Kevin David: Man, I am so prepared to ignite!

JLD: Yes! Kevin is the 2 Comma Club Winner in 87 days, his You Tube channel is THATLifestyleNinja.

So, Kevin, take a minute, fill in the gaps from that intro, let people know what the heck a 2 Comma Club winner even means, and then give us a glimpse of your personal life.

Kevin David: Sure, man, yeah. So, 2 Comma Club is an award that an up and coming software service, ClickFunnels, kind of created if you are able to generate $1 million in a single funnel.

So, for those of you who don't know, a funnel is basically a replacement for a website that helps to kind of funnel your customers into a single place where you're trying to go; like what are you selling, a digital product, a physical product. It really makes a huge a different in conversation.

And so, I was able to do it, actually, in 57 days which was the fastest ever. And I was able to do that, basically, with no lists, no following of any kind previously. And so, yeah, it was really exciting winning that. They sent me a huge plaque; they flew me out to Boise for the Influences Conference where I got to meet Russell Brunson and Gary Vaynerchuck.

It's just been a chaotic stream of fire, to use your key phrase there.

JLD: Now, are you allowed to share what that funnel was?

Kevin David: Yeah, absolutely. The funnel was for my Amazon FBA courses. So, how I got into ClickFunnels was I needed a way to facilitate the sale of my digital course teaching people how to sell on Amazon FBA, teaching people how to replace their 9-to-5 income, you know, selling entirely from their laptop from anywhere in the world because that was always one of my goals.

And so, I figured out how to do it, thankfully, through Amazon FBA myself, and then people were really reacting to some of the things that I was using in my own business. And they were telling me, you know, "Kevin, make a course, make course, teach us how to do it, and replicate some of the success you've been lucky enough to have." And so, yeah, I did it. I made a course, and 57 days later I had a thousand students and we had made the million faster than probably I could've ever imagined.

JLD: Well, congratulations. You definitely were faster than I was. I'm actually the proud owner of two 2 Comma Club plaques and I'm very proud of both of those, but took me longer than 57 days to get there. So, congratulations, brother, there're good things to come for you, no diggity, no doubt!

So, what would you say, with all of that, is your area of expertise? Like, what is the one thing that you just excel at?

Kevin David: Well, first of all, congratulations on the two Comma Clubs. You know, two is always better than one, so I think you – you win the overall race there.

But, you know, my area of expertise is really, is showing people that there's another way. Showing people that you don't have to stay in a job you hate, you don't have to do the things society tells you is normal, you don't have to work a 9-to-5, you don't have to work 40-, 50-, 60-, 80-hour weeks. There is another way. There is a way to enjoy your life, to travel, to have more time with your friends and family.

So, really, if I had to share my area of expertise, if we wanna get really nit-picky about it, it's probably You Tube, Amazon FBA, Shopify, kind of the ecommerce realm. But really, what I like to say is my area of expertise is spreading the word that there's another way for people to be successful and to create the life that they want.

JLD: So, I'm gonna pick one of those things because I'm mostly curious about it, and that's the FBA angle of this. Because I have two physical products on Amazon, the Freedom Journal, the Mastery Journal. They both crush and we do about 30,000 to 40,000 any given month with those journals combined utilizing FBA, which I love because it's just such a simple set it and forget it. You just get the product to the store, the store, of course, Amazon [inaudible] [00:03:31] Amazon, and then Amazon fulfills it. They deal with customer complaints, they deal with returns. It's amazing!

What is something I probably don't know about Amazon FBA, and other people out there that are looking to either get into Amazon FBA or are currently in Amazon FBA?

By the way, Fire Nation, FBA just means Fulfilled by Amazon. So, they do everything after you send them the product, or whatever it might be.

What is something that I don't know, Kevin, that I probably should?

Kevin David: So, I think, for you since you're already selling on it, you're obviously, you have a huge passionate following. And so, selling a product when you have a huge passionate following is, obviously, significantly easier than somebody who might be launching a product for their first time without that user base to go and buy it.

And so, something that you might not know is the difference between being on page one, specifically in the top four positions, and that being anywhere else, whether you're on the bottom of page one of the search results for any given keyword or you're on the second page, is really night and day.

And so, if you're in that top four spots, you're gonna have a much better time and you're gonna have hugely different sales and hugely different amounts of profit; daily profit, monthly profit. And so, you know, getting into the "holy grail" [inaudible] [00:04:45].

