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August 26, 2025 47 mins

Ready to scale your Amazon business?
Click here to book a strategy call. 
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What if the path to e-commerce success was simpler than most "gurus" make it out to be? In this eye-opening conversation with Jim Cockrum—pioneer in online entrepreneurship and founder of the Proven Amazon Course—we discover why most people are looking at Amazon selling all wrong.

Forget what you've heard about market saturation. With less than 20% of all retail happening online, we're still in the pioneer stage of e-commerce. The blue ocean is expanding daily, and Jim reveals his "low-low-high" approach that's helped thousands build sustainable businesses with minimal risk and investment.

The real opportunity? Finding "underserved shelf space" in Amazon's massive warehouse network. Jim explains why focusing on everyday products that shoppers need quickly—rather than chasing the lowest price—creates a powerful advantage even for beginners. Through fascinating examples (like how one seller outperformed 200 competitors while charging the highest price), you'll understand why speed and convenience often trump price for today's consumers.

Jim dismantles common myths about Amazon selling, clarifying how the platform's increasingly consistent policies make it easier than ever to stay in good standing. He provides practical guidance on sourcing products properly, understanding the economics of profitable reselling, and avoiding the costly mistakes that trip up new sellers.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Jim shares his unconventional belief that relationships—not tactics or strategies—are the true predictor of entrepreneurial success. By the end of our conversation, you'll see why Jim's approach has stood the test of time while countless "get rich quick" schemes have faded away.

Whether you're just starting your online business journey or looking to diversify your existing e-commerce operation, this conversation offers a refreshingly straightforward path to building freedom and financial stability in the digital age.

How to connect with Jim?
Website: https://jimcockrumcoaching.com/
Podcast:
https://silentjim.com/podcast-home/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jimcockrum/
Facebook Group: SilentJim
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimcockrum
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jimcockrum/?hl=en
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2K55JmPu9WBAqmOtIaQAkf

Ready to scale your Amazon business? Click here to book a strategy call.  https://calendly.com/firingtheman/amazon

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a
show for anyone who wants to betheir own boss.
If you sit in a cubicle everyday and know you are capable of
more, then join us.
This show will help you build abusiness and grow your passive
income streams in just a fewshort hours per day.
And now your hosts, serialentrepreneurs David Shomer and

(00:22):
Ken Wilson.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to Firing the man podcast, the podcast for
entrepreneurs and businessbuilders ready to grow beyond
the hustle and into ownershipthat truly scales.
I'm your host, and today'sguest is someone who's been
guiding people toward financialfreedom long before e-commerce
was a household term Jim Cockrum.

(00:45):
Jim is a pioneer in onlineentrepreneurship, founder of the
Proven Amazon course and hostof the long-running Silent Sales
Machine radio.
For more than two decades, he'shelped thousands of aspiring
entrepreneurs create sustainableincome streams through smart,
proven strategies, withoutfalling into the trap of chasing

(01:08):
fads or burning out Withexpertise spanning Amazon,
selling creative onlinemarketing and building multiple
streams of income.
Jim's approach is all aboutcreating businesses that serve
your life, not the other wayaround.
He teaches everyday people howto start lean, scale wisely and

(01:29):
build assets that generatelong-term results.
In today's conversation, we'llexplore how to stand out in the
crowded e-commerce landscape,the timeless business principles
that still work today, and whythe path to freedom is often
simpler and more attainable thanmost people think.
Get ready this episode willshift how you see online

(01:50):
business and what's possible foryour future.
Jim, very excited to have you.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
It's an honor to be here.
Thanks for the invitation.
I hope to deliver tremendousvalue to your listeners.
Thanks for the introduction.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Absolutely so.
To start things off, can youshare with our audience a little
bit about your background andyour path in the
entrepreneurship world?

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, you know, when I'm asked to do a little bio at
the beginning of these podcastepisodes and interviews and
things, what I like to doinstead is sprinkle in a little
bit of reassurance for thelistener that if they hang out,
we're going to give them atleast five, if not 10 or more
actionable concepts that'llchange their life, and I'm not
going to hold anything back.

(02:29):
That's what I've been doing for20 years.
So I've been married to my wifefor over 30 years my college
sweetheart.
We've had five kids.
Three of them have now hadgrandkids.
I'm at that season of life whereI'm just reaping the benefit of
having done life a littledifferently, and it's a path
that I now encourage boldly forothers to explore.

(02:51):
And that is we live in thegreatest time in human history
to launch businesses.
The cost of trying new thingsand failing has never been lower
.
Take advantage of that.
Be trying new things constantly.
Better yet, be listening topeople who know what they're

(03:14):
talking about, who are leadinglarge communities of people who
are succeeding.
Pay attention to what's workingand try it, test it, go for it.
There's never been a bettertime to go for it.
Yeah, so that's my bio is.
I'm passionate about helpingother people, like you just said
, succeed using the internetcreatively the greatest tool of
communication and connectionwe've ever had and it's at our
fingertips and it's free, and somany people aren't taking

(03:36):
advantage of it.
The opportunity has never beenbetter than it is now to build
the flexibility and thefinancial future that you've
always thought was possible.
It's possible, it's happening.
I'm in a huge community ofpeople who do it all day, every
day, encouraging and supportingeach other.
So, yeah, let's get into somegreat content.
Man, it's not about me today.

