7-Figure Amazon Exits: Digital Asset Roadmap | Ron Earley

#028: Meet Ron Earley, an experienced entrepreneur and e-commerce whiz. He's got loads of smarts and knows how to make things happen in business. Starting from a regular job, Ron now runs his own show and knows all about selling stuff on Amazon. He's really good at setting up and selling Amazon stores, which makes him a top player in the game. Ron's big on keeping records in online selling and has smart ways to grow a business by trying different things. If you're into online business, Ron's your go-to guy for tips and trick.

00:00:00 - Growing up in a business-oriented environment
00:01:08 - Unexpected career path
00:02:20 - Transition to current business
00:03:50 - Working with major clients
00:06:42 - Importance of strong relationships
00:11:27 - Business Building and Long-Term Focus
00:12:37 - Overcoming Adversity and Finding Balance
00:13:09 - Unexpected Opportunities and Entrepreneurial Journey
00:18:02 - Financial Struggles and Persistence
00:20:42 - Learning and Adapting in E-commerce
00:22:28 - Supply Chain Challenges
00:24:14 - Business Mindset and Strategy
00:25:45 - Amazon's Market Dominance
00:27:00 - FTC and SEC Regulations
00:32:07 - Storefront Flipping Strategy
00:33:33 - Amazon Monopoly and Business Strategy
00:34:17 - Family Involvement and Business Growth
00:35:48 - Business Partnership and Investment Opportunities
00:39:08 - Opportunity and Profitability
00:42:33 - Due Diligence and Financial Preparedness

Ron Earley's Links:
IG: salesgod

Dylan's Links:

• 🎙️Podcast: BusinessConfessionsPod
• 📽️YouTube: @BizConfessions
• 📷Instagram: DylanWillx
• Linked-In: /dylan-williams

Other Episodes you might like:

• 7-Figure Blueprint for Any Business | Chandler Saine
• Building a Unique Online Fitness Empire | Lee Maasen
• Land Investing & Building Multiple Streams of Income Daniel Martinez
• Hiring Top Talent Overseas | Stratton Brown

Past Guests: Chandler Saine, Daniel Martinez, Stratton Brown, Lee Maasen, Nico Lagan, Daniel Roman,Tim Branyan, David Van Beekum, Nick Hutchison, Deirdre Tshein, Sanchez Zehcnas, Christina Lopez, Keigan Carthy, Hemant Varshney, Taniela Fiefia, Jennifer Blake, Nicki Sciberras, John Chan

Transcript

Track 1: 0:00

Did you have a background in business before you started this?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 0:03

I watched my father run a business, which is part of the reason why we had a massive disconnect and a relationship when I was younger, because I grew up and my dad wanted to do a lot more than what his parents were able to do for him, which I feel is respectable. that's what you want to do as a parent. But, he also was in a field where the quality or caliber of people that you had involved with what you do, like his trade was pouring concrete and laying block in the state of Florida. So he's, one of those guys that gets stuck working in the business can never really work on it. Cause if you're not there to point a finger or do the thing, and I think he never really wanted me to get trapped in that, but he didn't understand like what business to offer outside of that. So like in a way, yeah, cause I watched him do it and I was involved with it. And then, when I got a really good job at a young age, I dropped out of college and moved out of an opportunity I had in California, and I was pretty much going for my exercise science degree. And I moved back when UFIT, the gym was hot, and, I had a friend offer me a job there. And the irony there was I was going to get the same job I was trying to get had I got the four year degree.

Track 1: 1:07

Yeah,

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 1:07

where the, here's where the, do you care if I cuss on

Track 1: 1:09

no,

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 1:10

this okay?

Track 1: 1:10

you're good. Yep.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 1:11

Where I fucked up, no, nobody ever wants to be in this position, but I had to now explain to my parents, like I dropped out of college, I had an opportunity. And within the first couple of days, like the director, which is the guy that actually needs the college degree to sit and do the assessments and give you your clients got fired. So now I just dropped out, moved across the state, gave away that opportunity. I was supposed to show up and do all these things. Now I can't get clients. So it was a really bad predicament to be in. So I just, I did what I could to survive, This just happened by accident. I floor pulled and I was given out, free exercise routines and signing people up. It wasn't an assessment by any means. And we were one of 16 gyms and by accident. had the highest grossing sales and we're the only one that had a director. So drew a lot of attention to myself at a very early age. And I didn't really see sales as my future that point. I didn't even know that was like a job. that's not something you make money with.

Track 1: 2:04

Yeah.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 2:04

And then I ended up changing the dichotomy inside the business to where you no longer need a degree. They created this position called the DIT position. And then, within two years I was running the state of Florida for sales directing and I was now half of everybody else's age. them how to sell training programs.

