PT228 - Jordi Ordonez - E-commerce and Amazon Consultant

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode of Prime Talk. My name is Lisa Kinski. I'm joined by my co host, Yoni Mazur. And today's guest was an E commerce and Amazon consultant, Jordy Ordonez. Jordi, how are you?

Speaker C: Great.

Speaker A: It's a pleasure to be here with you. Thank. Thank you for inviting me. Sorry.

Speaker B: Oh, of course. Thank you so much for coming on. We're so excited to finally make this happen. We had a couple of scheduling conflicts and rearrangements. So very excited to have this conversation with you today. And we will talk about how you help Amazon sellers and your consulting work closer to the middle of the episode. We'll get there, but. Right. We want to learn all about you, Jordi. So starting from the beginning, just tell us about yourself.

Speaker A: Starting from the beginning. That was 43 years ago, but I don't want to go that back. Um, I'm an E commerce and Amazon consultant. I'm based in Barcelona, Spain. I've been living here my whole Life, which is 43 years. I have two kids and a dog. And of course my wife, Laia. Ah, she works with me. Um, she's a, uh, content manager. She's. Well, she's a copywriter. And mostly we work together for e commerce clients based in Spain, selling all over Europe, and Amazon clients as well. And my background is in SEO and web development. Well, it's. Well, I was developing websites for five or six years until. Until I realized it wasn't my thing. So I moved to E commerce and started my own, um, e commerce website. E commerce shop. My first shop was, um, uh, a music store. I was selling, um, reggae and sky music and reggae and scar merchandising because I was playing in ready bands.

Speaker C: Nice.

Speaker A: That was, that was 13 or 14, 14 years ago. Um, and then I started working with clients mostly first developing e commerce websites using prestashop. And then I moved to consultancy.

Speaker B: But let's take it back even further. You had mentioned that you had an SEO business and you did some web design, but you became very interested in computers at an early age, around 8 or so. And you had accidentally wiped your dad's hard drive. What were you trying to do?

Speaker A: I did. I learned about this trick, um, on a newspaper. Well, on a specialized, um, computer magazine. And it turns out it was a joke. Um, it was something like, if you want, uh, to free your space on your hard drive, just, uh, input format C on your computer. And I tried that and turns out I wiped my parents. Well, my father hard Drive, which was full of works and.

Speaker C: Yeah. What does he do? Is he a lawyer? Is the accountant?

Speaker A: No, no.

Speaker C: Engineer.

Speaker A: He's a doctor. Oh, no. Yeah. And I think he didn't have a backup because you. You didn't have the external hat hard drives. Um, so he didn't have a backup. So, yeah, he was pretty angry. But that was my first, you know, moment of truth when it comes to computers. You know, like, if you input the incorrect information on this thing, you can mess up things.

Speaker B: Yes. Was he able to recover any of it?

Speaker A: No.

Speaker B: Oh, no.

Speaker A: Not a single bite of information.

Speaker B: Oh, that's tragic. That's so unfortunate. That's. That's like, almost worse than coming into class and being like, my dog ate my homework. It's like my kid. Hang on. I'm not lying. My kid wiped my hard drive.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: But I was eight years old, I think, so there was an excuse, like. Yeah, it is, uh, a ball. He was just messing around with my computer and accidentally, um, wiped all the data. I'm sorry. Yeah.

Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. And so then you got into playing in a band, and I know you're quite a heavy, uh, metal fan, so talk to us about the impact that music has had on your life. Obviously you had a business in it for some time, so walk us through that.

Speaker C: Hold on. But I see a little bit of a gap between heavy metal and to reggae later on, so.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But, well, you know, I like really extreme styles, so it has to be really fast or really slow. So what I love to play when I. Beginning when I begin playing, um, guitar. I was. Well, actually, I began playing, uh, piano years ago, and I was playing classic stuff like, well, Mozart and Chopin and then Beatles. And then I discovered this guy playing on tv. He was a Slash. Guns and Roses guitar.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, big time. Yeah.

Speaker A: And I was like, I want to be this guy.

Speaker C: What was it? November Rain? Was it knocking? Uh, on seven. No, it was that first song that got you.

Speaker A: Actually. It was Mr. Brownstone. Mr. Brownstone.

Speaker C: Nice.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's a song on apathy for destruction.

Speaker C: Mr. Brownstone.

Speaker A: Yeah, that one. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I want to be this guy. So I started.

