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Scott Voelker Shares How to Build a Successful Business From the Ground Up With “The Take Action Effect”
Scott Voelker, the amazing seller himself, is back on the podcast today with a new book that will guide entrepreneurs on a path to financial freedom. Scott has transformed from someone who dabbled in e-commerce into a seven figure business owner, author, and host of one of the most popular e-commerce podcasts out there. Now he is sharing his tips with other entrepreneurs, offering sets of specific steps to follow to create a business that will allow freedom and flexibility.
From the construction career he left at an early age to starting and building a successful photography business, Scott has built on his entrepreneurial nature for over two decades. In 2008 he started selling photography products online and soon realized it could become a full time income. Fast forward a few more years and he started to hear more about Amazon FBA model and how some people were making good money using the platform. He started researching and listening to any valuable information he could garner then used all the know-how he’d gathered and applied it to his product listings.
Episode Highlights:
- How Scott and his wife got their start building a business from the ground up.
- Scott discusses the path he took and how the book delves into his future plans.
- Whether he finds the pathway to the end goal more difficult than five to ten years ago.
- How Scott is evolving from being “The Amazon Guy.”
- Helping others with the book and the action steps he outlines.
- Scott addresses the question of finding time to start a side hustle.
- Learning how to schedule downtime once success allows for less work time.
- Tips for finding that future-proof opportunity.
- Taking the affiliate marketing path as an opportunity to learn your market.
- Using channel diversification as a building block.
Transcription:
Mark: Joe recently I sent you a book through Amazon that I was hoping you would read and I’m assuming that’s the next book on your reading list, right?
Joe: No. Sorry.
Mark: I’m not going to buy you any more gifts.
Joe: No. Now you sent it to me via Amazon and I think I have to download it onto my Kindle app.
Mark: You haven’t even downloaded it?
Joe: I haven’t even downloaded it.
Mark: Oh my goodness.
Joe: You’re just trying me. See the reason I haven’t is because it’s a productivity book and you’re trying to get me to be more productive but I haven’t read it yet so I’m not as productive as I could be. Do you see an excuse thing going on here?
Mark: Productivity is one of those things that I’m sure everybody’s like Joe is terrible at getting stuff done.
Joe: This book I’m holding out for those that are on the YouTube channel. Thank you for being on the YouTube channel, by the way, you’re awesome. This is the book I’m currently reading it’s called the Take Action effect By Scott Voelker; a friend of ours and we just had him on the podcast. And that’s what the book is all about. It’s a combination of, and this is why I’m not reading the book you sent me. And I have one more in front of that by the way but this one is amazing it’s really telling Scott’s story. Scott as lot of people know has a podcast called The Amazing Seller podcast. With the audience he has every month he could fill up the Bank of America Stadium here in Charlotte and I think that’s like 25, 30,000 people. He started out just telling his story building an Amazon business and everything he was going through. He just laid it all out on the line. He’s really transferred himself or transformed himself into someone that is first and foremost helping people take action in their lives and he talks about this in the book and how he did certain things in his life and what an impact it had and what it led to next and next and next and now where he’s at running a 7 figure business with the lifestyle that he wants. It’s still one of the most important things about Scott and the book and the action steps that he shows people how to take is to run a business, set your own goals, how to set goals properly with vision boards and different things but with a lifestyle that you want. This is not a get rich quick scheme it’s a book to build the life that you want; how to take certain steps and actions and if you want to run a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 million dollar business great. These will help and there are some examples of that; of people that are doing that. But if you want to just earn an extra couple of thousand dollars on the side and build the business slowly there are absolutely some steps in there for those folks as well; people that are listening now that still have full time jobs that don’t dare buy a business this allows them to take certain steps and actions to do that and build a safe business that’s going to be relatively passive that they could do part-time as they build that up and eventually quit your day job work and sell it through Quiet Light.