(03:57):
It's about your listeners,making sure they understand that
there's a lot of great ways todo really well online that are
out there.
There's a lot of great ways todo really well online that are
out there.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So let's start with the verybeginning.
So obviously, online sales issomething that you're very
passionate about.
Do you remember when did youmake your first online sale?
Do you recall the product?

Speaker 3 (04:18):
The first significant sale that really that just
caused an explosion of fireworksin my brain of the
possibilities was when I had anold pair of Nike Air Jordans and
I didn't like them.
I'm a basketball player.
I'd worn them a few times and Iwasn't a big fan, but I put
them in my closet, broke themout to sell them on eBay and a
guy in Singapore paid me $700,$800 for these shoes that I'd

(04:44):
bought for $ bucks on clearance.
Now there were significantlymore than that now, but that's
not the point.
The point is I had aninternational business in a
couple of minutes.
That had never been possiblebefore.
Sit down at your computer, typeout a few you know, fill in a
few forms Congratulations youhave an international business.
That's never in all of humanhistory there's never been a

(05:06):
time like that.
Since about the mid-90s.
The game of opportunity haschanged dramatically, forever,
and those of us who are just oldenough to remember the way it
used to be versus the way it isnow, I think have more of an
appreciation for how differentit is.
I think have a more of anappreciation for how different

(05:28):
it is.
Launching a business used tomean huge risk, years and years,
without exaggeration ofplanning and spending and
building and testing andbusiness plans and lawyers and
accountants, and and at the endof all of this ridiculously long
journey, your odds of failurewas still about the same as it
is today About 80% of everybodywho tries to build a business

(05:52):
fails.
But what's changed is you cantry two or three things tomorrow
if you want, and okay.
So 80% of them fail, that'sfine.
10, 20% of them that work andstart to do something.
Let's build on that.
That wasn't possible before.
It is now.
So that's how I got started andas I started to realize the
power of this tool of connectionand communication and all the
possibilities that come with it,we can't squander this time

(06:18):
that we have that we're alivewhere this thing is.
We're in the early pioneerstages of e-commerce.
Let me just throw out astatistic, because some people
are like oh no, it's saturated.
E-commerce is huge.
Let me just ask you, david, doyou happen to know maybe you do
because you're kind of in thespace, but you may never have
heard this number Of all ofretail in the United States?
Let's put it all in one big piechart all retail spending.

(06:41):
What percentage of that isonline?

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
I would venture to say it's under 50%, but trending
upwards it's under 50.
It's under 25.
It's under 20.
It's about 17, 18% right now.
So, stated clearly less than20%, far less than 20% of retail
spending in the United Statesis e-commerce.
People have the impression thatit's already taken over.
They see Amazon truckseverywhere.
They think everybody's shoppingonline for everything.

(07:12):
Nope, you're wrong.
The game has barely started.
We are in the early pioneerstage.
If this was the settlement ofthe United States, we've just
started sending wagons west.
Right, the game hasn't evenstarted yet.
We're in the early stagesbecause the projections this is
US government data, Google it.

(07:33):
Ask any AI, it'll tell you theprojections are 20, 25, 30, 35
in our lifetimes.
It's going to double in thenext decade, plus.
It's going to double in thenext decade, plus.
The game has only begun.
So anyone who's out there, it'ssaturated.
It's not like it used to be.
Ignore those voices.
The blue ocean is expandingrapidly, getting deeper, whiter,

(07:56):
bluer, more welcoming everysingle day.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
I really appreciate that optimism.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
And, to be frank, we need more of that right now.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
I fully agree with you.
I was talking to somebody lastnight about e-commerce and I
said, if it's a baseball game,we're probably in the third
inning and based.
Call it optimism.
I call it realistic, realistic,a realistic vantage point.
I could pour some optimism onthere, if you want.
I'm just talking facts and data, which is a very optimistic
outlook.
It's the fastest growingeconomic sector in the United
States.
So for people that are new toe-commerce, or for our listeners
that are thinking aboutstarting an e-commerce business,
I think there's a couplequestions that they need to
answer.
One is what am I going to sell?
Yep.
And two, where am I going tosell it?

(08:58):
Yep.
And so let's start with thefirst what am I going to sell?
Are there any?
You know you talked about alarge community of sellers that
are supporting each other.
Are there any productcharacteristics maybe it's price
point, maybe it's size that youfeel like there's very good

(09:19):
opportunity in?

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, let me adjust your question just a little bit.
So we ask what I think is aslightly better version of what
you're asking right now.
Okay, because our team set outabout 12 years ago and we've
been committed to finding whatwe call the low, low, high
business model of e-commerce.
Because there's a thousand waysthat you can use the internet,

(09:43):
right, I mean, you don't have tolook far, go to Google and say
I want to make money online andyou're going to find it just
scams and clowns and dark holesthat you can fall down
everywhere.
Right, but we set out to saylet's have the highest level of
integrity, let's prove that weknow what we're talking about by
doing it ourself, firstteaching it to a bunch of
students, proving the conceptswork, and then we're going to

(10:04):
teach others and let's find thebiggest blue ocean of
opportunity that we can find,where others can come in and
legitimately build and we canhave a community around an
unlimited platform ofopportunity.
Right, that's what we do.
So what is that opportunity?
It's not so much what am Igoing to sell, or it's not so
much which price point, it's.

