Absolutely. It’s, but you’re right, it’s completely different. But the crazy thing about Amazon is, they almost change drastically, every six months. But what I started 11 years ago to today, it’s not the same business, it’s not the same. And again, it really comes back now to really understanding and knowing, knowing the Amazon industry, knowing the business, knowing the right things to do, back in the day, that was a lot easier. But also, people were relying on hacks, you know, there were guys out there with bots, for the ranking and all that stuff. And, you know, I still get all these emails from people from Indian Pakistan, that we can rank this we can do that we can change your votes, you know, help you with your reviews, those hacks don’t work, they don’t work anymore. And if they do, they’re very short lived, they’re temporary. Not to mention, they’re risky. So I think it’s important to get to the basics, and get very, very good at the basics. You know, starting with the right product, you know, doing your research, starting with the right product, you know, having a fully optimized listing, having a phenomenal launch. And then, you know, focusing, here’s a big thing that I focus on, is, is customer service is I appreciate — I love and I appreciate all my customers. And I tell them all when I get the opportunity, I tell them without folks like you, I wouldn’t have a business. So I appreciate you. And I’m always going to do my best to do the right thing and help you out. And I actually on my inserts craziness may sound on my insert, I have my cell phone number and my email address. I want them to call me. I want them to call me and I do it for a couple of reasons. One is what they tell me is where I’m screwing up. They tell me how I can make my business better. You know, because that’s the interesting thing. So I come from a world of you know, in sales, you know, as a sales rep for Pitney Bowes many many years ago before I started my telecom business And, and I’m very comfortable selling, you know, one on one face to face toe to toe, you don’t get that opportunity in e-commerce, you know. So I love that interaction with the customer, so that they can tell me what I’m doing right what I’m doing wrong to help me improve my business. But it also gives me an opportunity to thank them. And it also gives me an opportunity to take care of the situation, which always do want to bend over backwards. But the result is a happy customer, that usually comes back for more, and leaves a phenomenal review. A lot of my reviews have my name in it, they mentioned me because of what I did for them. And and I’ve had people contact me and say it was one of the reasons why they bought my product. So I think a lot of people miss that. They miss the importance, because it’s e-commerce, the importance of customer service, and customer service. And again, by communicating. And this is to me is like one of the basics. And you and I were talking about this earlier is know your customer, you have to know your customer, you know, how did that work out for Bud Light and Target? You know, not judging what they did? Yeah, but not judging what they did God bless him, but you clearly did not understand your audience. And they spoke to you. And it’s hurt them greatly. You got to know your customer, you got to know your customer.

Josh Hadley 16:21

Yeah, John, I think that that’s such an important like basic business one to one. But so many people, I think overlook that right? I think one of the first VAs that people hire or assistance is customer service, and then it’s out of sight out of mind, that’s one of the first things that to lose the entrepreneur’s mind, and then they never pay attention to it. One thing that we do in our business is that we have a monthly customer service review where that customer support reps that we’re working with will provide here’s everything we’ve gotten from all of the customers that have reached out, here’s their ideas of how to improve the product, here’s what they’re not happy about. Here’s what they are happy about. And it also helps us like zero in on those customers, right and understand who they are right? And so I would say, you know, maybe one quick action item is like, if you when was the last time you actually filled it a customer service question number one, but then number two, if you have somebody doing that for you, are you meeting with them on a regular basis to actually get feedback from the customers and then be able to make adjustments in your business accordingly, John, and I think —

John Gill 17:31

If I could jump in real quick, I’m so sorry. I don’t want to I don’t want to mess up your mojo here. Your flow?

Josh Hadley 17:37

Oh, that’s great. Let me hear it.

