#238 – NBA Impersonator and Social Media Superstar @BdotAdot5 Talks About Brand Building

Entrepreneurs selling on Amazon know that balancing the benefits afforded by the huge e-commerce ecosystem and (at the same time) establishing your own brand is complicated. It’s great to have access to Amazon’s seemingly endless stream of customers. Still, at some point, it’s important to find a way to also make those customers your own.

That’s why in this episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Helium 10’s Director of Training and Chief Evangelist, Bradley Sutton welcomes a brand building wizard who has in the last few years won millions of fans and built an unforgettable presence on social media. Brandon Armstrong AKA @BdotAdot5 is here today to walk us through his brand building journey.

Not content to rest on his laurels, @BdotAdot5 now has multiple income streams and at the same time has created a consistent branded image that accompanies every product he releases. How did he do it? @BdotAdot5 says that it was a combination of positive thinking, collaboration with other creatives and a dedication to the idea of cross-pollination of ideas.

He’s also not afraid to have a little fun along the way. Find out how to level up your own brand and learn what Bdot has planned for the future!

In episode 238 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Brandon (@BdotAdot5) discuss:

• 02:50 – Cutting Grass, and Selling Lemonade
• 05:01 – Playing Ball in OZ and Using Vine’s Video Platform
• 08:15 – It’s All About the (Internet) Traffic
• 10:39 – Branching Out and Working as a DJ in Australia
• 13:35 – Next Up, a Food Channel
• 14:49 – Perspective and Gratitude
• 19:43 – Prayer (and Dotables) is the Answer
• 22:08 – What Does Bdot’s Future Look Like?  
• 24:23 – If You Have a Brand, You’re One Step Ahead on Amazon   
• 29:01 – Bdot’s Marketing Tips
• 31:09 – Focusing on the Positive
• 32:16 – Collaboration and Cross-Pollination  
• 32:49 – How to Reach Out to Bdot

Enjoy this episode? Be sure to check out our previous episodes for even more content to propel you to Amazon FBA Seller success! And don’t forget to “Like” our Facebook page and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Podcast or wherever you listen to our podcast.

Want to absolutely start crushing it on Amazon? Here are few carefully curated resources to get you started:

• Freedom Ticket: Taught by Amazon thought leader Kevin King, get A-Z Amazon strategies and techniques for establishing and solidifying your business.
• Ultimate Resource Guide: Discover the best tools and services to help you dominate on Amazon.
• Helium 10: 20+ software tools to boost your entire sales pipeline from product research to customer communication and Amazon refund automation. Make running a successful Amazon business easier with better data and insights. See what our customers have to say.
• Helium 10 Chrome Extension: Verify your Amazon product idea and validate how lucrative it can be with over a dozen data metrics and profitability estimation. 
• SellerTradmarks.com: Trademarks are vital for protecting your Amazon brand from hijackers, and sellertrademarks.com provides a streamlined process for helping you get one.

Transcript

Bradley Sutton: On today’s episode, we’ve got a personal branding story of someone who went from zero to hero. He had nothing and then went to millions and millions of social media followers, and now has multiple income streams. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.

Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the Amazon world. We’ve got somebody here who’s not an Amazon seller, but one of the best at branding I’ve ever known. We got Brandon AKA Bdot AKA, the NBA impersonator. Brandon, how’s it going?

Bdot: Man, good, man. I can’t complain, man. Thanks for having me, bro. How are you?

Bradley Sutton: I’m doing awesome. And we’ve been talking about this for almost two years now, coming on the podcast. I was like, you know what, I’m just going to go to Phoenix and we’re going to get this done. So, we’re out here if this sounds a little bit different guys, I’m on my mobile setup out here, but hopefully you guys can hear it. But before we get into what you’re doing now and everything and the lessons that you have for Amazon sellers, because you don’t sell on Amazon, but there’s a lot of people out there who want to create a brand for themselves. There’s a lot of people who are selling on Amazon and they want to create a brand for their product. And I think you’re going to be able to help with that, but let’s, I always like getting the origin, hero origin story here. So you were born and raised in Georgia?

