In this episode, we talk to Jessica Larrew from The Selling Family. Jessica and her husband Cliff have been selling on Amazon for almost 10 years. Jessica tells us her origin story of getting let go from her full-time job and how she discovered selling on Amazon.
She talks about how she got started, the struggles she had to overcome, and how she got her husband on board with selling on Amazon with her. She even tells how she and Cliff were able to deal with the big transition to making a full-time income selling on Amazon. It’s a very inspiring story that will show you what’s possible with going full-time on Amazon today.
Listen on the podcast player below.
Like what you hear? Be sure to leave us a rating and a review. Here’s how.
Links and resources mentioned in this episode:
- The Selling Family
- Special offer from Jessica
- Amazon Boot Camp
- Jessica’s book recommendation: Eat Cake. Be Brave.
- Listen to the above audiobook and more on Audible
Right-click here and save as to download this episode to your computer.
More Episodes from The Full-Time FBA Show podcast:
Don’t miss an upcoming episode! Subscribe, download episodes, and review the Full-Time FBA Show:
-
-
- Subscribe on iTunes
- Follow on Spotify
- Follow on Amazon Music (or just ask Alexa to “play The Full-Time FBA Show podcast”)
- Follow on iHeartRadio
- Subscribe on Podbean
- Subscribe on Podbay
- Subscribe on Podchaser
-
If you’re looking for a step-by-step process on how to finally turn part-time hours into a full-time income with Amazon, then check out our course, Next Level Amazon: Make a Full-Time Income With Only Part-Time Hours via Amazon FBA.
You see, successfully running an Amazon FBA business doesn’t just happen on accident. In fact, there are six proven steps to finally making a full-time income with only part-time hours via Amazon FBA. If you’re tired of not seeing the growth you expect in your Amazon business, then I highly recommend our book/video course, Next Level Amazon.
In Next Level Amazon, I outline everything you need to know in order to work less, but make more take-home pay. It’s a strategy that has helped so many people go from working 60-hour weeks just to make ends meet… to truly only working 20 or so hours each week, while still bringing home a full-time paycheck. Find out more here.
Back to the main page for The Full-Time FBA Show
Episode Transcript:
Announcer: Welcome to The Full-Time FBA Show. In each episode, it’s our goal to help you turn part-time hours into a full time income selling almost anything on Amazon. And now your hosts of the show, Steven and Rebecca Smotherman.
Stephen: Welcome everyone to episode three of the Full-Time FBA podcast. We’re excited that you’re here and you know Rebecca.
Rebecca: What’s that?
Stephen: This is going to be another first for our podcast. This is the first time we’re going to have a guest in an interview.
Rebecca: Yeah, that’s pretty exciting.
Stephen: And our guest today is going to be Jessica Larrew and she and her husband Cliff blog over at thesellingfamily.com and they’ve been blogging for a while. They’ve been selling on Amazon for a while and I’ve known her for actually a long time. I first met her back in 2014 at a resellers conference and got a chance to talk with her and I’m excited to interview her and find out exactly what she’s got going on right now and how she can help our listeners.
Rebecca: Yeah, and it was really interesting listening to this interview. I learned a lot from listening to it. I’ve followed Jessica for a while and read some of her books and have found them really helpful and she’s always just a real clear headed, helpful, encouraging seller. And yet at the same time when I was listening to this interview, I learned more than I had learned in the past about her story and her perspective on selling and kind of her experience getting to where she is now as a seller. She’s been in the game for a while and by a while we mean a long time, especially compared to online reselling is not that old of a business and industry. And so she’s been in it for quite a while and it was really interesting hearing her experience and her story.
Rebecca: I think our listeners are really going to enjoy what she has to say. I especially enjoyed hearing about her in the early days, trying out some different things to get started and seeing that that just wasn’t working for her. She didn’t enjoy it. And so she switched gears and tried something different. I really enjoyed how she talked about the social aspects of being an online reseller and how that impacts you in your family and your friends and how that is something that can cause some doubt in the minds of people around you like, “What are you doing? And is this going to work?” And I really liked how she talked through that and really learned a lot from it.
