[00:00:00] Welcome to the Professor’s Podcast, where we discuss the best strategies to massively improve the reach and bottom line of your business in the current virtual and economic landscape. Your host, Howard Thai generates over $5 billion for his clients annually using innovative tactics, both on and off Amazon.

[00:00:21] Everyone, Hurricane Liz here back for another professor's podcast. So as usual, I'm hosting this and I've got my sidekick and my partner in crime, the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Howard Thai. Howie, we've got a super exciting guest today. And in a minute, we're going to introduce them. But first I just want to remind everybody that at the end of this, we are going to talk about the second ever annual Professor's Pandemic Event, which you will be invited to go to, obviously, and there you will get to hear 13 brilliant underground.

[00:00:49] Top of the line, Amazon speakers, not only talk the talk, but they also walk the walk and I'm super fired up for today's guests. Howie, we've talked to the past couple of episodes where this is literally like an event of your men crushes. And what I mean by that is these are guys that you look up to, guys that are doing the very best on Amazon.

[00:01:08] We just talked briefly a minute ago about the guy that we had on before, which is Patrick, which as you described, he's an animal. And I don't know, if you have a man crush on his hair? But you have a man crush on his work ethic and today's, it's, it's no different thing, right? This, this gentleman that we're about to talk to, we've got some nicknames will let you, Howie talk about that.

[00:01:27] But he also, he's got some of the most amazing information. He's wow the crowd several times. In fact, once he won the speaker award, which is given to the top speaker at your $13,000 per person events, And he won that almost unanimously. The crowd absolutely loved him because of the information and the Intel that he gave, all the people that were present at that actual event.

[00:01:49] Howie, what do you have to say about this gentleman here today? And how excited are you to have him at the second ever annual virtual pandemic event? So the person that we're going to introduce you is someone that has been in on a lot of our, at our, a lot of our in-person masterminds. And this is someone that we call a, I think I nicknamed him, the Italian stallion, I believe he is. So he's Leo and a, we're going to be getting a lot of good stuff from him.

[00:02:21] Every single time he comes up to speak with us. He always wow the crowd. So let's see what we can get. Yeah. And I got a couple of questions for Leo, but like I said, Rocky Balboa has nothing on Leo, which is our version of the Italian stallion. I mean, Rocky Balboa, we know the guy was a legend. He could take anybody on in the ring, even that crazy Russian Ivan Drago.

[00:02:41] Right. But I will say this much, Leo, he has an amazing brain. His brain could take on Rocky Balboa any day and all that information that he has in there. So without further ado, I'm going to start talking to Leo and having him introduce himself a little bit to you. But Leo, the way that we usually like to have all our guests introduce themselves is we'd like to make this a little fun.

[00:03:00] We'd like to make this a little sassy. We all know that Howie’s a man of few words. However, I speak for him and I can say pretty much, I know his playful side. Once you put a drink in him, or you put him at a club, the real Howie peaks out, and this is exactly what he would want to actually say to you

[00:03:14] if he was a man of more words, but that is, I want you to pretend that you are in an elevator right, right with Howie, and you have two minutes to pitch yourself on why you would be a perfect speaker at the second virtual ever professor's pandemic event. So Leo let's go. Yeah, it's nice to see you guys again.

[00:03:31] I feel like it's been forever since the last mastermind, but now with all the statements that you guys are making by the Italian stallion and I'm going to the gym again. So at least I can, speak out of that as well, but I, yeah. Thank you guys for having me on the podcast. I will say in two minutes, I love to help my folk a lot to be involved in the community here.

[00:03:53] And one of the things that I love the most is innovation research. I like to understand the way Amazon works. I’ve been in the industry now, I would say for like five, six years. Prior to that, I've been doing e-commerce for forever. Since I actually got my first full time job, I would say. And so I I'm very well versed when it comes to understanding e-commerce and how the search engines have been optimized for rankings conversions.

[00:04:20] And so recently we've seen a lot of changes of course, but I would say one of the reasons and the values that I can bring to this room here is helping everyone from small to large sellers. I know avoiding, I guess, making mistakes. And how to succeed better by, I guess, giving Amazon what they're looking for with regards, from, with regards to like a search engine.

[00:04:44] And like I said, it's been optimized for. So I wanted to ask, I always ask all our experts that comes on our show here. What would you consider you as the most foremost expert in exactly. Cause I know you do, you do a lot, everything I've taught. I heard you, your talks are all over from, from reviews to, you know, to many chat to everything.

