$7,000,000 worth of dropshipping advice in 16 mins
In this 16‑minute solo video, dropshipping veteran Nathan Miller shares the hard‑earned lessons from three years and over $7 million in revenue. He warns against copying other stores, stresses the importance of accurate bookkeeping, and explains how to spot winning products by looking for supply‑demand gaps and timing market shifts. Miller demystifies ad strategy, advocating a simple Facebook CBO setup that focuses on creative quality rather than complex campaign structures, and argues that Facebook/Meta is the only platform needed for sustainable DTC growth, dismissing TikTok as a short‑term pump‑and‑dump channel. He emphasizes learning from active, up‑to‑date mentors instead of outdated gurus, joining supportive e‑com communities, and committing to one ad format to master it. Throughout, he stresses a long‑term mindset, persistence, and the exponential payoff of staying in the game, while also highlighting the potential to build multi‑million‑dollar businesses that can eventually be exited.
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What's up, bro? So you watching this right now, you are probably either one, you're starting dropshipping, or you've been doing dropshipping for a while and you're just looking for some general advice. You might be stuck in kind of a loop, you keep testing products, things don't work out. And I've definitely been there. I've been dropshipping now for 3 years and I've done over $7 million in revenue with dropshipping alone. And I've learned a lot and I've been around a lot and met a lot of people, and so I'm able to actually give you guys some really good advice in this video and try to give you guys some steps and, you know, some things to avoid. Because I know when I started out, there's so many mistakes that I was doing. Um, there are so many things that I could have avoided if, you know, I had a video like this. And so I want to give this back to you guys. And, um, I guess we'll kind of just get straight into it. I don't really have a time limit here or anything, but Also, I apologize for looking like a douchebag. Um, my hair looks atrocious right now, so I had to wear a hat. But anyway, let's get straight into it. Um, so first things first, I want to say that do not rip other people. And when I mean rip other people, I'm not talking about like similar products off Amazon or like TikTok shop and stuff like that. I'm talking about like your friends or people you know in the space or Stuff like that, like that is such a bad mindset to get into. And I know plenty of friends, and I've probably been there, you know, once upon a time where I just rip a store one-to-one and you expect it to work. It's never gonna work. And it's such a limiting belief to think that there are not enough products out there for you to make your own money. Like, there are so many products. There's products coming out every single day. There's people creating products every single day. There's demand. The market's shifting. Things are always moving, and when things are always moving in the market and with desires and all this stuff, that means there's always gonna be new opportunities coming, like all the time. So ripping products like one-to-one, it's just not the way to go. Another thing I wanna make sure that you guys know is 100%, without 100%, if you get a store running, get a bookkeeper. Getting a bookkeeper is so important. I have been in a spot where I thought I profited X amount of money in a month, and it turns out I profited a lot less. One thing you'll find with a lot of people who do e-com is they kind of end up not knowing where the money went because there are all these miscellaneous fees. There's apps and softwares, there's Shopify's freaking percentage they take off every order. They take 2.8% off every single order you get. And so if you're using an app, if you're relying on an app like Triple Whale or any of those, True Profits or anything like that. It's not gonna be accurate at all. And so I really wanna make sure you guys know is when you're testing products, you should be looking at demand and you should be looking at, it's as old as time, supply and demand, bro. It's like one of the most universal things that we probably have learned in school. But basically your job as someone who's testing a product is to evaluate where the demand is and where supply isn't. Like where are the combination of elements where you can see that there's things that are selling or that are trending or that the market's growing for, but there's not as many people selling it or none, there's nobody selling into that market. That is when you find winning products. That is when you find things that will just absolutely crush on day one is when you hit that demand at the right time. And a lot of e-com and dropshipping success is timing. It is very true and the reason why it's based off of timing is because the market is always shifting. It's always moving, people are, changing their interests, people are changing, you know, what they want, what they need, new things are coming out and they're replacing the old. It's an ever-evolving market that you kind of have to put yourself in a situation to where when it does change and when it does start to move, that you are in the right spot to actually, you know, bring in those customers and convert them. The next point I want to talk about is about your ad strategy. So people really overstress about media buying. And specifically what media buying is, is like your campaign setup, you know, how many ad sets you have, if you do flex ads or not. People really overcomplicate this, especially for beginners when you're new to Facebook ads in general. Like, people really want you to believe that you need to do this complicated thing to get the max results. And sure, there are good ways to do it, but if you get the fundamentals right, it will get you 95% of the results, I guarantee you. And so I believe, as someone in my experience, the last thing I worry about is media buying. Obviously creating ads and stuff, that's a little different, it's a lot different, those are super important. But when it comes to actually like my campaign structure and stuff like that, like dude, I just slap up a CBO, maybe one ad set, and dump ads into it. Like I don't overthink this stuff because it's not what's gonna move the needle in