Zon Con Podcast

Our guest today is one of my first few interviews from season 1 several years ago and now Pete Moon is back with a brand new book he wrote.

Check our previous episode with Pete here:

We chat with Brendan Pettit about habit stacking. He tells us about how it helped him find peace, lose 40 lbs, and grow his business.

Check the previous episode with Brendan  

Szymon Sekski is back again with another episode full of tips and tricks and today you’ll learn about the top 3 keys in order to improve PPC campaign performance.

Top 3 Tips To Improve PPC

1. Keyword Bleeders
2. Top of Search and Adjustment
3. Stimulating Your Impressions

3 Metrics/KPIs I use for my PPC

1. ACoS - Advertising Cost of Sales, is how much you spend on advertising per dollar of revenue you make.
2. TACoS - Total advertising cost of sale, measures the relationship between ad spend and total sales.
3. Ratio - How many of the sales coming from PPC and how many are coming from organic search or non-PPC sales.

Connect with Szymon

Today, we talk about are the top 3 mistakes that we should avoid in doing PPC. We’ve seen a lot of common mistakes that often go unnoticed and a simple mistake can result in a significant performance decrease in your Amazon PPC campaigns.

What’s your big WHY? Why do you do this?

I love the freedom that entrepreneurship gives me. Because of my agency I get to talk with a lot of entrepreneurs, work with them and interact with people and help them grow their businesses.

Favorite book, podcast or media you can share to us

We all know Amazon is a dominant online marketplace but the question is, does Amazon have monopoly power? Let's find out why Amazon can be a monopoly with Dr. Christopher Erickson aka my Dad.

Dr. Chris Erickson is an economic expert and a Professor of Economics at New Mexico State University.

In today's episode, we’re going to talk about a topic that a lot of people on Amazon don’t take seriously or sometimes ignored - Amazon Compliance and we just have an expert to walk us through step by step.

Dr. Christopher Erickson aka my Dad is back again with another episode about an unavoidable part of the business cycle - Recession. 

We talked about recession and inflation in our previous episodes below:

ZC 21 – Recession?! With Prof Christopher Erickson
https://zonconpodcast.com/podcast/zc-21-recession-with-prof-christopher-erickson/

ZC 89 – Inflation Is Here! What Do We Do Now?!
https://zonconpodcast.com/podcast/zc-89-inflation-is-here-what-do-we-do-now/

Check out our previous episodes with Dr. Christopher Erickson.

In continuation of our discussion from last week on product selection, Jacqueline shares her best practices and techniques in this very important topic for Amazon sellers.

Here's the link to the previous episode with Jacqueline Torr.

Product selection is very important for any online seller. No seller or store can offer every customer everything at once, but a wide product selection can provide sufficient alternatives for them.

Jacqueline Torr started a fun and unique business and then grew into a successful 7-figure business without PPC.

Here's some related topics about PPC and product selection.

I asked Michelle a surprise follow up question minutes after we talked about marketing strategies for this coming Mother's Day and she keeps on dropping value bombs during this encore again and again.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and is one of the most celebrated holidays around the world. Today we have a special recurring guest – the Queen of Amazon Marketing, Michelle Barnum Smith.

Listen carefully and take notes as Michelle shares tips and tricks to making more profit during this special day.

3 Great Tips for Gifting-Giving Seasons

1. Pick gifting keywords in your niche
2. Put a timeframe on when to start marketing for gifting
3. Know how to create an offer

Favorite book:

In this second part of our interview with Cody McGuffie, we focus on how to rank and optimize listings on Etsy. We go into full details on how you can get on top of the ranks using keywords, tags, photo optimization and a lot more.

So you have an idea for a business but you don't know where and how to start. This episode is perfect for you! We discuss amazing tips and tricks to turn your passion into a real business and Cody McGuffie shares his expertise with Etsy in this 2-part episode.

Cody successfully owned and operated 2 online companies selling on platforms such as Etsy, Amazon FBA, Walmart.com, and Shopify. He is also the CEO/Founder of EverBee.io.

Learn more about EverBee and get 25% OFF by clicking on the link below.

