Generating $100M+ in eCommerce, TikTok Shop, Growing up Broke | Alex Fedotoff DSH #354

I think there's a lesson there on what level of, you know, even if you're experienced entrepreneur, market decides.

Pretty much market is a decision maker.

You have to listen to the market.

You have to observe what market wants, what market wants to buy and sell that to them, not what you want to sell or maybe what you're passionate about.

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All right, guys, we got all the way from Miami, Alex Vadatoff here today talking about e-commerce.

Nice to see you, Sean.

Absolutely.

$100 million in sales, man.

Yeah, over the years.

You know, some years better than others, but...

Nice.

How long did that take?

So I started e-commerce in 2016, 17.

Okay.

So about eight years.

Yeah,

back in Europe when I lived lived there.

Damn.

Okay, yeah.

So you grew up in Ukraine, right?

Correct.

And then you moved to...

You know,

so yeah, so we I lived in Ukraine then the war happened the first time 2014.

We moved to Poland We lived around Europe and 2020 we moved to United States.

Wow.

So what was that like in Ukraine?

Was that a very scary time?

Yeah, yeah.

When war, you know, they just draft everyone like even it is right now.

Like they just get everyone to the army what's the age minimum there for the draft 25 but now they're lowering because they're they're out of people yeah 25 is actually older than i thought i think here it's like lower yeah wow 25

yeah but now you're out man it's probably better that you're out because it's scary over there right now living there yeah yeah you know it's like i think we're as humans we're free to choose where we want to live you know even like inside of the country you know people don't like california they can move to like miami or you know so it's like i think choosing where to live and not being attached to a place i think it's important yeah why'd you choose miami

uh we were considering austin we're considering los angeles san diego and miami i don't know we wanted to be close to europe we like to travel yeah uh so miami is in a good spot like you can go to europe like in you know six nine hours like you're in europe uh then uh south america So it's nice, nicely located geographically, but it also was a good call because Miami and Florida was one of the few states that were like open during the pandemic.

Yeah, so it was a very good call.

Nice.

We landed in Miami, like literally like six hours before they closed the border with Europe.

Damn.

So you would have been stuck?

Yeah, for months.

That's scary.

Why do you want to be close to Europe?

You got family there and stuff?

Yeah, we like to spend time in Switzerland.

Nice.

Yeah.

Those Swiss banks, man.

That's where your money's at.

Sometimes they're failing, like

they had with this credit suit.

Yeah.

Oh, I heard about that.

Big scandal.

Damn.

I want to talk about drop shipping because a lot of people try to do dropshipping, right?

There's a lot of courses, a lot of people teaching it.

Not a lot of people get to seven figures, let alone nine figures.

So how did you get that experience in dropshipping?

Did you have a mentor or something?

Yeah, it's fascinating.

I ask myself the same question every time.

Like, why, like, with all of the abundance of resources, there's only a small percentage of people that succeed.

And so, like SPY tools, you have,

i mean you can literally see anyone's ads you can see what products people are selling so it's it's relatively easy to replicate

um

for me personally i mean i've learned through experience with um

I started as a service.

I started as a freelancer back in Ukraine.

I started freelancing working with businesses.

So I gained some experience and I had like kind of behind the scenes knowledge of what was working and how the whole business model worked, which I think is a great kind of like path for a lot of people.

Let's say you want to get inside of a specific industry.

I mean, one of the easiest ways just to go work in that industry, work for a company that you admire, you know, gain some experience, see how that company operates, and then in a few years, like you can start your own gig.

And so

that was my pass.

You know, I discovered drop shipping because one of the clients was doing dropshipping and I was running their ads and I would see how to run the ads, I see where to source the product.

So I just connected the dots and started running my own stores.

And that's

pretty much how I started.

That's cool.

The thing with dropshipping is you need to be able to adapt very quickly, right?

Which is a skill that is hard to teach and now there's a new wave of tick tock shop right and before you could just drop ship from china now there's like three pls and stuff the game changes all the time have you noticed that yeah 100 and uh it's even like what kind of products are selling how to sell them the types of the creatives and type of the visuals that you have to use in order to sell the product and especially in markets like united states it's more competitive market so you have to adapt like very fast um but the opportunity is

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Opportunity is there.