Mark: One of the things I like about this is the idea of having a purpose to what you’re doing. And I think there is this tendency to chase success, chase success, chase success, and we put in our minds that success is a certain business goal while we ignore the other aspects of our life. And I know over the past 13 years running Quiet Light Brokerage I’ve run across so many successful entrepreneurs who have built amazing businesses but frankly are somewhat miserable because they’ve built prisons for themselves. And we talk about why are people selling. Sometimes it’s just because they’ve built that prison of a business and they need to get out. And they realize that they need to readjust their life priorities. I love when we meet people like Scott, like Ezra Firestone, and some of these other guys that have reached certain levels of success and now what they’re doing is they’re really trying to just be helpful and really contribute to that entrepreneurial community with some of the lessons they’ve learned. And I love the focus of this book. I love that it’s a system out there to help you identify what’s really important and have everything else flow into that, set the real goals out there and build that system including the business that fits those goals.
Joe: And it’s just that Scott is a real guy giving real-life examples of things that he’s done and the path that he’s taken and he’s giving real advice here that is action-oriented. And it’s a mindset. It’s inspiration. And they’re steps to take as well. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in 2019. I highly recommend everybody take a listen to the podcast and at the end and in the show notes here you can go to take action effect and download or buy the book. It’s available. He went further than our very own Walker Deibel, he made it available in the audio version as well.
Mark: Walker needs to step his game up and start a recording. No. Fantastic. Let’s get to this episode here. I love introducing our audience to people that we find to be good friends of Quiet Light because they share some of our mission and purpose. So I’m excited to share this episode with everybody.
Joe: Let’s get to it.
Joe: Hey folks Joe Valley here from the Quiet Light Podcast and today I have a guest that is back on. But this time he is a published author on his way I’m sure to being a best-selling author. Scott Volker, welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast.
Scott: What’s going on Joe? Thanks so much for having me.
Joe: Welcome back I should say. I just saw you a couple of weeks ago at Brand Accelerator Live; a fantastic event where you launched the book, a big hit and my goodness I’m looking at some of the reviews and they’re fantastic. And I’m reading it myself of course. And let’s get into that but first for those folks that don’t actually know who you are why don’t you tell us all about Scott Voelker?
Scott: Yeah. Well to kind of sum it up I’ve been at this basically creating businesses that allow me to have the flexibility, the freedom, that’s always my first and foremost. Back when I was like 21 years old I was working for my father’s construction company and from there I thought I was going to own that company one day and then that partnership and son in law that was stealing and some craziness I soon saw that that wasn’t the path that I was going to take. But I wanted to still be able to work for myself and my wife and I started a photography business, learned the ropes through good old trial and error, and built that into a business that allowed us to take our kids to school and home from school and all of that stuff. And it’s really important me to watch my kids grow up and I’ve got 3 kids ages now 11, 21, and 24. But I’ve been at this for over 18 years and really building businesses hasn’t really changed just the platforms have changed. And so when I wrote this book I wanted to go through and tell the story of myself. Someone that didn’t have a college degree and felt a long time ago that I kind of felt to myself like I wasn’t smart because I didn’t go to college. But then after kind of building some businesses and watching other people go to their 60 plus hour a week job and then seeing myself not have to do that I was like well wait a minute I’m going to give myself a little bit more credit. I’ve done okay. And so it in a nutshell that’s what I do. I just love building businesses. But I like more about just building a business it’s more about the freedom and the flexibility, stability and all that stuff.
Joe: And that is what you talk about in the book. Let me just; I don’t think I said what the name of the book is. It’s called The Take Action Effect.
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: Proven Steps To Build a Future Proof Business And Create Your Ultimate Freedom. I’ll hold it up here for those folks that are on the podcast; I’m sorry on the YouTube channel.
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: One of the things that you talk about in the book really hit home with me and that is that your wife had that first idea for you to go off and on your own.
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: And it’s and it’s continued in your relationship. You guys work through all of your business opportunities and ideas together, right?
