0083: Profiting from the Drop Ship Lifestyle with Speaker, Trainer & CEO Antron Kraly

Intro [0:00]

EA Interviews Episode 83. Inspiration, transformation, success stories, and the Imperfect Action Round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect Interview. 

Mario Fachini [0:13]

Have you ever wanted to make money online? Who wouldn’t? I mean, come on. It’s a lot of fun. Maybe you’ve considered starting your own business. Maybe you’ve considered promoting someone else’s business as your business. But maybe you’ve also considered drop shipping. Perhaps it was Amazon. Perhaps it was AliExpress. It could really be anything you want it to be. But that’s why I’m excited to have today’s guest, Anton Kraly with us from Drop Ship Lifestyle. In his first year alone, he did over 300,000 in business. And over the next three years, he did 1.8 million. And he’s going to be sharing his secrets of success with us today. I’m excited to bring him up right after we thank our sponsor. 

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Mario Fachini [1:13]

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Anton Kraly. Anton, how are you doing today? 

Anton Kraly [1:17]

I’m doing very well, Mario. Thanks for having me on. 

Mario Fachini [1:19]

I’m excited to have you here because so many people ask about drop shipping and online businesses and all these different things. And it’s just impressive what you’ve been able to create. And not just that, but you have your own online community helping people all around the world. How did you even get into it? 

Anton Kraly [1:36]

eCommerce. It was kind of needing a way out of the previous business I was in. So I’m 34 years old. Back in 2006, I was right out of college. I actually bought a business right away. I spent all the money I had saved up throughout college. It was just about $25,000. And I bought a delivery route for a bakery in Brooklyn, New York. So literally what I bought was the rights to drive into Brooklyn every day, pick up cookies, and drive to grocery stores on Long Island where I’m from, and sell them wholesale. A terrible business. A total waste of money. But I didn’t really know what to do with this thing. I spent my life savings on it. Luckily for me, the book, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss had just come out. And that book talks about eCommerce, like a couple chapters. But that was enough for me to think, “You know what? Maybe I should try this.” So I built my first ever website that was selling the cookies from the bakery. And I just saw almost right away the potential. Instead of driving into Brooklyn and sitting in traffic, I was on my computer watching orders come in. And I was, “Okay. I like this whole eCommerce thing. And again, that was back in 2007 when my first store went live. So since then, just been learning and trying to get better at this whole game. 

Mario Fachini [2:48]

What would you say is the biggest thing that you’ve learned since then to even – let’s not since then, how about just the first couple one, two, three years. Because those are the crucial ones I’d say. 

Anton Kraly [2:58]

Yeah. The biggest things I learned as my business started to grow, I would basically spend more money on ads and make more money. And what that meant is I’d also have more customers. Early on though, I still really just treated it as a purely lifestyle business. Meaning like, in my mind, I was this master at eCommerce and I could work for 15 minutes a day. And then go golf the rest of the day and go to the beach. And I didn’t put enough time into operations and management and really building an infrastructure as far as having a good team. So that I definitely didn’t take serious enough. And it got to the point where I had all these customers and then I started to feel stressed and overworked and the customers weren’t happy. And then I was, “Okay. What am I going to do here, right?” Like, this is easier than owning a traditional offline retail business. But if I actually want to stay in business and if I want to have it grow, I need to focus on operations and that side of the business as well. Not just marketing, sales, and traffic. So that was huge. 

Mario Fachini [3:57]

Who would you say is the biggest segment you do help? And how are you helping them now? 

Anton Kraly [4:02]

It’s really people that they’re smart. So they most likely already have a good job where they make a good amount of money but they’re working really long hours. And the upside isn’t really there. The type of person that wants to go on more vacations, that wants to work less hours a week, that wants to stay home in the morning and maybe drive their kids to school. And they’re looking to either build a second stream of income or supplement what they already have. And they know they could do it. They just know, “I need a system.” I’d rather have somebody help me than click around for the next ten years trying to figure it out. So I would say that type of person. 

Mario Fachini [4:38]

What would you say is the biggest thing that’s holding them back? 

