The Top 3 Things I Learned at the 2nd ACE Conference

Contents

The top 3 things I learned at ACE.
  1. What’s your why?
  2. Figure out what you’re good at
  3. “Do only what you can do and outsource the rest”

Continue reading for my review of ACE and more extensive notes.

I decided to go to ASD this year because my Amazon business wasn’t doing that great. I had done $60k revenue my first year but that wasn’t cutting it for me. I wanted to do at least $10k months and I saw that a lot of Amazon heavy hitters were at ASD.

The first ASD event I went to was a free sweet get together that was hosted by EPS the Saturday before the show started. At EPS, I had the pleasure of meeting Bob and Rhonda Steele. Bob told me about the ACE (Amazon Consulting Experts) Conference hosted by Sam E. Cohen. I asked Bob about ACE and he highly recommended it.

I heard that the first ACE conference was actually free. Why? Because Sam E. Cohen is an Amazon seller with $20 million revenue and he’s just an incredibly, generous person. That was clear at ACE’s second conference where $99 got you a seat in a packed, probably sold-out room, at one of the prettiest places in New Jersey.

At ASD, I paid $15 for 8 pieces of sushi. At ACE, I got to listen to almost 17 leaders in the Amazon industry, got free breakfast, lunch, and dinner (including free sushi), and an open bar. There were free drinks (water, coffee, tea, juice), candy, and snacks. I was lucky enough to meet Bob and Rhonda again and to sit at the same table as them! If that wasn’t enough, Chris Green came with a boxes of his book Online Arbitrage (worth $100) and #AskGaryVee’s book. A lot of happy attendees were able to grab copies. And.. to end the night, Sam and his team gave away a $5000 membership to ACE, a $2500 gold membership to ACE, duffel bags, and a bunch of other goodies! I am pretty jealous of all the raffle winners. 😉

So if you wonder if ACE is worth attending.. I think it is and I traveled 4 hours to get there from New York City (subway, train, uber). I would do it again in a heartbeat and you’ll probably see me next year if you go. Thank you Sam and your great team for hosting such a great event!

I. Chris Green – “Execute Yourself”

Figure out what you’re good at. Is it selling? Creating? Supporting others? What are your true strengths- what do you enjoy doing? 

  • Help lots of people with 0 expectations and good things will happen.
  • Keep global on your mind
  • Fail fast, fail cheap
  • Know yourself and know your options
  • Don’t sell the unsellable
  1. SELL – Amazon Fulfillment services
  2. CREATE
    1. Createspace
      1. Createspace royalties are NON-REFUNDABLE
    2. Kindle (KDP)
    3. Merch by Amazon
    4. Amazon Custom
    5. Handmade by Amazon
    6. Amazon Video Direct
    7. Comixology (print on demand comic books)
  3. SUPPORT – Understand Amazon and HELP the sellers & creators
    1. I hear 5 people have this same problem. There’s your business. You have 5 clients.
  4. AMS – Amazon Marketing Services – ams.amazon.com
    1. A huge, new, and BETTER Sponsored Products
    2. Chris Green’s brand page.. I can’t find the link but it looked awesome!
    3. Sign up today!!!
    4. If you get a call from a 206 area code, that’s Seattle, and Amazon is calling you.
    5. You can have OFFSITE links on your brand pages
  5. Amazon Giveaway – amazon.com/giveaway
    1. Might be the new review system and a good way to get verified reviews
    2. Set up a giveaway where the 50,000th Twitter follower wins something
    3. Someone did a giveaway, gave away a t-shirt, and gained 700 Twitter followers
  6. Whispercast – Kindle subscription
    1. One click signup to create a group or join a group. Once they join, they’re on the list and you can send them pdf content straight to their kindle.
  7. m.me/chris – Facebook’s new bot link service is great. You can set up bots on Facebook Pages. Bots can instant reply with wait for it.. A FUNNEL.
    1. Check Chris’ link to see FB messenger bots in action and get an Amazon Merch quick start guide.
II. Stephen Peterson – “Know Yourself, Know Success”

Figure out what you’re good at. Are you a Data Investigator, Strong Negotiator, Operations Manager, Noticer, Big Thinker, or a Visionary?

