AF286 - Are you an AP graduate?

If you ever find yourself overthinking, chasing every shiny object, or on the spinning hamster wheel of analysis paralysis, this is THE EPISODE you won’t want to miss. Learn what you really need and don’t need when running an Amazon FBA business. 

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Challenge brings change. When we are challenged and we step up to the plate and take on the challenge, we are changed. If you are watching this on YouTube, please take a moment and hit that subscribe button and turn on the notifications so that you know when the next episode is going to air.  

If you like this video, if you learned even a single thing from this episode, be sure to like the video and maybe share it with someone else or just like the video. I am here to encourage you, to teach you, and to train you to be a tough love on you so that you can grow. My question is, “Are you an AP grad?” “Are you a graduate?” “Do you hold the highest honor for ap?” We are constantly bombarded with endless choices, options, and varieties. Decisions are getting more challenging by the minute.  

Are you struggling to make a decision? Are decisions getting harder? 

Feedback is super important. Wendy has left me feedback. She is just one person I know for sure that listens to this show, walking her dog, every single time we air an episode and she is just listening. 

Do you worry about past decisions that you have made and regret it? We are exposed to more technology. We are exposed to more options than we ever had. When I was a kid, dinner was dinner. Like you got what was served to you or you got what was there and prepared for you. That is all you got to choose from. We did not have a choice. It was like tonight we are having really overcooked pork chops, which I still do not eat pork chops to this day. No offense to my Dad who just overcooked every single piece of meat because he was so worried about E. Coli and everything else, that's literally like we ate hockey pucks for dinner all the time. Just learned my lesson. I learned how to properly cook meat in my adulthood so it did not have to taste like cardboard and sawdust, and things like that. My Dad would say, “If you don't like what I made, make yourself something else.”

Today I feel like there are so many more options and so many more decisions that we have to make in our business.

Another example here is a local Mexican restaurant that just opened. I am all about tacos. So if you want to know how to get to know Kristin and now to get on her good side, literally buy me tacos. I love Mexican food. I love tacos. 

So a taco is kind of a taco. You read the ingredients and see the menu. There are so many pages, it is double-sided. I can not even count all the things on the list. How many ways can we make tacos? Information overload causes us stress. Everything looked amazing on this menu. It was going to be tough to choose what was so much variety and so much overwhelm with looking at pages and pages and pages of options. I overanalyzed. I overthought. Have you ever been faced with any of these types of decisions where you end up just going back to what you have always done even though it is not what you really want? Because the choices are so many and you just do not know what to do.  

It is not hard to make a decision when you literally have some limited options. But as entrepreneurs, we face countless decisions on a daily basis. There is always something new that we are being exposed to, a new platform, a new way to sell, a new repricer tool, a new keyword, and now we have AI and Chat GPT. All kinds of options for us to continue to innovate, continue to grow, and continue to change. How do we know if we are making all the right decisions when all of these options are coming at us so fast and so frequently? 

Well, we relate in a stressful and negative way.  How do we stop ruminating over the decisions and actually make some that are going to make an impact on our business? We want to make an impact on our bottom line. That is why we are in business. So I have to ask you this, “Are you an AP graduate?” You know who you are and you know what AP is. An analysis paralysis graduate. That is what AP is. 

Are you chasing all the shiny objects? Are you overanalyzing? Are you overthinking on a regular basis? We get stuck in this research mode. We all struggle with this. Most of you as Amazon sellers and bundlers, specifically bundlers are going to struggle with AP at some point. We do not wanna take chances. We think that we are protecting ourselves from some sort of imminent harm when we overanalyze.  What if I make the wrong choice and lose money? What if I get suspended? What if the third tire on the back of my car falls off and rolls down the road? We can get stuck in AP forever. In the Amazon world, there are so many things that we can overthink. There are so many Facebook groups and YouTube channels and blogs and books and tools and courses all shoved at you all at the same time. And it is really hard to stay focused. 

I had to go to my YouTube channel, answer some comments, and then guess what I saw. I saw there is this live video going on with some friends in the space and I wanna join their live video. So I spent an hour hanging out with them. Now is that a bad time spent? Absolutely not. It is super valuable to spend time like that. But what is the thing I didn't get done? I did that because I did not stay focused. I was chasing a shiny object. Even if the shiny object is awesome and valuable, is it on your priority list today? 

I am supposed to record two podcasts today and now I am only going to get one of those done because I spent another hour doing this. 

While overthinking may be built into your personality. An analysis paralysis, being distracted, and all the different shiny objects might be part of just your natural personality. I am not trying to change your personality. If we are not deriving benefits from our analysis paralysis, then we are going to overthink ourselves to death. Analysis paralysis will keep you busy, but it will not keep you moving in the right direction.  There is no shortage of services or products to buy to grow your business. So which ones do you actually need? How do we get make start making decisions? The solution to analysis paralysis, to overthinking, to being an AP graduate is to actually make a decision and take action on something, even if it is not the best decision.   

Even if you are a perfectionist and you are trying to get the most perfect decision, you have several options and you are just weighing them down more and weighing them out more. The only antidote to this is to actually take action toward the thing that you want.

Having a couple of these things in mind, you need to determine a few things. First, will help you make faster, easier, more efficient, and the best decisions for your issue. Number one, your goal. If you are trying to choose the right products and services to support and grow your business, there is plenty that I could give you a list of here. 