JLD: So not getting too specific here, but what are the ways you get into the top four? How does Amazon do that ranking?

Kevin David: Absolutely. It's based off sales velocity, first of all. Amazon uses an algorithm called A9, which has a bit of complexity. But for the most part, in kind of a lightening speed explanation of that, is people searching for a keyword.

Let's say you're selling a garlic press and you just launched your garlic press, it's –

JLD: That is such a stock [inaudible] thing, you gotta do something different than a garlic press, come on.

Kevin David: All right, cool.

Let's say that you launched a brand-new t-shirt press.

JLD: Now you're gonna use that from this point forward, never use garlic press again.

Kevin David: Okay, fair enough. And all my students who are listening are probably laughing because I always use garlic press as an example.

And so, let's say you're selling a brand spanking new top of the line value added t-shirt press. And so, you know, when you first launch that and you first go live and you first have inventory, Amazon doesn't have any sales associated with that product. So, you're gonna sit on page 20, deep in the catalogs, and no normal person would ever actually find.

And so, the fastest way to actually rank to page one, is to have people who are willing to type in "t-shirt press". Whatever they need to type in to be able to find your product, right, whatever is the most targeted, most related is going to be converting for your product down the line and then scroll all the way to page 20.

So, if I typed in "t-shirt press", and it was your product, and we're friends so I'm willing to do this for you. I would scroll, naturally, all the way to page 20 and I would buy your t-shirt press. And just that one sale, where Amazon actually sees you organically type that phrase in, and then scroll through, A9 and Amazon thinks, okay, well, this must be a really good product if somebody was scrolling all the way there and buying it. So, you're gonna jump from page 20 all the way up to page 3 just with one sale. And once you get 2, 3, 4, 5 sales in the same manner, all of a sudden, you're on page one.

And how you stay on page one is you have the reviews, you have the solid photos, you have the well-made listing. And the organic aspect of Amazon is really what differentiates it because you don't have to pay for outside marketing, all you pay is the PPC. And once you're on page one, it really becomes a snowball effect and you're able to stay there with very little work.

JLD: Fire Nation, if you love me, or if you just like me a little bit, or anywhere in-between, go to Amazon –

Kevin David: I think I know where this is going.

JLD: – type in "goal planner", and then go and find the Freedom Journal, and buy it, or get a –

Kevin David: You're laughing, but I guarantee you that will cement you on page one for many months or years to come.

JLD: So, one thing that I was thrilled about seeing recently was, I actually called it my little last Christmas gift because it happened right before Christmas and I was stoked to see it. Although I don't know why because it never happened to the Freedom Journal to my knowledge, maybe it did but I don't think so, is the Mastery Journal which is my second journal which is all about productivity, discipline, and focus on Amazon, has a big and still does, it's been there for over a week now, Amazon's Choice. Boom! Right on it. Looks amazing –

Kevin David: Yes, sir!

JLD: – for obvious reasons it is amazing. Because what I know as a consumer, when I see Amazon's Choice, I buy that stuff all the time.

How does that happen?

Kevin David: Amazon's choice is, you know, those little badges people over estimate how important, or excuse me underestimate how important –

JLD: I was gonna say, am I overestimating this?

Kevin David: No, no, underestimate. Yeah, you're completely right 100 percent. People see that and they buy without thinking because Amazon is such a trusted brand.

So, how that actually works is – are you familiar with Alexa?

JLD: I do.

Kevin David: Okay, so, Alexa, for those of you who don't know, just lightning speed, is Amazon's voice assistant. And so, when somebody says, they'll say, "Hey, Alexa, buy me a planner" or "Hey, Alexa, buy me a goal setting journal", or a variety of different keywords. And instead of saying which one do you want, Alexa chooses the Amazon Choice. And so, when people are actually ordering things without the specificity of a specific brand, that's how you are getting to the Amazon Choice.

And so, how that's originally decided is based off sales velocity for a specific time period. Amazon usually updates their algorithm for sales velocity between three and seven days, depending on the subcategory. And so, when you're getting that initial sales velocity and then people are ordering via Alexa without the specificity of a specific brand and then they're not returning, you keep that Amazon Choice badge.

JLD: Now, one thing that I've done that seems to have really done well for sales over the past few days is I have implemented a coupon. So, now I have a $3.00 coupon for both the Freedom and Mastery journals.

