Shownotes
Gabe is very clear that he values his time. He guards it carefully. Shouldn’t we all after all? When do you turn it off? What is time with your kids worth? (hint..you will never get it back) Gabe wants to help walk you through the Amazon selling models starting at RA and getting to PL as fast as you can.
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] Wanted to take a second and recognize my sponsors this week, Gaye Lisby’s million dollar arbitrage as edge and list group. That’s a mouthful. It is. But guess what? It’s a great opportunity. You can build a big Amazon business. You don’t need a lot of capital when you start. I mean we all started, you know, um, most of it started selling books and then you move into retail arbitrage that is the place that you can turn your money the fastest and online arbitrage. And so by having that skill set, by learning those skill sets, you can get the best bang for your buck. And so gaze group will help you learn online arbitrage. It’s, it’s more than just a list service. They’re going to give you a whole bunch of actionable inventory every single day, Monday through Friday. However, there’s also a mentorship that goes on and that mentorship is so important because sometimes it’s great to know what to buy, but it’s more important to understand why to buy it.
Stephen: [01:03] But yeah, that’s that. You know, learning the fish are just getting fit. You really want to learn because ultimately you want to strike it on your own and this is a great way to do it. So how about seven days free trial. Free trial, right? Very, very cool. So it’s amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash is the mouthful. The word momentum. You’ve got to use a hyphen and you put in the word arbitrage. So it’s amazing. Freedom.com, forward slash momentum dash arbitrage, and you’re going to get a free trial in gaze group. You got to tell her I sent you, right. I’ll also have the link in the episode, but it’s such a great opportunity. So she has amazing, amazing. I’m in that group so you’ll see me there and amazing, amazing person who’s there to answer your questions, who’s there to help lead you and help guide you.
Stephen: [01:50] And that’s what gay does. She does it every single day. The testimonials are real. Go take a look. You will be blown away. And again, it’s a free trial. I have the link on this episode to reach in. You know sellerlabs, Jeff Cohen and the team. They have blown me away with this scope project. We use this all the time for our business. We do a lot of private label. We also do a lot of wholesale and wholesale bundles, you know, or multi-packs, that kind of thing, which a lot of people do, but we use a scope to help us figure out what are the key words and so it’s really simple. You basically figure out where you’re going to sell, what you’re going to sell, what category, find that light product, find the top couple of sellers and find their keywords. Boom magic. There you go.
Stephen: [02:35] You copy the best because it’s working. And guess what? That’s a proof of concept and scope allows you to do that. So it’s seller labs.com, forward slash scope, seller labs.com, forward slash scope. Use the code word momentum and you’re going to get a couple of days free trial and you’re going to save a little bit of money and you’re going to get some free keywords. It’s worth every penny. I’m in that group. Come and check me out. So we’re labs.com, forward slash scope. Again, use the word momentum solutions for e-commerce. Karen Lunker, great, great, great group. I’ve been using them for a long time and I guess it’s over two years and I’m in there and I pay just like everybody else. Yeah, she’s a sponsor my show, but she makes me pay and I got the same $50 discount that you can get. Oh by the way, you’re going to get that through my link and my link.
Stephen: [03:25] Only one. And you’re also going to get the free inventory health analysis. Great Way to start 2018, get your inventory in line and Karen will help you do that. We use them for everything. I mean the basically, uh, you know, long term storage fees coming up. Guess what, show evaluate. She’ll make some recommendations and I’ll say, yeah, check, check, check, check these out, this return, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. And magically it’s done. I love it, love it, love it. I love the fact that they take and get rid of stranded inventory for me. I see it in there. And then next time I go in and it’s gone. Love it. Love it, love it, got an ip infringement. She’s going to help you work your way through that. This is the kind of service that you get from Karen Locker. That’s solutions for the number for e-commerce solutions for e-commerce dot com forward slash momentum, right, so you got to forward slash momentum and you’re going to save $50 a month, 600 bucks a year by just clicking that link. She pays me. I don’t want to hide that. I never do. I’m always upfront about that, but it doesn’t cost you anything additional and you’re going to get that inventory health report. The only way you get that is through mind link the solutions, the number for e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum.
