[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] Hey everyone, Hurricane Liz here, you're back for another Professor's podcast. And as usual, I have my partner in crime here, the man, the myth, the legend, Howard Thai who's formerly known as the Professor. You still kind of like to refer to as a professor, right Howie? I mean, you're pretty much a professor of all things.

[00:00:36] You, you kind of do it all when it comes to particularly Amazon, but you're constantly learning, constantly improving and constantly meeting these underground geniuses. And today, again, we've got another genius. You want to talk a little bit about, more about what you do and what you've been doing just during the pandemic and in general, Howie, did you read that the professor, you mean a professor?

[00:01:00] Well, I've said it before I been in, in China. I was teaching a bunch of college students in Zhongshan of Amazon related items. So then after, well, people call me professor and that's how it happened. So I guess that's how that name came about. And then we started, people started calling me that and, and it stuck with us.

[00:01:23] So that's the reason why, but what I do, I've been working on, I've been working on a, really, a lot of crazy stuff lately with my programmers and doing project management on some of the predictive models on analyzing keywords as well as sales history, you know, PFR. We talking about, oh, there's a lot of, a lot of good stuff, but enough of me, that's a go to, I think our next guest, maybe.

[00:01:52] Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to introduce him shortly. I was kind of thought that was an interesting answer. Howie, you mentioned how you became known as the professor.

[00:02:00] So every, every superhero has an origin story. So like professor X, professor X had his signature item, which is like his wheelchair and his brain hat and all the X-Men that he has. You, do you have a signature item? But I kind of already know who your X-men are.

[00:02:15] It's kind of all these brilliant sellers that you pick up underground, which we're about to meet one here, but what is your signature item? I don't have a signature item. I don't know if I have any single time. You mean like a, like a staff or like a hat or something like that, or we've got to get you a signature item.

[00:02:31] So that from now on like professor X, you got your own like little thing, you know, that's going to be pretty cool. We'll put it on a T shirt or something, but I want you to be thinking about that Howie. It’s surely, actually I have, what people have been asking you. I think it was Facebook or something. So what it's like, like a quote I was when people were saying, what if, what.

[00:02:49] What if you were the person or what you wanted to be when you were a kid? If I was, I was never thinking about being the professor when I was a kid, what I was thinking that I was going to be when I was a kid was, I was going to, thinking I was going to be Spiderman. So it's a little off, but a Spiderman and the professor.

[00:03:10] Yeah. I don't know we're going to have to think about what your signature item is. If your superhero crush is Spiderman, we're going to have to think like really hard. I got to really think about that Howie. We're going to come up with it very soon, but for now, let's introduce everybody to one of your X-men who you actually met in China.

[00:03:28] So we were talking a little bit earlier. This gentleman that I'm about to introduce is the creator of a tool called Quantify Ninja which I'm sure he's going to tell us about shortly. But you met him in China and a little bit more, give people a little bit more background on that meeting and why he stuck out to you as he knew his stuff.

[00:03:47] Let me see. It was one of the two years plus ago when we're in a, where I’m a speaker and he was a speaker regarding, I believe at Mike's, one of Mike's events. He was, I, I, I mean, we, we meet a lot of people out there, so he was one of the people that I was, caught my eye cause he's from actually I believe in Israel and one of those interesting people that I always remember cause he, he's one of those people that think out of the box, you know, that is kinda.

[00:04:18] Yes, we do have a lot of these. Sometimes we get a lot of software engineers and providers. They come on to our speaking event because they have some very unique talent, the stuff that they come out with, they would start creating a software for it, so that it automates the whole task and stuff. So these guys are like on a next level because you have to have a solid foundation, have some kind of expertise in order for you to even to.

[00:04:45] Start programming it and getting it to work and getting it to be useful within the environment of sellers. So this is a two next level that he's going to be telling us a little bit about what he does and, and let him talk. Right. Absolutely. So I'm going to go in and give him a warm welcome. Give everyone everybody Yinon out here.

[00:05:08] This is Yinon who is the founder of Quantify Ninja and Yinon, you know, usually before we bring on a guest, we kind of put him, put him to the heater and we like to ask them for the same question. And so I'm going to start by asking you that same question. I want you to pretend that you are in an elevator with Howard and you understand that he has a brilliant mastermind, which he really does.

[00:05:27] I've attended almost every single one and every single time I come out of there feeling like I'm way smarter than I really am, which is an awesome feeling. So I feel like all you guys for a brief, at least, hi, I have a best day or so. I'm like, wow, I know all this about Amazon. I'm the best in the world.