Today is the part 2 of our episode about taxes with Tim Nelson. Tim is the CEO/Partner at AVASK Accounting and Tax Consultants Inc. in the USA. In this episode we focus on some of the bigger stuff - advanced techniques the experts use to build their businesses.

Tim Nelson is a distinguished Certified Public Accountant with profound knowledge in tax preparation, accounting and IRS audits. He have helped and managed clients with businesses of varying sizes, corporations, partnerships and the self-employed.

If you are new to our podcast, you can listen to the part 1 on this interview with Tim Nelson in the link below.

Today we go in-depth about tax optimization and strategies so you have a better understanding when making decisions in securing your financial future.

This is a 2-part series and in this episode we talk about the mistakes and how to optimize your taxes with the help of Tim Nelson sharing key steps to meet your financial goals.

This is it! We just sold our business! It's a very exciting experience for us as business partners to sell the one of the brands we have worked so hard to grow and we just did it.

Today we share this "selling the biz" experience with everyone and how happy we are with our decision to go with a professional business broker to handle the job for us.

You can listen to our previous episode with Mike Yeh on the link below.

We chat with Kata Phipps. She is a psychologist turn military wife turn ecom boss! We start the story with her beginnings in Chile, meeting her husband, and traveling the world with him. 

She started a private label brand and got to one millionaire dollars revenue in only 11 months! She recently passed her second million in less than 2 years. Listen for her remarkable story and some tips and tricks on how to become an Amazon millionaire. 

Kata can be seen in episode 54 "2021 Predictions with Kata Phipps". And her husband can be seen in episode 52 "Goal Planning using a 12 Week Year with Matt Phipps"

Bradley Sutton is the host of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium10. He is a sumo wrestler and a zumba instructor before he focused in running e-commerce website. 

Instead of starting his own private label business, just to get experience he became a consultant for businesses launching hundreds of products for different clients. 

Actionable Things Amazon Sellers can do today:

Try and get paid to do something that you love so much. Make a positive difference in people's lives.

Follow Bradley Sutton on his Instagram @h10bradley.

Previously, Mike and I, we talked about running a million dollar team and now we are back at it again with some new team members.

TOOLS OUR TEAM USE

1. Slack
2. Trello
3. ClickUp
4. Asana
5. Google Sites
6. Quickbooks (For our accountant)
7. Helium10
8. Mailchimp
9. linktr.ee
10. Prolific
11. Zoom

Listen to Mike's previous episodes:

It is very important that you know how to handle your Amazon inventory fast and efficiently. An effective inventory management system reduces costs and helps you manage customers delivery expectations.

Our guest today is Chelsea Cohen. Chelsea is a 7-figure Amazon seller, speaker and consultant. She is the co-founder of SoStocked.com - the first and only fully customizable inventory management and forecasting software.

WHY do you do this?

Favorite Book:

The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan

Actionable Things Amazon Sellers can do today:

Get in touch with Chelsea at

Today we chat with Mark Norton, one of the leaders inside the Titan Network. Mark tells his story about how he started from working regular 9 to 5 jobs as a factory worker to becoming a graphic artist before he found a niche in the music industry in 2006.

He also shares his journey on how he discovered an effective method about product launching and then joined the Titan Network last year.

Favorite Podcast:
Zon Con Podcast! Yes!

Favorite Books:
The Miracle Man
The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan

Actionable Things Amazon Sellers can do today:
It's about doing things on my own terms. I work because I want to. It's about time and the freedom to live life in your own terms.

In today's episode we talk about the life cycle of a selling a business and comparing it to DATING. This is a short but fun-filled episode and we hope you learn something from this one.

If you want to listen to our in-depth about exiting a business you can check the links below.

Chris and Andrew are back with another bite-size episode for this month. We talk about lots of in-depth topics before but in this episode we talk about abundance mindset.

As the CEO, you are the "visionary" of your business and you need mindset and keep that in focus at all times.

Listen to our previous episode with Chris Rawlings on the link below.

There will always be waves in the economy and it's an ocean out there. In today's episode, me and Chris talk about fighting those waves.  

Yes, we are the SURFERS and we wait for the waves and ride with it.  

Here's some strategies to consider to get over the waves and become the SURFER that we all should become.   