John Gill 17:38

It’s part of the you know, what I explained to you in that document you sent me to is, when I first started this journey, and got into ASM. They had a Facebook group. And it became an addiction to everybody, including me, and I hate Facebook. But the challenge that came from that is many of the people who had joined were e-commerce guys, gals, you know, they had experience that, you know, they had success in e-commerce. So they’re on there posting stuff, and they’re throwing out terms and, and talking about technology and stuff. And I was like, oh my god, I have no idea what these guys are talking about. I’m not an e-commerce guy. I’m not a techy guy, I have no idea what they’re talking about. And at first, it scared the heck out of it. Because my thought was, well, they could succeed, because they know all these things. But man, this is going to be a challenge for me. So what it forced me to do is to stick to the basics, stick to the things that I do know the success principles that I do know, and follow that system. And long story short, I was very blessed to have done a lot better than a lot of them. But it was because I stuck to the basics, because that I understood. And I think that a lot of people, as you mentioned, miss that, you know, there’s certain things business one to one, stick to the basics and get good at it. You don’t have to be great at everything. Just get good at the basics. Yeah.

Josh Hadley 19:01

I love that it’s such a good principle. Such a good principle. John, I was gonna ask you a follow up question regarding, you know, an earlier conversation we had, which is that, you know, as you’ve been doing these different events and having your hands in multiple businesses, I believe that you moved your Amazon business to an agency to manage that business for you. Right. And I think everybody in their mind has this ideal vision of this would be great. Let’s turn my business over to this expert agency. They’re gonna run this thing on autopilot. I’m just gonna sit back and collect the checks. I would love to hear: A, How did that experience go? And then B, What are you doing now that you took things away from the agency?

John Gill 19:49

Alright, the first part that I questioned how that worked out, it was an absolute disaster. It was a disaster. Big mistake, you know, and again, my idea was I had these other businesses I really wanted to focus on. This is a little bit on cruise control, you know what damage can be done, you know, and again, the people that are hired are a well known company. But they were terrible. They’re absolutely terrible. And I think what it comes down to, too, is if you don’t pick the right people, and and I’m not saying because I know, some of the people that were in my mastermind have agencies, and they’re awesome individuals, great people great business, and they do get results for their, for their customers. So this is not a blanket statement about all agencies. This particular one was terrible. And I think what it comes back to for me was, is that I didn’t do my due diligence, although they’re well known. They’re all over the internet all over this, the gentleman who owns companies all over YouTube, but, but they’re not going to care about your business as much as you are. And again, also, you know, making sure that you stay on top of them, and having them focus on the most important things. But long story short, it was a disaster. And I almost I fired them months ago, and pretty much had to start over how to redo all the listings, the listings were horrendous. And I shared with you about a tool that I use that, you know, I helped, just in the birth of this thing, the idea, and it’s been a game changer for me. But it’s a tool that allows you to get consumer insights, which have been game changing. Because you know, the thing that I’ve said, I shared with you, I don’t give a crap what you think. And I don’t care what I think I only care what the consumer things, but how do you get it? How do you get into their mind? How do you understand the consumers needs, wants and desires? How do you understand what information that I need to give the consumer in order to make a confident buying decision? Where do I find that? Well, this particular tool is called Intellivy, INTELLIVY.com, is a tool that was developed to get these consumer insights. So there’s a group of over 28 million consumers, the first 350,000, you know, Intellivy, cultivated, real sellers, all prime members. And, and we use those people in order to give us this feedback, whether it’s doing a survey on a main image, an image stack, or there’s one tool where you give them the Asin. And they will do a video and tell you what, why, why you won’t buy this product, you know, because I want to know, I want to know. And the craziest thing is that some of the feedback that I got has been game changing, but shocking. So I’ll share that quick story that I share with you. So the first product I launched was a floating shelf, I set it to gorgeous, gorgeous, I focus on quality. I’m never the lowest price, I’m usually on the higher side, I focus on quality, because there is a segment of buyers and Amazon that are willing to pay for quality. Not everybody is a, let’s call it a Walmart shopper. No offense. And so I thought oh my competitors have decor on the shelves. Oh, but my shelves are so beautiful. I’m going to outsmart them, I’m going to my main image is going to have nothing. It’s just going to feature the beauty of the wood. When we did the survey against my top competitor. He beat me 60-40. You got 60% I got 40%. But the feedback because it’s more than just a vote yes or no this one, that one a B, whatever. They give you feedback, you post a question, given the feedback. And the feedback was I liked this one because of the decor, it gives me an idea what’s going to look like in my home, and it gives me an idea of the size started. So I guess I’m not so smart after all. Luckily, I had photos, images with a decor. So I immediately jumped on and did another one completely different group of people did the survey, I beat him 60-40 this time. But the interesting thing in the feedback was several people that mentioned that my shell was because I set it to like I told you, they look like they were too far apart image. Really, you notice that that makes a difference? Call my draft this guy kill the dead space, bring them closer, within 20 minutes I did the third survey, I beat him 90-10. 90-10, who would have in a million years that that would make a difference. You know, because that’s again, a critical aspect, when it comes to success on Amazon is having a fully optimized listing in the past. The strategy and technique people using creating listing is find the most successful guys selling a similar product and copy their listing. You don’t know what they’re doing in the back end. You don’t know all the you know, what they know, that’s creating their success. It can be more they can have, because I’ve seen successful products with horrible listings, but they’re so successful, because there’s other factors involved. But again, that goes back to the basics, having a fully optimized listing, and again, giving the consumer the information that they need to make a competent buying decision. So I’ll share the story. So I told you, I redid all my listings. So when I hired this company and fired this company, I did a survey on the listings that they created that we had for months while sales were going backwards. And I got 6% of the vote, I got crushed, I got crushed. Consumers hated the listing, every image they hated. And so we took that information that we got, we made changes to no survey, did better, took that information made more changes, did better. So that information made more changes. And then we were crushing all of our competition. But the interesting thing that I shared with you is the common thread, a common comment that people were making is, I like this one that or whether it was mine, or the competitors, because it looks easier to install, even though there was nothing in any of the images that referenced the installation process. But what did they tell me? They told me that this was important to them. So guess what I did, we created images that emphasize the ease of installation, because they told me that’s what they needed to make a competent buying decision. And it goes back to what we’re talking about earlier. Know your customer, who was your customer? What are their needs, wants and desires? And how do I communicate to them that I’m going to fill those needs, wants and desires. So you’re, you’re you’re good with me? Buy my product, you’re gonna be okay.

