There are a lot of factors that can make your full-time FBA business successful, but sometimes it’s the simple things that can have the biggest impact. In today’s episode, we talk about how gratitude can help your bottom line and why you should make it a pillar of your FBA business.
As we discuss, by expressing this attitude, you have the opportunity to maintain and build connections with others, create loyalty, and open up opportunities for yourself. Stay tuned and you will hear about the four things co-host Stephen is most grateful for with his Amazon FBA business, which include the outsourcing potential, the catalog of digital tools available to FBA sellers, and the educational courses and resources. After describing each topic in detail, you’ll hear the contents of Rebecca’s list of things she is grateful for, touching on flexibility of schedule and the joys of working from home.
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Key points from Episode 59:
The connection between a thankful mindset and your business’ bottom line.- How being grateful can build relationships, strengthen loyalty, and create new opportunities.
- Why using gratitude purely for quid pro quo is the wrong move to make.
- How being grateful can change your greater perspective in business.
- Hear about what Stephen is thankful for as an Amazon FBA seller.
- Rebecca talks about what she is most grateful for as an Amazon seller.
- How the pandemic reinforced Rebecca’s love for working at home.
- Stephen invites listeners to do their own grateful challenge.
- And more!
Links and resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode 10 – Outsourcing: Make More Money By Working Less- Episode 54 – Overcoming Your Fear of Hiring Help
- The benefits of using a prep center
- How to choose a quality prep center
- Solutions4Ecommerce Amazon Account Manager
- InventoryLab/Scoutify – inventory management & sourcing tools
- Keepa – price and sales rank history tracker
- BQool – automatic repricer
- The Full-Time FBA Facebook Group
- How to leave a podcast review
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Have you heard about Keepa? It’s a tool (with both a free and a paid plan) that can dramatically lower the risk of sourcing inventory items that end up tanking in price. I’m sure you know how it feels to buy an item expecting it to sell for a high price only to see the price tank soon after you send it to Amazon. With using Keepa the right way, you can protect yourself from that happening!
Basically, Keepa tracks the vital data on almost every item on Amazon. It can quickly show me the sales rank history, pricing history, buy box price history, used item history, Amazon in stock history, competitors’ stock levels, and so much more. With Keepa, I can easily look at the data from the past and better know what to expect in the future when it comes to price and sales velocity.
To find out everything there is to know about using Keepa to make smart sourcing decisions, be sure to check out our course, The Reseller’s Guide to Keepa: Using Amazon Sales History to Make Smart Sourcing Decisions.
With this course, you’ll make more confident sourcing decisions, better pricing decisions, and you’ll grow your Amazon business to the next level by selling your inventory faster and at higher prices!
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Episode 59 Transcript:
[WELCOME]
[0:00:01.8] 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. Now, your hosts of the show, Stephen and Rebecca Smotherman.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:21.3] STEPHEN: Welcome to episode number 59 of the Full-Time FBA show and I’m thankful that you’ve joined us today because we’re going to talk about being thankful and of course, I’m thankful for my co-host Rebecca. How are you doing?
[0:00:32.7] REBECCA: I am doing great, I’m also thankful to be here too.
[0:00:36.0] STEPHEN: That’s good. Now, if you looked at the title of this podcast episode and you’re like, they’re going to be talking about things they’re thankful for in their Amazon business, this sounds like a snoozer and you’re just going to click skip and go to the next one. Don’t because the fact that we’re talking about thankfulness, one of the reasons why we’re thankful is because the act of gratitude really does help our bottom line, we’re going to communicate that with you today and a whole lot more in today’s episode of the full-time FBA show.
[0:01:07.5] REBECCA: Okay, let’s get into our topic for the day and thankfulness and gratitude, I know it’s something that a lot of people think about this time of year as we’re getting into the thanksgiving holiday, and it’s something that we talk about as a family for sure — the Smotherman family — but let’s also talk through some things of how gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, applies to your business and how it can impact you.
I know that it’s not necessarily like a big money maker, you know, if I add this much gratitude, then I’ll get this much profits back.
But, gratitude really can be a part of your success as a person and as a business owner and so talk to us for a minute Stephen about why gratitude really can be such a big part of success?
[0:01:49.2] STEPHEN: Yeah, you hit the nail on the head when it comes to people not seeing the connection between a mindset type of topic with the bottom line but there really is a connection here. The fact that we can be thankful and think through the things that we’re experiencing and the things that we have can really help our bottom line in a lot of different ways and a few of those ways, first it might give us some perspective.
If we take a moment to step back and think about what we’re thankful for in our Amazon FBA business, we can gain some perspective. I mean, there’s a whole lot of things that we can be thankful for now that early Amazon FBA sellers did not have that experience, that helps us gain perspective.