Track 1: 2:19

Nice. So Ron, what do you do, man?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 2:22

I, now I host a massive portfolio company, state accredited by the state of Florida. We just got awarded to key the city. And what I do is I take business entities that we create on Amazon's platform and I'll take separate investors that create the EIN and we utilize their capital the, call them distribution. Accounts that we have with the connections we make. And it CO sign for these people because they're new business, they're a newer business. So they don't really have any credit established with these people. And I'll use my connections as long as my team's running the operations and I sign on behalf of your storefront. So the idea is to like, If you want to think like grand vision, Walmart has 1, 400 physical locations, multi billion dollar company. I can create 14, 1400 storefronts of 1400 separate entities, and I have people funding these and I take a profit split on what we're running on Amazon, it's one of 2 trillion companies in America. We scale them for two to three years. I'll sell the asset. And then I flip that and I'll roll that money into what we do for the next entity. So if you go on Amazon, you'll see like health and beauty. Or you'll see home and household, or you'll see supplementation. I'm trying to get you in one of the next 22 categories that can run for the next three years together. So as much as we rent and repeat the model in acquisition that you see these brands buying up these conglomerates buying other brands, I'm doing it on a hosted platform that already has marketing material, like everybody goes on Amazon to buy. So if I take people like that and I create it out of the resources, they fund it, we take a profit split. I just utilize my resources. I can essentially business flip every two or three years and do 1400 different business exits.

Track 1: 3:57

Wow. And you're working with, clients like Disney and Hasbro. How'd you manage to pull them? I

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 4:03

Yeah, that was a big one, man. Disney specifically was a crazy story last year. It took six months of sending out a lot of verification documentation, what we do, who we're involved with, how we got accredited with the state. we got flown out to Washington, DC. I went to NAW, which is the national association of wholesale. ended up giving a speech. These guys are like, Three times my age then, which I was not ready or prepared for what's whatsoever.

Track 1: 4:28

can imagine.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 4:29

story all in itself, man. you got guys walking around on canes that are like worth. The cost of a Rolls Royce like that, just, it didn't, I didn't belong in that room is what it felt like. And, that kind of opened a door for me and they really grind you, man. Like they test you a lot. And my warehouse is like an, it's maybe like an hour and 15 minutes south of me. it's next to a loading dock. So it's like very, it's within a two block radius of an Amazon fulfillment center. So it works out best. And, I got this guy calling me and you got to make sure like everything's spray foamed and insulated when you carry their products, like you can't just be a small host. You got to make sure you take care of their stuff. So it's, thing after another, they're asking. And I get a phone call from this guy one day and he's Hey, I'm going to be at your warehouse in 15 minutes. I hope you're there. I want to see your operations. If you do, you get the signed agreement. And, I'm like, I'm an hour and 15 minutes North

Track 1: 5:21

This is no warning.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 5:22

and not at all. Like just out of the blue. Thank God I picked up the phone, So I call Jasmine, my warehouse manager, and I tell her like, what's going on and who's showing up and who's going to be there and like how big of a deal it is. So make sure like everything's presentable. I'm driving as fast as I can. I try to get myself to buy as much time as I possibly can end up running into a traffic accident, which the whole thing felt like it was erupting, and exploding in, in, in my face. And I worked so hard to acquire something like that. the next thing that follows is okay. you guys have exceeded expectations. You guys get the contract, but within 10 days, I need you guys to spend up for your first order, a minimum of 600, 000, which, normally like when you're funneling a lot of money coming through in something like this, that's great. But a lot of this money is already accounted for with other providers. We already have. So to do that in 10 days and try to pull this together, where it's like a little over half a million dollars on a first order basis on not a big timeframe, it's like, all right, these guys aren't playing around. They really just want to continue to test you to make sure you're the right guy. And that's how Disney started. It was a shit show, but we got it getting it, man. So that was a, it was cool. Definitely experience, but it was cool.

Track 1: 6:30

How's that seeing how they operate? Cause I know that's a whole different ball game right there. Seeing how they operate. Have you changed anything in your business or any operations? Because after seeing that,

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 6:41

we've always really had everything on lock, but because I have such a tight connection, answer your question directly. Yes. it's because it's a two part system, connection and my relationships that I have with distributions manufacturers are a lot tighter when it comes to like personal relationships and some of the investors that we have on board, you can't really be that tight. Like when it comes to communication and expectations and me needing, Time in between the conversations that we have when I need you to fulfill something like you can't ask me to do something within 24 hours. If I can't get you to respond within seven days. So those expectations got tighter, but that's just an evolving market. Like when opportunity knocks, you got to open the damn door. I can't stop that. So outside of that, no. But the expectation clause is there's just too much being offered and presented to us right now. I don't really want to let go. And I need people showing up to play ball. And I feel like we've all been in a position to where, changing the caliber of the people that you're hiring as clients is wildly important because not every single person that you collect money from is a person that you want to collect money from. not all money is good money thing. there's been plenty of people that I've collected a 60, 000 wire from that came into the business, but they're a pain in the ass and I would have. paid them more money to go away than what they paid me just to be a part of the system because trouble,

Track 1: 8:02

do you guys have a vetting process now because of that?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 8:05

and I've always had one. I just feel like, the structure and this is what I meant about it changing a little bit within the infrastructure with the distributions and the manufacturers. I think it, it took getting the guys that have for qualification advisors. In the whole loop of like how those products are ordered and what they do is like a checklist. So almost like a client expectations list. because you get people, especially in sales teams sometimes when it's commission driven and you get commission breath and you really want to do your best to make sure you can collect a check, especially in something high ticket. But if you have a bigger purpose and a bigger vision, so what I would like to do is like what Elon did with Tesla and you offer stock inside a company for the people that are involved. So there's a long term vision, not just a short term vision. What takes the right kind of people in order to create the long term vision. So now instead of them just saying like a quick check, they're going to collect, it's okay, what is it providing for your family in the long run? Because every time that you do this, it takes away from that. So like, where do you really want to be? do you want something that's going to offer a legacy and some kind of Okay. In strategy, some kind of exit plan, some kind of. infrastructure that will offer something to the people that you care about most, or do you really need it right now?

