Ep. 10: Developing the Products You Dream Of with Eva Hart of Couple’s Coffee

People love to know where their money is going and who it's gonna support. So really a good, good strategy is to make yourself the face of this company and to communicate the things that you are passionate about.

Welcome to the Prosperous Woman Podcast. I'm Claire Sellers, a business mentor and coach who is absolutely obsessed with helping you create the business of your dreams and your most prosperous life. Tune in For inspiring conversations with extraordinary women that will propel you towards becoming a prosperous woman. Okay, welcome. I'm so excited to have one of my dear, dear, dear friends and sisters, Eva, here with us. She is like literally building an empire, and I was like, I have to bring her on the show because she has mastered FBA, which is Fulfilled by Amazon, marketing. She has, I think, 4 businesses now. And she is really going to help us debunk this myth that like passive income is just a very easy, like set it and forget it situation and kind of peel back the curtains on how she's building, you know, these 4 different brands that are passive, but they've required a lot of effort, strategy, and most importantly, expertise. So I'm so excited to get into it. Welcome, Eva.

Hi, thanks Claire Sellers. So excited to be talking to you today.

Me too. Um, so first I always like to tell people the origin story of how I meet my guests cuz it's just always interesting, like how people come together. So Eva and I met, um, when we were on a work remote travel program. We traveled all over the world together. Bali, Seoul. We were roommates in Buenos Aires. We were all over the world. It was so fun. And both of us were really kind of exploring our next step career path during the time. And we, we knew that we wanted to have, you know, freedom-based businesses that were also really purposeful. And, you know, Eva has done such an incredible job creating that for herself. So I would just tell people kind of like a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are now, because it's very interesting.

Yeah, so I mean, I got my first degree in journalism, and I really thought that I was going to be a journalist. And then from there, I got my master's degree thinking that I'd become a teacher, um, and then I was in sales while all of that's happening. I'm working a job in sales, and then marketing kind of fell onto my plate because I realized how much I loved making things beautiful. Like, I loved the marketing aspect of things, not just the sales. And so when you and I met, I initially had my own company, and that was a demand generation company, and it was basically focusing on sales for other software companies. And then while I was in Bali, I basically was on Upwork, and I saw this listing for, we need help with our Amazon business, and it just looked so interesting. So I lied and said I had experience with Amazon, which I most definitely hadn't done it. And I started working with this company that I ended up working full-time for, for 3 years. And so that's what, what kind of got my foot into the industry was working at this Amazon brand management agency. And then from there I was using a software to help other brands. So brands for that agency, we were using Jungle Scout. To find new products to launch and to optimize listings and to figure out what keywords to advertise for. And then from there, I got a job at Jungle Scout, and I've been at Jungle Scout now for 3 years. And through this process of now basically like 7 years in this industry, I have thought so many times about launching a brand and then being like, I was too scared to do it. So I'd seen so many companies do it and be successful. But on that other hand, I had seen a lot of companies fail. I'd seen some crap products that just didn't do well on Amazon. So it wasn't until July of last year that I actually decided like, okay, it is time to be a brand owner. I've helped so many brands grow their business. I have this free software and the tools through Jungle Scout to do it. So yeah, that's kind of how my journey went from journalism to now being a brand owner.

I love it. I love it. And just like for context, can you just tell us what are your 4 brands?

Yeah, definitely. Okay. So there's Couples Coffee. That's obviously a coffee company. And then Fantaswick, which is a candle company, and that is hand-poured candles. And then from there, we decided to launch another candle company that focused on faith-based candles. So mostly just candles with scriptures, Bible verses on them. That is called Faith Wick. And, um, then the most recent brand— this literally went live on Amazon Prime like 5 days ago. I don't even know if I finished optimizing my listing, it was so recent. But this, it's called Fox and Pharaoh, um, and it's, uh, our first product is teeth whitening strips, but we plan to launch everything from like home goods, beauty products, baby products, all using basically the Jungle Scout software to find trending products to launch under that brand.

So amazing. It's— I love it. And you're doing all of these or most of these with your husband, is that right?

All of them with my husband. Yeah. So it's a partner-run business. He has the things that he focuses on and I have my focus areas. So yeah, it's definitely a nice balance. I honestly couldn't do it alone. So I mean, like, all the power to the people who are able to, but it, it's a heavy lift. And there's parts of the business that you're gonna love doing, and then there's parts that you're not gonna wanna do. And if you don't have either a partner doing it with you or an employee, there's just too much from A to Z for one person to be interested in all of that, I would say.

Yeah. And I think, you know, it's— I, I love when couples are able to work together. You know, it doesn't doesn't always work. It's not always a good dynamic, but you guys also have several investment properties. Like, you're truly just like building a kingdom over there, so I love it.

Yeah.

So what I'm interested in, and I know everyone is interested in this because passive income is very hot, like everyone has this, I think, a little bit of a fantasy of like, okay, I'm gonna start, you know, whether it's an online course or, you know, a product-based business, and I'm basically just gonna get, you know, like $20K, $50K, $100K cash checks in the mail or, you know, in my bank account, and I'm just gonna sit back and relax and it's gonna be good.

Yeah.

