#002 From Military Veteran Struggling to Launch to E-Commerce & Global Sourcing Authority
Download MP3Welcome back to another episode of her story podcast. Today's guest is a true innovator, inventor, entrepreneur, and expert in ecommerce. With eighteen years of military planning experience, she's a pro at turning big goals into simple actionable steps. As the founder of Amazing at Home, she has helped countless brands bring their unique product ideas to life, grow their businesses, and succeed in competitive marketplaces. From guiding product launches to optimizing advertising, her work creates incredible transformations for entrepreneurs worldwide.
Elizabeth:She is Amy Wees, and this is her story. Amy, welcome to the podcast.
Amy:Thank you for having me. And wow. What an introduction. I don't always get an introduction like that on every podcast.
Elizabeth:So military. I didn't know you were in the military until recently.
Amy:Yeah. Yeah. I joined the military when I was 19 years old. And and You were a baby. Spent a a lot of my life in the military, for sure, in the air force.
Elizabeth:So what what exactly was your job in the military?
Amy:So I had three different careers in the military. The first one was it's very hard to explain to people that weren't in the military, but, my first job was basically air traffic control during wartime. So, you know, you have air traffic controllers who help planes when they're taking off and landing at an airport, and we have those in the US military as well. But my job was to do that with remote radars during wartime scenarios. So we extended the radar picture and helped our helped our aircraft get on the tanker to get fuel if they needed to, help them identify where their enemies were, basically extended their radar.
Amy:So that was my first career in the military. My second career, I was a work planner. So my job was to basically look at existing operational future campaigns and plan for those and then execute those in air operation centers around, you know, the world that the military has. And then my third career was actually cybersecurity. So I got my master's degree in in cybersecurity, and I had the opportunity to help the military stand up their cyber protection teams.
Amy:And that's what brought me here to San Antonio, Texas before I invented my product.
Elizabeth:Oh my gosh. Everything you just said sounds very difficult. It really does.
Amy:Definitely hard. I would say the hardest thing was the hardest thing for me was the cybersecurity side of things because I did not have an IT background. So all of my degrees before my master's degree were business degrees. So I did not have an IT background, and and I had to pass really, really hard cyber schools with very in-depth IT stuff going on. So that was honestly probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but but I did it.
Amy:And and that kind of grit to get through things and achieve your goals is something that not only the military helped me develop, but also just kind of saying yes to things. And it's been helpful in my businesses as well.
Elizabeth:Absolutely. I can definitely see that how it help you, I guess, get a tough skin for challenges because, entrepreneurship is definitely ups and downs all the time, so I could see how that helped you. And so what inspired you to transition from the military into entrepreneurship?
Amy:Well, you know, I have always been I guess you could say I've always been an entrepreneur. When I was a kid, I was a I had a babysitter's club when I used to, you know, always just try to make money doing things. And I was raised by a single mom, and I had to work from a very young age and always had to take care of myself. Some might say I had to grow up a little bit too fast, and I don't really know what it's like to be a kid. And so, I've always had little side businesses.
Amy:Even when I was in the military, I started a nonprofit helping people lose weight and working out at parks. I was selling on Amazon, flipping products on Amazon from 02/2007. Then I had an Etsy store where I was when I was in station in Hawaii, I was painting wine glasses and beer steins and selling those on Etsy. I've always sold on eBay. So, I mean, I've always just kind of been one of those people that likes to explore, likes to learn things, likes to try things.
Amy:And and yeah. So that's, I guess, what what inspired me to leave the military and go full time was out of necessity. So I invented a product, and and there wasn't really a path. You know, you'll see if you if you try to sell on Amazon and you're looking at Amazon as a business model, you'll go out to YouTube and you'll see all these videos of people teaching you, oh, I have a laptop lifestyle. Here's how you can find a product on Alibaba, and you can sell it on Amazon, and you can make all this money.
Amy:Well, you'll notice even if you buy a course, unless you buy my course, nobody's teaching you how to actually invent something or start something from scratch, and I invented something from scratch. And even though I have an MBA and a couple of undergraduate business degrees, that didn't teach me how to develop a product from scratch and put it on the market. And I called all I tried out for Shark Tank, didn't get picked up for the show. I called all these product design firms that wanted $30,000 to turn my drawing into another drawing. Gosh.
Amy:I I basically was I felt defeated for, I guess, come sometimes the first time in my life. You know? I had done all these things in the military. I had I had overcome so much in my life, and and here I was with a great product idea, a prototype that I used every day, and I could not ever imagine going back to scooping a litter box again in my life. And I wanted so bad to bring this product to market.
Amy:I had college degrees. I had an MBA. I was leading cybersecurity teams, and here I was going, why isn't there a path for this? This doesn't make any sense. And so I got mad.
Amy:And, you know, when a woman puts her mind to something, you better just get out of her way because she's gonna do it. And that's what inspired me is I started I decided that I was gonna figure this out and that companies bring products to market all the time. And if they knew how to do it, then that meant that somebody like me could learn how to do it too. And so I started cold calling manufacturers. I three built my own three d printer.
Amy:I tapped into every resource that I could. I started taking classes at my local small business development center every day to learn that kind of stuff. Whatever I could do, and then I started creating videos online and just shared whatever I could learn. Like, whatever I learned that day, hey, guys. I learned this about patents today.