[00:05:43] And I get that kind of high, but you're not, you are one of the, those brilliant people. But for everybody out there for the tenure on that elevator with Howard, and you want to prove to him that you are qualified to speak at a second ever virtual Amazon pandemic event, tell him in two minutes why you feel you're qualified and what some of your background is.

[00:06:02] Okay. So hello everyone. First of all, I must say, I don't even remember what I was lecturing about in China. I think it was the Facebook bot, but I'm not sure. I think that's what was the topic back then? And yes, the reason why I need to talk is because yes, I think I, I think out of the box, I've built Quantify Ninja because there are

[00:06:24] Many tools that were missing that seller central didn't give, give us. And I started programming it and I think even today, there are lots of features that, you know, just came to mind mine. And I started implemented it. For example, Facebook notifications, even before all this stuff with, you know, creating audience and start retargeting the customers from Amazon.

[00:06:50] I started working with Facebook because I saw the potential of, you know, Of communicating with customers. Now these were my customers, but of course, sellers can, can do that with their customers. So, yes, this was, I'm constantly thinking how I can improve the, the buyers that the sellers, I'm sorry, the sellers how they can improve their sales and what would be the next big thing.

[00:07:18] I usually don't look at other softwares. I know many people tell, tells me you have to go to other softwares to see what they're doing and I'm against it because you know, when you look on someone. And something else on another software, you're like blocking your mind. And I don't like it. I like to think on my own and think what is the best thing that can help Amazon sellers?

[00:07:40] And it proved himself because, you know, lots of people use this software. And I think many things that, you know, that are unique to the store and, and are unique to them the way that we think that should be the way people should sell on Amazon. Oh, okay. So I've known you for two years now, plus, so can you tell me, like, what are you, what are you ex or the expert in right now?

[00:08:08] What, what, what is the topic that you're actually, passionate about and that you think you can really help enlighten a lot of those audience here? Right. So I wanted to talk about, a topic that not, I don't think many of them and speakers talks about because it's a, it's a little bit, pretty much a topic that talks about machines learning and how you can take them.

[00:08:34] and edge of the technology. To help you improve your, your sales to help you be a better seller and does so many things. You know, this field is so wide that you can, but you can take it to almost every everyone in, in the process of selling starts from customer service to optimizing PPC and machinery, I don't know how many people yeah.

[00:08:59] Knows about it, but machine learning is like the topic. It's the edge of the technology today. And it is being used for bunch of things starts from automotive, automotive until even, even in diagnosing cancer. So, yeah, well, for, for me, I always aminto the machine learning and AI realm of software, it's like not a lot of people are doing that in Amazon.

[00:09:28] There is PPC AI right now. A lot of people are, a lot of, some companies are doing that, but not a lot, actually like machine learning is like, so like, so, so new now, but. There's a lot of really crazy apps that they're having out there now. There's some that, like I was playing with where you can actually put a scan your face with, with the camera.

[00:09:53] And then all of a sudden they make you into a loony, like a Disney character, a cartoon character, I think is Tuna fire or something. I think I was playing with it as well as the 101 that was with, I think, I think it was like, Like all the Xmen and all that stuff, you put scan your face and you become one of those, you know, you become one of those Spiderman and other characters and the Xmen and whatnot.

[00:10:18] So it was really interesting too, for, for us to see AI on the works right now, there's like so much to be, to be done as well as I saw recently, like, AI can write articles. They can actually write, write like paragraphs and stuff like that. So it's really interesting that me, maybe in the future we have customer service.

[00:10:41] We will have our, like, like we talked about beforehand customer service. AI must be starting to answer emails. There'll be AI, we'll start doing demand forecasting, for inventory. AI will start doing your PPC, which has already been started in not fully mature, but it's there. AI can actually start helping you with optimization of your, you know, launches and stuff, which that's what we are actually doing right now.

[00:11:11] They can also help you with sourcing products. And I want to talk about it. I have it in, in the lecture of the machine learning and how it can help you source and find the best product and, you know, two that has the most probability to succeed. No, it's I could, I could really definitely say that already.

[00:11:34] Like Facebook is red using AI, right? Tiktok is already using AI. Google is already using AI, you know, PPC on Amazon is already done by AI. There’s Amazon's algorithm of a9 is already using a9 already. So AI is already inside the whole infrastructure where we're selling on already and using.

[00:11:57] So it's not really something new, but for us, we're trying to like, as a service provider for a Signalytics. We're actually trying to like use AI. Against AI, you know, like if Amazon's using AI to do their algorithm, well, you learn yeah. Using what works or not work based on how Amazon's AI work. So we'll go with the flow and you could call it.