Stephen: Yeah, it was really eye opening and I know a lot of people might be experiencing something similar. I mean she was laid off and tried to find a way to make online reselling profitable and yeah, went through some rough patches at the beginning and trying to get things started and learned a lot. I think it’s a really inspirational stories that our listeners are going to really enjoy.
Rebecca: Yeah, I think they’re really going to be inspired too. One other thing that stood out to me that I want to point out before we get started listening to the interview is she has a really interesting story about how she went from being a solo entrepreneur to working in partnership with her husband. And then even from there, they’re called the selling family and she talks about why that is and how that’s expanded to include more than just the two of them. And I really think that’s interesting from a family aspect, but also just in a team building aspect and how even if you’re not looking to add a spouse as your partner, just what it’s involved in trying to change from being a solo entrepreneur to working as a team and scaling your business to grow beyond just you working in the business to what it’s like having other people working alongside you.
Stephen: Yeah. So much stuff just packed into about 35 minute interview that we just can’t wait to get that started and let you listen to it now. So let’s just hop right into the interview. Jessica Larrew and I just talking about the beginning days and how she got to where she is now selling full time on Amazon with part-time hours.
Stephen: All right. I am here today with Jessica Larrew from the selling family and I’m really excited to talk to her because she’s been an Amazon seller for a long time and she’s also been blogging about it for a long time. So she’s gone through starting an Amazon business, being able to make a full time income from that Amazon business and has learned a lot along the way. And so hopefully in this interview we’re going to learn a lot from her. Jessica, I’m excited that you’re here. Thanks for joining me today.
Jessica: Thank you so much for having me, Stephen.
Stephen: And so I want to start off right from the beginning. So Jessica, tell me your story of what was going on in your life before you even got into selling on Amazon.
Jessica: Awesome. So like you said, I have been selling on Amazon for a long time. So I’m going to have to go way back. It’s going to feel like one of those stories and somebody starts when they were just a kid because I feel like I really was just a kid whenever I got started selling on Amazon because I was just in my early 20s and now I’m in my 30s. So it’s been almost over 10 years since I got started selling on Amazon. Well, a little less than 10 years actually, so I’m exaggerating, but it feels like forever.
Jessica: So for me, I was just working a regular job. I didn’t have like an extremely great job or anything. But I thought I had a ton of potential at the job that I was working at. We were so confident in it. My husband worked for the same company and we had just bought a house. We felt like we were going to … I was going to move up in the company. He was already an upper management. And so I thought, “This could be a job that I work for 20 years. I could retire from this job.” But little did I know when the economy crashed, so did our industry because we worked in the housing industry and so I actually lost my job. This job that to me felt like the most secure job that I could have in my early 20s.
Jessica: And it really shocked me because not only was my husband an upper management, it was like, I thought I was like last on the chopping block. Like the companies would basically be down to like five people if I was not working there anymore. And so it was a huge shock to me and it gave me this big realization that if this job isn’t secure, then no job is going to be secure for me. And I really got the point where I felt like, “I just don’t even want to work for somebody anymore.” It really crushed me because not only is my husband’s still having to work there, I’m still having to go to company picnics and parties and face the people who like let me go so unexpectedly.
Jessica: I just felt like, “Man, I can’t get another job like that. I can’t go through that again.” And so at that point, I had already been selling on Ebay a little bit back then. I was actually doing retail arbitrage, which is really funny to look back on it because retail arbitrage wasn’t something that had a name then. But I would find stuff on clearance and sell it on Ebay and usually in lots of stuff. So I would get like 10 packs of razors on clearance or with coupons and then I would sell them on Ebay.
