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Matt Phipps Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Matt Phipps
Matt Phipps is todays guest joining us on the Join Up Dots business podcast.
And this is one of those special shows for me and the show, as its a listener, who became an action taker and then got the dream.
As he said when we invited him on the show ” In 2018 I was in the RAF for 21 years and looking for my next move, as I was ready to change.
I listened to the podcast on the way to work each day and so bumped into your travel website podcast where your Florida Keys adventures inspired me to set up something similar for Santiago, Chile, where my wife hails from.
After about 6 months I realized that this wasn’t going to be more than a side hustle in terms of income and so I kept listening.
That’s when I heard you interview Adam Hudson on the show, discovered the world of E-Commerce and Amazon.
I pitched it to my wife and together we embarked on building a business around children’s gifts.
How The Dots Joined Up For Matt
The ride was a roller coaster but really rewarding. After 2 years I was able to quit my job in the RAF and just this week, 3 years since we started, we sold our business in a multi-7-figure life-changing deal.
We both fought through health challenges along the way and also started mentoring others in the Titan Network where we both continue to help Amazon Sellers follow in our footsteps.
We are also already growing a second brand and working hard to make that a success too.
I never thought I’d be a business owner but I realized in those years that as a kid always loved working on projects, leading ventures and that I got a lot of pleasure from being creative.
My most memorable jobs in the RAF involved each of these. And so looking back, it’s obvious now that I was always heading towards entrepreneurship.
So what was it about the Amazon FBA concept that so appealed and led to that fixed direction which is so important.
And now just few years down the line, does he see that personal belief is the keystone to anything in life?
Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Matt Phipps.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Matt Phipps such as:
Matt showed how he became fixated on his customer and really getting into their mindsets which was a gamechanger.
We discuss how driving your own ship can cause issues which its important to understand, but quite easy to get past.
Matt reveals the steps that he took to find out the real valuable information that could help him progress.
and lastly……..
Why the mindset of an entrepreneur is more often than not always there if you just allow it to start to come to the fore early enough.
Return To The Top Of Matt Phipps
If you enjoyed this episode of with Matt Phipps, why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Spike Ball Founder, Nick Ruiz, Sarah Caltieri or the amazing Luke Hyde
Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.
Full Transcription of Matt Phipps Interview
Intro [0:00]
Life shouldn’t be hard life should be a fun filled adventure every day. So now start joining up dots tap into your talents, your skills, your God given gifts and tell your boss, you don’t deserve me. I’m out of here. It’s time for you to smash that alarm clock and start getting the dream business and life you will of course, are dreaming God. Let’s join your host, David Ralph from the back of his garden in the UK, or wherever he might be today with another JAM PACKED episode of the number one hit podcast Join Up Dots.
David Ralph [0:40]
Yes, Weldon, welcome to Join Up Dots, the Join Up Dots lifestyle, business, business podcast, mad ramblings, whatever we can throw into the mix, you will get it in the show. And this is one of those special shows for me and as it’s a listener who became an action taker, and then I suppose got the dream may not be his ultimate dream. But it’s the dream that he’s building at the moment. As he said, when we invited him on the show in 2018, I was in the RAF for 21 years and looking for my next move, as I was ready to change and I listened to the podcast on the way to work each day, and so bumped into your travel website podcast where your Florida Keys adventures inspired me to set up something similar for Santiago, Chile, where my wife hails from. Now after about six months, I realised that this wasn’t going to be more than a side hustle in terms of income. And so I kept listening. And that’s when I heard your interview with Adam Hudson on the show. And I discovered the world of E commerce and Amazon. So I pitched it to my wife you, you’ve always got to pitch it to your wife, we talk about it and conversation. And together, we embarked on building a business around children’s gifts. The ride was a roller coaster, but really rewarding. And after two years, I was able to quit my job in the RAF. And just this week, just this week, three years since we started, we sold our business in a multi seven figure life changing deal. Now we both fought through health challenges along the way and also started mentoring others in the Titan network where we both continue to help Amazon sellers follow in our footsteps. And we’re ready, Greg already growing a second brand and working hard to make that a success to now he says I never thought I’d be a business owner. But I realised in those years as a kid, I always loved working on projects, leading ventures, and that I got a lot of pleasure from being creative. And my most memorable jobs in the RAF involved each of these. And so looking back, looking back, joining up the dots is obvious now but I was always heading towards entrepreneurship. So what was it about the Amazon FBA concept that so appealed, and led him to that fixed direction, which is so important if you know where you’re heading, things just become so much easier. And now just a few years down the line does he see that personal belief is really the keystone to everything in life? Well, let’s find out as we bring onto the show, to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Matt Phipps.
Matt Phipps [3:13]
Superduper Thank you. How are you today?
David Ralph [3:15]
I’m super well. I’m not super duper. I’m just recovering. I’m just recovering from from life, life altering illness. It altered me, Matt. I was I was in a bad way last weekend. But I’m, I’m all right now. Thank you very much. And I’m ready to discuss something that jumps out at me. Right? Okay. And I’m going to go straight into it because I’m so infused by this because as a listener of the show, somebody takes action on the content that we present. And one of the reasons that we tried to get these guests in is not to tell you how they did it, but more to give you an idea of what’s possible. And I think that’s one of the sort of the difficult things when you’re starting your business thinking, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. Because up to that point, everything is kind of given to you or you follow peer groups. So with yourself, what was it about the Amazon FBA concept that made you go ah, hang on, hang on this. This makes sense to me. This might be interesting.