[00:05:10] So tell me what do you consider you yourself as expert in? Yeah, that's a really good question. And I feel that I often have a hard time answering that and I guess it's because I am so passionate about so many different topics. I've started doing SEO in 2009, 2010 on Google. And that obviously now is one of the expertise that I have, even when it comes to Amazon.

[00:05:39] So ranking products and understanding what's the best way to rank products. Now, as we see chatbots have become the probably most utilized marketing strategy, when it comes to ranking some entry, get reviews. And so I guess my skills have evolved in the past few years into adopting these new methods and I guess, marketing tools to accomplish these goals.

[00:06:09] Right. So when it comes to giving you one thing that I like, I guess doing the most, probably what I feel an expert in is probably innovation related to marketing. And automation. So I like to find a problem and solve it with automation so that it can be scalable. That's one thing that I would say I enjoy doing mostly I I'm actually the same way as you.

[00:06:36] I really am. And enjoy doing things to be, make it scalable and automated, you know, with programming and stuff. Cause that's where I'm from, came from a computer science background. So I also wanted to ask, we haven't seen you for like, let me see. Since the last mastermind was probably February, right?

[00:06:57] That's the last time we talked, it's been like, maybe now it's about like seven months or tell me about it. Tell me what have you been up to. He had, I mean, it's been interesting. I feel like this pandemic or quarantine being inside made me focus more at work. And I've been working on this. I remember talking to you last year, actually.

[00:07:20] I've been working on a new software that I'm about to launch and these. Kind of embraces all the different things that I've been talking about, but it's, it's a marketing software. I like to think of it as a marketing automation software, um, for Amazon sellers for now, or whatever the goal is to focus on e-commerce in general.

[00:07:39] So all different platforms as well, but the software allows people to automate most of the, I guess, tedious tasks that their current currently. At doing regularly on a daily basis. And yes, it does involve a mini chat chat bots, as well as other marketing, I would say  channels. So the, the software that I've been working on it's in, in few words, a sophisticated, automated marketing solution, I would say so that the newbies, as well as the advanced sellers can actually automate most of the

[00:08:16] I guess strategies that they currently use in their Amazon businesses when it comes to launching products, ranking, and eventually following up with our customers. I love to be always compliant. I guess what were the TOS of course, by one of the, I guess things that we always struggle with is that we see, for example, Amazon sometimes doing things that they prohibit us doing.

[00:08:42] And so I always, you know, want to make sure that everyone users is software, of course, is compliant as much as possible. So without jeopardizing the, the risk or their businesses, of course, a wide getting. Great results. So that's really, what is it in going on a year during this? I would say seven months since I've seen you guys, but 12 months overall developing this new software.

[00:09:09] Yeah, and I definitely want to hear more about that Leo a little bit later, but first I want to get back to an important topic that you just talked about earlier, and I want you, and I know you've been involved in the space so long, so you've definitely seen the evolution of Amazon as it's kind of evolved within the past.

[00:09:23] Five six years and you've been the e-commerce game for sometimes. So I want you to like, pretend that you have a crystal ball and you're able to almost predictions about the future. And since you do have a lot of amazing Intel, you can possibly even do this and it might even be scary how good this could be.

[00:09:39] But what is your opinion or how do you believe that chatbots will be going in the future, like, are they still going to be going, are they going to evolve? What's going to happen with that. What's going to happen with all the ranking that people do with that. Is it going to basically go out the door or how do you see chatbots moving forward from, let's say six months from now.

[00:10:02] Yeah, I see the next step. We'll probably be making these chatbots more of a standalone solution rather than relying on these giant platforms. Like maybe chat we've seen in the past that one of the reasons why a lot of sellers were getting out or getting into trouble I would say is due to many chat or eventually Amazon tracking where traffic was coming from.

[00:10:25] And again, these are all, I mean it's, we don't know if Amazon is really tracking all these, we assumed and that, that things are working in a certain way. But I would say the best probably thing to do is to use many I'm sorry, chatbots because they're so clever. It's so great to interact with a customer.

[00:10:44] And that I think is the closest one to one connection with your customers that you can possibly create using technology today. Right. Was any other marketing channel, email, or even like cold postcards like they don't have the same reaction that you would get through like a chat. Right. So that could be an SMS or

[00:11:09] One-to-one interaction with a chat bot on Facebook messenger. But I do see eventually these becoming more a standalone, I guess, strategy as part of your business as well. So you, I think a lot of people are requesting now too many chats to build these standalone chatbots, they one can also run their own website.

[00:11:31] So I think something like that would probably be ideal in the future so that you can actually not only brand your funnels, but now you can also avoid all these issues that are coming with many chats. Right. And so I think we should think about how we can innovate from that perspective while utilizing chatbots.

