FBAM2 Product Differentiation with Kip Gillenwater

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– Failing Before Winning

– State Of Me Too Products

– Creative Arrangements with Manufacturers

– Winning with Patents

– Horror Stories

Jeff Allen:[00:00:30]	There are a lot of Amazon gurus out there taking, you know, time to give you their advice and you pay for it. It can be expensive and it’s all about, you know, how to be a successful seller, of course. But what about the regular, real people out there? The ones who found their own success as an FBA seller? Well, we’re going to talk to one of those regular people to learn about their success story and maybe we can learn a little something from them to kind of sure up our business and help us success as well. From the west coast to the world, this is FBA Millionaires.
[00:01:00]	FBA Millionaires. This is the program that is geared toward helping you pursue your goal of earning a seven figure income selling professionally on Amazon. Hi there, my name is Jeff Allen, and as always, I’m happy to say hello to our own resident expert Amazon sales machine, Mr. Will Moffett. Will, how are you today?
Will Moffett:	Hey, Jeff. I am wonderful.
Jeff Allen:	You never get this guy in a down moment, ever. This guy is always in a great mood and he just, he-he’s that way. I-I’m sure that he is but Will, tell us why you’re so excited about our guest, uh, on this edition of the program.
Will Moffett:	Everyone with FBA Millionaires, I would like to introduce Kip Gilenwater. She is awesome. How’s is going, Kip?
Kip Gilenwater:	It’s going great, Will.
Will Moffett:	I’m glad you’re here. And where you located?
[00:01:30] Kip Gilenwater:	Um, Palms Springs, California.
Jeff Allen:	Oh, shoot.
Will Moffett:	Palm Springs, we’re all on the west coast.
Jeff Allen:	My wife and I get out there every so often and it’s so nice to be able to say, “Yeah, it’s only a 45 minute drive out to our favorite, uh, desert oasis out there.” Palm Springs, lucky you. Well you’ve got th-the lifestyle now th-that you can afford to live out there in Palm Springs.
Will Moffett:	(laughs)
Jeff Allen:	Th-Th-That’s where all the Hollywood types go on the weekend, still, isn’t it?
Kip Gilenwater:	It i-, it is. It’s beautiful out here, I love it.
Jeff Allen:	Yeah, that’s what I thought. Oh, my Gosh.
[00:02:00]Will Moffett:	And I, I have to definitely get down there. I-I hear great things. So now that I know Kip, we can all do dinner.
Jeff Allen:	(laughs)
Kip Gilenwater:	Absolutely. Come on out.
Will Moffett:	(laughs)
Jeff Allen:	Yeah. Yeah, well-
Will Moffett:	Perfect.
Jeff Allen:	… Be careful, Will gets the check, trust me on that. He’s gonna get the check in a minute. (laughing) Well let’s start, Will, let-let’s talk to Kip a little bit about, uh, kind of what she’s been doing and I’m anxious to hear her story.
Will Moffett:	Kip, w-we are all anxious to hear your story. So tell us a little about your background and, and how did you first find out about Amazon?
[00:02:30]Kip Gilenwater: [00:03:00]	Well, originally I was a reseller with GoDaddy. Um, I started with that in 2000 or 2001 and I did that, um, I’m still doing that actually. Um, but the, the bread and butter of those years was, was earlier in 2000, before the market got consolidated. And I was looking around for something else to do and I came across, um, ASM, uh, but what is now amazing.com. I, uh, joined through that program and, uh, and got started that way.
Will Moffett:	So reselling domains, is that what you mean?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:03:30]	Correct. I, um, I was a reseller and so I had a, or I still have it, a website that connects to the backend of GoDaddy. It sells domains, websites, basically everything that GoDaddy sells, um, I sell under a private label account. And what’s funny is when I started that, it was back when computers weren’t really out there that much yet, that everybody didn’t have the internet. And I actually started the business and I didn’t even have internet at my house when I started an internet business. So-
Jeff Allen:	What? (laughing)
Kip Gilenwater:	It was kind of funny.
Jeff Allen:	Hey, Kip, I gotta ask you a question.
Kip Gilenwater:	Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Allen:	I need to know, how much, what was your biggest deal that you ever brokered or ever participated in for a domain name?