And I hear so many women saying like, I just want passive income, I just want passive income. And I think that, you know, as you're doing, you're creating it. But I really wanted to bring you on to kind of peel back the— help us understand, like, in terms of the, the world of Amazon and, you know, FBA, which is Fulfillment by Amazon. Like, that's, that's what it stands for, right?

Fulfillment by Amazon.

Yeah. So, you know, just helping us understand, like, the journey of how do you find the types of the types of, you know, pathways to, you know, FBA businesses because there's a couple.

Yeah.

And then what does it take to like identify the product, launch it, list it, grow it, scale it? Like it takes a true expert, you know, to understand this. And I've actually seen clients and friends try to do this and it has not worked because they don't have what I think you have, which is you know, the true understanding of the marketing side and the optimization side, which is how you get your products in front of people when they type in whitening strips. Like, how do we get Fox and Farrow to be the first one they see? That's how you actually start making money. So before we get into that, like, what would you say to the, the myth of like, oh, I'm, you know, passive income is easy? Like, is that true to you or is that Not true.

So yeah, it's not true. And it definitely, in the case of Amazon FBA, I would say the— my passive income I would consider is the properties we own in Airbnb, because I forget, like, I forget we own the one in Idaho. That truly is like the more passive, and it's still not 100% passive. But to grow an Amazon brand, it can't be passive. It just— there's so much that goes into it. Things can break. On the daily basis, like in Seller Central, which is your seller system for listing products, advertising products, and all of that. You can't set it and forget it. It just—

Right.

There's not a world where I can see that being a possibility. Of course, you can grow it to the point where you hire people who do all of the heavy lifting for you, of course, but you're not going to just enter into this industry and be able to just make passive income.

Right. Okay. So you heard it here first from the expert. I just like people to know because another thing I see is people spending tons of money on courses that promise, you know, passive income in 30 days. Like, and I think it's important to, you know, be really truthful with people.

Yeah.

From someone who's on the ground doing it, like that's just not the case. Right. Yeah. So kind of give us the lay of the land. Like, what are the types of, you know, FBA pathways that people could take if they did want to get into this?

Yeah. So if you're starting from the ground up, there's a few ways that you can do it. And I'll start by saying the one that I'd suggest nobody does, and that's the retail arbitrage. Yeah, that is walking into a Target, buying clearance products, and listing them on Amazon. That, that can't even be passive because you're constantly having to buy new products that are on, you know, the clearance shelf. So don't do that one. There's dropshipping, which I've known people who have made a ton of money on a product or 2 with dropshipping, but there's no build from there. You're— you have no brand equity. You're basically listing on someone else's product, or it's a product that Okay, it could be hundreds of people are selling, so you have no brand equity in it. You're not building a business. You're basically—

What's like an example? Like, give us a real live example of dropshipping.

The best example would be fidget spinners, right? So this was a product that hundreds of people were selling, and they're basically finding a supplier in most often China that offers the fidget spinners, and they are just ordering. They're purchasing 1,000 of those. Having those shipped to Amazon and listing on just the general, you know, fidget spinners, no brand to it. So yeah, when you're getting reviews, things like that, they're not your reviews. You don't own that. You don't own the Buy Box, which the Buy Box is the Buy Now button and some other information on Amazon. And when you don't have a brand, registered brand like my brands are, other people— the buy box moves from listing to listing. Typically Amazon chooses the listing or product that has the fastest shipping, let's say, or something like that. There's multiple factors that go into this algorithm, but you can look at your listing one day and your buy box is gone, and then people aren't buying from you, they're buying from whatever other person jumped in on this dropshipping trend.

So— Right.

You can make money, but it's not building a business.

So for example, like Amazon, let's just say, has a need for like a million fidget spinners a month, and you decide to buy 500, you know, 5,000 in China, and you're basically contributing 5,000 fidget spinners to Amazon's inventory need.

Yeah, basically. I mean, you can't ever know exactly what Amazon's inventory need would be.

I mean, you can definitely— For example.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. So you're basically just contributing to this To their— yeah, got it.

Okay, okay, so that's option 1, right? And we call that dropshipping. And, you know, your, your point— you have a good point because you could get knocked off. That's a good option if, like, you see a trend and you're just, like, willing to kind of, you know, like, I know a lot of people, like, did this with, like, PPE during COVID like, masks, scrubs, I don't know, all equipment like that, like So like if you see like an opportunity, a moment, a trend, like, and you don't wanna get into kind of the marketing or the branding of it, like this could be an option for you. But like be prepared to not sell everything you buy, basically, I would say.

Yep. 100%.

So it's like if you wanna spend, if you wanna throw $1,000 at fidget spinners and maybe you make, you know, what are the margins that people could expect? I know it varies, but like—

Yeah, it varies too much to like give an idea of that, and I've personally never done dropshipping, but private label, you typically like a good profit margin is 20%, and I mean, I've known people who are able to get that up to say 50% depending on the category and the product. We have some of our products sit at around 30%, but we have as low as like 18% profit margin.

Okay. Okay. So that's kind of the dropship situation, which sounds like isn't your recommendation unless you just wanna kind of, you see a hot trend and you wanna just like kind of play around and jump on it.