Speaker C: Did you have the curly hair also?

Speaker A: No, no, not really. I, um, I started playing guitar. You know, I mess around with, um, a guitar. No guitar I had at my parents and. And then I moved to electric guitar because, well, I learned about distortion and, um, martial arts and. And that was. Well, I really like that, you know, aggressive sound. And then I started listening to acdc. Metallica Megadeth, Sepultura and all that stuff. Thrash, metal mostly. And then God knows how I ended on playing in a uh, reggae band because some friends were playing there and I thought yeah, this is easy because I'm used to playing Master of Puppets, you know, at fast speed and this is really really slow. So I appreciated that kind of music.

Speaker C: More relaxed and you consume the Fazbear but then you kind of unwind with this reggae. So I think it's a therapeutic and I will get with. That's pretty cool.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's like being a doctor Jekyll on Mr. Hyde playing a guitar. So I stick to that for 14 years playing in bands, you know, big venues, so small venues. And that was.

Speaker C: You're making a living out there mostly for your pleasure and soul.

Speaker A: I was getting free beers and believe me, when you are in your 20s, that's all you need.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, okay. Pretty cool.

Speaker B: That's almost like an income. That's where the money was going anyway, right?

Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And so what were you doing then for kind of your first job and when did you start working? So you're playing music, you are playing with computers. But how did you start to make money?

Speaker A: My first job was um, actually developing websites on a small agency and then I started freelancing for some of my friends. Um, I think that my first website was the one from my band and the second one was for um, record label, uh Scar Record label based in metal in Madrid. And my first website, I developed it um, using Front Page which was Windows framework for creating websites and using Microsoft Word, believe it or not you could um, like code and HTML coding on Microsoft um Word. So. And yeah, one of my first websites actually was using geocities. This is like from 20 years ago.

Speaker C: What's that? What's that?

Speaker A: Goct.goct.com. it was a free hosting for websites.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: Really? Really back in the day. I mean not even Amazon started back then so I think that was in 1998, 1999.

Speaker C: But it seems like the music brought you into this digital uh, Internet, uh, domain because you wanted to create the websites for you know, for music purposes and stuff like that. So it's pretty interesting, the connection.

Speaker A: Yeah, kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And what did you do after like graduation you had your first job? Did you pursue uh, higher education at a university?

Speaker A: No, not really. I was working in this small agency and I was doing €600amonth which was a lot of money for me because I was living at my parents. So I spent it in guitars. Because remember I had three beers so I could spend it on pedals, distortion pedals, um, amplificators and guitars, which was great. You know, when you are in your 20s, that's the greatest way to spend money. You stick to guitar and you stay away with. From drugs, you know, so if you spend all your money in guitars, you don't have any more money to, you know, living a, uh, bad life or spending it.

Speaker C: Unless you become a rock star.

Speaker A: No, no, no, no. That wasn't really my thing. I mean, if you play reggae music, you can become a rock star.

Speaker B: True. Then you'd be a reggae star, not a rock star.

Speaker C: Okay. Instead of cocaine, it goes to weed and something like that.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, but I wasn't smoking at all.

Speaker C: Okay, good. Smart choice.

Speaker B: And, and I know that your love for music extends just beyond uh, your, your, your work and everything. And, and you really love media and different types of, you know, you love the Wire and things. So just kind of talk to us about your family and the influence that entertainment and media has had on your life.

Speaker A: Well, it was mostly my wife, which introduced me to um, TV series and we were watching back in the day, you know, like Breaking Bad, uh, Walking Dead, Sopranos, uh, the Wire. And actually my dog is named after um, the uh, Wire character.

Speaker C: Um, which one?

Speaker A: Dookuan. Dookie. I think it's in the fourth season. And my son is named after Luke Skywalker. Well, I have two sons. One is Joel, he has a normal name. And the other one is Luke, Um, the small one. He has, he's five years old.

Speaker C: Did you come just Luke, but not Luke Skywalker or Daniel?

Speaker A: No, no, no, it's Luke Orton yet? Yeah.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: It would be great. Look, you know, like I first tried to name my first song Dexter because I love Dexter. But my wife was like, no, we are not naming our actually made.

Speaker C: The actor. Yeah, I was walking with Central park once and I saw him just walking there. The actor, Dexter. I'm like, oh, Dexter, what's up?

Speaker B: Oh, no way.

Speaker C: Yeah, I was like, yeah, he's ah, a great guy.

