Sean Humenchuk's guest appearances

Sean Humenchuk

eCommerce Momentum Podcast

Tony Robbins

Chris Guthrie

Mark Daoust

Mike Ward

Christian Zeron

Johnathan Grzybowski

Aaron Walker

Tommy Griffith

Alan Taylor

Greg Mercer

Heather Havenwood

Brian Miller

James Thomson

Jeremy Wilson

Kyle Wright

OwlTail

Sean is very humble. He will say he does not have it all figured out. I would ask have you met the person who does? So his advice is strong: Sell in multiple categories to weather the storms that will be coming. Now is the time to diversify. How many of us are heavy seller fulfilling right now? Well there are many Amazon businesses that are not built for it and are feeling the pinch.If you sell in grocery you are likely killing it where most clothing sellers are struggling. So diversification across channels, categories and methods allows you to flex. Fix your "B Plan"!Mentioned:Seans previous episodeTips:1- Work on terms with your vendors2- Adjust your Ad Spend3- Don't send all your inventory to Amazon4- Add a thank you card to your FBM5- Revise your listing to recognize people are at home right now SponsorsAmazon Accounting Simplified – Learn how to manage your business with specific Amazon Accounting training for Quickbooks online from a real CPAAsinZen.com – 30 DAY FREE TRIALViral Launch – Save $50 with this link (Use coupon code: Momentum)SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY LISTENERS ONLYTWO WEEKS FREE TRIAL!!!!Gaye Lisby and Garry Ray’s Seller Tribe – (Get 14 day free trial!!)Solutions4ecommerceScope from SellerlabsTactical Arbitrage – Get an 10 day free trial with code: “Tactical”Freeeup– Save 10% (forever) and get an instant $25.00 voucher for your first hire.GoDaddyGrasshopperTranscript:Sean (00:00):Wait, they find new products they get in the market. You already know. Um, and then I think product research where if you're looking at, uh, looking to keep the charts and looking at what was selling last summer, uh, and last Christmas are two things that I'm kind of focusing on. Um, because I know if it was selling last Christmas, it's going to be selling again this Christmas most likely.Cool voice guy (00:21):Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of eCommerce selling. Today. Here's your host, Steven Peterson.Stephen (00:34):Hey, I'm staying with the no pitch a, I'm not pitching any of the services I've got a bunch of sponsors are and a bunch of companies that if you're looking for any services, which you really shouldn't be buying any surfaces right now, but if you are, I have discounts to them and they pay me. So I don't want to hide that. But they're out there in a website just to go check out this episode. But I'm staying with no pitch right now. I want you to focus and put your head down and do the work. Welcome back to the eCommerce momentum podcast. This is episode 431 Sean human check. I brought Sean back on. Um, because I, I just think again, there, there has to be optimism out there. You've got to sit back and say, yeah, this sucks. I mean, it's face it right now.Stephen (01:12):This is a challenge, you know, especially as people are getting sick and people, I mean, it's just breaking my heart to see some of these stories. It's just heartbreaking. But you can't cower in the corner. You have to push through it. Or I see people who are having huge financial problems because they're up against the wall. You know, and I understand it. You know, if you've listened to my show, you heard that our account went under review. You know, that pause for a day and a half. But it's still, it was the first time that's ever happened to us. So it was like, Whoa, that was a wake up, you know? But there are some really good information out there. There's some good plans, there's some people doing it right. And I think Sean, Sean got some really good advice, um, in this episode and some things I had not thought about.Stephen (01:53):But I, I love, I mean I want you to really pay attention to product mix and fulfillment mix those two, four pieces of the formula that you can plan for. You know, and again, fulfillment mix might not be activated until you need it, but based on drip inventory, you can manage that. So the, all these terms, I know I'm just dropping some things, but listen to the episode and we get into exactly what all that means and how it can apply to you. And it's got me thinking about, you know, what we're going to do. So I just think there's some really solid advice. Um, and it just, just a wonderful person and just a really smart guy who can offer, um, some optimism to you. Let's get into the podcast and welcome back to the eCommerce momentum podcast. Excited for a return guest. Actually, it wasn't that long ago. It was a little more than a year or so ago that we spoke, but I thought, I thought, uh, it's a perfect person to come bring on during these trying times. And I think that's a fair description trying times to talk to some rationalization, some reason and kind of how he's doing it and I think, I think he has something to offer. So welcome back Shawn human Chuck, welcome Sean.Sean (02:58):Thanks for having. Um, asStephen (03:00):always, I love talking to you and, uh, excited to, uh, excited to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to have you because again, go back to January, 2019. You can listen to Sean's episode, um, and get some backstory there, but you really did a great transition in your business from the old RA and all that stuff. Built out wholesale, built out private label, uh, then took your wholesale to other levels, which I, I'm always impressed with cause it's not easy. Back then. This was the phrase, and I told you this in the preinterview create a job you like, let me ask you how that's working for you right now.Sean (03:35):It's working great. Um, I mean, I'm still, what I want positivity, a lot of the, a lot of the same stuff I was doing a little over a year ago. I'm still doing,Stephen (03:45):but the world's uploading. Sean, I don't think anybody told you the worlds. Have you been outside? Have you seen there? Uh, there are flying saucers over Philadelphia in New Jersey right now. Uh, there's volcanoes going on there. They're definitely outside your house circling right now.Sean (04:04):Yeah. Right. So, I mean, um, you know, obviously