Jessica: So it was like my introduction into retail arbitrage. I had a really fun experience where I bought some stuff on Victoria’s Secret, some blinged out Santa hats, and I bought them for like $3 on clearance. They were like 80% off and I held on to them for just a little bit of time and I ended up selling them on Ebay for between 30 and $50 a hat. At that point I was hooked and I still had a job. So this was just something I was doing on the side for fun. I decided when I lost my job, I’m just going to see what I can do with this online selling stuff. Maybe there’s something more here because I was already making pretty good money on this side for how much time I was spending. So I thought, “Well, instead of going and looking for a new job, I’m just going to see what I can do with this online stuff.”
Jessica: I kept it pretty quiet because it was really … it looked out weird then. Now it’s getting a little bit more commonplace. If I talk about Amazon, people usually know somebody who’s been dabbling in Amazon. At the time when I would say, “I’m going to sell stuff online,” it was just totally didn’t make any sense. So I thought, “Okay, I’m going to give it a shot.” And I took my last page back and I went yard sailing that Saturday and I bought as much stuff as I could to resell on Ebay. And I’ll tell you, within just a month or two I had replaced my income selling on Ebay. So I [inaudible 00:09:15] pretty much smooth sailing. Like I said, I didn’t have a really great job. So it wasn’t like I was making a ton of money, but I was able to replace that and I was really just working the Saturday and Sunday, at the yard sales, and then I would spend the week listing the products.
Jessica: So to me it was like, “Wow, I can do this without having like a real job. I’ll just keep doing this.” And it was wasn’t for a while that I realized I can’t scale this business. Like there’s not much I can do more, which would have been okay in the very beginning because like I said, I just needed to replace my income. But my husband was hating his job, like couldn’t stand it anymore. The company, because of the recession, it was just getting harder and harder for him. He’d already had to deal with me not working there anymore. So it really put a whole different perspective on that job for him. And so I got it in my mind that I wanted him to be able to quit his job.
Jessica: So around that time, it was like 2009, people started talking about selling on Amazon and usually it was books at the time. And so I thought I could probably do this. So I got a scanner. Did you ever have one of those [crosstalk 00:10:35]
Stephen: Like a little skim foam type of scanner?
Jessica: Like a PDA?
Stephen: No I did not. When I first started I was using one of the iPhone apps, but …
Jessica: Okay. So a little bit before them. At that time there was no app, right? There was no apps to scan with and people were mostly doing books. So you would buy this PDA like a palm pilot, right? Like that fancy business guy’s hat and you would scan books and just look for books that were even selling for like $5 and you would make a dollar. I tried that and it was not for me. So I quickly realized, nope, this isn’t going to work and then it was less than a year later that people started talking about doing retail arbitrage for Amazon and the introduction of the FBA program and that you could sell items on Amazon and they would handle a lot of the stuff for you. So that really, really intrigued me because with my Ebay business, I was making a few thousand dollars a month, but I had an office full of totes that had inventory in it.
Jessica: I had to keep track of all that inventory. If I went on vacation so did my store. And once a week, I had to ship out all the things I had sold for that week. I did a lot of auctions and then anything that sold via Buy It Now. I had to ship out whenever I sold. So I was pretty tied to that business. There wasn’t a lot that I could do to scale it more by myself. And at this point I was just about to have a new baby, our only baby. And so I thought, “Man, I really have to figure something out.” So the fulfillment by Amazon program was really, really appealing to me because I thought if I can get some of this inventory out of my house, that would be great. So that’s when I started looking into Amazon FBA.
Stephen: Yeah. Your story [crosstalk 00:12:31] sounds really familiar in the fact that I too was doing Ebay on the side and I had a garage filled with potential profit inventory and it was starting to get so filled that I was running out of places to even put stuff and yeah was really not understanding how I can scale Ebay because yeah I can only ship so much. I can only store so much. And when I learned that Amazon FBA, wait, they’ll store it for me. They’ll ship it for me, they’ll take care of returns, they’ll do all that for me, sign me up and it just opened up my Amazon business … it just opened up my online selling business and the freedom that it gave me was awesome because yeah, I could take some days off, I could go on vacation and those sales would continue to come in.