Scott: Yeah, 100%. I mean she was my take action moment as I talk about in the book a lot. I think we all have these moments in our life that something happens; like a decision happens that we make either because we’re forced to and then we see the result from it or we choose to, we take that leap. And I was frustrated with my job and I thought I was going to own this company and then found out that it wasn’t going to probably happen and we needed to figure out another way. And then that’s when my wife had said maybe we should start a photography business which at the time we didn’t have digital it was all film based not YouTube videos to go out there and educate yourself. So Scott that wasn’t a good student in school had to figure out how to go through and teach myself Photoshop and just how to run a studio and we did that. But yes she was the one with the idea and still to this day she’s always the one kind of nudging me a little bit and saying like you should probably listen to this. Even the podcast The Amazing Seller Podcast that was because she said that you should; I had the idea but she was likey should probably lean into that a little bit and here we are.
Joe: That’s funny you know my wife usually has the idea and then I have to go out and do it. It’s a running joke in 20 plus years of marriage. I was going to I think our wives are very similar. Our marriages are very similar but it sounds like there’s one distinct difference is that my wife comes up with the idea and I have to execute. So you’re taking a lot of past so it’s interesting from a construction worker to entrepreneur in the photography space before really the online world existed and then discovering it through eBay and then Amazon and then The Amazing Seller podcast.
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: Can you just talk about that path a little bit and talk about what the Part 2 of this business about this book talks about?
Scott: Yeah. So like I said the photography business being brick and mortar I learned a lot about how to get clients in the door. And a lot of people say like Scott when you start a business should it be your passion. And if it could be then yes that would be amazing because then you would love to work on it every day. But I wasn’t passionate about photography. I was passionate about getting out of my job. So my wife was passionate about photography but then I started to develop these passions and that was marketing and that was Photoshop and video editing. And the way that it kind of led me to really the online space and e-commerce really was my wife was looking for props on eBay. So in our business, we always were unique in the way that we had props. We had certain sets and we had like a lot of backgrounds that cost us 2 or $3,000 and people would pay just to come in because we had this hand-painted backdrop. So my wife was looking for this cedar bridge that she had seen somewhere else and she found one on eBay. It was like 130 bucks it was a little 4-foot little wooden cedar bridge. And so then as she was looking at one of the other stores that she shops at she’s seen the same bridge for 30 bucks and she’s like it’s selling for 130. I bought one for 130 maybe we should try to sell this thing. I said okay. So then that’s where we got the idea and we started selling those. Actually, we took the minivan over to the store and we loaded it up and we packed that thing and that money actually paid for our kids tuition for a private school. And so that opened my eyes to eBay and like what else could I sell, right? And even though I had a business I’m still thinking to myself as an entrepreneur like well that wasn’t that hard. Maybe I should try to find more things to sell. So then we actually started a video business on the side of our photography business; they kind of work too, you know one of the same. And then I started building these projectors to transfer old 8-millimeter film. So the old 8-millimeter film that we use to have grown up as kids it was a lot of times silent film but there was some sound when it got; I think it was Super 8 and then I found a machine that was modified to transfer the film. And so when I got that I kind of looked at it and being in the construction world I’m like this is just a modified projector. Let me go ahead and reverse engineer what they did here and I did that and I started selling them on eBay for about 800 bucks. I was selling one or two of them a week.
Joe: Wow.
Scott: Yeah, so I made about 100,000 on just old projectors that I modified for film transfer and that’s kind of what got my wheels spinning about this online stuff.
Joe: And it never would have happened if you didn’t; I’m going say this so many times, taken some action, right? Entrepreneurs are special people. They come up with an idea and they don’t think about it and think about it and think about it and think about it. They’ve got to do some planning, of course, the more complex world we live in you’ve got to do some planning especially when you’re going to spend some dollars. But I think maybe Scott back then when you and I didn’t have any gray hair we were able to take action a little simpler and a little quicker, right? I would just with that whole ready aim fire or ready fire aim what is it?
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: Those things, right? And I just take my path and hustle and work hard and get it done and figure out the road to that end goal which I knew what the end goal was. I just didn’t know the road or the path.
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: Are you finding now given that you’ve; I mean you’ve done all this for 20 years an entrepreneur in many, many different past and you’ve coached thousands of people through The Amazing Seller podcast and many of them 6, 7, 8, 10 figure exit eventually.