Speaker A: He. Whoa. And, and Six Feet under is great as well. I mean he's known for Dexter by Six Feet under was a great.

Speaker C: I actually liked his work. Uh, he didn't back there. He just was a narrator of uh, documentary, um, about the Vietnam War.

Speaker A: Really?

Speaker C: I think it was. Yeah, he is, I mean very powerful documentary. I think it's from Ken Burns, is a producer. He's a big documentary kind of guy. But he did the narrator he was basically doing. He was a narrator, so he's taking the whole story. So his voice and was really impactful for me. So I like that line of work that he did that most people are not even aware of. Yeah, I forgot the name of this actor, but. The Dexter guy.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the Dexter guy. Yeah, the serial killer. The friendly serial killer.

Speaker B: Friendly serial killer.

Speaker A: So, yeah, most of my childhood, um, I spend it watching Star wars movies because of my father. He took me to the movies and I first watched the Empire Strike, Empire Strikes Back. And it was, uh, it blew my mind. You know, the androids, the ships, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker. I mean, that was great.

Speaker B: And so when in all of this did Amazon come into play?

Speaker A: That was in 2015, because I had, um, another website. Um, I was selling, um, guitar strings, and I heard about, um, Amazon, which was kind of new in Spain. They started operation in Spain in 2014. So in January 2015, I started selling on Amazon. I listed my first listing in January 26th, and I got my first order 24 hours later.

Speaker B: Oh, wow. And this was for the guitar strings business, but you had already been selling them on your own site. So how were you sourcing the product at that time?

Speaker C: Was it your own brand or you're just reselling?

Speaker A: No, no, I was reselling, uh, Daterio, Tim Markley and Antiball Strings.

Speaker C: So there's built on Demand. Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, yeah. And, um, I was sourcing them from a small shop, a small distributor, which was three streets away from my flat. Okay.

Speaker B: M. So. So it was a nice, easy, easy commute, lightweight, small product. Pretty ideal.

Speaker A: Absolutely. But there was no FBA at the time. I think FBA started one year later, around 2016. So it was all FVM for me.

Speaker B: And so you were fulfilling out of your flat?

Speaker A: Yeah, I was fulfilling all the stuff from my flat, yeah.

Speaker C: But the good thing about guitar strings are very small. It's like, you know, it's like.

Speaker A: Yeah, But I was also selling guitars, so I had guitars, uh, and distortion pedals. Well, effects pedals on my flat. Yeah. My wife was pretty pissed.

Speaker C: That's a cool flat to have, uh, apartment to have with, full of guitar. I like that.

Speaker A: It's pretty cool if you're single, but if you're married, it's not the same. It's not the same.

Speaker C: Unless, um, she's the lead singer. She has a good voice. You can just about it.

Speaker A: She wasn't happy about it.

Speaker B: No. Because those guitars take up a lot of real estate and you have to have a Lot of protective packaging for them. So did you list everything that you had on your own site on Amazon or did you just start with the strings?

Speaker A: I uh, started with the strings and then guitars. Uh, mostly of the guitars I was drop shipping them, but some of them I had to stock. Uh, so yeah, my wife wasn't really happy about it.

Speaker C: So how do you even ship that? I'll be so afraid to ship that.

Speaker A: Yeah, me too. Sometimes you just cross fingers and hope for the best.

Speaker C: Guitar is holy. I have a few. I share a lot of the same background. Funny enough. I was in a band, doing rock, doing, playing Slash. And I got my uh, classic, my acoustic, my electric. And for me just even when I carry, it's like, it's like holy thing. It's like, it's. You can't drop it. You can. So I don't know to ship it. Whoa.

Speaker A: Yeah, you never know. You never know. But I was shipping from Barcelona to mostly Barcelona. I mean, same city or maybe Madrid, which, I mean things can happen.

Speaker C: You're not shipping it to Germany or Poland or.

Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker C: I gotcha. Okay.

Speaker B: And so how long did you run that brand for? Or are you still running the brand?

Speaker A: Uh, actually that website. I was running the shop for one year and a uh, half I think. And then I transferred the website into um, an affiliate website and I was selling all kinds of stuff guitar related like guitars, pedals, amplificators, you know, straps, strings. And I was selling Thomann Thoman, which is a German website. Um, the biggest um, European website when it comes to music. Mostly guitars and basses. And I was using uh, their affiliate program and I sold yeah, quite a lot of guitars using the, the affiliate program.