Kip Gilenwater:	I have actually, like I’ve bought and sold some on my own account. And the most I’ve ever done is like maybe $15,000 to $20,000 for a domain.
Jeff Allen:	Whoa.
[00:04:00]Kip Gilenwater:	But what I did, is I sold to like regular people who bought like a dot com for $10 or $12.
Jeff Allen:	O-Okay.
Kip Gilenwater:	I didn’t, I didn’t do the reselling of like fancy domain names. Like I said, the biggest one, I did personally, was for like maybe 15, 20.
Jeff Allen:	Now that’s not bad though, $15 to $20,000. I mean, I was thinking, you know, for me, reasonable would be like, maybe a-a couple of grand and no more than that. But $15,000 to $20,000. Is all of that money yours? Or you just get a percentage of that? Or, I mean, how did that work?
[00:04:30]Kip Gilenwater:	Oh, no, that was a domain that I actually had in my personal account-
Jeff Allen:	Dang.
Kip Gilenwater:	… And then, sold.
Jeff Allen:	Shoot.
Will Moffett:	Good job, Kip.
Jeff Allen:	Man, I guess so, congratulations.
Will Moffett:	That’s awesome. So tell me this Kip, you’ve totally dominated in the domain area. How about when you first started off with Amazon? Was it a cake walk, did you hit any home runs?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:05:00] [00:05:30]	No, I struck out miserably like every time. When I started, I started it in 2014 with ASM 3. And at that time, they had a, um, a formula that you were supposed to use to figure out what, uh, how to find good products. And I did that and I thought, “Oh, my God, I have the best product in the world.” And 500 other people at ASM 3 used the same formula and got the same product. It was Vitamin C serum. And it totally crashed and burned. And I started that, in 30 days of starting … and I tried everything, I did givea-, I, giveaways, I did everything I knew to do, and I knew it was not gonna go.
	And so I regrouped on that and started another beauty product. And it was horrible and did not do well. And at the time, they were saying, “Okay, you need a website, you need to build a brand. You need to do all this other stuff.” And so, I focused on that, and the products just weren’t selling.
Jeff Allen:	Yeah.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:06:00][00:06:30]	And so, I did another product, also a beauty product, and I hated that. And within probably three months after I launched my first product, I had three duds that were horrible. And so, I decided I don’t like the beauty niche and I wanted out of that. And so I went into another niche, which was the baby niche. And that, the … I-I did okay with my first product on that, which was a, um, a baby changing pad. And that was okay and I did that for probably almost a year. And the supplier that I was dealing with totally ripped me off and as, as it kept going, the quality got worse and worse. And, you know, for a baby product, it’s got be good quality and nice.
Jeff Allen:	That’s right.
Kip Gilenwater:	Nobody wants to give something with like marks on it or dirt on it to their baby.
Jeff Allen:	Correct.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:07:00]	And, um, so I ended up getting out of that. That was, that did okay but I would say it was a failure too. And then I did two or three other products that did not go and I happened on another product and it did okay. And I just happened to, uh, find through that, a niche that-that’s the niche I’m in now. And that one ended up being a home run. And so that kind of got me started and down the path. That one did not actually launch until last October, I think.
[00:07:30]Jeff Allen:	Last October, meaning October of, uh, 2016. Is that right?
Kip Gilenwater:	Right. So it was a long process. And, and that one, I actually developed it myself and got a patent on it. So it took about a year to actually get it made and go through all the testing and the and so forth. But even that, I mean, it took a long time, so, so I was definitely not an overnight success.
Jeff Allen:[00:08:00]	Well yo-you’re to be congratulated for the work though that you put in. Over how long a period did you kind of endure this pattern of, uh, high hopes? And then, uh, those fails where you kept trying and things weren’t happening for you before you finally hit pay dirt with that product you talked about last October?
Kip Gilenwater:	Two to two and a half years.
Jeff Allen:	Wow.
Kip Gilenwater:	And during that time, I was selling, like I had little successes.