(10:25):
Where is that opportunity?
We call it the low, low, highopportunity.
Low risk, low investment, lowlearning curve, highest odds of
success.
You could look at everybusiness opportunity and put
them somewhere on that scale.
But what is the lowest risk,lowest investment required,
lowest learning curve, highestodds of success, business model

(10:47):
that we've been able to identify?
Of the literal, literallyhundreds.
I've tried dozens and dozensmyself.
Again, most fail.
But what is that?
Low, low high.
The low, low high is simplystated as possible.
Filling the underserved shelfspace, simply stated as possible
.
Filling the underserved shelfspace in Amazon's massive 200

(11:09):
plus warehouse network witheveryday, common, easily sourced
items, helping meet theconvenience needs of shoppers
who aren't price sensitive.
They are speed sensitive.
That opportunity is massive.
The risk to enter the game isnegligible.

(11:30):
The cost to get the tools youneed we're talking, you know, a
few hundred bucks.
You're good to go.
A few more hundred dollars forinventory.
Welcome to the game.
Let's go, Scale at your ownpace.
Right now.
I'm fond of saying this is thecleanest way for me to kind of
to sum up the opportunity in asingle statement.
And then we can go whereveryou'd like to go, but right now,

(11:52):
today, millions of shopperswill go to Amazon, which gets
half of all transactions everyday in the United States online.
By the way, you add up the next10 competitors and they don't
add up to what Amazon does everyday.
Okay, so millions of shoppersare going to go to Amazon today
and they're going to pay farless than they were willing to

(12:13):
for product that will arrivelater than they wish they could
get it, and we've gotoverwhelming evidence that I
could get into that demonstratesthat.
Right now, there are millionsof easily sourced products being
sold on Amazon that areunderstocked popular products
that are understocked orcompletely unstocked currently

(12:36):
in Amazon's massive warehousenetwork.
That is the low, low, highbusiness opportunity of our time
and easily the lowest barrierto entry opportunity that's
available to all of us ine-commerce.
And that's what we teach, andwe've got hundreds and hundreds
of that's.
My podcast is hundreds ofinterviews with students who are
doing it At some cases,seven-figure businesses.

(12:59):
In some cases, they started afew months ago and they're
celebrating their first $10,000a month, for example.
That's what we do and it'sreselling.
It's Amazon reselling.
That's the entry gate intohundreds of other opportunities,
but it's the low, low, high.
So is that okay that I kind ofI tweaked your question a little

(13:19):
bit.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yes, absolutely, and that was a better way to phrase
my question.
And so when you're talkingabout reselling, this would be
in contrast to say, a privatelabel brand, correct, exactly?

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, everything on Amazon is either a brand you own
, if you sell it, or it's abrand someone else owns and
you're selling it.
Everything and the vastmajority of the sellers and the
transactions are people sellingstuff that they don his
invitation.
I had a lunch with him and hesaid thank you for helping teach
resellers how to fill ourshelves better than we ever

(14:04):
could ourselves.
Right, amazon needs players inthat role For the millions of
transactions daily on 1.4billion products in a catalog
that's growing rapidly.
It would take us 32 years tolook at each of those products
for one second each 32 years,and that catalog is growing

(14:25):
rapidly, right?
So Amazon can't do thatthemselves.
They need resellers to do that.
That's the game that we'regetting better and better, and I
believe we're leading theindustry and informing people on
how to play that game well withthe lowest risk, lowest parity
entry, highest odds of success.
Business model.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Very nice.
I really like that and I wantto dig deeper on that.
So, amazon, I really let meback up here.
You had mentioned that Amazonaccounts for half of the
transactions Approximately, andso that does seem like a logical
place to start.
Now Amazon has changed, and Ihave personally been selling on

(15:08):
the platform for nine years andhave seen a lot of trends that
have come and gone, a lot oftricks or tactics that have come
and gone, a lot of tricks ortactics that have come and gone,
but there are some strategiesthat have withstood the test of
time.
And so if we talk about just agood Amazon business hygiene

(15:30):
right, what does that look like?
What is somebody who's totallyon top of things, a tier one
operator of Amazon of sorts?

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Well, let's talk about the reselling side,
specifically because you own abrand and there's a different
set of hygiene and ideas there.
Let's talk on the reseller.
I'm selling stuff that I'm notthe brand owner.
It's other people's brands,hundreds of thousands of brands
that I'm eligible to sell.
What's a good hygiene there?
Well, the good news is I made apodcast episode not too long

(16:00):
ago talking about this.
I found five or six reasons whyyou're better off starting now,
past six months or so, andgoing into the next year or so
now, than, arguably, at anypoint in time.
All the way back to COVIDBecause the question you just
asked it's gotten easier to havegood hygiene.