Matt Phipps [4:17]
Yeah. Well, I think firstly, obviously, as I mentioned, I heard your Florida Keys podcast and I thought, Wow, that sounds fun travel online. So I actually started a website called Explore santiago.com, as you mentioned, but I quickly realised that relying on hotel income, you know, you get a little little slice to the action when someone goes on booking.com was going to be quite tough. And I’m quite glad I did pivot because of the obvious lack of travel for the last couple of years. But then I heard the podcast from you did with Adam on Amazon FBA and I thought, Well, I never thought I’d be a businessman. I’d never saw myself as a numbers man in a suit or anything like that, but then I kind of heard this sounded like a fun project, you get to design and create your own things, bring them to the world. And you can earn money from it whilst working at home. And that sounded like exactly what I wanted to do. So yeah, it just sounded like a great opportunity and lots of fun.
David Ralph [5:18]
Now, what I also liked and I, I’m a big advocate on this, anyone who I coach, I always say, Look, before I take you on, I want you to sit with your wife or your spouse, and and go through it with them. Because having somebody in your corner is so, so powerful, I suppose. You know, my wife never has understood what I do. But she’s always said I understand who you are. Okay. So you know, she kind of believes in me before she believes in what I’m doing. When you said it to your wife. Was it the case that Oh, mad, mad Gina, know, you’re always starting something new? Why don’t you just keep doing what you’re doing? Or? Or why don’t you just, you know, start mowing people’s lawns do stuff that other people do.
Matt Phipps [6:06]
Actually, she was she was kind of supportive was super supportive, really. In fact, we kind of flips the other way. So my wife’s a clinical psychologist by trade, but because she’s been patiently following me around with the Air Force, we move every two years with the Air Force, different countries. We lived in Belgium, America and different places in the UK. She couldn’t practice as a psychologist so she became the the the much fabled military spouse, and loyally followed me. So actually came home and said, Listen, this is great idea. It sounds fun, we can do it together. And also, how about you become the CEO of the company and take the lead. And I’ll do you know, lots of the work and we can kind of split the work together. And she had a listen to the podcasts poked around the internet a little bit and said, Yeah, let’s let’s do it. And we thought this will be if nothing else, a good kind of side, hustle side source of income and a nice project for my wife to take on. So she was super enthusiastic.
David Ralph [7:06]
Now with all businesses, there are drawbacks. And one of the things that people will say to me, and I know lots of people that are doing very well on Amazon FBA, I was talking to a guy the other day, and he does mattress covers, really, you know, it’s almost such a sort of boring item. But he’s doing very, very well on it that people when they’re moving, they need to cover up their mattress, and it’s like a big bag that you put your mattress in, while it goes off into storage, whatever. And he’s doing very, very well. But how did you narrow down the idea to concept because you have got so much out there? How did you go? This is this is the one this is the winner?
Matt Phipps [7:44]
Yeah, to be honest, it was it was research. And product research is crucial on on Amazon, too. i For me, it’s 80% of the battle, choosing the right product up front, something that people want something that’s different, something that’s innovative, that you can put on Amazon next to a top seller, and people will go Oh, wow, this one’s here. It’s got 5000 reviews, but Oh, actually, this one only got five reviews, but it looks super cool. Let’s check it out. And then once they jump into your listing, and look at your product more closely, they can buy it. So for us, that was a driver. But most of all we were we were focused on the customer right out of the gate. I think both Carter and I, my wife, we’ve kind of got a good way of understanding what people want, what sort of things appeal to people. So we targeted you know, moms of young kids, which is pretty much what, what she was, and worked out what are their problems, what are their needs, and then we just tried to be as excellent as possible to meet those needs. And the rest kind of fell into place.
David Ralph [8:47]
It’s key that part of the puzzle, which I think a lot of people skip, and I spend a lot of time saying to people, you know, when I started Join Up Dots, I kind of vaguely knew what an avatar was, you know, the ideal customer. And I probably wrote it within about three minutes. And it was Join Up Dots, and it was Join Up Dots. And I thought oh, they’re funny names. And it wasn’t much deeper than that. Now when I’m working with people, I say to them, I want you to go on to Facebook forums, I want you to go into groups, I want you to look at Instagram, I want you to go to Uber suggests I want you to look at the questions people are asking because those questions could be, you know, strengthening your product or developing new products. And once you really understand your customer more than they potentially know themselves. People start trusting you and people start actually going by no bare stuff. They’re saying the things that I’m thinking before I’ve even said it. But I think a lot of people skip Well, I’m not even saying a lot of people. Most people skip that. They just want to do this kind of you know, generic avatar, I want to target 18 to 35 year old women mean who are stressed with two kids called Jeremy? And that’s it, you know? How do you find the real goal? Don’t let’s give the people out there the process of really finding your dream customer.
Matt Phipps [10:12]
So I think I think you’ve got to start somewhere. You know, some people say, Don’t worry about selling something, you’re into just go with anything, you know, mattress covers you mentioned. I mean, that could be a good angle as well. But you know, will you enjoy the business going forwards, perhaps, you know, if you’re just focused on, you know, the numbers and creating the experience, but But for us, it was kind of diving into things that we knew and understood. And that was, you know, mothers of young kids, we had a young daughter at the time. So we knew the problems they’ve solved, we knew what they were struggling with. And so for us, it was easy to focus in on that. And then really, it was a case of right, what what can we bring to this group of people? How can we be creative and innovative and authentic with these guys enough that they’ll believe us that we’re not, you know, just a couple of people who just started out and convinced them, we know what we’re doing, and could bring something to the world. So then you just kind of go into that creative process. And there are tools, a toolset, which we use for Amazon, where you can actually have a sneak peek at all of those search results at Amazon, it tells you how much each and every product is selling in revenue, estimated revenue each month, how many units a month they sale. So it’s not just wild guesswork, all the data is there. So we pull that data and say, Wow, these guys are selling 1500 units a month of this product? How can we beat them? How can we do it better. And then we just kind of move forward with that if everything looks good.