Okay.

Yeah. So talk to us about what you're doing with all of your businesses because it seems to be working. So what do you do and how do you do it?

Okay. So we have private label brands, my husband and I. So Basically what you do is, well, first off, you have to come up with either a product or product category, or in some cases you just come up with the brand like we did with Fox and Ferro, and we're going to launch products that are within that, but branded towards Fox and Ferro. So you have to get trademarks. So this is stuff that you do outside of Amazon, and you have to, you know, trademark your business, make sure obviously that somebody else doesn't already have this business name. and then from there you can take that trademark and you submit for something called Brand Registry on Amazon. And basically with Brand Registry, you are so much more likely to have success on Amazon and your conversion rates are much greater because you have things, you have access to things like your Amazon Storefront, A+ content, which is all of the content that sits, um, on the product detail page aside from product images and the bullet points. You can have product videos, you can do Amazon Live, Amazon Posts, the Amazon Influencer Program. There's just the Vine program to get more reviews. You would just unlock the suite of tools to succeed on Amazon that you only get if you're brand registered, and to be brand registered, you have to be trademarked.

So basically— Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Two questions. So how do people know what product to buy, like, to go with? Like, how do you decide? Because you've got coffee, candles, and whitening strips. So like, like, how do I know? Like, is there a database or something?

Yes. So that is the software company that I work for, Jungle Scout. So basically what you can do is get onto Jungle Scout, and there's a bunch of different tools that you can use, but they are basically plugged into the back end of Amazon. So they have data such as what are the trending keywords. So I can type in to Jungle Scout, anything that just kind of crosses my mind, like, I'm like, um, are, let's say, fake plants, are fake plants trending right now? I can type in fake plants and it'll tell me what is trending or what the search volume is, if things are trending up or trending down, and other types of kind of Amazon market data that help you to look into these categories and products to see if it's profitable, basically. So you can— there's a certain tool in Jungle Scout that allows you just to see what categories are trending, but then you still have to think, okay, so what— let's say the baby, the baby category. You have to think of a product within the baby category. So then you search keywords in Jungle Scout to see what type of products are selling. You have to do some competitor research, search it straight into Amazon's UI, see what's popping up. See how many reviews people have. Are you trying to launch products that are competing with brands that, let's say, Graco, that's been around for decades? Is there room in the market for you? So those are decisions that you have to make, and you have to kind of use data and competitive intelligence to make those decisions.

Right. And that alone sounds overwhelming. I'm like, oh my God. And Eva, I'm gonna put in the show notes, Eva does consulting on this because like it's the type of thing where I just, I don't think I, I'm super smart and I'm like really good at business, but this is just so niche. Like everything you just said, I'm like, I'm sure I could figure it out, but I mean, it's just so much easier to have someone who's like done it 'cause you're, you, you're so fluent in it, you know?

Mm-hmm.

So, okay, so let's like pick one. So this is private label, and this in your mind is the most profitable. You said the margins are like 18% to what, like 30?

Yeah, yeah, I would, I mean, it's, I would say if you can get to 50%, like you're doing amazing.

You're doing great. And that's something that people should, you know, I always say, have you done the math? You know, like Yeah. Like, do the, do the math. A lot of people are like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go into, you know, Amazon and I'm gonna, you know, sell candles. And, you know, maybe they're making like $5 per candle, for example. Well, you gotta sell a lot of candles to, you know, see, see an impact, right? And to really see income coming in. So if you're not optimized, which is what you're talking about, if it's not a hot product, then we got a problem, right?

Yeah.

So again, it's like just doing the math and like you're saying, like looking at the, the, the probability and the trends and all of that. So kind of talk us through like maybe we just pick like one of your, your products and just like tell us what did you, how did you do it? Like how did you take us through the journey?

Yeah. So one note, we do have a profit calculator on Jungle Scout. So if you go to junglescout.com, You can add in, like, after you've talked to a supplier about what your cost of goods is going to be, you can figure out that profitability before launching a product. And like you said, you have to do the math first.

Yeah.

So yeah, that's an easy tool to use to kind of figure that out. But I think what I can focus on is, well, first off, you know, we purchased Fantaswick and Couples Coffee as existing brands. So somebody else had done that trademark work. So Faithwick and Fox and Farrow, we did the trademarks, the brand registry. So I kind of have experience with both of them. So I can briefly kind of talk through what someone could do if they're like, okay, all of that sounds extremely overwhelming. I don't want to have to come up with a product or a brand name.

A name. Yeah.

Yeah, all of that. So what you can do is purchase an existing Amazon brand, and you can do it through— there's multiple companies that do it. Flippa. I used Empire Flippers. And so basically what you do is you can add in filters like, what is your budget? I wanna purchase, let's say, an existing brand that is $100,000, and then you'll see what's in It's basically like a Craigslist for buying a business, which is really cool. It's got a great UI so you can filter through things and then you can go and see what sparks your interest. I would say as your first brand that you start or purchase, you want to have some passion about the product because there's a lot of people I know who make crazy money off of really interesting things like, let's say, a doorknob. Nobody's passionate about doorknobs, but— Right. Be money in it. But I think if you're getting into this to start out, pick something that you personally use on a weekly or daily basis. So my example here is Couples Coffee, and I—

You love coffee.

