Paul Baron went from ROCK BOTTOM To AMAZON MILLIONAIRE.
Paul is the co-founder of Physical Products Pro, a group of successful Amazon sellers that coach and mentor people about the tips and techniques that are working on Amazon, right now.
While I was at SellerCon in Orlando, Florida I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul about his journey to success, and how Amazon has changed his life forever.
In the words of Ryan Blair, “When you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain.” That is the exact mindset that Paul Baron adopted. He is proof that you can go from ROCK BOTTOM to AMAZON MILLIONAIRE. Are you ready to learn how he did it?
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Are you ready to discover how to build a profitable business selling on Amazon? CLICK HERE for instant access to my free video training!
Paul’s went from rock bottom to Amazon millionaire.
Here is a sneak peek of my interview with him, where we talk about his journey to success.
How did you get into selling on Amazon and achieving the success that you have now?
I thank God every day for it. It’s a huge blessing. Long story short, I was working at a firm as a Director of Channel Sales. My job was networking and working with affiliates to generate sales.
I was fired there, went through a year of feeling like a massive failure. I bounced from job to job and really questioned everything about my identity.
Because the firm that I had worked for was a web development company who did Internet marketing and SEO, I was known in my neighborhood as the guy that you talk to about those topics.
People started to ask me if they could pay me to help build their websites. Finally, I was like, “Ok, I'll do it.” In July of 2014, I started a company with a buddy that was called Catalyst Media Group. Technically it is still running. I don't really do anything with it.
In August, my wife and I had a son and started a business. I soon realized that I wasn't paying the bills, so I picked up a job waiting tables.
I had a partner who was supposed to be doing design and development. He did that full time with me for 2 months, and then he got a full-time job and started doing night work with me. Slowly, he got to a point where he was doing nothing. I love him to death. He's one of my best friends still, but you’ve got to do what you got to do for your family.
I was dragging Catalyst along for 60 hours a week.
I was doing everything. I've always run service-based businesses. Rather, I just helped other people sell stuff online. Fast forward to March of 2015 and my buddy Nate, whom I had gone to high school with, made a post on Facebook.
It read, “Hey a lot of you guys are asking me about my Amazon business. I took a course that taught me how to do this, and it is launching again soon. By the way, I did $50,000 in sales in December.”
Immediately I was like, “What?!!”
I watched the ASM5 videos with Matt Clarke and Jason Katzenback. I was waiting for the hook because I knew that it was going to cost me money.
The lingering failure demon was still sitting on my shoulder from when I was fired. A the time, I was trying to start Catalyst and I was way too busy to add something else to the fire. It took my younger sister messaging me and saying “Hey Paul, I don't know if you saw Nate’s post, but I really think that this is something that you would be good at.”
I watched the videos again, and I had my wife watch them as well. Five thousand dollars was a huge investment for us, in-between waiting tables and trying to start a business.
I prayed about it and I said that I was going to do it. When I coach people, I always tell them that this isn’t something that you just try to see if it works. What I've learned along my journey is that success is a mindset. It is not a dollar amount.
The people that I've met in this community are amazing because they have a mindset that encompasses a drive to succeed.
The majority of them are just genuinely good people that want to help people. I haven't had a chance to talk with you Stefan, but I know that's what you do. Your goal is to give back and help people.
When you joined Amazing Selling Machine you mentioned that you had an idea about a product beforehand. Do you mind sharing how you built your brand?
It's an interesting story that we use in our branding. Basically, we had this experience in the first year with our son. It was one of those memorable moments that stuck with us.
As you go through the ASM course, they teach you the criteria to look for when you are doing product research.
Our product idea stuck in my wife’s head. She did some research and found something that sort of matched. We went for it. That's a huge mistake that Amazon sellers make – they look for that home-run product. They spend all this time building an 8,000 list thing with 100 products. It’s insane.
My wife and I each had 20-30 products on our list. Because I was in the situation that I was in, I was like, “I'm going to make $50,000 in July.”
That drive to get our product live really helped because I needed the money.
Our product matched the criteria. We didn't think that we were going to stick with it for long. However, it ended up really taking off and we still sell tons of our product to this day. It was because we took action quickly. We didn't sit on it forever.