things are a little crazy right now with, uh, with the Curt, the coven, 19 everything that's going on. Um, I'm trying to not panic at all, especially with my business. Um, luckily I haven't seen too, too bad of a hit and sales and not as bad as some people I know.Stephen (04:24):Got a second. But you, you said one of your products, and we won't, don't out any of them, but one of them, you've sold nothing. So you've had a hundred percent reduction in that particular product, but then you, because you're in multiple categories, you've been able to see a pretty even. Correct. I mean, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but that's, that's pretty, I mean, did, were you that smart to know that that's what you should have done?Sean (04:47):Yeah, I wish, I wish I could take all that credit. No, it just, um, you know, just my, my sourcing habits I guess kinda, um, have brought me into different, different categories and, um, luckily, you know, some of them have taken off and other ones that have been here, especially with the, uh, renewed delivery delays now people aren't, uh, getting, getting prime products for a month now. So, um, you know, some of those products had definitely taken a hit, but like you said, other ones have, have kind of filled in that void. Uh, so it evens out. And I think, um, I think a lot of sellers, uh, I think a lot of settlers are experiencing the same thing. Um, if you're stuck in one category, like, like travel, um, and you know, like we were talking shoes, stuff like that, that that stuff has taken a huge hit right now. But there's definitely categories that are seeing huge lists.Stephen (05:36):They're having the best of their life. Right. I mean, if you're in grocery, you're having the best year ever.Sean (05:41):Yeah. I was looking in some Facebook groups, uh, earlier and people were saying it's been like black Friday for the last week and a half or two weeks. Um, so I'm sure they're, they're doing great, but even with that, there comes a, there come struggles. You've run out of stock and you're, you're struggling to find inventory. If you're doing RA. No way. I'm sure. Uh, it's tough to find that stuff at certain stores and, um, certain stores are closed down. It's, it's very, uh, like I said, everything I think is hectic right now for no matter what your business model is, no matter what your, uh, product category is. I think everyone is kind of scrambling right now.Stephen (06:17):We, we, when I, uh, I, I just think though that product mix that is such a smart move, you know, as I think going forward, even for our business, um, I have to pay more attention. I, I, you know, that we, uh, we got our account went under review and we got through it. It wasn't even two days. It was down immune. It didn't go down. Our stuff stayed live. They held your money, which is interesting. I never had this happen before, but they hold your money and so within a day it was released. But I literally thought, you know, Hey, we've got to go a different approach. And we went back into grocery, which we haven't done in a long, long time and add it back in. And then we went back to fulfilled by merchant. Now you've been to our warehouse many times. You see we have a lot of shipping.Stephen (06:55):We ship every single day. But adding that back to Amazon was a weird feeling for me. It's like, man, I've got, I've become so accustomed, so hooked on FBA. I don't even think that way anymore. Like literally everything we buy, it's always like sending it in. That's the only way we look at it. We don't even judge it any other way. Um, will you, will you make, you know, when you're done with all this, when, when all this cycles through, will that now play into decision making that you make, um, whether you should or could survive, you know, doing fulfilled by merchant products and stuff?Sean (07:30):Um, so for sure, I mean for me, I know a lot of people kinda think fulfilled by merchant is like taking a step back from FBA or it's, it's more work than it's worth or things like that. But I mean, as you know, you have clients that do primarily FBM and do awesome. Um, I think it depends on the product number one. And I do think it's re it's really good to have some stock on hand in another warehouse or in a storage unit where FBM is a possibility. Um, in case of something like this, you never know. I mean, who would have thought that Amazon would be shutting down fulfillment centers and have a month long delivery time for prime products that are normally a day or two delivery time? No, I don't think anyone really thought this was going to happen. Um, I sure didn't. And, uh, but so now for sure, anything that I possibly can, I'm going to try to keep some extra stock on hand. Um, you know, just in case something like this happens. Um, I'm definitely gonna. I have my one private liberal product that's selling well and I'm not gonna be able to ship anymore in because it's not an essential product, but it is seeing a sales lift. So we're definitely gonna have to, uh, merchant fulfill that for the time being.Stephen (08:41):So it, it, I mean, I want to get back to this. This is, I mean this is really deep Sean, right here. Thinking about this, the product mix is really important. That was cross categories, right? What would be the categories that no matter what the zombies are walking the earth, the people are going to want food and grocery. We all know that health and beauty toilet paper for God's sake, right? That would be one of the big categories. We all, we're all going in the toilet paper business, right? But seriously, but then I thought about this, that fulfillment, um, mix. That's another piece of the formula. If you really want to have an even business because it's a challenge. I mean, you've been to a warehouse, you know, uh, you know, I laid off to the guys, you know, those guys you've been here and so it's a challenge. You know, if we were doing more self-fulfillment, uh, we could have probably absorbed more of that. Right? I mean, Hmm. I think, I think, you know, I'm going to sit back and ponder this for a while. Um, I think those two things have to play into the future of our business. Um, and it sounds like you're playing into yours. Um, yeah, for sure. Well, Oh, go ahead. If you want to add anything there.Sean (