I mean, like, we've had our best, you know, with all the recession, whatever, you know, the downtrends and stuff like that.

We've had our best year last year.

Yeah.

And

it just trending up, you know.

So.

It's all about finding that winning niche, right?

People, that's a million dollar question.

People ask you all the time, finding winning products, winning niche, but you really just got to do it from experience, right?

Yeah, and also like observing what's working.

Like, I don't like to reinvent the wheel.

In many cases, and I've made this mistake so many times, even like recently, we decided to launch a product.

And, you know, I'm a smart guy.

I was like, I've been in this industry for so many years.

We launch a product.

It's like, yes, like, okay, we get samples from China, you know, beauty gadgets.

I like beauty.

I like health.

And like, I like beauty because these are like evergreen niches.

People always have pain.

People always want to look better.

So evergreen niches, evergreen demand.

And so I'm like, okay, we get sources.

We get samples from China.

We get like 20 different samples.

We try this device, this device, this device.

And we know how to sell devices.

We sold like you know, 100 million dollars, like

device worth of devices.

We know how to sell them.

And out of all of the devices, I choose the most expensive.

So the device costs like $50.

So we have to sell it for like $200, $250 in order for the margin to make sense.

Yeah, exactly, right?

So

the profit margin so we can spend on ads and still be profitable.

And so I choose the most expensive.

And we order inventory, we order like thousand units, which is like $50,000.

Yeah.

$50 per unit, 1,000 units, which I don't recommend anyone to do.

You know,

it was a bad decision.

And then we try to grow it, try to run ads.

And we are good with ads.

We're good with creative.

We spend money on creators.

And it doesn't work.

And it's just like inventory is sitting there.

We just, we cut it, we move on.

We don't want to waste time.

But I think there's a lesson there that no matter on what level of, you know, even if you're experienced entrepreneur, like market is above market decides, right?

Pretty much market is a decision maker.

You have to listen to the market, you have to observe what the market wants, what market wants to buy, and sell that to them, not what you want to sell, or maybe what you're passionate about.

Yeah, you have to be super objective, you can't get your emotions involved.

I've struggled with that issue too when I did e-commerce.

I would get so attached to certain products and think everyone likes them, but it's really me liking it, you know, not everyone else likes it.

Yeah, exactly.

And we're selling products to women, usually over 45 years old.

And

I'm not a lady.

I'm not 45 years old.

So, yeah,

I just eliminate my kind of objective opinion.

That makes sense.

Now, Facebook ads have gotten more and more expensive over the years.

It's weeded out a lot of people, right?

But you're still running them with success.

So how do you think you were able to adapt when it comes to running paid ads?

I think,

I mean, it was Facebook.

I'm competitive.

I think that helps.

Being competitive and like and observing what your competition is doing and just, you know, seeing, you know, what they do.

So now you have to level up.

But also important factor, I think, is like just reinvestment.

Reinvestment, like let's say, let's say you start e-commerce business.

Let's say you get some initial momentum.

Most people would be just like taking money out or buying a car, buying some stuff for themselves.

What we do is like we reinvest.

Let's say the product, you know, the project makes money.

We reinvest that profit into stock, into like into stock, obviously, but also into custom content.

So we send the product to content creators.

You know, they shoot content, they send it, send us back.

So now we have a lot of variables.

Facebook ads is a game of variables, right?

So the more variables you have, the more variations of the creative, of the visuals you have, the higher your chances for success.

In many cases, you know, people try one ad, few variations, maybe max, and it doesn't work.

And the same Facebook ads don't work.

It just, it's not it, it doesn't work.

It's maybe you just didn't give it enough inputs.

Didn't test enough.

Correct.

Yeah, people give up very easily, right?

They launch one ad campaign, it doesn't work, and then they say Facebook ads is dead.

Yeah, yeah, but there's still people, you know, making millions off Facebook ads.

Facebook is amazing.

I mean, some of my friends, you know, spending like eight, ten million dollars per month on ads.

Yeah.

And so

per month?

Correct.

On drop shipping or is it?

Oh, it's it's a branded supplements.

Most of the supplements are something with like higher LTV.

um i mean facebook ads cannot fix your margin structure facebook ads cannot fix your um like business uh cannot fix your product right so obviously those things have to be foundationally right before you get into ads um but if you have enough margin to acquire a customer if your product has some stickiness maybe you know if it's supplement or something that people have to rebuy so now you're kind of like building more sustainable business because it's not just one-time purchases you have to acquire every time and pay for for ads for, but also people coming back and

your profitability increases.

