Tomer David Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Tomer David
Tomer David is todays guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast
He is a man who knew what he wanted from a very young age.
He is the owner of sourcing monster, with a mission that states “My mission is to educate and share my expereince and success with serious people that want to take control over their lives, they are tired of the making money online promises and want to really be free and make a difference”
As he says “I’m Tomer David, the owner of 2 Amazon FBA brands with 14 years of e-commerce experience.
My passion started when I was young and I’ve been programming since age 12.
When I was 14, I opened my 1st online business which was a hosting company.
At 16, I left school to pursue my dreams full time by working at a start-up company, until now where I have experience in e-commerce and marketing.
My first product launch on Amazon failed. I had set the wrong expectations.
Trying again, my goal was to earn $10K profit per month in 12 months.
How The Dots Joined Up For Tomer
I learned that I had to rethink my strategy and stick to a plan to make this happen, and I made it happen!
I love to talk about this journey on podcasts.
In addition to my own success on Amazon, I also teach other sellers how to succeed on this platform through my website and Youtube channel Sourcing Monster, where I share videos about sourcing products from China and running successful online businesses.
I also coach aspiring FBA sellers by helping them set realistic goals and expectations and a business strategy.
So what did he mean when he said his first business failed as he set the wrong expectations?
And what does he see the number one mistake that people make when starting to work in the online world?
Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Tomer David.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Tomer such as:
Tomer opens up the discussion to the fake reality of the YouTube ads and images that we all see everyday and still get seduced by
Why it is so important to try to minimise the time that you are working on anything so that you can increase the quality that you are delivering.
And lastly……
Is this going to help me step forward with my goals should be the focus before we attempt anything in our businesses.
Amazon FBA has become quite the talk over the last few years. One could also try out softwares like Helium which helps find brilliant products that can help push sales. Use GROWTHDEVIL50 Code
How To Connect With Tomer David
Return To The Top Of Tomer David
If you enjoyed this episode with Tomer David, why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Jack Canfield, Nick Ruiz, Sarah Caltieri or the amazing Chris Lalomia
Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.
Full Transcription Of Tomer David 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 golf. 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, hello there. Well, good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon. whatever time it is welcome to Join Up Dots. Thank you so much for tuning in. For another episode, this is gonna be an interview show. So we’ve got a guy who has had a fantastic journey from Israel to New Jersey, he now lives in Florida, the home of the mouse. Yeah, that’s where he’s building his empire. And unlike most people out there who sort of get into their 20s, and 30s and 40s, he knew what he wanted from a very young age. He’s the owner of sourcing monster with a mission that states Their mission is to educate and share my experience and success with serious people that want to take control over their lives by a tired of making money online promises and want to really be free and make a difference. As he says, I’m the owner of two Amazon FBA brands with 14 years of E commerce experience. And my passion started when I was young. And I’ve been programming since age 12. Now when I was 14, I opened my first online business, which was a hosting company and at 16. I left school to pursue my dreams full time by working at a startup company until now, where I have experience in E commerce and marketing. My first product launch on Amazon failed, I’d set the wrong expectations, trying again, my goal was to earn 10 grand profit per month in 12 months, I learned that I had to rethink my strategy and stick to a plan to make this happen. And I made it happen. And I love to talk about this journey. In addition to my own success on Amazon, I also teach other sellers how to succeed on the platform. Through my website and YouTube channel sourcing monster, where I share videos about sourcing products from China, and running successful online businesses. I also coach aspiring FBA sellers, by helping them set realistic goals and expectations and a business strategy. So what does he mean when he said his first business failed as he set the wrong expectations? And what does he see the number one mistake that people make when starting to work in the online world, especially on Amazon FBA? Well, let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Tomer David. Morning to you.