Bdot: Yes. Atlanta, Georgia. 

Bradley Sutton: Okay. When you were like eight, 10 years old, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up?

Bdot: And I was playing baseball. I was playing baseball and soccer, so I was going to be a baseball player or a soccer player. And then I slowly started getting into basketball, but I just, I always wanted to just, I wouldn’t be a baseball player, man. And then the coaches, they messed it up for me because they were always putting their sons at the best positions and stuff like that. And then I just started falling in love with basketball. And basketball was really my third sport. And from then on, I was like, okay. Yeah, it’s not, I don’t care about making it to the NBA, but I do want to go overseas and play professionally. If I do make it to the NBA, then that’s cool. But I was realistic at a young age. Like it’s only a certain percentage of guys that make it. So I already knew what I wanted to do just then and there, I just wanted to play professional basketball somewhere.

Bradley Sutton: I like it. Did you ever have that entrepreneurial bug? Like, were you one of those kids who was flipping baseball cards or selling garbage pail, kids cars or something?

Bdot: Man, So, I would go to different neighbors’ houses, knock on your door. You need your grass cut, cut the grass for $10, go down to the next door. You need your grass cut. Yeah, I do front to back for $20 and I just raised the price each one. So just little stuff like that. I even had a little lemonade stand. I always had that entrepreneurial bug, just to try to do something even. So baby pit bulls. Yeah, man. We had like a litter of 20 and I’m just something of course rightful owners and stuff like that. But yeah, just that bug to just get out there and try to make it some way. Somehow always had my hand in every little thing.

Bradley Sutton: So then you graduated high school, you got a, I’m assuming like a four year scholarship to what college?

Bdot: Yep. Yep. Lincoln Memorial University is in Tennessee.

Bradley Sutton: Tennessee. What was your major?

Bdot: Marketing.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. That’s awesome. Some athletes, they just like, what’s the easiest thing. Kinesiology.

Bdot: Yeah. Right, right.

Bradley Sutton: But it sounds like you’re ready. you’re looking ahead to what maybe could help you in the future.

Bdot: I don’t know. Something just ties me to marketing. Because I always, I think growing up, always heard what’d you go to school for business business business. I’m like, okay, well I guess that’s what I’m going to try to venture off to. And then marketing was the one and it’s so crazy because I have my marketing degree and I’m literally marketing myself, like, because I’m my own brand, but I never thought that I’ll be doing this. Right. Just thought I’d be playing basketball somewhere. So it was crazy how everything comes full circle because I really just, yeah, of course I was thinking about using my degree, but I’m thinking like, man, I’m going to play basketball after college. I’m not thinking about any type of schoolwork or anything. So it’s crazy how everything comes together.

Bradley Sutton: Yeah. So you went all four years?

Bdot: Yeap, all four years.

Bradley Sutton: And then did you go to professional basketball right away?

Bdot: Ended up going out to Reno, Nevada to play with Reno Big Horns.

Bradley Sutton: G-league?

Bdot: Yup, yup. Formerly D league, you have G league now. There were Sacramento Kings affiliates. And yeah, it was a dope experience. I had some good guys out there and the guy, Gary temple, I got to tell her honey, rest in peace. It was some good dudes, man. It was a dope experience. So after that I went, played ball in Australia and that’s when vine came out and that’s when I started using vine understanding how to use vine. And then in 2015, uploaded a video to Instagram of Russell Westbrook impersonation. Never did a sports impersonation. All my videos were just regular human beings, regular comedy, blue color.

Bradley Sutton: The original was like, you pull it up.

Bdot: So, it was like regular, everyday comedy to kind of see what you like, you see on like the Tik Tok now. And I did that Russell Westbrook impersonation, and that changed my whole life. I didn’t play a professional basketball game until 2018. So in three years I didn’t play professional basketball because it’s social media, it just, I wasn’t that guy for them.

Bradley Sutton: So then before 2015 was pretty much your only income from actual professional basketball.