Track 1: 9:09

Yeah, there's a difference in between, Investment and, get rich quick kind of thing,

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 9:14

Yeah. there's been a lot of people in this space. Ironically, they've tarnished the name because of that. You have a very ridiculous ongoing joke about some of the people in this space and you got people that are, I don't know, 15 years. years younger than me. And you see him advertising like rented Lambos and Airbnb and you got these girls that they, I don't fucking know, hired off fiber to go show up on their yacht or whatever that they also rented. And it's what does that have to do with the business at all? how does that show any business operations? And you get all those people talking about how those people didn't fulfill. And as much as it's shitty that those people offered the service that way, it makes you equally as stupid as like you bought from that person. I didn't show you anything about the company. I don't know if anybody told you, but like the yacht, the Lambo, the girls, that's all sold separately. So sorry, that's not what you're buying.

Track 1: 10:08

Yeah. That's usually the money that they make off you that they're not actually fulfilling what they said they're going to be fulfilling

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 10:13

Exactly.

Track 1: 10:15

or the education.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 10:16

when you run something this big or you get accounts like what you just brought up, the overhead's not cheap. Not to hold accounts like that. That's why the long term vision needs to be at play and it can't. It can't be one of those things either where you think even within six to 12 months, it's going to entirely change your life. But on a month to month basis and something, the cash flows, it compounds equally. you build off what was previously done. And if you get somebody that's not trying to just live off of what's the storefront actually doing itself and provision, like if you get to the point where you've ran out nine, 10 months and I'm, I go from doing like a. 2, 000 profit. And I dump it into something that now does a 4, 000 profit. Now the next month, it continues to keep doing that. That way, even though you might obtain an ROI within 18 to 24 months, granted, you're not withdrawing money. You can do 15 to 20 grand easy in a month. You got to afford the product. That's like the kind of the clause there is like where people think that you can't produce a lot of money in economy. You got to build to it and you had to become resourceful and Amazon needs to view you that way. But at the same time, you need to be resourceful in the sense that you can afford the products. I can't make you more money than what you would give me to make you give and take.

Track 1: 11:26

There's gotta be a runway. you see a lot of these, the big companies that, we grew up when they were invented, you don't see any of those owners. Or founders flaunting jets and, yachts and everything like none of them did that. They focused on building the business and built it out for the long term.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 11:43

That's it. when I first bought the company and I took it over, I didn't take a paycheck for 365 days, single one. And it, thank God for, the previous business exit strategy, because I have three kids and I have, I've been with the same woman for the last 12 years. I got a family that I care about and the family I got to take care of. And now I got a hundred plus employees and I got 500 plus accounts that are open. And it's something you can't screw around with. I know means can I, I take away from one to give to the other. I just got to find that middle ground, that balance. And that's why those systems that we were talking about are so important. So important. I can't be screwing around with other people's money. I'm not trying to put a target on my head and got way too much to lose, but so much to enjoy in this life. And I really would like my kids to be a part of that.

Track 1: 12:27

That's not a small investment either, and, I see why you did that too, though, on that end, because that's, I would, like you said, I would want to vet the people that I'm working with in an investment. I want to talk about the idea and where this kind of came from, because this is a two part. I feel like, I know a little bit about backstory on you, but I want our listeners to hear about it. where did Amazon, where did e commerce, where did all that start?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 12:50

Oh man. Okay. uh, I quit working with you fit and I had been with my wife for four or five years at that point. And when we first got together. We were both told, it's like a hereditary thing. Her grandmother went through it. Her mother went through it. She just, she had to happen to go through it at a very early age and she had a part of her cervix removed. So we were told that we weren't going to be able to have kids. And, we made up our mind that I was making so much money for this company and spending so much time away. We didn't get to do the things that we wanted to do together. That's for the percentage, small percentage that I was making for them. I could go do it somewhere else for myself, literally within that first week of quitting that job and moving back over to the other coast, we found out we had a baby on the way we were very much in denial. wait for a month where Hey, I don't think you're just gaining weight. at this point, and it's still this day, like we laugh about how not serious we took that, but it was like so surreal and very unopportunistic because the first business venture that was presented to me was knowing the thing that we talked about with construction and my dad being involved. Sarasota at the time was one of the fastest growing cities inside the entire U. S. Like it was rapid rate. So what you study in entrepreneur books or good business is fixing a problem. And what a lot of concrete guys don't want to do is they don't want to finish, especially in Florida because it's so hot. I found a way to get, this grinder to do a, like a topical ceiling on top of some of these garages and garage floors and driveways. And I hit big after door knocking for a while. I booked this contract in a place called Boca Grande. And it's, it seems to be a very common theme my life. I, I booked this contract out and I had this piece of shit white OBS Ford F one 50 that I drove and anybody that runs a business, you need two years of credit history to run anything on credit or you don't get it. And I got 36 grand set aside with me and my wife and we're supposed to be picking up or put a down payment on our house and furnish it and have some money set aside for our baby and then figure out what I'm gonna do from there. This grinder is going to cost me 24, 000. But doing the math inside what's going to happen inside like this whole entire unit, this community, the building, I will be able to triple that money in a four month timeframe. And, and I'm smiling, call my uncle and Hey, I need hands on deck. I really need your help. I think this, this is the time I need you to actually quit your job. I got a position for you. I'm smiling ear to ear and I'm driving this broke down truck. That's pulling a grinder. There's 24 times. the truck cost me to pull it. And I pull up in this vicinity and the contractor gets fired. lost the job and didn't know what the hell I was going to do with the unit. Cause it's not like you can go return it, and anything can be clean too. So even if I did go to do it, I take a massive loss on anybody that could buy it, but it was so niche specific to at the time like, even if I did, like just go buy a new one. And you wouldn't spend anywhere near as much as what I would want to ask because like the indifference, I wouldn't want to take that loss. I'm trying to figure out like what I'm going to do here. And like any other gym rat, before going home to my wife and telling her that I royally screwed up. took a couple scoops of pre workout and I went to the gym on a Monday afternoon, Monday morning. It's 11 o'clock, 1130 by the time I got there. that's one of the first realization moments that I had like crazy revelations that, and I don't know why it's sometimes it's like the obvious it's in front of your face. You don't think about, but if you go to the gym or like any other location, like where people are grouped up and they're showing up, those people obviously don't work at nine to five. And there's something else that they're doing outside of that. And at the time, at that point in my life, especially coming out of the gym, I looked a lot different I was someone that was ready to step on stage. So my body stood out to a lot of people and I kept having this guy approach me. And he kept asking me about these exercise routines. And I just wasn't in the mood, mind you. I just told you what just happened. I just need to clear my head so I can figure out how to go home. phone keeps going off. Ding, ding. I'm like, dude, you should really get that. And he's oh, there's nothing to get like these. And then he like turns his phone around and he shows me like this Amazon seller notification. And I'm like. Okay. I didn't know what that was, but thank you, for showing me. All