(16:23):
I call it the policy and theenforcement bubbles.
Most people just assume policyand enforcement go together.
Not true with Amazon.
Until recently, policy was overhere, this gray drifting bubble
, and enforcement was over here,this gray drifting bubble.
And enforcement was over here,this gray drifting, confusing
bubble, and sometimes they wouldbump into each other and

(16:44):
overlap and make sense, and mostof the time they were two
completely separate worlds.
In many, many regards.
Amazon's been working reallyhard to bring those into one
circle.
Here's our policies, here's ourconsistent enforcement of those
policies, here's the clarity onthose policies.
So now it's a lot harder to saywell, I saw a bunch of other
people getting away with it, soI did it too, and now we're all

(17:08):
in trouble.
You're not seeing as much ofthat.
You're seeing a lot less ofthat because the policies
haven't really changed a wholelot.
They've gotten a little clearerand the enforcement has gotten
more consistent.
So hygiene has become fareasier now than it used to be.
And I could I mean I couldbrainstorm off 12, 15 examples.
I'm not going to go into it butthere's so many ways where

(17:29):
Amazon has gotten so muchclearer on what their policy is
and they've gotten so much moreconsistent on enforcing it.
So now you kind of have anadvantage.
You're not.
You're not risking gettingpunished retroactively for
something you did a year and ahalf ago on a product you
shouldn't have been selling, anace in the hop on.
Amazon has been known to dothat to sellers.
That's never going to happen toyou.

(17:51):
If you get good education andtraining and you're taught where
the guardrails are, which havenever been higher and clearly
more clearly marked, taughtwhere the guardrails are, which
have never been higher andclearly more clearly marked,
you're good to go right.
You do need to now.
You can still absolutely makeserious mistakes.
You need to know the rules.
You need what you really needas a good mentor or instruction
to make sure that you stay inthe guardrails, cause there's a
lot of garbage content out therestuffed on YouTube.

(18:13):
You know well, just go buy apallet from wherever and throw
it on there and, you know, makea bunch of money.
No, you're violating so many, somany policies.
You're hopping on bad ASINs.
You're selling inventory thatcan't be.
There's no chain of authorizedcustody of that inventory.
You got to know these things.
You got to source from anauthorized retailer or website.

(18:36):
Right, you got to know what agood receipt is versus a bad
receipt, a good invoice versus abad invoice.
You need to know these things.
They're not complicated, butyou need to know.
But if you know, the guardrailsare there and clearly marked
and you're going to do great.
So hygiene involves making sureyou're following the rules and
you understand them, and that'snever been easier.

(18:56):
That's the short answer.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Okay, no, that's really helpful.
And what you're saying aboutthe policy and enforcement,
those two concentric circlescoming closer together I have
witnessed that certainly, and Ilook at you know five years ago
was kind of the wild wild west,where those circles were not

(19:19):
concentric, they were atopposite sides of the page
sometimes and it left sellerssometimes in a tough spot, with
the best of intentions but withthe red flag on their account.
And so one thing I talk a lotabout private label on here
because that's what I haveexperience with, but we haven't

(19:39):
had a ton of reseller guests on,and so I'd like to go a little
bit deeper here.
Let's do it.
Where are you sourcing product?
Is this typically domesticsourcing?
Is this?
Are you starting on Alibaba?
What does that look like?

Speaker 3 (20:00):
I love it.
No, never Alibaba.
We've got a list of the mostcommon mistakes that newbies
make when they get into thereselling arena, and one of them
is sourcing anything fromoutside the United States.
Don't do it.
You're crazy, you're blowing upyour future.
You're destroying thepossibilities of having a viable
business on Amazon.
Don't do it.

(20:21):
Don't import anything.
It's not necessary.
Where are we sourcing?
Every major retail in theUnited States, every authorized
website, distributors,wholesalers as long as the brand
you are selling recognizes thesource you are buying from as
part of their authorized channel, you're 100% good to go 100% of

(20:45):
the time, as long as you keepyour receipt or invoice, with no
exceptions.
Where the confusion comes in iswhere people buy very authentic
looking, very authentic lookingproduct from a liquidator in a
pallet.
You know, billy Bob's palletsare us down the street.

(21:05):
A cousin opened up this thingand he's buying liquidations and
returns and he's putting themon pallets and selling them to
sellers and like surely this isgood product.
I mean, look at it, it's in a.
It's still in the shrink wrap.
It looks great, it's perfect.
I'm going to send that in.
I've got my invoice right here.
Amazon said I need an invoice,right, okay.
So I got my invoice.
No, you've violated policy,because what Amazon's going to

(21:27):
do if someone accuses yourproduct of being inauthentic is
they're going to call the brandand they're going to say to the
brand that you just sold andthey're going to say to the
brand that you just sold heybrand.
We got a seller here who boughtsome inventory from they look
at the invoice Billy Bob'sPalette Palace, are they part of
your authorized channel?

