Checkout Jim's podcast Silent Sales Machine Radio at www.SilentJim.com
Checkout Jim's podcast Silent Sales Machine Radio at www.SilentJim.com
Private leasing private label is kind of an advanced strategy. We start people out with simpler strategies where they're putting money in the bank, as they learn welcome
Speaker 2:To the post purchase pro podcast.
Speaker 3:This is the only podcast that dives deep into post purchase marketing to help Amazon sellers increase sales, ranking reviews, and profits. It's everything that happens after the initial sale. That makes a difference. We call this the back end. Hello, it's Sean Harbach with another episode, along with Seth Stevens of the post-purchase podcast and Seth, this episode, buddy, I've been waiting for a long, long time. We have such a special guest today. What a treat for the community out there in the post-purchase podcast world. Seth, I can't wait to get started.
Speaker 4:Sean. It's funny. You have, you've been talking about, um, our special guest today for a really long time. And it's even, uh, funny here because he's right here. Um, in Indiana, along with us, even though it's taken us a long time to, to put this together, we're super excited to bring on, uh, Jim Cochran. So guys let's uh, welcome Jim to the show here.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, thanks for the invite. Good to
Speaker 3:See you, man. So much fun. Uh, I know we had a little bit of a prelude. You and I before Seth joined us, but I've seriously, man. I've been so stoked about getting you on here. You're one of the guys in our industry. There's a reason why they call you silent, Jim, right? You're like silent, but deadly. Because like what you were just telling me, you said, listen, Sean, if they haven't listened to at least 30 of our episodes, I just tell folks straight out, we don't have anything for you. So I think that's, uh, that's pretty amazing. Um, you're the kind of guy that, what you see is what you get. Uh, you say what you mean. You mean what you say. You're also a believer Seth and I are as well. We're not afraid to admit it. So I really appreciate that hats off to you, man. Say hello.
Speaker 1:Yeah. God bless you guys, man. I appreciate doing this. And yeah, this is ministry. This is long term for me. I've been doing this 20 years. This is the only income my family's had for 20 years. E-commerce uh, so start out on eBay and started teaching some people how I was making money on the side on eBay. And that grew into what, to my knowledge is now the, the most established e-commerce coaching program in the industry. We've been doing it 18 years now, man, we've had about 10,000 coaching students. That's not courses and books. That's coaching students. That's high end coaching students. So I'm just blown away a team of 60 coaches at this point. And, uh, I just get to work with some of the most creative and hardworking, honest families of integrity that are doing this for the right reason. And I'd say about 90% of our core team, which is about a hundred people are believers and they consider this their ministry as well. Meaning it's not just about helping people make more money. It's about getting marriages rescued and keeping families together under the same roof. Ideally whenever possible, and being, bringing people closer to God at their, when they walk with the Lord. Uh, but yeah, it, I've got no quick hit. Hey, you know, here's the magic formula. Get someone to buy stuff from you right now. You know, here's the words you like. I don't do that. Let's build a relationship, get to know me if it takes you a year and a half to trust me and gimme some money of a course or book, Hey, that's great. You know, let, let's do this journey together, but that's, that's, that's the business in a nutshell, I believe in the slow and steady tortoise always beats the hair, man. That's that's our business model. That's amazing relationships, business, everything, move it at a nice, steady pace.