We can also, you know, if we’re doing retail arbitrage and we’re in a long line and we’re like, this store only has two lines open and one of them is a 15-items-or-less line. You’re just stuck in this long line and it can be frustrating but when you take that time to find some gratitude and realize, wow, I’m actually working for myself and I am being my own boss and I’m able to make money on the side or whatever you’re doing with your Amazon FBA business. And think that you’ve been able to work that into your life, you know, it could give you a little bit more patience to deal with some of those things. That perspective is a big deal, another thing that really helps out your Amazon business is expressing gratitude to others, whether it’s people you’ve hired to help you out with your Amazon FBA business, expressing that gratitude, it builds connection, it brings loyalty from that helper.
It also opens up a lot of opportunities, you know? If you’re outsourcing and you meet a store employee who helps you out, being grateful to them and keeping that connection going and building that on relationship can open up opportunities. I’ve had relationships with a lot of different store managers or area managers of certain stores that have actually got my number and they reach out to me and give me opportunities to find more inventory.
[0:03:36.7] REBECCA: We’re not saying just express gratitude so that you will get something from people but we’re just saying that if you go through life with that kind of attitude and that you are routinely appreciative of the people around you and open about saying that and not just feeling it but saying it. It really does make you more successful in how you’re able to relate to other people because they want to be around you and they want to help you and again, this isn’t some sort of quid pro quo type situation.
Do it whether you’re going to get something from it or not. But you’ll be surprised at how much you are able to just open up those relationships and experience more give and take when people do see that you’re really appreciative of them that you’d notice what they’re doing.
[0:04:21.1] STEPHEN: Yeah, if you’re using thankfulness or gratitude as a manipulation tool, you’re doing it wrong, you know? Let’s focus on you know, just wanting you to think about those feelings that you are already experiencing of being thankful and communicate that with those who are around you.
Along with all the other type of mindset things that really can impact your Amazon FBA business, being thankful and gracious really is a big one, it can help you get a little bit more fuel to get through hard times and I don’t just mean hard times of like really bad things going on in your life but like I said earlier, when you’re’ stuck in a really long line, being gracious and thankful to others and to yourself can help you get through that little bit of a speed bump in your sourcing day and we’ll give you a little bit more strength to go out there and go to the next store.
Instead of wanting to give up and go home early because you’re frustrated with the employees at the store who are taking too long to check you out. Add that to your list of mindset things to work into your Amazon FBA business and into your life and both will be better for it.
[0:05:23.7] REBECCA: Okay, what are the top things that you’re most thankful for as an FBA seller? I know you mentioned a minute ago that things have changed since the early days of selling on Amazon and you’ve been around not since the very beginning of Amazon selling and FBA selling but for a long time, longer than I have even. Seeing those changes can really impact your gratitude today for where you are, what would you say you’re most thankful for as an FBA seller?
[0:05:51.0] STEPHEN: Well, I thought about this for a long time and I kind of narrowed it down into four sections of what I’m thankful for. I encourage you to do the same things and we’re going to talk about this a little bit later in the episode about thinking through for yourself. What you’re thankful for because it seems like a lot of times on social media and different types of Amazon forums, there’s a lot of negativity and a lot of complaining and you know what?
Negativity and complaining is not a profitable use of your time but being thankful is. I want to talk though these four things that really stand out to me as an Amazon seller that I’m really thankful for. The first thing is, I’m really thankful for the outsourcing potential of selling on Amazon. I mean, even the FBA program itself, the fact that you can send your inventory to a warehouse, they’re going to store it for you, they’re going to organize it, they’re going to find it when it sells, they’re going to ship it to your customer for you, they will take care of your returns and either put it back in your inventory if it’s still in good condition or send it back to you if it’s not and so the fact that you can outsource that is awesome and then there’s other ways that you can outsource as well.
Whether it’s your prepping and shipping, whether you hire an account manager, all sorts of different ways, in fact, we have two podcast episodes that can walk you through different outsourcing ideas, you could find those, fulltimefba.com/10 and fulltimefba.com/54. Two episodes where we talk about outsourcing.
That’s the first thing that outsourcing potential, the second thing would be the tools that are available out there for us and this is where I’ve seen the most growth when it comes to Amazon FBA seller resources, are the tools because when I first started, there was no inventory lab, when I first started, there was no Keepa, there was no repricer tools, there were no tools like that.
It was really like old west and kind of hard to do things when there’s been so many things that have come recently that have helped us make better decisions and so, like I said before, my top three tools that I cannot live without, inventory lab which comes bundled with the Scoutify sourcing app, Keepa which helps give you sales rank in pricing history and Be Cool which automatically reprices your inventory, they have all saved me so much time, saved me so much struggle and helped make me money, helped improve my processes and my bottom line, just being thankful for those tools that are out there.