David Ralph [11:38]
Now, obviously sexy businesses start off in sexy mindset. And a lot of people struggle with that. They don’t have that personal belief. And I talk to people and I say to them, whatever I teach you will work. But none of it will work unless you believe in it. And you actually do the work yourself. Now, the ups and downs, the roller coaster. Now you say that, and I laugh in your general direction, sir, because you started in 2018. And you’ve done very well for yourself. So it wasn’t a roller coaster. It was a it was it was one of those kids roller coasters that two year old goes on, and it just goes round in a circle. Okay, so don’t pick it up. Don’t pick it up that you did some amazing stuff. But how did you support each other when your personal belief did dip? Or maybe you just hit home run from the from the word go?
Matt Phipps [12:34]
Yeah. So I think you’re right, it’s probably more accurate to say it was a short roller coaster. But there were some big twists and breakdowns along the way.
David Ralph [12:43]
still big. You’re still big. In my head. It’s that little one that you pay a pound and they just go around in a circle?
Matt Phipps [12:50]
Yeah, well, we had one one point where someone had put a false complaint against us. And Amazon took our product down. And it ended up being down for five months, because we couldn’t find someone in Amazon to push the button to make it active again. So when you lose your revenue for five months, it can get quite stressful. Yeah. But but for things like that, yeah, there’s obviously fights and disagreements along the way. And you’re with two different minds, you’ll have always have two different attitudes. But really, my wife and I, we really complement each other well. So we both bring different strengths to it. My wife certainly taught me how to take risk a lot more, and to gamble when you’ve got something good going for you. But really, we have to try and cut off at the end of the day and try and try and protect that time between ourselves as a couple. So it’s hard at first, because you’re hustling, you’re coming home from work, you’re putting in a couple of hours in the evening. It was always me the one that struggled to disconnect. And I’d be lying there in bed talking about products or business for the next day or something like that. But yeah, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth and try and find those boundaries when you’re working with your spouse.
David Ralph [13:55]
And then what you like now, because in the early days, I couldn’t switch off at all, I literally you must have watched for years of films, and not heard a single word or any single one of them because my mind was always elsewhere until kind of locked down occurred. And then I got really present in the moment. And I’ve been very good since then. But what are you like now if you go on vacation? Are you running around trying to find dodgy Wi Fi in a bar so that you can sort of like login and make sure that everything’s occurring? Or can you get it working on autopilot?
Matt Phipps [14:29]
Yeah, that’s that’s a great point. I’m definitely not as bad as the latter. You know, as I mentioned, I’m the one who struggles to switch off. So yeah, I do constantly have things on my mind and as an entrepreneur, running your own business driving your own ship, especially something like Amazon FBA where it’s you and a very small team. Obviously, things are going to ride on you. But yeah, I’ve been working hard over the last couple of years to become more and more present. We’ve built a team of you know, four or five wonderful people who can keep things going keep the ship sailing while we’re on holiday. But if things pop up and they’re urgent, then we can step in. And we don’t mind that because it’s actually really good fun. And that’s the key thing with this business. It’s really enjoyable, super satisfying and rewarding. But yeah, you what you do with your Amazon FBA business, as the revenue starts to come in, you start to recruit team members, from the Philippines, for America, from the UK, wherever, and just build up that team so that it can can run independently without your input.
David Ralph [15:31]
I’m interested in delegation, because I think a lot of people delegate before they know what they’re delegating for. And they will start building a team and say, oh, I want I want somebody that can do it. Or I want somebody that can control the Instagram account and do this and do that. And I’m a great believer in round pegs in round holes. And so when you’re building your team, and there is that mindset, bit of, Oh, my God, you know, I’m earning this money, but it’s going out as quickly as it can. It’s coming in at this point, while I’m sort of developing them, how do you find the right people, train them up on the relevant thing, but you know, is going to be within their skill set, and also bring back the rewards into the business because you don’t want it to be an expense. That is one way you want it an expense that actually brings more money in to you.
Matt Phipps [16:27]
Yeah. So yeah, recruitments, always one of those challenges, I think, in any business. And for us, we started with a wonderful Filipino virtual assistant, or VAs as they’re known as in the in the Amazon world. And that’s kind of the norm for that programme, they generally can earn a smaller wage, because it goes a lot further in their country. And they can be super happy with that we were lucky, we put out, you know, an interview, I think it was on online jobs.ph, you’re saying who’d be interested in this job, these are the roles. And then we got people to do a couple of tasks, and fill out a sheet. And in that sheet, they had to say, I’m a rock star somewhere in that. So we were checking if they’ve read it all, and what have you. And then we narrowed it down to about four or five, and then catters, the mind reader as the psychologist, so you did the interviews. And that’s when we found our vehicle, Joe. And she started. And she’s now progressed over the last few years to become the CEO of the company, taking care of all the logistics, and all of that planning of getting inventory into Amazon. So she’s been fantastic. And then we’ve got a US customer services system. We’ve got a social media manager, and someone that runs our ads as well. And I think we found those people based on recommendations from friends. So it was absolutely the power of our network and referrals that got us those people. So we didn’t need to do the hard work of wondering if they were any good. Because we had some good friends in our network that basically said, This person is awesome, they’ll do a job for you. And it was it was a no brainer.
David Ralph [18:01]
But the key thing is you knew what was needed or the business, you knew that you needed somebody to complement your skill set, and also take that part of the business away from you so that you could focus in on what you do best?
Matt Phipps [18:17]
Yeah, absolutely. You kind of got to take a look at your business, look at the things you’re good at, look at the things you’re not so good at or don’t enjoy, and try and offload those two things. And you could do that either by delegating to a staff member, or by automating it using tools as well. And there’s plenty of tools we use that can do jobs for us, you know, pull in our statistics and things like that. So you do those different things with the different processes in your business. And in the end, it runs on rails, and you really build a system around you.