Speaker 3:Tell us a little bit about the silent sales machine radio, Jim, and what you'd want folks to know about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I appreciate you giving me the chance to talk about myself. I don't know how interesting people will find that, but, uh, yet there's a, there's a bunch of Amazon podcasts out there and there's some real talented people out there doing great things for sure. And I'm a fan of a lot of the people in this industry, uh, but we've, we've carved out a bit of a niche for Amazon sellers who are new. They don't really know what they're doing. They don't have confidence yet. Maybe they haven't actually had that first thousand 5,000,$10,000 month on Amazon yet. And they're, they're feeling their way through that's our target market for the silent sales machine radio. It's about at this 0.3, 400 interviews with our successful students. Wow. Just stopping through how they did what they did following the program that we've mapped out over the years. And um, yeah, that's it, it's a different approach to Amazon. Just
Speaker 3:Wanted to take a quick moment to ask a huge favor. We don't sell anything on the show because we just wanna provide you with the best content and then let you get on with your
Speaker 4:Day as an Amazon seller. You know how important reviews are, and this podcast is no different. I would be forever grateful if you could take 30 seconds and leave us a review on your podcast app right now, so we can help more sellers just like you. Thank you. Now let's get back into the show.
Speaker 1:Private leasing private label is kind of an advanced strategy. We start people out with simpler strategies where they're putting money in the bank as they learn. And we've got colleges using our content. Now signing our podcast as homework, we get about a hundred thousand downloads on iTunes a month for the silent sales machine radio. It's an e-commerce podcast for anybody. Who's trying to use the internet creatively to launch and grow multiple streams of income. That's the tagline and yeah, God's blessed it, man. It's it's doing well.
Speaker 4:That's amazing. So, so Jim, um, thinking about who you're serving, you're serving these entrepreneurs and it's like that, you know, the initial stages of, of building something amazing, right? They have to take that first step, but we always like to start at the very beginning for our guests. So let's rewind 18 years ago to when you got into the business and how did you get into the business and what made it so special to you? And why did you choose to, uh, go down this path?
Speaker 1:Yeah. When, whenever I'm asked to tell my story, Seth, I'm very sensitive to the fact that I want it to be something that has takeaways that people can use in their own life and start to make money or move their business forward. Yeah. So it's not just, I was born a young man. I mean, I, I don't wanna just do the bio thing. People can read, they know how to use Google, but the thing I do wanna drive home and emphasize is if you're not doing this with a long term approach, you're doing it the wrong way. And early on, I didn't have that long term approach, that relational approach. I wasn't thinking in my mind that every transaction was the start of a mutually beneficial lifelong relationship. When I finally settled into that mindset, I would say about 15 or so years ago is when this thing just became such a blessing. It's amazing to have people come up to you at events and you speak and they come up and they, they just pour their hearts out emotional. I've had literally people in the last month tell me our marriage was safe because of things we learned from your team, wow, that's doing it the right way, right? That's not selling a$5 ebook and hopefully never have to deal with that person again. Hopefully they don't refund. No, it's, let's build a community where people know each other, they care intimate relationships form. And so that's been my journey. It's a leadership journey. If you will, of going from, I need some extra money so I can pay the bills and make life a little more comfortable for my family to, I'm starting to really care for these people. Let's build something together to I'm leading a team of people that are caring for a large number of people that most of whom I probably will never get to meet. So, so let's build infrastructure here that serves well, even those people at the forest reaches of our, of our community. Uh, and that that's been the journey for me. And I hope that serves others who are kind of on this leadership journey of e-commerce. It's a very impersonal, almost sterile landscape where you can kind of just shut your laptop at the end of the day and all the people go away, but don't do it that way.<laugh> get involved. Use formats like this use zoom. If, if you think a phone call will do no use zoom, if you think zoom will do no meet in person<laugh> and build real relationships, that's been the journey for me.