[00:11:54] Cause I do think that the conversion rate of chatbots rank is by far the best today in the industry of marketing. Right? Absolutely. And I know like you, you mentioned you're a very respected member of the community and you've had a vast number of people that. You engage with on a day to day basis, almost like you really know almost everybody within Amazon.

[00:12:18] And so, you know, a lot, right? You, you have a lot of information and a lot of expertise with chatbots with multiple Amazon accounts with Google ads, you actually won the smartest marketer contest for showing the Google, Google ad trick that you showed at the event in Mexico. So like I said, you, you've got a lot of things that you're actually, you have solid information about.

[00:12:38] What three to five topics have you thought about potentially talking about at the professor's pandemic event that would probably blow people's mind? Just like the two talks that I've seen you give live on multi, multiple Amazon accounts are just out of this world. What, what other tricks does the Italian stallion have up his sleeve?

[00:12:58] Yeah, one of the, I guess, topics that I feel comfortable speaking about now is obviously chat bots, but I wouldn't say more. As how to use chatbots in a smart way. That is kind of like a convention. I like to talk about unconventional strategies, right. Things that people don't think of, or they're not doing, or they're like, Oh, like they, they usually get wowed.

[00:13:21] So for a ride. So one of the things would be okay, let's see how we can use chat bots in the future without getting into trouble with innovating, like offering this customers, improving customer service, customer experiences. And one other topic, which I think will be really useful for the attendees will be also outside traffic.

[00:13:41] I know that it's all about social signals. Recently and Howard and Anthony are doing a great job from that perspective. But I think I I'm hearing like great, crazy stories about Facebook to Shopify now Shopify a platform, but it can be, you know, this can be anything, but that Facebook too landing page traffic looks like it's working tremendously well for a lot of sellers and is indirectly, actually improving their sales on Amazon.

[00:14:11] There's ultimately you can see that people are from Facebook to your landing page, and eventually going to see if Amazon is also selling your product. And if so they're most likely convert on Amazon because of the prime shipping, like one day two, the delivery. Right. So I think there is a lot that can be done when it comes to traffic.

[00:14:33] So I would say this is probably the second topic. And that third topic would be more probably understanding the best way of going forward to Amazon, a lot have changed over the past six months alone. You can see delivery, logistics, Amazon is struggling with logistics right now, inventory limits, right?

[00:14:53] There's a lot going on. And I think for new sellers right now is harder and harder. It's becoming way harder. So I think there is a need to take a step back. And understand what is happening today in the Amazon space. And what's the best way moving forward to, I guess, approach this business. You said some of the problems that Amazon sellers are facing, like inventory mutation that you can send in a as well as some logistics, what Amazon is, is sending out.

[00:15:26] And I think I recently saw that prime was six days or something like that. So that was kind of interesting. What other problems do you see that a lot of Amazon sellers are facing down the line nowadays? Howard, if you look at the conversations happening recently on Facebook groups, or even the Amazon seller forums, like everyone is seeing these actuations in rankings, for instance, that.

[00:15:54] They're having a hard time explaining, like, uh, we've seen that too. Like we had a product selling very well for years and all of a sudden it started dropping DSR sort of thank you. It's it's unusual and nobody understand what's causing this. Right. So that's one of the actual issues that I'm seeing yesterday.

[00:16:13] Front of my message. Me saying, Hey, you know, you know, if there is anything going on on Amazon, I'm like my, my sales are down 70% and I'm like, Actually, I don't know. And then I was working on a giveaway yesterday and I noticed that Amazon wasn't actually reporting the orders coming in on seller central.

[00:16:31] And so I figured something was actually wrong with the platform. In fact, by the end of the day, we saw huge amount of orders coming in all at once. So I think they're constantly changing things in the backend. They're actually affecting rankings. I've seen, we launched another product two days ago and is already ranking on page one.

[00:16:50] And we haven't even done much, to be honest with you. Our, so a lot is changing. It's time to understand what's happening so that we can be in business for the next year. But that's what I'm seeing. Yeah. So like for people like us in the industry, especially like innovators and stuff like yourself, we need to actually be on top of the game.

[00:17:12] We have to like do a lot of trial and error and a lot of testing because I almost I'm really does change. You're like two months down in line. You don't touch Amazon. You probably like, Oh shoot. Do I still know Amazon anymore? You know, it's like, it's like, kinda like, you, you really do. That's why we do a lot of testing.