Cool voice guy: [04:39] Welcome to the commerce momentum podcast where we’ll focus on the people, the products, and the process of commerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [04:53] Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 200 and eighty six. Gabe Strom, I met Gabe a couple years ago at e-comm Chicago and was blown away. It was him and his wife and I remember Andy Simons and I were sitting there chatting with him and he’s like, oh yeah, you got to talk to this guy, and he just, I was in thrawled in the conversation. I mean, just, he kept me running the edge of my seat. Smart Guy knows a lot about a lot of things and was just, just, you could see that he was one of those outliers. Well, kind of cool that I get to talk with them and find out a little bit of a story how he gets there and you know, you’re going to hear this continual learning, continued learning, investing in yourself, investing, um, maybe not being such a classroom guy, rather a reader, you know, readers are leaders.
Stephen: [05:36] That whole thing mentioned some very good books. One, I’m going to go and read myself. I think I’m going to get it today because I love to learn more, but he is really into this time freedom business. Um, you know, he wants time freedom and so taking that approach and building a new business model right from day one, right? Taking that approach from day one I think is such a smart thing to do and we talk about that. Let’s get into the podcast. All right. Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. Very excited about today’s guest because he’s in the hot seat as opposed to being the interviewer. He’s the interview. He gave a strong welcome game.
Gabe: [06:15] Steve, glad to be here, man. I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate it.
Stephen: [06:19] You coming on and you are very busy giving interviews, doing interviews for your groups. You’ve got a whole bunch of groups. You’ve got a whole bunch of plans. You’ve been. You’ve been in this for awhile doing this and so to get perspective from the person who does the interviewing, he’s always helpful. I think it is because you’ve probably picked up some amazing thing from some amazing people there.
Gabe: [06:41] A very fair. Yes. I think it’s a lot of people don’t realize when you get to run a podcast like you do, you get to interview super smart people and oftentimes you get to hear things that a lot of people don’t. So a lot of word travels upstream to you and you, you know, that as the benefit. But uh, yeah man, glad to be here. I got into the industry, uh, the e-commerce industry about three years ago, have been in the online, make money online home business industry for about 10, 12 years old. Not that old. I’m 30, I’m 35. I got, I got an I first got into the, the make money online industry in college. So this is kinda been a labor of love for the past decade or so.
Stephen: [07:19] You are barely old enough. Um, but you know, I think that’s a competitive advantage. The fact that you, um, are, you were like lea leaped into that marketplace. I mean, you, you didn’t have to get drug into it like I did because I came from old media newspapers specifically. So I didn’t have that advantage. You, you get nothing but you had a computer for as long as you can remember. Is that fair?
Gabe: [07:45] No, I remember when computers. I’ll see. I’m like the generation between x and millennial. I’m like right at the top of, of that generation. So I remember we remember when we first got a computer that was the green screen, I had like a little, uh, I don’t remember if it was an IBM, this must’ve been, I don’t know when this was, um, this would be early, early nineties probably. But, uh, yeah, when we got to windows and then it was color, remember how cool it was when computers for color,
Stephen: [08:12] they put computers in my school in the eighties, early eighties, just barely a year. I graduated. They actually installed computers in our school and so it was early eighties and so to have that was like, and I remember going in the back because I had a pretty easy math and I went back there and learn how to program a payroll program for whatever reason, you know, I was in accounting program and I just, it was interesting to me and it was like, oh, this is easy, you know, and you pick it up really easy, right? Because it was math was my thing and so I remembered that, but let me tell you, it was so hard because it was dos-based and all that kind of jazz. My sons who are younger than you, apparently those guys know nothing. Um, they know nothing but, um, um, that, uh, computer world, I mean they literally anything so, so that perspective really takes them places that I can’t get to because I still have to learn while they’re like starting from that place. So it’s a big advantage. So, so where are you going to be? What were you studying in college?
Gabe: [09:15] Oh man, we’re going way back. You want to do this interview? I was interesting. Gets perspective. I always like, how are you going to where you are
Stephen: [09:23] because of what you’ve done and what you’ve learned along the way. And I think it’s helpful.