Track 1: 16:53

did

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 16:54

I do for work. And I like it. This is what I teach. Mind you in the past, like I had flipped things on eBay with my wife and it's good passive money. But what he showed me that day, I'm like, Oh, this isn't just livable money. is like good livable money. Like you could do some big shit with this. I've just wasted that 24 grand. And this dude goes, Hey, yeah, I teach this from Friday to Sunday. We go through the whole thing. I show you how to start the business file for everything. And, I charged 10 grand and I'm like, fuck, I don't really get a lot of bandwidth there. I got 12 grand left in my name. Don't want to go back through that again. It was already over physical labor. I'm looking at what he's producing, which is going to produce me way more than what I went through with that. So before I went home and it was spending the other 10 grand, I know that seems like it's asinine, but it's a, one of those things, like if I didn't have a proven model before and I hadn't been involved with e commerce, I probably wouldn't, and I use this term very loosely, But I knew that this explanation and talking to my wife would be a little bit different just because she's had her hands in that pot with me before. Not at that volume. That was one of the craziest things in the world. And I promise you this story gets so much worse before it gets better. But I knew I had to make money. I got a kid on the way. I just blew 34, 000 at this point. And within my first like 12 days. 13 days, something crazy like that. I had 17, 000 in sales where I racked up a credit card I should have never racked up. I spent the last of the 2, 000 that I had. And I called Tommy, which is the guy that I bought this company from. And I go, Hey dude, I did this amount of sales in this amount of time. And this is the whole revelation behind people talking about how people that sell courses, they're not real. Sometimes that's true, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that only 13 percent of the courses that are ever sold or ever finished, it's not a really good track record you to ever do anything. And that was my epiphany moment was he didn't believe me, but I knew that he trained all these other people. sent him the screenshot and he's Hey dude, you got to slow down. He's Amazon will freeze your account. I'm like, I'm fucking broke and making money and I got a kid on the way. I'm not slowing down. I shit you not that very next day I got hit with what was called a velocity review on Amazon and they held my money for 62 days.

Track 1: 19:03

you have money coming in at that point that you're a liquid?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 19:06

So outside of that, no. And I feel like the first three days I did not sleep. I lived off of caffeine and coffee. And, at that point too, I'm pretty sure if you guys remember it, like Jack 3d was still like a, that was a pre workout and that shit worked, but it did wonders. And that sucked, and I ended up going back to, to work for a little while, did a little construction, did a little Gary V garage selling my first big flip. I got this table saw from this woman, her husband passed away. And I literally bought it for 10 bucks. My first flip is like 350. I sold it to another guy. And, that was like, I was like, yo, this is, you want to talk about margin. I got to find more like this.

Track 1: 19:47

Garage sales.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 19:48

man. And it's, and this is, you were talking 2017. So seven years ago, damn near close to eight years ago and early 2017. So there's, there was a lot that happened within that timeframe and things that I learned that I might not have learned inside that, but it was enough to get my foot in the door. And that's when I, I really started to pay attention to the fact that continued education is like very important. You're going to learn some things from other people, there's always going to be like a next step. So if I see like all of this happening and he didn't take it so seriously because maybe he didn't have all the right people moving, what else is left to learn? And that's when I got into the cross model in the beginning of 2018 of how to fulfill FBA and get merchant accounts and not have my own warehouse, but have somebody else fulfill it for me. You can't do that anymore. But that's what first got the idea in my head. And we started doing this online account and, go ahead. We're going to say

Track 1: 20:43

I was going to ask, is that what, so is that what you learned initially? Was the FBA model or was it the wholesale model?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 20:50

now it was an FBN model. So it was just all drop shipping.