Speaker C: But they will change your model. Yeah, you change your mind instead of owning it. You. Because you, if you realize that you can master um, the, the traffic. Absolutely. And the demand for that and you know, uh, repurpose it to the source and the source can deal with all the rest kind of thing. So, uh, less headache for you and just cleaner income.

Speaker A: Absolutely. And less problems and less headaches because. Well, as you said, you never know when you're shipping a guitar if it will be broken or um, whatever. You know, things can happen.

Speaker C: So even if you have insurance, you got to deal with insurance. That's time this headache. Aggravation.

Speaker A: Yeah, but the insurance is pretty expensive in Spain so it's really not worth it because it's against your margin. You normally pay for the assurance yourself. I mean the client is not paying for the assurance. So it wasn't. Numbers were not great.

Speaker C: What's the typical price point for all these guitars that you sold that you uh, when you actually sold yourself and not just redirected to uh, euros. A thousand euros.

Speaker A: Now between €600 and 3,4000. Because I uh, sold some Gibson vendors. Gibson US. Some, some of them I keep some Les balls and Gibson SGS. And I think I also sold uh, PRS a Paul Read Smith which is uh, 3,4000 Euros. So it's quite expensive.

Speaker C: He says the Gibson. Yes. Because, uh, bringing me back to my childhood, Gibson has like three kind of manufacturing lines. I think is the US which is the most expensive and most premium. I think it's a Mexican.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: And what was that one? Chinese.

Speaker A: The other ones in Chinese Japan.

Speaker C: Ah, Asia somewhere. Yeah. So based on that you, you know, pay the premium there. So the Asia is the most affordable and then Mexican is a bit in the middle. And then Gibson US means like Mid America. You got the, that's like Fender.

Speaker A: You have the uh, Japanese Fenders, the Mexican ones, and then the US which is, which is like the Ferrari for the Fenders.

Speaker C: Yeah. So both companies in a way created the same kind of uh, World Defender and Gibson. They always have this traditional guitar war. There's actually a podcast called um, uh, Business Wars. It's called Business War and they have a special uh, session and episodes on guitar. I mean guitar. Gibson versus Fender. So you should check that out. Uh, Jordy, you'll appreciate it. You have also like uh, Dunkin Donuts versus uh, uh, Starbucks. And all these like take Nemesis and kind of show you how over the years they, they, you know, they made their moves. It's pretty cool. It's called Business Wars.

Speaker B: Business Wars. Okay, we'll have to, to tag that in the description of this episode. That's very cool. I. Well, we'll get, we'll get to the question at the end about books and, and podcasts, but that's super cool. It's by Wonry. Oh yeah. Nike versus Or Netflix versus hbo? Nike versus Adidas. Huh.

Speaker A: Huh. Yeah.

Speaker C: Ah, it's really cool. Really cool. Yeah.

Speaker B: Awesome. Um, so Jordi, tell us more about what it is that you're doing now and with your consultancy and who it is that you're helping, how you're operating, etc.

Speaker A: I'm mostly helping Amazon sellers, Spanish based Amazon sellers, and I'm helping them to improve sales in Spain and the rest of Europe. And then I have a, another set of clients which I work the SEO for the Iron E commerce websites, because my background is in SEO and then I have my own projects, like affiliate websites.

Speaker B: Gotcha.

Speaker A: And I'm promoting. Yeah, mostly, um, Amazon related tools.

Speaker B: Mostly Amazon Tools?

Speaker C: Yeah. Like software? Yeah, yeah. There's like a directory. Uh, it's a famous directory for the industry, actually. So even though it's original in Spain, I think in the industry it has a pretty nice position because you also have it in English, not just Spanish, right?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, mostly of my content is in English because the US Is the biggest market and if you want to live out of affiliation in Spain, um, reselling software, it's kind of. I mean, I've tried that, but the numbers are not great. So you have to focus on the US and Yeah, you go to the

Speaker C: largest markets in the world. Yeah. So it's digital, uh, native. So why not? You don't have to make extra, uh, legwork. And yeah, so he has a nice directory, lots, uh, of tools and services from all across the rainbow of the E commerce. And well done, Jordan. Pretty impressive how you did it.

Speaker A: I have reviewed more than 400 so far.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker A: Because that started 10. 10 years ago. Yeah, when my son was one year old.