Tomer David FBA Amazon [2:57]
Good morning, before we start, I must say that I’m very impressed with how professional is this podcast, the intro and everything I’ve been against in a lot of podcasts recently, in the last few months. And this one is the best intro and you know, platform and everything about it. It’s very professional. So good job with that. Thank
David Ralph [3:21]
you very much. I’m after 10 years, I’m just about getting the hang of it just about now, I want to jump straight into it, because I’m fascinated with your journey, and the journey is going to go back and forth. But what I’m interested in is you help people set realistic goals. Now, what do you mean by that? What do you mean, in the online world be setting realistic goals? What does it mean to you?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [3:45]
So realistic goals means that you know, sometimes you see that sometimes a lot of times people see these YouTube ads and the lifestyle of those gurus that it looks like they’re driving Lamborghinis, and having fun on the beach, you know, just making millions of dollars. But in reality, that that’s not the reality. In my opinion, it might be that after, you know someone made an exit and sold the company for 100 million, he would go and do that. But that’s most likely not going to be the case. Because usually entrepreneurs that exit and simple those amongst they’re kind of addicted to the excitement of business or for entrepreneurship. And usually the next day, they just go back into work. So that’s to me, not the reality. So right expectations is very important. Knowing that to get into a level of having a financial freedom, you need to put the work, it’s not easy. It takes a lot of dedication, hard work and being patient and understand that it’s a long term game and it’s not something that would come to you in a few months of work or, you know, just like that so that that’s for me, realistic expectations and knowing that it takes time and really, you know, letting know people that that’s that’s the truth, you know, showing them the what it actually takes to being successful in business or in life in general, because I
David Ralph [5:10]
think really that you can start a very profitable business within basically three or four days really I don’t it the old style journey is that you buy a hosting domain, when you create loads and loads of free content and organic traffic and then build it, I now see toma that the way to do it is really be quiet and focused about the marketplace and what it’s telling you watch all sort of news for any changes or trends that’s coming that is going to be sustainable and evergreen, and then get out there as soon as possible by actually paying for ads. What do you think about that? Is it? Is it a long term goal? Or is it that just people are hanging on to a very old business model that used to work online many years ago?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [6:03]
Yeah. So you know, even back then, you know, I started since you know, people would, you know, search for things online, I would actually be one of the first ones to do SEO, which is search engine optimization. And even back then just a few days for someone that doesn’t have background, to open a business and be profitable, I don’t think that was realistic. Maybe you had luck or something like that, which is, you know, you’re lucky, but most likely for the rest of the people, it’s not going to happen. So when I say realistic goals, it’s important to understand that whether it was back then or today or in the future, even with new things like crypto or anything else, yes, you could be lucky, you could be one of the first ones to do something. But that’s against what I believe I like to go into established markets, where you have proof where you kind of can can use data to leverage your decisions and lower your risks. So whether you know, in my, in my world in my era, it’s like Amazon FBA, it’s, that’s my main focus. So if for someone you that started an Amazon FBA business, maybe yes, five or six years ago, it was easier, but it’s still not days or weeks success story, you have to build the plan, you have to really do research, you have to bring products to the market, all of these takes time. And before you can actually see money, you’ll have to reinvest your profits. And you know, it’s a product business, it’s an inventory business, it’s not a cash flow business. So a lot of times people think, okay, I sold these amount of products, we made these kind of profits, but it’s all on the paper, you can’t really see money unless you have a really well founded business with a lot of cash flow, which most people don’t. So, you know, that’s what I mean, with being realistic. And having a plan and having a business plan and being prepared and doing the research to increase the chances of success. You don’t do those things. I’m not saying that you won’t be able to make it but the chances are much lower.
David Ralph [8:10]
I agree with you 100%. I like to go into established markets. And when I’m teaching people, a lot of them kind of thing. Oh, that’s already saturated. But I’ve never found a market that is too saturated to make a living from. But the clues are there, you can then see what’s working. You can see where the traffic’s coming from. It’s so much easier, isn’t it to tap into something that’s already out there by trying to create something that is going to be lightning in a bottle
Tomer David FBA Amazon [8:40]
100% 100% weather? I mean, yeah, like, like you said, people still say, oh, Amazon is saturated, or Google ads is saturated, or Shopify is saturated. But you know, I always see the level of, you know, people in nature are most of the people want, we really put the work. So once I know that they have good fundamentals. Once I know that they have a good infrastructure of discipline, and organisation, I have the confidence entering into anything in life, whether it’s Shopify, Google, whatever it because I know that those fundamentals will lead to success, it will lead me to do things better than others, it will lead me maybe not then everyone, but then most of the people, it will lead me to be with the processes, more creative, bring better product, and it’s kind of give me confidence. I think it’s all starts from that. You have to build an infrastructure that doesn’t really related or fundamentals you can call it that doesn’t really relate it to what you’re going to do. So to me, it’s always be organised and discipline, because once you have those things, it will be easier to do research because you’re a discipline you tell yourself you’re going to do one hour of research you need What’s actually going to happen. And when you have a fundamental of being organised, you can be more productive, you can get more done than other people’s. So it’s all comes, in my opinion in how I approach life and business. It’s all about the fundamentals, and you have to work on those things. First, if you don’t have them before, you’re gonna see success. You know, in business now, maybe maybe, was too, you know, hard before you see success. Maybe you could have luck, maybe you could, you know, do it without being disciplined or organised that much. But in my opinion, you again, you you, you lower the chances that it’s going to happen once you have good fundamentals, you just dramatically increase your chances to succeed in anything that you do.