Anton Kraly [4:43]

Not having something to actually follow. So like a step by step system. And beyond that, having a community of people around you that not only would support your idea but that could kind of bounce ideas off you. So you know, when you’re getting into anything that’s new, there’s going to be places you get stuck. And if you can’t put it out there saying, “Hey, I’m having this problem.” You need people to say, “You know what? I’ve actually dealt with that. Here’s what I did. Or here’s the solution.” So I think not having that, it’s enough for people to throw their hands up and think this isn’t going to work or I can’t figure it out. 

Mario Fachini [5:15]

What would you say to someone who’s at that point right now going, :You know what? I’ve been trying this. It’s not working.” How did you overcome those moments? Because every single business has ups and downs, as I’m sure we can both attest to. Where do you find is the best place to dig deep to go, “You know what? I’m going to give it a little bit more. Just one more day.” Just one more day kind of attitude. 

Anton Kraly [5:38]

Yeah. So I really wish there was a way to just like transfer the way that I think about this. Because I think everybody that’s successful in business or in anything really has almost, like, they’re kind of they take risks. So maybe a little bit of the gambling type feel. And that’s kind of what you need. Because like you said, there are plenty of downtime. And it’s not, obviously, always the same thing that brings one of those down times on. And ideall,y it’s not. And that’s the point, right? Because when something happens that makes most people throw their hands up and say that’s it, what you need to do is think, “Okay. What happened here?” Just look at it and think, “Did I mess up? Did a system I used messed up? Did I not have – ” like I mentioned, “Did I not have the infrastructure? Where did I go wrong?” And what you have to do is take that knowledge and implement something that basically fixes the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again. And then something else will happen. And instead of throwing your hands up again and saying, “Well, now this is it. This broke everything. Okay. Where did I mess up? How did I go wrong? What can I do to fix this?” And there’s always going to be things. I’ve been in e Commerce for 12 years and, maybe, not as frequently as it used to be but there’s always something that, to a lot of people, would probably give them a minor heart attack. But you just have to deal with it because that’s what owning the business is all about. You know, if you want the freedom, if you want the extra income, you do have to take on some of that weight and responsibility. 

Mario Fachini [7:03]

Have you ever seen that picture of the gas tank and it says, There’s two types of people. And one of them is like a tenth gone. And it says we need to fill up. And the other one is, I’m fumes. And it’s like, Don’t worry, I got this. 

Anton Kraly [7:14]

I haven’t seen that. But I love it. Now, I can picture it. Yeah. 

Mario Fachini [7:17]

Which of the two types would you say you are? 

Anton Kraly [7:20]

Oh, I’d have to be on fumes. I mean, there’s no end. I did a podcast once and I was just talking about how there really is no failure. You hear these statistics about X percent of businesses fail in the first year and three years. And I’ve had plenty of things that, by definition, like textbook definition, have failed. But I don’t even think of them as failures because there’s always a lesson. And if like you, yourself, are an entrepreneur and you’re in business, then your success or failure isn’t one thing. It’s your wife. It’s your career. It’s everything. So as long as you know – even if it’s not a related business or an opportunity, as long as you take that lesson, you didn’t really fail. You just learned something that doesn’t work. And take a lesson and implement it into the next thing or the next iteration or the pivot. That’s the only way to succeed. And everybody that’s successful goes through the same stuff. So just knowing you’re not alone and knowing that if you want the benefits, there’s going to be times where you’re stressed out, where you’re working a lot, where you don’t really know which way things are going to go. But that is being an entrepreneur. That’s part of making this work. 

Mario Fachini [8:27]

It sounds like you’ve had a lot of, as I like to call them,  opportunities to overcome also. 

Anton Kraly [8:32]

Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of them. 

Mario Fachini [8:34]

The people you’re helping, tell me about one of the biggest transformational stories you’ve had with someone in your training? 