Stephen: Well, there’s a lot of different ways that you can sell on Amazon. And like you said before, a lot of people start off by selling books. Some people, it really clicks with them that they get into book selling and do really well and other people it doesn’t click with them but they move on to other things that do click with them. The different ways that you can sell on Amazon [inaudible 00:13:44] retail arbitrage, going to retail stores where you can buy stuff there, send it to Amazon and sell it, or online arbitrage where you’re ordering stuff online and sending it to Amazon. A wholesale relationships, private label where you’re creating your own particular items to sell on Amazon. What did you first start off with and then what does it look like today, your Amazon business?
Jessica: So I pretty much started off with retail arbitrage and a little bit of online arbitrage, very, very little online arbitrage at the time. I just had some experience from the way I was doing Ebay, but nothing like what I’ve done for online arbitrage over the years. It was mainly retail arbitrage and I would even look for items like at thrift stores and yard sales that were new that I could send into Amazon because that was the one thing that I really loved about Ebay was the total profit potential on items where I could buy something for a dollar and sell it for $50, and with regular retail arbitrage that was missing.
Jessica: So I would still look for some of those types of items, of course I had to be way more picky than with Ebay. So my main thing was retail arbitrage, doing clearance sales, doing discount stores, Big Lots, Ross, places like that. And the funny thing is, is that even after all of these years, it’s still basically what I’ve kept bar business to you. Now, of course, I don’t think we mentioned, I did end up getting my husband to come home and work on the FBA business with me. So he got to leave that job.
Stephen: That’s awesome.
Jessica: And that was kind of one of the turning points for us was I had a ton of these Clorox cleaning ones, like bathroom ones that I got from Big Lots. My office was just stacked with them and I had to take off all the labels and label them with the FBA label. And my husband came into the room one day and he had just gotten off of work and our son was sleeping and he’s like, “Okay, so tell me a little bit more about this.” Because even though I was making good money, it was still like seen as a hobby to him. And so he’s looking at all this inventory and he’s like, “Okay, so wait a minute, you bought these for how much?” And it was like, “Five, six, seven dollars, something like that.” And he’s like, “Okay, and you’re selling them for how much?” And I’m like, “Almost $40 and they’re selling really fast because I had already sent some in, I was just replenishing them.” And he’s like, “Okay, so you’re telling me that you’re making almost $20 for one of these?” And I’m like, “Yeah.”
Jessica: And so he starts doing the math and he realizes that I was going to make almost the same amount as he would make in a whole week of work by just processing this one shipment. And so at that point is when Cliff went, “Oh, maybe this thing’s legit and maybe we should try to do it a little bit more.” So, still a very similar business model. Those were purchased from Big Lots, we still source at Big Lots a lot. I like to do online arbitrage because I can get more sent directly to my house. At this point, we’re not doing all of this shipping and shopping and everything. So we do the main decision making of if something’s worth selling or not.
Jessica: How many we’re going to purchase. And then my mom actually works for our business as well. And so it kind of goes in line with our website it’s called The Selling Family. We really do have our whole business set up to where it’s a family inclusive. So it’s us, my mom and my son, all have parts of the FBA business. And so we make those decisions on, “Okay this is worth buying.” But my mom does a lot of the packing and the shipping at this point.
Stephen: That’s pretty awesome. And that you all can work together and build a business and build a lifestyle too. I’ve just been able to work from home and plan your own hours and be your own boss and not have to deal with annoying coworkers. I mean, we have that ability with working on Amazon via FBA and it seems like you have worked through a lot of the issues, but when you first were getting started, what were some of the challenges that you’re faced when you first got started and, and Kinda what did you have to do to overcome those?
Jessica: So I’ll start more talking about when Cliff started selling with me because that’s when we really transitioned from looking at it kind of as a hobby to really making it a full time thing. Our biggest challenge actually was not finding enough inventory. It wasn’t making the time to make it work. It was really dealing with the people in our lives who didn’t understand what we were doing and really slipping into just the unknown. For us, we’d been doing it. We understood it. We trusted that Amazon was going to be something that was around for a long time. And so to us, we were super competent. We just felt like if this doesn’t work, then at least we tried. It was like [inaudible 00:19:07]. If we had to go back and get regular jobs, so be it but at least we gave ourselves that opportunity.