Josh Hadley 26:16

Yeah, I love that. So, John, it sounds like the main thing that you changed when you took things back from the agency? Was it just the main image? Or was it everything on the listing from the title, bullets, description?

John Gill 26:30

Everything. And again, it was all based on the changes that were made. Were based on consumer feedback, not on my opinion, not on my gut, because my gut has clearly failed me in the past. Yeah. The funny thing is I use this analogy in the early days, is I look at. Josh, do you have any kids?

Josh Hadley 26:52

Yeah, we have three.

John Gill 26:54

Alright, well, I got you beat I got five. But when you have a baby, and you’re holding that baby, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. Even if your kid looks like a lizard, it’s still a beautiful baby. But you think the baby’s beautiful, but the rest of the world doesn’t? Where did that play? When our listing? Look at this? Oh, my God, look what I created. It’s beautiful. I love this. It’s beautiful. It might not be just because you think so. And again, like I said, I don’t care what I ,think I don’t care what you think. I only care what the consumer thinks. Know your customer. Know your customer.

Josh Hadley 27:25

I love that analogy. John, I’m gonna have to start stealing that from you. I love that, you know, baby analogy. I think that’s so true. I think we all get so married to our ideas, the way we create things. It’s like this is perfect. Right? And then we roll it out. And then we get frustrated when it’s like, why aren’t people loving this as much as I do? Yeah, John, I’m, I’m curious to learn more about this listing optimization. What are some of the like big takeaways, if you could, like, boil everything down into a couple actionable takeaways for our listeners. What are the key things to focus on for listing optimization that have been the biggest meat needle movers for yourself?