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: Are you finding that the pathway to that end goal whether it’s an eventual exit of a business or just a one of a lifestyle where you can drive your kids to work every day and spend more time with your spouse and you take family vacations, is it more difficult than it used to be in your opinion?
Scott: I think it depends on what your final outcome is. I think for a lot of people it’s not about building an 8 figure business just to say you built an 8 figure business; to some people it is. It’s like bragging rights but for a lot of people; and I know you told me a story about a guy he was a stay at home dad I think and he built his company in 2 years without pulling a dime out of it so they could cash it out and then live off of that and live the life that they wanted. So I think for a lot of people it is that. So for me personally I think it is I don’t want to say easy; it’s simple. Nothing is easy. Like everything that I’ve ever done, there’s always been struggles and issues that you have to overcome; whatever like that’s business. You just have to learn how to adapt, how to move, and adjust. But I think it is actually easier nowadays to build a business that you can potentially exit. And actually getting to know you more, getting to know the team over at Quiet Light has actually got my wheels spinning once again at looking at this as an opportunity for me to build something maybe from scratch, get it to a certain level, and then sell it, and then you just repeat that process. Like I could build a team to just help me do that. So again my wheels are always spinning. And the more I talk to you and I start hearing these stories I’m like that seems like a pretty straightway to go. But the principles and the concepts are pretty much the same. They haven’t really changed. And that’s what is in the book is really these pillars; these core things that make up a market, make up products, make up traffic; like all of that stuff hasn’t really changed. The platforms change but the principles never change.
Joe: You addressed some of the approaches in Part 2 of the book about building your future proof business.
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: You started out as an Amazon guy, right? You were selling on Amazon telling your story in the podcast but you’ve evolved quite a bit. Can you address that and then we’ll talk about how the book addresses it as well?
Scott: Well yeah but the book itself actually is my pivot. So we talk about pivoting all the time. So when I started the podcast you’re right I was getting into the Amazon game just like everyone else was. It’s just I was kind of doing it and other people were just kind of consuming information and saying like I’ll wait until we have all the pieces that are working or all of the answers, right?
Joe: You were telling your story whether it was a success or a failure and everybody was listening.
Scott: Exactly. And so as I started to do that I also started to see how the market was shifting. So when the podcast was started it was Scott the Amazon guy. And then after I started to kind of see that the market was changing, more competition was coming, and it was getting a little bit riskier I’m like I don’t want to go down that road. Now that doesn’t mean it can’t work. I just don’t want the headaches of constantly just worrying that my accounts are going to get shut down or whatever. So I’m like I’m going to go back to basics build a business from skill sets that I’ve built and I talk a lot about that in the book like everything we’ve done we’ve built skill sets that we can then leverage in the future. So for me to really go down that road of like okay where was I van and where am I now, it’s all about evolving; all about growing. I mean I think we’re all doing that as we learn more things like even like when I first started I didn’t think about having a brand that I could exit. And now I’m thinking; a lot of times I’m thinking to myself could this brand be sold, what would it take to sell this business? So a lot of times I’m thinking more along those lines now. But like I said people are always kind of like thinking of me as the Amazon guy and I don’t want to be known; I don’t want to 20 years from now be Scott the Amazon guy. I want to be the guy that helped people build a business that allowed them the life that they want and that they deserve.
Joe: That’s what I’m seeing with the people that I’ve met that have listened to your podcast and then to your events and are connected with you in any way. Whether it’s Brand Accelerator Live, your inner circle Mastermind group, or The Amazing Seller podcast; they’re not just building Amazon businesses, they’re building businesses that will allow them to live the life that they choose to first and foremost.
Scott: Right.
Joe: Some of them that’s all about building value and exiting and others it’s all about taking care of others. Rachel; I had a conversation with one of your followers, listeners, attendees, whatever you want to call them, Rachel we don’t use the last name but an amazing story. She’s building a business so that she can help others.
Scott: Yes.
Joe: She’s going to make money off the business but that’s not the focus. The goal is to be able to use that money to help others foster children charities and things of that nature; really good people. You’re building good humans which I think is terrific. You’re surrounding yourself with them as well.
