Brian had two coaching sessions back to back this week. Same hour, same price, two different sellers. One of them got about half the value of the other, and it had nothing to do with how smart either one was.

The first seller spent the opening 15 minutes on two-factor authentication, screen sharing, audio that wouldn't work, and logging into Keepa. That's a quarter of an hour they'd already paid for. The second joined with everything logged in, three tabs of ASINs open, and their questions written down, and 10 minutes in they were already moving on to new concepts. This episode is about how to be the second seller.

Brian and Robin Joy walk through seven steps, and most of them come down to how you treat your own time. Be early, because when you're late every single time, that's not a traffic problem anymore. It's a planning problem. Be prepared, and notice that the same setup time eats into every sourcing session too, not just your coaching calls. Protect the hours you actually have, because "as much as you can" is not a plan.

Step four is where the numbers come in. Five test ASINs a week for 12 straight weeks is 60 tests, and a test is smaller than most people picture: three to five units, run through the pre-flight inspection and the three-step check. Brian does the math on camera at $1.50 a unit. Five units of five ASINs comes to about $40, even if every one of them goes sideways. Buy 40 units of something you've never tested, and now every one of those units carries the risk.

Then attitude, coachability, and getting better. Robin Joy pushes back on what "coachable" means, because it isn't handing your coach every decision. Brian draws the line at who's making the call: taking the input and deciding for yourself is coachable, and waiting for permission is helpless. Step seven borrows from his corporate job, where the net promoter score feedback that stings is the feedback that makes the team better.

It closes on the marathon. A training plan runs about 16 weeks, and most of those runs are forgettable, like four miles on a Tuesday in the drizzle. Nobody actually finishes the marathon on race day. The 12 weeks of testing are your training blocks, and the big month you hear about on other podcasts comes after them. Robin Joy has worked with sellers who reported $20,000 a month six months in, and what they don't mention is the four and a half months before that with no profit at all.

This week's quote comes from Will Durant, and it's often misattributed to Aristotle: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

In this episode:

• (00:00) Two coaching sessions, same price, and one worth about half as much
• (05:31) Step 1: Be early
• (07:00) Late once is an exception. Late every time is a pattern.
• (08:13) Step 2: Be prepared, from logins to your mute button
• (10:22) Why the same setup time eats into every sourcing session
• (12:48) Step 3: Every minute counts, and building your business in the 5 to 9
• (13:50) "As much as you can" is not a plan
• (15:31) Step 4: Test undeniably, five ASINs a week for 12 weeks
• (16:34) What a test actually is: three to five units, pre-flight, three-step check
• (18:30) The $40 math on a full round of tests
• (21:53) Miss a week, start the count over, and keep what you learned
• (22:56) Step 5: Be undeniable in your attitude
• (25:30) Step 6: Be coachable, and where coachable ends and helpless begins
• (27:54) Step 7: Constantly look for ways to get better
• (30:16) Build your cost of goods into your SKU
• (31:48) Nobody finishes the marathon on race day
• (34:44) Will Durant on excellence as a habit

Resources mentioned: New to the pre-flight inspection or the three-step check? Everything's linked from officialolsons.com (all O's, no E's). And the Modern Builders Network runs live sessions every Tuesday at 7:00 Eastern.

You don't have to become that seller today. You just have to be that seller on Tuesday, and again the next Tuesday.

Run your own numbers. The Profit Tune-Up is free. Upload your Amazon or Seller Board data, or even a Seller Board screenshot, and get the same review Brian runs in a live coaching session. officialolsons.com

Everything else lives in one place. The newsletter, the coaching, the community, and the rest of the tools are all at officialolsons.com (all O's, no E's).

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The New Era Reseller is part of the Modern Builders Network, hosted by Brian and Robin Joy Olson.

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