Have you tried digital products or do you stick with mainly physical?

So we have actually our whole kind of area of our company is

like educational.

So we do e-commerce and then we teach people how to do e-commerce.

Company is called e-commerce killing secrets.

And it started like pretty much as my hobby.

I posted on the Facebook groups about my results.

People started reaching out.

And it was like on the back burner.

and it wasn't like I didn't even take it seriously until we like moved to the United States.

It was like a side project and now we have a now we have a team.

We have pretty much account managers, you know.

And so part of that company is the digital products.

So we're selling digital products on the front end.

And then if people want to get some extra help, you know, we're helping them.

Nice.

Yeah, because the margins on the digital side, I heard, are obviously way higher.

100

yeah i think anyone like if you think about it uh what was the

there's a jiu-jitsu guy jiu-jitsu guy like um gordon gordon i think i know who you're talking about yeah gordon something he ran ads he has I think he makes most of his money from digital products.

He teaches people how to do Jiu-Jitsu.

Wow.

Yeah, Gordon.

I forgot.

Gordon's

Ryan, something like that.

Jiu-Jitsu.

He's one of the, I think, champions.

Yeah, I know who you're talking about.

I've seen him on videos and stuff.

Yeah, he was the world champion.

And there's a lot of guys that are so talented, and they just need the right business partner to be able to package that into a course or an offer.

And they can make millions a year.

Yeah, yeah.

Even what Alex Hermozzi did, right, with his business model.

And I mean, they specifically choose

for...

big part of their business like in you know information products uh coaching stuff like that um i think it's a great business and especially if you have there's already foundation if there is like an expert that with their advice can help you know many people on the scale.

Absolutely.

I love how raw and authentic you are on your Twitter.

So I pulled actually five tweets.

I'd love for you to elaborate on some of these.

You tweeted out that being smart is oftentimes a liability.

What did you mean by that?

I think smart people overthink stuff.

Sometimes, like, for example, I just shared that example

with a product that we chose to sell.

I just was overthinking it.

Instead of just like, hey, here is what's selling.

Our product can be like 5% better.

Let's fix this one, two, three things about the product and sell it successfully.

I wanted to reinvent the wheel.

So overthinking.

I think it's that's that's why also many people that are you know even graduating like I would think like why people graduate Harvard worth like hundreds of thousands of dollars And oftentimes, you know, they just cannot make it work and not make it work in business.

Right.

Right.

Because they overthink.

Yeah, they've done studies on this.

So if your IQ is in the genius range, you make less money than people in the gifted range.

Wow, that's fascinating.

So usually it's like this until it gets to genius range, and then there's a dip.

Wow.

Because all those guys are so smart that they don't have personal skills.

They don't have emotional intelligence.

So they become scientists.

They become individualized specialtists.

Wow.

Crazy, right?

Elon is probably an outlier.

Yeah, he's very smart.

He's an outlier.

He's an outlier.

I think he's like, he's like 160.

I mean, he's super smart.

But he's not the normal genius.

Most geniuses can't do business.

Actually, pretty interesting.

This is interesting.

Yeah.

Have you tested your IQ?

No, I probably am.

I hope I'm not below 100.

I think you would know.

I think you would definitely know.

You also tweeted out, most books can be summarized in three sentences, and they're not worth your time.

Yeah, I think a lot of books are written by people that that's their business to write books.

And obviously they they take like one very simple idea and they just try to kind of like cover the whole like like 100 pages of fluff

and so

um i mean and sometimes you need stories to understand something that's that's that's cool but um if you want to like get to the point faster you can just like buy a summary of the book

that's what i do

i have that app linkist have you heard uh-huh yeah is it good it's okay i summarize the whole book and then i listen to audiobooks on 2x, 2.5x.

Nice.

And then mainly though, podcasts.

I learned a lot on podcasts.

I love podcasts.

I listen to your podcast.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, I listen.

I mean, I've learned so much this year, podcasting.

Past year, it's crazy.

So I'm a fan of those.

But I kind of agree with reading books.

I'd feel like it's a little outdated.