The third thing that really helps me out with my Amazon FBA business that I’m thankful for are the courses that are out there. When I first started selling on Amazon, you know, I took a beginner’s course and it really set me up to succeed in the long run and I’ve taken other courses along the way and I know there’s a group of people out there who are like anti-course, they’re like, you know what? You can learn everything you need on YouTube, you can read some blog posts and while it’s true that you probably can learn everting you need to know to be successful on YouTube or with a blog post.
The fact that it’s not organized, the fact that it’s not coming from someone that you know and trust you might be putting your account at risk, taking someone’s free advice that is out there and again, I’m not knocking free advice, I give tons of free advice, we have a free podcast, free YouTube channel, lots of information for you.
[0:08:55.0] REBECCA: Tons of blog post articles.
[0:08:56.1] STEPHEN: Yeah. If you don’t know that you can trust somebody by looking at you know, reviews of courses and if you haven’t been able to develop a relationship with someone who can teach you how to do things along the right way, if you do that on your own with just a bunch of free content, it’s going to take you so much longer and you’re going to make so many more mistakes.
I’m just thankful for courses that are out there that can help people work through all their Amazon FBA struggles and help them set themselves up on the right path to success.
[0:09:25.7] REBECCA: Okay, you said there were four, what’s the fourth one that you have on your list?
[0:09:29.0] STEPHEN: The fourth thing that I’m really thankful for as an Amazon seller is the people, I’ve been able to come in contact with, especially form the Full-time FBA Facebook group. Our Facebook group is just an amazing place with a ton of amazing people who help each other out and I’m just thankful for that and I’ve learned so much from even the people in our group that have showed me a thing or two and I’ve been able to move my Amazon FBA business for it because of our amazing group of people who help each other out. If you’re not a part of our group yet, you are invited.
Fulltimefba.com/Facebook to join our Facebook group and it’s an awesome place where people support each other and give each other the kind of fuel that they need to overcome different struggles and grow an Amazon FBA business that is making a full-time income with only part-time hours. That is our goal. There is tons of people in the group that have achieved that and are helping others. There are others along the way, we invite you to join us.
[0:10:20.7] REBECCA: And you don’t have to have full-time FBA income as your goal. There are plenty of people there who are doing this business as a hobby, doing it part-time and they really aren’t interested in doing it full-time but they can benefit from that group and so can you.
[0:10:33.7] STEPHEN: Absolutely. So Rebecca, those are the four things that standout to me most as an Amazon seller that I’m thankful for. What are you grateful for?
[0:10:41.6] REBECCA: Well, I put down on my list only three different things but I think that they encompass a lot and so, I am most thankful for I guess the first thing that I put, this is actually in that order so I shouldn’t say I’m most thankful for. The first thing I put is that I am really thankful that we have flexible schedules by doing FBA as our full-time income. It gives us the opportunity to work on other projects as we need in particular this podcast and our website and YouTube and all of that.
It gives us the flexibility to focus on that. We can go week by week and dialing up what types of projects we were working on. You know one week I might work 30 hours on FBA and on the next week, only work like two or three hours on FBA because I am able to move those tasks around from the different projects that I am working on and not just work related stuff but also the flexibility to be able to go visit family if I need to or take care of other things around the house or just take a week to take a break.
I’m the one in charge of that. We get to decide when we’re going to take a break and when we’re going to work really hard on things instead and so I am really thankful for that. That is not something that I take for granted at all because I know that there a lot of people out there who would be really happy to have that kind of freedom and flexibility in their schedule and kind of along the same lines, my second one is related. It is the ability to work from home.
And that’s something that I’ve always been very grateful for and have always really enjoyed that I don’t like commuting. I don’t like having to go to a different office. I like being able to just get up, do my morning routine and then walk across the house and be ready to get to work. I think that that’s just ideal for me but this year in particular, this crazy year of 2020, the pandemic has made me even more grateful for being able to work at home.
I know a lot of people were kind of forced into that this year. Some people have loved it, some people have hated it and I am really grateful that because we had already established so many solid routines over the last several years, in particular in March and April when the kids were first doing the whole remote learning thing and it was like just out of nowhere, we’re having to suddenly have kids at home doing everything from 7th grade up through high school.
And you know kids that have an IEP and to have really particular educational needs and we are really having the struggle to piece all of that together and figure it out. I am just really grateful that we were able to do that without having to adjust also to, “Okay, wait how do we work from home when we’ve been not doing it all along?” That part of it to me was just something that I was super thankful for that we already had established work routines.