David Ralph [10:47]
Yeah, I agree. I agree. Totally. One of the things I’m interested in toma is the, the less is more, I don’t know, if you’ve been through a journey where you would find yourself literally sitting in front of your laptop or your PC for 16 hours a day. And when you look back on it, the majority of what you did was rubbish, it was not very good quality at all. I’m very interested in the trying to do less and less and less but knowing, right, I need to come out with something quality that brings about focus brings about a clarity brings about the decision making. If I walk up to the computer, and I’m confused about what the day is going to be, I prefer to walk away from it, then just sit there feeling but time, how do you feel about that kind of work spread that can creep into your life and route you to the spot when actually what you’re trying to do is build a business to give you the freedom?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [11:41]
Yes, yes, I love this topic. And I love the question. And I think it’s people don’t really pay enough attention to it. They just flow just working, like you said, and, you know, they become weak and weak become month in a year. And then they realise they didn’t really achieve much the previous year or in previous few years. And that happened because lack of focus, lack of understanding that this part, the planning, the organisation is so crucial, because again, you can get more, I just made a video about it. You know, we have YouTube shorts, you have tick tock and Instagram wills. And I made a video specifically about this, how much time people actually work. So we all have, let’s say, from nine to five, let’s say we work eight hours, which for intrapreneurs. It’s not the case, probably. But let’s say we work eight hours a day, doing from those hours if we’re being realistic. And we’ll ask most people and we actually measure the time, maybe they work 4050 60% of that actual work. The rest of the time is being distracted by other people, by social media, by your phone by your email, doesn’t matter what it is, but you have so much time but actual work is maybe 50% of it. And why once you understand this, and you actually being focused, and you kind of understand that you have to really put those things aside and do the actual work, you can get much more done than the rest of the world. So that’s about that now about you said Let your actual question how you have plenty of the day, it’s 28. It’s the 20% of things that we do that gives us the 80% of our results. So we have to really sit and it’s very hard. So even for me, actually, it’s funny, because in the last few days, that’s what I’m really focusing on removing, removing removing tasks that don’t really influence or change the bottom line. And it’s hard. It’s all it’s a constant battle between you and your calendar kind of, of what is important and what is not. And it’s sometimes it’s really fine line. So it’s very important to analyse the beginning of your day, what is important, it’s very important to analyse, and set goals, because goals will make it more clear. So the better clarity you have, the easier your decisions will become. So it’s the planning of the Year, Quarter month, the week the day is super important. So ROI on your time, that’s definitely the most important task in my opinion, or again or organising your time, planning your day and where what in how to put your time. And it’s important also to start with important tasks first. So for myself, you know, it’s the inventory management is the first task that I do everyday because I know it’s the most important point. Then I come to the next one which is PPC advertising. Then the third one, product research always constantly bringing more products to the funnel that I’m researching and working on it then I got into some other things that are less important or less impact to the bottom line like checking game of social media calls with the team members and stuff like that.
David Ralph [15:01]
Now, how do you decide what is the key thing? Let’s take you back to the early days somebody is listening, and they want to start their own online business. And they, they sit in a cubicle, and I go, yes, now, now’s the time I’m gonna go for it. At that point, where did I turn their direction? To? What would you suggest for them to do first to make that strategy start to appear in front of them? So they can, they can use the dots as stepping stones forward?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [15:31]
Yes, that’s very important. Because when you start, you don’t know what really, you know, influencing the bottom line for you. And I was in the same kind of, you know, situation, like you said in the intro. I was, I was in a jewellery business, a family business, we were so diamonds and, you know, precious metal jewellery. Online, it was established business was doing well. But they, you know, was too tired of that business model of really being tied to a physical location with inventory that’s worth a lot of money, and a lot of responsibility and a lot of stress and factory. So I decided really to find something else. That’s how I started Amazon. Now, I didn’t really have a lot of time, I only had three hours a day, and I would wake up 4am in the morning and working on the Amazon business from 4am to 7am, three hours. So I had to prioritise I had to really have this conversation in my head on okay, what is important, and what is less important. So I would constantly ask myself, Is that relevant to where I am in my journey? So for example, when I was just starting, for me, it was product research, that was the highest priority. So maybe a shiny object would be, you know, checking about other people’s success, or working on your actual copywriting? Yes, it’s important, but it’s not important right now. So my focus, I really made sure that I’m only doing product research. That’s the only thing that was important at that point. And it comes with asking the right question, it’s very simple. Just ask yourself, is that going to help me right now? Is that what I need to do right now in order to take or to get closer to my goal? And, you know, there is no right or wrong answers. And it’s subjective. But you know, that’s what you should really ask yourself every day, and you should come up with the right answer. And if for some reason, you can’t come up with the answer, though, it’s very hard for you to do this process with yourself. For me, it’s kind of natural. But I see a lot of people that it’s not natural for them. Maybe they should really get other people opinion. Maybe they should consult with a coach or some something like that, you know,
David Ralph [17:45]
let’s hear from Oprah. And we’ll be back with Thoma
Oprah Winfrey [17:48]