Jessica: But people just didn’t understand. It was very weird to people. They couldn’t believe that Cliff would quit his job. His old boss was very mean about it. He was telling him he was making the biggest mistake of his life, that he was going to ruin his family, basically. Like we were going to lose everything that we had. He had a new baby he should be thinking about and he was just blowing it. Who knew if this Internet business, Internet stuff would still be around in a few years. It’s like, “Well, the Internet is still here thankfully.” Well, you know, it made it okay but that was really the biggest thing was just dealing with that hurdle of trying to fit in with people as a young married couple, new parents and going to family things and feeling awkward and feeling awkward around our friends who it’s like we are working today, it just doesn’t look like it.
Jessica: But the funny thing is, is that with that we did eventually overcome it because it worked, right? Like that was the thing that we really had to figure out is if this is going to work. And as time went on and people started to realize, wow, they’re working way less than we are, way less than Cliff was before and they must be doing okay because they’re paying for their living expenses and now all of a sudden like, well, they’re like going on vacation and they’re getting newer cars and all these things are happening and people are like, “Oh, well this does work. Can you tell me how you did it?”
Stephen: Yeah. It’s funny how the tables turn. Yeah. It’s funny because the people first, they start questioning everything and I don’t get it. Even after you tell them you sell on Amazon, they still go back to, “So how’s the Ebay thing working out?” And then not even understanding that. And then once they do, it seems like everyone comes out of the woodwork and go, “Oh, how can I do this? Can you teach me how to do that?” Is the family members coming out and asking how to do this? How to help? Is that kind of how you got started in helping teach others how to sell on Amazon or what was the birth of that?
Jessica: Yeah, actually very, very close. That’s how. I spent a lot of time with very close friends and some family as well, teaching them how Amazon worked from the ground up. I would help them set up their Amazon accounts. We would set up the scanning apps. We would go sourcing for multiple days in a row. Then I would help them with the process of listing the products, pricing them, shipping them off to Amazon, and really making it to where they could sell on Amazon if they wanted to.
Jessica: Well, after I did that with a few people, probably five people, just a couple of them stuck with it. And then I did it with a couple more and they basically just didn’t do it at all. Like I spent all this time helping them start their business when I could’ve been working on my own business. And then they realized, “Well, it’s not something I wanted to.” Whether it’s more work than I expected, or it takes more money than I thought, something came up and they just changed their mind. And it really started making me feel resentful because I was putting so much time and energy into something that just didn’t happen. And so I didn’t want to feel that way towards my friends or my family because I just don’t want to have that feeling towards them, you know?
Jessica: So it got to the point where I just couldn’t, not afford it money-wise, but I just couldn’t afford it mentally, the mental space of it and emotionally. So I just decided, man, if I could find a way that I could teach more people at once and then it’s like I’m right there with them and then they can make the decision or not, that would just make everything so much easier.
Jessica: And because I was having people online too, I was very active in Ebay seller groups. And so I had a ton of friends who were full time Ebay sellers that realize, wow, she’s like not even selling on Ebay anymore and so they wanted to know too. It was just getting to the point where it was like I couldn’t do the one on one anymore. So I thought, well, what can I do? And that led me to designing the Amazon Boot Camp, which was just everything I was doing with somebody in person, but putting it into video style.
Jessica: So, that really was the birth of it. I didn’t know exactly what would happen with it at the time. I’m glad I did it. We’re just stepping into our fourth version because we started that in 2012 so this will be our fourth time completely redoing that course. But yeah … And it really helped because it gives me the opportunity that now if somebody who’s a friend or a family or anybody that we’re close with or even not really close with. If they want to know what do you do, I can easily send them that information. And it’s like [inaudible 00:24:29] this is directly from me and I’m teaching you step by step and then I’m here for you if you decide to move forward but we don’t have to spend that time one on one. There’s no frustration. There’s no guilt. There’s nothing.