Speaker C: So, uh, which one?

Speaker B: Luke?

Speaker A: No, the other one. Joel.

Speaker C: Joel.

Speaker B: That is impressive. And so for the Amazon sellers that you're helping with, looking to expand, are these sellers that should be launching their very first product or already have a product and need to know how to get to the next level, kind of. Where is your specialty with helping your clientele?

Speaker A: I mostly specialized in brands, um, established brands. Because launching the first product can be really tricky if you don't know how Amazon works. And I'm not that kind of consultant. You know, you have, uh, mentorships and courses and YouTube videos about it and it's not my specialty. I help big brands.

Speaker B: Big brands. All right, so and if folks are interested in working with you or learning more, checking out the directory, where can they find you?

Speaker A: Uh, it's under jordyob.com Amazon tools.

Speaker B: Slash. Amazon Tools. Okay.

Speaker A: Slash. I love Slash.

Speaker C: Who doesn't? Yeah, I don't know if you follow the snake bit. Uh, you know, life. You do that as well?

Speaker A: Yep. Yeah.

Speaker C: Nice. Cool.

Speaker B: Very cool. So again, listeners, that is jordyob.com and you can email Jordy directly at jordy J-O-R-I-O-Bmail.com um, Jordy, where does the B come from? Your name's Jordy Ordonez. Where's the B?

Speaker A: Well, actually, we have two surnames in. In Spain. So it's my mother's surname. It's purgues.

Speaker B: Gotcha. Okay, I've been wondering.

Speaker A: Translated, I mean, it's not exactly the same, but you could translate it for bourgeois.

Speaker C: Uh, meaning. How do you say that? Uh, bourgeois in English?

Speaker B: It's.

Speaker C: Well no, it's in English, but what does it mean? Yeah, what it means slang is bougie.

Speaker B: It's short for the like the bourgeois,

Speaker C: the affluent or something like that.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, high society of cities, you know. Yeah. Uh, and I.

Speaker A: But I'm not coming from the high society, I can tell you that, because, well, if I was coming from high society, I won't be doing a podcast at 4:00pm

Speaker C: uh, but it sounds like you, you know, your father's a doctor. It seems like, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: You're middle class, I would say.

Speaker A: Yeah, but. But it's a doctor in Spain. It's not the same as being a doctor in the U.S. actually, he was, he was offered a job in a, uh, Myers Clinic in uh, Rochester. And believe me, the, the paycheck was. I mean, you can add two zeros because in, uh, the US it's not

Speaker C: 10x is 100x, basically 100 times more. Wow.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he refused the, um, the job position because he wanted to help us with the grandsons.

Speaker B: Oh, that's very sweet. Very family oriented.

Speaker A: I mean, and ah, at the end of the day he lives in Barcelona and we have a nice beach and sunny weather and Rochester, I mean it's living in the ice age.

Speaker C: It's only 30 minutes of Manhattan, uh, which is, you know, a world class city. But I agree, I love Barcelona more than New York. No offense to anybody. I was just there.

Speaker A: Yeah, no offense here.

Speaker C: It's just, I love, it's a very, I'm, you know, I'm from Israel, so it reminds me of Tel Aviv very much. I just love the Mediterranean. It just a different tempo lifestyle, uh, and feeling. And it's really good feeling. So you can't buy things with money, you know.

Speaker A: Yeah. I'm sorry, Rochester folks, but I've seen the pictures and believe me, that's.

Speaker C: I. Yeah, it's New York weather, but yeah, it's well behind me.

Speaker B: Uh, yeah, but even just the speed of life in, in general, the speed at which people move in New York versus Barcelona, I mean, I think your, your dad would need a doctor for the heart palpitations. It's like so stressful up there.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely awesome.

Speaker B: Uh, well, Jordi, we are going to transition into the second Part of the show now answering seven questions around entrepreneurship. And the first question we ask every guest because I think this is so important because Amazon is such a stressful environment to be in. Although it offers incredible opportunity, there's a lot going on. So as a seller yourself, as a parent, as a spouse, as an entrepreneur, how are you managing your stress?

Speaker A: Well, I don't have much stress.

Speaker C: Reggae, Come on. That's it. It's pretty out there.

Speaker A: No, actually when I work I, um, I'm listening to heavy metal mostly all the time. So yeah, it's really stressful, but I don't have much stress because um, for me it's a balance because, uh, um, between work and personal life. So I'm trying to work um, four to six hours a day. And so yeah, I try not to get involved with toxic clients or projects that I don't want to work in.