Sean is very humble. He will say he does not have it all figured out. I would ask have you met the person who does? So his advice is strong: Sell in multiple categories to weather the storms that will be coming. Now is the time to diversify. How many of us are heavy seller fulfilling right now? Well there are many Amazon businesses that are not built for it and are feeling the pinch.If you sell in grocery you are likely killing it where most clothing sellers are struggling. So diversification across channels, categories and methods allows you to flex. Fix your "B Plan"!Mentioned:Seans previous episodeTips:1- Work on terms with your vendors2- Adjust your Ad Spend3- Don't send all your inventory to Amazon4- Add a thank you card to your FBM5- Revise your listing to recognize people are at home right now Sponsors<a href="https://accountingwewillgo.com/momentum" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon Accounting Simplified</a> – Learn how to manage your business with specific Amazon Accounting training for Quickbooks online from a real CPA<a href="https://asinzen.com/momentum/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AsinZen.com – 30 DAY FREE TRIAL</a><a href="https://viral-launch.com/aff/idevaffiliate.php?id=2083" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Viral Launch – Save $50 with this link (Use coupon code: Momentum)</a><a href="http://www.amazingfreedom.com/momentum-arbitrage" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY LISTENERS ONLY</a><a href="http://www.amazingfreedom.com/momentum-arbitrage" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TWO WEEKS FREE TRIAL!!!!</a><a href="http://www.amazingfreedom.com/momentum-arbitrage" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gaye Lisby and Garry Ray’s Seller Tribe – (Get 14 day free trial!!)</a><a href="https://www.solutions4ecommerce.com/momentum/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Solutions4ecommerce</a><a href="http://sellerlabs.com/momentum" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scope from Sellerlabs</a><a href="https://tacticalarbitrage.com/membership-account/membership-levels/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tactical Arbitrage</a> – Get an 10 day free trial with code: “Tactical”<a href="https://freeeup.com/ecommercemomentum/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freeeup</a>– Save 10% (forever) and get an instant $25.00 voucher for your first hire.<a href="http://trygodaddy.com/click.track?CID=344983&amp;AFID=419630&amp;godaddy.com=momentum" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GoDaddy</a><a href="http://trygrasshopper.com/click.track?CID=336231&amp;AFID=419630&amp;grasshopper.com=momentum" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Grasshopper</a>Transcript:Sean (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=0.19" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">00:00</a>):Wait, they find new products they get in the market. You already know. Um, and then I think product research where if you're looking at, uh, looking to keep the charts and looking at what was selling last summer, uh, and last Christmas are two things that I'm kind of focusing on. Um, because I know if it was selling last Christmas, it's going to be selling again this Christmas most likely.Cool voice guy (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=21.24" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">00:21</a>):Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of eCommerce selling. Today. Here's your host, Steven Peterson.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=34.92" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">00:34</a>):Hey, I'm staying with the no pitch a, I'm not pitching any of the services I've got a bunch of sponsors are and a bunch of companies that if you're looking for any services, which you really shouldn't be buying any surfaces right now, but if you are, I have discounts to them and they pay me. So I don't want to hide that. But they're out there in a website just to go check out this episode. But I'm staying with no pitch right now. I want you to focus and put your head down and do the work. Welcome back to the eCommerce momentum podcast. This is episode 431 Sean human check. I brought Sean back on. Um, because I, I just think again, there, there has to be optimism out there. You've got to sit back and say, yeah, this sucks. I mean, it's face it right now.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=72.24" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">01:12</a>):This is a challenge, you know, especially as people are getting sick and people, I mean, it's just breaking my heart to see some of these stories. It's just heartbreaking. But you can't cower in the corner. You have to push through it. Or I see people who are having huge financial problems because they're up against the wall. You know, and I understand it. You know, if you've listened to my show, you heard that our account went under review. You know, that pause for a day and a half. But it's still, it was the first time that's ever happened to us. So it was like, Whoa, that was a wake up, you know? But there are some really good information out there. There's some good plans, there's some people doing it right. And I think Sean, Sean got some really good advice, um, in this episode and some things I had not thought about.