Jeff Allen:	Yeah.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:08:30]	But nothing I could sink my teeth into and it was enough to kind of be like, “Okay, there’s something here. I know it can work but it’s just not working for me.” So, um, it, it, there were little, little hills and valley’s but no big, “Hey, I’m at the mountain top. Yay!” None of that.
Will Moffett:	Got it. You know what, Kip, if we can fast forward to today, we see a lot of people who may not do so well. Um, th-they’re all looking at the same products on different softwares and everybody’s piggy-backing off of each other. Do you feel that that’s kind of what’s going on here today with the market? And it’s a little too saturated?
[00:09:00]Kip Gilenwater:[00:09:30]	I don’t think it’s too saturated in the sense that there’s still a lot of money to be made online and at Amazon specifically. I do think that the me-too products, the people that just throw up something that looks just like everything else, and they just slap their own label on it, I’m not sure how much longer that will be successful. Um, I, I think it will if they have, uh, certain rules that they follow. And, and they get it up there and know what they’re doing. But as far as newbies getting in, like how many more … you know, with a silicon spatula, how different can it be?
Will Moffett:	(laughing)
Kip Gilenwater:[00:10:00]	And so, f-for my products, what I do and what has been successful for me, is doing different products. Like, I don’t reinvent the wheel but at the same time, I make the wheel a little different so it looks different and, and it-it’s not the same as everybody else’s product. It’s different in ways that I get patents on everything I do. I-I do intellectual property, I keep track of that very well.
Jeff Allen:	Kip, how many patents do you currently own?
Kip Gilenwater:	I have two and I’ve got a third one and I also have the, the exclusive ability to use another product in the U.S..
Jeff Allen: [00:10:30]	You do have the exclusive ability, so you have, what, permission from the manufacturer or the inventor? Or, how did that work?
Kip Gilenwater:	The manufacturer is the inventor.
Jeff Allen:	Okay.
Kip Gilenwater:	And so I have the exclusive right to use it in the U.S. and I also, with his permission, got the copyright. And, uh, I think on that one, we might also be doing the design on that, uh, the design patent.
Jeff Allen:[00:11:00]	I’m gonna ask another question, Will, real quick. I’m gonna duck in here before you jump back in here. Going back to October last year, when you had developed that product or rolled that out to the marketplace, number one, was it patented already when you, uh, uh actually put it on Amazon? And how long was the process between the time that you decided it was something that you needed to do and the time it finally came through, you got the certificate and, uh, you were able to get that thing all legal and, uh, and patented the way you wanted to?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:11:30]	Well, there a, there’s certain steps for getting a patent. There’s the applying for the patent, which you have to, you have to actually apply for the patent-
Jeff Allen:	Right.
Kip Gilenwater:	… Before you, uh, make it available for sale.
Jeff Allen:	Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Kip Gilenwater:	Or put it out and show people.
Jeff Allen:	Okay.
Kip Gilenwater:	S-So, you can’t … if you, if you want a patent, it can’t already be on Amazon. Or it can’t be anywhere out there.
Jeff Allen:	Okay.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:12:00] [00:12:30]	Um, and to apply for the patent, it, they, there’s certain things. Like you have to do drawings, and so forth, which my att-, uh, attorney did, and it probably took maybe six weeks. And then he applied for it, which gave me a provisional patent number, or patent pending number. And that, I put on the boxes and so forth, that was there for probably nine months, eight or nine months. And that’s when it was officially issued and mine. So, uh, and so, that’s about how long it takes, I think maybe a year or so. But it depends, there are different types of patents. There’s design patents, which, which show the look of a product.
Jeff Allen:	Right.
Kip Gilenwater:	And there’s a utility patent, which is actually an invention of, um, you know, some weird thing.
Jeff Allen:[00:13:00]	Yeah. A-And there are, there are so many. In fact, I-I-I know talking to patented attorney’s, and those are really interesting folks to talk to because they can go on and they really enjoy what they, what they do. And talking about, uh, uh, intellectual property protection, which is basically what’s it’s really all about. And, uh, that’s something, Will, you know, we’re going to have to cover on this show, I think, probably a little bit more extensively. It may not neccessarily be the right venue for it now but make a mental note of that. Will ya? (laughs) We need to, we need to talk about that.