John Gill 28:09

Well, I think first and foremost of the images, because not everybody reads the copy. You know, me personally, the only time I read the bullet points, or the product description, is, if it’s something that’s like, size-related, or will this what I’m buying, is it good for the iPhone 15, or whatever, you know, specifics. But if that’s not the case, you know, I’m, you know, I’m focusing on the images, I’m focusing on the images. And so it’s important to have optimized images that again, have the information, you’re feeding information to the consumer, that consumer needs to make that competent buying decision. I think that’s critical. And then for those who do read the bullet points, it’s important to have good bullet points with a call to action, have good sales, copy, have your keywords, make sure you have the right keywords in there. And that’s another thing. I mean, doing your proper research. There’s great tools out there, whether it’s Helium 10, there’s a bunch of tools out there for keyword research that and that’s critical. Make sure that you have them in your copy, you have in the back end, have all the right keywords.

Josh Hadley 29:10

Well, is that something that the agency did a poor job of was even SEO and getting the right keywords in there? Or was that decent? It was probably like the I

John Gill 29:19

don’t know if they even did it, they claim they did it. They claimed they did it. But again, you know, one of the tools I use as mentioned is Helium 10. I didn’t see a change. I didn’t see ranking for new keywords. I didn’t see any of that stuff. So if they did do it, it clearly did not work. So I don’t even know.

Josh Hadley 29:37

Fascinating. John, you talked about you know, image as being the number one like listing optimization that you can make on your product and that’s why you reference using Intellivy. You know, I think that’s one tool that people are familiar with. What have you seen you know, you’ve been in these mastermind groups, you’ve networked with a lot of different sellers. Have you been able to identify any type of common pattern for main images that seemed to work really well with customers? Or is it also product dependent that there’s really, you know, there’s not a whole lot to share?

John Gill 30:11

Yeah, it depends on the product. It really does. It depends on the product, because some products would have seen with some friends that I have, or family members without giving away brands and whatnot. Because I mentioned I have a son who’s just killing it, killing it, killing it killing killing. And but what I’ve seen with people, for example, with nutraceutical products, one of the things that converts well is having that you know, the little badgers saying 100%, organic or vegan or this or that, you know, those made a difference, things like that make a difference. But again, what it comes back to is giving the consumer the information that they require in order to make a confident buying decision. So if I’m a vegan, I’m not. And reminds me of a joke, how do you know somebody’s vegan, they’ll tell you. So, you know, those particular things, I’m vegan, show me which ones be and you know what, and don’t make it hard for me, you know, this example, don’t make it hard for me to I gotta dig. So if you’re going down a line, here’s a bad example. Here’s a bad example. So I remember back in the day, when my youngest boy was in high school, when he did well in school, we would reward him and he always wanted a video game, and I’d go on Amazon, buy it. But what I just say like it’s color duty, that the people selling that game, I would go down prime, bam, and that’s what I would buy y prime and I’m gonna get in a couple days, I’m pretty sure it’s not counterfeit. If it’s sitting in FBA, blah, blah, blah. That was my perception. That’s why I bought it. So the same thing, in that case of the nutraceutical, if it being vegan, or organic, or no gluten, whatever is important to me. And I’m scrolling down and I see the image that has that little badge saying vegan, or gluten free, or whatever, I’m jumping on that one right away. I don’t have to click on every one and, and, and make them work for it. You know, make it easy for them, give them that information and give to my wife,

Josh Hadley 32:03

John, are there any? Like how do you best utilize Intellivy to get that information from the customer? I would love to hear maybe what kind of surveys you run on Intellivy in order to get into the mind of the customer so that you can know, oh, it’s as simple as putting made in the USA, on the product packaging on the main image or putting vegan or organic or whatever it is? What how are you using it? And what type of surveys should be asking —

John Gill 32:36

One of my favorite survey tools within there is called an image stack. So I go in there, and I pop in my Asin and my top competitors a synthetic, gets all the images. And then I pose a question. And I just leave it there. And it’s like, Bring it on, folks, bring it on. Tell me what you think. And again, like I mentioned with the when we did the survey, and they were telling me I picked this one because it looks easy to install, there was nothing in any of the images that referenced installation. So they told me what was important. You know, they told me and again, it had nothing to do with any of that any images that any be artistic, or my competition had, they told me what was important. So I think the important thing is getting in there getting all those particular competitors in their image stack, posing the white right question to them, and just shut up and listen, listen, take your bias out, you know, take the lizard looking baby out of it. Take your bias out and listen to the consumer. And then again, less changes. survey again.