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=113.55" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">01:53</a>):But I, I love, I mean I want you to really pay attention to product mix and fulfillment mix those two, four pieces of the formula that you can plan for. You know, and again, fulfillment mix might not be activated until you need it, but based on drip inventory, you can manage that. So the, all these terms, I know I'm just dropping some things, but listen to the episode and we get into exactly what all that means and how it can apply to you. And it's got me thinking about, you know, what we're going to do. So I just think there's some really solid advice. Um, and it just, just a wonderful person and just a really smart guy who can offer, um, some optimism to you. Let's get into the podcast and welcome back to the eCommerce momentum podcast. Excited for a return guest. Actually, it wasn't that long ago. It was a little more than a year or so ago that we spoke, but I thought, I thought, uh, it's a perfect person to come bring on during these trying times. And I think that's a fair description trying times to talk to some rationalization, some reason and kind of how he's doing it and I think, I think he has something to offer. So welcome back Shawn human Chuck, welcome Sean.Sean (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=178.51" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">02:58</a>):Thanks for having. Um, asStephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=180.04" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">03:00</a>):always, I love talking to you and, uh, excited to, uh, excited to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to have you because again, go back to January, 2019. You can listen to Sean's episode, um, and get some backstory there, but you really did a great transition in your business from the old RA and all that stuff. Built out wholesale, built out private label, uh, then took your wholesale to other levels, which I, I'm always impressed with cause it's not easy. Back then. This was the phrase, and I told you this in the preinterview create a job you like, let me ask you how that's working for you right now.Sean (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=215.62" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">03:35</a>):It's working great. Um, I mean, I'm still, what I want positivity, a lot of the, a lot of the same stuff I was doing a little over a year ago. I'm still doing,Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=225.44" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">03:45</a>):but the world's uploading. Sean, I don't think anybody told you the worlds. Have you been outside? Have you seen there? Uh, there are flying saucers over Philadelphia in New Jersey right now. Uh, there's volcanoes going on there. They're definitely outside your house circling right now.Sean (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=244.05" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">04:04</a>):Yeah. Right. So, I mean, um, you know, obviously things are a little crazy right now with, uh, with the Curt, the coven, 19 everything that's going on. Um, I'm trying to not panic at all, especially with my business. Um, luckily I haven't seen too, too bad of a hit and sales and not as bad as some people I know.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=264.28" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">04:24</a>):Got a second. But you, you said one of your products, and we won't, don't out any of them, but one of them, you've sold nothing. So you've had a hundred percent reduction in that particular product, but then you, because you're in multiple categories, you've been able to see a pretty even. Correct. I mean, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but that's, that's pretty, I mean, did, were you that smart to know that that's what you should have done?Sean (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=287.87" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">04:47</a>):Yeah, I wish, I wish I could take all that credit. No, it just, um, you know, just my, my sourcing habits I guess kinda, um, have brought me into different, different categories and, um, luckily, you know, some of them have taken off and other ones that have been here, especially with the, uh, renewed delivery delays now people aren't, uh, getting, getting prime products for a month now. So, um, you know, some of those products had definitely taken a hit, but like you said, other ones have, have kind of filled in that void. Uh, so it evens out. And I think, um, I think a lot of sellers, uh, I think a lot of settlers are experiencing the same thing. Um, if you're stuck in one category, like, like travel, um, and you know, like we were talking shoes, stuff like that, that that stuff has taken a huge hit right now. But there's definitely categories that are seeing huge lists.