Alex Becker has a similar opinion to you on books.

So that makes sense to me.

You also tweeted out, Lamborghinis and watches don't impress the right people.

They impress people lower than you.

Yeah, for the most part, I, you know, that's obviously my opinions.

And, you know, there are some people that would disagree.

But I think it's,

yeah, you know, you see this kind of generation, younger generation, and it's, and it's normal if you're like 18, 20 years old, trying to impress people with like Lamborghinis.

But

I think at some point it's,

you know, let's say if you have like Lamborghini, I know there's like Hurakan, there's like Avento, there's, there's so many layers of Lamborghinis.

And so if you're buying like a cheap one, it's like, it's not even, it's not even good.

Like, you know, it's like, if you want to buy a good one, like buy a good one, buy, buy more expensive.

Yeah.

So,

and

I think like lifestyle is,

lifestyle is important.

Lifestyle helps to,

I don't know, maybe, maybe that's my value system.

My value system.

And I have a watch, right?

So it's, it's, uh, how it's called.

Rollux.

Yeah, it's, but it's, how, it says, um,

not ignorant, but arrogant.

No, you know, when I say something and I do something.

Oh, yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Oh, what's the word?

I know what you're talking about, you know?

Yeah.

Hypocrite.

Hypocrite, right?

So I'm a hypocrite, right?

Because I'm saying, I'm talking about watches that they impress wrong people, and I have a watch, right?

So it's like,

is this guy's worth listening to?

I could see both ways.

I mean, you live in Miami, so obviously it's all about materialistic flexing out there, having a nice car is normal out there.

But in the right room, I feel like a car and a watch can be used in a good way.

100%.

Yeah.

And

I had a lot of rethinking on that topic too.

Since I, you know, my value, not the value system, but kind of like my perception changes on certain things.

Because I've been, even though I've been making, you know, I was blessed to make, you know,

very, very good amount amount of money, but I didn't buy like cars.

I have like, I have like one car.

Yeah.

I have like one watch.

This is my one watch.

So what do you spend your money on then?

Just investing.

Love that.

But you got to have some fun too.

Exactly, right?

And so I'm like, why I'm like, are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest?

Well, click the application link below in the description of this video.

We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life click the application link below and here's the episode guys

why i'm like kind of you know when i'll be driving cars i'll be driving cars when i'm 50 like 60 when i'm like you know that like you know so it's like i think there's there's definitely a point um you don't want to overdo it right and and kind of there's but there is a sweet spot and

also let's say we had like a record year i didn't reward myself with anything i think that's bad you have to reward you have to celebrate wins um Because

I come from like Eastern European, and I still have,

you know, we are very like rigid.

We're very like, you know, it's usually poker face.

It's usually like this.

We don't show emotions.

If you should, like, I don't know if you watched the Pudding interviews.

Oh, yeah, I just saw it last night with Tucker.

Yeah.

No emotion.

Yeah, right.

So this is because in our culture, it's not, you know.

It's a sign of weakness.

Correct.

Correct, exactly.

And so

that is a part.

And also for me, it's like

if I go and spend money on some cars and stuff like that, it's a sign of, you know, maybe I'm getting weak and this kind of culture consumes me.

Right.

You know, so

I think there was something more like on my side.

Immigrant mentality.

Yeah.

So I struggled with that too.

So my parents are both immigrants.

And my first five years of working, I didn't reward myself.

which is crazy.

I didn't go on vacation.

I didn't buy myself anything nice.

And, you know, it it took a toll on me because you get to the point where you're like, why am I working for this money?

Yeah.

If I'm just saving it, reinvesting in the business, I'm not even having fun.

I mean, business is fun, but outside of that, you know, what am I spending it on?

So now I vacation at least twice a year just to reward myself.

And it actually motivates you when you're on vacation to do better when you get back, too, I noticed.

Yeah.

I do.

Yeah,

vacations, I didn't, yeah, we do eight to 10 vacations a year.

Damn.

Okay.

I got to step that up.

Yeah.

So that's, yeah, that part we didn't.

Yeah, we'd go to Switzerland for a few months and then we'd go to Aspen and then we go to...

A few months.

Okay, so you're going on a long vacation.

Yeah, this summer we'll go to Switzerland for

there, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm working.

Now our team gotten much better.