Scott: It’s pretty awesome. It’s funny Joe I was just listening to the Ask Scott session that we recorded there live at Brand Accelerator and it just happened that the one lady came up and was telling us about her problem and her problem was is that she was wondering how she was going to keep up with the amount of scale. And I said that’s a real bad problem to have. And I knew you were in there; I thought you were in there and I called you out and I go I think this is a question for Joe later kind of let him help you on that. But it’s really; it’s pretty rewarding to sit there and think to yourself I had something to do just because I showed up, pressed record, and started helping people. That right there that will; to me that surpasses any amount of money that I can make from a podcast is hearing other people’s stories and how they’re set up now to really live the life or maybe donate to their charity. That’s like again the effect of the take action is the effects of that we’re able to do the ripple effect on other people but also on your life and your business. So it’s really about the ripple effect all the way through.
Joe: Yeah, not necessarily about just building that business and exiting it. It’s everybody involved along the way.
Scott: 100%.
Joe: That lady was Karen by the way and she did have some good problems, right? People wish to have her problems.
Scott: Growth every year, year after year, and I don’t know…
Joe: Yeah. How do I keep up with buying more inventory? One of the things that you talked about which I think is really, really important both in the book and on stage and I’m going to just summarize for anybody listening. This book really encapsulates everything Scott’s done in his life and what you’ve done in your life, Scott. But then it also gives a pathway to taking action and seeing what the impact and effect of that action is. But someone said look I’m busy I’ve got a full-time job. I’m trying to do this. How did you find the time for that? How do you find the time for this if you; you’re an advocate of don’t quit your day job if you have one do a little side hustle and build this over time until it’s safe to exit. How would you address that question but Scott I just don’t have time?
Scott: Yeah and I actually I address this on stage when I came to that point because I shared my story that I was working 60 plus hours a week for my father’s company running I think was like 13, 14 guys at one time that were underneath me making sure that those jobs got done. So I was always the first one there and the last one to leave like always. On the side, I was building a house from scratch. I was like 25 years old.
Joe: That took a little time.
Scott: It took me 11 months. And I remember Joe my mother in law lived up on the Hill. She lived probably I don’t know maybe 500 or 1,000 feet. She was up on a hill though and she could look down and see the property. We had two acres. And I remember one night I wanted to get this one spot on the house done outside. It was up in the peak. I had a 30-foot ladder up against the house and I had floodlights out there at 2 o’clock in the morning because I wanted to finish. She couldn’t sleep because she was worried about me going to fall and I’m up there nailing up my siding because I wanted to get that peak done because I didn’t want to come back to it the next day and do it. And then I got up at 6x o’clock and I went to work. So when people say I don’t have time I don’t have sympathy for that because you probably have time you just are not really wanting it bad enough in my eyes. You know what you’re watching your TV show or maybe you’re taking an extended lunch break or maybe you’re just oh I need my 8 hours of sleep you know like get 6 for a month, right? I mean it’s not going to kill you but if you really want it bad enough you will find the time. And I’ve done it. My photography business when I was learning that when I was getting ready to leave my job I was up till 2 o’clock in the morning figuring out Photoshop. I was figuring out how we were going to do billing for our customers. Like I was figuring out all that stuff late at night and then I’d get up and I’d go to my job because I wanted it so bad. And I was so interested in it because I wanted it so bad.
Joe: Yeah you are preaching to the choir if I’m the choir right now because yeah look the thing that I see consistently I mean I’ve done this in my life you and I have been self-employed for about the same amount of time and it’s always started with a side hustle and then work like crazy. As you are building that business you’re not really making a whole lot of money. You’re not taking anything out and oddly enough when you’re making the most money is actually when you’re not working as hard in my experience.
Scott: Right.
Joe: You get it up to that level and it starts to just; it’s a scalable business. And with that scale, it’s starting to generate enough revenue to kick off and then you can quit your day job and then you can live that lifestyle that you want. It’s hard though when you’re a hard worker and a hustler like yourself and like so many people that are listening. How do you shift from that I’m used to working, I love working, I’m going to work, I’m going to work, I’m going to work to I’m going to sit down and I’m going to have coffee and breakfast with my wife every day by the pool at 8 o’clock? Do you have the discipline to really reschedule your downtime?