your business. You're focusing on the wrong things. Another thing I want to tell you guys is that most of these gurus who are out there— technically I'm a guru now, but most of the gurus who are out here are freaking washed, bro. Like, if you're watching someone and they were dropshipping like, you know, in 2018, back in that time, they are probably not up to date when it comes to like the actual, you know, strategies and stuff it actually takes to become successful in this game. Because like I said, Dropshipping, ecommerce, it's an ever-evolving thing. It's always changing. So what worked back then doesn't work now, right? Or is changing. And a lot of these people who, you know, these big names in the space who used to have, maybe they used to have stores and stuff, but they're not selling anything now. They don't do ecommerce now and you're learning from them. Why are you learning from them if they're not currently succeeding in this space, right? That's why it's really important. If you're gonna pick someone to learn from, You need to pick someone who's actually like in the game, like someone who's constantly trying to like not even just be in the game, but like they're trying to get better in the game because then they're ambitious, right? They're always learning new things. They're trying to get better. They're trying to learn the new techniques, the new AI, everything, right? And so you put— you hit your wagon in them because they are the ones who are actually learning rather than the ones who are kind of stuck in the past and don't really— don't know what they're talking about, right? Next is Facebook ads. Facebook ads is literally the only advertising platform you will ever need in your life. And I know there's people out there who still try to do TikTok. TikTok's great. TikTok's for pump and dump. So if you want to build something real and something long-term, you're always going to be running on Facebook. Every DTC brand in the world, right, that is super successful is running on Facebook primarily. That is where the majority of their advertising spend goes to, and it's for a reason. Okay, because Facebook is just better than TikTok. It's been around longer than TikTok. Its algorithm is better. It has a bigger user base. It has Instagram and Facebook connected. That is Meta. That's Meta Ads. That's Facebook Ads, right? It's all the same thing. And so if you're not on Facebook and you're focusing on trying to do like Google, or you're trying to do TikTok or all these other ones, like, you're missing the biggest piece of the pie. And so I used to do— my first winner was like on TikTok, for example, and I did some good revenue with it, but I know back then if I started with Facebook ads, I would have had, you know, probably a lot more revenue than I do now because I was like, I had a whole year where I was doing TikTok. And as soon as I switched to Facebook, that's when I started doing like scaling stores to legitimately like a million dollars in sales. You don't really see people doing a mil just from TikTok. It's always these pump and dump stores. This is arguably the most important thing I can tell you guys, and it's not really a tactic, it's more of a mindset, but extending your time frame is the best thing you can do when it comes to learning anything, honestly. But it also applies to dropshipping e-com because if you are in a crutch, right, if you're trying to or you have to succeed this month or the next month or within a week or something like that, the odds are as a beginner you are going to fail. Like, I'm just going to give it to you guys brutally, like, it is a competitive-ass thing you're getting into, right? You have to have experience, you have to have knowledge, you have to have good timing. You have to have all these things line up for you to find a winning product and to actually build a winning store. And most of you guys, right, aren't there. Most of you guys aren't at that level, and so you guys need to stick it out. I gave myself at least a year to get a sale, and then after that I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this for another 3 years and see how far I can take it, as soon as I got that first sale. And so that's kind of the mindset that's changed things for me. Because I just took a lot of pressure off myself. I was like, okay, now I can just learn, make sure that I'm growing. As long as I'm growing month over month, week over week, if I'm getting better, that's all that really matters. And that is the mindset that's actually going to make you succeed in this thing. So many people are focused on this get rich quick and this get rich in a week and just throw up a product and do a $10K day within a week. That's not realistic. That's not usually what happens. Even for me right now, I can't do that. I can't throw up a product and do a $10K day. I mean, I could, but I'd be like, you know, very negative because I would have a terrible ROAS on it. And so like, there are levels to this game, and to learn the levels and to stick it out is the only thing that will make you successful. As long as you stick it out, you will become successful. It's like that graph, it's like that exponential thing where you're down here, you might have a couple blips, you might have a couple of sales, but you keep sticking it out, and then once you hit, bro, It just goes up, it's exponential. And so that's like the biggest piece of advice I could probably give is just to expand your time frame. Another thing that I would suggest, and this helps when you're in this learning stage, is to surround yourself with people who are also learning and also doing e-com. If you isolate yourself and you're not in any like, you know, Discords or communities or anything, and you are just trying to grind, like when you run into problems, you just have a lot less resources and people to talk to you about it, because the people in your life don't know, like they don't know about dropshipping usually. And so you need to put yourself in a community with other people who are grinding, like-minded people. I was in one of those before. I was in a community, it was like a $50 community called Rippy Club when I was first starting out, and I would see people in the Win Chat just killing it, scaling, doing crazy numbers. It made me believe that it was possible because I saw these dudes every single day Right, I was working