Will Moffett:	I agree. We may need to get Kip back on for that. (laughing)
Jeff Allen:	Maybe.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:13:30] [00:14:00]	I know what not to do. (laughing) And one thing that’s kind of interesting is, um, I have a trademark on my main brand. And I was trying to split off and do a separate brand, uh, underneath that brand. And I tried to get the trademark for that, I had the trademark for my main brand. And then I tried to, um, split it off and the, the, the smaller one, I had everything set up for it, I had, um, all the, the logos, the website, the, the, brand, um, all the branding and stuff set up. And they refused my trademark, um, which totally, you know, messed things up for me. Um, but it was because somebody else had the trademark and when I went in there to search it, I didn’t see it. But somebody had one that was a synonym for mine.
Jeff Allen:	What?
Kip Gilenwater:	And they refused it because it was a synonym. So in other words like, I’m not saying it very well but, um, let’s say, let’s say garlic press. Let’s say I wanted to do garlic press … somebody else had like garlic squeezer. (laughing)
Will Moffett:	Oh, no.
[00:14:30]Kip Gilenwater:	An-And they said squeeze and press are synonyms in the dictionary, so it, it was refused. So there a lot of little things that get ya.
Will Moffett:	Oh, my goodness. So, those things can be pretty pricey. H-How much are patents running for? Because I’ve done trademarks, but never patents. And I know patents can be pretty lengthy in time. How much can a patent be?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:15:00]	Well, for design patents, which are the easier ones, and they don’t, they … like I said, they’re pr-, they’re pretty quick compared to utility patents. And so, utility patents, I think, are like $5,000 to $6,000. But for design patents, I pay about $2,000.
Will Moffett:	Okay. That’s reasonable. Cut out competition, no hijackers here.
Kip Gilenwater:	Well, Amazon doesn’t always agree. But (laughs) you’re right.
Will Moffett:	(laughing)
Jeff Allen:	How many products do you have altogether right now Kip, in your store?
Kip Gilenwater:	Right now I have five but I just, I just launched two. So until last month, I only had three.
[00:15:30]Jeff Allen:	Are you selling any, uh, reselling any merchandise, whatsoever? Are you buying any merchandise wholesale from any suppliers right now?
Kip Gilenwater:	No. It’s all private label.
Jeff Allen:	All your stuff. And your, are your, you’re a believer, aren’t you that private label is the way to go, aren’t you?
Kip Gilenwater:	I think there are a lot of paths that people can take. This is just the one that works for me and I’m most comfortable with. Because the others, I-I, it’s so hard to build the business as it is.
Jeff Allen:	Yeah.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:16:00]	I want to knock out as much competition as possible. A-And it’s … like if everybody has this silicon spatula, it, you know, and they’re getting it from the same place, how different can it be?
Jeff Allen:	Right. If you don’t mind, just kind of sharing with us, and I hope you don’t mind, let’s talk about volume right now. Can you tell us a little bit? Give us a kind of rough idea, even a range would be good about what you’re monthly, uh, volume is at the present time.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:16:30]	Right now, I’m just at the point where I’m solidly doing $100,000 a month. And that’s like in non-like quarter four type months. Just regular months, I’m … with the, with the two new products, I-I’m at the $100,000 mark.
Jeff Allen:	Non-seasonal. This is, this is a real [crosstalk 00:16:36]-
Will Moffett:	Kip, welcome to FBA Millionaires. (laughing)
Jeff Allen:	Yeah, that’s right, that’s right.
Kip Gilenwater:	Thank you.
Jeff Allen:[00:17:00]	And she-she’s got, she’s got the early key to the store right now, the, uh, FBA Millionaires Club store. And, uh, great work on that, Kip. Well, congratulations on, on, uh, just doing such a fantastic job so far to this point. And Kip is, uh, right there, uh, a shining example, and we’re speaking to her right now. She is, uh, in Palm Springs, you’re listening to Will Moffett and Jeff Allen on FBA Millionaires. A shining primary example of the type of people that we’re talking about.