[00:17:31] And that's why I think right now, Amazon is just the testing stuff, as well as trying to figure out what. What's what they're doing. So I I've heard, I'm not going to name any names, but I heard some people were saying, Oh, that's because almost on. And the back end is deleting people's search terms because it was over the allocated now and things like that, you know?

[00:17:53] So there's a lot of stuff that people are saying you guys need to make sure I'm not saying it's right or wrong. It should be right. But it needs to be tested. So also how about the opportunities that you see in 2020 onwards? And yeah, I think Amazon is still a gold mine. If you know what to look for and where to look for.

[00:18:17] I see a lot of opportunities. We were looking outside of the box right now. I mean, what used to be a great opportunity in, in certain niches no longer is you're you're seeing recently where this one top ratings that. Those that had, you know, 10,000 reviews or even 1000 now they are like 5,000, 10,000. So it's much harder to catch up with this.

[00:18:40] I guess, sellers that have been selling for a while or ACS have been there for a while, but there is still a huge opportunity in other niches. We've always been saying this going to like non-sexy niches, but now is the time to do that. I believe if you're, if you're starting, I guess, and. So I would say from prominent opportunity perspective.

[00:19:00] Yes. I mean, you probably will need to innovate even from that perspective, because most tools that I see and that I know are still presenting with opportunities there, the same way that we're doing it a year ago, two years ago. So I think there's an opportunity for these software companies to innovate from that perspective and look into other metrics.

[00:19:24] To find this product opportunities. They're still there. I've seen, I can mention that the seller or the product, but I've seen a seller selling product for about a year now, when he went into this market about a year ago, the top guy was at 200 reviews. And today he is at, I believe seven or 800 reviews the top guys in the 1500.

[00:19:45] But he thinking about our familiar in a month in sales with his products. Right? So the product is. Bigger volume, so larger sized products, but it's, it's, I think it's time to like start really considering other ways to sell on Amazon. That is what normally is coaches don't really, I guess, talk about our teaching.

[00:20:08] So that's what I see as an opportunity. Right. Yeah, I think you're right Leo. I think there's a lot of opportunities still, but I do feel like, and I don't know if you agree with this, but I feel like the bar is getting raised for the barrier of entry. Like, I feel that there's so much more difficult things that people even brand new people that have never sold on Amazon that are trying to even get Amazon accounts.

[00:20:29] It's just the bars constantly being raised. And I think in the future it might be more, more difficult. So if there's ever been a better time to jumping on Amazon, that is right now. Because as, as both these gentlemen said, there's a lot of opportunity if done. Right. And if. In the correct network of people.

[00:20:45] Right. Leo, I know you've had a lot to talk about, and I know we've looking forward to your software, which you've been developing. I remember you talking about it right back in Mexico, when you imagine that that will be the out for everyone to be able to see, or is it going to be invite only? Or could you explain a little bit more about that before we say goodbye here?

[00:21:03] Yeah, at least to be honest, I like to release it to a few people only right now, or like beta testers. We've already been beta testing for about a month and a half. The software doesn't have tutorial videos yet, which I believe is very important in the software space. So we're working on that as we speak, I'm maiming to launch, I could do a prelaunch maybe in a couple of weeks, or we can do it for the next event, just for the members.

[00:21:28] Actually, I wouldn't mind doing that. But I'm hoping that within a month we'll have the software up and running and, um, yeah, that's, uh, the timeframe for now. That's amazing. I share a lot of people are excited to hear that. I, for one am looking very forward to that, but before we say goodbye here. And Leo, last words that you have to people out there that are contemplating going to this event, as we said, Howard hand selects these people, and these are his virtual men crushes from all around the globe.

[00:21:56] Leo is in Canada. And so he's Howie’s Canadian man crush. And you're going to get to see all those guys that, Howie really kind of admire something about, explain and tell you how they do Amazon, which is Patrick mentioned, there really is no magic pill. It's just a lot of work, but it's also knowing the right people and knowing the right information.

[00:22:14] But anything else you can say to people here, Leo, before we say goodbye? Yeah. I wouldn't say since my, my first mastermind with our, I mean, I was fortunate to, to go and to come as a guest speaker. But I would say it did change my business. I do feel complete because I've been able to understand things much better.

[00:22:35] Thanks to other speakers that have taught me things. As well as the network, I think that's the most valuable thing here. Like when you meet people that you never heard that, but they're actually very successful and smart. Like, I mean, at least, you know, some of the, we would have sold smart marketers.