Bdot: Yeah. It was just hoping. Yep. Or like doing a little vine promos, but that was like little hundred dollars, $200 a right off stuff like that. But yeah, I wasn’t, yeah. I was just grinding, trying to get overseas. And then that one video out of millions of millions of videos, that was always on Worldstar and this and that, but that one video just, it caught the right eye. Like it was something no one’s ever seen before. And then I remember Brandon Jennings retweeted it because he was following me on Twitter. Because I knew a lot of those guys from vine and he retweeted, introduced me to the basketball world, changed my life.

Bradley Sutton: Interesting. And it was– the following blew up. It was pretty much organic. It was all organic, just people sharing and tagging their friends and stuff like that.

Bdot: I was like at 96K bro, I had like a whole campaign get me that to a 100K, the road to a 100K. I made that video bro. In two days, I think I had like 367,000 followers. Wow. Like the 100K was just surpassed. I just remember at the crib chillin and I’m right there on ESPN. They’re showing my bed. I’m like, wait, that’s me. That’s freaking crazy. Like, yeah, it’s still surreal to this day.

Bradley Sutton: I love it. Love it. Now, one thing that some people have misconceptions about you could have millions of followers, you could have millions of likes that does not equate to income. So, you got to take the next step. Now you stopped playing ball in 2015. So how did you actually support yourself? It wasn’t just having the followers and having likes and having everybody know your name. How did you switch from professional ball to make an income off of your brand basically?

Bdot: I realized I was a brand. I, myself was a brand and I would have companies, agencies, different management companies reach out wanting to represent me. And, but before then I would have like, your Nike’s or your champs. And they were reaching out to me in my DMS, wanting to work. And I didn’t know what to offer or what to say to them, et cetera, et cetera. So that’s when I started taking these meetings with all these major telling agencies, your CAAs, your UTAs, and that’s when I ended up linking one of those guys. And I mean, of course I had a manager, but then he was like the homie, they know what he was doing. He could talk professionally, but I had to get rid of him. And then, yeah, so when I got that representation and that management, I was able to turn those likes and those followers into money because the more followers, the more likes of course is really more about the traffic. It’s more about the analytics. You can have 3 million followers, but your videos can only be getting viewed, 20,000 views. So it’s about that analytic back, those traffic, those are numbers. They look at it, they don’t care about that million. They want to see what that traffic looked like. So, I started doing that and that’s how I learned it. And I’m able now to be able to negotiate contracts myself, of course, I still have my manager do it, but I was able to, I still learned as being represented. So that’s how I turned it into the big bucks.

Bradley Sutton: Now your start branching out. And when I say branch out, I mean, there’s most branches I’ve ever seen one person. I mean, you have the dot eats and your professional chef. I mean, you’re a singer now. You’re a DJ, or you’re an actor. Like what was the first one? What was the first one other than the, Hey, what made you stop and think I don’t want to be just the NBA impersonator. I don’t want to be just an Instagram celebrity. What was the first thing that you branched out into?

Bdot: Man, that’s– my first thought is when I was getting approached by these agencies. I got approached by [inaudible] sports. There’s a number one sports agency for content creators that do sports comedy. But in 2015, I was already thinking like, I don’t want to be tied to basketball my whole life. I don’t want to be known as the sports impersonator. So that’s why I ended up signing with Fullscreen. And they have, I was the only like sports YouTube on there. They just had makeup artists, different people like that, but it was still, I was the first person here and they still had the connections that I needed. So then in there, all I said, I don’t, right then I already made up my mind, I didn’t want to be the impersonator, known as NBA impersonator in my whole life, yes. That’s the one that can get my foot in doors, but I’m letting you guys know that I can do way more than this. So the first thing I bridged off too was, I’ve always played basketball, but it was probably DJing in 2018. When I was playing ball in Australia, I was playing pro ball in Australia. Because I got tired of it, I had to prove myself. I’m like, I haven’t played ball in three years out and gotten impersonation, whatever. I’m a brand now. So back then, it was kind of hard for me to get on a team, but now I need percentage ticket sales. I need the concession stands, all that because I’m coming to you and I can boost you guys is incoming and stuff like this. So right then and there, and I started DJing and it was just, I started out as an international DJ. That was my first gig. I was in Australia and I started DJing out there.