Gabe: [09:27] Yeah. Um, well it certainly is a journey. I started why I started marketing in college that I’m not a lead me. I kind of was one of those c’s get degrees kind of students. And I caught the entrepreneurial bug. Really. Um, I had a friend, I remember this, uh, I’ve told this story before, but I remember I was sophomore year of college, so I must’ve done whatever that is, 18, 19. And I remember this guy came to our house that we were renting with a couple of buddies and he was looking around and so he came downstairs with the agent and I’m like, hey man, you know, are you looking to live here next semester? And he’s like, uh, no, I’m interested in buying it. And it just stopped me in my tracks and I was like, you know, here’s this. He was like, had been my same age, 18, 19 year old kid and he wanted to buy the house that I was renting for, you know, we, we’d pay whatever it was back then, 300 and eighty bucks a room or something, which turns out it was a pretty good model for the landlord at the time.
Gabe: [10:15] But long story short, I’m, he’s like, yeah, you should read this book, Rich Dad, poor dad, which I’m sure most of your listeners have heard of. And uh, so I read that book at a young age and caught the bug immediately read, um, you know, sort started studying wealth creation at a very young age. So that was kind of my self proclaimed major, so I didn’t, I didn’t do too good in school, but I started my library and if you see the behind me now, I’ve got several bookshelves that college education has continued and I’m a big believer in learning and lifelong learning. And that’s why, especially you guys listening to your podcast, you guys understand the value of that. But, uh, that’s where it started from and I got into home business and tried pretty much everything. I’m sure your listeners can relate, like literally everything.
Gabe: [10:57] Um, I remember reading one of the next great books I read was the E-myth by Michael Gerber. I don’t know if your listeners have read that one. That’s a great. I also consider that a staple in the library, but basically learned that 95 percent of all small businesses startup, whether this is e-commerce, Amazon, home business, network marketing, whatever, 95 percent of businesses failed. And that books about, um, how people fail, but systems succeed and it’s basically about how to build a systems based business. Those kind of introduced me, Michael Gerber is the author of that book. You kind of introduced me to this world and at that mindset, Steven, uh, my early thought was off 10 businesses fail. I gotta be willing to go start like 20 different businesses. And uh, so that was the early these
Stephen: [11:43] businesses knowing that most of them are never going to work out, but you need one or two to hit it so you can have success. Is that what saying
Gabe: [11:53] that that was the belief. And I do not recommend this belief for other people starting today. There’s much better ways to start a business. Still a big thought.
Stephen: [12:02] I mean, you know, to get that place in your head to push past up because most people would say, oh, you know, sorry, game in 95 percent chance I’m gonna fail. I’m not taking those odds. Right? And that’s why most people don’t start, right? They don’t start because it’s something I’m going to fail before they start. You went at it a different approach. You’re saying, Hey, I’m going to have to start, you know, 20 of them to get one or two to click telling you. That’s big thinking right there. Most people couldn’t see that.
Gabe: [12:30] Yeah, it’s, it’s easier. Thank you. It’s easier when you’re young. You don’t have a family or responsibilities or really anything at risk. You’re never going to die, right? You’re going to die. So if you’re listening and you’ve got two kids at home and you’ve got a stable job, I would not recommend quitting your job to start selling on Amazon. I would, I would highly recommend cashflow is king, right? So keep the whatever cash flow you’ve got. And I learned that later in life. Um, you know, that was one of the early beliefs. You know, I think he, uh, Saki is guilty of this. He makes it sound like, you know, a job just over broke, like it’s bad to have a job and you’re never going to get rich if you have a job. And uh, you know, I struggled for many years with that belief.
Gabe: [13:05] And then, uh, you know, had been humbled and actually went back to work as an entrepreneur can tell that story later, like seven or eight years later, and it has made all the impact. So anyways, I, I’ve kind of changed my beliefs, but that’s, that’s one way to approach business. And um, you know, I can fast forward now to all the different businesses we’ve tried from. I mean, Gosh, from a vending machine business that I lead and partner to, you know, buying money, no real estate or real estate, no money down, wholesaling real estate fix and flips. Um, you know, um, all different kinds of online business. Partly what’s that I did in the early days. Yeah, it was investing in information products. I’m back in the early two thousands before I even had heard of the direct response industry or you know, any of this stuff.
Gabe: [13:52] But. So I kind of had a long journey getting to e-commerce and then, um, ended up actually finding Amazon and, you know, I, I tried selling on Ebay and all the things that a lot of people had done, but I was running a podcast,...