Amy:I learned this about three d printing. I learned this from a manufacturer, and I started developing the following. And not only did I launch my own brand, but I also ended up having all these people that asked me to consult with them, asked me to help them. And I felt a huge impostor syndrome because I was like, I'm not a consultant. I don't even know how to do this.
Amy:Like, I'm literally just figuring this out myself. But people were drawn to me for some reason and said, you know, I, you know, I just need help. I need help with Amazon. Well, Amazon. I've been on Amazon since 02/2007.
Amy:So I knew I could help them with Amazon, and I started finally saying yes. I was like, okay. Fine. You know? Give me $50.
Amy:Meet me on Google Hangouts, and I'll I'll try my best to help you. And the people that I helped had tremendous success, and they were able to grow their businesses very fast. I didn't know that so many of my skills that I learned in the military would transfer over. You know? I the biggest problem with entrepreneurs is fear.
Amy:Fear of success, fear of failure, that's what keeps entrepreneurs paralyzed. And for me, I was trained to just look past the fear and take a step and go, take the hill. You know? Like, that's what we're kind of brainwashed to do in the military. And and I had grit, and I just kept going.
Amy:And I was able to transfer that over to help other people too. And so that's why I was able to leave because actually had two companies. One was amazing at home Mhmm. And one was my pet brand that I launched. And I had a mentor who told me, Amy, you need to quit your job.
Amy:And I said, dude, I pay the mortgage. I can't just quit my job. What are you talking about? And he's like, didn't you tell me you're turning down clients? I mean, because, Elizabeth, I was coming home from work at my 6 figure cybersecurity job in a leadership position, and I was on coaching calls with entrepreneurs at 05:00, six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, nine o'clock at night.
Amy:I would get up, go to work, do it all over again the next day. All weekend long, I was working. I would take two weeks leave from work, and I would still not even be caught up on my businesses. So this friend that I had, he was a life coach, and he was like, Amy, you gotta quit your job. And I said, dude, you're crazy.
Amy:I can't just quit my job. You don't understand. I have a family. I have a mortgage. Like and he's like, what do think is gonna happen when you can devote full time to this and you're not turning people down anymore?
Amy:And, you know, and I was like, the truth is I don't know what's gonna happen. And I've never done this before, and I'm scared. And and he helped me come up with a plan, and I actually have a video with him after I quit my job, and and we talked it on that video about how he helped me come up with a plan to leave. But, yes, that that is a loaded question, and that is part of the answer of of that's what inspired me. It was more like necessity.
Amy:It just kinda happened, and the universe kept pushing forward. I had this plan that I was just gonna launch a product, and the universe had this plan that I was gonna help thousands of people, and I was gonna own trade shows around the world one day. I had no idea how this happened, but I'm here for it.
Elizabeth:Aren't you happy that you actually did what your mentor told you, which was to quit your job and go full time into your brands?
Amy:Yeah. You know, it was so scary. I believe it. I saved up six months of bills, basically, so that because when you first start a business, you don't know how to pay yourself. You don't know how to pay others.
Amy:You don't know how to hire. You don't know how to I mean, it doesn't matter what kind of a leader you are in your work, in your career. You know? Here, I led huge 36 people on my team. I had done so many big campaigns, everything.
Amy:That doesn't mean I know how to do it in my own business. You know? I didn't know how to do accounting and taxes and all like, paying myself, and I didn't I didn't know any of that. Was just terrified. I didn't even know how much money I was making.
Amy:And so I basically saved up six months of bills so that I could just focus on my businesses during that time, and then I could pay the bills. And so that way, you know, I wasn't just leaping and trying to figure everything out. Mhmm. All I had to do is just figure out, okay. How do I serve people in my business, in my consulting firm, and how do I continue with my brand?
Amy:And so that's what I did. I just focused on that, and I had nightmares every night after I left my job. I had nightmares. I I had nightmares. The phone was gonna you know, people were gonna stop contacting me.
Amy:Something was gonna go terribly wrong. Something was gonna fall apart. Right? And I had to keep telling myself every day, it's gonna be okay. It's just your fear speaking.
Amy:Like, you gotta get up every day, and you gotta swallow your fear, and you gotta keep going. Keep going.
Elizabeth:Mhmm. Yeah. This is this is exactly one of the reasons why I wanted to start this podcast because you see all of these hyper successful women like yourself who have built amazing businesses, and you just think, oh, they're just they're not like me. They're not afraid. They don't go through all these emotions.
Elizabeth:And this is the exact reason why I wanted to invite these hyper successful women to share, you know, all the feelings and everything they went through to be where they're at today because you you sometimes, you don't think, like, you could do it. You know what I mean? Like, you you see these people online so successful, you think, that's never gonna be me. Like, I'm different. And the reality is that we're not that different from other women entrepreneurs.
Elizabeth:I mean, we all feel fear. We we're all stressful. We're all going through the same feelings. And I think the difference is that, like you said, you just have to get through it. You just have to swallow your fear and just keep going.
Amy:Yeah. And I think the big thing that I remind people with when I'm consulting is you are not different. You you know, because they'll tell me, Amy and and then now I'm a life coach too because I just I business coaching is never just about business. It is scary. It is your life.
Amy:You are putting everything on the line. And so there's been a lot of tears shed on my coaching calls over the years. Yeah. And so, you know, sometimes I do put on my life coach hat when I'm coaching, and and the big thing is that people feel they feel isolated. They feel overwhelmed because they don't they don't they they just wanna see success, and success had the meaning for them, but they don't know how to just take one small you know, eat an elephant one bite at a time.
