Shownotes
Frankie has it right. His family is always first, and staying close to his overall family is the village he is using to help raise his. Smart. Finding balance is elusive for many of us but be sure that is what you want. This time of year balance looks differently than it does in February or July. I love the intentional approach that Frankie takes and I think you will too.
Mentioned:
Sponsors:
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00] They want to jump in here and just bring back up episode 250 Toys for Tots campaign put together buy sell or Lams. It is such a great opportunity. I was with the seller on Friday. Their team is working on it. I’m very very excited. This is a chance for you to use the skills that you personally have developed. You’ve got sourcing muscles. Not many other people have it. And this is a chance where we can take and use our skills to help those less fortunate. All the information is on episode 250 such a great cause. Kip back. Give back give back. This time of year. Thanks hope your Q4 is going good. It’s a great time to be selling and sell a lot. Watch your reprice hers. I just got whacked down and lost fifteen dollars a unit.
Stephen: [00:48] I didn’t lose I lost in profit because I shared a blocked one wasn’t paying attention. So please do me tell you by couple sponsors in scope from Sellar labs. If you’re not using it to e-business to take your wholesale accounts of course you’ve got to use it for private label right. You need to understand the keyword you want to understand a key. Go look at your competitors get their keywords and then use them. That’s smart business right because they already have proven that proof of concept. But take the same approach to your wholesale accounts. Make sure that those keywords are in there. If not upload those changes many times you can but many times you can take advantage scoped from seller labs go to Celebes labs dot com slash scope use the code word momentum save a few bucks get a few keywords get your listings found got to find that keyword and scope will be the product that will help you their solutions for e-commerce.
Stephen: [01:40] Karen laager you know again you hear me talk about her because she is my account manager she’s been doing a great job. Again I had some stranded listings and I notice them down there on the bottom right hand corner they’re gone. I look back and they’re gone and I see stuff submitted. I see stuff return. It’s such a great process because I don’t have to pay attention. I can pay attention. The other parts of our business solutions for e-commerce slash momentum will save you 50 bucks. Lowest Price she offers. And you still get the inventory Health Report. Take a look at a setup for 2018 now. Tell Karen I sent you when you think about Q4 lists and I hope you don’t use them just Q4 I hope you use them all year long again.
Stephen: [02:25] You want to learn how to fish right. And so the best thing to do when you’re buying the list is look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it and then figure that out on your own. That’s the approach that Gala’s B uses and a million dollar arbitrage list. It is closed for the rest of this year. However I have asked them and they have said they would do it if there’s an opening they will pull from the wait list. OK so I have the link out on my site. On this episode that will have a link that will take you right onto the waitlist. So get on the wait list if there’s something that you’re interested members you’re going to give you a seven day free trial.
Stephen: [02:59] So there’s nothing to lose but once you get in there take advantage. Learn how to fish right sharpen your tool sharpen your skills I guess is the right phrase I should use. OK so again I have that link out on this episode. So jump out there and get on that list you know go daddy and Grasshopper are both national sponsors of the show. I’m very fortunate. I have a third one coming on in February. Very excited about that. But go daddy. I use them with somebody who had a great idea for and for a domain and I’m like. Use my link save 30 percent 30 percent. Yes they pay me. We all know that. However 30 percent is real. I use it myself because I want to save 30 percent.
Stephen: [03:41] So it’s try go daddy dot com slash momentum right. Try go daddy dot com slash momentum and you’re going to save 30 percent grasshopper’s the same deal try grasshopper dot com slash momentum and you’re gonna save 50 bucks. I saw somebody else signed up for it. The service makes you a professional. All of a sudden your business has a phone number has a vanity phone number you can kind of create your own one if it’s available but you don’t need a second phone. And I think that’s the big thing. It’s not Google Voice which is choppy sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. This is professional stuff. Press 1 for customer service press 2 for my Amazon account manager which would go to Kerins team. I mean this is a great opportunity. So it’s try grasshopper dot com slash momentum save 50 bucks. Welcome
Cool voice guy: [04:29] to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people the products and the process of e-commerce selling today. Is your host Stephen Peters then welcome back to the e-commerce momenta podcast. This
Stephen: [04:44] is episode 260 Frankie Wells. We’ll get ready to be inspired because I was really inspired talking with Frankie. I knew he was into a whole bunch of things. However I had no clue the level of detail the focus the intensity that he approaches this business with and there’s no doubt that’s the reason he’s having so much success. I love the way he talks about his family love the way he’s clear about what are absolutes in his lives. And I just think that this is such a smart way to run your business. Don’t be chasing something you don’t necessarily need at the cost of something else. I think Frankie is a really good example of that. Let’s get into the podcast. All right welcome back to the e-commerce momenta podcast very excited about today’s guest. He is he is well known I think but he lays low. So it’s funny because everybody knows him. Yet he lays low he’s real laid back real quiet. Frankie Welles welcome Frankie.