Track 1: 20:53

Okay.

20:56

Guys, real clear. Think about this. Share this episode with someone. It could create an ideal and you'd be responsible for that. You never know what opportunities that could create. All right, guys, I'll let y'all get back to it. Thank you.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 21:12

I never had to carry inventory, but looking at margin on these products. I'm like, if people can make. Even 10 to 15 percent off of dropshipping. How much are they getting it from the people that I'm buying it from in order to still get a 10 to 15%. Like it's just me playing middleman at this point. My first big loss, it's a crazy pre frame I'm going to throw your way. and to this day, I still have 163, 000 tied into Amazon. I'll never get back. It's part of the reason why I run the system that I do. And the reason why documentation is so important. I, a group of the pair of brothers. San Bernardino County, California. And they had a partnership with Coco de Chanel. And it wasn't the New York one. It was the one in, say it's Paris. it's ties that they have with their family. And we had a really good model running, like just to give you an idea on how this margin worked. Me and my wife just strictly just passed off sleep back and forth, fulfilling orders and writing down documentation. got to the point where I was pushing anywhere from 50 to 70 orders a day. And then they got the unit cost down to where I was buying it for 34. 99 and I was selling it for 139. 99. And I pushed that many units a day, every day. I pushed so much volume that I got hit. And this is the whole reason, the premise why I say documentation is important. if you do good sales, that thing that we talked about, the scaling accounts, you, you earn your green light with them to give you the thumbs up, right? Sometimes they'll just allow you to sell certain ASINs and they'll give you green light to go ahead sell these products. You've earned credibility. However, that doesn't always mean that you're in a safe place and this is exhibit a, and I'm not saying it's not just a freak accident, but I can't afford this with people's money that are, paying it with us. One of the brothers got hit on a motorcycle within that week. I got asked just to provide documentation for my supply chain, which is okay. That's normally it's fine. And I submitted those documents for my invoices, which is normally fine. they needed theirs and I, it took forever for me to get ahold of this guy. Then I found out what was going on inside his family and I don't know what the hell happened. I don't know if he just shut down and didn't want to show back up to work after what happened, but he closed the doors down. Never got the documentation back. Dude's been out of business. He just collapsed. out of that, I'll never get that money back out of Amazon. And I've tried several attorneys and that's why the documentation with what you have, regardless if they give you the green light to go ahead and sell it, you need to make sure you have a set aside and you need to make sure it's submitted even if they say they don't need it. Can't

Track 1: 23:37

would you have been able to avoid that if you had that documentation beforehand?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 23:43

which is why I won't run a single account. Like I do not do in Gates without paperwork first,

Track 1: 23:47

Yeah, that was my next question. how do you avoid, how do you avoid this now with it? Okay,

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 23:51

good businesses, chess, like anybody can move one step at a time, but like when you really understand the business and you're involved with it, which is why I was laughing with you earlier about these people that advertise these certain things, but it's like, why don't you talk about the things inside the business that actually showcase the fact that you have a little bit of authority in the space and you've done the things one's doing that, like show knowledge. Like what? it's always going to happen. It's business shit happens. But tell me that you have a solution or show me that you've been through it. Tell me that you have a, some kind of POA behind, if this does happen to me, I'm taken care of. And that's one of like many examples I can give you. I just, I don't understand specifically in this, industry, why people don't do it. Does it make sense to me?

Track 1: 24:32

it's not flashy, it doesn't sell what they're trying to push or promote.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 24:36

That's the irony thing to me. It's If you're a good, if you're a really good business person or you think that you're good and you're business minded, I would disagree and I would say the most flashy thing in the world is watching numbers come into your bank account. Spend it how you choose. If you can't show me how to get the watch or show me how to get the car, don't show me the car. Don't show me the watch. It's like the shiny object syndrome, you're buying the wrong thing that kind of showcases to like the caliber of people that are investing too. I don't want those quality people involved with me. Those are the questions that you're asking me. 10, 12 months in, we are so not on the same page. I don't care about stuff like that.

Track 1: 25:11

Yeah. Who's your average investor? What's like that? What's that avatar?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 25:16

Since I bought the company out, I moved from people like that to, people that own hedges or people that are more real estate investors. And that's, I think this model that I've explained to earlier on about the business flipping model, more people that are in real estate can understand it because it's like owning digital real estate. You own a piece of property inside of one of 2 trillion companies. Like Amazon is the place to be, and it will continue to get harder to sell them there. So the longer that people take, the more difficult it will come. And we've realized that, especially over the course of the last 365 days, because for the first time ever in history, third party sellers are more responsible for Amazon's income than Amazon solely is their self. We moved from the, it was about 51 percent that third party sellers did, they had to report this last quarter and it was 60%. So last year they tried to increase storage fees and the FTC shut them down. They didn't allow them to do it. they did this reporting on what moved an increase of 9 percent for people moving their company on Amazon's platform. And they increased seller fees because they want to try and collect on that. The FTC shut it down within three days to take them to court and they lost the last one. You're going to lose this one. They won't let them monopolize more than what they already have. So we're in good hands,

Track 1: 26:29

Yeah.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 26:30

I'm going to find a way to get a grip on it. And it's, you're either involved and if it gets to be too late, you just, you missed the window.