Amy:Just take one small step and just keep moving forward and stay focused on your goals. I always say comparison is the thief of joy. If you are worried about what everybody else is doing or you're too focused on your competitors and you're not focused on what you're doing, you're not going to get there. And nobody know. Every single business is different.
Amy:I don't get somebody on a coaching call for helping them on Amazon and just assume that they need to follow these 10 steps. No. I sit down and I go, okay. What do you got going on? You know?
Amy:What's your background? Tell me about you. What do you got going on? What are you building? What are you struggling with?
Amy:It is always down to the core fundamentals of, you know, running a business and running a person, understanding your own needs as a person. It's always those two things, and there are so many other distractions that get in the way. And so many business owners, they're like, well, let's just do Facebook ads, or I need to do this, or I need to do this. And they're doing 10 things at once, and none of them are actually moving the needle because they don't know how to map out a plan and focus on it step by step, and they're just trying to do what they think everyone else is doing, which is Absolutely.
Elizabeth:Yeah. Alright. So let's you kinda answered some of my questions there. So let's move on to the next question, which is how do you turn something like a product idea that's in your head into a physical reality? And if there's anybody on this earth that I would ask this question to, it would be you.
Elizabeth:So
Amy:Yeah. So there's so many people with ideas for products, and and they're just they're wondering, like, how do I do this? Right? So the first step is to to try and research it as if you are the customer, as if you wanted to buy it, as if you were trying to solve your own problem. Right?
Amy:Because this idea And that's okay if it already exists because maybe you would make a slight change. That would be even better. You know? But a lot of people, they will move forward with an idea and spend tens of thousands of dollars developing it, and they haven't validated it. They haven't taken the time to find out, okay.
Amy:Am I really solving a problem here? Did I build a better mousetrap? Right? So that's the first thing. Is first thing is just go online and try to search and Google it.
Amy:Try to solve your own problem. Right? Just try to see just like a customer would if they were trying to buy something and not invent it. They would do that. And so that's the first step, and that tells you a few things.
Amy:It tells you, is anyone else looking for this? Because if nobody else is trying to solve this problem, there's not gonna be blog posts about it. There's not gonna be Reddit threads about it. People aren't gonna be DIY ing it and selling it on Etsy or, you know, whatever. Like, you need to kinda know, alright.
Amy:Is anybody else does anybody else care about this? I had somebody that came to me with an idea for an an Instant Pot accessory, and they spent probably, I think, $4,050,000 dollars to develop this thing. And they aren't really an Instant Pot user, And I use my Instant Pot all the time. And and I'm not gonna give up what their product was, but it was an accessory for it. And I had no I was like, why would you need this accessory?
Amy:Like, I just do this. You know? It's like the guy who invented the the cover for the camera, and he goes on Shark Tank, and he's like, everybody's spying through cameras. And the shark is like I think it was Robert Kerjavec who's like, I just used a piece of tape. You know?
Amy:Like, you know, we don't need this product. Right? So that's the first thing is do your research and find out if anyone else really cares about the problem that you're trying to solve. A lot of times with inventors, you see this. Like, they're just kinda in their own world.
Amy:They're like, this is my problem, but it's not an everybody problem. You know? So that's the first step. Once you know, like, okay. Other people care about this too, and nobody is really selling this or taking there's nothing on the market, like, to help, but I know people are trying to solve this problem, then this next step is to prototype it.
Amy:And this is also where people just they they fumble a lot. So they'll hire a really expensive product design firm like I tried to do in the beginning. And, you know, you could be out $200,000 and still not even have, like, a website or a sample or anything. You know? And you're gonna overpay for your if you need molds for your product.
Amy:Like, my product was plastic injection molded. So what I always tell people to do is start with what I call DIY prototyping. So I don't care if you have to use cardboard and tape or if you need to go buy you know, like, let's say you're trying to add lights to a coffee mug, right, and or a water bottle. I'm gonna add lights to a water bottle. It's gonna be a personal safety device.
Amy:That way when you get out of work, you can click it on, and you can see your way to your car, you know, and it's your water bottle. It's all built in. Okay. Cool. How do you DIY prototype that?
Amy:You buy you a water bottle. You buy you some lights. You get some Scotch tape. Whatever you gotta do. It's not meant to be because, you know, I I can imagine your first response is, well, I don't I'm not electric I'm not an electrician.
Amy:I don't know how to install lights and water bottle. It doesn't matter. Where do the lights go? Should they go up top? Do they go on the cover?
Amy:How are gonna put that in the dishwasher? How big is your water bottle gonna be? How tall? You know? Should it fit in a cup holder?
Amy:You should know the answers to all these questions before you go to a product designer. Because, otherwise, it's not your idea anymore, number one. And number two, you're gonna go through so many expensive design iterations, and you're not gonna get anywhere. So buy a similar product. Buy you wouldn't believe how many components you could buy on Amazon, on the Internet.
Amy:You can use molding clay. I was trying to develop a fitness bag, and I don't really sew. But I knew that I wanted it to be a vertical type of bag that would go in a locker since all the lockers are vertical. Right? And what I did is I just took cardboard and tape, and I sat it down on the floor, and I cut it out.
Amy:And I said, okay. Well, I want the shoes to go here. How big does this pocket need to be? Where does this pocket need to be? And I went, oh, man.
Amy:I thought it would go there, but you know what? Now that I'm seeing it on this little map that I've built, it doesn't go there at all. Like, I that wouldn't make sense. And so I've done all this now before I go to a seamstress that can make my prototype for me. I know exactly the measurements.