Bradley Sutton: So like, when you guys would travel to other cities to play games, you would like it.

Bdot: I will have my manager. He was cool. He was my manager out there. He would book me in those clubs for ECD, especially if it’s like an overnight city that we have to go to. So he’ll find a local club and he’ll book me there. And it was, yeah, it was dope. I think like a year and a half ago I went back out there and I did like a three club tour for DJ. And it was lit.

Bradley Sutton: So, did you know how to DJ before, like you had a CDJ and that kind of stuff where you just said, like, decide to do it, and then you taught yourself and then you start it.

Bdot: Virtual DJ, will always be the app, not an app, but a little program on the internet called virtual DJ. You download it and you literally just DJ via the laptop. So I knew what the words meant. So when I got my controller, I was like, Oh, I know what that button is. I know what that button is. Because I used to literally DJ all my little kickbacks back in Atlanta, I would DJ all while I’m sitting in the corner and I just DJ on my laptop, like literally mixing all my laptop. So, that’s how I started DJing. And it just stuck to me because we really didn’t practice them much. We had a lot of free time. So, that’s when I was like, let me go ahead and give me this controller. He bought me a laptop and everything. Now DJ, and look, alias, celebrity DJ concerts. So, Hey man, it’s exciting.

Bradley Sutton: So, I hope people out there are listening, paying attention to this story might be thinking, well, what does this have to do with Amazon? But first of all, if you’re really good at something, double down on that. So he was good at basketball. He got notoriety from this Russell Westbrook video. So he didn’t get a big head right away and say, all right, I’m not doing any basketball things anymore. I’m more talented that no, you started doing all kinds of impressions, LeBron James and everybody, right? So, like you get popular off of something, double down on that for a while. But then at the same time, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, start thinking about step two, step three, step four. And then, so I’m assuming that your mentality of why you picked DJs, the next thing was, that was something, I mean, you were never a professional at it before, but you would just do it on the side. It was something you’re semi passionate about. You enjoy doing it. And that’s kind of like, my philosophy is like, if you can get paid to do something that you love and that you probably would pay to do, that’s the best thing. Like, as you know, I used to be a Zumba instructor and when I was trying to lose weight before I would pay to go to the gym to take Zumba and now they’re going to pay me to do something that I love so much. So, guys try and think about that– what can I do that could get me money, but that you love doing because when you love doing something–

Bdot: It doesn’t feel like work.

Bradley Sutton: Exactly. Exactly. So then you taught yourself how to do real DJing, double down on that. What was the next thing that you started branching out in doing?

Bdot: My cooking, my dot eats, started I’ll always cook, but people were telling me to start an Instagram page. So I am like a foodie and a chef page. So you can put anything on that page. I can cook and people started asking me for my plates, started selling them. So now I started the catering business. I’m opening, I’m taking over nights at a restaurant out here, April 22nd, a couple days ago. I just cooked for OBJ, Odell Beckham. So I love cooking because I’m from the South and it’s just something that I know how to make the food taste good. I can cook anything. I feel like cooking anything like just, you don’t even have to give me a recipe, just let me know what I need to do or what gives me a picture of it and I can make it happen.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Hi guys. I can attest that. I’m sitting here and completely stuffed because I just had some of the best chickens, some of the best spaghetti I’ve ever had courtesy of dot eats. So that’s true.

Bdot: Thank you, man. Glad you enjoyed it.

Bradley Sutton: All right. So then now, like, what motivates you? There’s people who get tired right away of things and like, they never see things through, but you start some, I see you finish it and you’re like excelling. So like, how do you keep that motivation up?