Josh Hadley 33:38

What’s the question you ask?

John Gill 33:40

Well, it depends on what you’re serving. But I mean, it could be as simple as which product would you buy? And why? Which of these would you buy? And why? And why not? Just which ones would you buy? You know, I want to know why? Because that’s where the meat is. That’s where the magic is. Why did you buy this? Why would you buy this? Why would you want this over this one, this one or this one? Why? You know, I had shared with you earlier back when I first started. My first brand was Brand of Life products, pipelines, capital and just headlamps, unique flashlights, things like that. I had several products. I remember, one in particular I’m thinking about is that I say this one is a home run, I am going to make a fortune on this one guarantee, and then add other products. That one in particular was a headlamp was a higher-end headlamp more expensive than the others. But I was adding that and launching that as a filler to fill out my brand to make it look like a bigger company or bigger brand. I wasn’t expecting much from that. Again, it was just a filler. That one took off where the other one that I thought was a guaranteed home run fail. Now the crazy part is asked me why I don’t know why did one fail, which would have been great to know why. Because then I would make sure I’m not doing that again. You know, I’m not going to you know, make the same mistakes. And then why did the one that succeed, because if I knew that, I would just replicate that, I would continue to replicate that. But there was no way of knowing. And the other thing too, back in the day, when I started, my, my strategy for picking products was that every month my vendors would send me a box of samples, and I’ll go through it like, Oh, that’s cool to me. 5,000 Send me 10,000 is sent me this color is, that’s how I click that idea. Bad idea. But the interesting thing, I had one camping plankton that was very, very successful, and Amazon is one of the best-selling camping lanterns, and I believe it came in black, and it came in red. So I get this case of samples. One day, I opened it up, and there’s that camping lanterns a successful one, and it’s pink, it’s pink, like nobody’s selling pink on Amazon, the girls will love this, this is going to be a success, I ordered a ton of them couldn’t give them away, could not give them away, you know, because back then I did not have a tool to reach out to the consumer and have them tell me what they wanted, what they liked, what they didn’t like, what they thought. So now I don’t launch, I don’t launch a product without surveying at first, you know, but what it’s done is well, is it’s told me that whether it’s a winner or loser, or it could be a winner if I make this change or that change. So again, I know what the consumer wants, I know what they don’t like about it, or they do like about it. And then you know, I fix the things that they don’t like I push the things, you know forward what they do, like,

Josh Hadley 36:30

So would you say one of the bigger takeaways is you’ve refined your product launch strategy. And maybe it takes longer, because you’re actually serving, right? You’re going through the process to say, Hey, would you be interested in a pink lantern, right, like, here are the different options we have? Which one would you choose and why? And if people don’t like pink, they’ll let you know that and it saves you a lot of time and money, obviously half the invest. Pink one who got it? Would you say that your success rate of launching new products is higher today than it was back in the day, even though it’s more competitive on Amazon?

John Gill 37:09

Ten times, 50 times, 100 times. I mean, I now go into it, knowing that the product is gonna succeed, you know, and, and again, I’ve been very fortunate that I haven’t in a while launched any losers. Why? Because I know going in, because consumers told me, you know, and I guess that’s the major theme of everything we’re talking about is knowing your consumer, knowing your consumer, you know, I’ve had people that come to me with this great idea that they want to sell this product on Amazon, it’s like, is anybody searching for it? You know, because it’s new, it’s innovative. Amazon is not the place for that. Because nobody’s searching for it, they’re not going to find it. Again, give the consumer what they want. But they don’t know about it. They don’t want it, you know, because they don’t know about it. They don’t know about — yeah.

Josh Hadley 37:52

So true. John, this, this has been amazing. Definitely. We’ve gotten some gold nuggets out of all of this. I have to ask you this question, though, as we wrap things up, if you’ve been around so many elite sellers, you know what some of the best strategies are? Are there any, you know, maybe some public strategies that you would be obliged and allowed to share with us is just some quick wins, that are sellers that are looking to scale from seven to eight figures and beyond that they could implement in their own business.