Stephen: Yeah, that’s awesome. I have to say, your Amazon Boot Camp course is top-notch. I went through it the first go around and then 2.0 and 3.0 and it’s awesome. That 4.0 is in the works because it’s true. Amazon changes and so the training needs to change too. So I love how you continue to update that course to help people.
Jessica: Thank you so much.
Stephen: In your course, Amazon Boot Camp right after the introduction. One of the things that you all go into is understanding the cost of doing business. Why do you think that was so important to put it right after the introduction and before everything else?
Jessica: I think that when people get started with Amazon, it’s seen as something that’s very easy. You know, we can sit here and have this conversation like we’re having right now and we talk about the good things and we talk about how I was able to make the transition from it being just really part-time to my husband working full time and getting new cars and all this stuff. And it’s easy to gloss over the fact that we had to put in money, we had to put in time. It wasn’t something that just happened overnight. And so I put that up at the front because I want people to realize straight from the beginning. Like there are things that go into this. It’s unlike a lot of online businesses. People can start a blog with just 20 bucks or they can start selling with an MLM company sometimes with $100.
Jessica: And so in the scope of online business, Amazon needs quite a bit more, not just in the frame of money, but it needs more time to grow. It needs more dedication, it needs more learning. So there is a lot of costs that goes right up in the front of selling on Amazon. So I want people to know that right from the get go that look, we may talk about this as being a great business opportunity, but it is a business. And so that’s really what the point of what it costs is letting people know right up front, this is a business and needs to be treated as such.
Stephen: Absolutely. And I think that’s a mindset that people need to have from the beginning. So I love how you start with that because most people come from like you and I from an Ebay hobby. And so if people are thinking this is going to be an Amazon hobby that’s going to make them a lot of money, then they’re going to be disappointed because hobbies cost you a lot of money.
Stephen: Businesses will cost you some money, but it also has a potential to make you a lot of money. And that’s true of Amazon. And so being able to understand that up front, knowing that this is not just going to be a cake walk, there’s hard work involved, but that hard work is going to pay off that return on investment of the things that you … the tools that you buy or the content that you purchase to be able to learn the aspects that you’re wanting to apply to your Amazon business, that ROI is going to come back and really, really help you. Would you say that there’s any other mindsets or strategies that helped you find success in the long run?
Jessica: I would say the biggest mindset thing was really knowing that we were going to give it all that we had and that we were going to make it work. There was no doubt in my mind that when Cliff quit his job, that we were making this happen. And we were very strategic in the way that he quit his job. His last day was before they left for thanksgiving, and so he came home for Black Friday and we thought if there’s a time we can make this happen and we could really get some bang for our buck in our time. It’s Q4. I had experienced Q4 before and with very well, way less money at the time than when he quit his job. And so for us it was just, we really went into it with that mindset of he’s quitting his job, we’re putting everything that we have into this and we’re going to make it work or we’re going to come crashing down. But we didn’t really see that as an option.
Jessica: To us it was, we’re going to make this happen or nothing. We didn’t really have a backup plan. Like I said, the only real backup plan was if we have to, we’ll get other jobs. That’s worst case scenario. But to us it was like we’re making it happen.
Stephen: Yeah. Q4 is always a really good time, I think to start because you can hit the ground running. Q4 being the last three months of the year, October, November and December, the holiday selling season is in full swing and it’s one of the times of the year when you can just do some huge damage when it comes to profits and I love being able to do Amazon sales during Q4. It really helps our profits and helps us start the new year out on the right track too.
Jessica: Yeah. We often, you’ve probably heard me say this before, but we use Q4 as a way to make it so we don’t have to work as much during the rest of the year. If we can make 50% of our income during Q4, then we get to take it kind of easy the rest of the year and we get to focus on whatever we want for the rest of the year. So we’ll work really hard those three months and then that’s what we need. It doesn’t give us enough for the whole year, but it could, we couldn’t do that. I do know people who they only sell during Q4, but for us it’s just the time when we get to spend the most time working and then it pays off the rest of the year.