Speaker 3:Well, Jim, I gotta give a little bit of history and context here. All three of us are Indiana HOOS. Your boys. You know, I left here 30 years ago. Now I'm back Seth lives in Shelbyville. You're in Greenwood. It's uh, I would say that this is a very wholesome area compared to a lot of, and I've been to 54 countries now around the world. And this area is very wholesome and, and, uh, family friendly compared to some others. My history with you is, and, and this is 100% accurate. You are the very first person in our industry that I even heard use the word community because I was a, a guest on one of your podcasts back in 2016, right? You were talking about China sourcing and you were all about community. And what you said, just literally made the hair stand up on my arms, which you said it's all about building relationships. So Seth and I are huge, huge proponents about, it's not just one and done. We're not in a transactional business, right? The real value Jim is in the customer. It's not in the product, it's not in the GGL or the widget that you're selling it's in that end user. So that's what post-purchase pro is all about. We focus on building a relationship post-purchase so I can't thank you enough for bringing that up. That was not even rehearsed, but I been to your event, Orlando, uh, we co-op on a, on a China sourcing trip. I've spoken at a couple of, uh, rays events for homeschool children and, uh, shared and basically served the community. And that was a, uh, a phrase that I got from you. So tell us a little bit about the book I know right now it's outdated. You say you're out of books, but as soon as I met you over the phone, or maybe it was a zoom call back then the first thing I did was I have the book with the yellow cover, you know, and, uh, Howard hour dad, as much as I could. And I think it's like iteration seven or eight or something. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean the process of writing version 10, and I would encourage you. If you've got any, the older versions, you can probably safely tuck them into whatever your trash can is referred to because industry has changed so much. Now, I, I still hear from people that gain great value from it, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to content, I wanna be relevant and real and, and use it today. So I'm very proud of our podcast, which has the same name, silent sales machine radio, instead of silent sales machine. The book, the, the most recent version of the book is about five years old. At this point, get, get into the podcast, listen to two or 20 episodes of us interviewing successful students, using the latest strategies. And, and that's really where I pour my heart and my time we do two or three episodes a week. And, uh, that show is doing really well for us. Uh, but I wanna revisit something that you just said, talking about community, and I've been studying Hebrew a ton. And I, you know, I won't dive into necessarily why the last seven, eight years, uh, but that's the original language of the Bible, the old Testament. And one of the concepts I've learned in there, that's been the driving force behind this whole call to community is the fact that in Hebrew transaction is seen as the beginning of a mutually beneficial, lifelong relationship. That's not terminology. I came up with a 25 year, 2,500 year old wisdom from one of the most successful e-commerce cultures, planets ever produced inable, the most successful per capita. It's an arguable, but they see a transaction as the beginning of a mutually beneficial, lifelong relationship. So if you're not treating transactions as an opportunity for relationship, you're doing it wrong, which is spins right back to what you guys are all about and what you've built. And I'm not as familiar with it as I could and should be. And I'll become more familiar with that, but that needs to be the aim of every transaction. Could I tell you a little story about a, a senior vice president at Amazon that I met and the question he asked me, this guy reports to Bezos.
Speaker 3:You have the
Speaker 1:Floor, okay. This illustrates very well. How, how important I see this topic? This isn't just a fluff topic for me, and it will change your life and change your business if you pay attention to this. So I was at a lunch. This has been about three and a half years ago with a senior vice president at Amazon by his invite, by the way. And the question he asked me, because we have a large community of people we're selling Amazon seller community. Well, and he said, Hey, if you were in charge of Amazon for a week, what changes would you make? How cool is that? This guy reports to Bezos. And he's asking me that question. So I said a quick prayer. I said, God gimme wisdom. What, what reply should I say here? I wanna be, I wanna have influence. And I said, and I had never thought about the question before, till that moment. And God just dropped it on my mind, man. I knew instantly what I was supposed to say. I said, how would you like to take market share from Facebook that you don't currently have? And you like, you got my interest. And I said, what I've told you guys a couple times already, a transaction is the beginning of a mutually beneficial, lifelong relationship right now, what you do on Amazon is you keep the buyer over here and you keep the seller over here and you build this wall called Amazon between them. And they're not allowed to talk or communicate or build a relationship. If you pull that wall down, even if you charge the seller's money to pull that wall down, we're talking more revenue for you, but now we're talking more transactions. We're talking emotionally vested customers who see your platform as a place of interaction and community who sees Amazon as a community right now, no one<laugh>
Speaker 3:You
Speaker 1:Pull that wall down and suddenly you've got mutually beneficial interactions happening these transactions, right? So he was like, that is very interesting. He liked my answer and I've heard rumor that Amazon's kicked around some doing some things like that, but that's how important I see this topic.