Scott: You definitely have to schedule it for sure. You have to schedule it and I’m getting better with that like I’m still not perfect Joe. I have to make sure that at 6 o’clock at night that’s my cutoff. I’m not going to do anymore posting and I’m not going to do any more answering. It’s hard because we can work as long as we want. And when you start to see momentum you want to work more because you want [inaudible 00:24:18.18]. But I’ve made it very, very clear in my life that I want to have that time. I literally wrote out a vision board and really I created a video years ago that I wanted to see come true. It wasn’t like you know the woo-woo stuff but it was like what am I working towards. And one of them was having a coffee and breakfast with my wife. And so here we are many years later and literally, I just got in now. I mean I started my day today at 10 o’clock in the morning. I had a first interview at 10:00. I dropped my daughter off the school at about 7:45. My wife and I got back here. We went out to the pool. I had coffee. I was out there with the dogs. I had my laptop. I was answering a few emails; doing stuff. I’m out there chillin’ with my wife hanging out. And that’s what I want my life to be. Now could I be doing other things to try to make the Amazing Seller bigger or my e-commerce businesses bigger? Yes, I could but I choose to; like that’s kind of like my time. You know what I mean?
Joe: Right?
Scott: And I do think it’s hard. You have to be disciplined. A lot of people say Scott I could never do it. I would never get any work done. Then maybe you do need a job.
Joe: I’ve heard that often. I couldn’t work from home I could never get any work and that’s just discipline. It’s focus and discipline.
Scott: 100%.
Joe: We’ve gone from how do you find the time to do this extra side business and side hustle and grow it to how do you schedule your downtime so that you could work. You don’t need to as much but scheduling your personal life to make sure that you’re there for your family and things of that nature. My kids are older than you. Well, not actually mine are 16 and 18 right. You’ve got 21?
Scott: 21, 14, and 11, yeah,
Joe: So I’ve driven my kids to school from kindergarten right up until last year when my oldest got his license and it’s an honor, right? It’s a privilege and an honor to be able to do that. And when they look back someday that’s what they’re going to remember. They’re not going to remember that Dad was making more money or something like that. So from finding time to scheduling time; your book specifically talks about all of that in your life and creating the mindset of action and everything you’ve done in your life. But can you address like a little bit of the how to’s in terms of building that future proof business and the steps that you go through with the folks that are listening.
Scott: Yeah. To me, it’s very, very simple and even if you’re looking at this because I know people listening here are probably looking to possibly buy a business or sell a business. Here’s the deal. Like whenever you’re looking at an opportunity you want to first see if there’s a market already there. Like a lot of people say I want to invent a market. That’s risky because we don’t know; I mean if you ever listen to Shark Tank they always say has the market validated the product? No I don’t have any sales it’s in pre, or we’re kind of building this thing out, it’s in pre-production, or we’re in like the pre-stage and they’re like come back to us when you have sales that the market actually voted and said we actually want and need this. So the market is critical. You have to have a market. Now I’d like it to also be a submarket. So we could talk about like and I always talk about the bass fishing. So if we went like fishing we would niche it down into bass fishing. If we wanted to go one level deeper we could go kayak bass fishing. And then we can really own that category and then we can also build out of that category to serve a wider part of the market. But I always like to look at the market first. Then from there, I want to see what’s the potential in the market? And that could be going to Amazon and seeing how the products are selling using a tool like Jungle Scout or whatever tool you want. We have these tools that let us know the market’s buying these products. Now we can either sell those products ourselves as our own brand or we can affiliate market those products. We can do all kinds of things. So I want to validate that there are actually sales being made there.
Joe: Let me just stop you for a second because some of the language you’re using I don’t know if everybody knows it. Talk about the affiliate marketing aspect of it because it’s a brilliant path that you educate people on taking.