Frankie: [05:48] Thanks for having me Steven. It’s great to be here.
Stephen: [05:50] You really are well known. Everybody knows you. I don’t know how you get around so much. Is that intentional. Like we were when we last together was at New York. We
Frankie: [06:01] were in New York for something up at the Amazon to boost the boost.
Stephen: [06:05] Yeah. Yeah. Do you make it a point to get to a lot of those kind of events. I
Frankie: [06:11] try to you know I’m a family man. So my time is limited how much I could get away. But when I can you know I love to go I love to network and I love to be around all the face the people and the Facebook people since so you know it can be very solitary work and alone at the computer all day. So to get to be face to face with people is great.
Stephen: [06:32] You know we will get to that part of the story where Frank used to work with a bunch of people and he doesn’t anymore but that’s a choice that he made. And in a pre interview we talked about that I appreciate it because I think it’s smart that you’ve thought through this I won’t get all that. All right let’s go back though so you. You know when I read your bio you were an Internet marketing. But what were you. What were you going to do in high school. I
Frankie: [06:56] mean did you were computers a big part of your life you know in high school and as a kid I was always trying to make money somehow. You know I always had the internet or entrepreneurial spirit but I didn’t really know where I was going but I knew I wanted to kind of own my own business even at a young age. But you know my parents they were immigrants from Italy you know right off the boat and down you know the American dream for them was to send me to college so that would be a big deal and your world.
Stephen: [07:27] Going to college for your family. That’s a big deal.
Frankie: [07:31] Yep. So you know I was the youngest of three and you know my siblings went and I went and graduated. And you know I learned a ton. I was never against it. I just knew I never really wanted to have a 9 to 5 job. Would you go to school for. So I went for marketing and design.
Stephen: [07:47] OK. So design what does that mean. Tell
Frankie: [07:49] me is that clothing is that art is more digital based. You know this is a little late 90s early 2000s so the web was there you know the dotcom boom and bust but it was still you know in its infancy in terms of all the the marketing abilities that we have now today.
Stephen: [08:10] So so you have an art.
Frankie: [08:13] ZAFIR Yes hi. If if I didn’t have to rely on making money I love design and I love art and I love creating. But I don’t like to do it for a paycheck because it loses something then doesn’t it. Yeah absolutely. And to please other people’s really difficult when it comes to to our. You know it’s very subjective but that’s what’s beautiful about private label. I get to be the the head of what I want to do and put out the products I really want and dumb my customers seem to love everything I do. So does it feel like art. Does that feel like art to you. Yeah in some ways. You know it’s the whole process of creation you know from. I love every little bolt from the start to the end of it. And you know I mentioned I always had the entrepreneurial spirit.
Frankie: [08:59] So I’m not afraid to get in the ditch and dig and do a task that I probably shouldn’t even be doing. You know if it’s kind of lower level but I’m just not afraid to do any of it. And I think you know having that mentality helps me get ahead in the end.
Stephen: [09:13] I think being now I was surprised how old you are you probably hear that often cause you look like you’re twenty one gone maybe 22.
Frankie: [09:25] I’ll take that as a huge compliment. You
Stephen: [09:27] do hear that off the Dell correct. Yeah they’re only 82. But I was I was surprised at how long you’ve kind of been in this Internet world. I mean when you think about it you’re on hold dude. I mean to most people I mean you know think about the people coming in this business you know. Oh I just started. But you’re an old dude. You’ve been you’ve been messing with the Internet now for quite a long time.