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 [18:19]
Now, what fascinates me about that so much, I just think to myself, yeah, but next right thing, the next right thing is key. But the first right thing. Now, I see so many people struggle, because we’re not clear, they’re not precise on actually what they want. At the beginning. Do you think it’s right to decide on a monetary goal? Or do you decide side on how you want your lifestyle to look, so that you then decide on what money can give you that lifestyle?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [18:53]
This is so important, what you just mentioned, and I love that this conversation where it goes to but you know, in my journey, I before, you know, I was in that jewellery business for 10 years, and I tried to do a lot of things on the side. And I think that a lot of them failed, and I tried to flip websites buy and sell them. I tried affiliate marketing, I tried really many, many, many stuff, and all of them kind of failed. Or maybe even even if they you know, was profitable, not too profitable enough to a degree that I could really replace my my previous job or, you know, business. So I think what I did differently this time is that I did the research. So my goal was to make $10,000 profit every month with and to be able to reach it within a year. So even if this is going to happen in the 11th or 12 months that’s for me success. And I before I jumped in did something like before I actually sit and did a video Search about specific areas. May they remember a comparison table between each one. So it was affiliate marketing, it was SEO, it was Amazon, and I set where is the highest chance for me to reach that goal, and something that I can with my skills that it will actually happen. So I did the list of my skills by resources. And then I did the list of okay, what are the pros and cons for each, you know, module, like with Amazon, you know, you can’t really see profits quick, you have to reinvest, but you can relatively see profits easily. And then without a lot of time, with SEO, it was the opposite, you don’t need a lot of money to invest, and you but you kind of see results in a lot of it takes a lot of time, like six to 12 months. So once you know what is your goal, that’s when you should break it down to how you’re going to do it. And this part is so important, the research and before you enter into something, make sure that you are clear about it, you know that that’s the path through you. You minimise the risks when you do that. So so that’s what I would do to someone you’re just starting and and not sure what they have to do. Because if you’re not committed and you’re not, you’re going to be less committed when you’re not clear about something, then you really decrease your chances of succeeding.
David Ralph [21:26]
Now another question I’m going to ask you Tomer because it is interesting me at the moment is this thing about, find the passion, find a business where the passion is in. And because I’m, I’m struggling with this one, because I think that as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, you should have the passion on making money online, you should have a passion on learning the strategy, getting better at sales, funnels, and marketing, everything that you need online should be your passion, not the actual business itself. What what do you think on that? Is there a place for both?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [22:05]
I think that there is a place for both but what you said, I think you see it similarly in with every entrepreneur, it’s the, it’s the excitement that comes with starting something new, or the excitement or the passion that comes with see taking something from zero and seeing it, you know, flourishing, or the passion of really building processes and systems and, and that’s for me, really, you know, the passion. So whether I do, you know, a Shopify website, or Amazon, for me, it’s the same level of passion and excitement. It’s not the actual business and I sell things on Amazon, that I have no passion, or relation or relating to in any way I sell, like, health and beauty, sell toys, sell random things that have no passion at all, I have passion, to taking something from zero to success, or seeing it from zero to a product that people use and love enjoying it. That’s for me the passion. Now, obviously, if you’re passionate about a specific category, let’s say for me, I love surfing. So if I could combine those, that’s gonna be even stronger success, in my opinion, because once you combine your passion with like two passions, you know, you just do multiple the the kind of focus and excitement and everything you put in is just stronger in my opinion.
David Ralph [23:34]
Yeah, I agree with it’s totally and by that time, you’ve tried stuff, and you’ve worked, you know, I must have launched, I don’t know, 12 businesses on top of my head. And I would say six have done well and six were dead ducks. But I learned what didn’t work and looking back on it, those dead ducks I could bring back to life because of the other ones I can look back on it. I could see why that didn’t. And a couple of them were I just didn’t have the passion. You know, I can just see that. But I didn’t have a passion to actually take them anywhere. I didn’t have a passion to create elements of it that could find that that enthusiasm in me. So with that the surfing analogy because the surfing analogy is brilliant for entrepreneurship, isn’t it where when you’re surfing, you’re paddling, paddling, paddling, not getting anywhere. And then a wave comes and you ride that wave and then you wait again for the next wave. Do you see that in your business? But you you know when the next wave is coming, you’re quite happy to paddle in the shallows ready for it.
Tomer David FBA Amazon [24:45]
I think that for me it’s not that clear. I don’t really see okay, this will work like crazy and it’s actually happened the opposite we things that I thought that would work. They actually didn’t work and think that They thought, maybe it’s gonna work or not, you know, they actually work. So my approach to entrepreneurships, and everything that I do, and that’s really big topic that I talk about lately is experimenting, try new things, you’re going to fail a lot. But all these fails, like you said, gonna teach you a lesson that you can take and implement in the future or in the current business that you have. So, I don’t really know, a lot, I come with the assumption that I don’t know and not or nothing, because when I am being open like that, I can test more things, even things that maybe in the past didn’t work. So I always try to really, you know, be like that and come with that mindset. And just strive to test as many things as I can.
