I tried Amazon FBA and became a millionaire....

So I tried Amazon FBA and they made me a millionaire, and it didn't happen overnight. And this is not going to be a video discussing top-line revenue, all of my expenses, and the truth behind Amazon FBA you can find repetitive here on Amazon or on YouTube. Um, I want to go ahead and discuss the journey and how it got here as far as me being able to be a millionaire, because oftentimes it's not making the millions of dollars that's actually the fulfilling part of any type of journey. The best part is actually the journey itself— learning new skills, learning how to scale, learning how metrics, and, you know, basically being able to know every single expense in your Amazon business truly matters, right? Because you hear it all the time that when people sell their businesses, it's great and they should have a great feeling, but people feel unfulfilled and When I sell Maverick, which is probably going to happen within the next couple of months, um, in the first half of like 2026, um, I feel like it's gonna happen. I'm gonna feel that way, right? It's like I built up a business as far as buying it for $190,000, scaling it out while it was making $6,000 per month in profit, and scaling it out to now making $80,000, $90,000 per month in profit, which is insane to me. And maybe selling it for close to $3 million, which sounds crazy to me, right? But let me take you through the journey of how it started because everybody looks at Z and never kind of explains what happened in A, which is the beginning, right? Like my first product, and I'll try and find it over here, is factory laced, right? And factory lace, you can go ahead and see, um, right there, right? I have a bunch of this product in my garage. I have some right there. That was the first business and brand I ever started on Amazon FBA. And I say that I got lucky with that brand, um, and I say lucky because when I first launched Factory Laced, I didn't know it at the time, but I was actually building a real Amazon FBA business. And what do I mean by that? Well, back in 2018 when I first got started with Amazon FBA, it was all about just finding trending products putting them into Amazon, no differentiation whatsoever, no branding whatsoever, and just putting it up there because there was way more buyers than there were sellers at that time. And obviously, you know, the floodgates opened up with a bunch of like Chinese sellers, uh, Amazon FBA being the next get-rich-quick type of scheme. You see course sellers all the time going ahead and talking about Amazon FBA. And at the time in 2018, it was like that, but it was to a way lesser degree to what it is, what it is right now, right? And what do I say about doing Amazon FBA the right way? Well, with Factory Laced, I was the customer. Factory Laced, if you guys don't know what Factory Laced is, is a shoe cleaning brand, right? Brushes, shoe cleaner, repellents, deodorants, wipes, the whole nine when it comes to shoe cleaning. And the reason why I did it the right way is because I was the customer for that product. I understood the pain points. I understood the insecurities of why someone is purchasing a certain type of shoe cleaner, because I used to camp out for shoes. I used to get limited edition sneakers all the time. And camping out for shoes literally meant you would go a day in advance, set up shop, and be the first one in line to get a pair of newly released sneakers. And we're talking about like The LeBron Miami Vices, the LeBron and Kobe Galaxy, the KD Galaxies. We're talking about the Nike Air Yeezys and go to every single raffle. I'm talking about like the Supreme SB Dunks back in like 2013 or 2012 when they went ahead and released. Like we're talking about, I was deep in the game when it came to collecting sneakers. And I just felt like it was the right thing to go ahead and do is come out with a shoe cleaner because I understood that all of these different shoes that I'm getting have different types of materials. And what's currently out there right now wasn't suffice of what I was actually looking for. So I went ahead and built a brand with different types of brushes for different types of material and shoes. I went ahead and came out with a shoe glue because I wanted to restore certain shoes and resell them because I was a reseller of these actual limited edition sneakers. So like, the thing is that like people get lost as far as like finding a trending product and kind of just launching it to try and make money. Where in reality, the most successful brands out there on Amazon right now, understanding their customer and understand exactly what triggers them to purchase a product. And you have to know that whenever you're starting Amazon FBA. And again, I don't like to make any edits in my actual videos. So if I ever make a mistake or I don't go ahead and, uh, if I lose my train of thought, I apologize. Like, I don't have any notes on me or anything like that. I'm literally just speaking based on just my knowledge when it comes to Amazon FBA. So that is the most important thing, right? Like, No one is going to go ahead and purchase your product if you are not speaking to them. And you have to really understand, it's like marketing 101, that whenever you are launching a product, people like to say, I'll go ahead and just target everyone. But the thing is that if you try and target everyone, and let's say your only differentiator is like price per se, you're literally going to make zero sales. You're literally going to make no money. You're literally going to call Amazon FBA a scam that you tried it and it's so saturated and this and that. So that's number one. The more focal point is knowing the customer avatar or customer that actually purchasing your product. Right. Um, and the reason why it's important is because that's going to significantly increase conversion rate. The thing is that you can probably be the premium priced item in your actual niche and still make a killing and still outcompete everybody else in the actual niche. As long as you speak to a customer, because every single type of customer that's going to your listing page is going to buy because you understand their pain points. You understand exactly what they're looking for, right? Number 2 though, right? That's conversion rate. Number 2 though, you have to understand profitability. Like the thing is that most people don't teach this whatsoever. And I think I got this skillset because I'm buying businesses now. Like I have investors that I go ahead and pitch to and, um, we have to look for businesses based on like, you know, P&L sheets, balance sheets, all this other stuff is that real Amazon FBA sellers, like the operators, like you and I right now, truly don't understand the profitability of your own business. Like if I were to ask you, if you want to get to $1 million in revenue, right? What is that profit margin going to go ahead and actually look like? Because you have to take into account the COGS, which is the cost of goods sold to produce your item and ship it into an Amazon warehouse. And everything's going to be different based on what warehouse you're going to go ahead and ship it to. Right. Tariffs obviously go ahead and take into effect. What's your