John Gill 38:23

You know what, I wish I had some magic bullet I could share with you. I think it’s like we talked about getting back to the basics. And again, the biggest, the biggest, biggest change that I’ve seen in my business as far as gross growth is concerned, is again, understanding and knowing my consumer, what is it that they want, tell me what you want, I will give that to you. But I can’t give it to him if I don’t know what it is. And so by knowing that because in the past, like I said, I shared with you earlier, whether it was the listing, or whether it was the product selection, a lot of that came from gut, don’t trust your gut, don’t trust your gut, you know, find out what the consumer thinks what the consumer wants. And that doesn’t mean asking your brother, your sister, your best friend, your girlfriend, your boyfriend? No, because they’re gonna give you a biased answer. Anyway, find out what the consumer really wants and what they think. Yeah.

Josh Hadley 39:14

I love that, John, great words of wisdom. So John, as we wrap things up here today, then I love to leave the audience with three actionable takeaways. Here are the three takeaways that I noted you let me know if you think I’m missing something here. Action Item number one is know your customers, obviously, the overall theme of this. And so my action item would be this, you as the CEO of your brand, need to actually fill and observe some of the customer service inquiries that you’re receiving. So when was the last time that you actually feel did one of those questions? And if you have somebody filling that role, which is good, right? Do you have a way that you’re getting a continuous report from them, and updates to understand what feedback You are getting from people that are actually buying your products, right? What do they love about your product? What do they dislike about your product? And then my question to you, as the brand owner is, what are you doing with that feedback? are you just sitting on it and being like, Oh, interesting, oh, well, because the people that are willing to innovate and focus on quality, and always improve, in my opinion, are going to be the brands that win in the long run. And we see that time and time again, where there’s quick, you know, somebody hits, you know, lightning in the bottle, and that quick flash, and they do really well real quick, but then it peters out, eventually. So you have to kind of ask yourself what type of brand you want to be. But if you want to be around for a long time, you have to implement just like you should be doing a financial monthly review, you should be doing a customer review, every single month. Action item number two, this would be focused on understanding what it is that your customer wants, and then communicating that through your images and your overall listing. And so I love the idea of utilizing tools like Intellivy, PickFu, and ProductPinion. There’s lots of these survey tools that you can use. But are you actually utilizing them more than just a an app? Are you actually reviewing the insights that people leave? Right, I think that many of us just look at it as a, Hey, I’m just gonna put these products up real quick. And oh, if I went out by a couple of percentage points, that’s good enough, I’m going to move on. But John shared a great example of how he went from, you know, getting 40% of the results, changed an image went to 60% of the results, and then change the images, again, based on feedback and got 90% of the votes, right. And so continue to push that envelope higher and higher. Don’t be satisfied with a slim majority of those votes, keep pushing the envelope until you can definitely dominate your competition. My third and final action item is that you should be implementing this customer feedback and surveys into your product launch strategy. If this is not, if you’re still shooting from the hip in terms of coming up with product ideas, and you’re just thinking, what would be fun? What do I think would work best? What’s the best seller doing? And that’s what I’m going to come out with, then more often than not, you’re going to struggle in terms of you know, launching successful products. But like John talked about, because he’s very diligent in the fact that he surveys customers. And he does, he does more than just one survey, it happens again, and again. And again, he has a high level of confidence. And he just said it himself that most of his product launches have all been successful as of late, because he knows going into it, he’s already won all the votes previously leading up to that product launch. So saving him time saving him money, less disappointment when something doesn’t work out, like he wanted it to. And again, I think the other analogy to just keep in the back of your mind is if you create your own, you know, product and the listing images, just as if you have your own child, you’re gonna think it’s the cutest thing in the world. But in reality, it may not be right. So go talk to the customers, they are going to be the ones that vote with our dollars at the end of the day. Doesn’t matter if you think your baby’s cute, it matters what the other people think. So, John, anything else you would add as an action item that I failed to cover here?