  • Pricechecker 2, great software for wholesale
  • Bundling is on the rise (check out this new article from
  • Amazon sellers are diversifying to other platforms (Ebay, Jet, Walmart)
  • If you have 3 people say the same thing, that’s a business.
  • Find a partner that meets your shortcomings
  1. Data Investigators – They really know their data
    1. Bob Steele – EPS – EXPERT
    2. Alex Moss – Founder of Tactical Arbitrage
    3. Quincy Lin (?)
    4. Rea (?)
    5. Diang Lee (?)
  2. Strong Negotiators – They negotiate deals that no one else can get
    1. Eddie Levine – Builds long term relationships, solves problems, brings value
    2. Wholesale Guys – Negotiates their own shipping
    3. Young Guns (?) – Matt & Tod developed relationships that nobody else could touch because they’ve been working on THAT deal not yesterday, last week, but for months
  3. Operations Manager – They know how to scale
    1. Jason Clark – Trade show guy based in Las Vegas that did $1M+ sales this year. Sets goals, process, operations.
    2. Chris Lin (?) – 10,000 skus ebay
    3. Nathan Slamans – Andy Slaman’s nephew and secret brain of operations
  4. Noticers – They don’t miss anything
    1. Liran Hirshkorn – Stephen will be like hey did you see this new thing? Liran will be like, I saw that 2 weeks ago.
    2. Chris Green
    3. Lori Barzvi – PL/IP pro, invented her own product in the shower of all places
    4. Andy Slamans – $3.5M on PL.
      1. If you have 3 people say the same thing, that’s a business.
      2. Andy’s very talented because he NOTICES talent and he GROWS his business by NURTURING talent that he personally lacks- partnered with Nathan and Liran creating the killer Slamans Amazing Freedom trifecta.
  5. Big Thinkers – They look for problems that will arrive and find solutions
    1. Will (?) – $10M sales, brings brands to Amazon
    2. Brett Barnett (?)
    3. Sam Cohen – always has backup plan B, C, D, E
    4. Gregg (?)
  6. Visionaries
    1. John Lawson
    2. Randy Reynolds – stocks seasonal inventory using a portfolio approach (??)
    3. Ryan Grant – Bought a PL business from Empire Flippers
    4. Jeff Cohen – Sellerlabs, makes Scope and FeedbackGenius
    5. Dallas Moore (?) – Does some PL, figures it out?
III. Joy Packard – “What is Your Why? You Don’t Have to Be a One-Man Band. Outsource to Grow”

She has 8 kids, soon to have 8 grandchildren, and she does things like make $100k in mugs.. She’s a WONDER WOMAN. How? She outsources. Has a team of VAs that have been working with her for over 5 years. Some of her VAs make more than doctors do in the Philippines. 

  • Replace myself for $250-400/month, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week w/ VAs
  • Sites to get VAs:
  • Has 5 FT VAs that have worked with her for 5 years
  • Jim Cockrum, “Do only what you can do and outsource the rest”
  • Online Arbitrage VA Outsourcing
    • VA sends Joy 5-10 potential products at the end of the day. Joy picks what she wants to buy
  • Wholesale VA Outsourcing
    • VA tries to add a few accounts weekly
    • VAs send weekly list of possible accounts
  • Attend trade shows and build relationships
  • Learn how to do co-op deals and create wholesale offers to others. Joy is in 3-4 whatsapp groups where they share deals.
    • For example, joy might be able to get a toy for $5. She sends it to the group and offers the deal at $8. Joy makes $3 per every unit that her deal sells. Another way to do WS.
  • Product Label VA Outsourcing
    • VAs created a 100 PL ideas Google sheet, same way as finding products for wholesale
  • Joy managed to sell $100k in mugs last year.. How? Create space???
  • Make a list of all things in your biz + decide what others can help you do
  • Joy also outsources Shopify and Dropshipping to her VAs
  • She will actually have a VA take like series of courses and have them create sparknotes for her
IV. Rob Anderson – “CREATING A PATH THAT IS RIGHT FOR YOU”
  • “We did what entrepreneurs do, figure out how to make more money”
  • Create a lifestyle path that’s right for you.
  • Think about what would be your perfect day. Is it wake up, breakfast, exercise, work?
  • If you could have the best year you could ever have, what would it be like? Who’s around you? What did you accomplish in your business?
  • The secret. Put your intentions out there and let the universe bring it to you.
  • Vision board. Visualize things you want. Body, house, money, etc. Put it in a place you can see it. Rob puts a star every time he does something on his vision board, this time it was his first time doing public speaking at this conference!
V. Monica Busby – “ecommercekids: 5 TIPS TO GROOMING A MASSIVE ECOMMERCE ACHIEVER”
  • 86% of millionaires are self-made
  • Strong parental involvement was important in the success of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO and Evan Spiegel, Snapchat CEO
  • Parents initiated and nurtured their children’s talent
VI. John Lawson- “5 KILLER IDEAS FOR DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR AMAZON PRODUCT LISTINGS”
  • Climb this ladder. At the end of this long list, only one person had done all of that in a room of 200 people. Impressive. Get on it.
    • RA
    • Optimize your listings
    • Sponsored ads
    • Private label
    • Hired help
    • Built funnels and email lists
    • Remarketed to email lists
    • Sold products before you ordered them
  • Systemize your biz
  • Don’t do $10/hr work, like mowing your lawn
  • GTFO FACEBOOK And stop answering questions that don’t Make you money
  • Daymond John’s the power of broke. The power of broke, having that fire under your ass where you have no choice because you’re broke, is powerful
  • Get your ass off the tack. There was a dog who sat on a tack but who was too lazy to get off the tack but kept complaining about the tack. You’re the dog. Stop complaining and get off the tack.
  • We are in MOMENT and it will not last, e.g. 2008 eBay. Be ready for what’s to come.
  • “If you can’t eat your seeds, you can’t harvest in the fall.”
  • Be motivated, make it happen, but don’t be fooled by fake screenshots and stuff.
  • What’s your why?
  • Amazons a start but you need a solid foundation. Drive your own traffic to your own website.
  • Remember about gurus, you just need to know 4th grade math to teach 3rd grade math
  • Marketplaces:
    • Amazon
    • eBay, slow moving but great is that you can extract customer data from PayPal to remarket
    • Shopify Your own store.
  • “I have 300 skus that are not selling. What do I do?” easy. Stop selling them. Get rid of them. Now.
  • 80/20 rule. Focus on the top 20% of your best selling products and how you could sell those better on multiple channels
  • Do you know what the multiple of 0x is? ZERO.
  • Social media – Facebook
    • Where are your customers in their journey? Facebook is good for raising awareness of your product with infotainment videos
    • Once they’re aware RETARGET – auto 30/40% increase in sales
      • Get email, use FB pixel
  • Email prior purchasers, sell it before it even touches Amazon
  • “I’m charging you because I know where to hit”
  • Paid mentorship, he pays $1500 for 1 hour call, he pays this man $3000 per month
  • Get a 20 min phone consultation callmebackjohn.com
VII. Michael Gindi – “If You Build It They Will Come”