Speaker 3:That's, that's so amazing that you just brought that up because like right now, um, I'm going through again for probably the umpteenth time, the gospel of, of Luke. And when Jesus tells the, the, the 12 apostles, don't worry, I'll give you the words. I'll put the words and the, the wisdom on your heart when the time comes, you know, so that's amazing that, that it happened that way. And walking this spirit as, as you know, like you said, that wall between the seller and the platform is causing a lot of, of strife. And, and it, it creates a problem in our world, Jim, where a lot of our clients that we work with, they're in the Amazon business, you know, I'm building an Amazon business. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, and we're huge proponents about focusing on the, on the customer and that relationship so that you can go back to the well, every time you're thirsty, Seth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. And just like you, Jim, we love actionable content. So what are some, uh, nuggets that you can give the audience that, you know, maybe it's it's things that people are continually messing up right now, or things that you're seeing that are working? Like, what should sellers be thinking about right now? You know, I, I presented, uh, another time I presented, uh, in Hong Kong at an event and, and about 150 people there, I think, and I, I had my presentation ready, my slides ready. And I just say quick prayer, like I do before I talk, and this is answering your question, Seth. And I'm like, what do you have for these people today? God, let me speak to them with wisdom. And, and, uh, if it's not this presentation, tell me,<laugh> it. Wasn't I hopped up on stage. And I said, how many of you guys have talked to either on the phone or via zoom or in person more than three to five of your business contacts in the last month, put your hand up. And only like maybe five or 10 hands went up. And I said, I know what my topic is. I'm getting ready to kick your butts because you are not doing this right. You have got to, and this is an e-commerce Amazon tip. You think, well, Jim, I wanna Amazon. I wanna know how to rank my product better. You know, what's gimme a pay per click tip. This is better than any of those right now. You know, you guys are gonna be doing that serious here. Soon with tips here, it is pick up your phone every single day, not to text or to play angry birds<laugh> but to call somebody, man, yeah, get'em on the other line. Do what we're doing right here. Get'em onto a zoom interact, go to meetups, go to events. There's a rule of thumb. Uh, again, this is another lesson from, from the Hebrew culture when it comes to business. But if you wanna be 10 times more powerful than a, than a written message, speak it. If you wanna be 10 times more powerful than the spoken, get on a video like this, if you're gonna be 10 times more powerful than this, what we're doing right here, interacting do it in person. There's a 10 X each time you move forward. And I would argue, you could even make, say it maybe even a 50 or a hundred X, because if you go to life event that you can't recreate that energy and that feeling, God put that in us. We need others. So that's my number one, two and three tip is if you're not intentionally meeting face to face over zoom using the technology, we have to stay in touch and to emotionally communicate, body language is 70% of communication. Females know this intuitively us guys think we can avoid that.<laugh> like you can't avoid that body language is so much of communication. And yet we cut it out of our lives. Almost entirely as e-commerce business builders, you can't do it. I I'll, I'll make my point. Finally, I'll put a cap on it with this and I'll stop beating folks up. But if you think of the most hardened warriors, military Marines, you know, like the green Berets, the Navy seals, if you wanna break one of those guys in about four days, you know how you do it without doing anything else, you just put'em in a, in a, in a box by themself, no outside communication. Really tell'em how long they're gonna be there. Cut'em off from other people. You'll break the most hardened warrior that imaginable. And just a few days, you'll destroy them. Psychologically we're made for that. We can't handle it, but we do it to ourself as business builders and e-commerce for something we sure
Speaker 4:Do. And Jim, every time that I go to a live event, I, uh, you know, I always dread the travel and I'm like, ah, do I really need to go? But once I come home, I'm like full of energy. And I was like, you know, it, it puts a fire in you that you can't get, um, sitting there in your own little box. Like we force ourselves into. And especially now in eCommerce land where you're looking into this box, sitting in a box and then shipping out a box, it's like, your whole life is a box.