[00:17:30]	Uh, that this show with-we wanna appeal to those people who are out there who want to make $1 million selling on Amazon, who want to have seven figure incomes at the end of the year. And there are folks out there, regular folks like Kip who, you know, before they got into Amazon, we’re doing other things. And I know that there are a lot of people whom, out there, who know this. But there are more people it seems to me, because of social media, we’re inundated, Will, by all of the gurus and all of these marketing masterminds out there who, uh, can tell you all about, uh, you know, becoming a giant, raving success on Amazon. You can become your own Amazon celebrity through all your friends and family and do all of this.
[00:18:00]	And they go from town to town and, and they, uh, have these incredible meetings, and conventions, and seminars, and workshops, and people are paying thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. And you may end up spending hundreds or thousands of dollars, whatever the case may be, but the point of the matter is, it’s not everybody has had to do that. And you’ve got a real person right here, in Anytown, U.S.A, but she happens to be living in Palm Springs, who is doing it. And she is seeing great results, it’s taken her some hard work, she told an incredible story, I think, Will, how it wasn’t home run after home run when she got started. Took her two to two and a half years-
Will Moffett:	Yup.
Jeff Allen:	… To find her success.
[00:18:30]Will Moffett:	Yeah. Kip is a, a prime example of what everybody can be. And so Kip, in saying that, um, has the journey gotten easier? Or as you grow, is it any tougher times?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:19:00]	I don’t think anything with this whole process is difficult. It’s just trying to master it and I think as, as things develop and the business starts to grow, it just requires learning new skills. And, and to learn different things. Like right now, I’m dealing with inventory and cash flow and, and trying to set everything up, um, so that I don’t run out of stock. And that’s just something that it’s not hard, but it’s different than the, the things I was dealing with when I was struggling to get it off the ground.
Jeff Allen:	Yeah.
Will Moffett:[00:19:30]	Kip Gilenwater joins us from Palm Springs, California talking about her journey with Amazon, selling Amazon the FBA way, and making a giant success of it. She is into private labeling, she has been very successful this far, and we are going to continue our conversation with her. Will Moffett and Jeff Allen with you, FBA Millionaires rolls on when we come back right after this.
Jeff Allen:[00:20:00]	Getting the funding you need to grow your business can be challenging. But our friends at UpFund make it super easy. See how much you qualify for in 30 seconds and have your inventory funded in just days. Check out UpFund.io to get started today. That’s UpFund.io.
[00:20:30][00:21:00]	You know, if you want to join the FBA Millionaires club, well the really great thing about it is that you don’t actually have to be a millionaire. You just have to have the desire, right? So we would love it if you would stop on by our website at fbamillionaires.com, look for FBA Millionaires Club, sign up there. And you can keep up to speed with what it is that we’re doing and we’ll, uh, put you on a mailing list, we’ll send you out a bunch of information. We’ll keep you up to date on who we’re gonna have on the program, what we’re gonna talk about, we’ll provide you with some great tips and guidelines. And, uh, just anything that we can think of to help make your walk through FBA, uh, as successful as we can possibly help you make it. Okay? So once again, you’re joining the FBA Millionaires Club, simply by going to fbamillionaires.com and look for all the information there. And you can also too, like us on Facebook and all the other usual social media places. Got it?
[00:21:30]	Will Moffett and Jeff Allen, that’s who I am. Will Moffett is in northern California, I’m in southern California and with me, not too far away is our guest. And that is Kip Gilenwater. And she is in Palm Springs, California, we’re talking all about her, uh, career so far selling FBA, uh, Amazon and, uh, doing it very successfully, Will. What a great story so far.
Will Moffett:	Kip is killing it. I’m gonna call Kip, Killing it Kip.
Jeff Allen:	Killing it Kip.
Will Moffett:	That’s what we’re gonna call her. (laughing)
Jeff Allen:	I love it.
Will Moffett:[00:22:00]	Kip, for 2018, what’s your plans to take your Amazon business to the next level? Everybody is looking for that next extra million, that extra $100,000 to add to that, that bank account. What do you plan to do to make that happen in your business?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:22:30]	Well, the plan right now is to add about, between five and 10 new products, hopefully 10, but somewhere in that range. And if I do that, I feel like by the end of 2018, I will have, uh, two to two and a half million dollars in sales.
Jeff Allen:	Wow.