I'm obsessed with coffee. Yeah. So it's like, it was something I knew that I could really drive marketing for because I personally am passionate about coffee.

Yeah.

So Yeah. So that's one of the ways you can take it, which is, I have some money to invest. I would like to purchase something that already has a customer base. We already had hundreds of reviews. There was already some branding done with it. And already some, like, a customer base. So you kind of walk into it already. And again, I'm not saying this is passive income, but you enter into this business with income already coming in. So a lot of people, that's what you feel more comfortable doing. And even though I had so much experience in this industry, that's what I felt the most comfortable doing. And then after really getting my feet wet as an actual business owner and not just someone who was helping other businesses grow, that is when we felt confident enough to launch Fox and Farrow.

Mm-hmm.

And the strategy for that one for us was to launch a brand name that's not specific to the product. So Couples Coffee and Faithwick and Fantaswick, we really have narrowed ourselves into this market of like, well, doesn't make sense to launch anything that's not coffee related, you know. So we launched a brand that's a generic name that we can use the Jungle Scout tools to constantly find products that are trending.

Trending.

Well, yeah, that we can launch as a private label. So we have to brand it ourselves. So that's one of the things is if you get into private label, you have to have— you either have to be a designer or be prepared to pay a designer because you're going to have to design products. This isn't where you go on to Alibaba and you're like, that cute, like, that cute mug, that's awesome, let's sell that. That's dropshipping. That is not private label. So you have to be prepared to design your own products.

Right. And I think that's important because like people buy based on packaging. I think, you know, like that, that's a consideration. Like people love, you know, like, and I always see you on LinkedIn, like polling people on packaging and things like that. Like people, I, I will literally buy something based on how it's packaged.

100%. And that's one of the things you have to keep in mind is that you have to design a good product because when launching on Amazon, you are on a listing page with hundreds of other sellers or brands who are listing a similar product. So what is going to stand out in search? And this is why, you know, we launched a pink coffee bag because when we were on Amazon looking at competitive research, I mean, and also pink is my favorite color, so that played into it. But of course we had to do some research. Okay, who— what exists out there that's already pink in this, you know, in coffee K-cups or coffee grounds. And as I was scrolling through pages of Amazon, I'm seeing nothing. So I knew that people like me, if I'm searching for ground coffee on Amazon, if I see a pink bag, I'm buying the pink bag 100% of the time because it's pink. So it's a very similar thought process depending on what you're launching, if it's geared towards men, women, or both. You have to keep that in mind of personally when you're shopping, what makes you pull the trigger on a product? And it's typically how the product looks.

Right. Yeah, I think that's important. And I think, you know, do you design or do you outsource it?

So I come up with what I— so in my— yeah, a vision. So in my full-time job, I run a marketing team and I have, you know, designers who work under me and I give them a vision of what I'm thinking. So that it's called a design brief. So I basically look at color palettes and fonts, or maybe like examples of competitors' products that I like, and I put together this basically a dream board of what I would love my product to look like. And then I have to put that like trust into the designer's hands, and I could send you after this some labels that a designer sent me today that had me like on the floor laughing. They were so bad. I was like, this was not my vision. Like, it looks like something you'd find on the shelves like in the 1940s. And so you— there's a lot of times that they're gonna get it wrong and that what you have in your brain isn't translating. And it takes time. Like, it's not like I can just send a designer a product design brief and get it back 100% ready to go. That has never actually happened.

So— Right. And I think, you know, another thing I just thought of is like you're building, you know, these 4 businesses plus your Airbnb while you have a full-time job.

Yeah.

Right. And, you know, and it honestly, like, I call it, you know, is your— I think it's important for people to know that they can do both. Yeah. You know, like it's— and I think you hit on something really important, which is, you know, obviously like a huge pillar of my brand and my work in the world is like you have to feel passionate and lit up about what you're selling.

Yeah.

Right? And inside, you know, my, my core method, which is called the Opulence Method, there's 3 pillars and you've actually hit on all of them. And I tell everyone this applies to every single business. And I believe that if, if a business has these 3 things in place, it will be successful. So it's a product suite that people love and that you love. Right? So you have to, you have to love what you're selling, believe in it. You know, know that it helps people, know that people love it. That's like the first thing. And then the second thing is you have to have irresistible marketing, right? And that's down to the, you know, the logo, to the messaging, to the way you, you talk about it, to, you know, the whole marketing journey. And then the third thing is you have to have magnetic energy. So like you have to feel literally like genuinely aligned and lit up by what you're doing.

Yeah.

Or I don't believe that God, the universe will, you know, pave the way as easily. I really believe that like those 3 things, and I mean, that's why I think you guys have been so successful is 'cause for everything you have, whether it's the Idaho Airbnb, Couples Coffee, the candles, you know, Fox and Farrow, like it checks that process, you know? It's like products you guys love, you know they're gonna help people. People love your coffee. Like, I saw one of our friends like is bringing the K-Cups to her office because the pink makes her happy. Like, you know, people, people love it, right? And I mean, you're obviously a marketing expert, so that's, you know, off the charts. And then because of all of that, your energy is just so aligned, and that makes, that makes people feel magnetized towards your products, right? So just for everyone listening, I know I talk about you know, my method, but it, it truly checks out for any type of business, any type of—

Agree.