Scott: And I’m going to be doing more of it Joe; I got to be honest with you. I was just thinking about this this morning I’m like man there’s so many things that I could cover just for getting back from Brand Accelerator Live. People get stuck at the I’ve got to launch products or I’ve got to grow mine. If you bought a business; right now if you bought a business and you’re thinking I don’t want to launch a whole bunch of products because it’s something a whole bunch of capital. Why not take the content side of things. Build out traffic and start putting out products that are related to your product as an affiliate bringing some revenue but also get them to vote that the products that you’re putting out there from them they want to buy then you can private label them. So I think it’s an easier way to get started. If you’re just listening to this and you’re getting started, the easiest ways to start looking at the market and how much traffic the market has. And then from there can you get in front of the market by getting attention by posting content, building an email list, like getting attention with influencer, whatever. Then you can start to say okay all these products I’m not going to private label all these it’s going to cost me a small fortune. I’m going to start putting products out there like a kayak bass fishing boat. Like I might do that but I’m not going to sell it as my own but I might do an affiliate offer for it. So basically on Amazon, we can use their whole catalog. We can become an associate for them. And it’s not going to be a ton of money it’s 4%, 8%, depending on where your bracket is; the category but it’s a nice easy way anyone can get started. It’s not going to cost you hardly anything to set up a website and to start posting content. You can write it yourself or have someone else write it and then just start building that over time.
Joe: It’s a great way to go back to discovering your market as well because as you niche it down people are going to buy certain things and you can say okay well that one’s much more popular than the other.
Scott: 100%.
Joe: The tools like Jungle Scout do that very, very well. But this is an action you’ve got proof in your own bank account which ones they like more. What about the multiple channels. You and I have talked about this before. We talked about channel diversification. That’s something you talk about quite a bit here as well.
Scott: Yeah. Well, I think again there’s a lot of businesses that are very successful and you sell these businesses just Amazon FBA. We got someone in my inner circle that bought I think 3 businesses from you guys already.
Joe: 3.
Scott: Big businesses too; crazy amounts. I mean one of them is doing like 6,000 units a day like insane.
Joe: Yeah.
Scott: And you know what I mean? So it’s massive. So the potential there is huge but also I look at like there’s a little bit of risk there because if that channel decides to go away or they shut your account down there is a potential. So I want to build a back end support there in some kind. So I want to start building content. I want to start getting my own traffic so that way there I could lead people over to my Shopify store or I could leave people over to my channel if something shall happen. Now if it doesn’t; great, keep using that. And I don’t; I never tell anyone not to use the channel. Use the channel. Leverage the heck out of it. Drive traffic to Amazon. Build up your rankings. Do all of that stuff. But I do think that having your own email list is a must. I think having your own content, your own home base I call it; your own blog, your web site so this way you control that asset. And to be honest with you Joe like I’m really interested lately and I think I talked to you about it, content sites to me are never going anywhere. We’re always going to have content sites. We’re always going to have information that people are going to be searching for. So for me what I’m looking at doing is starting something and building it over the course of 12 to 18 months. Now listen to what I just said there over 12 to 18 months not 3 days or 30 days. It’s going to take time for the search engines to kind of pick it up and get it indexed and all that stuff. And if I can build that piece of property like I used to do in the construction days; I find a piece of property, I build a house on it, I get some revenue coming in by renting it out, and then I might want to sell it. That’s kind of what I’m thinking about. And there’s ways you can do that without even having to launch a physical product until you get to the 12, 18th month. Then you can decide what you want to do. But you can start getting revenue coming in from affiliate offers, from AdThrive, Mediavine, any of these other networks just from the content coming in. So for people that say I can’t get started because I don’t have the capital, I don’t have the know-how, I don’t have the time, do something like even if it’s just building out a content site over the next 12 months do that. Just do that.
Joe: Yeah I think again taking action, right?
Scott: Yeah.
Joe: We just got to say that whole lot here; the take action effect. This book as I’ve read it and as I’ve talked to you, you are an interesting mix of inspiration and how-to; and you are the book. That’s what emanates. You call it a pivot I call it it is what you are, you’re inspiring people to go beyond their current capabilities or to get started and take some action but you’re also teaching them how to do it. So it’s a nice blend of both and was that the main objective of the book itself?