David Ralph [18:49]
We’re talking to Matt Phipps, and we’ll be back after these words,
Unknown Speaker [18:52]
the way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, what is the next right move? not think about, oh, I got all of this stuff. But what is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move, and the next right move and not to be overwhelmed by it. Because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment, you know, you’re not defined by what somebody says is a failure for you. Because failure is just there to point you in a different direction.
David Ralph [19:24]
Now, I’m interested in that because one of the things that I’m realising at the moment, Matt, is the fact that once you get your direction, things are quite easy. You’ve got to understand where you’re heading. And it’s almost saying what’s the next right step when you’re already on that path. But at the beginning, what is the first right step for when you’re looking at an Amazon FBA concept? Is it to just go on make it up as I go along? Or can you do the groundwork before you start getting into that? Is there ways that people can fast track themselves
Matt Phipps [20:01]
Yeah, absolutely. So the, the free and easy way is to jump on YouTube and rely on Facebook groups, there’s plenty of Amazon FBA Facebook groups where people ask questions and answers. However, they become a little bit watered down over the last couple of years. And some of the advice is a bit questionable. Yeah. YouTube as well, there’s some great content out there. But it’s really hard to find what’s good, what’s bad, and kind of filter through that. That’s kind of how we got started. But yeah, several months into it, we joined a network, which is called Titan, which we now coach for. And that was really, when we found our tribe of people straightaway, we were getting succinct advice that just, you know, we got advice, such as how to negotiate terms with your supplier, so that you didn’t pay for your order, until 45 days after it landed in Amazon, which is huge, because then you get, you know, a month and a half of selling before you have to pay the supplier. And when you’re growing a business and money’s always, you know, the issue, that can be really helpful. So wins like that. And also just being surrounded by like minded people, and leaders and mentors who had been there and done it. And that was the key for us to follow people that had been and done it already listened to them and apply it. So in the end, it was quite simple for us.
David Ralph [21:17]
Because one of the things people say to me is why don’t I have sort of free communities and different things like that. And I don’t, because of that reason that you said, I find that when when I learned to podcast at the very beginning, it was the only community that I signed up for. And it’s run by another guy out there. And I got in right early doors, okay. And now I go over there every now and again and look, and it’s just full of Chinese whispers. It’s just full of people helping each other. And I look at it, and I think that’s bad advice. That’s bad advice. That’s rubbish. And the actual leader of it themselves, is hardly doing anything at all. It’s a kind of self fulfilling crap zone of information, basically. And I’d like to actually spend time talking to people one to one. And so a lot of people say to me, why don’t you just scale? Why don’t you do this one. And I think it’s the only way that I can really give the people the information that they want by keeping it to themselves. Now, what was it about the Titan group that you went now? Hang on? This isn’t a crap zone? This is the real stuff. I can see this. This is where we need to jump into.
Matt Phipps [22:28]
Yeah, well, the first kind of interaction we had was in May 19. And I listened to Dan Ashburn, who’s the CEO and founder alongside his partner, Athena, and he just spoke on stage and straight away I could hear this British guy was knew what he was talking about. He sounded similar to me spoke like I did. And he was he was talking sense. So I approached him at the end of the con at the end of the conference, and it turned out that he’d been in the RF as well. So we both had a similar background. And then we just chatted about where I was in business. He said, You know, you know what, you want to come and join us. You know, there’s a there’s a price to pay, but this is what you’re going to get
David Ralph [23:05]
when you can, please tell me I said, I feel the need the need for speed and do dTT do
Matt Phipps [23:13]
that. The high five. Yeah, yeah, we did that. And then the high five, top and bottom down, and then the chest bump after that to
David Ralph [23:19]
that. And then you went and played volleyball outside with your shirt off and all that dog tags. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant.
Matt Phipps [23:25]
Got it. You got it. Wow. It’s like you were there.
David Ralph [23:28]
Probably was probably was. So go. And you continue? Yeah, so
Matt Phipps [23:33]
so as soon as soon as I spoke to Dan, he then you introduced me to some others. And then as soon as I jumped in the network, and we’ve got our own kind of chat. So similar to Facebook, if you like, but it’s supercharged, only full of people who have, you know, people have paid to be there. So straightaway, you kind of filter out the nonsense. But also it had no classes in there, we group everyone according to where there are in the journey from absolute beginner just getting started to your million dollar a year plus sellers. And then we have events where we meet up in Mexico and in London in the states and things like that. So the network’s just kind of scaled but but most importantly, I could ask anything at any time posted in the network. And you know, that same day, I have someone who’s been through the same thing as me, and they’ll tell me what they did and how they overcame it. And then that gets me moving again, rather than just facing blockers. So it really does supercharge learning when you get in there. And that’s what helps the most. But But now really, I stepped up after about six months, I offered to do some productivity training in the network and introduced a thing called the 12 week year, which is a book by Brian Moran, where helps people preset out their goals and their strategies and their tactics that they need to achieve that and that led to me becoming a leader and then a coach. So now it’s really just about giving back for me I’ve got a group of about 50 or 60 guys who get Got success already, and they’re building on it. And it’s about, you know, giving back what I’ve learnt to those guys and helping them get to the same place, which is super rewarding in itself.