Amy:I know how big something needs to be. I know where I want the zippers. I know where I want the pockets. I know everything, and that's what you should know. So whether you have to draw it out, bubble wrap, tape, whatever you got, I don't care.
Amy:I want you to DIY prototype it. Then from there, you are going to also, during that process, I want you to talk to a patent agent. So many people go to patent attorneys, and I love my patent attorneys. This is not a dig on patent attorneys. I feel like the patent attorneys, they just wanna come after me because, you know, I'm always telling people to go to patent agents.
Amy:But a lot of people don't know patent agents exist, and patent agents have done all the same training on writing wonderful patents as patent attorneys have. They just haven't passed the bar exam, so they can't litigate. But guess what? If I'm just coming up with a product, I don't need you to litigate. I don't need to defend anything yet.
Amy:I just need my patent written. So for less than $3, you can get a full blown, really nice patent done. And so and so many people, it keeps them from moving forward because they're like, ugh. I gotta hold on to my idea because if it's not patented, you know, and I can't afford a hundred thousand dollars for a patent, you don't need a hundred thousand dollars for a patent. So you get your design.
Amy:You get everything idea. You might even wanna sit down with a patent agent while you're going through the design process because then they can look at what other patents there are, and they can go, you know what? If you put this zipper over here, you have a really strong patent. Does that work? Right?
Amy:Where a lot of people, they'll go through the whole process of designing. They got their prototype. It's all done. Then they go talk to their patent agent or their patent attorney, and the patent attorney's like, somebody else already has patented this. And, you don't really have a claim here.
Amy:But if you do this, this, and this, and you're like, oh, man. I've already spent $50,000. Right? So you go through this process. You meet with your patent agents, all of this, and then you move forward with your design.
Amy:You get a really good prototype, and that's when you start looking for your sourcing. So that's the next step in the process is you wanna find a manufacturer to make this thing that you now have a really decent prototype of. And so I help people source products from all over the world and source manufacturers. You wanna be familiar with the legal requirements wherever you're sourcing from. So if you're sourcing from China, I would suggest you have a Chinese attorney.
Amy:So many people are afraid to source from China because they, oh, the Chinese are gonna knock me off. They're gonna steal my product ideas. Well, there's a good chance they'll do that, but that's your fault if you didn't understand the legal legalities of that country and understand how to do it. So we have had very little problems with our suppliers in China. My product was made in The USA.
Amy:That was interesting. But we've had very few problems with our suppliers in China because we have proper contracts, And those contracts are drawn up by an attorney in China who understands China law. And trust me, when a Chinese manufacturer signs a contract that is drawn up by a Chinese attorney who's represented by the Chinese government, they take that very seriously. So I respect that. Yeah.
Amy:You just wanna pay attention. So that's your next step is your sourcing. And then while you're sourcing and you're getting your first sample and everything, that's when you start your trademarks, your websites, your your dis your business plan, your distribution plan. So your business plan comes first, and then you do your your trademarks, all that because then you understand, like, where am I distributing? Where is the best place to launch this product?
Amy:What am I doing? Who's my customer? In your business plan score, score.org, they have a great business plan template, and you can meet with their mentors for free. If you're in The US, your tax dollars have already paid for this. The U The US Small Business Association, S B A Dot Gov, they also have local organizations and mentors.
Amy:I am one of those mentors now, and I love helping people with that. So that is another thing. You're gonna start on your business plan. You've got your prototype. You got you got all that going while your manufacturer's working.
Amy:You're gonna build all that stuff out. And then you design your packaging and your logo and everything, and you move forward with your product launch. And that is how you bring a product from concept to launch.
Elizabeth:Wow. That was a lot. But I'm so happy that you explained everything really, really clearly. Okay. So now that you have your product and you're ready to launch it, can you talk about the power of a brand?
Elizabeth:Because in today's age, especially, you see all over YouTube and TikTok, like drop shipping and, you know, the get rich quick schemes of selling products online. Like, what is the difference, say, between drop shipping and what you do, what you just explained?
Amy:Yeah. So drop shipping is where you are selling someone else's product, and you basically when someone buys it from you, you're essentially just the lister. You're listing a product. Right? When the person buys it from you, then you buy it from the seller at the original seller, and then that seller delivers it to the customer.
Amy:So that's essentially what drop shipping is. The difference a drop shipping business is not something you can sell. It's a nice little side hustle. You know? May maybe it's a nice little side hustle.
Amy:Who knows? Depends. Some people make good money in drop shipping. There's many different ways to drop ship. There's also white label, which is where basically you know, this is what you see a lot of a lot of, gurus call this private label, Amazon private label.
Amy:Right? But it's really not. It's slapping your logo on a product that already exists, so you have no way to protect it. You know? Now if you are a massive influencer and you've got a huge following and you wanna put your logo or your brand on your on T shirts, you don't own that T shirt.
Amy:There's nothing special about it. Who cares? Make you some money. If people wanna buy from you, then I suggest white labeling. I suggest slapping your logo on something or selling other people's products just like we have all these wonderful influencers on TikTok, that are helping us sell in our TikTok shops by talking about our products and, you know, being that referral source.
Amy:Nothing wrong with that. They can make money. They get a little commission off every product that they sell. I used to sell Mary Kay back in the day. You know?
Amy:We have Avon ladies. We have all kinds of sales jobs. That's a job. It's not a business. People call it a business.