Scott: It was actually a little bit difficult and to be honest with you Joe because I didn’t want to just be let me show you how to start a business. I wanted it to be for someone also that has a 7 figure business right now that are 100% dependent on Amazon they read the book and they go oh I can do all of these other things and then probably bring in more revenue, bring in more traffic, get a better multiple when I go to Joe Valley and Quiet Light. So I was looking at two different paths. So as you’re reading the book you’re going to hear me talk about if you’re feeling stuck at your corporate job right now and you feel like you can’t get out of it here’s what you could do but if you already have a business you should do this too. So it’s kind of like you’re serving two camps. And it was kind of hard when I was going down that path because I wanted to really talk to both people not just the person starting.
Joe: Yeah and I think it’s an important message for both. For those that have bought a business that want to diversify beyond Amazon and those that are listening to their spouse and that spouse is saying honey we’ve got a great gig here you’ve got health insurance and a retirement plan are you crazy you’re going to buy an Amazon business and [inaudible 00:34:05.8]. No, you teach them how to do something on the side as a side hustle and let it grow and take less risk but still have that that additional income down the road or a decent exit as well which boosts the retirement plan. Right, Scott? The book itself again folks it’s called The Take Action Effect; Mr. Scott Voelker from The Amazing Seller and beyond. The beyond card is you just do so many other things. How do people find the book; where can they go, what do they need to do to get this in their hands and learn everything you’ve talked about?
Scott: Yeah, just go to TakeActionEffect.com and there’s just a simple page there. It’ll tell you a little bit more about the book and it’ll lead you over to most likely Amazon you get paperback hardcover or the Kindle; pretty affordable to be able to take this information. I don’t think people are taking the value in a book is much as they should. It is a way for you to really understand me and my story but also who I’ve helped and who I want to help. And it allows us to start that relationship because I’m all about relationships. And I want to be able to build a relationship with you way before you would ever hire me or come to one of my workshops or inner circle or whatever. And this book is a way to do it. It’s a really, really small investment to be able to really get you thinking differently because the way I look at it Joe is we’re installing the Take Action mindset. We’re taking this to where you think you know what I don’t think I can do this and by the time you get done with even the first; probably quarter of the book you’re going to feel like you’re going to conquer the world. And that’s what it’s really all about. Now, Joe, before I do end this I’m going to ask you a question.
Joe: Yes?
Scott: I want to know one of your take action moments.
Joe: Okay.
Scott: What’s something that you can recall that you’re like if that never happened my life would be totally different.
Joe: Let’s see. Well going back to your vision board I did something very similar once upon a time and it was a Tony Robbins program writing down my goals and envisioning what they are. And I literally; and this is I described my life; I put it all down from the lifestyle that I wanted to live and the type of woman I wanted to marry. Lo, and behold within 6 months I met her.
Scott: Wow.
Joe: I showed her the list maybe 18 months later and it described her to a T. So that is a Take Action moment for me in terms of writing that list down. Now it changed over the years in terms of my goals. At one point I wanted to have the boat in the harbor in Portland Maine. Well, I live in North Carolina right now that’s not really going to happen. And I didn’t want it once I had kids. I couldn’t really spend much time with them on a boat in that situation. The other one Scott when I’m at Brand Accelerator Live is; I mentioned it before we started recording, is that I have taken action on moving forward with my book as well. We’re not going to talk too much about it. I’m going to drop a little hint in here and then I’ll be quiet for 12 months. But it’s something that I’ve talked about for many years and I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I just haven’t gotten it done. And you’ve inspired me to get it done. And some of your tips in the book itself have allowed me to sort of bullet point what I need to do to take more action and get it done; so two impacts right there and I think is going to make a huge difference for me. But again it’s not always; like Rachel says it’s not always about me or her. It’s about how you can help others as well. And I think you’re doing that. You’re helping others first and it’s benefiting you. And I think it’s the best way to go about it. So thank you, Scott, for being my friend, for being my colleague, for being on the Quiet Light podcast. I hope to see you on it again.
Scott: Thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate it, man.
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