Long Term is the 80%

Hi ,I’m heading out to the Helium10 event, Sell & Scale, on Friday night. I’m actually writing this email before heading out, and you’re reading it after I’m already in Vegas. Well, that’s not entirely true, maybe you’re reading this email in the year 2045, which is weird people are still using emails now.

Anyway, I haven’t been to a live event since my own event in May and only spoke at 3 events this year. This was a personal decision as I had a new baby 2 months ago (our 3rd) and decided to slow down a bit this year.

Since I started my Amazon journey in 2015, I’ve spoken at more than 40 events worldwide. Just so you know, the way our Amazon industry works is that speakers don’t get paid to speak - And many of them actually pay to speak (as part of their sponsorship deal).

I personally never paid to speak or sponsored an event, because the focus was always on giving value. I got invited to those events, many of them more than once, because of that reason.

Why did I do it? Why waste my time and resources traveling to so many events and not pitch anything?

I did it because giving value and not expecting anything in return is the best way to get long-term results. I’ve been to almost every event in the industry, and unfortunately, most of the speakers speak in order to take. Their talks sound like a pitch, and most are there to sell you something instead of giving you something. Even when you go to smaller events, most of the speakers who sell services share similar tactics they shared or will share in a future podcast or blog post. Most of them will show you what they do, so you will hire them for their services. When they do provide value, it’s usually done in a way that can’t be fully implemented and you need their services for the implementation part.

Most businesses work and plan in the short term. You’re thinking about how you should price your product, the negative review you received yesterday, or the bad team meeting you had.

I believe that all business owners should think and work in the long term. You know the old saying - “Don’t work in the business, work on the business”. That applies to EVERYTHING you do. Think about it - By spending time answering customers, running your PPC, or talking to your suppliers on your next order, you’re basically doing things that are short-term. These can be managed by someone else, who can also do it better than you over time. Instead, your focus should be on the long-term: Launching new products, going into new marketplaces, planning your exit, or even taking a two-week vacation. You should only focus on two questions every day:

1. What can I do today that in X amount of time my business will double-triple itself? As we all know, you are just one product away from doubling your business.

2. What can I do today to provide myself with more time to focus on my loved ones and the things that bring me joy? This is what fuels everything you do and what really matters at the end of the day.

When Covid hit, I couldn’t travel to the events I had already lined up and could start a variety of things - A blog, a YouTube channel, a podcast, etc. The good thing about those channels is that I could get a quick reward - I can have it set up in a few weeks and get the quick gratification I was seeking. The real challenge is to keep going. This is also why I admire comedians, most of them have to grind for years by being terrible until they get good.

With that said, I decided to take on a massive project - Write a book. I’ve launched a lot of products on Amazon and by far, writing a 300-pages book was the most challenging one yet.

What I like most about having a book, is that it’s now out there and I’m done with it. I don’t need to keep working on it every week. I did my “launch” which was basically jumping on most of the podcasts in the industry, as well as a few broader customer experience/e-commerce podcasts.

A book is what I settled on as a long-term project. I could work on it while juggling my other businesses because I had the team and systems to support it.

The book starts with blurbs from some of the top industry leaders. I didn’t get those by paying them or just asking nicely, I got those by providing value to all of those people. This can be by jumping on a call to help them out, sending them clients, suggesting what they can do better to improve their services, or just hanging out and having fun. When you give without expecting, you will get everything once you do ask. Building a real long-term relationship is basically giving without asking for anything in return.

Long Term is the 80% is a concept I want you to take with you. Not just for your business, but for your life. By eating that pizza instead of the salad, you’re rewarding yourself in the short term but neglecting yourself in the long term. I’m not saying to not live your life, but most need to flip the 80-20. Choose to do the extra work you need 80% of the time instead of watching the new Netflix movie. Your time and focus should be spent 80% on your long-term projects and 20% on the short-term ones.

So, how do I make my money if it’s not by speaking at events? It’s also not from selling a book and getting a $2 royalty, it’s not even from Top Dog Summit, an event we put together once a year for advanced sellers and charging 4 figures for. My actual profit is coming from 3 sources of income, one of them being my brands on Amazon, and as for the other two… I’ll expand on those in a future email.

Yours,

Tomer from a few days ago

P.S

In case you didn’t buy my book yet, now is THE BEST time to do it. Why? Because as the saying goes: “Now is always better than later.”

Sorry, I just came up with that, but it sounds like something someone smart would say. Here’s the link to get the book on Amazon: https://geni.us/RidetheAmazonWave