I have affiliates and I can say go to Helium 10, go to Merchant Words, go to AMZ Scout, go to Jungle Scout, go to Inventory Lab, go to Scan Power, like there are so many different services.  

What will I be able to accomplish? What do I want to accomplish by adding this tool? What problem are you trying to solve for yourself? 

You can use a third-party shipping and receiving company to prep and pack your shipments to Amazon so that you never have to touch any inventory that you are actually selling in your store. It is not drop shipping, it is called third-party fulfillment. It is called third-party prep, shipping, and fulfillment. And you can be hands-off on an inventory-based business, even if you just have a Shopify store, even if you have an Etsy store, even if you have an Amazon or eBay store, there is a third-party fulfillment at any of these places.  

My favorite is myprepcenter.com. Nathan, Bridget, and Noah over there will take really good care of you, whether you are doing arbitrage online, private label, or wholesale. They ship your products all into a prep center, which then prepares and ships them out to either an Amazon fulfillment center or your actual customer.  

How efficiently do you want to run it? Things are more automated. Are you on a schedule? Do you have a schedule of ways? If you are in the middle of product research and you realize that it is going really slow and you are not doing a really good job of it, what tool will make you more efficient? 

Do you know we have that in our Amazon files hub. If you are a wholesale bundle student and you join the hub, there are so many tools and resources in there. 

It's not just the day-to-day working stuff out. It is what am I working towards. What are you working towards? What do you want your business to look like at the end of this year? What kind of finances do you wanna bring in? What kind of staff do you wanna hire? What do you wanna take off of your plate? How do you wanna enjoy your life more? And how can your business support that? We get stuck in the AP because we're so worried about not getting the result that we don't even take the action that's so backward. Back to picking research tools and resources for your business.  

The three things you need to know are, “What is the main problem you want to solve in your business? And what tool or resource is going to help you get there the fastest? And then weigh your budget, both time and money have a budget.” Your time is actually more valuable than money.   

How much time am I willing to spend to accomplish my goal? Remember, the goal was first. So if you skip that part, go back. What is your goal? What is your goal for the tool?

I am challenging you if you do not have a goal to stop everything and sit with yourself for a moment, for 15 minutes. Make the 15-minute hustle. You can set a timer and you can ask yourself these questions and then just write down or record whatever you want to do, whatever your medium is of kind of getting thoughts out of your head.

How much time and how much money am I willing to spend to accomplish my goal? What are your assets? What do you have? Do you have some cash to invest? Do you need credit? Do you need a loan? What do you need? 

What am I willing to spend time and money on my goal? What makes sense for my business right now? Do I have the time to implement this tool? 

Wholesale bundles are the best. I love the creativity of it. I love the fact that I do not have competitors. I love the fact that I can put different things in there without worrying about branding issues or GTIN exemption issues or IP claims.

If you want to add bundles, you need to learn how to do them. Training is part of that. You need to understand the concepts. You need to buy custom packaging and have a get-moving on a brand registry.

If you are currently doing RA, great. Add a bundle. And as you learn how to do bundles, add another bundle. As you learn how to do a private label, add a private label there. You are not pigeonholed into one thing. We are all about multiple income streams. Do not put all your eggs in one basket and all that kind of stuff. 

What is your available budget for tools, education, software, resources, and programs? Business is always ongoing. What features are the most important to you within a program, service, or tool? Before you take another class, before you talk to another mentor, before you watch another YouTube video, even ask yourself these questions. 

If English is your second language, maybe your translation or transcripts or closed captioning is really important for you within a program.  

If you want to use any of our resources, go to mommyincome.com/resources.

It has to fit your budget and solve your problem. And what time commitment do you have set aside to learn and implement the new tool? If you want to add wholesale bundles, you are going to have to learn the process. It is not going to be overnight. It is a lot of training, but it is also a million-dollar strategy.  

You have to be ready for every tool right now. You do not have to buy them all. Research the best features and benefits that will work best for you. And then make a decision. You know how to make up a decision. Create a deadline. We can all get stuck in AP. We can get stuck in research mode and we are waiting for the best information. I just need to research a little bit more.   

Once you know you defined what you want and need and where you want to go, set yourself a deadline. If you do not put a deadline on it, it just fizzles through the air, it is still there. It is self-hanging over you. 

So for all my AP graduates out there, you are moving on. You do not get a prize for graduating from analysis paralysis. I am going to graduate you out of that. That is what we are doing. We are graduating you. You have earned a degree, you are all done. You earned your degree in analysis paralysis.

QUOTE:

“You don't need more information. You need the right information and then you need to take action. You have all the information, you just need to do the thing, whatever the thing is. Now, the last thing is really matching up the products and tools and services and education that you need that's going to fit your business. It's going to fit your needs and your budget, your time and your money budget.” - Kristin Ostrander

RESOURCES:

• Subscribe Opt-in - JOIN MY LIST
• Courses Products Page - LEARN FROM ME
• WSB BLOG 2023 - Why Wholesale Bundles?
• WSB 3.0 Sales Page - Wholesale Bundle System [New for 2023]
• Resources - Best Tools for Sellers! 

Share your AHA moments with me on our Facebook group exclusive for my students  - the Amazon Files (use the code word AP GRAD) and tag me so I can celebrate with you! 

Have questions? Email me directly at [email protected] with all your questions, concerns, or doubts. I would love to answer them all for you.

Keep on bundling…

-KO