Anton Kraly [8:43]

Sure. There’s so many. I would say a big one just because it’s looking at different polarities of where somebody was to where they went. We have a lot of people that, like I talked about earlier, they’re already smart. They just want an extra income and they do that, which is amazing. But one of the guys that’s part of Drop Ship Lifestyle, he’s been in the program since, I think, 2014. So going way back. When he first started to work with us in the program, he was living in Thailand. He’s from California but he was living in Thailand on about $100 a month budget. Basically living like local Thai people do because he didn’t have any money. He was trying to get into blogging in different ways to make something work. And literally, no money. He couldn’t afford to fly back home. He actually told me later he was thinking of asking his parents for money for a flight to go back and live with them and get a job. But he went from that to building a business that did multiple millions in sales. That made him I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings within a couple years. He also built a business that he sold for over six figures. And this whole thing happened within 18 months to two years from not being able to fly back home to get a job, to having hundreds of thousands of dollars, and real assets that he created. So that one was probably from lowest to really high. 

Mario Fachini [10:05]

That is a phenomenal story. And if I were to guess, would you say you have at least hundreds and hundreds of those in your community? 

Anton Kraly [10:13]

Yes. Yeah. We do. We do. We have different people that are posting every day. That’s a great thing about having this all online is, people share their stories. So whether it be on our Facebook Group or in our forum, we’re constantly just hearing from different people. We do what are called progress threads. So people will literally post like, “Hey, I’m new. This is where I’m at. This is where I want to go.” And they’ll post updates along the way. Some of the updates disappear and people never post again. It happens definitely. But the ones where you could see that first post of, “This is my goal.” And then a year later to where they’re at. Those are just amazing. 

Mario Fachini [10:48]

Of all the success stories you’ve had, how much would you say is for – if someone’s looking to get into drop shipping, because I know there’s a lot of people that have thought about it. And I know quite a few people that are already doing it. What’s the number one thing you could say before you even get into it to turn into one of the success stories? 

Anton Kraly [11:11]

Yeah. So even I’m guilty of talking about drop shipping about how easy it is. Because it is a simple business. It’s not that complex. Anybody could do this. But I think where there’s a big drop off is knowing that this is simple and thinking that people are going to click a few buttons and then make it work. It still is a real business, right? It’s a business that anybody could build. But especially in the beginning, you need to be putting in the hours, you need to be learning, you need to be calling suppliers, you need to be building a website, you need to be figuring out how to run Google Ads. So it’s easy, but it’s real work. So if you think like, “Oh, I’ll spend a couple weeks maybe put in ten minutes a day and I’m going to be quitting my job.” That’s not going to happen. So go into it with the right mindset, be willing to put in the work, and you could definitely make it work. 

Mario Fachini [12:00]

You mentioned Google Ads. Is that one of your main platforms you’re finding the most success on? Or are you incorporating others such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, any of them, retargeting, perhaps? 

Anton Kraly [12:11]

Yeah. We do incorporate pretty much everyone you just mentioned. Mostly with Facebook and Instagram, we are bigger for retargeting there. LinkedIn, if we’re selling anything B2B. We do have a presence there as well. But our biggest source of traffic is Google, not just organically but through Google Ads. If anybody’s ever been on Google and searched for a product before, you’ve seen these products images, usually at the top right of the screen of the search results. And what you’ll see is a product image. You’ll see the product price. And you’ll see a store name that’s selling it. Those are known as Google Shopping Ads. So people pay, including us, to have their products there. And it’s a really good source of traffic, especially for expensive products like we sell. Because what we’re basically doing is telling Google, “Hey, if somebody goes there and types in bamboo stand up desk.” If I sold them, my product image, price, and store name would be right there. So the person that sees that, that clicks that, that goes to the store is very qualified. So that’s been a go to traffic source for us since I started. 

Mario Fachini [13:18]

You mentioned bamboo stand up. That sounds nice. What types of products have you seen the most success with? 