David Ralph [25:10]
It is super rewarding when you become a coach because I’m a business coach now and I never planned to be a business coach. It wasn’t part of my radar, but it kind of got to a point I was being asked so many times I thought, Yeah, going in, okay. And then I found out I actually liked it. And what you find is when you’re coaching, you learn as much as the people that you’re teaching, and you kind of it could be the case that you’re giving brilliant advice. And then you think, what the hour I don’t do that myself, I should be doing that myself. Or, you know, what, what do you learn when you’re actually doing the coaching that strengthens your own business, Matt,
Matt Phipps [25:47]
are huge, a huge amount, David all the time, we just came back from an event in Orlando, we managed to sneak into America just reopened to the rest of the world. And had a conference there and spent a couple of days with our members. And I’ve I’ve come back with pages of notes myself. And one of them was a tactic for putting big coupons on your on your offer, which I learned at the conference. So I came back, apply that to my business. And sales just increased for me 60% In this week. So that kind of one little tactic was was hugely beneficial, and just kind of as rocket propelled my November. So I learned a lot from that. But also from my amazing members who are just like your listeners, people I’ve got ladies in their 60s, I’ve got young men in their early 20s, and everyone in between. And they’re all hustling and working hard in their business. And you know, they’ve all got that kind of right mindset and attitude. And I learn a lot from from their mindsets and their creativity, and also that they share their products with me in their business. So I get a good insight into their business. So from that I benefit, and understanding what works or what doesn’t work from people’s business. So as well as you’re giving them advice, from my own experience, I actually sneakily get to learn what’s making them successful, too.
David Ralph [27:03]
And can you see, when somebody has got the mindset at the beginning, you know, in Rocky terms, we’d call it the eye of the tiger. When you look at somebody and you go, yeah, okay, they’ve really got it, they want it.
Matt Phipps [27:17]
Yeah, that’s a that’s a great question. And something I wrestle with a lot. You know, what, what does it take to be an entrepreneur, you know, there’ll be a lot of people listening to this wondering if, if they’ve got the makeup for it. And I think it is a certain type of person, I’ve had multiple friends come to me, asked me about my business. I’ve told them about the path to success, the costs and everything. And they’re enthusiastic, but they never get going. Yeah, and I just don’t think they have that kind of mindset. Or you’re they’re just not interested in embarking on their own journey at home business, because it comes with risks and pitfalls. And people are happy to stay in the safety and security of their job. But then there’s the other bunch, who, you know, I’m talking to right now who get out there. And they want some freedom from their work. They want to work from home or wherever they want to create their own destiny. And they’ve just got that mindset to hustle and do whatever it takes in order to get there. You know, there’s definitely sacrifices along the way. But if you can be creative in whatever business you take on and bring something new to the world and make that something excellent, then you the money will flow. And you’ll find yourself you know, sat comfortably at home, in your pyjamas or tracksuit bottoms saving the world, right?
David Ralph [28:33]
I think that one of the big things that people do wrong is not make sure that when the money doesn’t flow, and this is what you find with entrepreneurship, you might start off all right. And then suddenly, you have tapped into a pole, which is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And I found that when I started a business before Join Up Dots, I made a lot of money really quickly. And I thought I’m genius. This is brilliant. But then I look back on it now. And I think no what I did, I tapped into a pool that was already waiting for me. But it got smaller and smaller, and I dried up that pool, and then the money dried up. And for three or four months, I didn’t earn anything at all and thinking oh, what should I do? And one of the things I did was I looked at things in the house that I could reduce. And I thought if I’m not getting the money in I can stop the money going out. And that’s one of the things do you find that people out there want to transition over a too big a financial bridge, where they’re not willing to cut back on their Starbucks, they’re not willing to, you know, not have a takeaway three times a week and all that to make it easier for when the tough times come along.
Matt Phipps [29:47]
Yeah, I think I think most people that I work with and coach kind of understand that principle and get there you know, even in terms of time as well. There’s that same sacrifice, right? So if you’re going to launch your own business then you can Say bye bye to Netflix and Amazon Prime and what have you, you know, or at least minimise it because you need to spend those hours growing your business. And yeah, the same things financially, I look at it in a way that you you’ve got to keep your footprint small, and generate your wealth. And then as your wealth grows, you can you can expand your own footprint, but then you keep things in control. But it does suck a lot of investment upfront, certainly something like Amazon FBA, which is a physical product business, you need to buy the stuff you’re selling up front, you know, if you’re buying 1000, or 2000 units of something, and then shipping it and then launching it, you’re gonna need, you know, at least 5000, probably 1015 20 upfront. And then if you hit a winner with that product, guess what, you’ve got to buy the next round of inventory before you’ve sold the first. So you need more to dip into to more to more money as well. So it’s good to have a little pot saved up up front that makes takes the stress out of thing and we find that, you know, sellers who have that kind of you know, saving pot there or they saved up some work, or they can actually they actually keep their jobs going and can bring in that income will be a little bit more relaxed as it takes the pressure off the business. So I definitely am keeping your job as you recommend for the first couple of years exactly what I did keep that income coming, take the pressure off your business, and reduce your footprint to make things easier for you.
David Ralph [31:23]
Our is your sphincter muscle, we’ve investing that the squeaky bum time mat when you think to yourself, I know this is an idea. I’ve done the data, I’ve looked at it. This is still this still, you know, 20, grand, five grand, 10 grand, it’s still a big risk. How is it now compared to as it was?
Matt Phipps [31:44]
Yeah, so I’m a lot more relaxed. Now. As you as you grow your skill sets and your knowledge and your experience, you develop an eye for what works in your business. And you know, for us that’s picking products, and having a great understanding of the model and support around me. So I know that, you know, not much is going to go wrong. But at first Yeah, it’s absolutely terrifying. You know, Carter, and I were at home, and we were looking at different products. And then we we got to the point where we needed to invest. I think it was like $8,000 or something on our first order. And we like do we do we know what we’re doing? Are we ready for this? And it’s actually my wife Khattar, who’s the risk taker in the family? Who said, Yeah, of course, let’s just go for it. What’s the worst that will happen, you will just pay off over a while. So we just took that jump. And it was definitely the right jump. And I think that’s a key part as well for entrepreneurs in any business. Once you get that feeling that you’re onto something, it feels right inside, and you’re starting to enjoy it. If you’ve got a good idea, try and get it validated by someone else. And then really, you’ve just got to take that risk and take the plunge. You know, otherwise, you’re just you just end up, you know, keep on keepin on. And people aren’t listening to you to just do that. So you’ve got to take that jump at some point.