(21:48):
And the brand is going to goBilly Bob, what?
No, they're not part of ourauthorized channel.
And Amazon is going to comeback to you with very bad news,
say hey, seller, sorry, youcan't prove beyond the shadow of
a doubt that your product is100% authentic.
Therefore, we have to assumethe possibility that it's
counterfeit, which means you'reselling, you're breaking our

(22:13):
counterfeit policy, like no, no,I didn't order from Alibaba, I
didn't order from China.
Hey, this is legitimateinventory.
That doesn't matter, you can'tprove it.
It's that simple.
Ask the brand, the magic threewords that protect you from ever
violating Amazon's authenticproduct policies.
And yet there seems to be somuch confusion on this.

(22:34):
But it's not confusing at all.
Every brand on every shelf andevery Walmart store in the
United States is authorizedinventory.
Walmart is authorized to sellevery brand it sells.
If you take a Walmart receiptas proof to Amazon and say, yep,
I bought it from Walmart I lookWalmart up the road here or

(22:55):
walmartcom I bought it fromWalmart itself on Walmartcom.
I didn't buy it from a thirdparty seller on Walmartcom
because I don't know the chainof custody for that product.
But I do know the chain ofcustody if Walmart is selling it
itself.
Here's the invoice, here's thereceipt 100% safe, 100% of the
time, zero exceptions.

(23:15):
With thousands of students inour community doing this for 14
years, I'm aware of zeroexceptions to what I just said.
I also know many, many caseswhere people think that they
were within policy and theyweren't.
And the point where theirargument falls apart is when we
say well, did you ask the brandif that website or retailer or

(23:38):
wholesaler even there's a lot offake wholesalers out there just
because someone says they're awholesaler, they've all gone out
of business now.
But I was waving a big red flagand shouting with a bullhorn
about the guys that were sayingwe buy in bulk for Amazon
sellers.
Nope, time out If the invoicesays Billy Bob's bulk purchases

(23:58):
and that's where you bought yourstuff.
They are not an authorizeddistributor, wholesaler,
retailer or website for Amazonproducts.
Therefore, you can't prove thatyou're not selling counterfeit.
Therefore, amazon's going toboot you people screaming in the
Reddit forums and on Amazon'sdiscussion forums.
I had an invoice.
It's legitimate inventory.

(24:19):
Did you buy it from anauthorized source that's
recognized by the brand?
That's the question.
Not was it authentic product.
Did you buy it from a sourcethat is authorized by the brand?
If not, you might as well havebought it from China and bought,
you know, cases of Nikes for adollar each.

(24:41):
You might as well have donethat, because Amazon can't prove
that that's not what you did,so they have to assume that that
might've been what you did.
Therefore, you violate theircounterfeit policies or
authorized inventory policies.
Does that help clear it up?

Speaker 2 (25:06):
It's really not a complicated thing, but people
make it out to be this huge,confusing thing working with.
Is a clean conscience, is acomfortable pillow, right If
you're following the rules.
Should your account get redflagged, you've got nothing to
worry about, and so I thinkunderstanding the rules and then

(25:29):
playing within those rules isthe best way to build a
long-term sustainable business.
And so now on as a reseller, isPPC, pay-per-click advertising.
Is that a component of Notreally.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
Man, that sounds nice , no what we do is we run nickel
ads just to give our you know,when we have the buy box.
We get a little more exposurethat way and it's it's money
worth spending.
You know, spend two or 300bucks a month to get an extra
eight to $10,000 in sales, yeah,all right, it's worth doing.
But yeah, paid ads.
I mean you set up, you know,nickel ads or 7 cents or

(26:09):
whatever on your entire catalogand add all your new ASINs into
it constantly.
That's really as bad ascomplicated as it gets being a
reseller and using paid ads.
Amazon does the heavy lifting,because where the skill is is in
finding the underserved shelfspace.
Remember that term from mydescription earlier.
So you're hopping on productsthat it's already selling.

(26:30):
Really well, there couldalready be 5, 10, 15.
One ASIN that one of our sellershopped on had 200 sellers
already on it and he sold 2,400units in just a few days over
the course of about three weeks.
Actually, 2,400 units in threeweeks with 200 sellers already
on it, and that's not the bestpart.

(26:52):
He was the highest pricedseller and that sounds crazy.
Until you understand the restof the story, you want to take a
stab at how he pulled that off?
Do you have any idea?
But you don't have a clue.
As a private label guy, youprobably have no clue how that
happened and it sounds like I'mmaking it up, but this is a guy
that my son hangs out with.
My son was actually in hiswedding about a month and a half

(27:15):
ago.
This is a guy I know very well.
We attend church with him.
He's a student who hopped intoour community, took what we
teach seriously, ran with it.
So with 200 other sellers itwas a lower priced product.
Almost all of them weremerchant fulfilled sellers on
that product, meaning they'reshipping it from their own
garage.
How long does it take you toget a product if it's a merchant

(27:39):
fulfilled product Typically?

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Probably three to five days, three to five.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, exactly how long does it take you to get a
product?
If you live in a reasonablesized city and you've got a
warehouse near you that has thatproduct on the shelf, how long
does it take you?