I mean, it's obviously when you're starting, it's a lot harder.

It's like you're always on your laptop.

Now our team is very good.

I think I'll try to...

I think learning to relax, it's like,

I don't think there's like, you know, right or wrong, but it's somewhere in the middle.

It's tough to relax for me, dude.

Because my comfort zone is working.

So when you say relax, I'm thinking of just sitting still and not working.

And it's uncomfortable for me.

I like to work.

I like to feel like I'm really putting time into the right things.

You told me you're, I mean, your team told me, like, the 50, you do 50 of these a month.

50 a month.

And I have other businesses and I'm working a lot.

But I also can't sit still, dude.

Like, can you sit still for an hour just watching TV without thinking about work?

Oh, no.

I'm, I'm, I'm, yeah, same.

It's tough.

Like, people say relax.

I'm like, my relaxed is me working.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

That's how I relax.

Yeah.

Because my work isn't stressful.

I've gotten to that point where it took five, six years, but I outsourced all my stresses.

Oh, you outsourced all of your stresses.

Yes.

That's a good, that's a good way to do it.

Which I recommend everyone because at first you're going to have to do everything.

everything.

Yeah.

And it sucks.

You got to do customer service, but you have to learn the basics.

And then once you know that, outsource it.

You must be enjoying these interviews.

Dude, I love it.

This doesn't even work for me.

I mean, it's so fun.

Yeah.

You know, I get to learn from eight, nine-figure, ten-figure guys in multiple industries.

Nice.

Yeah.

You found your genius zone.

Yeah.

I think that's, I mean, you know, with businesses, like different business models, like different ways of, you know, you can make money, I think it's so important.

Because I I remember watching these interviews from people.

Oh, you have to find your passion.

You have to find your passion.

You have to find.

And I'm like, yeah, of course you're billionaires.

Like, of course you're talking that.

Like, but now I'm kind of, I'm getting it.

Like, yeah, I mean, you have to like what you do on a day-to-day basis.

Yeah.

Otherwise, like, what's the point?

There's no fulfillment otherwise.

Yeah.

If you just do something for the money, for the money, for the money, for the money, right?

And like, that doesn't fulfill you.

It doesn't.

And you learn that after a few years.

And I'm at the point now where I don't do stuff just for money.

If there's no greater purpose behind it, I probably don't need to do it.

Yeah.

Because people offer me money all the time to post stuff.

And, you know, when you have a following, that's common.

And if it doesn't align with me, I won't post.

Nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Gone down the spiritual journey, man.

It's been interesting, to say the least.

A lot of interesting podcast guests have shifted my perspectives.

Nice.

Yeah.

And that's a skill I think a lot of people are closed-minded, especially where you're from, right?

Yeah, I've heard that about Europe actually, and you got to be willing to change with the information.

I you know, so yeah, I'm coming, I so since we came here, like

our leadership style has changed.

Like initially, our leadership style in the company is like you do something wrong, you fire.

Like, you know, it's like it's it's very, you know, kind of black and white.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

And so

And then we kind of adapted.

Okay, so maybe it's not working.

Maybe people are not as productive if you're just like, you know, very strict, very direct, very, you know.

And so

I think

there's some good parts.

Like, you know, like Sergey Brin, you know, these guys, like many of them have had,

or Elon Musk, immigrant, right?

So it's like.

you're taking part of like another culture or taking another like perspective on the world right like i mean i think there's a lot to learn in china or like in in asia right from that you know from that mentality, like how do how hard they work, like, you know, so, and then you adapt it with like more like freedom, uh, you know, like they have in the Western world.

I think that, that, you know, I think you can learn from anyone.

Like, and that that's, you know, you're mixing those cultures, you're mixing those perspectives.

And yeah, I love that, dude.

That's such a good analogy.

I didn't even think about that.

But yeah, when you take the best of each culture, bring them to America, combine it with our values, that's why our country is pretty successful.

I think, right?

Immigrants built it.

Yeah.

Immigrants.

Like first generation, grinding.

Like, you know, the America had, I mean, maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but the best periods of growth were

like it's it's big spike of immigrants, right?

New talent, like people working hard.

Like even this gentleman here, like Marvin.

Yeah.

Oh man, his story is so fascinating.

Yeah, it's gonna be a fun one.

Yeah, wow.