Amy:They say, oh, I have a business. I have my own Scentsy business. You know? Great. But it's not a business.
Amy:It's a job. You just got yourself a job. There's nothing wrong with that. You're making money. If you're happy and you're making money, I'm gonna manage you.
Amy:Do it. But the difference is that I built something that I could sell. And in building a business that I could sell, I also protected my product with intellectual property along the way. So a true private label product is differentiated in a way that matters to the customer. It's something you can own, something that you can protect, and you're building a sellable asset that you can give to someone else and someone else sees value in.
Amy:And I just actually sold my brand. So I sold it sold my little baby brand at the end of twenty twenty four. And the lady that bought it, she's wonderful, and, you know, she's just she's growing it, and I see it changing every day. And and it's just it's really cool. You know?
Amy:But I built something in 02/2017 that I sold in 2024. And I had to call
Elizabeth:Was that the business you sold? Was that the pet brand that you started that you struggled to start at the beginning? Wow. That's awesome.
Amy:I grew it to over a million dollars in sales and and sold on multiple platforms. And then someone else saw value in what I built, and they bought it from me. And then I was able to walk away with that money, and now I'm, you know, thinking about starting another one. So that's the difference in in starting your own private label of in your own brand versus doing something like drop shipping. Is is it a job?
Amy:Are you just self employed, or is it a business that you can sell? Is it a sellable asset?
Elizabeth:Yeah. That's what I was gonna ask you next is do you still have oversee any of your own brands, or you're just full time consulting at and coaching?
Amy:Yeah. So I do not have any more of my own brands yet. I will probably do another brand this year. Well, Amazing at Home is a brand that I own. We are a trademark brand.
Amy:And we also are a TikTok shop agency. So we're an Amazon service partner as well as a TikTok shop agency. So we do full service management on TikTok. We have teams in Pakistan and The Philippines. Oh, nice.
Amy:So, yeah, so I still do consulting. I love that. It's, you know, it's my heart. There's a lot of heart of my heart in consulting, and I love helping business owners. I've been on a couple coaching calls today, and I will continue doing that.
Amy:But, yeah, now I'm into events, and so I have several brands that are events. I own the only multi category trade show in Latin America. I also own one in The Middle East. And so helping people diversify their sourcing and finding manufacturers around the world. But, yes, that's kind of where those companies I've owned, you know, the whole time that I also own my brand.
Amy:So I'm I'm keeping myself busy. Let's just say that Yeah. Oh, okay. Launch another brand.
Elizabeth:So tell me what's one product launch that you have worked on that stat stands out in your career, whether it's one of your products or maybe one of your clients' products? What it what's one that stands out and why?
Amy:Oh, man. And this is somebody you should have on your show, on your I can never forget Karen's product launch. Karen came to me. She had a patent for a wearable blanket, and this was just a few years ago. And, honestly, she was licensing that product to they it was in Target.
Amy:You know? And she was licensing it to another seller, and they were putting, like, Paw Patrol and stuff on the blankets. And then they were, like, selling them to kids in, like, big department stores. And so she was getting kind of mail what we call mailbox money, from doing that. But she really wanted to have her own brand of using her patent.
Amy:And, honestly, I did I was not a believer. I said, Karen, you know, look at what you're up against. The biggest brands, Snuggie, all these other wearable blanket brands, like, they're they're really big, and they've been on Shark Tank, and they've got a ton of traffic. I was like, your chances of doing really well with a wearable blanket, even though it's patented, is gonna be hard. But she had this vision, and and she said and she was probably one of my best students.
Amy:Like, I have a sixty hour graduate level course called concept of launch teaching you every step of this. Right? And she enrolled in my course, and she stood fast. And she said, I'm gonna I I'm gonna follow everything. And she even kept me on my toes during coaching calls between she would well, you said to do this, and we're gonna do this on and she would do everything I said to the t.
Amy:I had to be careful about what I said to her because she was very she would do it all. Right? And she launched following every single I don't think anyone in the history that has ever worked with me has I have a launch plan that I teach that it works really, really well, and she followed it to a t. She ranked immediately for the keyword gifts for women following our launch strategy, and she did so, so well. Her products did amazingly well.
Amy:She hit over a million dollars in sales, And and now she's working with other mentors. You know, she's part of other things. She's been to China with me on my China trips. But but during that process, I credit her with how she was just she was steadfast in her vision. She didn't let the competition scare her.
Amy:She followed she got mentors. She followed the steps step by step. She even got cancer in the middle of her launch. She would show up on our mastermind group calls, no hair, smiling, making it work. She kept going.
Amy:Her grit was impeccable. And now, you know, she has done so, so well. She's, like, I think, the number two wearable blanket on Amazon, which is such a huge accomplishment. And I'm just so proud of her. And so that is a launch that I'm very, very proud to be part of.
Amy:And and she taught me a lot. Like, my clients always teach me so much. I'm so humbled by everyone that I've gotten to work with over the years, and and I always tell them I I never call them my students because I'm like, no, guys. We're all entrepreneurs. We're on this journey together, and you're gonna teach me something.
Amy:And it's just been it's been great working with her as well and just seeing her success.
Elizabeth:Oh my goodness. I would love to talk to her. I'm gonna get you to get me her contact, if that's okay, after the call so that she can be on the podcast because that sounds amazing. Wow. And it it just goes back to what we were at the beginning.