Yeah. Um, so, okay, so with Couples Coffee, like, once you got it up and running, like, how long did it take you to start seeing, like, consistent profit coming in?

Yeah, so I— one thing I want to say about profit is I don't I, I suggest that any business starting out on Amazon doesn't take profit like doesn't— don't look at it as profit. Look at it as more money to launch new products and to promote your products, advertising your products. We don't take a penny out of our businesses, and we don't plan to until minimum 2 years. And so anybody who thinks that they're just gonna quit their full-time job after 6 months, no, don't do it. Do not quit your full-time job until you've tripled your full-time job's income with your Amazon business. So just that as a note. But, um, you— I mean, if you look at it as technically, we were profitable right away, right? So, you know, we had enough wiggle room in our, in our profit margins to advertise on Amazon and to advertise on social media, um, and to put a lot of, to pump money into, you know, content videos and content and images of our products and things like that and still be profitable. But as I mentioned, we take that profit and we put it into advertising and launching more products. So I would say as far as after you've made your initial investment, which could be, let's say you purchased the existing Amazon brand, or you've purchased, let's say, $10K of inventory, you're going to have to sell through typically about 40 to 50% of that inventory before you're starting— before you recoup that investment. If you've purchased an Amazon brand, then it's going to be a little bit different to recoup. Right. That investment. But you'll, when you do that, you start, you're gonna see paychecks basically from Amazon right away when you've purchased an existing brand.

Right. Okay. And I think, I mean, again, like, this is why I'm so glad you're here because I mean, 2 years is, you know, and again, that's a, that's a strategic business choice that you guys are making. And I mean, I think we can all agree, you know what you're doing. So So there's a reason behind that 2-year, you know, kind of benchmark. But again, like, I think that gives people a good sense of like, you should plan on like 2 years of nurturing, investing, refining, you know, not taking money out of the business to go shopping, you know.

Yeah.

So give yourself that mental runway if you're considering starting something like this. I think that's super important. And can you talk to us? Because like, this is something I think you do really well. I've seen you do it, like the listing itself, like the way you word it and, you know, how you describe the product. We talked about the look and feel, like the logo, but like, isn't it important the words you use in the description also?

Yeah, it is extremely important, especially on Amazon, because that is how you rank for keywords. So you can, you can advertise for keywords, and if you don't have those keywords showing up in your listing, you're not ranking for them. So basically, let's just take the coffee example. So we have a French vanilla flavored coffee. Now, if I advertise for French vanilla keywords, but I don't have that anywhere in my listing. That is how Amazon knows when it's in your listing is how to categorize your product. So base— it's similar to Google, right? When you're doing SEO tactics, how is Google going to pop your website at the top of search? And it's by telling Google and telling the search engine, this is what my product is and this is what it does. So you have to do that keyword research, find out what people are actually typing into the search bar. . So you do that through Jungle Scout, and then you have to take those keywords, that pool of keywords, and you have to naturally weave it into the title, the bullet points, and the description. And so that is— a lot of that is for Amazon's benefit and for your own benefit. But the way you strategically weave those keywords in is for the benefit of the consumer. So I have seen like Chinese listings where they literally are just keyword stuffing. It's keyword, keyword, keyword, like it has no flow to it. It doesn't sound like a person talking. So there's really, it's like a dance between how many keywords you put in there to rank and how it sounds so that the consumer is not like, this is gibberish, and doesn't purchase from you. Because that is one thing is people have really woken up, consumers I mean, have woken up to Chinese sellers and being— having like knocked off products and not great, you know, just not great products. So if someone has the feeling you are a Chinese seller, they will click out of your listing. So you have to make sure that it sounds good.

Right. And I remember— I don't know what— where I read that, but I just remember the way that you write. It's like, it's so like appealing and fun and professional. Like you can just tell it's legit. You know, like it sounds legit. And you know, I mean, like, I think that that's, that applies to, you know, really any business. Again, going back to the magnetic marketing principle, like it's so important that you, you know, either learn or hire someone to write in a way that is appealing to your ideal client.

Yeah.

And a lot of times, like I talk to, you know, coaches or service providers about, the way that they share content a lot of times on social media. And they use terms that their ideal client just doesn't understand, such as somatic healing.

Yeah.

Where the woman who is having severe panic attacks and is isolating herself, she doesn't know that maybe somatic healing is a, is a good modality for her, right? And so it's really important as an entrepreneur to learn how to speak to your people, whether that's an Amazon product like, you know, Couples Coffee, or whether that's a coaching package, or, you know, a trip to Australia. Like, it doesn't matter, but you have to learn how to message and ma— become a master of messaging. I think that is like so huge.