Kip Gilenwater:	In that range. So that, so my goal is to scale up and add as many new products as I can, uh, successfully.
Jeff Allen:	Well, fantastic, Kip.
Will Moffett:	That’s definitely how to grow.
Jeff Allen:	And I, and I-
Will Moffett:	More sku’s.
Jeff Allen:[00:23:00]	… Exactly. A-And you know, Will, she’s got a game plan. And it sounds to me like she’s well on her way to doing that and she, you know, endured those, uh, failures in the beginning. But everything has been coasting, uh, right along, uh, and she would probably disagree with me. Uh, pretty smooth sailing it seems like from that point. But, I do want to ask you though, Kip if you have a horror story that you don’t mind sharing? Because we all love horror stories, we like to get scared to death at the movies. And I’m just wondering if you’ve got one for Amazon that we can hear, that we can learn from.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:23:30]	Well, I-I have a lot of horror stories (laughs) but one, um, the biggest one is probably last year, uh, after I started wh-what became the home run, or one of the home runs, I had a 40′ container that was going to Amazon for quarter four. And at the beginning of November last year, it got stopped by customs.
Jeff Allen:	Uh-oh.
Kip Gilenwater:	And it was not released until mid-January.
Jeff Allen:	Ooh.
Will Moffett:	Ooh.
Kip Gilenwater:	And that was very painful and so not only did I miss quarter four with selling these products, but I also was charged like $6,000 or $8,000 for the amount of time it was in customs.
Jeff Allen:	Oh, my goodness.
Will Moffett:	Oh, my God.
Kip Gilenwater:	It, it was pretty painful (laughs). So-
[00:24:00]Jeff Allen:	So what happened after, after that point? I mean you didn’t, uh, have the product obviously, to sell during the fourth quarter. But it was one of those, I mean, you had to sell it after the fact. Uh, how were sales after that when you finally were able to get it into your store?
Kip Gilenwater:	It was okay. It, it came back but not as good-
Jeff Allen:	Yeah.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:24:30]	… As it was. Like it never, like I’ve run out of stock on a couple different products and they never come back to where they were before they ran out of stock. If, if it runs out for more than a couple of weeks. Like if it’s just for a day or two, it’s not that big of a deal, at least from what I’ve experienced. But if it’s more than two, three weeks, it’s very, uh, it, (laughs) it’s very painful. Um, so, yeah, i-i-it came back and now it’s, I would say it’s probably 80% to 90% of what it was before it, it had that happen. But it’s not back at 100% where it was.
Jeff Allen:	Oh, boy. You live and learn, right? It’s one of those types of things you have to learn for that kind of, uh, experience Will.
[00:25:00]Will Moffett:	Well I’m trying to breathe right now. (laughing) Well I’m glad you overcame, Kip. Ooh, yes. Um, (laughs), well, um, in that case, uh, let’s move onto the next question ’cause I’m still trying to catch my breath. I can only imagine, I can only imagine that type of product sitting in customs. I’ve experienced product in customs and, um, you know, everyday I’m emailing (laughs).
Kip Gilenwater:	Yeah.
[00:25:30]Will Moffett:	And, um, yeah, uh, I-I use Flexport, you know, “Flexport, hey, you know, where is it? What’s going on?” And, you know, I don’t know, have you guys ever dealt with like FBA or any type of certifications?
Kip Gilenwater:	Yes (laughs).
Will Moffett:	You know, that’s a whole nother pain with it but I totally understand, Kip. And I’m so glad that you overcame and you are killing it right now. Are you able to prevent that from ever happening again?
Kip Gilenwater:	No. Um-
Will Moffett:	Oh, okay.
[00:26:00] Kip Gilenwater:	… Actually I have a 20′ container that’s stuck now. Um, it’s painful but not nearly as painful as the first time when it happened. But, it, you know, it’s just one of those things. It’s just they pull them from time to time and mine just happened to get pulled in quarter four each year. You know, it’s just part of selling on Amazon, it’s just, it’s just something that it, there, there are lots of little obstacles and this is just one that sometimes people, you know, have to bump over.
Jeff Allen:	Kip-
Will Moffett:	Yup, so right.