David Ralph [33:00]
So let’s define what actually is your product as what what are you actually selling.
Matt Phipps [33:06]
So our first brand that we actually sold a few weeks ago was was children’s gifts. I can’t go too much into the detail that product because as you know, Amazon’s a sneaky beaky world, it’s a marketplace. So everyone doesn’t share their products. But, but yeah, children’s gifts, and toys and games, and that sort of thing.
David Ralph [33:24]
So I’m gonna just ask a question on that. You know, that’s something that you would think it’s overkill. It’s, it’s there’s too much out there. What was it about your your brand, but you found you, you found a market within a market that would work for you?
Matt Phipps [33:42]
Yeah, that’s it. That’s a good, good point. For me, and this is something I teach to my students all the time, it’s, it’s about creating something that’s new, original, innovative. So rather than creating your mattress cover, and putting it next to 20, other mattress covers on Amazon that people have to choose from this different white square, right? Actually, is there a new way that you could cover the mattress, new material? Or could people even be looking for patterns or different designs or something I don’t know is probably not much innovation left in a mattress cover. But But what we did was look at our customers look what we want. And our key was something in the industry we call bundling where you actually combine different products and make them giftable. So different children’s items, put them together, beautiful packaging, and make it easy for someone like URI who’s like running two days before a birthday or Christmas crap. I’ve got to do all my Christmas shopping. And you can jump on Amazon and someone’s thoughtfully put together this beautiful presented package for you and put it on there. And straightaway as soon as you start combining products, there’s no one else like it out there because you’ve just created something unique original, that solves a problem. And then we just kind of pair that with some authenticity. So we talk about our own journey potentially, or, you know, reinforcing children’s values and add some branding in there as well, just so that people can connect with us. We’re not just some kind of, you know, faceless product on Amazon, we actually put ourselves behind it. So yeah, innovation and differentiation was was our key. And if you innovate and differentiate enough, you can put copyrights and patents on your product so that no one else can can copy you. And that will give you a huge advantage for the next years to come.
David Ralph [35:32]
I came up with a billion dollar business yesterday, man, I was sitting, I was sitting there, I’m gonna share it because I’m not gonna do it myself. Did you remember in the United Kingdom, and it probably was worldwide, but as a youngster, how old are you man? Can I ask?
Matt Phipps [35:49]
I’m 44 years of age. Okay,
David Ralph [35:51]
so I’m about 10 years older than you give or take. But there was a time when weld seemed to be full of bows, bio pens, that if you tip them upside down, the ladies clothes drop off. Do you remember those? Absolutely, yes. Okay. And I always wanted one of those. But I was either too scared to go into the shop and buy it for myself, or I didn’t want my mom to see it. So I never got one. And then the other day, I was watching this programme, and they had this ironing board cover. And it had a guy on there in sort of like swimming trunks. And when the woman or the man I’m not being sexist about owning started to iron, the heat made the swimming trunks drop off. And she was like, and I thought to myself, if they make that concept on bed spreads or bedsheets. So some young guy who’s never going to get to go to bed with a woman can lay in there and he’s heat makes you say, Well, I’m going, Matt. That’s how a million pound business is a billion pound business that you end up laying with a naked lady every single night.
Matt Phipps [36:53]
I’m not sure which part of your mind that came from, but I’m sure it’s pretty much a dark corner of it. But yeah, it’s it could have could have legs.
David Ralph [37:01]
It’s got legs. It’s got arms. It’s got everything. That’s what Yeah, yeah,
Matt Phipps [37:05]
yeah, your customer avatar is going to be a pretty sad and desperate individual. But you know, you might get you might get lucky but multibillion, perhaps not. But maybe 50 quid,
David Ralph [37:14]
don’t jump on me dreams may don’t jump on the dreams, some of the best ideas in the world and have had cold water poured on them. But I literally will come up with a new product a day. And it all links with me seeing one thing and then thinking how can I use that one thing that’s popular in a different greement? And that’s it, you know, and I just look at it all the time. And that’s the classic blue ocean red ocean concept that people talk about you go Yeah. Come on. Come on yet. You’ve now been swung? Yeah, I’m gonna it’s not more Sculpey 100 quid is
Matt Phipps [37:52]
okay. All right, maybe 100,000 I think but
David Ralph [37:54]
there you go. Vega brain is
Matt Phipps [37:57]
your brain is well suited to that that model do say you have ideas popping into your head all day, we have your spreadsheet where we get an idea, we capture it. And then we’ll come back to it and sit down when we have 10 and then go through all of the tools we’ve got to see. Okay, is that actually a valid idea? Is anyone selling it? Is anyone making money from it? Can we get into that market? So you’re at least one of those ideas could be a winner. So your brain is already working like a you know, a physical product entrepreneurs’
David Ralph [38:24]
bridges with glass doors. So you don’t actually have to open it up to see if there’s any ham near to make a sandwich. You can already see it. Because every time you open the door, you lose electricity, don’t you? And so yes, well, does sustainability mean everything see through so we can just see what’s in there.
Matt Phipps [38:42]
I don’t think you’d want to see what’s in my fridge, David, when I’m not the most organised fridge person. But yeah, perhaps if you colour code everything and put it on the shelves that could look attractive in the kitchen. But for most people seeing half a turkey carcass might not work.
David Ralph [38:59]
You’re rubbish. You’re rubbish. Yeah, you’re the most, I’d never want you as a business partner. How do you not jump on your wife? idea? Yeah, you could go both ways with that. But how do you not jump on your wife’s ideas? And then and then let her down in the same way that you’ve done me mate.