Yeah, I agree. And I think it's important to call out like the ChatGPT that everybody is using it and I use it on a daily basis. And so I'm not knocking using ChatGPT, but so many times I have seen like on LinkedIn or even Instagram and I've seen it on Amazon listings where people think that they can just plug a prompt into ChatGPT copy and paste the outcome and not humanize it. I am— and maybe I'm just keen to it because I am a writer, but when I see something that looks like— I can tell that it's copy and pasted from an AI. Like, AI is not human, and as close as they're trying to get to it, when you're reading something, you can tell if it was written by an AI or by a human. So people need to be very, like, wary of that. So use ChatGPT as a tool, but not as your writer, and you need to put your own voice and just humanize the writing because it just looks robotic when it's straight from AI.

Totally. I agree. And I use, you know, ChatGPT just recently in the same way. I don't use it to write my content, but I'll use it for, you know, like emails or things that are more— that don't really need to have emotion or feeling behind it. So like how, you know, as a writer and as, you know, a marketing specialist, like how can people get better at this?

So, I mean, it depends on if it's something you wanna get better at, I guess, because—

Let's assume they do. Like let's say whether, whether they're, you know, coaches and they're trying to write content that converts clients or whether they're looking to, you know, sell a trip. You know, I have a lot of women in travel that I coach, like, you know, or someone who's doing, you know, something like you're doing with an Amazon product? Like, how can people get better or towards mastery like you at this?

So I would say one of the best ways to do that is to read, to read competitors, either like in this case when we're talking about Amazon is reading competitors' listings and seeing how they do it and flagging things you love about it and hate about it. And really getting to know the masters in your field. So if you're writing a book and you've never read a book before, you're— it's probably gonna suck. So making sure that you're consuming a lot of other writers' material and then practicing a lot. So with time, you're gonna get better the more writing that you do. And then also there's LinkedIn courses out there. Like, I don't know if you've done the LinkedIn Learning, but I have like the LinkedIn Premium, and I'm just is constantly brushing up on industry stuff and marketing things with LinkedIn Learning, and they have like writing courses. So yeah, you just have to educate yourself and finding the ways that you prefer to do that. Maybe it's YouTube videos, maybe it's actually taking a course where there's a teacher. I'm like a self-taught person, so I like courses better that are just kind of like online where you're watching videos. Mm-hmm. So yeah, I think to become a master, you have to practice it. So yeah.

Yeah, totally. Okay. So we've got the product, we've got, you know, we've, we've got it on, it's Amazon, it's Amazon approved. What do you call it when it's like registered with Amazon?

Yeah, brand registered.

Okay. It's brand registered. We've nailed the copy, like it's optimized. Then what do we do to like start selling it? Like, is this organic? Are there ads? Like, what's the, what's the strategy behind that?

Yeah, so after you have your product live on Amazon, you advertise on it, and Amazon advertising is a beast. It is something that, like, I know people who have been in it for years and they're still, still learning new things and still tweaking things, and getting your advertising campaigns honed in is the most difficult. So we survey sellers at Jungle Scout, and it is constantly at the top of the list for both enterprise brands and small businesses as the biggest pain point is advertising. So my biggest suggestion here is, if you're going to invest in help, it needs to be your ad campaigns, because you're not just gonna get onto the advertising console inside of Seller Central and like click around and figure it out. You're going to have to either really educate yourself in it, taking the courses, or we have a lot of like free stuff on YouTube through Jungle Scout that teaches people how to do some of these things, but that it's a big learning curve. So there's that advertising piece of it. And then, of course, you have your social media. So if you're launching a brand, you need to have a brand presence. The only way to have a brand presence these days really is through social media platforms. So my suggestion is the second you have a brand name in mind, snag the handles on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and all of that. So building up that following is going to be a really great way to get quick sales to kickstart Amazon's algorithms to say, So it's all about Amazon's algorithm. Take it— takes into consideration the keywords you put into your listing. So then you drive a bunch of traffic to this listing, let's say, through your Instagram following, and a bunch of sales convert. And then Amazon goes, oh, people are converting on these, like, say, French vanilla ground coffee keywords. They start putting you higher and higher up on the search, the organic search. For these key terms. So making— driving traffic off Amazon to your Amazon listings is only going to boost you higher organically on Amazon search field.

Got it. Okay, that's, that's helpful. And I mean, that, that makes a lot of sense, you know, and, and that's also probably where reviews come in because the more people that are buying, the more reviews you get, and then that probably increases your your, you know, your place in the algorithm also, I would assume.

Yes, that, and it helps you convert more. So Amazon considers a listing to be retail ready at 30 reviews. So if you have less than 30 reviews, it is much more difficult for you to convert because people want to see the trust. They want to— they're buying from somebody they don't know, a brand they've never heard of. There's that trust factor. So that's why Amazon has the Amazon Vine program where you send out 30 products and that is sent to Vine reviewers. So these are real consumers, um, and then those consumers come in and they leave a review. And on your review, it will say like it's— that it's a Vine reviewer, but it is honest feedback. You're not guaranteed to get all 30, but it is an option to get reviews on there, um, so that you can start to see those higher conversion rates.

Okay, that's That's, that's very interesting. And then what if you have no social media presence? Like you guys have a bunch of followers. How do you get those followers rolling if you're starting from ground zero? Because a lot of my clients are starting from zero.

Yeah. Yeah. No, and that is so hard. I mean, that's like, it's a hard thing to do if you're just trying to even become an influencer yourself.