[00:26:30]Jeff Allen:[00:27:00]	… Kip, what kind of advice do you have for those people who maybe are struggling right now with their Amazon business? Uh, maybe they’re just getting involved with FBA, maybe they’ve sold merchant fulfilled this entire time and they’re looking to do something a little bit different. Um, just from the standpoint of someone who has had, uh, successes and failures come her way. Now, of course you’re enjoying in this title wave of success right now in your own business, what would you say to someone who is riding up there in an elevator with you, maybe the top of this, the luxury suite of your favorite resort hotel someplace, uh, for dinner. And they needed, uh, quick, uh, advice about what they needed to do to succeed on Amazon?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:27:30]	I would say don’t give up. Um, that would be the first thing is it works. It, there are millions of sellers out there doing well, and you can do it too. It’s just a matter of following the blueprint, finding somebody to follow and follow that blueprint. And if it doesn’t work, try it again, tweak it, try it. Um, and I’m, I’m a big believer in education, like podcasts like this, I listen to a podcast every day when I go for my walk. And just learning as much as you can-
Jeff Allen:	Yeah.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:28:00][00:28:30]	… About Amazon. And the nice thing about this is there is a blueprint to follow. And I know it-it’s very easy to get distracted because the gurus are saying, “Oh, well this shiny object, you must have this to be successful.” Or, “Oh, you need to do this or that.” And really, it’s very, it boils down to a very simple thing. You’ve got to have the product, you’ve got to have the sales, and you got to have traffic. And that’s it, those, that’s all you need to focus on until … I mean, I’m still focusing on it so I would say until you have like $3 to $5 million worth of sales maybe. Just focus on what is going to get you sales. And that is a good product and traffic to your listing. If you have those things, then you can succeed.
Jeff Allen:[00:29:00]	Kip, when you’ve got a store on Amazon as you do, how important is it to have those additional vehicles, online vehicles set up? Those selling tools, another website for example, uh, social media, uh, something to help you with your branding. Uh, you touched on it a little bit in the beginning but we didn’t really go into any kinda detail really when you were talking about it. Has that been an important part of your success so far to this point, is being able to have all of those other marketing vehicles online to help support your Amazon business?
Kip Gilenwater:[00:29:30]	No. Um, I, I actually think I wasted a lot of time on that, um, because those weren’t necessary. Those, for the most part and my background isn’t websites, it’s SEO, and I do have a website for my, uh, brand. And I have a Facebook page, and I have Pinterest and all of those things but really, they were time wasters.
Jeff Allen:	Yeah.
Kip Gilenwater:[00:30:00]	And if I were to do it again, I would have the website, just because it’s important for people to see that you’re a real company. But other than that, maybe a Facebook page, but I would not spend a lot of time or effort on it because while those are nice, unless you have a vehicle to monetize those, and bring traffic to those and get the traffic from there to your Amazon store, you’re wasting valuable time. Uh, for me, it’s, like I said, it’s about doing the best I can on Amazon and, and trying to rank and get traffic there.
[00:30:30][00:31:00]	Amazon gets much more traffic than you’re gonna get t-to your website … at least, you know, for me, for my website. And so I can spend my time trying to rank on Amazon and if I rank, i-if I move up to page, the top of page one for, for a particular keyword, and maybe it takes me a couple of weeks to do that, I’m gonna make a lot more money than if I try to get, um, number, to try to get on page one of Google for my website. Because Amazon is the 800 lb gorilla. So for me, all of those other things were time wasters and once I realized that it’s all about product and sales, that’s where my focus became and that’s, that’s really what helped my business take off.
Jeff Allen:	Well, Will, that’s exactly Kevin King had talked about when we had the show with him. He talked about the fact that, you know, getting the website together and your Facebook and social media strategy together, was not the priority.
[00:31:30]Will Moffett:[00:32:00]	Yup. That’s so true. I know, I often see that it is very easy to look at other shiny objects and like Kip said, listen to the gurus. And it’s always something new to do, some kind of new tactic. But at the end of the day, we all must understand that all we need is a product. I-If we can find a product, a niche, or a product that we can make our own, make it different, you know. And if we could get it ranked, you know, that’s really all it takes it just find-finding those products and sometimes you gotta run through a lot of products. You know, I’m a true believer that there’s no other way for me but to run through products. At one point, I would, I would launch 10 products per month, that’s 10 private label products.