John Gill 43:29

I think you nailed it pretty good. I think you nailed it pretty good. Again, if you stick to the basics, you’ll do great. You’ll do great.

Josh Hadley 43:37

I love it. All right, John, my favorite three questions that I get asked every guest are these. Number one, what has been the most influential book that you’ve read? And why?

John Gill 43:48

Actually, and I shared with you earlier, it’s sitting on my desk. Think and Grow Rich, this is the Bible of success written in the 1940s. And it is phenomenal. And I remember early in early days, as I share with you, you know, my initial start to entrepreneurship was getting involved in MLMs. And I remember I was at an event and a gentleman who’s an ex football player, Tim Foley. And he said he didn’t read this thing until he was later years retired football player very successful in this MLM, which was Amway at the time. And he said he read this the first time he got so mad, he threw it against the wall. He said at this stage in my life, how come I have not this is the first time you’re reading it, and why haven’t I read it? 10 times? I mean, it’s that good. It’s the basics for success. You know, and again, I think we get away from that. We’ve gotten into a culture of shortcuts and hacks, which I take that back. I’d like to add that because back in the early days, 11 years ago, 10 years ago, nine years ago, whatever. A lot of sellers, including myself, we were relying on hacks for our success. Those don’t work anymore. And when they do, they’re short lived and they’re not worth right Ask, they’re not worth the risk. So get back to the basics and get great at the basics. Forget the hacks. So again, Think and Grow Rich is great because it is the foundation, it is the basis, it talks about the importance of masterminds, like we talked about networking, networking, get around great people that are successful, and on the same page as you and, and you, there’s so much that you can learn from them, the importance of, you know, what you focus on and the things that you think about, you know, putting the right thoughts in your mind and focusing on success, not because, again, we get caught up with, and I mentioned that that questionnaire that if I can just throw this in here, because I think this is so crowded, is that people heard me speak on stage before they’ve heard this. So you’re gonna hear it again, sorry. One of the things that I talk about all the time when I speak, and is what I practice, is that if you want to succeed in anything, whether it’s in business, getting in shape, losing weight, whatever to make, to me, when the key, one of the key elements is having that strong, and defined, compelling reason why, why is this a must, not a should, I must succeed, I must accomplish this goal. And if you don’t have that strong reason why, what happens is, which we’re all guilty of all of us, I don’t care who you are, what level you’re at, fear, doubt and insecurity can creep in. And when it does, if you don’t have that strong, compelling reason why, fear, doubt, and insecurity can win, and the analogy that I use all the time. So again, if you heard it, I apologize and hear it again, is Joshua and I are standing out in the street, we look across the street, and there’s a building engulfed in flames. And I look at you say, oh, man, I walked in there, Hey, Josh can go in and grab my wallet, you’re gonna laugh at me and say, Come on, dude. Oh, by a new wallet. That’s ridiculous. I’m not going in there. You know, it’s hot. It’s burning his flame. I don’t know. I’m strong enough. I don’t know if I’m fast enough. I don’t know if I can hold my breath long enough. fear, doubt, insecurity, all those things, questioning yourself, questioning your abilities. But then if I change the story, flip the script. And I say, Josh, the person you love the most is in there. And you got 10 minutes to get them out? Or they’re going to die a horrible, miserable, painful death. What are you going to do? You’re going in, you’re not thinking twice. You’re not doubting yourself, you’re not wondering if you’re good enough? Are you smart enough? Are you strong enough? You’re not? You’re focused on accomplishing that goal and saving the person you love the most. But the interesting thing, I asked you the same thing go into the burning building, it was the same question. What was the difference? The reason why. So that was the thing. When I told you that when I was on that Facebook, that ASM, Facebook, and I’m seeing all these smart internet marketers and ecommerce guys, I’m saying oh my god, I have no idea what they’re talking about. They can succeed. I don’t know, if I can’t, what got me through that was my reason why I must succeed, I have to do this for my family. You know, all those goals that I had, which was really mostly family oriented, you know, what to do to spend, I wanted to be an example, my kids, I wanted to show them, hey, we got knocked down when you know, when you know, our child, you know, we had to close our telecom business. But we got back up, we kept moving forward, we want you know, so if you have that strong reason why you cannot be defeated, you cannot be defeated.