We took the course in April/May and our products went live in July. Our first sale was on a prime day. The very first prime day ever. We didn't even have good images. It just so happened that the stars aligned and it was awesome.
Do you mind sharing a little bit about the importance of building a brand? You spoke about PR hacking. That's a great subject that a lot of people may want to know more about.
I don't really feel like a PR expert. Everything that I've learned is through trial and error. School of hard knocks type of stuff. I'm just really good at storytelling.
I love learning about people, what makes them tick, and what motivates them to achieve success. The thing about people is that we are so driven by emotion.
Every single decision that we make is emotional in nature, and then we lie to ourselves and say that it's a logical decision. We make emotional decisions and back it up with logic. If you can connect with people on an emotional level, you are winning.
When it comes to brand storytelling, let’s take a silicone spatula product as an example. You could say, “Well, I took this course that taught me how to sell products on Amazon. I really wanted to make money and thought that this was a good idea.”
That's not endearing. Nobody cares about that.
The brand story that you create could be, “We’re all about saving the world through solid family relationships because we believe that the base unit of all society is the individual. Solid individuals happen from solid families. We believe that the best way that you can have a solid family is by eating at the table together. We do that with our silicone spatula. Our silicone spatula is saving the world, so buy it.”
It makes people think, “I want to save the world.” Who doesn’t want to save the world? Obviously, your product has to match your claims. You've got to have a solid product and all the other pieces in place. However, coming up with a story, a reason, and a “why” is key.
Sometimes I hesitate to share this stuff because people could really use this to manipulate and be slimy. However, for the genuinely good people that want to support their family, or need extra income, it’s great.
Think about the things that make you tick as a person. What do you love? What makes you cry or laugh? And then weave those things into the story of your brand. Build something that people fall in love with so that they get on your side and think, “You have made my life better.”
Whatever your goal is, your “why” always has to be bigger than money.
Why do you want to sell this spatula? What is your spatula going to do for people? There is a great quote from one of the speeches yesterday. It was something to the effect of, “You don't actually have a sale until the buyer gets a result.” What's the result that people are wanting to achieve? Is it less sticky food? Or is it sitting down and eating with their family?
There's a bigger reason why people make decisions. It’s deeper than the surface level reason. People buy stuff based on their emotions.
How does this tie in with the PR hacking? I can imagine that a story is useful for PR. Do you mind sharing some tips for what you've done with that?
It feels weird saying PR hacking because it sounds like a super cheesy title. What it comes down to is that people are people. That was what my talk was about. All you are doing in PR is connecting one person to another person. If you can get to know someone, you can get to know their story.
From there, you can figure out what makes them tick. Knowing the intention and the goal of a person, and how your product benefits him/her is where your story comes into play.
You've got your overarching brand story, and then you create a lot of other stories around your brand.
Your brand has to be something that people care about.
People are going to want to talk more about the kitchen brand that is trying to save the world because they believe in families eating together, versus the brand that's just making cool silicone spatulas.
The other external stories that you tell would go into different media channels. I talk about building a snowball – how the story should permeate all of the social media channels. Whenever you are telling a story, asking someone to tell a story, or if you are pitching someone about a product or idea, the benefit to them has to outweigh the benefit to you.
I know you did some consulting with Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank. What was the biggest thing that you learned from her?
Barbara has this no-quit attitude. She's probably one of the busiest people that I've ever met. She has 3 personal assistants. In order for her to be productive, her day has to run like clockwork.
Other than the advice that she gave us for our business, which was just generally good all around, I was just really impressed with how absolutely business savvy she is. I love the fact that she is a strong woman leader.
This is how Paul Baron went from rock bottom to Amazon millionaire. If he can do it, so can you!
If you want to learn more about Paul's story, I encourage you to read his bio!
Anyone can build an Amazon business, but not everyone will. It all comes down to developing a mindset for business success. In the words of George Akamas Jr. “Success is an attitude, a mindset, a commitment, a promise. A belief that it can be done, should be done, and WILL be done.”
At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself, “How bad do I want it?” Let your answer be the driving force that propels you forward.
Are you ready to discover how to build a profitable business selling on Amazon? CLICK HERE for instant access to my free video training!