Frankie: [09:51] Yeah I mean I’ve gone through my paces I’ve the beauty is I’ve I’ve learned in every stage you know from the earliest days of you know just being a consultant you know I was doing search engine optimization before it was called that I am was doing paperclip marketing before Google Edwards even existed. And I’ve just made money in and had fun developing. You know throughout all those phases of software you know Google Ad Sense Affiliate Marketing. I mean I flipped domains I’ve done Legion sites some now doink you know FBA I’ve been an eBay seller since probably 1999 I’m dabbling it click funnels now I mean I’m just all over the place. Have you messed with Mirch. Yep I have an account. You know I have designs that sell you know every day every week. I see the commissions but it’s low on my priority list now.
Stephen: [10:43] But not surprising because you’re an artist. I mean I would have thought I mean when I looked at your stuff I was thinking oh he’s going to tell me he’s he’s knee deep in Mirch just because you have that creative side.
Frankie: [10:54] Yeah well I usually do my own design so I’m not a kind of guy who’s you know farming it out but design takes time and the time I put towards a new private label products makes me a lot more money than a shirt would.
Stephen: [11:09] So does it give you the same reward though. I mean does it give you that same cause isn’t it. I mean finishing it right. It’s it’s the pain and the struggle of coming up with it and getting it through. But then when you finish it it’s like you left it all on the table Frankie his private label the same for you like that. I get the vibe it is.
Frankie: [11:30] It isn’t a lot of ways. You know it’s I guess it’s about creating as a whole. So you know it’s kind of it’s easy it’s lax I could just do it and be really creative where you know when I’m creating a product I do lots of you know sophisticated market analysis competitive analysis. You know I’m putting numbers together so it’s it’s creative it’s just more structured and not as bubbly and fun but the process is still great. You know start to finish.
Stephen: [11:56] Do you enjoy the private label side more than the just the standard FBA yes I do.
Frankie: [12:04] If my experience is mostly private label you know I’ve dabbled with my Ouray and so we started right in private label I started with private label and then I backtracked and I went to our address. Actually I wanted to learn the interface and and everything better you know the whole process of shipping. So are a really taught me that and and then I went back to a little wholesale but private label has been about 90 plus percent of my business. You
Stephen: [12:32] know you still sell the first private label product you have. Do you still sell it.
Frankie: [12:37] I don’t anymore. It was I was a new guy.
Speaker 5: [12:41] So go ahead tell us what it was tell me it was a silicone glove. Come on admit it. You had you had claws or something. Right.
Frankie: [12:46] Well it was it was it was pretty it was pretty popular and a lot of people were selling. And unfortunately the original seller didn’t have a trademark or any type of protection. He was a guy that just put a product out and it was a fabulous product. But the quality was horrible but the concept was top notch. So I sent it out to China. I found a couple of manufacturers I changed it. I tweet it made a higher count in the in the package. I changed the design of it and made it more reliable and dumb. And eventually this guy went on Kickstarter and raised over a million dollars and under 24 hours. And the first thing you did was the lawyers were knocking on his door to represent him. So. So it kind of a crash and burn in that sense I had my funding made a lot of money I learned a lot and had a get out.
Stephen: [13:39] What did you learn not to do there. Because I hear a lot of people tell you you know hey here’s what I learned. And you know I learned to you know blah blah blah blah blah. But what did you learn that are like. No way don’t do that again.
Frankie: [13:54] Well I guess with that scenario it was the guy didn’t have trademark protection OK. But I knew it was going to come so you know maybe in hindsight it would have went to him and tried to help him grow the brand. Or by licensing to it you know early on before he did anything. So I’d have a major stake in it now instead. You know the lawyers took over and now exploded.
Stephen: [14:15] Right. So. So by going to Indy tells a story. Oh my God. I forget how many years ago this was one of his products was a couple of years ago. And that’s the true story. Literally I’m at a yard sale early in the morning and it was it’s a special one and I went because I was looking for bunk beds for my grandkids. Anyway I’m there. He calls me it’s like seven o’clock in the morning. He’s like Steve blah blah blah. And he tell I think he’s told the story publicly even he you know notified from a lawyer he was getting sued over...