Anton Kraly [13:25]

So really anything that’s like evergreen. So we don’t look for anything like trending or hot right now. But typically products that are priced at least $200. Ideally $1,000 or more. Also things that appeal to the upper-middle class. So an example I give sometimes is, let’s just say, you were like, “Okay. I want to try to sell sofas.” Because sofas fall into that price range. You wouldn’t want to sell things like futons that costs 200 bucks because shipping would just destroy profits. And you wouldn’t want to try to sell something like Italian leather, handmade sofas for $8,000 because the sales process to sell that to a customer online is much different than something around the $1,000 or 1,500. Because the person buying that sofa, in this example, in that price range, like $1,000 to 1,500, they’re someone that’s comfortable buying online. They probably have disposable income for it. They’re probably just looking for a certain color or size or style. And that’s the type of thing that we want to do, sell something that’s expensive that customers wouldn’t have brand loyalty for. So that’s another big characteristic we look for. I have a tablet in front of me, an iPad, and that’s an expensive product, right? But it’s something I wouldn’t sell because I’m not going to compete with Apple or any of the other huge brands. But you want to sell the things that there’s not real brand loyalty. And customers are most likely going to be drawn to the internet for. So the sofa and a bunch of different colors or styles, they’ll go online. A stand up desk, they’ll go online. A chandelier, they’ll go online. So a lot of different like home goods in the B2B space. You also have things like commercial refrigerators and things like exhaust vents over the stoves. So there’s lots of different products. But typically expensive, no brand loyalty, not easy to find exactly what you want in person. If the products that anybody’s thinking of falls into those categories, there is a good chance that it would work for this business model. 

Mario Fachini [15:23]

So stuff that’s customizable or the stores aren’t going to carry where it’s nice enough, but it’s not so expensive. And so let’s say elite, just for lack of a better word. Tell me about the shipping. Because you piqued my interest with the Italian leather sofa because I personally say you can’t go wrong with Italian. But I do know the reality of shipping some things. I mean, big stuff, like you’re talking about online, you do have to pay for the shipping costs, let alone from overseas, regardless of where it’s at. How was that process different and how much longer does it take? 

Anton Kraly [15:58]

So what we do is, since we sell in the States, we work with suppliers in the States. We also have a huge part of our community that’s in Australia. And they work with suppliers in Australia. The same in UK, they have suppliers in the UK. But what we’re trying to do is find brands to sell for that already have the products in stock in their warehouses domestically. So if I had an order that came from California, maybe the furthest that the warehouse would be, would be New York. And with that, because most of the products are already there, they’re already made. They’re typically shipped out within 48 hours. And then transit times, maybe three to five business days, depending on what it is. Like you mentioned, the larger items, they don’t ship with UPS or FedEx. They can but the prices are absurd. So with stuff like that, we have to ship it with free carriers. And with that, there is a cost. Maybe like that example of sofa from New York to California, it might be $200 or $250. So that’s something definitely that has to be factored into the equation as well. But that’s also why you want that price point to be to be right. Because let’s just say it was a futon, again for $200. Well, if shipping is 250, it doesn’t work. So if you have something in that sweet spot, maybe a $1,500 product where your price for the product is typically half of your retail price. So let’s say it was a $1,500 sofa. That means your cost of goods to the supplier is likely $750. Even if you wanted to offer free shipping, you’re paying that 250. And then your cost per product and shipping is 1,000. So you still have $500 to work with. And that’s a typical scenario. 

Mario Fachini [17:39]

So you’re saying you can put free shipping on there even though you’re paying for it, you just advertise it as free shipping. 

Anton Kraly [17:45]

And more often than not, that’s how it works. Just because that’s what competition looks like at this point. So that’s why when you’re looking at price lists from suppliers that you’re going to be working with, the room in between your wholesale and the retail price there has to be enough money there or else you’re never going to make anything. But, yeah, we typically offer free shipping. But then what we can do on the larger items is offer a higher price shipping option. So we say, “Okay. Free shipping. Ships free.” Or maybe pay $200 more and upgrade to white glove delivery. And with something like that, the product gets brought into the customer’s home, it gets taken out of the box, it gets assembled if it needs to be. So we do have upgrades like that. But typically standard free shipping is free. 

Mario Fachini [8:29]

I like that.

Anton Kraly [18:30]

Free in the sense that we pay. 

Mario Fachini [18:30]

I like that a lot. Because there’s stuff I’ve bought where I’m like, “I don’t want to assemble it.” And I paid to have it assembled. And that’s way nicer. It’s a better experience. And it’s just more enjoyable all around. You’re bringing up some – 

Anton Kraly [18:44]

– a lot of people take it. A lot. Yeah. 