Right.

Like, what are you gonna post? You have to have some type of brand identity. And this is personally something that, you know, we're, We haven't started posting on the Fox and Farrow Instagram. We have a handle, but I have been personally struggling with, well, what do we post about? Like, we're not just going to post about teeth whitening strips. There needs to be a brand identity. And with Couples Coffee, that was so easy because it's couples, right? Right.

It's literally in the name. Yeah.

Yeah. And so, and we are, you know, a veteran-owned company. My husband is a veteran and we're both from veteran families. So we put that heart into our businesses. And we, we donate to a portion of our sales to a charity, the National— NMFAA, National Military Family Association. And so we post about military stuff. So that kind of— you have to first think of what your brand identity is and start posting in that, and then using those hashtags, which is how we built up The Couple's Coffee Instagram.

Yeah. And I, I think again, like, I'm so glad we're talking about this because it's the same thing I teach in, you know, the Dream Accelerator, which is my early business building program. And, you know, we go deeper on in the Opulence Mastermind, which is for my higher level women in business. Like, you can't just, like, I call it post and pray, you know, like you can't just say, I have a product, buy it. Like, that doesn't work for people anymore.

Yeah.

You have to build a movement around your product or your service, you know, and there's a million ways to do that. And I think, you know, having, you know, what I call kind of brand pillars, whether it's like veterans or, you know, you know, couples in love or, you know, whatever, family, like whatever it might be, you have to have those pillars and your brand has to have a movement around it. Because the post and pray thing just, it doesn't work. And this is where I see so many people basically feeling like, I, this is never gonna work for me. Like I'm never gonna be able to sell. And it's because you don't have a strategy around your product.

Mm-hmm.

And you don't know how, you don't understand how to sell. And most importantly, you haven't created a movement around your, your brand and your product. So people are like, oh my God, like, The reason people are buying Couples Coffee is honestly probably not because of the coffee. It's probably because of the brand and what it signifies and how it makes them feel. Right? I would completely agree there.

Yeah.

And especially—

Sorry.

There's— no, go ahead.

I was just gonna say there's so many different products out there. There's so many brands you're competing with. So you have to have what is, what makes your brand stand apart basically.

Right, right. And I always say, and you know, like I always say, women are emotional buyers. You have to make them feel something to buy, you know? And like the couple's story, the veteran thing, the pink, like that all makes me feel something.

Yeah.

And that pulls me towards your product. And it's the exact same thing with coaching, you know, with if it's, you know, olive oil, if it's a beauty skin product, like people connect to the story, which is part of your brand. Like, you have to create a movement and you cannot just like post and pray because you will just end up frustrated and wanting to like throw in the towel. So—

Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. And one of the things I'd like to note is in our like consumer research at Jungle Scout, we found that consumers are leaning more heavily towards the small business. I think something kind of like there, there was this shift during COVID I think part of it being the fact that all of these corporations were able to remain up and running while the mom-and-pop shops were shut down. And I think that created this movement of like, you know what, screw it, I don't want to get my groceries at Walmart, I'm going to go to the corner store where I know who the owner is, I know where that money is going. And so if you really drive home that you're a small business and communicate that on your Amazon listing, and then also communicating that through your Instagram. People love that. People love to know where their money is going and who it's gonna support. So really a good, good strategy is to make yourself the face of this company and to communicate the things that make— that you are passionate about and to have a driving force aside from money. So we all know at the end of the day, obviously we're launching these products and these Amazon brands to to build up our wealth. Right. But it isn't just about that at the end of the day, and it can't just be about that. And that's why, you know, we partnered with the NMFA so that we felt like there was a driving force for us and our consumers. When they buy from us, they know they're supporting this charity who is doing really, really great work in the military community, community, mostly focusing on the wives and the children of military military spouses. So having something that you're passionate about, whether it's— let's say you're passionate about the ocean and you wanna like the, the Clean Water Project, I think it is, or something like that. I've known brands who've partnered with them and they donate a portion of proceeds. So I honestly, like, one of the best strategies I can say, and is to partner with some type of charity that you are passionate about and you think that your consumers will be passionate about.

I love that. And I think, you know, that ties back to the, the method, you know, the Opulence Method, which is like having a product that you love, like that you genuinely love, having it tied to a cause just makes you love it even more. And it makes you just want to get it in more people's hands because you're like, the more I sell, the more— not only I'm going to make more people happy, but I'm going to help more people, you know. And that only makes it like— that comes through in your marketing and in your messaging, and that comes through in your energy. So it like, it's so— everything that you're saying is just like, it applies to all businesses and it's not complicated. It doesn't need to be complicated. But I think in the case of, you know, you've peeled back the curtain on like, so much goes into this, you know. And so as we kind of round to the end here, like you said, you know, you guys won't take money for 2 years. Like, what's the lifecycle of this thing? And like, what's your vision for your brand's like, where are we going? Where are we headed with the empire?