Josh Hadley 48:00

I love that. I love the phrase, you will only fail when you quit, right? And it’s as simple as that. So never slowly. Never give up. Keep moving forward.

John Gill 48:14

You know, if you have a bad product launch, learn from it. Find another product. Keep going. Keep going.

Josh Hadley 48:15

John, question number two here, what is a new productivity tool or software tool that you’ve recently discovered that you think is going to be a game changer?

John Gill 48:28

Absolutely, positively 100% is Intellivy. Unbelievable. The funny thing we were talking about is that I just attended an event in New York. And there was a lot of very, very, very, very high-level sellers, a bunch of top 100. So they claim I had no reason not to believe them. But the crazy thing is they came to us because I was helping out the utility guys at this event. And people were coming to the booth that none of us knew and said we’ve been using this. It has saved us a fortune. It’s the best tool that we’ve ever used. And again, understanding your consumer and your customer getting those insights are invaluable, valuable, and helps you make the good or the right decisions.

Josh Hadley 49:10

I love that — completely agree. Alright. Final question here for you, John, who is somebody that you admire or respect the most in the e-commerce space that other people should be following and why?

John Gill 49:20

Well, I don’t know if he’s got any social media anyone to follow, but it’s Mels Terlouw. So he is the CEO and Founder of Intellivy. And the reason that I say that is and that’s another interesting aspect of that program. It was designed and developed by some of the top sellers on Amazon. The idea when it was originally started, it was something that was being built for the group of us just for us. We looked at the landscape we looked at in essence what we tried to do is create a crystal ball. What are the problems that are occurring right now? What are the problems or challenges that we see occurring in the future with Amazon? Whether it was launches or different things. And so based on that, we said, what can we build for us to give us an unfair advantage against our competition is succeed on Amazon. That’s where it started. That’s where it started. So getting back to Mels. I have met thousands of sellers, and so many that are multi, multi, multi-millionaires super successful guys. But by far, this is the smartest man I’ve ever met in this industry. But to me, that was the most important part. He’s one of the scientists consider it just an amazing human being, I feel blessed to know the guy. And that is important to me. You know, it’s like when I meet people, you know, my attitude is “show me who you are quickly.” So I can figure out if I want you in my life or not. I don’t care what you know, I don’t care who you know, I don’t care what you have, how much you have. Because if you’re a turkey, I’m cleaning it up. If you’re a turkey, I don’t want anything to do with the I don’t want you in my life. You know, I look at people as either anchors or sales, you know, and I want to associate myself with good human beings. And then our sales. You know, we’re hopefully I bring value into the relationship to help them and they bring value into my life to help me whatever that is being a better person. A smarter entrepreneur, a more successful entrepreneur as being Mels, he’s at the top of my list for sure. Love that you should get him on one of your podcasts. He’ll blow your audience away. He’s so smart. So smart.

Josh Hadley 51:35

We’ll have to do that. So, John, thank you so much for all of your time today. John, if people want to contact you, reach out, learn a little bit more about you. Where can they find you and contact you?

John Gill 51:47

Well, I can give you my email address. Feel free to reach out, which is John@willowandgracedesigns.com. And actually Willow and Grace are my granddaughters. So I named my company after my babies.

Josh Hadley 51:47

I love that. That’s so cool. John, thank you so much for your time today. This has been a true pleasure. And I know our audience is better for listening to this. So thanks again for your time.

John Gill 52:13

Oh, the pleasure was truly my thank you for this opportunity. And I hope I brought some value to you folks. Don’t give up, stick in there. You know, again, I’ve met so many people that have just crushed it and succeed in this business. And it’s available to everyone and anyone just gotta be willing to go in there and do what it takes. You know, put in the effort put in the work. And again, surround yourself with the right people, stay focused, stay positive and, and you’ll be blessed.

Josh Hadley 52:39

Love it. Good words of wisdom. We’ll end on that note, John.

Outro 52:44

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