Elizabeth:You just have to keep going regardless I mean, you said she got cancer, and she kept going. I mean, if she did that, you have no excuse to keep going. Yeah. Yep. Alright.
Elizabeth:So what's the most common mistake that you see entrepreneurs make when bringing their products to market?
Amy:Oh, so many. Number one, not
Elizabeth:Just give me, like, the top three.
Amy:Yeah. So the first thing I would say is that you, don't you can't answer the question, why will someone buy this from me and not from the competition? So many people pick a product. They do a great job on their brand. They spend all this money on photography, everything else, and then they launch, and they don't have any sales.
Amy:And they wonder what is going on. And I look at their product, and I'm like because I do product reviews all the time. And I'm like, okay, guys. Like, there's nothing different about this. There's no nothing for the customer for me other than price and reviews for me to make a buying decision with you.
Amy:And that was your biggest mistake before choosing this product and spending all this money on it. The second thing is not understanding your customer. So many the the biggest question customers ask when they come to a landing page, whether you're a service provider, you're selling a product, it does not matter. Dan Martell taught me this in his SaaS Academy. He said the question that they ask when they come to your website or your Amazon listing, whatever it is, is they wanna know, is this for me?
Amy:That's a very personal question. Is this for me? And so many try to sell everything to everyone, and you end up selling nothing to no one. So if you don't know why your customer buys this product, why they choose you over the competition, and you're not speaking to them in your images and the way that you're telling your story and helping them make a buying decision, that's huge. I can't tell you how many Amazon listings I've written where people have come to me and and immediately when we make that change because we understand the customer and what they're wanting to see from that product and those images, their conversions go way up.
Amy:Then number three, I would say you don't know your numbers. That is the biggest mistake. People do not leave enough margin. You can't have you can't source something for $5 and sell it for 15. That's not enough money for advertising.
Amy:You have to have good margins. You really need to know what you're doing, and you need to know your numbers. So if you sat down on a coaching call with me and you came and you said, oh, well, I don't know what what's going on with my sales. I need to make more sales. First thing I'm gonna ask you is, okay.
Amy:How much do you pay for the product? You would not believe how many people don't even know that. They don't know how much they pay for it. They don't know how much they're selling it for. They don't know how much it costs them to advertise.
Amy:They don't know what their cost of acquisition is. They are lost in their numbers. And they're like, yeah, but I hire an accountant. Great. But one of the big things I learned when getting ready to sell my business is I needed to know my own numbers.
Amy:Month over month, I needed to track them at a unit level, meaning unit economics. When you know your unit economics, you know what levers to pull. You know when to give up on a product. You know when you need to advertise more. You know when you have room for things.
Amy:You know if you're making any money. There are so many people that have come to me that they're losing money with every single sale, and they don't even know it until we sit down on the numbers. So those are the top three, I'd say.
Elizabeth:What's a good rule of thumb would you say to price a product? Let's say, I don't know, if it cost you $10 to source, what would you sell it for approximately? So
Amy:I'm a little bit of a shark.
Elizabeth:You have to be. I feel like, especially in ecommerce.
Amy:Gold standard is a seven x multiplier. So meaning if I'm selling it for $70 retail, I need to source it landed for not more than $10. Now that's not your first order. Maybe you're doing a little small test order. You're not gonna expect to get a 10 x on that, right, or a seven x on that.
Amy:But that's what you should be thinking about at scale. When I'm growing this business and I'm now selling I'm importing container loads every week, right, what is that costing me? What does that unit cost at scale once I really get my sales going and everything? Right? Yes.
Amy:It's normal to scale that back and make a test order in the beginning. That's fine. But when you get going, you need to make sure, and this is the big mistake that people make. They won't negotiate with their suppliers from the beginning with the understanding that I need to be at where I need to be at scale. So they'll just go, oh, can I order 500?
Amy:And then the the supplier doesn't take them seriously. They give them a super high price. Then they've overpaid for so long because they keep ordering whatever. They don't know they're not making any money, and then they've got no room to negotiate because they didn't negotiate from the very beginning. They didn't understand where their business need to be at scale, and they didn't know how to actually forecast those sales.
Amy:So they're just kind of going in blind. So I love to use data. I love to understand what is my closest competitor selling, how much can I sell it for? The other big mistakes that that sellers make is that they they go, well, Amy, I hope I hope that I could sell it for $50. And I go, okay.
Amy:But everybody else on the market is selling similar products for $30. But I mine has better zippers. Okay. Customers expect quality. They don't care.
Amy:If you're selling for $30 or $50, you better have good zippers. If you don't, you're gonna get bad reviews anyway. Like, nobody's searching for toiletry bag with better zipper. You know? Like so do you always look at the market price from the very beginning?
Amy:If I'm looking at the market price for water bottles, right, I come up with a really cool water bottle, beautiful design in it. It's awesome. Right? Well, everybody else is selling water bottles for $10, and I go, yeah. But mine's got a really cool design.
Amy:I wanna be able to sell it for $30. Okay. Cool. Like, I'm I'm not mad at you for pricing positioning yourself higher in the market, like, for more quality, but how can you make it easy for the customer? So if the customer sees five water bottles, $10 each, and yours has a cool design and theirs doesn't, and yours is maybe $11 or maybe even cheaper, maybe you could get yours even better.
Amy:Like, maybe yours is $9 and it has a cool design. Well, guess what? How many more conversions are you going to have? Tons more. Right?
