Part two of the catch up with Jason Hoy, and this one goes everywhere.

We get into the money mindset shift that neither of us planned for, the point where you stop treating money like a scarce resource and start treating it like a tool. We talk about what it felt like for Jason when his business crossed a million in revenue last year, why he still buys his clothes at Costco, and why he gave his hardest working team member a fifteen thousand dollar bonus out of nowhere just because.

We get into AI in a way that actually makes sense. Not the vibe coding grifters telling you to DM them for a ten grand passive income program. The real stuff. What it actually takes to build something useful, why the output is only as good as the prompter, and how a 24 year old on Jason's team with no coding experience built an AI Amazon listing tool from scratch that made eight grand in its first month.

We also get into service businesses, a kid doing fifty grand a month picking up dog poop, another doing thirty grand a month cutting trees, why trades are AI proof, and why there is a legitimate business sitting in your phone right now if you are willing to build websites for tradespeople in your area.

And we talk about what is next. For Jason, for me, and for a space that is moving faster than either of us can keep up with. Which is exactly why we should be keeping up with it together.

Two civil servants from different sides of the Atlantic. Three years in. Still figuring it out. Still loving it.

Jason's Vanguard services:

Purple Fig AI listing creation: Sign up through the link and you automatically get enrolled in the VIP programme, getting an extra 10% tokens on your subscription every month, plus 25 free tokens on sign up to test all the tools before you spend a penny.

LaunchFast Amazon product research tool: Use code VANGUARD (all caps) for a 3 day free trial, no commitment.

Legacy X FBA programme, AI Prompt Bundle, Amazon storefront management and consulting: All links in the show notes.

Full landing page: www.vanguardfba.com

Register for the NEXT Social Commerce LIVE in Manchester - 9th October:
https://socialcommercelive.com/early-access

Sponsored by SellerAMP SAS
Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich
Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_
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Join AffiliNation:
https://affilination.co.uk/

This week I'm pausing the Jason interview. Part two is coming, and it's worth the wait. But right now, with Social Commerce Live in Manchester two days away, I needed to record this one.

This episode is the full story of how we got here. From the first Amazon seller event I ever walked into, where complete strangers came up to me and thanked me for changing their lives and I didn't know where to put myself, all the way through Brighton, Manchester, Leeds, and now this. Four events. Four completely different versions of me standing on that stage. Four completely different businesses behind me each time.

I talk about why I started doing these events in the first place, why I will never do them to make money, and why public speaking is the single best thing you can do for your business if you are brave enough to try it. I talk about the woman I saw crying after Brighton, the six figure deal that got done before the doors even opened, the biggest Amazon seller in the country turning up at one of my events and knowing exactly who I was, and what all of that taught me about visibility, community, and why hiding behind a screen is quietly killing your opportunities.

And I talk about what TikTok calling themselves a roadshow partner for this one actually means, and why I think this Manchester event is going to be the best one yet.

One conversation can change everything. I sat down with Chris Grimes in Leeds and here we are.

Social Commerce LIVE in Manchester:
https://des-hamilton.co.uk/social-commerce-live-manchester/

Sponsored by SellerAMP SAS
Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich 
Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton
Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation: https://affilination.co.uk/

He's Canadian. I'm a Brit in the south of England. We both started on Amazon at roughly the same time, with the same background and the same chip on our shoulder, and somehow found each other through TikTok without either of us knowing who made the first move.

Then our paths went in completely different directions. And we haven't really talked in nearly two years.

So we pressed record on a catch up, and this is what came out.

In part one, Jason and I get into the money mindset shift that neither of us saw coming, the point where it stops being a scarce resource and starts feeling like a tool. We talk about why Amazon is actually easier now than when we both started, regardless of what every doom-scrolling guru is telling you. We get into the difference between the garage programmes and the real ones, why Amazon private label is not complicated but does have 27 steps, and what happens when one of Jason's 24 year old team members picks up Claude Code and vibe codes an AI listing tool from scratch that is now making $8k a month.

We also get into what entrepreneurial actually means for people like us who spent decades convinced they were not that type of person.