Stephen: Yeah, it’s definitely … like the Christmas song is one of the most wonderful times of the year and we love it. So when it comes to your Amazon business, when did you know, when did it click that this might actually be able to be, become a full-time income for both of you?
Jessica: I think that it was that time when Cliff got the actual realization when he was helping me pack those products because he saw the potential. To me it was like I knew because I was doing it. So to me it was like the more time I can spend, the more money that I can invest, the more it’s going to work. But I had a baby, so there wasn’t all that time and stuff that I could do on my own. So when he got that realization that, “Wow, you’re making as much as me in a week doing just this one trip, then maybe we could make this thing really work.” So to me it was him getting that realization that really told me, all right, we can do this now. Because it was like I was … I always had that desire for him to be able to quit his job, but it’s something that we had to come to as a couple and there was a lot of prayer that went into it and a lot of talking amongst ourselves and really getting to the point of, okay, this is it. We can make this work.
Stephen: Yeah. And if anyone out there is listening and you have a spouse that’s questioning your desire to sell on Amazon or they’re questioning the success or how long this is actually going to last or anything like that, you can take some hints from Jessica and just be like, you know, involve them. Let them see the results that you’re getting. Let them hear the stories of things that you’re buying for $5 in the selling for $25. Let them see little by little the results. And then once they see that, I’m not saying they’re going to join you in that, but at least mentally support you and being like, “Oh, this is legit and I totally support that.” Rather than just questioning whether or not it’s going to be around much longer or if this is just a little hobby of yours. But being able to share those results can go a long way.
Jessica: Yeah. And I think for a lot of people, it can really help to not try and hide it, but not try and convince until you’ve proven it especially for a husband, from what I understand. It’s a lot easier for them to see an actual result and go, “Okay, now I understand.” Versus saying, “Oh, you know, so-and-so is making all this money, and I just have to spend this amount of money.” Because just from looking at men and women, it’s much more common for women to start a business online because their friend’s doing it, which oftentimes is like an MLM business and people who have that entrepreneurial spirit, they’ve probably tried multiple businesses before they decide to try Amazon.
Jessica: And so for us, we’ve just realized that when people bring the results to the table, to their spouse, it makes them a believer because they get to see something get paid for, they get to see real money coming in versus money just going out to buy a kit or to buy a course or buy their initial inventory. Because in the beginning it’s money. You’re saying, “Hey, I want to try this new thing and I want to buy this course for 300, 400, 500 whatever it is and I need $500 for inventory.” And so it’s like I would never recommend that somebody not tell their spouse right. All about sharing and making sure that money has been talked about and everything.
Jessica: But for the discussions that we’ve had and that Cliff’s explained to me is it was when he saw the money actually happening, that he went, “Okay, this makes sense to me.” But all the time before that, when it was just a little bit of money coming in and it was just paying for a bill here and there and he wasn’t even really seeing it, it was just like, okay, whatever. But when it was like, okay, this is a week’s worth of money, now all of a sudden it’s like, “Okay, that makes sense to me. Now tell me more.” Rather than me trying to explain it when it’s not doing anything.
Stephen: Right, the results and the dollar signs, they just speak volumes.
Jessica: Yeah. And your results versus somebody else’s. You know, me I can look at somebody else’s results and get excited like, “Oh wow, this person did this thing and I want to try it out.” But it’s like for my husband, he wants to know what I did.
Stephen: Right. Yep. So before we get into the lightning round questions that we always close off our interviews with, I do want to ask you, how can our listeners find out more about you.
Jessica: So I blog at thesellingfamily.com and that’s where I share pretty much our story of how we became The Selling Family and try and keep up with a new things that have to do with Amazon’s market and things for new sellers. I’ll set up a page just for your listeners. So we’ll do thesellingfamily.com/fulltime. And really it’s just a great resource for anybody who is either looking into Amazon or is already selling on Amazon.