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=336.23" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">05:36</a>):They're having the best of their life. Right. I mean, if you're in grocery, you're having the best year ever.Sean (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=341.23" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">05:41</a>):Yeah. I was looking in some Facebook groups, uh, earlier and people were saying it's been like black Friday for the last week and a half or two weeks. Um, so I'm sure they're, they're doing great, but even with that, there comes a, there come struggles. You've run out of stock and you're, you're struggling to find inventory. If you're doing RA. No way. I'm sure. Uh, it's tough to find that stuff at certain stores and, um, certain stores are closed down. It's, it's very, uh, like I said, everything I think is hectic right now for no matter what your business model is, no matter what your, uh, product category is. I think everyone is kind of scrambling right now.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=377.44" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">06:17</a>):We, we, when I, uh, I, I just think though that product mix that is such a smart move, you know, as I think going forward, even for our business, um, I have to pay more attention. I, I, you know, that we, uh, we got our account went under review and we got through it. It wasn't even two days. It was down immune. It didn't go down. Our stuff stayed live. They held your money, which is interesting. I never had this happen before, but they hold your money and so within a day it was released. But I literally thought, you know, Hey, we've got to go a different approach. And we went back into grocery, which we haven't done in a long, long time and add it back in. And then we went back to fulfilled by merchant. Now you've been to our warehouse many times. You see we have a lot of shipping.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=415.87" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">06:55</a>):We ship every single day. But adding that back to Amazon was a weird feeling for me. It's like, man, I've got, I've become so accustomed, so hooked on FBA. I don't even think that way anymore. Like literally everything we buy, it's always like sending it in. That's the only way we look at it. We don't even judge it any other way. Um, will you, will you make, you know, when you're done with all this, when, when all this cycles through, will that now play into decision making that you make, um, whether you should or could survive, you know, doing fulfilled by merchant products and stuff?Sean (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=450.71" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">07:30</a>):Um, so for sure, I mean for me, I know a lot of people kinda think fulfilled by merchant is like taking a step back from FBA or it's, it's more work than it's worth or things like that. But I mean, as you know, you have clients that do primarily FBM and do awesome. Um, I think it depends on the product number one. And I do think it's re it's really good to have some stock on hand in another warehouse or in a storage unit where FBM is a possibility. Um, in case of something like this, you never know. I mean, who would have thought that Amazon would be shutting down fulfillment centers and have a month long delivery time for prime products that are normally a day or two delivery time? No, I don't think anyone really thought this was going to happen. Um, I sure didn't. And, uh, but so now for sure, anything that I possibly can, I'm going to try to keep some extra stock on hand. Um, you know, just in case something like this happens. Um, I'm definitely gonna. I have my one private liberal product that's selling well and I'm not gonna be able to ship anymore in because it's not an essential product, but it is seeing a sales lift. So we're definitely gonna have to, uh, merchant fulfill that for the time being.Stephen (<a href="https://www.temi.com/editor/t/rsAmiVHcUXxxnH44-opkgES7ZS3FGauvpbk9CkLMMHhu680GOfgtAl-CHtAcALC3xiZYppk7o8W22nZa3hyvf-4iVLM?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&amp;ts=521.78" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">08:41</a>):So it, it, I mean, I want to get back to this. This is, I mean this is really deep Sean, right here. Thinking about this, the product mix is really important. That was cross categories, right? What would be the categories that no matter what the zombies are walking the earth, the people are going to want food and grocery. We all know that health and beauty toilet paper for God's sake, right? That would be one of the big categories. We all, we're all going in the toilet paper business, right? But seriously, but then I thought about this, that fulfillment, um, mix. That's another piece of the formula. If you really want to have an even business because it's a challenge. I mean, you've been to a warehouse, you know, uh, you know, I laid off to the guys, you know, those guys you've been here and so it's a challenge. You know, if we were doing more self-fulfillment, uh, we could have probably absorbed more of that. Right? I mean, Hmm. I think, I think, you know, I'm going to sit back and ponder this for a while. Um, I think those two things have to play into the future of our business. Um, and it sounds like you're playing into yours. Um, yeah, for sure. Well, Oh, go ahead. If you want to add anything there.Sean (