Bdot: I mean, outside of the generic answer, like my mom and my kids, just me looking at just like it’s people in way worse situations than I am, I don’t, if I find myself complaining, I feel like I’m being selfish. So like, what motivates me is like, I could be in a way worse situation. Like I can be– I can have cancer. I could be living in a box, something. So it’s like, I’ll wake up. And I’m blessed every day. It’s like, Oh, I have another opportunity to better myself. I have another opportunity to try to help somebody, better someone else. Just lead by example. And that’s what I try to do. That’s what motivates me. Me waking up. I’m like, Oh. Okay. I’m alive. Let me try to do something to pay it forward or progress in life, be productive. I know it sounds corny, but it’s little things like you can not do something you did yesterday, but do it today. That’s– you’re improving, that’s productivity. It may not look like it. You may not want the flow yesterday, but you fold them today. Boom. Now you start getting that little happy, like this just little stuff. Like it doesn’t have to be nothing crazy. Doesn’t have to be a $10,000 contract or a big trade for racks or something. They can just be little things. So that’s what motivates me outside. Like my family and friends.

Bradley Sutton: All right now for the BTS of the episode, Bradley’s 30 seconds. Here’s my 30-second tip. We’ve been talking about branding here in this episode, and here’s a couple of tips when it comes to branding. First of all, if you’re wanting to get brand registry on Amazon, which gives you a lot more options for doing advertising and gives you some great insights in brand analytics, you need a trademark first and the one of the fastest ways to get trademarks. First of all, you can do that through IP accelerator, which is an Amazon program, or can use the Helium 10 company sellertrademarks.com, and you can get an expedited German trademark that Amazon brand registry in the USA accepts in as fast as a week to two weeks. That’s what I did for all of my Project 5Ks. I got an expedited German trademark from seller trademarks.com. Another tip for branding is if you want to start building your off Amazon social media following, make sure to use an insert card, but it insert card in all your boxes that either has them opt in or both as people opt in and sends them to one of your new social media accounts, you can set up a template right there in your Helium 10 account in the tool portals. It has a QR code that can bring people to a landing page that will allow them to enter their email address, or that can bring them right directly to your social media accounts.

Bradley Sutton: There’s tens of thousands of people who have blue check marks who have a million followers. And then you see that persona, but then like if you knew them in real life, a lot of them still have a nine to five job, and they’re doing other stuff because they don’t know how to leverage it. Now, you were able to leverage your brand and your social media into a career. So, what made you different from these other YouTubers or Instagram people who, yeah, they got the same amount of followers, but they’re not making money off it. What’s the difference between you and them?

Bdot: I just think, it’s nothing against them, but I’m a regular person, I didn’t get the big head. I’m still Brandon Armstrong. And then just my content was always different. I was always ahead of the game. I’m already thinking in 2027, back in 2016, I was already thinking 2019, you feel me? All right, let me start, let me do this. I’m always going to cook. I’m going to have this. So it’s just, I take every day. I know I say that I really don’t look forward towards the future because I can only control the now. I can only control what goes on the day, but I’m always thinking ahead of the game, just in case, something falls out. So I think that’s why like I master my craft and my blueprint. I shared what I do. I didn’t just, I was the originator of this sports comedy, no sports, basketball charmer, but I didn’t just keep it away. I showed other people like, Hey, this is how you do it. Do this, do that. Boom, boom. And now you see it’s a wave of sports, sports influencer in sports, comedy influencer. That’s just doing a thing. And I’m happy. I’m the founding father. I’m not bitter, I’m not selfish. They are doing the exact same stuff I was doing, but it is what it is. You feel me like they had to be Michael Jordan, Kobe emulated him. So, I’m not, I think that’s why that’s what separated me from them and still separates me from a lot of people to the day.

Bradley Sutton: All right. Do you have any unique habits? Some people who are motivational speakers, they’ll talk about journaling or manifesting and waking up meditating or all this kind of stuff that is unique. Not the average person does, are you doing any of those things?

Bdot: Nah, I just keep it simple. I pray. I believe in manifestation, but I don’t, I’m not like, I don’t say it over and over. Like I have a mantra every day type thing. I just really, yeah, I just pray and I just take every day, like, it’s the same. I’ve meditated before, but I just eat my edibles and just all my life.