[00:12:24] Yeah. And, and they do a pretty good job, you know? Well, when you go to the Facebook and they show you, they suggest you to tag yourself and they recognize your face. And that's amazing. It's amazing. It's a really in a, they do a very precise book. It's amazing. Yeah. You know, you're not, I know that you already talked about machine learning a lot, and that's obviously the topic that you're going to choose to speak about at the event, which is amazing because you have a really solid math and computer science background.

[00:12:53] So it's obviously, it seems like it might even be a hobby for you. So my question is already knowing what you're going to talk about, can you let the audience know a little bit more background on what actually Quantify Ninja is and what it has as well as what new things you guys have in the works coming up for next year?

[00:13:11] Yeah. So Quantify Ninja is an all in one software that has a lot of features, I'd start with statistics and analytics and shows profit. And you can, I think what's special with the profits section in Quantify Ninja is that it shows you all the time. How you, what is the status of your sales comparing?

[00:13:35] To a different period of time. So we can just compare all the time and you can even compare ours. Like if today it's, I don't know, four o'clock then you can compare what happened yesterday until this until four o'clock. So it really helps you see the full picture and you can set up. Anytime from you one and you can set up the time you want to compare to, and you can of course do this for every product.

[00:14:02] And, and that, I think that's, what's special about the profit section and we give up, we give so much data that it's, it's crazy how you can just, you know, dig inside and you can go up until a specific order to see, like what kind of commission taken for this order and what was the exact fee, the commission or the FBA fulfillment fee.

[00:14:30] So you can see everything. It depends on you. Of course, how much you want to dig inside. And apart form the statistics and analytics, profit calculation. We also have automated messaging. Of course, this was actually one of the first products we had. And I think even today, it's, even though people saying that the emails are out there, I think I still think that, well, I see that like for, from all the emails we send on behalf of our sellers, still 30% are still being open.

[00:15:00] So, so I, I still think it's, it's the most effective tool that you have in order to get reviews. And Quantify Ninja, I think has the most advanced tool, because it has unlimited options where you can set up to whom you want to send this email, what marketplaces you can use, different languages. You can set up of course, specific products or returning buyers or people who.

[00:15:25] You should do refunds. You can do AB testing. You can see your open rate. It's a really, really sophisticated tool, which will involve many, many days and nights of development on my side. And then we have a specific section for looking on the, on the big picture. Like not only on your store, but on, also on your competitors.

[00:15:46] So in Quantify Ninja, you can set up notifications for changes made to your competitors. So if your competitors raise the bar, based or changed the picture, okay. Change the title or, you know, change the bullet points you can set up together notification for all those situations. And then you can, you know, react, you can decide not to react, but if, but sometimes if you see that all your competitors decrease the price you might want to consider.

[00:16:22] What, what do you want to do? Okay. But it's important to see not only your store. But the whole market that says the same similar products, and it also helps you when, for example, if them to see how many people, how many sellers, like if many sellers decrease the price and you have decrease in sales, it can also explain you some, you know, gives you some insights and explain you that, decrease in your sales doesn't mean that you did something wrong.

[00:16:58] It could be that the whole market is, you know, is going for a change or that there are more competitors in your field. So  a stronger role in, in the software from day to day. I think it's really important to see your competitors, what they're doing and, and react. To those changes. We also have for European sellers.

[00:17:28] We have invoicing it's does have a lot of, a lot of features. We have Facebook, which is a little bit similar to manage it, but has the advantage of, you know, aiming it only to Amazon sellers. So you can create coupons and send it to using the, uh, using the bot. Send out sent coupons, single use coupon of school, lots of features in quantify Ninja, but you know, it's only, only the bot where I can speak about two hours, I think, because this is the really big features you need to understand that we worked on, I worked on, on a Quantify Ninja for years and I've been working.

[00:18:07] Well, I'm addicted to work. So I'm walking there, there is a night. And so there's many, many things you can do with, with this tool, but what's more interesting is what we're going to do with this tool because of what we're going to do is, is to, as, as we spoke before, is to add more machine learning into, into Quantify Ninja that will do some of the stuff, how it says like inventory management, eh, or a pricing optimization or customer service, all those things, things can use machine learning in order to, you know, to optimize your business, to make it a better business, to, to be, to have a better customer service and to generate more sales and more profit.

[00:18:55] Right. Absolutely. Also like amazing things that you're working on. So I look forward to some of those, but my big question next is as Howie mentioned two years ago, you guys met at a seminar somewhere in China and the topic at hand was chatbots. So you were talking about chatbots specifically. Let me ask you this question.