Jeff Allen:	Wow. Wow.
Kip Gilenwater:	That’s a lot (laughs).
Will Moffett:[00:32:30]	Y-Yes. And you know, um, doing the keyword research, and the listings, and the sales copy and all that, it was a big mess. But (laughing) but, but that’s what it takes. But, but, you know, as you grow, and say out of those 10, 10 products, if you have three winners each month, two winners each month, one winner each month, at the end of the year when you collect those winners, you’re, you’re making great revenue.
Kip Gilenwater:	Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Will Moffett:	So, you know, if we look at, we look at this picture and it’s all about finding that product. And you know, if you gotta find the product, the sof-, the software that everybody else is getting, I don’t know if you can really, uh, depend on being a Kip. (laughing)
[00:33:00]Jeff Allen:	Well why-you know, we’ve kinda run out of time a little bit here, uh, Kip, for this edition of FBA Millionaires. But what a delight this has been for both of us to talk to you tonight. Just a tremendous, uh, uh, story and you have been the consummate guess, consummate pro and so generous with your time. We really do appreciate your contributions to the program and we hope we can have you back on again.
Kip Gilenwater:	Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, it-it’s been very nice.
Jeff Allen:	There she goes.
Will Moffett:	Thank you, Kip.
[00:33:30] Jeff Allen:	Wow, great job. Well another great find on your part, my friend. I don’t know how you do it but you come up with these fantastic guests again and again. Any final thoughts to, uh, kinda take us out here?
Will Moffett:	I think I, uh, pretty much said what I had to say as far as guys, um … you know, there’s many things to do out there, as far as finding your way through this jungle of Amazon. Um, but-
Jeff Allen:	It’s the Amazon jungle.
Will Moffett:	… If you can find any … the Amazon jungle.
Jeff Allen:	(laughs)
[00:34:00]Will Moffett:	If you find any type of success, hold onto that success, make it better, take the successes and multiply them and constantly never redo your mistakes. If you keep doing that, you’ll keep climbing to the top as Kip did.
Jeff Allen:[00:34:30]	Great, great show. And, uh, Will, thank you, I appreciate you, my friend. Thanks so much for once again being in there for us and being our resident, uh, pro as you always are. We’re looking forward to getting together again, I hope. And that’s gonna wrap up this edition of the program and don’t forget, we wanna, you know, make sure that you have a chance to, when you’re over there at iTunes, that, you know, give us a rating if you don’t mind, that would be really great. We’d love it so much if you would.
[00:35:00]	And also, too, again, just bears repeating, make sure you stop on by fbamillionaires.com, you join the FBA Millionaires Club. And, uh, really there’s no price to pay for that, it’s just a matter of being able to connect with us, we connect with you, we send you some stuff from time to time by email to let us know about future editions of the show, maybe give you some tips, some inside advice. Uh, anything that we can possibly do to help you, uh, in your Amazon career and uh, selling the FBA way.
	And that’s what we wanna do, we wanna grow successful together. And if that means, if that means all we can do is make a lousy six figures at the end of the year, then that’s what we’re gonna do, dog gone it. I’d love to be a failure and make six figures a year, Will.
Will Moffett:	(laughing) Hey … [crosstalk 00:35:28]. Jeff, you’re hilarious.
[00:35:30]Jeff Allen:	I’m telling you man, he doesn’t-
Will Moffett:	I’ll take the six figures.
Jeff Allen:	… He’s-
Will Moffett:	I’ll take it.
Jeff Allen:	… He’s, he’s la-, he’s laughing, he said, “Six figures?” I’m probably cutting ourselves short here. We-We’re talking about seven figures here. After all, it is FBA Millionaires (laughs) and from So-Cal, my name is Jeff Allen and up in No-Cal, he is …
Will Moffett:	Will Moffett.
Jeff Allen:[00:36:00]	And that’s right. And this is a show that’s all about the benjamins. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you once again for tuning into FBA Millionaires. And as we like end every single program, Will, on three, one, two, three, let’s kill it.
Will Moffett:	Let’s kill it.

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