Amy:When you make it easy for a customer to just decide, it right now, attention spans are so little. You can't expect somebody to come to your website and spend five hours there figuring everything out and why they need to buy your product and watch all your videos and everything. No. In three seconds, I need to be able to look at your first image and decide or your second image and decide, yes. This is for me.
Amy:And that is huge.
Elizabeth:So would you say image is one of the key one of the one of the best key elements for a product on, like, an Amazon listing to perform well? Or
Amy:Yeah. Because people don't read the listings. I mean, think about it. When you search online, when you go to an online marketplace, you read a little bit. You know, you kinda graze over it.
Amy:But the first thing you do is you
Elizabeth:Look at the image.
Amy:Images. Scroll through the images. And if those images don't answer your questions or they confuse you more about what the product comes with, you just keep scrolling down. And what do you see when you scroll down? Competitors' products.
Amy:Mhmm. And you go, oh, well, that one looks good. Let me click on that one.
Elizabeth:Right.
Amy:Oh, it has oh, it's oh, it's five inches tall. That's exactly what I was wondering about. Oh, it fits in a cup holder. Oh, I'm gonna buy this one. This is great.
Amy:So that's I do listing reviews for free. I do free listing reviews. And, you know, people submit their listings, and I share my screen, and I make a video. And I love doing this. You know?
Amy:And and that's the thing. I put myself in the customer's mindset, and I flip through their images. And if I don't understand without reading their listing at all what it is, how it works, why I should buy it, I move on. And and that's exactly what I tell the seller. You know?
Amy:It's like, hey. You're missing this key information, and right now, you're not the most compelling offer on the page.
Elizabeth:Absolutely. Alright. What skill would you say an entrepreneur must have in order to be successful?
Amy:I would say two skills. One is grit. Like, you can't just give up. You know? You can't be waiting for everybody to give you answers.
Amy:You know? You've gotta have grit in leadership. You've gotta be committed to your own vision. And then the second one is the ability, I would say, focus. Because, again, if you're still if you're just looking for the formula, you're looking for somebody else to give you the answers, and you are not a leader, and you cannot go, okay.
Amy:What are my top three goals this month, and how am I gonna stay laser focused on them? And that's the biggest thing people are always asking me, Amy, how do you get so much done? How are you in so many pots? How do you do all these things? And I say, well, because I'm not worried about what you're doing.
Amy:I'm worried about what I'm doing. I want to do these five I'm constantly planning. I I have annual planning sessions, quarterly planning sessions, monthly planning session, biweekly planning sessions, and weekly planning sessions. I'm always planning. I'm always like, okay.
Amy:What are my what are my goals, and then what things do I need to do to reach them? When you you're as an entrepreneur, you're always gonna get lost in your to do list. Right? You're gonna have so many things to do, and the to do list is just gonna continue to pile up. And I was at Tony Robbins' business mastery event.
Amy:And one of the things that Tony said that really stuck with me is he's like, you know, we all love our to do lists. They're gonna keep on going. We all love checking the box. You know? And he's like, but, honestly, he's like, if you focus on the outcome that you want, if you're overwhelmed by your to do list or your inbox, whatever it is, and you focus on the outcome that you want and you go, okay.
Amy:What what is it that I want and that I need out of this business right now? If you go back to that to do list, 80% of the stuff on that to do list will fall away because it will no longer contribute to what it is that you want. And so that's the big thing that I work with people on when they're coming to me, they're like, yeah. I I just I don't know what product to pick. I don't know what to do.
Amy:I don't even is is is Amazon the next thing? What's the next big thing? And it's like, what do you want? You tell me what you want. If you can define your why and what you want, then we can talk about what you need.
Elizabeth:What you need to be doing to be able to reach that instead of?
Amy:Otherwise, you're just gonna keep spinning your wheels Mhmm. Living on this fun little carousel.
Elizabeth:What's your vision for the future for AmazingHome and your own entrepreneurial journey?
Amy:Well, you know, we have always been about community. I have always been about bringing people together and building a community. And I think that no matter what we do in the future, we will always stick with that. It it has been a driving force. I love to teach.
Amy:I will continue to educate. I will continue to help entrepreneurs as best I can. I love to bring other experts around and give them a platform. I've given a lot of people in ecommerce their very first speaking gig, and, you know, they've gone on to just become amazing. And and I wanna keep doing that.
Amy:You know? I just wanna keep bringing people together and keep building communities and keep helping people build their dreams. On a personal level, I really wanna make an impact in mental health. We have a mental health crisis. We have the most depressed nation that we have ever had.
Amy:And and I have gone I've been through a lot in my life, and and I've studied a lot, and and I've been able to overcome a lot. And I really want to make an impact and help because right now, I don't think we have enough resources. Our health, our doctors, our hospitals, our health system is incredibly broken. Oh, yeah. And I am a biohacker.
Amy:I'm huge into helping people understand that they are not their thoughts, that, you know, they can be very, very powerful and very, very happy, that happiness is not found outside of yourself. And and since I have a gift for teaching, making things easy for people to understand, I wanna make happiness easy for people to understand and achieve. And so that is something that I'm working on on a personal level that I'm growing, and and I hope to, build on a business level as well.
Elizabeth:That's amazing. Absolutely. You know? Yeah. I agree.
Elizabeth:It's it's it's so hard. I feel like a lot of people, including myself sometimes, we I feel like we're on edge recently. I don't know what it is, but that that's that's amazing. And I'll definitely, you know, will keep in touch with you for this because I'm I'm excited to see where you take this because I know you're gonna do a great job with it. Alright.