Track 1: 26:38

Do you foresee Those kind of regulations getting shut down more often because I remember, three, four years ago, stuff like that went through, and I remember fees getting more expensive and things like that. Do you foresee that kind of being the norm now? And it's this is what we're preventing from.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 26:53

They can't do it again after they lose. Like the FTC to go against. And that's the other thing that's like scary in this space that I don't think these young kids realize, like when they're in this space. and it's not even just this specifically the investment space, but because you're selling investments, like there's a bigger target on your back than somebody else. It's like selling a personal training program. you do have a mom that just got shut down and fined. And she's like a single mom that takes care of a daughter. It's like very respectful with what she's doing, but she talked about her average results within six months. Like I can get you to lose 50 pounds in six months. If you follow this X, Y, Z, because it didn't meet average expectations within the clients that she actually had on board, lost the FTC and lost a 1. 4 million dollar lawsuit across the board are getting hit. if you don't pay attention to like how your marketing is being ran and they flag your business, it will put you out of business. And not because you don't know what you're talking about, not because you don't know what you're doing. You're not paying attention to how you're marketing.

Track 1: 27:47

And what you, what you're leading on. Cause the top, 1 percent is not the rest of the 99 percent that you do.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 27:53

So even when it comes to like big brands like Amazon, they're getting shut down by them and they're getting stopped they're pressing the pause button. Amazon is one of the few ones too, that's a little bit different. I think that people don't really realize or recognize it this way, but it's very much the truth. if you take like these bigger brands that we talk about, like with Walmart having 1400 locations, it's still a Walmart. Third party sellers only sell online on Walmart's platform, but the 1400 locations is still Walmart. You'd never sell those, but inside Amazon, you have third party sellers that are actually responsible for 60 percent of their income. And it's a conglomerate of a bunch of different businesses that are selling on their platform. So now, you can't hide money, you can't regulate money, there's too much coming in from different locations, people's different distributions, and all the monetization that's going on between someone else that's providing for it, there's no way that they can disperse it, they can hide it from the government,

Track 1: 28:47

Yeah.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 28:47

or from the FTC, many hands in the pot,

Track 1: 28:50

Yeah.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 28:51

else is running something like that, and it's also the reason why they've made so much money, there's too much. They're not going to allow people to take it away anymore.

Track 1: 28:58

What are you seeing for average? I'd love to know the average return your clients are getting low end average high.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 29:07

So when you start off like 10, maybe like 10 to 15%, sometimes 8 to 15%, especially if you move in a category that, it doesn't require any kind of like ungating involved. But you also want to look at it like we were talking about chess earlier, like if you're a smart business owner, one of the best things in the world you could do is not draw a lot of attention to yourself, gain some credibility because the last thing in the world that you'd want is like competition being driven to you, especially when you don't have a lot of capital to move with. You don't have a lot of credibility to be, build on, or it's not a strong foundation essentially. the best thing in the world that you can do is stat pattern account. I want my account to look good in Amazon's eyes. I want them to know that I'm fulfilling orders. I don't have people competitive in listings or submitting anything falsified about buying a product from me and saying it showed up X, Y, Z. And it's because they kicked the package and took a picture of it. And you don't want things like that. If you do things like that, you go to minimal margins. There's less competition and people pay less attention to things like that. If you can move in a window that's two to three months through X, Y, Z unit, there is a unit. If you guys get involved and you guys want to get on a call with me, I'll talk to you about that. I'm not going to give away what that is, but there's a reason why that's like ultimately like the timeframe you move into what's called non gate category. And if you have the right documentation and you've moved those and you don't have any negative reviews that are associated with account, Amazon rewards you for it. And we've all been in a position to where we go hit that one click button on Amazon on our phone. It says buy now. is a reward system that Amazon gives you for being a credible seller. They rotate those sellers out every 20 minutes. So if you qualify, it's not a matter of me deciding like who I want to put in what position or what accounts I want to favor. Amazon already makes sure that they take the time to cycle out those people themselves. Everybody gets a fair shot.

Track 1: 30:52

That's cool.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 30:53

Yeah. And there's something crazy too, man. It's 41 or 42 million being spent every single minute.

Track 1: 30:58

Yeah, I go, I order groceries off Amazon sometimes, like everything's Amazon and I'd rather order. And that's the thing. I knew that Amazon was just a monopoly at that point, whenever I would pay more for something on Amazon, because I knew I could get it. And if I didn't like it, I could also return it.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 31:15

that's the truth. But that's also why dropshipping worked. People would go check their first. They didn't check anywhere else. And that was the people going and checking on other websites that would drop ship it off of one platform. And it, but people are, they're a little bit smarter now and there's, there is definitely better margin there. The cool thing with operating in a wholesale account and, like a category structure, which I don't know why more people aren't presenting this. And last year I had to get my broker's license because I couldn't run a scalable asset and do the flip process something I scaled for you as an investment unless I hosted one. is niching things down. Like Amazon has a strict policy on not opening more than one account unless you have a reason. So if I do food and grocery on one where I move you to health and beauty, but like I want to do something that's along the lines of, home and household or the supplements that we talked about, or if I want to do something in, some kind of cosmetics electronics, like I can move you in a different niche and just. and send an email to Amazon and say, Hey, I have this seller history, the type of products they sell inside here. Can I open different store because I sell these products and it doesn't make sense for me to fuse these products inside one storefront. They now allow you to do it. that's how you do the storefront flipping. places like empire flippers, they have that stamp of approval. It's the difference in the storefronts that are being sold for 200, 300, 000. And the ones that are being sold for a million plus, you have the capability and the capacity to sell something for an actual business that does that three to five time multiplier based off of your revenue to profit margin, your EBITDA it's involved with an actual business storefront. And if they have a source line that they get from us, Then I have the capability and the capacity to do that. If we can do that within two to three years, and we go list it and I can sell it for you, I can host it for you. You don't even have to touch it. And then we can just rinse and repeat the cycle. We just stack the cash and we re put it back into something else. We just scaled a lot faster because you had more capital to work with. Why would you not want to do that? It's like printing money. It's your store.