Speaker 1:Right. So great illustration. Yeah. It's a reason we're supposed to go to church to say, just watch it on zoom. And they're convenient at 3:00 PM in between football games, right? It's not the same rubbing elbows, annoying each other, getting through it.
Speaker 3:Yes. So unfortunately I watched this debacle last night, uh, remotely on television. That was a catastrophe. But before we hang this thing up, there are a couple of fun, uh, questions that we like to ask our guests. Sure. Obviously, uh, since you opened up a can of worms, when we finish here, I'm gonna reach out to you, figure out how Seth and I can come play basketball with you to be more meaningful and uh, hang out. If you can sweat together, then you can always
Speaker 1:Up for some
Speaker 3:Hoops, man. All right. Good. Well, Seth, he's a legend in his own mind when it comes to, uh, who's your basketball. So first question is what is the, the, the, the top two, if you can narrow it down to one, even even better, the top two business books that you could recommend that have been impactful for you, uh, throughout the years,
Speaker 1:Can I grab it? It's over here with the vanish off screen for a second. My most recommended outside the Bible itself, which by the way, the Bible has twice as much to say about money and business, as it does love and prayer combined, it is the best business book you can ever dive in. I don't care what your worldview is. You could be an atheist. You dive into that book. You're going to get some money and business tips. I, I dropped a couple of on you today. Those that's not Jim wisdom. That's yeah. That's straight from the book. Let me grab my book
Speaker 3:Please. Yeah. So, uh, Seth, I told you this was gonna be a fun interview. One of the, one of the best ones yet, you know, Jim is a unique, he he's a unicorn in our industry. He's one of those guys. That's like, look, I'm not gonna tell you what you wanna hear. I'm gonna tell you the truth. This is accurate information. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but alright. Let's see. Oh my gosh. You are the one who recommended that to me. Yes, sir. Business secrets from the Bible. It's sitting on the shelf in my other office right now. I told you about that book. Seth,
Speaker 1:Good friend of mine. We've become good friends. He's spoken at my event a few times. He's done an amazing, if you wanna hear the most amazing September 11th keynote you've ever heard in your life as a business lesson, and this guy hits it outta the park business secrets from the Bible rabbi, Daniel Lapin, incredible man. And you literally could say, okay, Jim, talk for three hours right now and teach us 50 things. We don't know<laugh> because I'm dove deep and you'd, I'd blow your socks off. And it's all straight from the Bible. The best selling book in world history, the foundation of Western civilization itself, a book that Jordan Peterson calls bigger than truth.
Speaker 3:Wow,
Speaker 1:Jordan, Peterson's not, not a Christian. Mind you. He said truth comes from that book. Our whole culture is built on the truth from that the concept of good and evil comes from that book, right? Rabbi Daniel Lappen tops into it as a, as a, he's not a Christian, right? This is a Orthodox Jewish rabbi, but he sees the Bible as a business guide. And there are some powerful lessons in there. And it's not common sense. It's not just, Hey, be honest. You know, you better have some integrity. It's not obvious. Things like that. It's not Sunday school lessons. It's very practical. Like go do this. You will make more money type of tips and strategies. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Speaker 3:This is crazy. You recommended that to me. As soon as you started talking about you were studying Hebrew, it's the first thing that come to mind. I was like, I'm gonna remind Jim that he, he introduced me that book, Seth. I told you about it about two years ago. Remember I wanted to take some of those lessons and throw those into our podcast. You were like, ah, I don't know if we ought to do that, but Seth, you've never read the book I have it's I haven't, I haven't. It's it's phenomenal. So
Speaker 1:I've got this thing so marked up. I mean, you could turn to any page in here and you're gonna see I've got notes. I've I've read it so many. There's a note on every page, man. I'm just like, wow. In little reminder cards and yeah. Uh, it is a go-to resource. I've taught a Bible study at my house on this, uh, going through the book, actually, people couldn't get me to shut up.