And so

coming here, you know, now his now his family is in the entertainment business, you know, in high, in high positions, um, you know, pushing, building businesses.

So I think there's a lot to learn.

I think if, you know, my perspective, like in the United States, a lot of people kind of maybe a few generations in,

they're kind of like getting like more relaxed.

Right.

They don't have that grind anymore.

I agree.

My general.

Yeah, you see it with each generation.

I think because of technology as well, people are becoming more relaxed.

So I know exactly what you mean.

My parents worked a lot harder harder than a lot of kids when they were their age if that makes sense they were scrubbing floors they were doing a lot of dirty work but now with ai and tech it's easy you can make money on your couch you know what i mean making content

so it's a different style for sure yeah it's a different style um but you had humble beginnings man i know in ukraine you were making a hundred dollars a month yeah you couldn't even afford your wedding right you know we so we had um no not this uh we had a lot simpler rinks um with my wife uh We couldn't afford a wedding.

We just went to the

city hall

and

we had one person.

We had one guest.

That's it.

Yeah, we didn't even have our parents.

Damn.

Yeah.

You didn't invite them or?

No, it just like, I mean, it, I don't know.

No, it wasn't like official.

We just, we just wanted to, you know, kind of

make it official.

And

and

then, yeah, we just, you know, that's it.

That was it.

We couldn't, yeah, we didn't have money to do it.

And was that like a big moment in your life, realizing, like, wow, I can't even afford the life I want right now?

Yeah, it was kind of like, I think, and maybe it's the same for a lot of people.

It's like kind of inside of you, it's kind of like frustrates you, and you're frustrated, you're frustrated, you're frustrated.

And then something happens,

and you kind of like let, you know,

if you just spend that energy on

kind of on getting out of that.

I don't know what's the best way to explain it.

For me, the biggest probably shifts happened where,

so we moved from Ukraine to Poland and I just realized,

oh, we needed money.

We needed money because I had a friend back in Ukraine that was doing some schemes and like he said, oh, let's do it together.

We can make money.

And I'm like, okay, cool.

Yeah, you know, I was very open-minded.

And that's how it starts.

Yeah.

And so, and then I start calling people, and I'm like, I need to borrow money.

I need to borrow money.

And then, like, no one borrowed me money.

Yeah.

And I just realized there is no one to rely on but yourself.

Right.

And it's kind of like, it's relief, right?

Because, yeah, you expect something happens.

You know, there's friends, there's family.

At that moment, just realized, no, there is no one.

And kind of like back against the wall.

It's hard realizations.

And those first like few years were hard.

Like many mental like shifts, like limiting beliefs, low self-confidence, no self-esteem, like all of those things,

they're hard to overcome.

Yeah, I struggled with all that my first few years because it's not a normal path.

So very few people can relate to the path you're starting in entrepreneurship.

So they're usually hating on it because they're like making fun of you and stuff.

Yeah.

And then you go through educational system and it's like 10, 15 years of like, they kind of tried to put you in a box, right, and try to make you think in a particular way.

Yeah.

And it's like, it's hard to overcome that.

And if the same message repeats at home, right?

Yeah.

It took me, man, I was brainwashed for 20, 21 years probably before I started going on YouTube, watching some actual content and like understanding there's more to the world than just a nine to five.

How old are you?

I'm 26 now.

Okay.

So I started when I was 26.

Oh, yeah.

Well, in Europe, it's probably even harder, honestly.

Yeah.

And yeah, Eastern Europe, people are close-minded.

Like, so we started, so we started the business.

The business started to do well.

And then, you know, we do e-commerce, right?

And we do drop shipping.

So there's no physical goods.

We don't have inventory at that point.

And, you know, we're processing millions of dollars, like millions of dollars.

And then, you know,

we come to

the tax, we pay taxes.

We want to pay taxes.

We want to do everything, buy the book.

It's like, what is it, business you're in?

It's like, what is it?

What do you do?

E-commerce?

Like,

they didn't even know about it.

No, it's like, and, and, you know, these ladies are older, you know, they don't understand, you know, the internet.

Yeah, yeah.

And so, and we had one of the things we had to do.

They're like, okay, so you had like, I don't know, hundred thousand orders, whatever.

Okay, so we need like an invoice for every one of those orders.