David Ralph [25:52]
It’s fascinating you say that, because you do have days, I’ve had weeks, actually, in months, probably where I come back, after spending quite a lot of time, and I haven’t done anything, I’ve just been learning stuff and reading stuff and flicking here. And it’s what other people say you’re in a lab, you’re in the laboratory, you’re doing the testing, you’re trying to do the split testing, or, or whatever. But it doesn’t really come to anything concrete, Does, does that get you down? Are you happy to stay in the lab and test?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [26:28]
Of course, it gets you. You know, at this point, maybe at the beginning, yes, but I do a lot of testing. You know, with my previous business, I love conversion rate optimization, I love this area, because you could take the same kind of resources, or let’s see traffic that you have, and you can get out of it just double or more than that, then that’s really exciting for me to see or be able to influence the bottom line with minimal kind of effort. So, you know, I try to be very clear on what I test. And even with failures, or I’m not getting the results that I wanted it also give me insights, give me an insights on what not to do, or what to change. So I’m always winning, I always win with any test whether I got the result that I wanted, or not.
David Ralph [27:20]
Well, we will back be back with toma after these words, if you’re inspired to live a life on your own terms working when you want where you want, once you sit back and make the decision of how much you want to earn too. And it’s all totally doable and nowadays easier than ever, head over to the start of business school at join up dots.com And check out the video testimonials from just a few of the students that are now building their dream businesses after going through our coaching sessions. And if that excites them book a time to speak to me one to one to make sure you have what it takes to become the next success off our conveyor belt that started business school at join up dots.com. Like okay, we’re speaking to toma David,
Tomer David FBA Amazon [28:02]
they want to add something go for it. You know, you talked about passions and and what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. And I totally realise that I’m not I’m not really passionate about like, coaching one on one, or selling courses or something like that. It’s not something that I really enjoy. And that’s, that’s why I’m not really focusing on that. So it’s important to understand what you’re good at, what you’re not what you’re passionate about and what not and don’t force things. Because if I will try to force sending a course or sending a one on one coaching, I know it won’t work because I’m not passionate about it. I’m not, you know, I prefer to help people but in different ways, maybe through YouTube where I share videos for free and sharing my knowledge and journey rather than one on one coaching. For me, it’s taking away my focus and distract me a lot. So I decided just to not to focus on that.
David Ralph [29:00]
Well with Amazon FBA events. So what is it that excites you? Because I must admit, about a year ago, two years ago, I started to look at marketing, a electric bike kit. So to convert a normal bike into electric bike, and the market was very good. And I contacted Alibaba, I think it was in somewhere else in China. And I went through to the manufacturers and it was almost to the point of actually launching it. And then we went through something called Brexit in the United Kingdom and over betrayed change. And the profit margin went from about 200 pounds a profit down to about 30 pounds, and I couldn’t see that it was worthwhile doing it. Now with Amazon FBA, you obviously are restricted in a certain regard. So what is it that excites you? Why is it the business that you’ve really jumped into wholeheartedly?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [29:58]
Yeah, so By the way, I’m I was also affected by the UK changes. You know, in laws we sell in Europe to Germany and UK, this was a horrible year to get some inventory into the UK and Germany. So I’m kind of understand what you’re talking about. But what really excited me about Amazon FBA is that I can focus on product development. And I could reach levels that I couldn’t do otherwise, because of the infrastructure and the abilities that they give you. So we have a huge market. And you could create even 100 million business with relatively new, like three or four people in your team. This is possible. And this is possible because I saw people doing it. And for me, that’s very exciting. You can create a $50 million business with you and just couple of other members. And I was honoured but unheard of before. And this, the and you can do it because they really handle the logistics part of things. And they handle for you the customer service. And they end up for you a lot of aspects that otherwise you or your team wouldn’t have to handle. So that’s countries you free, you’re up to deal with product development and marketing. And yeah, you have to deal with the logistics to shipping and becoming more and more challenging actually, to deal with inventory and logistics these days. Well, no. But that’s why it’s so exciting for me, that I can build a massive business with minimal effort.
David Ralph [31:37]
Now, that should excite so many people. But I know so many people will be frightened of the investment it takes because as you said earlier, it is a stock based is in inventory, you’ve got to have the products to be able to sell the products. So how do you make the decision of what is going to fly? So that you can limit the risk of going into this?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [32:02]
Yeah, great question. So the beauty of Amazon is that you have data, you can look at your competitors. And you can look at the market before and get a calculated decision kind of. So this should, and if you do it right will minimise the risk. But even with that being said, I can say that my success rate is 50 to 60%. So every 10 products that I bring, full fail, and the I don’t really order four to five, and the rest are products that keep reordering and continue. You know, just ordering inventory and developing. So that’s part of the game. Even for me where I launched, I think now like 60 products already, I still fail, I still like you know, not sure whether products will work or not how the market will react to it. But you should optimise your workflow every time that you fail. So it will help you increase the chance next time you bring good product. So that’s why I’m really focusing on always improving my workflows, and always minimising my risks.