Speaker C: Be selective. You select, you earn less, but you'll be more selective. You have a good balance, interesting way of doing it.

Speaker A: Well, yeah, because I've been there for years. I used to work for a big uh, agency like 14, 16 hours a day. And I almost had a, ah, heart attack when I was 25 years old at 4am I was so stressed, you know, and well, stress, work, coffee, relationships, whatever, you know. But I was only five years old and I just realized that wasn't for me. You know, if you want to have a family, a life, you can live that way. So for me it's kind of a balance between having a uh, personal life, work and, and training every day. So I walk, wake up around 6am every day. I walk the dog, drink two coffees at the bar, say some jokes to the apartment, you know, like, yeah, no big deal. Then I drive my kids to school, I go to the gym for one hour and then I start working around 10am, 9, 10am and I work for hours. And then I mostly I take a nap every day, which is something.

Speaker C: Siesta baby.

Speaker A: Siesta baby. That's really Spanish. That's really Spanish. And I now you sleep for one hour and then I answer some emails and I pick my kids from school and going to the park to play with him. And that's it.

Speaker C: Uh, any American person listening to this, you're like, what did he just say? Is that life, that life can be

Speaker B: like that, It's a literal dream.

Speaker C: That is, that is even retirement. They're like, you're retirement. You know, be that relaxed, you know,

Speaker A: it took me, it took me a lot of work and a lot Lots of years, you know, but mostly I, I live um, 50% of my income is coming from my um, my own projects. So that's really easy to manage your day by day. You know, I don't have any meetings with myself or I don't have to work eight hours straight in a day for myself. So yeah, it took me 14 years. But uh, I'm leaving. Not the dream now because the dream for me was, would be not working at all and traveling all day. But yeah, kind of living how it's

Speaker C: good to stay productive. I think that's, it's helpful. You need to stay productive, feel like you're moving things around that you know.

Speaker A: And I love my work. I mean I love to work four to six hours a day, but that's it.

Speaker B: Yeah, I love that beautiful balance you have. And so next question is what books or even podcasts? I'm learning a lot of our entrepreneurs love the podcasting. Now, uh, what books or podcasts do you recommend every entrepreneur read or subscribe to?

Speaker A: Uh, podcasts, actually I listen to Spanish podcasts and it's called Capital with a K. Um, it's about economics and lifestyle and when it comes to English podcasts, um, have you heard about these guys, Tom and Alex, the Honest fba? Honest fba, yes, I listen to the podcast as well. And books, yeah, I've read a lot of books and well, I had to wrote some of them down because um, I had too many to recommend. So I would recommend the Lean Startup. Um, then there was this eye opener for me. Um, when it comes to accounting and financing, um, it's called Profit First.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: I don't know if you read it. Um, and then coming from, to the Amazon side of the, of the books, I love to read, um, Poorly Made in China. That's a great one and really funny. It's about the middleman between um, um, American manufacturers and the Chinese factories and everything in between. Um, then there's uh, this other one called China, China's Disruptors, um, which is about Alibaba Tencent, Huawei. Ah, and then the China Paradox. Um, I love China. Yeah. And this one explores contradictions within um, China's growth model and the global economy and the communists and and then two Amazon related books, the Amazon Marketplace Dilemma, um, which is from an agency, a U.S. agency called the Buy Box Experts.

Speaker C: Yeah. James Thompson. Yeah. Mhm.

Speaker A: That's a great one. It's about um, how can you manage your brand on the Amazon vendor era. And the last one, it's Amazon Unbound. It's from, um, Bob Bradstone. I don't know if you read the Everything store. It's another book by this guy Bradstone, and he has inside information, um, from Amazon workers and ex workers. And it has a lot of gossip and, you know, funny stories about the Amazon, the Amazon growth, growth, Amazon experience.

Speaker C: But one small question on, or big question on China. You said you like China. So all the, all the, all the information you understand about China. What do you think? Look into the future quickly. Are they going to become the empire or.

Speaker A: America will, uh, I'm sorry, but they will absolutely dominate us. I mean, when it comes to technology and, and E commerce, they will be the leaders. That's. I mean, no doubt about it.

Speaker C: Okay, E Commerce. But what about just economy, politics, world, uh, leadership?