Amazon FBA fees? And you have to get this broken down to every single one of your actual products, because you might have different bundles, variations, or anything like that. Right? So understanding Amazon fees, right? And if Amazon fees go up and down, how is that going to go ahead and translate to your expense sheet? Right? And then what is your TACOS? Like, the thing is that people are so obsessed with ACOS all the time when it comes to advertising that ACOS truly doesn't really matter as long as you know what your TACOS is. Right? And that's basically accounting for both your sponsored ads and your organic sales. So once you really understand the profitability of your actual business, it's just a bunch of levers you have to go ahead and pull to get to your end goal, right? So it might mean that, okay, if I get to a million— if I want to get to a million dollars in like, let's say December time, right, for selling season, I want to sell a million dollars worth of revenue in just December time, I know I need to have at least $200,000 worth of cost of goods sold. Right, so now it's just going ahead and trying to get to those to those levers to try and make sure that you are there. Right, so that's the most important thing. And I think what I kind of want to end this off with is the fact that the journey is always going to be the most fulfilling part of anything. Like you got into Amazon FBA for a reason, right? Whether that's going ahead and having more money, more time, more freedom. Like I got into Amazon FBA at the time because I was young, man. Like if I wasn't in back in 2018, I was probably like 22, 23 years old, just graduated college, uh, just closed a few deals in real estate, and I was like, hey, I'm burnt out. Like, I can't do real estate anymore. Like, I need to find a different way to kind of make money because the longevity thing of like real estate, I just didn't see myself. Obviously I could have figured out systems in place and I probably could have been really successful if I continued doing real estate. I have no doubt in my mind of that, but like The journey has been so fulfilling when it comes to Amazon FBA because you learn a skill set that you can implement in anything. Like, I literally built a brand that no one knew. I negotiated terms. I negotiated going ahead and, you know, uh, building out different A+ content, understanding my end customer, understanding how to run PPC, brand analytics, doing all this other stuff in order to run a business that, that's invaluable, right? It's truly invaluable. And When, when you get to my point, like right now my end goal when I sell Maverick is going to be opening up like a money— a mini private equity. And I say mini because obviously like I have no idea what private equity does, but I've noticed that there is so much money out there in this world. And if you understand one skill, and like my skill is Amazon FBA, I put it up and down, like I have no idea how to do TikTok Shop, I have no idea how to run Facebook ads, I have no idea how to run a Shopify store, like I have no knowledge whatsoever, but I do have the skill set of learning day in and day out Amazon FBA. And if you apply that to anything you go ahead and do and you become the master at it, you're going to make money because there is so much money out there. I have investors that are always telling me, where is the next deal to go ahead and be found? And they want to partner up with me because I have that skill set, because I have that knowledge, right? So my end goal is to do private equity, but if it wasn't for 2018 and me taking that first step I would never become a millionaire in Amazon FBA, right? Like, I would never— in a million years, I, I really don't think I would have became a millionaire, right? And that's the thing, like, even though I might not have a million dollars in my bank account right now, which I don't, right? Like, I have a nice house, um, in Southern California. I have a nice car. I remodeled my entire house, um, everything like that. Like, obviously, like, I don't like documenting that. Like, I like to document, like, my time, my location, like, me spending time with my family most and foremost, because that's the most important thing in my life and the reason why Amazon FBA has been so great to me. But I'm rambling. But what I'm, what I'm trying to say is focus on one thing and focus on that journey, because that journey, when you look back when you're 80 years old, is what you're going to remember for the rest of your life. Like, money is, is great, but once you establish like your why— like, my why right now is my kids, right? Like, once you establish your why, money truly doesn't matter. Yes, money will go ahead and, you know, unlock a lot of different things like going on vacation. Like, I'm gonna go be in New York for a whole week, going ahead and like, you know, flying first class and doing all this nice stuff. But, you know, what matters the most for me is my time with my girls, especially they're 2 years old, 1 year old right now. Whole life is ahead of them, and I'm able to spend so much time with them. And that was because of Amazon FBA. And I'll always remember this, even when I'm on my, my deathbed, or, you know, late stage of my life where I'm 80, 90, 100 years old, I'm gonna come back to where I'm at right now, right this second, and truly feel like this is the best time of my life. And this is not even accounting for like money or anything like that. Like, it's just that time factor. So figure out your why. Go, we stay disciplined as far as the journey, because even though there might not look like there's light at the end of the tunnel right now, especially you with like anybody watching this with their Amazon FBA business that feels lost, Trust me, you're gaining so much experience, even if that means that you're struggling day to day, month to month, year to year, right? I always like this quote that says when you're first starting out, you always get the haters that come out and say, I don't know why people are doing this, I don't know why this person's doing it, and this guy's gonna fail. And they might be right day 1, day 30, day 60, day 90, year 1, even year 2. But eventually, if you stick And I truly mean this, on year 10, you're going to win and you're going to prove them wrong. And they're going to go ahead and be asking you how to do your stuff. And trust me, I'm a testament to that. Like I have friends from high school all the time hitting me up, trying to invest money to me, going ahead and trying to have me mentor them when it comes to Amazon FBA. And at the very beginning, there was no one there. There was no one clapping for me. It was just this YouTube channel and people going ahead and, you know, liking my videos, commenting on my videos and this and that. Um, but again, I'm rambling on, but those are my experience how Amazon FBA really made me like a millionaire. And, um, if I didn't mention it before, it's private label. I don't do retail arbitrage, I don't do wholesale, I do Amazon FBA. And if you guys want more information on this, comment below. If you guys appreciate anything I said in this video, comment below, like this video, subscribe to this YouTube channel. But until next time, guys, peace.