Bradley Sutton: Another one of your branching out.

Bdot: Also, with my chef and meals, I can incorporate food TAC infused meals. So, and it helps with a lot of people, like a lot of athletes with the meal preps, put some CBD in there and help their bodies. And yeah, one of my guys, my guy Jay, he had crohn’s disease and he wasn’t able to sleep. He’s all the way out of Pittsburgh. And he was like, bro, can you send me something, send me some of your data boost. I haven’t been able to sleep. Sent him some, he gave me a week later. He said, bro, it’s the best thing I ever got in my life. I’m like, Oh shoot. I’m just not just making them because you know, they taste good and I like be an elevated, but yeah man. So another branch on a tree.

Bradley Sutton: Guys, you notice how everything still goes back down to like the dot brand, it started with Bdot and then now we got dotables, we’ve got dot eats, like, well what’s your DJ name?

Bdot: DJ no daddy.

Bradley Sutton: DJ no daddy. But you look at that– that has his own Instagram or not, but like I see a similar branding there, whether it’s in a name or just the branding overall, is that important you think too like to keep the same theme throughout all your endeavors?

Bdot: So I think it’d be easy to– it’s easier to tell you to, on this year, unless you’re just like, like a silent investor in something like that, but yeah, when you’re trying to bring yourself, I think you should always keep it, similarly should always keep it. Unless you’re trying to drop something like, exclusive one off time addition type thing, but even then, you got to keep it. Yeah. So that’s why I just incorporate that for my dog. My dog got sick. I have a tortoise called dial-in. My restaurant, the dot experience. So yeah, I have a travel page dot travels. So yeah. I just try to keep it “dot” that’s what–

Bradley Sutton: Yeah. And I would say like 98% of the people, they probably don’t know Brandon Armstrong, but you say Bdot or dot, they would know. And that was kind of like my philosophy when I was doing the Zumba. Right. I was like, there’s other Zumba YouTubers out there, way more talented than me. But I was thinking like a little bit of head of marketing. So I was like, nobody’s going to remember Bradley Sutton, like, who’s going to remember that, but how can I make myself memorable? That’s how I made the whole crazy sock brand. I was like, okay, here’s a weird guy with a sock on his arm and a crazy sock on his leg. We’ll remember crazy socks. And sure enough, I’ll go to Zumba Oh, there’s the craziest care. If you know my name, you know my brand. And now they’re like, Hey, we want the crazy sock guy to come to Japan. So guys branding personal branding is important, but if you guys out there have physical products, keep your brand simple, make it memorable. People aren’t going to remember the owner behind the brand. They’re not going to know that that’s your product, but they’ll remember the brand. Like, I don’t know, who’s the founder of Nike. I can’t think of it or Adidas. We all know the brand. We don’t even have to know the name. You just see a logo and they’re so on point with their branding. Everybody knows that logo. So, what’s the future look like for you?

Bdot: Well, we’re about to do season two Abbott television show on Hulu. It’s called WTF Baron Davis. I’m with Baron Davis. He’s a retired, one of the best NBA point guards to play the game. We just got picked up by TBS. So we’re going to be on national television. That’s going to start, we start filming that at the end of the year or beginning of 2022. So that’s another branch of the tree that I’m excited about, because this is, I want to be on TV. Like this is TBS, is like prime time television. Like this is just like legacy money in terms of out, my kids would be Gucci. And that’s really what I care about in the day. So we got dot eats, that restaurant, starting this month and I’m excited about it, so yeah, man, my music, I’m looking forward to touring DJOs Man, it’s just, Oh no, it’s going to be some head’s going to pop up.