Michael is one of Sam’s greatest coaching stories. Michael came from a very bad place, borrowed money from his mom, and did $1M on Amazon just on RA. This is what he learned. 

  • On coaching- Why go on a dirt road, when you can go on a paved road
  • Build employee roster by beginning with part-time and having them realize they want to work w/ you full-time
  • First, second, third hires all felt shaky- take the plunge, start them off as part-time. He has no regrets.
  • BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE. Tools = employees
  • Amazon is #1 seller but why are they still not profitable? Because they invest in infrastructure
  • When you build infrastructure you have more expenses but you are ready to grow
  • “If you try to grab it all, you’ll get nothing. If you try to grab some, you’ll grab it all.”
  • Pick ONE thing at a time and build it
  • Don’t be afraid to hire a consultant
  • A bump on the road is just a bump on the road. If you have to cry for 10 mins, cry, but after 10 mins that’s it.
  • Approach your products like day-trading, don’t get too attached
  • DON’T GET EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO YOUR PRODUCTS.
  • Things that tank don’t come back
  • When something starts tanking, move it, get rid of it NOW
  • Remember “You don’t know what you don’t know” – this is why coaching like ACE is helpful
VIII. Barbara Boschen- “Jet vs Amazon:  How to Succeed on Jet”
  • Diversify platforms. Other platforms include: Jet, Ebay, Rakuten, Walmart, Sears
  • Jet knows all the weaknesses of Az b/c the founder of Az worked for Jet
  • Ecommerce is booming
  • No sales tax issues on Jet because you’re selling directly to Jet
  • Bulk sales are encouraged on Jet because you will get a discount
  • Sign up at partner.jet.com
  • Merchantminds.com to learn more about getting started on Jet
IX. Brian Duhaime- “The Amazon Mindset”
  • $600k per year is above average for retail
  • If you do $1.6M you’re on the same level as Top 20 retail
  • Nike did $1000 year 1, $300k year 5. Don’t worry.
    • Recommends reading Shoe Dog- the story of Nike’s founder
  • “A plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
  • Got a biz loan with a 3 page biz plan at local bank – $100k line of credit
  • Know your #s and cash flow
  • Don’t always focus on top-line revenue, keep track of your expenses
  • Have detailed processes for:
    • Shipping
    • Receiving
    • Buying
    • Plan RA routes
  • Processes save you a lot of time, especially with employee turnover
  • “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” – Murakami
  • “Eat your shit sandwich.”
  • “If I had always done what I was ‘qualified’ to do, I’d be pushing a broom somewhere.”
  • Hard work + Producing
  • “Amateurs built the Ark, but professionals built the Titanic.”
  • Find an accountability buddy- have weekly/monthly calls
X. Liran Hirschkorn- “Cracking the Amazon Search Code:  Destroy Your Competition with Proven Keyword Research”
  • $1m PL seller
    • Founder of PPC Blueprint
    • Amazingfreedom.com/smart
  • Optimize my listing based on my keywords
    • How to do keyword research
    • Verify indexed
    • End result = long list of keywords to add
  • Step 1: Create excel spreadsheet.
    • 10 Major keywords
    • Minor keywords
    • Misspelling
    • Competitor brand names for sponsored ads?
  • Free tools:
  • Reverse ASIN search
    • Pull up competitor asin + pull up all keywords they’re ranking for with services like Keyword Inspector or Scope
    • Pull up 5 listings and run these tools, now you’ve got more keywords
  • Magnet related words – Helium10?
  • To check if your keywords are indexed on Amazon- search ASIN + keyword. If your listing shows up, then that keyword is indexed
  • If not indexed, where is the keyword you’re trying to index in the listing? Try moving it to the bullets + title
  • Write your listings to satisfy both AZ’s A9 search + humans
XI. Carl Taylor – PL

 

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