Matt Phipps [39:17]
You’ll find my weak spots here. Because yeah, I do. I do have a tendency to do that to you. Perhaps? Firstly, look for the weakness in things. Yeah, that’s another place that I’m working on is try and be okay. That sounds like a great idea, David that the fridge with the glass door, I can see how that would make it so much easier for people to see in there. And then probably I’d work around to say, do you think it would be like attractive for most people give them what they have in their fridge? Or do you think that you know, people wouldn’t mind that and then hopefully get you to realise that it wasn’t your best idea. So yeah, I think that’s probably somewhere to work on. But I’m definitely not afraid to tell my guys if I think their idea is bad because coming from a military background, we’re kind of no nonsense. And I’d rather people kind of pivoted early rather than make a mistake. I’m not all about just go just apply yourself. Just roll your sleeves up, you’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. Because you know, once they start invest their money if that’s a mistake, then it’s a long way back. So yeah, I can be a little bit brutal, perhaps. But yeah, let’s let’s talk about the fridge idea. Yeah.
David Ralph [40:20]
Last toaster, last toaster so you can see the bread going brown. So you don’t have to pop it out and have a look. It’s already in front of you.
Matt Phipps [40:29]
That’s good. That’s good. Yeah. Again, cleanliness might be an issue, David, but let’s let’s work on that. How do you think the inside of the toaster would look after a few weeks?
David Ralph [40:39]
I don’t give a monkey’s did you do care what it looks like in front of yours? You don’t do? Yeah, it’s just whatever is going on inside there.
Matt Phipps [40:47]
Or if it’s on your kitchen, worktop, some people, like might treat it as an ornamental thing, right?
David Ralph [40:52]
I’ll see you. You started off positive, and you’ve gone to the dark side. Again, you’re already let’s bring Steve Jobs on. While I was while I few.
Steve Jobs [41:02]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [41:37]
Now is the well worn path or your own path? Let’s say your own path. Is it easier than you expected? Now you’re in it?
Matt Phipps [41:45]
Yeah, I think so. I think you’re once once you find success, and your business starts generating revenue, and you can understand what the process is, you could just repeat that. And just keep applying yourself. There’s still ups and downs. But yeah, it certainly becomes a lot easier once you get
David Ralph [42:02]
there. And when you look back on it, obviously, it is one of those leading things. But it’s so true that you can always join your dots up. But do you have? Good? Could you have done it without your wife? Let’s let’s pose that one?
Matt Phipps [42:17]
Oh, that’s a really? That’s a really good question. I don’t think so. Because, you know, one of us would come up with an idea for a product, the other one would complete it. A cat is a great risk taker, she was happy for us to put your money on credit cards for our second interim inventory order. When we were when we were pushing ahead. I was obviously more hesitant more kind of sensible on that front. So we probably wouldn’t have got to where we were have we not been both, both together. That’s not to say that individuals can’t be successful because I know dozens of individuals who are flying. And they just build a team a little bit quicker. But for us, we just had two minds and two team members straightaway. So it made things a bit easier.
David Ralph [42:59]
And the last question is, now you are where you are? Has it made your relationship with your daughter better? Or are you more distance from her because I’m always interested in how people balance that side of being there for the 11 year old daughter at the school play and stuff and saying, hang on, this is more important.
Matt Phipps [43:22]
Yeah, and that’s really important for me, and my kids are super important to me and being the best that I can be as kind of one of the top things on my list. So it gets a lot of attention. And absolutely I’m, I’m more present, I’ve gone from heading out of the door before she goes to school to coming home, you know, an hour or two before she goes to bed. Now I’m home. Every day working from home, I can plan my own time. I can work around that. So I’ll get up in the morning, take her to school. So I get some time in the car, taking her to school, I get to pick her up at the end of the day and hear all of those stories, the good the bad from her and really connect with her there. And obviously, you know having more time at home, I have more energy as well because I’m doing less commuting. And things are just great because we have more time and don’t get me wrong. My daughter hates Amazon and because obviously we talk about it all the time and she’s like blah, blah, blah. But on the flip side, she’s also like
David Ralph [44:22]
your daughter, I like your daughter, she’s great. She’s the version of you. She’s she’s jumping on your dream.
Matt Phipps [44:28]
She is she is and she’s fantastic and super, super smart and bright. And she’s learning about entrepreneurialism as well because, you know, I did. I did. I went to school, I did a bachelor’s degree I did a master’s degree but now actually looking back. I’m not the biggest proponent of education. Now. I still think it’s important for a lot of people but for those who’ve got the, you know, the entrepreneurial drink juice in them. I don’t think it’s that important really to get a degree I’d rather encourage people to get going as soon as they’re 18 and and thought their own businesses if they’re that way inclined,
David Ralph [45:02]
I agree totally, I just, I just can’t understand, you know, I’ve been doing this show for eight years now. And I’ve done 1000s of episodes. And literally every episode is the same, you know, give or take is about coming up with an idea, showing how people have done it, accepting that there’s gonna be difficult times, but you can get past them. But ultimately, at the core of it all is you’re in control. And whatever happens if you’re in control, you can get past stuff. And it’s only when you stop, it stops. You know, and I know your favourite phrase is the best way to get things done is to simply begin. But I think that’s so true. And I, it blows me away why people don’t want to be mowing their lawn Wednesday at 10 o’clock in the morning, because they can you know, it’s just simple life stuff. As long as I’m doing this podcast with you today is the only thing I’ve scheduled for today. I don’t have to say to a boss, can I have Wednesday off? Can I have Thursday off? You just look at it and go, okay, yeah, we’ll make it happen. I just can’t understand why people don’t grasp that concept of you’re going to make good decisions, you’re gonna make bad decisions. But as long as you keep on making decisions, you will get the life you want. I’m a great believer in that.