[00:22:52] I've never seen them before. And they, they were doing crazy things. Thanks. I mean, I loved it. So I, I would say join, it will be worth it. That's all I can say. You will be thanking me after the mastermind. Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, it's unfortunate that we cannot have it live in, in person because one of the elements that makes it so special is the interaction with other people.

[00:23:14] As Leo mentioned, the friendships and the information that you get from the other speakers, the other people that are in attendance is amazing. However, we have tried to duplicate that actual feeling in our virtual events and people absolutely loved it for the first minute when we had virtual breakout groups.

[00:23:29] So even though I tease people and I say, Hey, you can attend in your underwear. You don't have to show your face or anything, you know, we'll just see a black box with your name, with it. That's all good. But you're still going to have to talk with other people. One on one, you'll be rotated into groups and people to have that kind of one on one intimacy that we all crave.

[00:23:44] We go to these events and Howie, any last words from you before I actually give people information on how to sign up for the actual virtual second ever pandemic event of the professor himself. So for these people who come to the mastermind, it's not just only listening to what we have to offer from the speakers here.

[00:24:05] But you get a lot of like tools that you can use firsthand. Like what Leo was talking about like probably we were going to work out something where the people who are coming on with the PPE 2.0, will probably be able to test his software first and before anyone. So, and I know him, usually does really good work.

[00:24:26] And he's been working on this for a long time. So this is going to be very surprising to other people. So as well as you're going to be for the people who are coming to the mastermind, you're also going to be coming into becoming a group member in the elite seller society, which is not just one, but a lot of people are in there.

[00:24:45] Leo is one of them and a lot of big sellers, a lot of big people who really knows their stuff. And that can really help you to the move to the next level. We're not talking about little Facebook groups or anything like that. We're talking about like really deep down, you know, dive into a, Hey, Howie I'm having this kind of problem.

[00:25:02] Oh, it's because of this and that the group members, they usually will help very surface area. They're not going to go in depth and try to really, really help you to the next level. So because you're in the mastermind and because a lot of the people have some kind of bondage, like kind of like a relationship with each other because they thought they met each other.

[00:25:20] They met everyone. So there's this networking that went on and that they will share a lot more than just Facebook groups that they don't really know you personally. So I really, I really do hope you join us at the the PPE 2.0, to learn more and as well as become a part of the member in the elite seller society.

[00:25:43] Yeah, I'm looking forward to that too. And I tell you, my goal at the actual second ever virtual pandemic event is to get more words out of Howie, I will have to hand deliver him Zhivago or his, I don't even know what, what is your drink of choice Howie, in case people want to send you some alcohol, so you can be all alcoholic.

[00:26:00] So I kinda like, like, if we talk about cocktails probably Long Island and Coke, but if you talk about shots, I probably Tequila. And the, so yeah, so Whiskey good. But what I really want to do is actually been actually like, kind of like hungering to see this, this person that's supposed to be called Hurricane Liz is actually someone that wouldn't hurt when Liz drinks a little bit, she becomes a Hurricane Liz.

[00:26:28] So this is something I've been waiting. I've been, I've known her since like so many years now, but I haven't seen that Hurricane Lize side of her. So I hope one of these days, but let's see if I could maybe like down some shots before I go on the PPE 2.0, and maybe you'll hear me say a lot more stuff.

[00:26:49] Exactly. That's my whole point Howie, like, people don't want to send me some shots because all they're going to end up is a day, the next morning, it's going to be like the movie, the hangover. But if they send you shots, they're going to get some amazing information, underground stuff about Amazon. So I say we all direct the shots to Howie at the second ever pandemic event.

[00:27:08] And if you want to find out more and join in or all the fun head on over to howardthai.com/ppe2. Just the number two, don't spell it out or anything. And that's where you find out more information again, that's howardthai.com/ppe2. And I look for seeing all of you guys there, like I said, it's going to be my ultimate goal to get right more drinks and Howie, so he spits out more secrets and you also get some goods from Leo as well as 13 other brilliant.

[00:27:35] Men. I don't know. I think I'm the only girl there. So that's why I'm perfectly fine with being in a sausage Fest. It's fantastic. And I look forward to seeing all the info that the speakers share and meeting all of you all one-on-one and being able to see your beautiful faces. And if not, it's a good old black box with your name on it.

[00:27:51] I'm happy to see that too. But I want to bid you guys fare well and on behalf of Howie and Leo, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you guys next time.

[00:28:00] Welcome to the Professor’s Podcast, where we discuss the best strategies to massively improve the reach and bottom line of your business in the current virtual and economic landscape. Your host Howard Thai generates over $5 billion for his clients annually using innovative tactics, both on and off Amazon.