[00:19:12] In chatbots, they continue to evolve. What's the current outlook. How do you see chatbots in the, the next couple of years? Are they going to be and continue to be the way to rank products on Amazon? Or are we looking at the next evolution of ranking products, Amazon as being something other than chatbots?

[00:19:29] Well, I think it's going to be chatbots are always going to be though, but they're going to, uh, transform to a little bit different than what we know from Facebook. I mean, Facebook chatbots are like, it's like a multiple questions quiz, right? You have to click on some buttons and the whole conversation is predefined and this is a.

[00:19:52] I don't want to say stupid chatbot, but you know, it's chat bot a small chat bot would be like a chat bot that you can't even identify or distinguish between between a robot to a human. And it would be a smarter at, but I think the everything is going all the science shows that we're going to this direction and you can, if you want, you can go to YouTube and just type in a chatbot conversation and you can see two chatbots speaking to each other.

[00:20:21] And that's amazing. I mean, we got to the point where you can actually create two robots that asks questions to each other and even insulting each other or saying nice things to each other. And so, yeah, the future is going, heading to a place where machine learning is both to cure every, every place in every topic in the world.

[00:20:47] I think. So like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, all talk about AI. Like AI is they have to like all these new innovators or software people out there are all about the buzzword, like AI and machine learning and stuff like that. So for any, I think some of those books are one thing.

[00:21:11] You have to read it. If you want to be successful, like on there, one of the ink.com or something. So, so like, can you tell me what kind of problems you see? See Amazon sellers are having in 2020.

[00:21:27] Yeah. So I think that the problem that is most felt, I most feel from sellers is, is staying the same old problem, which is their abuse and Amazon making it more tough and tough to get more views, uh, while we are coming with, with solutions and, and Amazon. You know, come with new terms of service and then the block this way.

[00:21:55] So we go with this way and they blocked this way and that's all, but still, this is the, this is the engine of sales, right? Eventually, no matter how you look at it, the review is the thing that helps generate more reviews. Still, I think this is the most difficult problem, because we used to have, um, I'm sorry.

[00:22:18] I have to close the door. No worries. Actually, I had to actually wrangle my cat down too, so I know exactly how you feel. She was knocking at the door, making all sorts of racket and, you know, she came over here and I had to really, like, I nearly, almost like shoved her out of the room, Howie. So you know how that then you'd give her the catnip.

[00:22:40] I can't. She was getting hot here. So. He's the only one getting high in the house, but you know, what can I say? She's alright. You know, you're back. Yeah. Because, because of the situation with the Corona we are with, with the kids here, so you might be hearing some, some shouting there.

[00:23:00] Okay. So you were asking about what I think is the main challenge. And I think, I still think the abuse still is still is the main challenge. Do you see them continuing to be the way to rank products that I was on? Or do you see something else in the works that are eventually going to come up or is it all about chatbots right now? Okay. Can you repeat the question? I'm sorry.

[00:23:20] In terms of chatbots, do you see them being the future of ranking products at Amazon? Or do you see something else coming out of. Everything that's going on and something else that will now be the go to play for most Amazon sellers, or will it remain chatbots? As I said, they think that chat bots are the future.

[00:23:37] But as I said, not in the, in the way they work today, it's going to be more like it's, it's going to feel like humans. It's going to feel like humans definitely. I mean, you can see that coming. You can see the evolution of the chatbots. So, yes, I think chatbots is, is the future. Is there any other opportunity that you see in

[00:24:00] 2020 and onwards besides the chat bots, any other things that you would see that would, would a lot of our audience

[00:24:07] would be interesting to know. Well, yes, with this topic that I was talking about with machine learning, there's lots of things that the sellers can benefit form from working with, with machine learning and chat bot is just one of them. But as we discussed before, before we started recording, eh, I think it does.

[00:24:31] It does lots of things like a pricing optimization or inventory management or customer service customer service that we are working on that should automate all the processes and make it a solution on how eCommerce business, not just Amazon, but ecommerce business will walk. So it's going to be, I think it's going to be totally different.

[00:24:56] Do you have any questions Liz? So, yeah, I think we're ready to wrap it up. I think we've kind of already done quite a bit. We've spoken a lot about machine learning. We learned a lot about Quantify Ninja and so, you know, and I really wanted to just reach out and thank you and say, thanks so much for kind of dropping all this knowledge on us about chat bots and what Quantify Ninja has as well as machine learning.

[00:25:18] I don't think a lot of people out there realize. All the things that it can already do with some minor machine learning implemented in their business. I, for one am looking forward to your talk, particularly there was one topic on machine learning that you mentioned, but I look forward to see what you got for the present for the actual event.