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, one, maybe two days.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
As quickly as 20 minutes in some cases.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
Right, looking for this very popular product that's
flying off the shelves from,like you know, 20,000 sales a
month or something just likeridiculously popular 200 people
selling it.
They're all fighting for theprecious buy box at this low
price point.
He hopped on as the highestprice as one of only a few

(28:18):
sellers with FBA inventory.
Amazon received that inventory,spread it out to their
underserved shelf space andtheir massive warehouse network
and suddenly shoppers had anoption Wait three to five days
and get it for $8 or $9, or pay$17 now.

(28:41):
Or pay $17 and get it now, like20 minutes from now or later
today, right?
A whole lot of people said youknow what, just like DoorDash,
I'd rather eat now than save $8and eat tomorrow.
Or I'd rather eat now and havesomeone deliver it versus get in

(29:02):
the car, go to a restaurant,wait 45 minutes, right, the
convenience and speed people arewilling to pay for it.
That's the underserved shelfspace and there are millions of
ASINs where that's true.
That's what we teach people howto recognize and capitalize on.
So, even if there's a wholebunch of other people already
selling the product, even ifthere's a whole bunch of people

(29:24):
fighting over the buy box, wedon't get obsessed over buy box.
We teach people to completelyignore the buy box and I could
get into why if you want to, butI do.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Yeah, okay, here's why you ignore the buy box.
I don't care what softwareyou're using, what tool you're
using.
Try this yourself.
Change your zip code as ashopper, as a customer on Amazon
and watch how that buy box iswildly different on virtually
all products.
Pretend you're shopping in LAit's $20 there, say Mason.

(29:57):
Now.
Shop from Miami it's $24 there.
That's the buy box.
Now shop in Chicago it's $27 inChicago.
That's the buy box.
Now.
Shop in Chicago.
It's $27 in Chicago.
Right now, for the same product,the buy box is different in
multiple zip codes.
Why is that?
Because Amazon is suggestingthe product that they think you

(30:17):
might be most interested in asthe shopper, based on where you
live and what's in the warehousenearest you, and the speed and
the price is factored in.
Now sometimes you'll see oneseller dominating the buy box
across the entire United States,but it's not frequent.
Typically it's multiple sellers.
So when people say I got to findsomething that's priced

(30:38):
profitably in the buy box,you're leaving out so much data.
You're saying, hey, whatevertool you happen to be using at
the time, whatever random zipcode it chose to look at for the
buy box, you're going to baseall your inventory purchase
decisions on that one random zipcode for that one random point
in time.
No, that's ridiculous.

(30:59):
You want to look at howunderserved is that product, how
widely distributed is that buybox across multiple zip codes?
And that sounds like it may becomplicated.
It's not.
I can look at any ASIN forabout 20 seconds max and tell
you if I want to hop on thatthing or not, and I can teach
other people to do it too.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Okay, that makes sense.
What you're talking about isthe zip code and the
distribution across all of thedifferent warehouses.
And so I would next like todive into the economics of a
sale, and I have an exercisethat I do when I'm launching a

(31:40):
product.
I call it fail on paper, andthis has come from a bunch of
product launches that were niceproducts but there just wasn't
profit margin there.
At the end of the day, therewas not enough meat on the bone
to make money on it, and so whatI do is I will look at my
landed costs, which is my unitcost to the supplier plus
shipping, whatever it takes toget it into Amazon warehouses,

(32:03):
and I'll multiply that by four.
And when I'm looking at theaverage sale prices of
competitors, if I'm in thatneighborhood now, I'll make
money on it.
So if I have a land, it costs$10.
If I can sell it for 40, I'llbe in the money.
And this again is on theprivate label side of things.
Right, 15% of my revenue isgoing to ads on a healthy

(32:25):
account, and so when you'relooking at okay, here's an
opportunity, I need to go see ifI can source the product.
Are there any rules of thumbthat?

Speaker 3 (32:36):
you're using.
I don't have that ad expense.
Two to three X is what I'd lookat.
Here's my landed cost, which isbasically, you know,

(33:06):
no-transcript.
And they're not winning theprice wars.
They're finding underservedshelf space, to be clear.
But we have a 2 to 3xmultiplier, or you have a 4x.
We have a 2 to 3x.
I'm paying $10 for it.
It better be selling for atleast $25 or so bucks for it.
It better be selling for atleast 25 bucks or so as a

(33:27):
general rule for me to get tooexcited, because by the time
Amazon keeps their fees and youknow all the other things that
go into it.
You got weight as a factor, etcetera.
Right, there's no flat, hardrules, but you know if, if I can
buy it for 10 and I think I'mgoing to sell it for 12, yeah,
there's, there's nothing there,dude, right?
Um, which is where a lot ofpeople get frustrated early on
is they'll go to their localWalmart store.

(33:49):
I use Walmart as an examplebecause actually you could build
a great business just sourcingretail arbitrage from the
Walmart closest to your houseand never setting foot in
another retail store.
You could put $100,000 in thebank net profit just sourcing
from your local Walmart.
I'm 100% convinced of that.

(34:10):
We see it all the time.
Right, but people will getfrustrated early on because
they'll go to Walmart andthey'll pick up a bag of
marshmallows and like, okay,this is selling for $4.
What's it selling for on AmazonSelling for $4 there too?
Oh, there's nothing there, andthey'll move on.
They get frustrated.
Nothing there and they'll moveon.
They get frustrated.
They think the game is findingthe right products.
The game isn't finding theright products.
The game is finding theunderserved shelf space.