Oh my gosh, manually printed.

okay because it has to be officially like and so yeah it was a pretty much we had to hire like a whole people to basically

print out that many

that is such an old system hopefully they fixed that by now which what that was in uh ukraine or was that in poland that's in poland poland poland i think poland is adapting but it's still like and what happens is like i mean smart people like entrepreneurs when they understand they have the freedom to move they're out there in dubai that is in Miami.

Like, you know, if state or country treats you badly, you're out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

These days you could just move wherever.

I've been offered to move to Dubai.

I've been offered to go to Puerto Rico.

I mean, that's the cool part about having money, right?

Yeah.

You can kind of pick where you want to live in the world.

But it's hard to beat the U.S.

because everything's here, man.

Yeah.

Like, it'd be hard to do a podcast in any other country, I think.

Yeah.

United States is such a good country for business.

It's the whole infrastructure, the financial system, the credit lines when you want to expand.

Yeah.

Yeah, the credit's amazing.

Yeah.

I just got $200,000, 0% credit cards.

Really?

Yeah, have you done those yet?

No.

I'll introduce you to my friend.

So it's credit cards, but 0% interest for 12 months.

Legit?

Yeah, legit.

Yeah, I got Chase Bank, Bank of America, U.S.

Bank.

There's a few, but my friend just does them all for you.

He applies.

Wow.

Yeah.

How that works?

How'd they make money?

They make money after the 12 months if if you, I guess, have late fees and stuff.

That's how all the cards make money.

The late fees, the overdraft, and all that.

Yeah.

But if you settle it, there's no fees.

Very good.

Yeah, I spend like 100K on it and I have 10 months to pay it off at no interest.

Wow.

Yeah.

Talk about.

You can't get that in other countries.

Talk about the opportunity, right?

So, you know, coming back to e-commerce or any other opportunities, like you have those resources at your disposal.

You have all of the tools.

You have like, you know, the SPY to you can see what products are selling how to sell it bad spot

place to use that unicorn smasher on Amazon you ever hear that one

tells you all their Amazon sales oh wow yeah there's so many good tools man like you said it's easy to replicate but very few people succeed that's why this space fascinates me because so many people fail yeah I think because people jump from one opportunity to another one it's like this this this this I've I've noticed you know so we we've been training entrepreneurs and it was our own business like some of our best clients they're doing now like five.

So one of our best clients did 50 million last year in sales.

Another one is doing about $9 million a month in sales.

And then I'm looking at those people.

I'm trying to kind of like see the trends, you know.

And also myself, you know, we've had good success as well.

Yeah.

And it's usually just focus.

Like, you know, it's hard.

I mean, maybe first year you will not get what you want.

Yeah.

Right.

But it's, if you have like unrealistic expectations, like, yeah, I'll start a business like like, and tomorrow I'll be like a millionaire,

then

you won't persevere.

Like, if something happens, and it's inevitable that something will happen.

Always.

And

yeah.

Yeah, there's always unexpected stuff in business.

And that's what people don't talk about.

There's lawsuits, there's fines, there's payment processing shutdown.

There's always an issue.

Yeah, last week we had our ad account shut down.

Yeah, we had our page shut down.

Last month we had our Instagram page shut down.

You know, now we have like network.

We're able to kind of, you know,

but that's common.

That's so common.

People's ad accounts.

My business manager is still down.

It's been like four years.

Let's talk about that.

If you need help.

I love that.

Alex, it's been fun, man.

Where can people find you and anything you want to promote?

Yeah.

So my Instagram is Alex Federatoff.

We'll link it below.

Yeah, perfect.

And yeah, it's because it's hard to pronounce it.

And then, yeah, I mean, we help entrepreneurs to go from zero to hero.

Like pretty much we have,

you know, seven-figure

entrepreneurs, coaching entrepreneurs

within our like ecosystem.

We have training, we have tools, we have resources.

So everything that you need to do from zero to 30, 50K a month initially.

And then

our another program, which is I'm very passionate about, it's called e-commerce scaling secrets, helps people that do already 50, 100K a month to go to like 300, 500, 1 million a month.

More advanced entrepreneurs.

I'm learning a lot from those guys.

That's my passion.

It's awesome, man.

Love it.

Yeah, we'll link all that down below.

Thanks for coming on.

Thank you, Sean.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you tomorrow.