Mario Fachini [18:47]

You’re bringing up some good points here. And here’s why I like online businesses. The same thing when you’re doing email marketing, you’re doing ads, conversions, all these, you can get very metric-ky and number-y and whatever you want to call it, if those are even words. But the reality is, a lot of people don’t treat their business like a business. They don’t know their metrics. And I was following what you’re saying with the profit margins and that. And I learned a long ago, it’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. When you’re doing it online, you need to know your numbers. Would you say that it’s easier to forget about this when you don’t have to look at the numbers each and every day such as people walking in and just you know you’re going to get constant foot traffic? 

Anton Kraly [19:29]

Yeah. I think people don’t do it enough because, let’s say, somebody has a great month, right? And they do $100,000 in revenue. And that’s a lot of money. So they see that coming in and they think instantly, “I’m rich.” And maybe your profit margin – even if business is if you’re doing everything correct, your profit margin might be 25%. So you see 100,000 come in, what your real profit is actually 25. And then even out of that, what you should be doing mostly likely is reinvesting maybe 15 of it into new traffic channels or trying to grow your ad spend. And what happens is people see that money coming in. And not only do they spend all of it, but typically they – I shouldn’t say typically – sometimes they spend more or they spend more so they don’t have enough money left for taxes. And it’s not thought of as, how much am I actually making here? So the smartest way to do this is, if you’re using like the system that we use, it have, literally, a Google Sheet where every time a sale comes in on your website. And we use a tool called Zapier. That basically takes the order information. And it takes it from Shopify, which is the platform we use to build our stores. It puts it into a new line in a Google Sheet. It shows what the customer paid. And then what we do is have a virtual assistant go in there and they enter our wholesale cost. Then once we find out how much shipping cost is, they put that in. And we have order by order what’s actually there. Because if you only are looking at that top line number, it’s deceiving. I would say that. You think you have more than you do. Especially when taxes are due. 

Mario Fachini [21:06]

I have found that a lot of people do this. And one of the exercises when I’m working with an audience, you know, speaking to them, I go, “What is your time worth?” Because, like I was saying, what I love about online sales is it’s really easy to see, here’s wholesale, here’s retail, here’s the conversion rates. And you can just look at a spreadsheet, like you’re saying, and figure out this was smarter. When you use the example of the futon for 200 bucks and shipping is 250, I have to chocolate that. They do it all the time. Or if they sell it for 200 and it costs them 199 and it’s like, “Oh, yeah. You really want to sell all of those.” The same thing when I’m helping people with books. They go, “Well, how much is the margin on the book?” I go, “Well, forget the book. Yeah. You’re going to make money on the sales. But what is your back end? What are you leading into? How much further can you deep – how much further deeper can you work with them to help them?” I mean, do you want to have to sell 100,000 books or help 100 people? That’s a no brainer. So the example I bring up with the audience is, what is your time worth? Because they’re going, “Oh, I charge X amount per hour.” And it could be 1,000, 5,000 10,000 an hour, whatever it is. It doesn’t really matter because I go, “Okay. What is the getting ready time, the drive time, to go to this time, to go to that time? Did you break it down?” And it’s the same thing. You’re not making as much as you want. So it’s not how much you make. It’s how much you keep. And I’m glad you’re talking about that because it’s so important. 

Anton Kraly [22:33]

A hundred percent. 

Mario Fachini [22:34]

What has podcasting done for your business? 

Anton Kraly [22:38]

So for the coaching side and the community side, it actually has done a lot. So not only just having conversations with awesome people but being able to quickly get ideas out in a way that’s – the way that I do it usually is like almost informal. So typically, just record maybe a ten minute episode talking about something that’s actually happening in my businesses. And just pushing it out to the world. It’s definitely built tighter connections. We did an events last summer in New York City. And I just basically post it up online like, “Hey. Anybody wants to come out?” We rented this – it was like a restaurant on a boat with a bar. “We rented this area for these couple hours. Come out.” And it was, maybe, a few months after getting into podcasting that I did this and almost everybody I spoke to was talking about things like, “How do you know that?” And they were like, “Oh. I heard your podcast.” And it was like, “This is crazy.” It’s such a deeper relationship. So I think that’s how it’s helped. Not just to have – I don’t know. Like, the guy behind the camera that has all the professional videos in the program. But now the guy that shares his thoughts about something that happens today in life or in business. It’s built deeper connections. 