(34:31):
If that bag of marshmallows isselling 3000 times a month and
sure someone has the buy boxright now for $4.
Maybe it's Amazon, but Amazon'srunning out constantly.
You can look at a keep a graphand see like Amazon doesn't have
that thing in stock, but maybe,you know, five or 10 days out
of the month they're running out.
It's such a popular product theycan't keep it on the shelf.
You don't have to sell it forfour bucks, you can sell it for

(34:53):
16.
So it's not the product, it'sthe underserved shelf space that
you're looking for.
It's the ASINs that aren'tbeing served adequately by
Amazon and the other sellers whoare trying to serve 1.4 billion
ASINs and a whole bunch of themare over-served.
You don't want to do that, buta whole bunch of them are also

(35:16):
under-served.
That's where the opportunity is.
So it's not the product, it'sis it adequately stocked?
And then when you do the maththere, you know if I can buy
this product for four bucks, Ibetter be able to sell it for
you know, 12 or so, before I gettoo excited, maybe I'll sell it
for more than that.
So the ROIs that we see, youknow 40% is kind of a minimum.

(35:39):
We see a lot of 100% ROI.
You see a lot of, you know, atscale.
Let's say someone has amultiple seven figure reselling
business, their net marginscould creep down into the 10 to
12%.
On the low end, you see a lotof the newer people who are
doing all the work themselveswith 30, 35% net margins on the

(35:59):
reselling business, and it justopens up the possibility.
Then the way we teach it isuntil you can resell, don't try
to private label.
There's just too many movingparts.
Let's get you some confidence,let's get you familiar with the
platform.
Let's maybe find, explore somegaps and find some brands like
wow, there's not enough productsin this category.
I think there's someopportunity here, or maybe even

(36:21):
build an exclusive relationshipwith one of those brands.
Introduce a new product intotheir catalog.
Build an exclusive relationshipwith one of those brands.
Introduce a new product intotheir catalog.
They've already got the movingparts to do that.
Could I rebrand white label oneof your products and I think
with the right keywords we couldkill it.
They've already got thetrademark, they've already got
the legal stuff lined up.
They've already got thesuppliers.
Just hop on their brand, borrowit, take a cut as a consultant

(36:45):
right on their brand.
We see that kind of creativerelationships spring out of
being an effective reseller.
Where you're not there on anisland on your own trying to
launch a brand and figure outall the moving pieces.
You've got some marketplacecredibility and momentum already
built up.
So we love reselling as thatlow, low, high introduction into
e-commerce and Amazon selling.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Outstanding, outstanding.
Jim, I think I could sit hereall day and ask you questions
about this.
This has been a really, reallyhelpful interview.
Before we get to the fire round, I do want to talk about your
course and the community thatyou've built.
Can you share a little bitabout that?

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah, I think if people want to hear more
information along these lines.
We're very proud of a couple ofthings.
One is, to my knowledge, we'rethe longest running e-commerce
coaching organization in theworld.
We've been doing e-commercecoaching for coming up on 24
years with the same coachingdirector under my name,
thousands of students.
So we're easy to Google, we'reeasy to do your research.

(37:45):
Here's what I'll say, ratherthan here's how to find me.
You know silentgymcom.
It's on the screen.
It's a little fuzzy.
I probably should have cleanedmy lens.
I don't know if you see that ornot, but silentgymcom.
Go there.
But here's what I want you tolook for Before you invest in
any opportunity of any kind ine-commerce or otherwise.
Find a community of people whoare doing it and doing it

(38:08):
successfully.
So here's the litmus test Igive everyone when they're doing
research about businessopportunities online.
I say go to the person who isat the head of the organization,
send them a message, send theman email, send the leaders of
that community, send whoever'strying to sell you a course a
message and say the message issimple.
It says hey, where can I go tohang out with others who are

(38:28):
doing this already successfully?
I want to spend some time withthem.
I want to get to know them.
I want to hear the realities ofthis business.
I want to hear the pain points.
Where do they struggle?
I want to see some successstories.
I don't just want to see littletestimonials on a website.
I want to meet those people.
I'm going to interact, I'mgoing to Facebook message them.
Most.
I would say when I say most,I'm not exaggerating 95% of the

(38:48):
time you're not going to get ananswer that you like to that
question.
Well, not until you join.
Our community is about as goodas it's going to get for most of
them.
For us completely free Facebookgroup, 100% transparency.
All of our coaching studentsand all the people who just
found us yesterday, all mixedinto one big happy group.
Multiple seven-figure sellers,people who just started last
week all in one big happyFacebook group.

(39:10):
Complete transparency, talkingabout it all day, every day.
The pain points, the struggles,the triumphs, the challenges,
everything that's what we offer.
Silentgymcom is where you cango join that Facebook group.
Listen to a few of our thousandthousand plus podcast episodes,
most of which are interviewswith our successful students.
The course is the Proven Amazoncourse.