1. Stand still
2. Learn to float
3. Be the SURFER  

Listen to our previous episode with Chris Rawlings on the link below.  

Are you a CFO? No, I don't mean the Chief Financial Officer. I'm talking about the Chief Figure Outer - you are the mastermind and the one who figure things out for your business.

As the CFO of my business, I do the task in 3 steps.

• Learn how to do the task myself
• Master it
• Delegate it

I use these services below to create the SOPs and delegate it to my associates.

This episode is a repeat from last year. I was going to record new content on goal setting but found this episode is so good I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it again. 

We chat with Matt Phipps about how he sets his goals AND achieves them. This is a perfect episode to listen to if you are planning your New Year's Resolutions for personal and business goals. 

Matt is a 22-year veteran in the Royal Air Force. He led hundreds of team members and planned complex military operations. Now he helps Amazon sellers to plan and reach their goals. He and his wife are also very successful multi-7-figure Amazon sellers.
Matt tells us how he uses and teaches the "12 Week Year" to set a grand vision, 1-year plan, and 12-week goals. This is a tried and true method to achieve your goals.

Matt's media choices

12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran

How I Built This with Guy Raz from NPR

Today we are happy to chat with the Queen of ManyChat, Michelle Barnum Smith, and should anyone who has a seller account needs to be concerned about the Amazon seller terms of service.

This a 2-part episode where she explained the buyer-seller messaging service that Amazon sellers should know what they can or can’t do with the service. Michelle shares some points on what to do if Amazon finds you breaking the ToS and should we be worried about this update. 

As an Amazon seller, you need to be sure you are prepared for the holiday rush this Christmas. But don’t panic — you still have time to make to prepare and get your business ready.  

Today's episode is a follow up from our episode with Dr. Christopher Erickson 7 months ago about inflation and where we are now and what this means to small business owners.

Dr. Christopher Erickson is a professor of economics at New Mexico State University and has been in several episodes of our podcast.

We are very excited talking with Kata Phipps again for the third time. Kata is one of the best in Amazon product development.

Her Amazon journey started in watching YouTube tutorial videos and now has exited a business. She is an expert at delivering good quality products. Listen as she shares her best tips and tricks that you can apply to your Amazon business.

Listen to our previous episode with Kata Phipps.

We chat with Mark Norton again about his strategies to effectively and properly launch a product on Amazon. Let's listen as he shares how he climbed at the top of his niche. According to BSR (Best Seller Rank), every single product ranked #1 in all of Amazon UK particularly in the music category. 

Mark shares 6 steps on how you can properly launch your product to help you build, manage and grow your business on Amazon.

6 Steps to Launch a Product

0. Plan Everything
1. Knowing Your Logistics
2. Picking Your Keywords
3. Setting Listing
4. Picking Your Target Unit Sold
5. Get Good Reviews and Social Proofs
6. Tracking and Updating Your Plan

Actionable Things Amazon Sellers can do today:
Track! Know the numbers. If you don't know the numbers, you're working in the dark. You'll never know what to do to fix it.

Top Action Items for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas buying season 

9. Know your dates!

8. Do a keyword gap analysis

7. Adjust PPC budgets

6. Add “gifting” keywords to your title and listing copy

5. Add “gifting” images to your listing

4. Create a holiday-themed storefront

3. Make sure your listings and stock are ready for Lighting Deals

2. Blast your audience!

1. Add a >=20% clip coupon. This will qualify you for the BF/CM deals page! 

In this second half of our in-depth interview with Chris Rawlings, he tells a very interesting story on how he sneaks in backstage pretending to be security just to get to the event where he met startup founders.

Our guest today is best known as the founder of Beast Gear, Ben Leonard is the classic millennial entrepreneur. He built a business on a laptop, in a cupboard, in his spare time. The difference? Ben grew an international 7-figure business and successfully exited after 3 years; the business holy grail.

Your brand is a very important part of your business. It's important not only to leave a memorable impression on your customers but it's the best way to identify yourself from your competitors and let them know your product is the better choice.

Today, Ryan shares a few important ways to elevate your brand and its significance on consumers' behavior.

We talked about BRANDING on a previous episode with Joe Bezdek. Click the link below to listen to the episode.