Yeah. So I mean, what— for the candle companies, Fantasmic specifically, our goal is to, like, just drive so much growth to literally cover Amazon search page with our candles. So when you search candle, like, Fantasmic better be popping up. And doing that over 36 months, so investing 100% over 36 months so that we have so many ASINs. And ASIN is the identifier for your product on Amazon. So we have so many products on Amazon and we have a really high revenue to show because when you go to sell your company, profit isn't what people really care about because they can take and do whatever they want with profit, right? So they want to see revenue. So if they see a really high revenue, and that's why we— what we're building towards is to sell the company for— I mean, our goal is $1 million, $1 million plus, like, and we have a roadmap of how we can do that, how many candles we need to launch per month over the next 36 months to have our revenue to be where we will be evaluated at about $1 million. So that is the goal there. Yeah. And then Fox and Farrow is really like, I mean, I'm passionate about the name because it is, you know, a good memory that I have of why, how I came up with that name. That's one I think I'd like to keep and just continue to launch products in different categories. And then Couples Coffee, that one, I can see that remaining like in the family. But who, who knows? Like, let's say we find out we can sell that in 5 years for $5 million plus, talk to me then. I might, I might sell it, but we kind of have different strategies for each brand. And the Fantaswik specifically is one where we're like, we're looking to sell within 36 months.

I love that. I love that. And I think, you know, it's the exact same thing with, you know, services or online products. Like each product needs a unique strategy, you know, like one-on-one coaching. Needs its own funnel and needs its own strategy, like long term, you know, like if you're doing, if you have a travel brand, like, you know, you need to have a strategy for each one of your trips. Like, again, you can't just like post and pray and throw something up on Amazon or throw something online and hope that it'll work out. I think, you know, the businesses that grow, scale, and, you know, in your case, sell, like they have heart, they have vision, and, you know, they they, they take time and consistency.

Yeah, yep, I 100% agree.

Amazing. Well, this has been so much fun. I always close with 3 questions. So this is the Prosperous Woman Podcast, so I always like to ask, what does prosperity mean to you?

Oh wow, that is, um, that's a deep one. Um, prosperity to me Prosperity means being in a position to be able to take care of my family. That is something that really drives my husband and I is to— we have 15 nieces and nephews and an ever-growing family, and we just want to be able to show them like what it— how you can build a business and how you can build a life for yourself, but also be able to spoil them. So to me, prosperity is is being able to gift family things and not feel like, oh, my family member needs $1,000 to do X, Y, or Z, to be able to give that with a heart of like giving and not of, oh, am I going to see that money back? So being in a place where we can help others and specifically help family, um, that's what I kind of feel prosperity is.

Mm-hmm. I love that. I got chills. That's so beautiful. What is the next dream that you're devoted to or that you're, you're desiring or calling in?

So I, I mean, I guess my next dream would be like, at this point, like, I mean, I've built my career and I've built, um, my businesses, um, for a long time, and that's been my focus. I think building my family would be the next thing. So like having kids and being able to, um, kind of instill in them all of these things that I've learned through business and through career, and, and showing them that you can have both. Like, I come from a, you know, a family with a stay-at-home mom, which I'm not saying anything bad. I would never would say anything bad about those who choose to be a stay-at-home mom. But when I was raised, I wasn't told there was an option. I wasn't shown like, oh, you can actually have education and have career and, and have money. Like, I grew up poor. Like, I wasn't— I never realized that you can, you can have kids and you can have a family and also have those things that still make you you. And my career makes me who I am. It's what I'm passionate about. So I want to raise my kids to see, like, you can, you can have it all.

I love that. I see that for you. It's coming soon. I'm— every time I see you guys post on Facebook, I'm like, it's going to be a pregnancy announcement.

One day. One day. Yeah.

And then finally, where can people find you? Because I'm sure anyone who's listening who's like, oh my God, like, I want to do what she's doing, or I just want to follow her journey. I'm going to link all your businesses' Instagram so that people can follow you. But like, where can they connect with you personally?

Yeah, so I am on LinkedIn under Eva Hart. And yeah, I'll have you link that out. I can be found there. I'm also— you can, you know, follow my personal page on Instagram. My handle is still back from, uh, Claire Sellers' travel days, the @wandering.heart.

Love it.

Yeah, you can find me there as well. Um, but LinkedIn is where I really post like about building a business. I post about our Airbnbs and all of our brands. So that's where you're gonna probably learn the most.

Yes. And you post really interesting content. I'm like always commenting and liking all your stuff. So we'll link all that in the show notes. And it's just, this has been so amazing. I'm just like I'm just so proud of you. I'm so inspired by you. Like, you're truly building a legacy and it's so heart-centered and purpose-led, and it's just like an honor to, to know you and to have you on the show. So thank you.

Oh, thank you so much, Claire. This has been a really good time. I've loved chatting.

Me too. Okay, see you later.

Bye.

Thank you for tuning in to the Prosperous Woman Podcast. I am so grateful for your presence and for being a part of this community. Feel free to DM me @itsclairesellers on Instagram. I would love to connect with you and hear what resonated with you in this episode. Forget to subscribe to the show. And if you enjoyed what you heard today, leave a 5-star review. Your feedback means the world to me and helps me reach more incredible women just like you. You. And because I love to spoil you, just DM me a screenshot of your review on Instagram and I'll send you my free Prosperity Activation Course as a thank you. It's my way of investing in you and your dreams. Thank you.