This one is for the Amazon sellers, the people thinking about it, and anyone that has ever told themselves they got into the game too late.

Vanguard FBA services:

https://www.vanguardfba.com/

Purple Fig AI listing creation: Sign up through the link and you automatically get enrolled in the VIP programme, getting an extra 10% tokens on your subscription every month, plus 25 free tokens on sign up to test all the tools before you spend a penny.

LaunchFast Amazon product research tool: Use code VANGUARD (all caps) for a 3 day free trial, no commitment.

Legacy X FBA programme, AI Prompt Bundle, Amazon storefront management and consulting: All links in the show notes.

Social Commerce LIVE in Manchester:
https://des-hamilton.co.uk/social-commerce-live-manchester/

Sponsored by SellerAMP SAS
Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich 
Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton
Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation: https://affilination.co.uk/

A few tiles came off the roof in a gust of wind. That does not mean the building is falling down. Put the tiles back on and sort yourself out.

That is Matt in a nutshell.

In this episode we get into the side of Matt that most people on TikTok never see. The coaching. The community. The months he spent helping creators behind the scenes inside Katie's community before anyone even knew he was there. The star creator sessions where he pulls apart the top 20 performing videos of the month and the lesson that keeps coming up every single time, confidence, reliability, and leaving the stumbles in.

We also get into what it actually takes to keep going when the numbers drop, why a bad live is never a reason to stop doing lives, and why the creators who are doing seven or eight grand GMV a day and calling a three grand day a failure need a serious word with themselves.

Then we talk about what is coming next for Matt, including a trip to China the day after Manchester, all expenses paid, to speak at an exhibition with 211,000 people in attendance. The lad from the council estate who could not talk for six weeks after his stroke. Going to China on TikTok's bill.

Come on.

Social Commerce LIVE in Manchester: https://des-hamilton.co.uk/social-commerce-live-manchester/

Sponsored by SellerAMP SAS Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation: https://affilination.co.uk/

Bonus episode. Friday drop. No apologies.

Chris Grimes and I sat down to pull back the curtain on exactly what we have built for Social Commerce Live in Manchester on the 5th of June, and honestly, the more we talked the more I realised this thing has taken on a life of its own.

We have got Spectrum bringing Russell Hobbs, George Foreman and Remington, all three brands in the room with samples. We have got Wilko, who launched on TikTok Shop and are doing numbers that would make your eyes water. We have got a live studio next door where you can watch a professional brand live in action, the kind of setup that rivals what Outlandish put on in California. We have got a creator panel with Matt, Gus, Joe, Kelly Jones who took Whatnot from zero to 400,000 pounds since November, and Leighton, an actual OG QVC presenter who has more tricks up his sleeve than most people on TikTok will ever know.

But this episode is about more than the agenda. Chris and I get into why the creator and brand relationship has become so toxic, why that narrative is mostly coming from one side, and what actually happens when you get the right creator, the right brand and the right agency in the same room together.

We also talk cross platform, what it really means, why TikTok is still the engine but should not be the whole car, and why every affiliate sitting in the TikTok bubble right now is leaving serious money on the table.

Tickets are still available but not for long. Link below.

Social Commerce LIVE in Manchester: https://des-hamilton.co.uk/social-commerce-live-manchester/

Sponsored by SellerAMP SAS Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation: https://affilination.co.uk/

He was a national operations manager for a pharmaceutical company. Away Monday to Friday. Missing his daughter grow up. A career that was going places.

Then he had a mini stroke. And just like that, it was over.

For six weeks he could barely speak. His short term memory has never fully come back. His wife Stacey runs his calendar, his diary, his life. And yet in less than two years, Matt Scoons, better known as Embarrassing Dad, has become one of the most recognised creators on TikTok in the UK.

£450,000 in GMV in six weeks on garden furniture. Selling out 120 dash cams in 15 minutes because someone crashed into a car in the background of his live. Nearly £2m in GMV in nine months last year. A trip to China, all expenses paid by TikTok, the day after he speaks at Social Commerce Live in Manchester.