Speaker A: Uh, I don't know about that. I mean, I'm not an expert in economics or politics and I, I don't like to talk about things that are not my expertise, so. Which is, um, something you can find in the, uh, majority of the Spanish people. Because everyone likes everything. Yeah. Ah, everyone has an opinion. But I've read a lot of books and I've seen lots of information, but I don't have a, you know, a forged opinion and I don't consider myself an expert.

Speaker C: So I, Yeah, I think the connection is economics. So typically the empires, if they do want economics, they be. Then they. That gives them the political and world leadership kind of, um, clout. Uh, so if you're saying on the E Commerce side and the technology side, it means that they're gonna have a strong future in other dimensions, but we're gonna have to live and see it. But let's continue.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that could be. Could be. Yeah.

Speaker B: So, Jordi, what are some important habits that you think successful entrepreneurs need to adopt?

Speaker A: Well, now that I, That I have free time, I would say it's constant learning, um, and not about, not only about your expertise, uh, like Amazon or Walmart or marketplaces. But I mean, I, I would love to learn, um, Chinese, for example. I'm not ready now, but I'm learning how to trade stocks. So something I would. Yeah, I would recommend, you know, constant learning all the time. Learn about everything. Learn about, you know, other guys on the environment, on or out of your environment. Um, listen to podcasts, read books, I mean, and study. I mean, it's all about studying and learning new things. Uh, then networking, networking on mostly on Twitter and LinkedIn. And then offline networking, like face to face. You can attend, you know, like. Well, in Spain, the FEA show or the Prosper show in the U.S. i mean, if you can meet people face to face, you'll. You'll have a great network and then personal life and free time. I mean, at the end of the day, for me, it's all about my wife and my kids. So I love my work, but I work for them, so not for me.

Speaker B: Right, so they come first.

Speaker C: Uh, that's the center of gravity.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker B: So, Jordi, what are some tools that you're using right now that you feel have had a significant impact on your success?

Speaker C: It could be not just Amazon tools, it could be like Google Calendar, any

Speaker B: kind of gadget, alarm clock or whatever.

Speaker A: Alarm clock? No, no, I hate the alarm clock. Yeah, but that would be Samsung alarm clock, um, Google tasks. It's a must for me and Google Calendar and for the SEO clients. Screaming, uh, frog. Screaming frog. It's, uh, for web outage and web scrubbing. That's a great tool.

Speaker C: And you do hotjar at all?

Speaker A: Uh, no, not really. That's mostly for, um, conversion rate optimization and a B testing. I was doing that years ago, but not anymore. But I love hotjar. I love the heat maps. It's a great feature.

Speaker C: Yeah, you're able to see right away how people are interacting with the website and learn from that.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that was so great. It felt like spying on your users, but sometimes you watch the recordings, you know, like the navigation recordings. It's like. But why don't you click on this button right there?

Speaker C: It's right there.

Speaker A: It's right there.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And then when it comes to Amazon, of course, Jadida and Helium 10 and Jungle Scout.

Speaker B: Amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, a couple last questions. Firstly, what is one thing that you wish you knew before starting your personal Amazon journey?

Speaker A: The ins and outs. Um, I didn't know back in the day that Amazon retail existed, so I thought I was competing against other sellers, not the beast himself. And then the numbers. Because when I started selling on Amazon, there was no Helium 10 or Jungle Scout. We didn't have an FEA calculator because there was no FEA in Spain. So it was really difficult to, to do the numbers. So I had to learn that by looking at my PNL at the end of the month, which was negative, of course. And yeah, the numbers are. You have to nail the numbers because otherwise you're, you're doomed.

Speaker C: You said the book profit first, right?

Speaker A: Profit first, yeah.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: All right.

Speaker B: And what is one thing, what is one piece of advice that you give entrepreneurs who Are working with you in your consultancy now. So you had started selling back in 2015. It's changed dramatically from where we are now in 2024. So what's your piece of advice for sellers starting their journey today?

Speaker A: Niche, uh, targeting. I mean if you like something or you uh, are or your expertise lies in a certain product or category, go for that niche. Um, and don't try to, you know, sell stuff that you don't understand. So to me it's all about finding the right niche and the right product. But you have to understand, um, what's the client, uh, what is the customer looking for? You can do that by looking at the reviews. But if you know the product, I mean if you are using that product, it's much easier.