430 : Sean Humenchuk : Selling in different categories helps when the market changes quickly

The title really says it all for Sean. He really does want to work on his terms. There is a negative connotation to the phrase: “Be careful that you don’t create a job for yourself”. But when you think about it, no matter what role you take on you are “working”. So why not figure out the part of this work YOU love. It is not the same for everyone. There are leaders, operators, CEO’s, CFO’s, Marketers and countless other possible roles to take on. Which one is right for you? Which one brings you “Marie Kondo” level joy? Go all in even if that makes you a great number two. No matter what pushing past the hard parts makes it so sweet in the end!   Mentioned: Sean’s Facebook Contact Sponsors SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY LISTENERS ONLY TWO WEEKS FREE TRIAL!!!! Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List Solutions4ecommerce Scope from Sellerlabs Tactical Arbitrage – Get an 18 day free trial with code: “Tactical” Freeeup– Save 10% (forever) and get an instant $25.00 voucher for your first hire. GoDaddy Grasshopper Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better) Sean:                                     [00:00:00]               Yeah, I mean, uh, I, you know, uh, I have a little bit of the Shiny Object Syndrome, right? I, and it was kind of a progression. I went from, you know, the drop shipping to Ra, so there’s some oaa to wholesale and then private label was the obvious next step. Um, and once, once I kinda thought I had wholesale down and again, I’m no expert at anything, but once I was making a consistent income of wholesale, I figured it was time to take another course and learn a little bit about private label and diversify. Um, because I’ve had those, I had those brands, you know, take that income from, uh, you know, and it’s tough. So I, I wanted to try to diversify my income a little bit, um, and not be so reliant on another person’s brand. I wanted to build and build my Cool voice guy:                  [00:00:43]               welcome to the focus on the people, the products and the process of selling today, Steven feeders in. Stephen:                             [00:00:58]               Want to jump in and talk about two sponsors today. Sellerlabs scope. You’ve heard me say it, you know, and, and you know, you’re probably sitting there saying, Steve, you said this every episode I do because I believe in the product. Um, yes, uh, similar labs is a sponsor. Michelle, don’t get that wrong, however, it’s a sponsor of a product that I use, so I’m Kinda lucky they pay me and yet I pay to use the product and the reason I pay to use the product is because it allows me to, um, get better listings, right? That’s what you need to do, right? If you’re selling on Amazon, you need to understand keywords and you need to figure out what are the right keywords. And sometimes it’s confusing as heck. Why does a certain key word work a certain way? Well, the beauty of is in scope. Stephen:                             [00:01:40]               As you can pull up your competitor who’s really crushing it and see what keywords they’re using, that’s the lesson. And then you can find a similar one and pull them up and you’re going to see a pattern and then you do that pattern for yourself and you can get those same results if you get lucky and figure out what the key word is for your product. So take some of the luck out of it and use scope. Um, again, go to [inaudible] dot com, forward slash scope. Use the code momentum, save 50 bucks and try it and see if you can improve an existing listing. I think that’s the best thing you can do is take one of your listings that’s performing and then go in and try to enhance it and see if you see an improvement. Give it, you know, 30 days or what have you. Stephen:                             [00:02:20]               And if you see an improvement, then there’s a clue that maybe you can see an improvement on all your listings. That’s why I use a scope and I just think it’s such a great product because I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Right? There are much smarter people than I that have done a lot of other cool things to figure out what the keyword is and what people are searching for. Use in a whole bunch of other techniques and then you get to take advantage of it and it’s really inexpensive and again, you’re going to save 50 bucks. So solar labs.com, forward slash