with these dudes every single day, texting them every single day, and then I would see them go on to make, you know, a ton of money and be like, yo, like, we're in the same spot, like, we're basically the same person, I can do this too. And so I think it's super important to have a community and to surround yourself with people for that reason. Another thing is to stick to one method. And what I mean by that is specifically when it comes to ads, if you're going to master something, like, don't flip and flop around. Like, if you have been spending 6 months doing video ads and then you try to switch over to native ads, you're just shooting yourself in the foot. You have all this progress, you were learning about video ads, and now you're going to something completely different in a sense, and it is just going to make you start all over where you ruin all this old momentum you have. So I urge you guys, like, just stick to one thing when it comes to advertising and like the type of media you want to put out, and then actually just like continue to knuckle down and just keep grinding that out until you get good at it, until you start getting results. And I guarantee it'll happen faster than you think. You could be going for 4 months trying to learn video ads and never make a winning ad, and then the next day you throw one in and it spends $100K and then makes you $500K in return. That's how crazy things change in this game. It's a very rewarding game. The only problem with it is that The results are not linear. The results, you know, don't happen like this. Like, you don't put X amount of work in and get Y results out. It takes time to catch up. And so you gotta have to have faith. You're gonna have to believe in yourself and believe in that you will be rewarded for the work you're ultimately putting in. And that's super important. Last but not least is who you guys watch on YouTube. And I kind of touched on this earlier, but who you guys actually watch on YouTube and take inspiration from, make sure that they're people who are real. And people who are not just these flashy individuals, right? Because a lot of people— and I see it all the time on Instagram— these dudes who do e-com or these dudes who do trading or stuff like that, and all their content is based off of lifestyle content of them buying stuff and, and doing this and doing that. The people you want to be listening to and learning from are the people who are actively in the game, like I said. And so those people are going to be posting strategies, or you're going to see there in their day in the life they're actually putting in work. Like, they're not going to have the super flashy lifestyle because the people who are actually dedicated to doing e-com and to getting better at e-com are the people who are grinding every single day trying to get better. Like, it's that simple. If an influencer is out there posting and he's posting himself every single day going out to dinner, every single day driving around, going on trips, he's not locked in. You wanna learn from someone who's locked in 'cause the people who are locked in are the people who actually make money in this game. And so, like, I mean, I'll use myself as an example. Like, sure, I travel sometimes, but Most of my days are spent in this room on this computer just working. Like, that's the majority of my time is literally in this room. And so there's a lot of other people who you can't say the same for. Every time you see their social media, they're somewhere different or somewhere new, right? And those people are just the ones who are just printing off info and don't actually care about their actual dropshipping business or getting better at e-com in general. And I love e-com, and I'll tell you guys why I love it is because you can legitimately spawn a multi-million dollar business within a night. Not like do a million in revenue, but you could spawn it. You can literally make it within 3 hours, have it up and running. And then the next, you know, 8 months you could spend a bunch of time into it and do millions of dollars. It's like actually insane. And then on the plus side of that, you can exit it. You can exit it for literally infinite amount of money. Depends how far you take it, obviously. Like Gymshark was a dropshipping brand at one point. There are a bunch of brands out there who are really mainstream that started off dropshipping just like we are, and they built it into real companies. And the problem is, is a lot of people don't have experience doing that, and so they switch— all these influencers and stuff, they switch to literally grifting just because that's the only way they know how to make money. So yeah, I know that was a big, uh, a big ramble there, guys. A big ramble there, bro. But, uh, yeah, I just want to look out for you. I want to make sure that you guys I want to make sure— okay, I'm just looking out for you, bro. I want to make sure that you actually get the real sauce, the real details. I'm not holding anything back. I'm being honest. And I know when I was in your position, like, bro, I had all the doubts you had. I had all the fears you had. I had, you know, the whatever problems you're going through. I promise right now I also went through those. But the only thing that made me get to where I am today is just sticking through it. So just stick through it, bro. Just give it— give another few months, give another 6 months, give it another year. Even if you have to get a job, bro, I was totally fine getting a job and working on the side doing e-com until it worked out. And eventually it did. Like, you just got to change your mindset and really understand that it does take time. But as long as you're learning, bro, you're winning. As long as you're in the game, you're winning. And if you think about it, all your friends, all your family, all the people who aren't trying to do something for themselves, aren't trying this kind of business model, or aren't trying to live an extraordinary life, like, you're already— compared to them, you're winning because you're trying, bro. None of these people are actually trying. Like, 99% of the population doesn't try, and you are. So all I want to say to you, bro, is continue to push on, continue to put in the work, bro, and you're gonna make it one day. So that's all I got to say for this video, dude. But yeah, that's pretty much it.