In part one of this conversation, we go right back to the beginning. Who Matt was before any of this. Why a comment from his daughter turned into a TikTok channel. And how a working class lad from a council estate ended up making so much money he worried the police were going to knock on his door.

This is one of the best stories I have heard since getting into this space. And I have heard a few.

Part two next week.

Social Commerce LIVE in Manchester:
https://des-hamilton.co.uk/social-commerce-live-manchester/

Sponsored by SellerAMP SAS Seller Amp:
http://selleramp.com/hellorich 
Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton
Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation: https://affilination.co.uk/

She had a year's wage saved up. She was ten grand short. So she sold her car, topped it up, and handed in her notice.

That is the kind of person Vicki Morgan is.

In part two of this conversation, we get into the part of Vicki's story that I think is going to land hardest. We talk about what it actually feels like to go full time as a TikTok creator, the grind of three videos a day for six months before anything clicked, the treadmill lives that built her a community of people who came back every single day just to get their steps in and have a chat, the shark vacuum cleaner that made her mate Pete a grand in one night, and why she is still driving her mum and dad's old Citroen and absolutely loves it.

But more than any of that, this episode is about mindset. Vicki figured something out that most people never do. She stopped worrying about the platform, stopped chasing the algorithm, and just kept being herself. And the more chilled out she got, the more stuff came her way.

She also gave some of the most honest advice I have heard on this show about what it actually takes to make the leap. Life is too short to be miserable. Just give it a real go.

Social Commerce LIVE in Manchester:
https://des-hamilton.co.uk/social-commerce-live-manchester/

Sponsored by SellerAMP SAS
Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich 
Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton
Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation:
https://affilination.co.uk/

She spent 15 years in social work. Two degrees. Psychosis units. Adults in crisis. A job she signed up for out of genuine care, that over time took chunks out of her that she is never getting back.

Then she saw a bloke in a charity shop scanning books on TikTok. And everything changed.

In this episode I sit down with Vicki Morgan, one of the most respected creators in the AffiliNation community and someone who has been on this journey with me almost from the very beginning. We go back to where it all started, from used books and ScoutIQ green lights in charity shops, through to online arbitrage, Jellycat at Christmas, and eventually making the leap into TikTok shop full time.

But more than the money stuff, this is a conversation about what happens when you finally stop being the person your job has turned you into and start being the person you actually are. Vicki's mum said it best. She just seems happy all the time now.

Part one of two. And trust me, part two is worth the wait.

Links mentioned: Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich Use code: HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1 or HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation: https://affilination.co.uk/ Next Live Event Sign Up: https://forms.gle/Ak638G5oCeiTCupE8

It's been a full calendar year. 52 episodes, a curtain call, three failed attempts at something new, and one conversation over drinks in London that changed everything.

I'm back.

In this comeback episode, I pull back the curtain on the last 12 months: how Luke Colwell and I built AffiliNation from a TikTok Shop community into an award-winning agency recognised by TikTok themselves, how we navigated a hand grenade moment that forced a full business restructure, and why, when most agencies are falling apart, we are still standing and growing.

But this episode is not really about the business. It is about what "rich" actually means when you finally have it. Time. School runs. A garden. A kid in swimming lessons on a Tuesday afternoon. And the realisation that the story does not end when the challenge is won. It just moves into a harder, more interesting chapter.

I also get into why I walked away from the podcast in the first place, why three attempts to replace it all fell flat, and what two friends said to me over drinks that finally made me press record again.

If you are someone building something from nothing, trying to get your time back, or wondering whether it is too late to switch lanes, this one is for you.

The show is back. Every Wednesday. And it is only going to get bigger.

Links mentioned:

Seller Amp: http://selleramp.com/hellorich
Use code:
HELLORICH_SAS for 50% discount on month 1
or
HELLORICH_SAS_ANNUAL for 5% discount on year 1

Follow me on the socials:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/des_hamilton_
Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@des_hamilton
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@des_hamilton
Substack -  https://open.substack.com/pub/deshamilton

Join AffiliNation
https://affilination.co.uk/

Next Live Event Sign Up
https://forms.gle/Ak638G5oCeiTCupE8