Track 1: 33:05

How many? I know it, it takes a little bit more to do that. It's usually you need to reinvest, of course, and a lot of people want to take back profits. But for the people who get into it for the long haul, what's like the percentage or how often do you go and sell it? Sell it. can I say company or a store? Yeah.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 33:24

It's your storefront. So I, I don't get a chance to say that sometimes people like the cashflow where they're at. And you also have to consider everything I've told you. Sometimes you have to start from scratch. So my best case scenario that I like to explain to people is do not wait to sell one storefront to start the other one. Like we have a plan of action in six months that we want to dump this one. Let's start the other one. So we get through that slow ramp up process. And now if I get you ung gated, I have a mass amount of money that we can invest into other product, sometimes people just like to run it up to the top, like Amazon's not allowed to monopolize. They also, and this is another reason why it's really important to own or operate under multiple EINs, especially if you have this much bandwidth, I could spend close to 30,$35 million a month just in product that I have available to me right now. If I can buy 30 to 35 million a month and Amazon starts to hemorrhage your account, they'll slow down the trash and the visibility. If you sell over 15 million. I can only operate at half the capacity I have to me right now. So I'd rather separate it amongst other accounts and then still get the rinse and repeat. And now I have all the entities that we can essentially go into acquisition with and I can resell and I can rinse and repeat back into that. But some people are okay with just doing, three, 4 million on an account. that's okay with them. they don't want to go past that. And it's also livable for them. They don't want to go through the process. That's fine. it's not always for everybody. That's also why I told you when we got on this call, the caliber of people have changed. That's where my mind's at. That's the things I want to teach my kids. Like in October, I, put on an event and I flew. Any of our investors out to the Sarasota office that I'm sitting in right now, I hosted a network dinner. I gave a keynote. I had them meet the team. We went down to the warehouse. Everybody touched the products. They saw the systems, the operations. They had a good firsthand look on what's going on. And I'm doing the same thing. May 3rd. I'm doing the same thing. I'm running it back. Especially with the new warehouse that we, just adopted. Plus, I rebranded the company in January and named it after my kids. I'm a big advocate on having my kids involved in what I do. I've also been speaking in front of groups of people for the last seven years. it was wildly ironic getting joked up on stage. I got these guys that are like multi millionaires sitting in front of me, but it's my six year old paying attention to his dad sitting in the back staring at me. I'm like, what? why am I so nervous right now? what is that? have I manifested this for so long? Like I'm finally here. Like I'm actually starting to get, butterflies again.

Track 1: 35:38

Oh yeah.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 35:39

that's when things really started to become surreal. I was offered a massive exit and, it was November and I bypassed it because I didn't want that feeling to go away. Like I need something to raise my kids in. And sometimes like with those business principles, some of the biggest things that you learn in entrepreneurship is. It's community, the same damn thing you hear on Instagram, like everywhere you go, show me who your five friends are, I'll tell you who you are, Or like what doors you open is what opens the next door, right? instead of having to go through this thing of trying to find all these people, why not just create it? Why not just build it? My kids can very much be involved with it at a very young age. They're going to have kids, they're going to a network and they're going to have access to things I wished I had when I started. It's a great hack.

Track 1: 36:23

What kind of, returns, or I'm sorry, not returns, but what's required for a client, on their end, cause I know it's pretty passive, but what's actually required,