In this episode, our guest Amber English shares her story on how she started selling on Amazon with her brother, Benjamin. The brother-sister duo was a success making their brand hit 2-million a year in sales.

This is the last part of the "Selling the Biz" series and yet we are still excited to share more about the process of selling a business. Part 4 is our interview with Andrew Voda - Sales manager at Empire Flippers.

This is part 2 of our 4-episode series on exiting and today Mike and I are talking about the "HOW" on selling a business.

In this episode we reveal how we went about finding the right buyer and the pros and cons of doing it. We also talk about other stuff that is very important in making the exit possible especially if you are going to sell a business for the first time.

You can listen to our previous episode with Mike Yeh on the link below.

Today we're starting this series of episodes about selling a business. This is part 1 of our 4-episode series on how we sold our business.

Like anything with value, a business is an asset just like a car or a house, these are assets. In this episode, Mike and I talk about WHY we sell a business and the what motivated to sell our own business.

You can listen to our previous episode with Mike Yeh on the link below.

In today's episode, I will be sharing to everyone my steps to personal wealth and charity.

Being a money nerd is not just about having what you need or want, it’s about being efficient with your spending and investing.

Here are a few steps you can follow or tweak whichever works for you best.

1. Get an education
2. Become debt-free
3. Cruise control retirement
4. Build a cash flow business
5. Build a disruptive business
6. Become a philanthropist

Listen to previous episodes featuring Dr. Christopher Erickson.

We are starting a new season! In this episode I'm going solo to discuss about something we should do to effectively grow our business.

For every task we do, we want to ask the question if it is an efficient use of our time. I’ve found that using this “Task Test” makes it easy to figure out if we should be doing this task.

Eliminate

Is this task actually useful? Does it make a drastic change in your business when it is done? Will nothing happen if it never gets done again? If so, ELIMINATE THE TASK! Just stop doing it.

Automate

Was the task not eliminated in the last round? Good. It’s time to AUTOMATE IT! Find some software that will do it for you. They are faster, cheaper, and more reliable.

Delegate

If this task was not eliminated or automated, find someone who can do this task for you. Someone somewhere can do it just as well or better than you. Delegate it to that person.

Elevate

If this task couldn’t be eliminated, automated, or delegated, you need to find or create a resource that will allow you to hand it off. You need to ELEVATE yourself or your team to get this done.

In this episode, our guest Elaine tells a very inspiring story about how she started a small business and now exiting one of her brands.

Elaine started sourcing from China and building her e-commerce brand when she was in high school. After a lot of research, she found her suppliers on Alibaba.

ZC 06 – Travel the World and Pay No Income Tax with Jack Fallon

Our guest today is a serial entrepreneur and a digital nomad. Anthony Cofrancesco has started several businesses in travel hacking, photography and marketing. He used to worked at Amazon early in his career.

Anthony is now the Industry Liaison for PickFu, an online platform that allows people to run polls and get fast feedback from consumers in a matter of minutes.

What’s your big WHY? What motivates you to build something new and grow it?

I want to build things. For me, what’s really cool is that there’s something fun in setting it up, you build it, you scale it, you grow it and you say “That’s mine!”.

Books, podcast or piece of media you can share to us

The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker

This is the second part of our chat with Anatoly Spektor.

If you haven't listened the first part of this episode, check here:

In today's episode, Anatoly Spektor shares his experiences while living the digital-nomad lifestyle. Yes, it's possible to find a balance and successfully run a business from the road, relying on time management and careful planning.

He started working part-time as a software developer in his school while studying. 

Join the Titan Webinar June 15, 2021. This webinar is a Masterclass about Listing Conversions. 

The following topics will be covered in this masterclass.

• Buyer intent
• Go behind enemy lines
• Avoid A9 apocalypse
• Listing optimization checklist

This is the part 2 of our interview with Erin Graybill and in this episode we cover everything we want to know about how to build an effective team.

Erin Graybill is the founder and Managing Director of Luxe England – a UK based company that specialises in beauty and lifestyle products with the purpose to exceed the expectations of its global customers through high quality, thoughtfully designed bundles. In five years the business grew from being a side-hustle, to 7 figures through a blend of Amazon FBA, B2B and website sales.