[00:25:33] Thank you so much for this. Thank you. I remember. Oh, before you go, I saw you post some really crazy stuff on Facebook. It looks like you were like on protesting and stuff. Can you tell us about what, what was what's going on over there? Yeah. The situation in Israel is crazy. We have weapons main two problems as far as I can see.

[00:25:55] And of course, first one is going up by virus, which is, I think we have the four million people. We have the a lot of, I think it's a number one country in the world has the most, eh, sick people or positive people. I don't know if it's true to call them sick, but at least positive to do this virus.

[00:26:17] Yeah. And our prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is like used in a bribery and lots of other stuff. And his trial begins on January. Well, yes, I was protesting against the, against our prime minister because I believe that he's a making decision and rules that are made for, for his own political reasons and not professionalism.

[00:26:43] So for the past few days, they came out with a law that prevents the, the citizens to go outside of the home more than one kilometer. And what I think is that they do need to prevent demonstrations because before that, there used to be demonstrations every week. So I broke the law, sorry. And do that demonstration on a Saturday.

[00:27:07] And it was crazy. There was a lot of violence from their police and yeah, they locked us down at some point and the police were very, very violent to us and came out with horses and, and bikes and. Just, you know, it was a lot of violence. It was not a pleasant scene, but anyone who wants to sit this is welcome to my Facebook and look at at a, at the big, at the pictures and, and on my life.

[00:27:36] And today I'm going to a demonstration again. So if I will be arrested, then you will be able to see it on live. Yeah. We, I'm not giving up. I mean, I'm fighting for my freedom and for, for my, for my kids. Freedom. So I will continue with, with demonstration because I think it's the main thing in, in democracy and or this is the main, the, the right to protest is, is one of the main things in democracy.

[00:28:05] Yeah, well, good luck with that, you know, and I hope, I hope you do not get arrested, stay safe. It's freedom that allows us to be able to sell on Amazon and talk about selling on Amazon. So good luck to you. And thank you once again for being on this podcast. Howie, any final words from you before I say goodbye and I give people information on how to sign up and learn more about the second ever virtual professor's pandemic event.

[00:28:26] Coming up on November 9th and 10th, there is some stuff that we actually can't talk on this podcast, but because it's too sensitive. But if you guys come to a mastermind, I'm sure that you have some stuff that he wants to share that was going to help your business, because I know what he is working on.

[00:28:47] And some of the stuff that he's doing is pretty crazy out there. And, and I remember talking to you about it like two weeks ago, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like you guys are teasing. That's like not fair. Well, this is the thing we have to, I'm not sure I'm not, I'm a man of few words, so I'm not sure if it's called teasing or not, but you should come to the event.

[00:29:10] I'm going to have to start my own one woman protest here, because I want to, I was going to talk about that with me too. So me and my cat are called teasing. We demand to know what it's talking about, but I guess we're going to have to wait just like everyone else. Good news is that that date is approaching and approaching faster.

[00:29:28] Then I'm approaching the end of this. And that date is November 9th and 10th. And it's again, virtual. All from the comfort of your own home, you can stream it in your undies. You can stream it, however, the heck you want. And we will have 13 brilliant men talking about their most exclusive underground secrets on how they run their Amazon business offices, or they help consultants in the rest of the world, run their Amazon businesses.

[00:29:51] Yinon is one of those 13 and I'm looking forward to all those. There's been some exciting stuff that we've covered thus far during these podcasts, and as Howie mentioned, he cannot spill the beans on what you're not as going to talk about, but he guarantees it's going to be extremely sexy. And so let's talk about November 9th and 10th.

[00:30:08] How do you get more info? Well, you go, it's simple. You go to howardthai.com/ppe2. The number two do not spell it out. It's just two. Say that one more time. Because the past two times in the past, couple of times Howie, I botched it up. So it's howardthai.com/ppe2, the number two. There, you will find more information on how to be able to attend that event.

[00:30:29] I said, you don't have to show your face. You can be in your pajamas. You can be in whatever the heck you want. You can be in your jammies. You can own your favorite little blankie. No, I'm not talking about myself, but whatever it is that you want to do, you can have your thinking cap off, on doesn't matter to us.

[00:30:43] So if you'd like to attend, go there to get more information. Other than that, I thank you guys for watching us here on this podcast or hearing us, and we look forward to the next few. So for Howie, and Yinon, this is Hurricane Liz signing off. Welcome to the professors

[00:31:00] 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.

[00:31:11] Over $5 billion for his clients annually using innovative tactics on and off Amazon.