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 36:34

I hate that word. Um, it's passive extent. Like it requires time and attention. Like at first off, I don't want any of your personal information. I'll walk you through how to do all the startup and the setup, but I will never ask you for your social security number, your credit card information, your banking information. I'll show you how to do it. The way, even if you ever went away, you figure out how to do it again yourself. So there's that. And it does take a little bit of time, like maybe a few hours and then maybe an hour of going through like your spreadsheets at the end of every month. I want you to be involved. I want you to understand what's going on. Don't think I'm just going to send you money. And we're never going to talk like that's terrible business partnership. that, that part I feel like is wildly important, but it's now, I think it's a little bit more than just for like upfront. So we have two different packages that I advertise. One's a 65 K and one's a 45 K one's a 60, 40 profits, but the other is a 40, 60 profits. But then I have another one. It's a little bit more top tier for like higher investors that I don't publicly advertise, but it's 125, 000 for the buy in and I do three private, label brands that are tied to it. Then the margins are wildly different because we do import and I'll run some PPC, which is like Amazon's version of marketing that you would do. And there's a lot more accessibility there with exit. And there are other groups sessions that we do with other investment opportunities for people that have more money to spend. but outside of just like the monetary value, I want people to know, like, when I say a two year guarantee that's attached to this, be understanding of the process when we communicate, there needs to be an open communication line. And it's not about me, just needing to tell you like to wait and be patient. Like I would like to actually get on the phone with you and communicate with you what's going on. Or there's an amino acid, right? For example, one of my clients is one of the co creators of EDC, which is crazy. She's worth Buku bucks and like one of the craziest personalities I've ever met in my entire life. It's so much fun. But she was one of the ones that I got on gated. That's a 125 K package. And I spent 22, 000 on an amino acid for, and it sold out within three days. And she had a 31 percent profit margin on it. I got the green light from Amazon when we passed the products. So I called her and said, Hey, we move this. I need to ask you for more inventory capital. Amazon holds your money for 14 days. It's a direct deposit. They pay you bi weekly. You're out 22, 000 right now. It's being funded with profit back to your account. Took a screenshot of it, said, Hey, you can log into your account. You can see verify everything I'm talking to you about. I call and I asked the company, if I can buy out the product line or you open minded to it, if you can buy out the lot, we'll just list it all on your storefront. I called the product line and I say, Hey, I don't want any competition on it. I want to buy out everything that you have in stock. How much inventory do you have? What's it going to cost me? Negotiated down to where the margin has now moved from that lower 30 percent up to 38%. But it was going to cost her 177, 000 and it was going to take 62 days to push it. She bought it. Like I want to be able to have conversations with people like that. It might not always be a, it might not always be like a monetary line where you always have that accessible, but I want to be able to have the conversation with you and for you to understand it. Like don't want to get on the phone with somebody and then be upset because. An opportunity arose and we've moved from 22 K to 177 grand. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. I'll split it between you and somebody else, but be open to the conversation, understand what's going on and why it's happening. It's most important in any business.

Track 1: 39:55

what would be the difference in, on one 25 package? Is that just the ungating and the time process that it takes with that opportunity of happened at the 45,

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 40:06

I don't want to necessarily say that opportunity wouldn't have, because it would have, if I had people available for it, the bigger one, that's a transition is like that company could have been a private label company that I scaled and I would have only had the private access to it. They don't always say, I can buy a whole lot. Yeah. we're gaining credibility at a pretty rapid rate, so I'm not saying it's fully off the table, but you also got to understand, I'm competing with tens of thousands of different distributions. and bigger storefronts too, like I, we deal with a lot of money, but there are guys out there right now that could swallow me. And I don't mean like automation companies, I mean like a Publix or a Walmart, I can't fund what they would fund. And if they decided that they want to buy the whole line, they could. So that's on the table. And then with the private label thing, the 125 K package is, I'm taking else that has profitability and has a probability to do very well. And I have exclusive rights to it. And I'm going to list it solely on your store and you'll be the only one that benefits from it. And then when we decided to exit on it, then we could potentially do that outside of exiting just on the storefront. So you have multiple angles that you're coming in and that can be a longer process, but it's still a two year guarantee. It's just that ramp up period with things like that take longer than something that already a profitable brand. if I'm selling Fiji water is going to sell a lot faster than somebody else that launches their new artesian water that we, need to put some kind of PPC behind and create a profitable brand for it or a recognizable one.

Track 1: 41:32

What kind of multiples are, what kind of multiples are stores getting typically?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 41:36

It depends on, like what you sell. So each category hosts something differently. And that's just solely because of like certain niches, like you're involved with like health and beauty. If you have good supply lines that are attached to a health and beauty store, there's no reason why if you've had something sustainable and they run like a 12 month diagnostic from like year three to year two, you've done a good job funding said product, you can't get four, if not five times what you've already sold it for as long as it comes to the supply lines, which it does. It's part of what I forfeit. The reason why we, we keep the split, I don't charge you a brokerage fee. We just continue to split and we continue on doing business, but we take a fat chunk of cash on a payout and you got people swallowing these, but it's because they want the access lines they have enough money to where you can fund this on a month to month basis and it doesn't hurt their pocket.

Track 1: 42:22

Ron, we're running out of time here. I keep, I have so many more questions. We didn't even go over at the stuff I was going to talk about, but, man, what do you want to leave the listeners with today?

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 42:31

We talked a lot about business, I'm sorry, you guys didn't hear so much about my personal story and I really wanted to do my best to add value. Maybe we had a chance to another podcast and another time. But all I'm going to say is if you guys want to get involved with things like this, or, anywhere across the board, just, I would make sure that you do your due diligence on making sure that you ask the right questions or what questions to ask in any industry before getting on those calls and having those conversations with people. Don't just depend on the company to give you all the information. Know some things going in so you can know if people are full of shit or not. don't let people take your money. The whole reason why you're doing things like this in the first place is to multiply. So just be a little bit more prepared.

Track 1: 43:05

Yeah, for sure. Ron, man. I appreciate your time today.

squadcaster-if77_1_04-02-2024_151330: 43:09

Of course, brother. I enjoyed it too, man. It was a good time.

43:12

Hey, if you're still listening, hopefully you got some value out of this or amusement. Either way, I really appreciate you for listening. My goal with this podcast is to build something of value while also showing others that it's possible to do the same. And what I mean by that is, I'm not perfect at this. I fumble, I stutter, and I just want to show that it's okay. If you've been putting something off, This is me telling you to go for it. So I need your help in growing this and there's two main ways a podcast grows. One is through ratings and reviews and two is through word of mouth. So I can only do it with your help. If you can leave me a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well as post this to your social and it doesn't grow without you. Thank you. Talk to you all next week.