Speaker B: I love that. I just had a conversation with Amanda Henono, ah, with seller Spy. And that was her advice as well, which was really know your product and how people are going to use it. Because at the end of the day people don't buy products, they buy solutions. So what problem are you solving and how does your product fix it?

Speaker C: So what are you solving for, they call it.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker A: This is a funny story. This guy was a, uh, student I had years ago and he started this dropshipping store selling dildos. Yeah. And people was asking him about the product and I was like that have you ever used the dildo? And he was like, no, I don't know the first thing about it. I'm just drop shipping them because I, I read 50 Shades of Gray and I think this is gonna sell out. And well, the long story short, he was selling for six months. He sold one or two units maybe. And that uh, was the end of the project. Of the project. Yeah. So uh, I mean when people is asking you about your product, you have to know the answers. So at least try it first.

Speaker C: Yeah. Own and control your domain.

Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. Last question for you. What is your prediction for the next 12 months in E Commerce? What do you think we're going to see?

Speaker A: The Chinese are coming.

Speaker C: They're already here. They're ready.

Speaker A: They're already here. No, I was just joking. But of course they are uh, already here. And they are leading the way in the E commerce environment when it comes to technology and, and marketplaces. Because if you look at the numbers, I was just reading uh, Jewels, the guy at uh, Marketplace post, he, he was saying that uh, Tamio AliExpress, um, Sheen and another Chinese player will hit 200 billion in revenue this year. That's insane. And most, most of that revenue is Coming from the US and these guys are Chinese actors. I mean they, they are different culture, different, you know, believings, different products, whatever. But they're selling 200 billion. That's crazy.

Speaker C: Uh, that's like ah, yeah. Almost a third of Amazon.

Speaker A: Yeah. And in 12 months I think, well, augmented reality shopping experiences, um, will start popping out and be more mainstream and of course sustainability and ethical practices, I think they will play a larger role um, in consumer choices and, and branding.

Speaker C: Especially in branding when you have a brand. Yeah. Differentiation. Yeah. Continue.

Speaker A: Mhm, absolutely. And then of course the Chinese marketplaces, I mean I, I don't know if they're here to stay, but yeah, the, the other one was TikTok Shop. Obviously I don't know if they're here to stay but they are driving a lot of um, revenue and traffic. So Temu on um, their own, I, I think they started 8000 meta ad campaigns in just one week. That's insane. And I don't know about the US but they are the most downloaded app um, on the Apple Store in Spain. It's all Tamil. Tick Tock and, and the other one, Sheen. Yeah.

Speaker B: So yeah they, they say that about the US Marketplace as well, that it's the most downloaded app. I wonder though how true those numbers are. Only because I recently got a new phone and you know when you like get your new phone and you transfer everything and then it says okay, we need to do an update. It was one of the apps that was automatically downloaded when I did the update. So I didn't trigger that. So I'm wondering how true or how inflated those numbers are to make that be the case. So.

Speaker C: Because I right now looking at my iPhone.

Speaker B: Huh.

Speaker C: Real snapshot. Tim was number one. Number two is threads. Interesting. Number three is Google, number four is TikTok. Number five is Chad GPT, then WhatsApp, Cap cup, then Cap Cut is like a video editor, then Instagram, then Shane and then Gmail. That's the top 10 as we, you know, record this uh, May of 2024.

Speaker A: But when it comes to shopping apps, it's all about Chinese apps. Ah.

Speaker C: Top 10 are two, you know, Chinese shopping apps which is Tamu and Shame, which is, tells you a lot.

Speaker B: Definitely.

Speaker A: And Tick Tock because you have Tick

Speaker C: Tock show and that's true. Triple, Triple play. That's right.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Three out of ten. And worse. Walmart.

Speaker C: No, I could see that. That's, this is where, when they're penetrating because Walmart and Amazon, uh, they're already India and the phones but now These are catching, catching up. And they're done. That's pretty much the process right now.

Speaker B: Very good point.

Speaker A: The numbers are insane.

Speaker B: They are. Jordy. Thank you so much for joining us today. Again, everyone. If you're interested in learning more about Jordy and working with him, you can check out his website@jordyob.com or email him directly at jordyob Gmail.com. but thank you so much for this time. It's been such a lovely conversation.

Speaker A: Thanks a lot for having me.

Speaker B: Of course. And thank you so much for everyone who tuned in today. If you liked what you saw, please be sure to give us a thumbs up. Share your thoughts with us in the comments, subscribe to the show and we will see you all on the next one.