Mario Fachini [23:49]

Excellent. So if people want to hear that, I want you to mention it now. Where can they find that? 

Anton Kraly [23:54]

Sure, that’s at EcommerceLifestyle.com. Or any podcast player, you could just search for eCommerce Lifestyle with Anton Kraly. And you’ll find it there. 

Mario Fachini [24:04]

That’s fantastic. I checked out a couple of them and people are going to like it. I’ll say that. 

Anton Kraly [24:10]

I appreciate that. 

Mario Fachini [24:11]

Tease them a little bit without revealing too much. You mentioned about how you’re using video, what has that done for your business?

Anton Kraly [24:20]

A lot. Video is huge. YouTube, it is the second largest search engine. And the quality of interactions we get there and the quality of people that come into our world, for lack of a better term, and say, “I found you on YouTube.” It’s amazing. I mean, like I think podcasting is amazing, too. But the video takes it a step deeper, right? A level deeper. Because not only are they hearing you, they’re actually seeing you. Or if you’re teaching something, like I do a lot, I can share visuals, whether it’s a keynote presentation or me drawing on my computer screen and showing them how something is done. It just, again, strengthens the relationship. I’m still torn on what actually I prefer. If I have to choose one, like podcasting or video, mainly YouTube now, I don’t know. I think podcasting, people consume for longer. So I might be switching more towards that if I had to choose one. But, yeah, video has really helped to grow our community to what it is. 

Mario Fachini [25:18]

Well, when you figure out the answer for that, let me know. Because people ask me that all the time. And I would say they’re equal in different ways. Because, like you said, the consumption on the podcast, I believe, is higher. But no one’s going to sit down on the couch with their family and watch something for an hour or two. 

Anton Kraly [25:39]

That’s how I think about it as a consumer. Yeah. My podcast player is always going. If I’m taking a walk, if I’m in the car, you know, I’m listening to something. And I don’t have YouTube sitting there playing. So if you want people to – if you want to be able to help people the best and kind of tap into their time when they have it, that is the better way. I wish people could watch videos all day long because I think it has a deeper connection. It’s just hard to get that much time. 

Mario Fachini [26:07]

And that’s the cool thing about it because you can do the audio version, you can do the video version, you can have it written out. And whatever people want, that’s what they have. But for real, when you get the answer to that one let me know. Because about once a week I’m going, “Ha. Which one is better?”They’re both good. I don’t really know if there is an answer. It just depends what you’re doing with it. So excellent. We’re going to pop into the Imperfect Action Round right after we thank our sponsor. 

SPONSOR Business Book Checklist [26:36]

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Mario Fachini [26:50]

And we are back with the Imperfect Action Round. And Anton, are you ready to take imperfect action? 

Anton Kraly [26:56]

I’m ready. 

Mario Fachini [26:57]

What is the fastest path to cash in your experience? 

Anton Kraly [27:02]

Selling expensive items. Focus on high ticket. I’ve done both less expensive items and more expensive and if I was starting over, I needed to rebuild a bankroll as soon as possible, I would focus on most likely average order values of $2,000 or more. And everything becomes easier when you’re holding on to hundreds, if not thousand dollars plus, in profit per sale. 

Mario Fachini [27:29]

Excellent. What is the biggest problem you’re seeing your prospects make and the fastest way they can fix it? 

Anton Kraly [27:35]

The biggest problem would be fear. And typically, it’s fear of contacting suppliers. The companies they would sell products for, which is something that we do via the phone because it’s more personal having the connection there. And people kind of they stall. I think the way that they could fix it is just simply by realizing someone’s going to do this. Someone’s going to make the call. Someone’s going to get approved. Someone’s going to be successful. Someone’s going to have another income in a year. Is that person going to be you? It’s up to you. So you got to decide. And if you’re not going to do it, accept that. But yeah, just realize that the opportunities there if you’re going to take action on it. 