Matt Phipps [46:24]
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it does confuse me as well. You know, I see people, as I mentioned earlier, my friends coming to me, this is what we did. This was the time it took you know, you’ve got to sacrifice time after work, maybe a lunch breaks, but this is what you’re going to get freedom in, you know, 234 years, you can quit your job, you can live where you want in the world, I’ve got other friends doing the same business who travelled the world for a year. And as long as you’ve got the Wi Fi, then you can jump on and run your business from anywhere in the world. So that freedom you get from being an entrepreneur is what it’s all about, right? Because we’re not in this for the money. We’re in this for the freedom of our time for us to do what we set out to do in our life.
David Ralph [47:06]
And you feel better, don’t you? You You look better. Thank this, there’s no downside, there’s no downside to it. I really don’t think there is and even the crap downside, I look back at it and think well, actually wasn’t too bad. You know, it was it was a bit stressful at the time, but it wasn’t too bad. But I can look back at corporate life and find out it was miserable. For a long time, I was so miserable, just traipsing up there doing jobs that I didn’t want to do talking to people I didn’t want to talk to, you know, you got to do it, you got to do it, listeners, you got to do it. And it doesn’t have to be big investment. You know, just look at finding a way of paying an electricity bill, you know, just create a tiny micro little business. And then if you can change and 200 pounds a month, it will foster so much belief in you to then go well, I’ve done it once I can do it again.
Matt Phipps [48:02]
Absolutely, yeah. preach.
David Ralph [48:05]
I am going to bring a little bit of the sermon on the mic onto the programme, because I know you’ve listened to it many, many times, Matt, but this is your opportunity to share advice with your younger self. So if you could go back in time and speak to the young Matt, what age would you choose? And what advice would you like to give him? Well, we’re going to find out because I’m going to play the music and when it fades. This is Matt Phipps, on the Sermon on the mic
Unknown Speaker [48:34]
here we go with the best bit of the show the Sermon on the mind the sermon on
Matt Phipps [48:53]
so Yeah, speaking to my younger self, first thing I’d say is you’re doing great, you’re already enough. So don’t keep looking for something that perhaps isn’t there yet. You’ve got everything you need inside you already. Don’t try and please people too much. Just focus on yourself and those that are important to you. A timer myself to believing believing what I want. And if you do that the universe will deliver. Absolutely just put it out there believe things are going to happen and they will come to you. Look out for opportunities, keep your eyes peeled. Things might pop up signs, random people coming to you leads that you might have to take your life. So just keep your eyes open to change opportunities. Friendship is certain super important. Make as many friends as you can and work on keeping them as well. And help those friends and others achieve those dreams because, you know, the sense of community is definitely huge and it’s what it’s all about. When you’re working, whatever you’re doing, keep your focus. Don’t try to do too many things. Don’t get distracted. Just keep focusing Take your chances, when you have a good gut feeling about something, trust your gut, especially when the gains are potentially big. Just jump in and go for it. And then finally, make sure you work to live and not live to work. So you don’t get caught up. Just working for forever and ever, and focus on your end goals of living the life you want.
David Ralph [50:22]
And just to sort of clarify that, what would be your number one out of all those, Matt, what would you go? This is the one that I really want the young Matt to remember.
Matt Phipps [50:32]
I think most importantly, would be you’re doing great. You’re already enough. You too often, myself and others are just trying looking for something different. Trying to improve ourselves trying to chase something, but you know the fact you’ve already got everything you need, the fact that you’re already enough to just focus on that.
David Ralph [50:51]
Really brilliant stuff. Oh, can I miss them? Matt Phipps? How can the audience who’ve been listening today connect with you?
Matt Phipps [50:59]
So yeah, I’m on Facebook as Matt Phipps. I’m also on LinkedIn, but don’t really use that too much. Also, you can send me an email at Matt at Titan members.com. If you just want to chat, or if you want to ask me about on network, you’re welcome to do that as
David Ralph [51:13]
well. Brilliant stuff, we have all the links on the show notes. Matt, thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots. And thank you for listening and then creating your own dots. But most importantly, please come back again, when you’ve got more dots to join up. Because I do believe that by joining up the dots, and connecting our paths is the best way to build our futures. Matt Phipps, thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Matt Phipps, so he started his own Amazon FBA business, and he’s willing to help coach people to get going. And when you when you look at that, I think the big big thing that will probably put fear into people is the investment upfront, it doesn’t matter if it’s an investment upfront, or it’s investment spread over a long time. If you’re running a business, it’s going to be investment, there’s there’s got to be investment, to get the rewards. Now you can create a business where you are getting very small rewards, ie affiliate based businesses, but you still have investment, you still have to get web hosting, you still have to pay for ads, whatever. Don’t think of it as a scary moment. Think of it as a control moment. And if you’ve done your research, and you know, there’s a market and you know that the upsides exceed the downside, so you know that there’s profit margin that can be one, and then go for it. And I always say to people, you know, when people hire me to coach them, I say, the only thing you’ve got to be worried about his getting my money back that you’ve paid me. And if you can’t do that, then let’s not work together. But if you think that that’s a minimum requirement, so let’s do it. And let’s look at getting the money back within a couple of months. And then you’ll be up and running. But you’ve got the knowledge, investment is always there. And investment is what makes businesses operate. Okay, so don’t be scared by that. And Matt will help you along the line. So for everybody out there that is enjoying the show, thank you so much. Keep dropping your questions through to us. We’d love having back. Anybody out there who’s been a listener of Join Up Dots. And just like Matt has now started their own business. Come on the show. We’d love to speak to you. Come on down. And until next week, I will see you again. You look after yourselves, you stay sexy. And we’ll see you again. Cheers. See ya. Bye.
Outro [53:35]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant sell fewer wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to join up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.