Bradley Sutton: All right. Well, one thing here, you didn’t know I was going to ask you this, but you don’t have your own products on Amazon yet. Don’t, all right. So how about you and I work on some and I’ll help you get set up, and because obviously you’ve got the branding now and it’s so much easier and by the way, guys out there, if you are your own brand, even if you have nothing to do with Amazon, you have a leg up on everybody else, all the rest of us who just start on Amazon, we’re starting from scratch. We got to build our audience on Amazon. But when you already have a following of social media following, you’ve already got a brand in some other field. It makes it that much easier to start off on products. And so like, you know, let’s talk over the next few weeks about what kind of products that inspire you. And then we’ll work to get that manufactured and, and we’re going to start our own dot. A dot something else. That’s all right. You stick to it. I have another friend, who’s a DJ, Slushii, and I had him on the podcast and he was all excited to do it too, but he never did. So a year later, from that podcast and he still didn’t start anything on Amazon, but I have a feeling that you’re going to stick.

Bdot: It’s another area to come in to learn. I don’t know anything about it, I buy a lot of stuff from there.

Bradley Sutton: So yeah. I mean, a lot of people don’t realize, over 50% of the products that people buy on Amazon, they’re not from Amazon. They’re like Amazon doesn’t own them. They’re just people like you and me who are third-party. So people don’t realize how much money we’re talking, billions of dollars. I have people, I know people who are just regular people that they’re doing eight, nine figures on Amazon just by making, they’re not making inventions. They’re just talking like, what’s this and for the Chinese checkerboard. And then let me just change a color or put my own logo on it. Yeah. It’s just taking stuff that already exists. Do a little something different and then sell it.

Shivali: All right, guys, that sound means it’s time for our CAT. Our CAT of the episode stands for clubhouse after party tip. Once a week, we go live on the Clubhouse app and bring back former Serious Sellers Podcast guests. We take live questions from you and they give you their best tip out there. So every episode, we’re going to be giving you guys clips from these episodes we’ve been doing on Clubhouse. So you can get some great strategies from our former guests. Now, if you have the clubhouse app, make sure to search for the club Serious Sellers Podcast and follow it so that you can be notified when we go live. You can also follow our director of training there at h10 Bradley in this clip, we had Kevin King, who is the master behind Freedom Ticket and an e-con legend on the clubhouse call to answer your questions, if you would like to listen to Kevin’s latest episode, it is episode 216.

Kevin King: So my question is, have you ever used the Amazon posting flows or people posting and just doing the live, introduced to your products also, if so, if you are using, how do you major it, how can we reach out their website pause on like hundred [inaudible]. We can’t find out and track them. I don’t have the list, but they are, there’s like three or four agencies that I know of that are doing that right now. And as far as the post, I don’t know if an agency, I’m sure there’s someone that’s offering as a service that does post, but I have someone– you can have a VA do it yourself. As long as you have brand registry brand registry to do that, then you can get access to an Amazon post. And right now it’s still free. At some point they may charge for it, but you can post in there.

Kevin King: You can cross, we use it for a couple of our brands. It’s hit or miss. Some of the stuff actually can get you some sales. And some of it’s a waste of time, to be honest. But it’s worth giving it a shot. And if nothing else, it’s just some more real estate. It’s more brand awareness there. The unfortunate thing is you can’t control where you show up. So like some of our posts we’ll get six, 10,000 impressions, 15,000, 20,000 sometimes, or more. Other ones for whatever reason to get like 200. And we haven’t been able to figure out why that is, even though we’re using some of the same targeting and experimenting around, but you can cross promote your products. And it will show up on some of the other pages on others, on your competition’s pages. So it’s worth playing with just don’t expect it to like generating millions of dollars for you at this point and not down the road, it might turn to something, but right now it’s still in beta and they’re still trying to kind of figure it out just a few months ago. They– you could finally actually see what your click rate is and stuff. They didn’t even offer that until just a few months ago. So it’s still up and coming. But if you have ran out of experiments with it yourself and it may turn out to be worth it, or it may just be a nice little extra thing for you.

Bradley Sutton: For people out there who want to create their own brand, kind of like you did, whether we’re talking about their own personal brand or they’ve got a product, what is some advice for those who don’t really know how to market themselves? What are some good first steps for people?