Mario Fachini [28:16]

Very good. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value? 

Anton Kraly [28:22]

Stay in contact in more ways than just promotional. This is some reasons why both video and podcasts are so great. Once people buy from us, we don’t just say, “Okay. Thanks. Have a nice life.” I’m constantly putting out new content. One, because I enjoy it. Two, because it strengthens the relationship that’s already there. And three, because it will help existing students and customers get better results also. So don’t just be emailing the promotion of the month. 

Mario Fachini [28:48]

Excellent. What is a book that has helped you the most? 

Anton Kraly [28:52]

The most would probably be The 4-Hour Workweek. I wouldn’t recommend anybody read that to start an eCommerce. business today. But that is the book that introduced me to this world and completely changed where I thought my path as an entrepreneur was going. So I got to give credit there. If I hadn’t read that back then, I probably own a whole bunch of different franchise restaurants right now and be working a hundred hours a week. I’m not complaining but that would be my life. 

Mario Fachini [29:18]

What would you recommend for someone that’s wanting to start an eCommerce business now? 

Anton Kraly [29:24]

I mean, go to DropShipLifestyle. com. That’s the best. That’s my website. I’ve been publishing either a blog or a video there every week for five years probably. So tons of content there. That’s always updated. If it’s a mindset thing and maybe you’ve tried stuff before and failed. A book that I love, it’s super short, it’s called to Do The Work by Steven Pressfield. He also wrote the book, The War of Art. And that’s like a massive thing that I would not read. But Do The Work is kind of like a condensed version. It’s about procrastination and about why it’s so hard to actually take action sometimes. But if I ever feel stuck, I give it a quick read and I’m back into it. So Do The Work by Steven Pressfield.

Mario Fachini [30:05]

And it sounds like what I’m hearing is the underlying theme also is all of this stuff is changing so fast. Be around, like you’re saying, a community that helps you with it. Because The 4-Hour Workweek is a great book but when did that thing come out? Let’s just say – 

Anton Kraly [30:21]

It was 2007. I mean, that’s why [inaudible [00:30:22] Yahoo store, which was outdated by, like, 2008. So yeah, you can’t implement that stuff now. The concepts are good. But yeah, [inaudible [00:30:32]. 

Mario Fachini [30:31]

So how important would you say is to have updated information for business nowadays? 

Anton Kraly [30:37]

It’s one of the most important things. So even like with our community and my programs, every single year, I rebuild it from the ground up. And it’s not because it’s not good. It’s because what worked last year, I’m not going to say it doesn’t work at all now, but there’s little changes and there’s little tweaks and there’s other edges and advantages. And if you just sit back – you know, like one of the worst things that can happen is, if you see your growth kind of flatline, specifically with an eCommerce business. If you get to a stable point, even if that point is really high and it’s not growing anymore, that’s a bad sign. Because it’s not going to stay flat. Like you said, things change so fast. So if it starts to level out, that means you’re a few steps away from a very fast decline. So you always want to be growing, you always want to be learning, you always want to be testing. I recommend, if you have an ad budget, take about 10% of it and put it into something that you have no idea if it will work. Not at all. Be okay with totally losing it all. But just that’s experimental. And that we’ve stuck with that for a while now and it’s definitely served as well. 

Mario Fachini [31:41]

When you’re saying take the 10%, are you saying do that once a year, once a quarter, once a month? 

Anton Kraly [31:45]

I’m saying if you have, let’s just say, $10,000 is your monthly ad budget. The $1,000, I would recommend putting that into something completely different. So maybe if Facebook Ads is what’s working for you, you have $9,000 in Facebook ads that month. Take 1,000 put it in Snapchat. And then not just the money, but take 10% of your resources. So if you have an ads manager, 10% of their time that month put it into Snapchat ads. See what happens. See if you get break even, if you lost all your money, or if you make a lot. And if you’re at least breaking even, like, after one month at a small budget, then you could start to work that in more and more. Because doing things like that, it gives you an edge over time. And not only could you be like a first mover but you could, sometimes, get into marketplaces or platforms that none of your competition is on. And sometimes not just your competition but people even – a few industries separated from you might not even be there. So it’s worth always doing. And it’s not always going to pay off. But when it does, it typically pays off in a big way. 