David Ralph [33:15]
So let’s talk about this. So you can go over, you can tap in to the data. Amazon allows you to do this, you can see what other people’s markup is other people’s success rate, and you can mimic them or is there is there a sort of a cloud that you can’t get through, you can only see part of the process.
Tomer David FBA Amazon [33:37]
Yeah, you can see the whole process on how many items they launched and already succeeded. But you can look at the market, you see, it makes, you know good amount of money. And by checking that other products or other other competitors in the market, you can see if there is a gap, if you can bring something better if you can improve it, it’s usually two aspects, one of the product itself. And then the other one is through the marketing. So you can have a gap in marketing, you can see sellers that make a lot of money, but their marketing is not that great. Their images is not, they’re not great, their copy is not great. And you can get into this gap, create something awesome, and take away some of their market share. That’s one way usually not the sustainable and long term way. But it’s one way, the more long term and sustainable way is to do both. So you see gap in the marketing and you see gap in the actual product. So you bring a better product, better offer better marketing. And that’s how you usually win big time and kind of look there.
David Ralph [34:46]
And how do you decide that the marketing and the images are not conducive to a good sound? Does that just come with experience or is there training involved in that?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [34:56]
So of course you know, the more you do it, the more you realise Do you know what works and what doesn’t. But you can easily spot where, for example, you see a pixelized image as a main image, and it tells a lot, I mean, you can, you can just create a better image by zooming in, showcase the product in more detail, maybe doing a 3d rendering, or this is easy to spot, you can also open the other images. And you see they only have like images on a white background instead of infographics with text that will convince people and will increase the conversion rate, you see that they using images, but they don’t really put the measurements like how big it is, which is very important when you buy something online. So those are the little things, but that adds up, you know, and if you see they’re using the title, but they’re not maximising the number of characters that they can use, which is 200. And they use only 100. So that’s a gap, you look at the bullets that are good enough, they only talk features, or they also talk benefits. So yeah, you would need experience to understand to learn about copywriting, you will need understanding, learning some basic conversion optimization skills, and you know, all those things, you can prepare yourself to the task without so much experience, if you learn about those topics
David Ralph [36:19]
is an important thing. Anybody who has worked with me, I spend more than, you know, half the time really talking about transformation, how people are wanting to be moved into a better position as quickly and as easily as possible. And the bigger pain point knowing them, the more they will actually, you know, open their wallets and they will buy. So is that something that you look at when choosing a product? Did you look for some big bets? Sort of just evergreen and every family out there will need it at some time? Or do you look at something more specific and boutique?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [36:57]
Yeah, so for me, it was more specific and boutique. But part of me growing is now going into a wider goal of really helping more people. And that’s forced me to think like you said, Okay, how I can bring more. So I would focus before and just improving this product, maybe by bundling it more like short term, like few years success now. Because I’m in the process of selling one of my brands, and I want to take that money and grow my toys brands into something that is like, you know, a bigger company that will be there for years, my goals changed, my goals are being you know, reaching parents and helping people with our toys, with with a wider kind of goal. So now I look at it differently. But you know, at the beginning, you just focus in my opinion that this the short term, like Okay, bring a product that these, you know, help answering a need in the market for better or improved version. And that’s going to be easy win for me for like a year or two, just to get the experience just so you learn just so you make money. And the more you progress, the more you have experience, you can go off their higher goals. Yes, I’m in the bear, if you start with it at first, and you have the capital and the cash and the fundamentals and everything is tight. Yeah, go for the higher goals and create something awesome, that will change the world, that’s going to be a homerun kind
David Ralph [38:32]
of Yeah, but a homerun doesn’t happen very often does it? You know, hitting a ball every now and again gets you into the position of the homerun. But I do think that people try to set themselves out or have a home run at the very beginning, where just get yourself off of the first base and run to the second one.
Tomer David FBA Amazon [38:51]
That’s why I’m saying that because usually that’s not gonna happen the homerun. So you want to minimise your risks, go, you know, small start small and scale when things work, you know?
