The Market-First Method That Changes Everything About E-Commerce

You know you’re in for a wild ride when Tyler brings back the Trey Lewellen—e-commerce madman, viral offer wizard, and occasional chaos wrangler. In this electric follow-up to his first appearance in 2019, Trey drops back into BizNinja Radio from literal paradise (yes, St. Thomas) to catch us up on scaling flashlights to $30M in 2.5 months, surviving lawsuits, and now running a lean empire off nothing more than a smartphone and a solid Telegram group.

Trey breaks down the “market-first” method that flipped his e-comm game upside down—building audiences before building products. Forget warehouses full of dead inventory. Trey’s strategy: ask what people want, sell it to them first, then fulfill. Oh, and he’s doing it all with zero employees, freelancers who outwork traditional hires in a quarter of the time, and affiliate partners who move mountains (and a whole lot of product). The guy’s basically playing 4D chess with a Shopify store.

And if you think that's wild, just wait—Trey's now tackling TikTok Shop, WhatsApp, and Discord as the new frontier for selling. He’s ditching email and SMS (too old, too risky) and betting on micro-influencers, direct-to-niche strategies, and building real communities. Oh, and spoiler alert: He’s launching a free challenge to help you build your own $28K/month recurring revenue machine. Buckle up. This one’s a masterclass in modern entrepreneurship.

 

Key Takeaways

• Build audiences first, products second. Let your market tell you what to sell.
• Freelancers > full-time staff: scale smarter with lean teams.
• Affiliate partnerships can explode your growth—find the right players and pay them well.
• Email and SMS are dying—Discord, TikTok Live, and WhatsApp are the future.
• Always plan for scale. $30M months sound fun... until the lawsuits roll in.
• Aim for 1,000 subscribers at $28/month. That’s your escape plan.

 

Chapters

00:00 Welcome Back Trey Lewellen

01:00 From Loan Leads to E-Commerce Breakthrough

03:00 The $100K T-Shirt Hustle

04:00 Market-First Approach Explained

06:15 Scaling to $30M and the Chaos That Followed

10:00 Running a Business with No Employees

13:00 Affiliate Marketing Secrets (Uncle B & Beyond)

17:00 Finding Hidden Affiliate Powerhouses

22:00 The Rise of TikTok Shop, WhatsApp & Discord

26:30 Why Email & SMS Are Dying

28:30 Trey's Free Challenge to Build Recurring Revenue