scope. Use the Kobo momentum, save 50 bucks. Second one is Karen Locker and I talk about her a lot. Right now. They’re reconciling of shipment and they’re sending the note. Steve, you have to send in receipts because that’s one of the big hassles. Stephen:                             [00:02:58]               Now I’ve got to send receipts to prove that I bought this stuff so I can get my reimbursement and her team is all over me. Like, Steve, this is your third request. That’s designed service. Sometimes I need. I’ve been traveling these last few weeks extensively. I kind of need somebody else. Yes, I could have somebody sitting in my office doing it, but that would be a fulltime employee and we don’t want any full time employees. I’m just my wife, my son and I. and so anyway, um, that’s why I have members of my team in different areas and I don’t want to have to manage them, you know, I know Karen uses some Va’s, but I don’t want to have to manage that team. And so she does that and her team does the team leaders and stuff and they’d been doing it for me, for me, my wife for I don’t know, two or three years. Stephen:                             [00:03:39]               And we’ve been very, very pleased because the money they saved me, the refunds, they get me, the reimbursements, they get me the fixes when I’m on the road and hey, this isn’t, you know, correct. And they can fix it or I have a question. That depth of knowledge that I get from Karen because of her experience is so worth the price. So it is, um, solutions four ecommerce. So the word solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. Okay, so use that code solutions four ecommerce.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50 and $50 a month is a lot of money. And what’s really cool is she’s going to do that inventory health report that I talk about. If you’ve not done one, you should, you know, I mean, you’re getting a clue every week when they tell you your inventory health report. Stephen:                             [00:04:29]               But if you want to dig deeper, and again, if you don’t want to do the work, that’s the beauty, she’s going to send you a spreadsheet and then you can parse it and slice and dice and then send it back saying, hey, kill this stuff, refund this, donate this Blahblahblahblahblah. That’s what I do and I don’t have to go through and do the work. And it’s just important to have a person on your team you can trust. And again, I’ve been paying for the service for two and a half, three years. I have to ask her how long it’s been. And I’m very, very pleased, uh, would think of no one else to be on her team. But Karen and her team, because of what they’ve done, I look for consistency over time. You’ve heard me say that and I’ve gotten it from Karen. So solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum saved the 50 bucks. Stephen:                             [00:05:09]               Get your inventory health report, get 2019 in order and start this new year off. Right? It’s gonna. Be a great one. Well, we’ll back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 372. Sean Human Chuck. I’m one of the coolest stories I’ve seen it. Just the way it flows, the way his, his trek has flown through the ecommerce world, starting in drop shipping, which I didn’t know about. Um, evolving into wholesale or Ra then into wholesale and into private label and back into wholesale with a private label approach I think is so powerful. His explanation of why building someone else’s brand I think is probably one of the strongest because I get asked that question a lot. Well, I don’t want to build somebody else’s brand. Well, I mean his diversification explanation I think is a really solid one and what he can do for that brand. But he’s not building, you know, uh, somebody else’s brand along with 100 other sellers. Stephen:                             [00:06:04]               He’s walking past those customers. And that think that’s the distinction and I think he does a great job explaining phenomenal, phenomenal seller and I’m lucky to call him a friend. Let’s get into the podcast. Yeah, welcome back to ECOMMERCE, but minute podcast, I’m very excited about today’s guest, a good friend, a smart guy who I’ve seen evolve and we’re going to talk about that evolution, which I didn’t know about drop shipping. This is really going to be interesting to hear all the way through to what he’s doing in private label and wholesale. I mean, just phenomenal Sean. Human