Mario Fachini [32:46]

So it sounds like if you want your business to be a blockbuster, don’t be blockbuster. 

Anton Kraly [32:51]

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. It’s the easiest way. As soon as you start to stay straight, like the line is not moving up, Netflix is going to come out and you’re gone one day and think what happened? I was doing so good. Sales were consistent for so long. That’s not that’s not a good sign. 

Mario Fachini [33:08]

It’s the economy. 

Anton Kraly [33:09]

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And that’s another thing, people are always worried and who knows what will happen with the economy, I can’t predict the future. But you can always be successful. Maybe you’re spending less money on ads and maybe your revenues less but you can always make this work. When I started my first business, it was literally, at the same time that the entire real estate economy collapsed in the US. The entire housing bubble burst. And we did just fine. So there’s always opportunity. As long as you’re smart with your money, as long as you’re tracking your actual profit, and as long as it’s not all just going straight out the window, you can always make this stuff work. 

Mario Fachini [33:45]

Let me ask you, what do you do personally and professionally to stay on the cutting edge looking into stuff for your business? I’m not just going out on a limb saying you probably invest and you’re doing everything, you’re preaching. But what have you found has worked the best to just stay in the cutting edge and getting to know the people and being in the industries? How do you stay ahead of everyone moving forward? 

Anton Kraly [34:07]

I feel like I’m kind of lucky. But I really do enjoy this stuff. Marketing is what I enjoy it. I would do it for free. I would do it as a job if I couldn’t do it as a business. So it’s a combination of podcasts, it’s combination of actually just seeing like on my phone what I’m seeing. So a lot of it will be like if I’m scrolling through Facebook and I see maybe an ad type that I’ve never seen before, not even from a competitor. But just something like, “Wait. What is this thing?” I’ll actually click on it and try to figure out what it was or how they made an ad book like that. I’ve seen a lot of this on Instagram lately. It’s pretty technical. You can do all these things now with Instagram ads that I only started seeing a few weeks ago. And I didn’t see them for my competitors. I didn’t see them in the course I bought three years ago. I saw them because I was on Instagram checking through my own friend stories. And then I was like, “Oh, how can I do this?” So just always keeping that marketing eye open, I guess. And looking around to see how people are trying to target you. And if they’re trying to target you in a way you haven’t seen before, that’s typically where most of the ideas come from. It will be something that I just I get curious about. Like, why am I seeing this? 

Mario Fachini [35:20]

Well, I think that’s very insightful. Because so many people think there’s some magic bullet, some magic books, some magic mastermind, or whatever. And it’s really just have a passion for what you’re doing. 

Anton Kraly [35:31]

Yeah. You have to care about it. You should enjoy it. And honestly, it’s fun. Like, if you’re ever into like video games, that’s kind of how I see this all working too. It is a numbers game. And the way you create ads and the creatives you make and how you target people and what bidding strategies you use. And it’s all just – it can be fun. If you make it fun, it’s fun. And I think it’s a – I don’t know. It’s a great way to work to be able to put something out to the world and have it shown to – depending on your budget – potentially 100,000 people on a day. And see how they respond to it, it’s amazing. So I think anybody can get into it as long as they as they get some results early on and don’t blow all their budget. But you can start small. I guess that’s a good thing. You don’t need to spend a whole bunch of money from day one. 

Mario Fachini [36:20]

Well, I appreciate you for sharing with us because this has been phenomenal. And I’ve learned a lot because this wasn’t my background. But I do share the passion for the marketing and learning and helping people. And there’s so much possibility out there. So thank you again for sharing that with us. And I wish you all the best continued success. 

Anton Kraly [36:38]

Appreciate it. You as well. 

Mario Fachini [36:40]

All right. Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here. And I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. God bless. 

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www.EAInterviews.com [37:01]

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