Speaker 3:<laugh> that's funny. So speaking of books, I still need to get you a copy of our book. Uh, I told you about it. Private label, millionaire secrets. Yes. I think we're gonna love some of the old school marketing tactics that Seth and I go through in there. So question it. Yeah. Uh, last question is, I mean, we're all in business for a different reason. We all have a, a, a, a better, I don't know. I guess the best way to put it is our, why, why do we do what we do? A lot of the folks out there, this is a seller facing podcast. They have a goal in mind, whether it's financial or, or freedom or spiritual, it doesn't matter. So what have you splurge on financially in the last 12 months that you don't regret?
Speaker 1:What do I splurge on financially that I don't regret
Speaker 3:Something that you purchased, that, that you don't regret? You know, a lot of these purchases that we go out and splurge on, sometimes we regret it later.
Speaker 1:Interesting question. I can appreciate the premise man, but I don't, I can't, I don't make by a lot of things that I end up regretting. I'm not an impulsive guy. I, you know what, I see this all as stewardship dude and stewardship means you're managing resources that belong to another, who will eventually return and request them back with interest. That's what stewardship is. We learned that in the gospels, that's a terrible of talents. I don't, I don't spend a lot of money on myself. I really don't how much money flows through here. And I just, I don't see the need stuff. Doesn't do it for me, man.
Speaker 3:Well, just to give you an idea, Seth's biggest splurge was his fancy ping pong table. That, but it means a lot. Maybe you have a great indoor basketball or some Reebok pumps. You know,
Speaker 1:I buy nice new running shoes, every three to 400 miles. And I do kind of go all out for those. I'll give you that. I, I go a little, I
Speaker 3:Wasn't looking for a lamb year or something like that.
Speaker 1:It does it literally, I don't know. There must be something wrong with me. I don't hold it against people who see value in those things. I mean, there's people in my family, my kids, like, they love nice things, a good watch or whatever. Like, it just has never done it for me, man does nothing for me.
Speaker 3:Well, it did a lot for me in my twenties, but now I really don't care. So
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, you got kids that love you and a life and, and you a bright future and you're serving guide like that stuff is just so much more valuable to
Speaker 3:Me. Definitely. Seth, I told you this was gonna be a lot of fun. You know, we're gonna have get the Jim back on here again. So why don't you, uh, wrap this up for us?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. So, Jim, thanks so much for hanging out with us. We're definitely gonna come and look you up and play some, uh, hoops. I can't wait to see Sean shoot to basketball. I don't think I've ever seen that. So,
Speaker 3:Uh, you gotta have the mini basketballs, you know, I'm six plus six, Jim and I cannot dunk. So
Speaker 1:I remember you being a tall dude. I think I probably even asked you if you played ball
Speaker 3:<laugh> well, usually when people say, do you play basketball? I'll answer. Why? No. Do you play miniature golf?<laugh> and then that gets him off my back. That's a good answer, Seth.
Speaker 4:Yep, exactly. So we'll come hit you up Jim, for some hoops, but thank you so much for being a guest today. Um, I, I love the, uh, the passion and, and the energy you bring. So we'd be, um, honored to have you back on in the future. But for now, this has been another episode of the post-purchase podcast. We'll see you guys in the next episode,
Speaker 3:Take care of everyone, make sure you check out silent sales machine, radio podcast. It is amazing. I'm actually one of the guests from a long time ago. If he hasn't deleted me yet, Jim Cochran, can't say, uh, thank you enough. Don't go anywhere. My friend,
Speaker 1:God bless you guys. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Please take a second right now and share this podcast with someone, you know, that would find it valuable. The fastest way for us all to grow is to grow together. And if you haven't followed our podcast yet, do that right now. So you won't miss out. I'll see you on the next episode.