check. Welcome Shawn. Sean:                                     [00:06:38]               Thank you so much for having me mean, you know, I’ve been listening to for a little over three years now, so it’s a pretty cool to actually be on the pocket. Stephen:                             [00:06:46]               Um, and it, your life is why you couldn’t get out before you’re, you’ve, you’ve got lots of moving pieces, although a lot of them have stopped moving, which is very exciting. Then we’ll talk about her but, but to me, I think watching you evolve and I think that’s the best term to use. When you say your experience with ecommerce. Sean:                                     [00:07:07]               Yeah, I mean I think that’s a perfect way to put it to where I am now. It’s a, it’s totally changed in the last couple of years. Stephen:                             [00:07:15]               Well, yeah. Let’s go back because, uh, you, which I didn’t know that you started in drop shipping. How, how did you even find out about drop shipping? Sean:                                     [00:07:23]               Uh, so a local, a friend of mine’s cousin actually Stephen:                             [00:07:28]               my next door neighbor’s brother-in-law, sister knew somebody who knew. Go ahead. Sean:                                     [00:07:33]               Well, his background is like Internet marketing. So I’d see them at bars, he’d always hand me a business card, hey, I got this opportunity and I kinda was always, I go home and Google it and I’d be like, all right, that seems a little. There’s all these warnings on Google, you know, so you stay away from those. And then I seen him posting his Amazon sales numbers a couple of years later and I’m like, what are you selling? What’s $40,000 in sales? That sounds pretty, pretty serious to me. So I asked him about it and uh, he, he got me introduced to drop ship domination, which is very, very controversial in the Amazon, in the Amazon space. Um, but I’m, I’m thankful for it because it got me, it got me my start and introduce me to ecommerce. And this was years ago. Yes, this was like the middle of Twenty 15 is when I first kind of started dabbling with drop shipping on Ebay and it was actually, um, I was sourcing products on Amazon to sell on Ebay. Stephen:                             [00:08:32]               And so let me make sure I understand this concept because I think I do so especially back then, um, but you could, uh, somebody, you would use the ds domination software and uh, it would, it would scrape Amazon in some way and it would find a product and then it would, it would create a listing on Ebay or somehow Sean:                                     [00:08:53]               not even. It was basically, um, I mean it was like, it was a training program. They would train you. You paid $20 a month, they trained in how to drop ship on Ebay. You pay $50 or $100, they teach you how to drop ship on Amazon had just how to create an account and the basics of it. And then there were some facebook groups that you got access to, but it was a very low level training and then if you paid like, I think they had a $1,500 program that would teach you the basics of private label. Now I never got that forward because I was, you know, I was, I was still working and I was just trying to dabble a little bit and ecommerce and get my feet wet. Um, so through them I only, I started drop shipping on Ebay and then. Stephen:                             [00:09:37]               Well how did you do that? To walk us through that? Did you create stuff yourself? I mean it was at one on one and then when it’s sold you had to manually go in. You didn’t use a software’s. Sean:                                     [00:09:45]               Exactly, yeah, exactly. I was going through, I mean, like I said, this was, I had no, I had no idea what I was getting into. Steve. I had no idea, uh, that people were buying things from retail stores and selling them on Ebay and Amazon. I mean, this was a whole new concept to me. Um, so I was probably, you know, a little late into the game of drop shipping on Ebay for sure. Um, but it, it showed me how, you know, showed me how ecommerce we’re on, so I had to go in and create the listings myself and then when Stephen:                             [00:10:13]               on Ebay. So, so, so let’s just say Steve’s water...

372 : Sean Humenchuk – Don’t just create work, Create a job that you like