Bdot: I just always tell people, keep doing what you’re doing. Like don’t stop just because it doesn’t work the first time. Second time, third, four, fifth may not work for the first 29 times, but that 30th of time it may work may just change it a little bit. Just alternative, because like I said, I’ve been, I was doing, I was never doing sports videos. I was never doing nothing. I was doing Drake be like, I was doing little funny comedy skits. It was not doing sports videos out of nowhere. I ran some just told me to do a Russell Westbrook video because he was my favorite player and it was Russell Westbrook in game facial expressions versus player card pictures. That was the whole title because his player card picture he’s smiling and happy, but when he’s on the court, he’s like mean and ferocious. And when I did that, that right there changed my whole life. I thought I was going to be wild and out. Now you’ve told me that was the type of comedy I was doing and the reason, but I never stopped. I never, I didn’t, till this day, I don’t care if I have a million followers, my video gets 20,000 views. That was 20,000 views of somebody looked at. I know I’m going to have more positive feedback than negative. It’s not always about going viral, popping golf, the first time we’re selling a thousand units in the first week, like, it’s not about that. It’s about just little progressions. Just keep going. Don’t stop. Like just don’t stop because you don’t know what may take off. So that’s my advice right there.

Bradley Sutton: Now, sometimes in social media, we see all the good stuff, you know, but it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. We run into legal issues or, or somebody steals from us or somebody is trying to copy us or whatever. Are there any– what were some of the obstacles that you’ve been through in this journey?

Bdot: Man, just finding out who to trust in terms of just your people, your circle of his social media, you have to have tough skin because they are going to dig in, they’re going to let you know your flaws. They’re going to talk big stuff about you. Big on try to make men, is this stuff, whack, blah, blah, blah. Like they’re going to be super negative. But like I said, it’s always going to be way more positive than it is negative. You’re not doing nothing like six, nine, or no crazy stuff like that. I’m going to be perfectly fine. So, I mean, of course I ask them, I have more and more ups than downs, way more ups and downs. Not really many downs. No, I mean, I lost, I didn’t lose a contract with Tinder. But I probably, that was probably God telling me I needed to do that. They’d leeway because I like posting on the gram saying that I just got a major deal with a major dating company, like a dating app and then lost that. But other than that, it’s nothing. No, no, just more ups than downs. Of course it’s going to be bumpy on the road. But when you got better days to look forward to those, those bumps, that’s ain’t nothing. Ain’t just a little speed bumps going to be a half a second going to be right over.

Bradley Sutton: All right, cool. Last thing of the day we do this thing on the show, we call it the TST 30-second tip. So you’ve been talking about strategies that have helped you along the way, but what’s something you haven’t mentioned. It could be about anything out there that you can say, maybe 30 seconds or less that’s really actionable, valuable for our listeners out there.

Bdot: Don’t try to do it on your own. Collab, collab, collab, collab. That I started out on my own, which was cool. But when I started realizing you can work. You can work way better and be more productive and progress even more. When you work with someone else, maybe they may be bigger than you or someone that is maybe in a different lane that cross-pollination in that, cross promoting, they’re cross collabing will help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be. It’s really that simple.

Bradley Sutton: I love it. All right. So how can people find you on the interwebs out there drop some of your social media handles.

Bdot: Everything is @BdotAdot5 Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, E harmony, Christian mingle, all that. BdotAdot5.

Bradley Sutton: Farmers only?

Bdot: Farmers only, Muslim meetup. We all out there, man. Just hitting Jewish, get down, man. Let’s go, man. All right. All right.

Bradley Sutton: All right. So guys, you got all his social media. If in six to eight months, you don’t see him talking about his new brand that he’s started on Amazon. Call him out because I don’t think it’s going to come to that because I think he’s going to follow through. So, all right. Well, Brandon, thank you so much for today’s meal and thank you for coming on this podcast and maybe we’ll reach out to you in a couple of years and see where we are at with your Amazon business.

Bdot: Sure, a couple months.

Bradley Sutton: A couple months. I like it. I like it.

Bdot: Three months, let’s make it happen. Thanks for having me brother.