David Ralph [39:02]
Yeah, I agree. I agree. Totally. So, what happens with you when you get bored with your business? Because we all have that when we kind of go really can’t be bothered at the moment. I just don’t feel it. Do you sort of plough through Have you got the ability to walk away from it and explain how you live your life?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [39:21]
Yeah, so for me, it doesn’t really happen. And if it’s gonna happen, maybe I should do something else. You know, at least I’m a person that I’m doing things with excitement. I’m very excited about what I do. I wake up it’s like, you know, it’s like a Christmas day every day. And I think that and you know, even my wife asked me how you do it. And I keep motivating myself and keep feeding myself with positive energies and I think that helps me so I have a really strong morning ritual that I follow that they think keeps me very excited about what I do. So I started you with weed like exercising, waking up very early, while everyone else sleeping, I’m already doing exercise. Having my gratitude journal, I keep myself learning. So I love languages. So I currently like to learn Chinese and I improve my Spanish and French. So I learned in the morning for a few minutes, you know, just going through words, and stuff like that. So I combine all of those stuff. And it’s given me this fire to be very motivated, and keeps me with very high energy. So for me, it’s kind of the way to keep myself motivated and with high energy and excitement all day. And you know that that’s kept pushing me. So I really find myself bored or have nothing to do a one two step away, even though it’s something that I should do more. I read last year, we’re talking about 2021, which is last year already, I went to a few business struggles and, you know, being disconnected from the business for few days, really made me even more eager to work and improve things. So I think it’s important to step out from your business for, you know, maybe every quarter for a few days. But if you asked me if I need that, no, I have to constantly force myself to do that.
David Ralph [41:28]
Oh, that’s interesting, because I’m, I’m more than happy to turn it off and go nowhere near it. Now, it wasn’t the case a few years ago, I was obsessed. But now I’m more obsessed about life away from the business rather than actually the business itself. And because of that, my business has become more profitable, I think people can see. But ultimately, that’s what they want in their life, they want the ability to be out, but to have a business that they control. More than that the business controls them.
Tomer David FBA Amazon [41:59]
I agree. That’s actually my philosophy, having control and having systems and processes, so I don’t need to be in the business to operate it. But the systems operating the business. So I love the freedom that the business gives me. So during the day, I like to go with my wife, we go and eat outside, usually we tried to go eat outside a lot. And you know, doing some fun things during the day. So I control my time, I control how much I work. And I think also depends on the phases where you are in your life. So I’m still building myself. So I guess I’m still very passionate and obsessed, kind of on success. And I guess once you reach certain level, or once you fulfil a lot of your goals, you want to kind of enjoy the fruits of your hard labour and work. So I guess it really depends on where you are in your life and your journey. Yeah, and I guess I’m still like, you know, building myself I’m very passionate and eager to achieve all my goals.
David Ralph [43:06]
I’d rather be outside eating lunch with your wife every day. I think toma I think that’s that’s why I’d rather be
Tomer David FBA Amazon [43:13]
angry or drinking beer in a nice soccer game. I know in the UK, you’re you guys have the Premier League. So you know, one day from him, I really want to go and watch one of those games
David Ralph [43:24]
Mewtwo it set it as you as you go, Hey, Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [43:28]
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 [44:03]
Did those words inspire you? Do you have faith that they will all join up?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [44:08]
I under percent believe in that you’d never it’s like my approach like I explained about Amazon you never know the results but your past experience going backwards could help you have more confident that you know the eugenic Join Up Dots in the future. So yeah, 100% I agree with that then, you know, I love reading I love learning everyday and that’s also another way to you know, keep yourself moving. Keep yourself inspired.
David Ralph [44:37]
What inspires you then away from what you’re doing or who inspires you that’s online today?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [44:45]
I think a lot of people that inspires me but Elon Musk Steve Jobs all these high successful people really inspires me and make me want to learn more about them and how they achieve the goals in life. I’ll tell you what, I’m struggling With, because I’m really demanding a lot for myself. And for my team, it’s becoming like an obsession kind of, and my standards are so high, that it’s very hard to keep up with me like personal life, whether that’s my family or friends, it’s kind of hard to, you know, be around people with low standards. So, you know, everyone with the highest standards really inspires me, everyone that, you know, achieve something big in life inspires me. And I feel it’s very exciting to, you know, do something that, you know that it’s hard, and not a lot of people did, or, you know, a few of them.
David Ralph [45:46]
Last question, before we move on to the end of the show on the Sermon on the mic is, where are you heading? Now? We’re into 2022. Now, we’ve just moved into it. What is your plans for the rest of the year and beyond?