(39:32):
About a hundred of us havecontributed to that content
library.
$39 a month gets you our entirecontent library.
And the last thing I'll say onthat I don't want to talk all
day about it, but we have aphilosophy of just-in-time
education instead ofjust-in-case education.
Just-in-case is what we allgrew up with, going through

(39:54):
grade school and high school andcollege.
I'm going to teach you how to.
The example I always use isdissect an isosceles triangle,
just in case you decide to buildbridges someday, like, okay,
all right, that's great.
I'm not anti-math, but that'sone philosophy of educating is
let's just fill your head with awhole bunch of random stuff,
just in case you need it someday.
Cool, get on Jeopardy and hopeyou win some money with that

(40:18):
model.
What I'm fond of is here's whereI'm at right now.
Here's where I'm trying to go.
What are the baby steps inbetween?
Here's what you need right now,just in time.
What do we need now to make thenext few steps?
That's what we give you.
That's what that library is, soit's something for everyone.
But you don't absorb the wholething before you start.
You absorb a little, you takeaction, take the next few steps,

(40:41):
a few more doors open.
You get what you need to gothrough the next doors that make
the most sense for you.
So it's a just-in-case learningplatform, or, excuse me, a
just-in-time learning platform.
Provenamazoncoursecom is ourflagship.
Like I said, $39 a month.
We're getting ready to jack theprice up at some point because
it's ridiculously low.
It's not taken as seriously asit should be.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
But all of our free stuff and that course at
silentgymcom Outstanding andwe'll post links to all of that
in the show notes.
Sure, thank you, jim.
We've got four questions.
We ask everybody at the end ofthe episode.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
We call it the fire round.
Are you ready?
It says let's do the readies,I'll be.
I'm going to get a little sipof water, let's go.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
All right, what is your favorite book?

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Outside of the Bible itself, which has twice as much
to say about money and businessas it does love and prayer
combined.
So entrepreneurs are crazy toignore it.
There's a book called businesssecrets from the bible by rabbi
daniel lapin.
Now, he's a jewish, I'm achristian.
You know he's orthodox jewishrabbi.
We're great buddies so I'vebecome friends with them over
the years.
This guy advises people likeDave Ramsey.
He's advised presidents.
Now that I've said his name,you're going to hear his name

(41:49):
around.
He's a really cool dude.
But his book that breaks downbusiness principles and I know
you asked rapid fire, but I wantto sell the book a little bit.
It's unlike anything you'veever read.
It's not common sense, it's notbe honest.
Right, it's strategies formaking more money based on
biblical principles.
Powerful book.
It'll change your life.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
I like that.
I'm going to add that to myreading list.
What are your hobbies?

Speaker 3 (42:27):
needle walker, so I played last night.
Yeah, I'm in my mid fifties andI get up and down the court
with 20 somethings.
Man, I just think I love thegame and, yeah, that's probably
my strongest hobby.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Very nice.
What is one thing you do notmiss about working for the man?
The alarm clock Agree.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Haven't had an alarm clock in over two decades and do
not miss it.
And you know certain occasionsyou have to have.
When I'm speaking at an event,I have to be up by 9 am to
present or whatever.
Like hey, I better set thealarm.
But no, I don't miss it.
Very nice and last question whatdo you think sets apart

(43:05):
successful entrepreneurs fromthose who give up, fail or never
get started?
Great question.
I was asked that on a radiointerview I think it's out of
Phoenix, which I don't do manyof those but they just called me
and said hey, I want to talk toyou, and I've given the same
answer every time it's come upsince and it's a surprising
answer.
I doubt you've ever heard thisfrom anyone else, but I think
it's spot on man.
It's relationships,relationships.

(43:25):
People who intentionally focuson expanding the network of
relationships tend to succeed,people who don't tend to fail.
That's it To the point where Icould pinpoint your odds of
success.
If I just say what's your planto expand your network of
relationships in your niche,you're like, well, I don't

(43:45):
really have a plan.
Like you don't have a plan,then, dude, I don't care what
kind of training, teachingstrategy, if you're not
expanding your network ofrelationships constantly, you're
going to fail.
If you are expanding yournetwork of relationships
constantly and you're a littleincompetent, you're not quite
playing by the right rules.
You're skipping some cornershere and there.
You're not quite playing by theright rules.

(44:11):
You're skipping some cornershere and there.
You're not very motivated.
You are so far ahead ofeveryone else because the
relationship network is going tobe such a great support for you
.
The people who know, like andtrust you.
Relationships, man, that's,that is the path forward, no
matter what the strategy is.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
I like it.
I like it and I have asked thisquestion 284 times and I have
not heard that answer.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
but I do think that's an outstanding answer answer
and be there for you.

(44:47):
How big is that list?
I don't care what names are onit.
How big is that list?
By the time you're in yourmidlife?
It should be hundreds andhundreds and hundreds, if not
thousands, of names, and if it'sfive or six names, your odds of
success are abysmal in anyarena.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
I like it.
I like it.
Well, this has been anoutstanding interview, jim,
thank you so much for your timetoday and to our listeners, I
will post links to Jim's website, his podcast, his Facebook
group and definitely go checkthose out.
And, jim, thank you so much.
We'll talk to you later.
Thank you, dave, it was apleasure.
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