And that we’re again in charge of that and are able to just – that’s one area of this year that we’ve been able to just continue on smoothly. Now granted it has really kind of put a full stop to our retail arbitrage part of our business for the most part and that’s been a big adjustment for us but that’s not something we anticipate being forever and so I am not saying that we weren’t affected at all by the pandemic but as far as working from home and having the set up to be online and be ready to go with working from a home office, that part I am really grateful that that was already in place.
Which brings me to my third thing that I am really thankful for and this one I would say is one that I’m most thankful for and that is that I get to work every day with my most favorite person in the whole world and that’s you, Stephen. I am really grateful. He didn’t know I was going to say this but I am really grateful that we get to work together. Again, not everybody is as fortunate as we are to get to work with the person that they get along with the best in life.
And that they love the best in life and that they would want to see all day every day and I am really grateful for that because I just don’t want to take it for granted and I do say that knowing that not everybody wants to work with their partner, wants to work with their spouse. That is not necessarily ideal for everybody that they want to do something separate and that is totally fine but for us, we really enjoy working together and I am glad that we get to do it.
Because it would be really sad if we needed to for whatever reason have different jobs and work in different businesses and not get to bounce ideas off each other all day and work together on different projects from our FBA business to The Full-Time FBA content. So I am grateful for you Stephen.
[0:15:34.4] STEPHEN: Well thank you so much, you’re so sweet and I am thankful for you too and love the fact that we get to spend all day and all night together and I really appreciate that.
[0:15:42.8] REBECCA: And I am saying that to you because I know there’s days when I probably act like I’m not grateful for that, that I would be like, “Okay, can you go work in another office for a while?” but overall, I am very grateful that we get to work together.
[0:15:55.7] STEPHEN: I am too and I am glad we have that flexibility and so if you’ve been listening to this, I want to close this episode by giving you your own challenge kind of like a gratitude challenge. We talk about a lot of different stuff that we’re thankful for, I want you to stop for a second and think through what things you are thankful for especially in the realm of Amazon FBA reselling. What are the things that you’re thankful for?
If you want to go and leave comments on our show notes, you can do that at fulltimefba.com/59. We’d love to hear what things you are thankful for in the Amazon FBA world and the rest of the world too if you want to share that too. We would love to hear that from you but if you even want to just take a moment, press pause on this podcast, think through it while you are thinking about it, I mean and just take a few moments to walk through your Amazon FBA life.
And what are the things that you do and what you are most thankful for and again, we’d love to hear it at fulltimefba.com/59.
[CLOSING CONVERSATION]
[0:16:54.4] REBECCA: All right, well we just wanted to remind you before we leave that as always, you can find all of the links that we are mentioning before and the transcript for this podcast if you need it at the show notes for it at fulltimefba.com/59. That’s the number 59 because this is episode number 59 and I just wanted to take a second to read to you a recent five-star review we got on the podcast. We love reading through these reviews and find them very helpful for us to know what to concentrate on the podcast.
And also, it helps us when you leave reviews because then other people are able to find our podcast better and more listeners get the help that they need in their FBA business. So this one, the title of it was, “The only FBA podcast you need to listen to” and it says:
“Do yourself a favor and listen to every episode in this podcast by Stephen and Rebecca starting with episode one. I have started to listen to many other podcasts and have stopped before completing before episode one. Where only a few episodes when it was apparent that the podcast was set up to only sell their course and gave no useful information. Stephen and Rebecca give real seller information you can use immediately in your FBA business based on their experiences within the free podcasts. Their topics and delivery styles also keep your attention and are always relevant. While they do sell courses as well, it’s always presented in a manner that doesn’t seem sales pitchy and doesn’t take priority over the podcast content. Thank you for taking the time to make this content to help others like me get started on the right path.”
We are so grateful for that type of review for this review in particular and wanted to share that with you.
[0:18:26.0] STEPHEN: Yeah and if you want to leave us a review, all you need to do is go to fulltimefba.com/leaveareview and we can show you how to do it if you don’t already know but if you know already, hey, go leave a review on your own that will be awesome. So on the next week’s episode of The Full-Time FBA Show, we are going to be discussing how Amazon sellers use deal list for maximum profits. There’s different types of lists out there that you can subscribe to, to get retail arbitrage or online arbitrage deals sent to your inbox on somewhat steady basis.
And we are going to show you what you need to do and how to maximize those profits dealing with the deal lists. That’s the deal, all right? Deal with it. Sorry.
[0:19:07.0] REBECCA: Oh my word, on that note.
[0:19:09.2] STEPHEN: On that note, we’ll see you next week on The Full-Time FBA Show.
[0:19:13.0] REBECCA: Bye.
[OUTRO]
[0:19:17.7] ANNOUNCER: That is all for this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. So head over to fulltimefba.com/podcast, where you will 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 e-Book. Now, take action on what you have learned today so you can find success at turning part-time hours into a full-time income with Amazon FBA.
[END]
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