Tomer David FBA Amazon [46:01]
Great question. So I’m still working on my goals for this year, I’m kind of late this year. I’m in the process of selling one of my brands, like I said, so I want to sell it exit, take some of the money, you know, great, kind of more security in life, as far as financially invest a lot of it, maybe some real estate, and obviously, in Amazon in my second brand, which isn’t toys. So I’m going to create a case study. Because I’m pretty sure that it’s going to happen. But the challenge, and it’s my might fail and look bad, but I don’t care. But the challenge is to take it from zero to 1 million in sales within this year. 2022, we already you know, we already started the years. So I’m kind of behind with that. But I’m still, you know, confident that I could do that. And if plan of action, I already broke it down on how many product sales to launch in each quarter, how much money I need to add what kind of resources and honestly the goal is to make two and a half million in revenue. But you know, for the challenge, it will be from zero to 1 million. So, you know, think I’m being very aggressive and a worst case scenario, I want to reach the goal of 2.5, but 1 million, or maybe one and a half, or you never know. But that’s the challenge. And I’m doing it too. And I’m going to share the journey on my YouTube. So I can show people what are the struggles that I’m going through? What are the struggles as far as logistics, cash flow, the day to day like, really hitting your goal and looking at a goal what you have to do in order to achieve it. And it’s kind of sharing the journey, like I did with, you know, from zero to 10,000 in profits. So that’s that’s really what I’m going to focus on 2022
David Ralph [47:55]
right stuff and I’m sure you will achieve it, you got that focus, you will go straight for it, I’m sure. Well, this is the end of the show. And this is the part we’ve been leading up to this is the bit we called a sermon on the mic when we’re gonna send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self, or we might bring him forward. But if you did get a chance to go into a room and speak to the young toma What advice would you like to give him and what age toma would you love to speak to? Well, we’re going to find out because I’m going to play the music. And when it fades, it’s your time to talk this is the Sermon on the mic
Unknown Speaker [48:34]
here we go with the speed of the show. The Sermon on the mind the sermon on
Tomer David FBA Amazon [48:51]
Yeah, this is this is very cool. I like this idea. And, you know, I didn’t prepare for this question that much. I told you, I’m gonna really say whatever after you know the interview, but I wouldn’t really change anything because I feel that everything that I went through in life kind of led me to where I am now. But if I have to really talk with myself when I was maybe younger, like 16 1517 is just create and bring value to the world into people to other people. And by doing so, you will get just much more back. And that’s how I try to operate today. Just you know, with my YouTube channel and with everything I do, I always think how I can give value, whether that’s through the products that we sell, or through the YouTube while we can bring value without asking for nothing. So that’s the one thing that I would say to my younger self and just, you know, come up with when you’re trying to help others that’s that’s definitely what I will tell my younger self
David Ralph [50:03]
right advice so toma What’s the number one best way that our audience can connect with you
Tomer David FBA Amazon [50:08]
through my YouTube channel which is called sourcing monster or through the website sourcing the dash monster that calm you can reach me I’m very accessible. Lift calm comments. I answer every single comment there personally really enjoyed this. Like I said, I don’t really promote their agenda or sell anything, just enjoying helping others. I met so many cool people through that. And that’s really amazing.
David Ralph [50:34]
Well, I’ve only links on the show notes to make it as easy as possible. Tomer David thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots and 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 pasts is actually the best way to build our futures. Tomer David, thank you so much.
Tomer David FBA Amazon [50:54]
Thank you, David. It was really a pleasure. I really enjoyed our conversation.
David Ralph [50:59]
Mr. Toma, David, Amazon FBA Yes, a sexy business lots of people are getting involved in that. Amazon do a lot of the hard lifting, you’ve got to do the market research and find the products and then keep flooding that funnel with the products but you can then take your profit margin out and, and live a lovely life as he said, not all of them work. But you do the work, you put it in, you take the money out, you invest it into something else and you can build a very good business. Hopefully a lot of you will jump on board and go through Join Up Dots. There’s quite a few guests now that have been talking about the Amazon FBA style of business. And it’s certainly something that you can at least take a look at. Until next time, my friends thank you so much as always being here with us on Join Up Dots. I see against Cheers, bye bye. Yeah, hello them again. This is David Ralph is the host of Join Up Dots, you know that you’ve just been listening to my show? Well, coming up shortly we are going to be doing a series of podcasting master classes yes training session, teaching you how to start a podcast. And it’s not going to be the boring old set up your microphone, put it into here and record, not that kind of stuff. We want to show you the three simple stages that we’ve used to turn our business into a global six figure business and beyond. And actually, I’ll share this with you. We’re getting close to getting six speakers per month. Now you can do that. And it really, really is easy. You just need to record a podcast, speak to people, get them back onto your website, and then build them into customers. It’s as simple as that. We’ve done it. And that is why people are podcasting nowadays. So if you want to have a business that really rocks and rolls, you need a podcast. If you are wanting to start a business from scratch, yet need a podcast, I won’t ask you a third one because you know the answer, you need a podcast. So join us at podcasters mastery.com. Sign up via ticket I’m going to be there is going to be a live training session. You can ask me anything you want. We go behind the scenes at Join Up Dots. We show you all our tricks and our little skills and stuff that we’ve developed and you can fast track yourself to success. So that’s podcasters mastery.com. Join us and we will see you soon. Cheers, bye.
Outro [53:18]
That’s the end of Join Up Dots. You’ve heard the conversation. Now it’s time for you to start taking massive action. Create up church create your life. Is he only Eli Pete God we’ll be back again real soon. Join Up Dots Join Up Dots Join Up Dots Jolina Join Up Dots