Elizabeth:So I'm gonna let you go. But last question would be, can you share more about your sourcing trips that you offer through Amazing Home and what participants can expect from this experience.
Amy:Yeah. For sure. So I like to give people their first experiences sourcing products around the world, especially China. And then I also have trips to Mexico and Jordan. And you can find any of my trips at amazing@home.com.
Amy:What can you expect? Well, let me just tell you. China, for example, is a huge game changer. Most people that come on our trips save over 50% of what they were paying for their products. Wow.
Amy:Because they just have no idea. They have no idea what's available. You can go on Alibaba, and and there's nothing wrong with Alibaba. I love them. They're great.
Amy:But and they've built an incredible platform. But it's mostly all third parties, and you're not actually seeing you you have such a narrow view of what's available. When we go to the Canton Fair in China, there are over 80,000 suppliers in a space the size of four large airports. It's insanity. Like, there are so many cool products.
Amy:There are there are manufacturers from all over the world, not just China, in this one place. And when you experience different cultures and, you know, China can seem kind of scary to go by yourself. You know? The first time I went, I couldn't believe it was very scary. But it but but once I was there, it was amazing, and it opened my eyes.
Amy:And I paid $50,000 for my molds, and I later found out if I had gone to China myself, I could have paid $13,000 for those molds. If I had no idea, we take them we take you on factory tours so you understand, like, how are things made and how do factories work and how do people live around factories and what can you expect? And that's eye opening because then you suddenly understand what does a manufacturer go through when they put a logo on your product, when they're putting your product in the packaging. Where does it all come from? It just makes so much sense to you, and it gives you this power that no matter where you source from around the world, once you've been on one of my sourcing trips, you are just a powerhouse.
Amy:And then we also include all of our courses with that. So that's, like, you can learn, like, in-depth how do you negotiate, how do you vet your suppliers to make sure they are who they say they are, how do you protect your product ideas, all those things. And then when you're there with us, it's like every day is like a mastermind. Oh, yeah. We also do really cool business tours.
Amy:So this last time we went and had a the very first Chinese US seller mastermind event. And then the time before that, we went to Sheen headquarters, and we visited Sheen
Elizabeth:in person.
Amy:Nobody gets to do that. Right? Before that, we did this Alibaba supplier day. So Alibaba hosted us in their offices, and everybody just loved it. They loved eating in the cafeteria with the Alibaba employees and, like, see you know?
Amy:Like, it was just so cool to experience that. And then, of course, we do tourism stuff together too. So just the bonding that happens is incredible. Friendships are built, and entrepreneurship can be lonely. So it's really great to have this
Elizabeth:experience. I was gonna say that just just having other people like you around that, it's gotta be awesome. Yeah. That's one of my that's one of my bucket list is to go to the Canton Fair in China at least once because I heard this
Amy:was this in April.
Elizabeth:Oh my gosh. Don't yeah. Of course. If I were to, I would a % go with you because it could it sounds scary. Like you said, it could be it could be it could sound scary to go to China by yourself.
Amy:But my goal is always, at the end of one of my trips, I want you to feel comfortable and confident in coming back by yourself as many times as you want to. Of course, people love our trip so much, they end up coming with us multiple times because they just love, like, the community. It's a different experience. But for sure, we'd love to have you.
Elizabeth:And, Amy, before we go, I don't know if you remember this, but we actual we have actually met in person before in Mexico City on your very first trade show that you did there in Mexico City at the World Trade Center.
Amy:I do remember that. Yes. I think didn't we get a picture together?
Elizabeth:Yes. We did. Yes. We I did.
Amy:Amazing. We took the circle.
Elizabeth:I've lost a lot of weight since, so I didn't know if you were gonna recognize me. But it just so happened that I was visiting my parents in Mexico City that year because I was born and raised Mexico, and my family still lives there. So it just so happened that I was there when for those dates that you were doing the Mexico trip, and I'm like, oh my gosh. I have to go. And I did, and it was it was amazing.
Elizabeth:But I do wanna say the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I could only imagine how stressful and how much work it was to put an event together like that for you. And yet you were out there, and you just look so happy. And you were having so much fun, and I would look at you, and you were just smiling. And you were so I I came up to you, and you were just so nice to me. And I'm like, oh my gosh.
Elizabeth:That just speaks of how great of a human you are. So thank you for that.
Amy:Aw. Thank you. That's that means a lot to me. You know, I I always try to be in the moment. And, honestly, that first event was so hard to pull off.
Amy:And and there was a lot of stress, and there was a lot of faith involved in that. And but when it happened, I just tried to be in the moment, and I was so grateful. You know? I always try to have gratitude. And one of the biggest things that surprises me all around the world is that people will come up to me like you did and say, hey.
Amy:I know you. I follow you. Something you've done has has meant something to me, and that is such a gift. You know, you when you go online and you're creating content and maybe you get 20 views on a video, you don't you don't think that anyone's really paying attention. But be being able to travel around the world and have so many people come up to me and tell me how I've made a difference in their life and their business, and I've never met them before.
Amy:It's just such a beautiful gift. And I hope that everyone sees me that way, that they see this joy and this radiant energy because that is what I have to give, and and I'm just I'm so grateful for all of it. So thank you for bringing that up and saying You don't. Unbelievable.
Elizabeth:I'm sure they do. I'm sure everybody looks at you that way. I really do. Amy, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being here.
Elizabeth:Thank you for having me. You're welcome.
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