Welcome back to the PPC Den podcast! Today we’re catching up with Francis Leger, co-owner of GS Plant Foods, to talk about the harsh realities of selling on Amazon in 2026.

Let's be honest, the days of easily launching a profitable product from your bedroom with fifty bucks are long gone. Francis gets totally real about why Amazon has become such a frustrating and expensive barrier to entry, complete with random listing suspensions and endless bureaucratic headaches. Because of this margin squeeze, his two-person team is actively pivoting to build out their own independent D2C website.

Instead of just playing around with trendy AI tools, Francis shares a brilliant, practical approach: look at your daily workflow and hand the tedious stuff over to a computer. He even shares a great story about how they built a custom script to automatically check their Amazon Buy Box across all 50 states to catch sneaky account issues instantly. 

Grab a coffee and join us for a really honest, refreshing conversation about surviving and thriving in e-commerce today.

We’ll see you in The PPC Den!

🦡 Highlights ​​

0:00 - Intro

02:40 - Why building a Shopify D2C website is now an absolute must

04:02 - Why you can no longer start on Amazon with just $50

06:30 - The nightmare of arbitrary Amazon delistings 

15:21 - How we built a custom AI script to check our Buy Box in all 50 states

19:47 - Stop asking "What can AI do?" and look at your org chart instead

25:25 - The danger of building yourself a job instead of a business

30:44 - How to get a business to run itself 

33:23 - The one thing you can never outsource to AI

36:47 - Why the fundamentals of business haven't changed in 100 years

42:10 - Outro
🦡 Resources & Links

• 🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️

• Find Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger’s CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertising

• Check out Francis Leger and GS Plant Foods at gsplantfoods.com — where healthy plants (and smart business decisions) are always in season.

• Successful Ecommerce Entrepreneur On Business, Scaling 10x, and Finding the Right Partners

• How to Find Products That Sell Organically

• How To Use Psychology To Master Amazon PPC (Classic)

• Who to hire for your Amazon Growth Team  (Classic)

• What’s the Best Way to Manage an Amazon Brand? Exploring Agency Strategies

• 📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook

• Subscribe to our newsletter

• Transform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklist

• Review all our show notes

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Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin

Guest Co-Host: Francis Leger

Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez

Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash

Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno