The Private Label Movement

Jeremy grew up just outside of Toronto in the eastern part of Canada. As a young kid, he was always hustling to mow lawns or running a paper route to make money.

HIs clearest memory of the entrepreneurial bug was his senior year in high school. Jeremy had started reading self-development books and really got into self-teaching and self-learning. He had moved beyond the typical high school curriculum that prepares you for college.

College was not the route Jeremy took and he considers himself extremely lucky that his parents were supportive of his decisions.

After a few hard labor factory jobs, Jeremy started bar-tending and traveling. He was making great money for a 20-year-old but after attending a seminar, he began his online journey.

Jeremy attended a seminar in 2003 with some of the big names in internet marketing like Cory Rudl. They stood on stage and talked about the great lifestyle they were living with e-books, funnels and Google Ad-words.

“I want to do something beyond what I am seeing out there. I want to offer a product I believe in.” – Jeremy Sherk

His first attempt as an entrepreneur was writing a bartending e-book. He had been encouraged to write about what could provide value. For Jeremy, that was a how-to bartending guide about how to land the job and make money.

While Jeremy was getting involved in info products he also did a little designing and copywriting.  From 2004-2011 Jeremy was grinding away with lots of short-term projects with no long-term sustainability.

Mentally, it was feast and famine during this time of his life. There were a lot of hard lessons learned and a deep level of debt.

The short-term mindset led to his desire to find some long-term sustainability and fulfillment in general. It was not just about living for a bank account.

“Opportunity, it’s about being the right person at the right place at the right time.” – Jeremy Sherk

It was a bit lonely with the short-term approach to life. There was absolute freedom but there are a lot of downsides that people just don’t speak about enough.

Jeremy was living in Thailand, living the dream but it wasn’t enough. About 6 months in, the depression really started to creep in.

To hear about Jeremy’s 3 years in Thailand, a chance meeting with Ryan Moran and how he made his successful move to selling online, download and listen to the episode!

Connect with Jonathan:

Thanks for tuning in and we hoped you enjoyed Jeremy Sherk on the Private Label Movement. We love hearing from our listeners, send us an email, follow us on LinkedIn, Join the Movement on Facebook and subscribe to the show on iTunes.

Today, Jonathan welcomes Karen Waksman of Retail MBA to the program. She’s an expert on selling to big-box stores and talks the nitty-gritty of what it takes to break into the world of big-box retail.

Karen started selling to retail chains back in the early 2000’s. She got a job as a manufacturers rep, a salesman who sells products to retailers. Starting out, she had no idea how to sell to retailers and it took her a good year or two to really figure out how to get the retailers to buy from her. It was a tough start with lots of trial and error.

Years later she had an epiphany that she had developed an actual system. A system she could teach others that would get their products into stores and into more categories. In 2012, when she realized no one was teaching how to sell to big-box retail chains, Karen went full-time teaching her system.

“Amazon sellers need to absolutely explore retail.” – Karen Waksman

Amazon sellers really weren’t a thing when Karen started out. Her clients were inventors and engineers who had a dream and wanted to monetize their products. Amazon sellers came hard at Karen about 5 years ago, about 2015.

“Everytime to you add a big retail account…your company’s valuation goes up on average 1-3 points.” – Karen Waksman

It was a completely new customer base for her. She was used to dealing with the inventor and now she had people with private label products.

The great thing is Amazon sellers have an advantage over inventors. Private labelers had to go directly to China and to learn the manufacturing and developing and marketing and they learned how to do a lot of complex things online and Karen thinks they are awesome!

Karen can show an Amazon seller the process on how to think like a retail buyer and with their extensive background, they can tweak their message for that particular buyer.

“Amazon sellers thrive in retail because they understand and have that marketing mindset.” – Karen Waksman

Amazon sellers are putting their products online, they get reviews, they’re getting answers from their clients, they’re able to evolve and fix their products to get better reviews. This has all led to the sellers innovating new products based on their audience and customer base.

To hear the big-box perspective and the rest of what Karen Waksman has to say, download and listen to the episode!

Retail MBA

Connect with Jonathan:

Thanks for tuning in and we hoped you enjoyed Karen Waksman on the Private Label Movement. We love hearing from our listeners, send us an email, follow us on LinkedIn, Join the Movement on Facebook and subscribe to the show on iTunes.

Let’s face it, Amazon is eating the world and software is eating the world. Jonathan Gabriel welcomes Troy Johnston, 7-figure Amazon seller and the co-founder of seller.tools, an Amazon software as a service. Today they’ll talk getting started, Amazon and where he’s at today.

Troy Johnston was working in the corporate world as a project manager. He and a co-worker were looking for ways to escape the typical 9-to-5 grind.

“Early on I was willing to fail and willing to build a brand…in a space that was relatively unknown.” – Troy Johnston

The rumblings of ASM and Amazon were still relatively new. Troy was intrigued with the prospect of private labeling a product, get it to Amazon and let their infrastructure drive the visibility.

Troy got his start in the hard-goods fitness space. It was a natural fit with what interested him, what he was familiar with and really into at the time. There was not the perceived saturation then as there is now.

“Am I serving what Amazon rewards for visibility…that is the name of the game” Jonathan Gabriel

He learned what and what not to do when it came to sourcing and logistics. For Troy, it became very evident that domestically sourcing items was more advantageous for quality control.

Through his desire for domestically sourced goods, he discovered health and beauty products. Troy became interested in single-ingredient, high-quality products without extra parts and pieces. He wanted to stick to the tried and true.

“In a saturated market, what’s different about your product…your brand?” – Troy Johnston

If he can check off all his criteria of a quality supplier and a quality product his products lend themselves to positive feedback.

To hear what Troy Johnston has to say about standing out among other Amazon sellers, positioning your brand and his move from FBA to the software and tool space, download and listen to the entire episode!

Connect with Jonathan:

Thanks for tuning in and we hoped you enjoyed Troy Johnston on the Private Label Movement. We love hearing from our listeners, send us an email, follow us on LinkedIn, Join the Movement on Facebook and subscribe to the show on iTunes.

On today’s third installment for the second season of Private Label Movement, Josh Hudson, COO of I Build Your Brand pays us a visit to talk about how he started his private label through masterminds. He goes on to tell us why the Chinese are dominating the Amazon US marketplace.

Josh was the kid in elementary school selling bubblegum on the bus. His journey in e-commerce didn’t start until 2016, long after Amazon was already hot. He was still a student then and never had a real job at sales or any experience working for anyone.

One day while researching online for opportunities, he found the woman who eventually became his mentor and best friend. Not having the money to jump on a plane and attend a mastermind worth twenty grand, he took his student loans. There he met various people, with whom he established invaluable connections.

“It’s not always the answer people wanna hear. And that’s how I would do the exact same thing: I would go all in at mastermind.” – Josh Hudson on what he would have done differently

If you paid attention in your childhood history class, then you would be fairly familiar with, “The British are coming.” Four hundred years later, the Chinese have become the force to be reckoned with.

While he was scouring the Internet one day, Josh found a spreadsheet that somehow led him to a mastermind in China. There he met with more people, which led to his discovering how the Chinese are dominating the marketplace.

“I met three Chinese hackers—hackers that were doing things in Amazon that maybe shouldn’t always be done… but [there was] really incredible info on what they’re doing from a testing perspective.” – Josh Hudson

To learn more about the hacks that Josh got to know firsthand from these hackers, download and listen to What I Learned From 3 Chinese Hackers.

Connect with Jonathan:

Thanks for tuning in and we hoped you enjoyed Josh Hudson on the Private Label Movement. We love hearing from our listeners, send us an email, follow us on LinkedIn, Join the Movement on Facebook and subscribe to the show on iTunes.

Private Label Movement is back on the air! On the first installment of today’s three-part comeback, Welcome to the Private Label Movement with Jonathan Gabriel, Jonathan introduces himself as the new host of the The Private Label Podcast, a podcast that’s evolved into a movement of its own.

Jonathan or “Gabes”, as he is fondly called by a lot of people, grew up in Denver, Colorado. He’s got a self-acclaimed face for radio and currently runs his private label business in the Greater New York City Area.

He has been involved in the Private Label Movement since 2012. Last year, Jonathan did over five million dollars in sales and over fifteen million dollars in lifetime Amazon sales.

Private Label Movement is a show for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you have been building brands for years or are a fledgling waiting to take flight. This show is for you.

“This podcast is really for every level: the advanced guy that wants to know tips, tricks or trends in the space and the new guy that wants to hear about failures, obstacles and different strategies that people are using to find success in the space.” – Jonathan Gabriel

Join Jonathan and his guests every Monday to hear more insightful stories that will help you navigate your way through this sphere and create your own successful brand.

To hear more about Jonathan, download and listen to Welcome to the Private Label Movement with Jonathan Gabriel!

Connect with Jonathan:

Thanks for tuning in and we hoped you enjoyed Welcome to the Private Label Movement with Jonathan Gabriel. We love hearing from our listeners, send us an email, follow us on LinkedIn, Join the Movement on Facebook and subscribe to the show on iTunes.