Stephen: That’s really awesome. And yeah, you can find that thesellingfamily.com/fulltime. And I appreciate you putting that together for us and I heard a rumor that there might be a coupon code you can share with us in case anyone’s interested in any of your content.
Jessica: There is. So if you take a look at our site, we have our Amazon Boot Camp, which Steven’s talked about a lot, where that’s our beginner’s course. It’s our start to finish, get you selling on Amazon and making money so that you can go tell your spouse, “Hey, this is actually working.” Or if you’re already selling on Amazon, we have stuff for you as well. So I didn’t want to put a coupon code just for one product because I don’t know where you’re at in your journey if you’re just getting started or if you’ve been selling for a couple of years. So if you use the coupon code FT20, doesn’t matter if it’s capital or lower case, it will take 20% off of any of the courses that we have on our site.
Stephen: That’s really generous of you and thank you very much for doing that.
Jessica: You’re welcome. So it’s FT20 F as in full, F as in time, 20 as the percent off that you will be getting. FT20 will get your 20% off from the courses at The Selling Family. Awesome. All right. Are you ready for the lightning round?
Stephen: Sure. So is this like answered as fast as I can or-
Jessica: I guess-
Stephen: … no explanation?
Jessica: … You can add a few little details if you want. I’m just to bring in some context, but I’ll be asking them very quickly, so get ready.
Stephen: Okay. All right, ready.
Jessica: All right. So what is your favorite thing to do when you’re not working on your Amazon business?
Stephen: Hanging out with Cliff and Aden.
Jessica: Oh, Aden your little boy? I’ve been following him on Facebook. You’re pictures and stuff. He’s getting big.
Stephen: He is a what non-Amazon book are you reading or have read that has impacted your business?
Jessica: The last book I read was on audible and it was Eat Cake. Be Brave by Melissa Radke and it’s not a business book at all, but it’s totally helped me with my confidence and just getting it done.
Stephen: That’s awesome. I’ll have to check that out. And what are you most excited about when it comes to the future of Amazon?
Jessica: I just felt like they’re going to take over the world and I’m here for the ride.
Stephen: Right. You’re ready to play along.
Jessica: Yep.
Stephen: That’s awesome. Well, Jessica, thank you so much for hanging out with me and talking to us. Your insight and your answers to the questions have really helped, just opened a lot of ideas and I’m excited about what the people who are listening to this are going to be able to learn and apply to their Amazon business, and thank you so much for hanging out with me.
Jessica: You’re welcome. Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to number one.
Stephen: Yes. My first interview and I think it’s gone well. So if anyone’s listening to this, thesellingfamily.com is where you can go forward slash full-time. So thesellingfamily.com/fulltime to get your own special learning page. And if you use the coupon code FT20, you’ll save 20% off of any of the courses you will find there. And it will help you with your Amazon business.
Stephen: Well, thanks again for joining me, Jessica, and I look forward to talking to you again in the future.
Jessica: All right.
Stephen: All right so we’re back and I know that during this interview I talked about a lot of different links and different information, but if you want one place just to get it all, if you go to a fulltimefba.com/3, that’s the number three, it will take you to the show notes page, which will give you all the links and everything that you need to know when it comes to finding out more information about Jessica and her products and her journey and just to let you know what you need to be doing next. So go check that out fulltimefba.com/3 for more information.
Stephen: Well, thanks so much for listening to this podcast. Thanks for hanging out with me today. We’ve got another episode coming up next. In fact, next time we’re going to be talking about the top six Amazon FBA profit accelerators. If you want to accelerate your profit, make sure that you listen to our next podcast and we’ll help you get those sales ramped up. Well, that’s it for today. Thanks for joining me.
Announcer: That’s all for this episode of the Full-Time FBA Show. So head over to fulltimefba.com/podcast where you’ll find the show notes and links from this episode. While you’re there, subscribe to our newsletter where you’ll get several free downloads of our popular and helpful Amazon FBA resources, including a free ebook. Now, take action on what you’ve learned today so you can find success and turning part-time hours into a full-time income with Amazon FBA.
Leave a Reply