The reason why I love that is because I noticed that when you're searching, in the search results for whatever you're looking for, you actually see very clearly that coupon. It's like, oh, save $3.00, use this coupon. And it's definitely jumped my sales because I know over 300 people have clipped that coupon, like over 150 people have actually utilized that coupon, so I know that it's working.

Like, 1) what are your thoughts on coupons like that; and 2) when these people are buying because of my coupon is that helping my overall velocity because people are actually buying, or is Amazon taking into account that, oh, well, they're just using a coupon, so blah-blah-blah?

Kevin David: Well, first of all, the biggest winner with the coupons that Amazon has generated now is Jeff Bezos, right? They're making 60 cents or more, I forget the exact amount, but I believe it's 60 cents per coupon that you're utilizing. And people, there's hundreds of thousands and millions of products, and so Amazon is absolutely raking in money for those.

But that being said, yes, absolutely, it affects buyers, right. I always think about the JCPenney CEO when he was trying to give the consumers the benefit of the doubt, and saying people know that these sale prices are fake, let's just have everything be one price, no sales, none of the fake discounts, and stuff like that. And their sales plummeted because that type of thing works, it just simply works. It's human nature, people like to feel like they're getting a good deal.

And when they see a coupon, absolutely, it's affecting your sales velocity, absolutely. Amazon does not differentiate between a sale that does have a coupon enacted on it and one that doesn't. You know, you're seeing that increase in sales and that's absolutely, positively affecting your sales velocity.

JLD: So, it is helping my sales velocity. So, I mean, hypothetically, well, maybe I just really kind of wanna bump it up there, I could do even like $6.00 or a $7.00 coupon. Because, you know, I know my profit margins and they're huge with these journals, so I can technically afford to do that. Where, you know, a lot of people in products on Amazon are like razor thin, so they can't really do that. So, that's really an interesting thought process.

A pretty funny side note, Fire Nation, is before we hit the record button Kevin and I were talking, and he's like, "So, you're gonna stick to like your fire like thing, the flow, I gotta prepare for." I was like, "Oh, yeah, dude, of course, like that's what we do here." And I was like, totally hijacked and just stolen all of your brainpower for this. But you know, we're 2 Comma brothers, so, that stuff can happen.

Anything before we move on that you wanna help me out with when it comes to Amazon? And by me, it's everybody that has to do with Amazon.

Kevin David: Yeah, absolutely. And it's okay that you're going completely off the script, it keeps me on my toes and make sure that I actually know what I'm talking about, which is good.

Something that I think that a lot people could use a little bit of help with is PPC. Amazon PPC is often overlooked as, you know, without a doubt the first or second most important part of the entire process, and I would say it's probably either first or second from a complexity standpoint as well.

So, if you choose the right product, after that what's most important is mastering PPC, so choosing a product that has different angles for PPC. Let's take an example like a humidor.

So, people might type in "gift for grandpa" and then they might buy a humidor. They might type in "cigar holder", they might type in "humidor", they type in "gift for uncle", "gift for dad". All of these different variants of PPC give you a lot more angles of being creative and being able to put your products, winning that ad auction in front of multiple buyers. And so, when you're choosing a product it's very important to think to yourself, how can I actually advertise this in a creative way to put in front of the most eyes.

So, being creative and using AMS to get more long-tail keywords, using your search termer for it with broad match keywords, looking at the exact, the customer search term.

So, let's say, for example, that you're advertising for the word "t-shirt". And then you have it on broad match, and then you go and check your search term for it and you see the customer exact match that corresponds to that. So, somebody might type in "huge scary pink t-shirt press".

JLD: Let me actually break in here for a second just because, again, I'm being super-selfish today, which is fine. So, let's have your example be about journals.

Kevin David: Okay. So, let's say that somebody types, you're advertising, one of my favorite ways to advertise on PPC is called Low Keyword Bid. What that means is you would create a campaign and it would be all broad match, you'd set the default bench 33 cents or something like that, and you'd type in journal, you'd type in all of the different iterations you could possibly think of that are similar to journal; like, notebook, planner, all of these different things.

And what you'll start to see is those broad keywords, just a single word, will bring back customer search terms, exactly what people are typing into it. For example, somebody might type in "2019 pink journal for boys", or something like that, right, that they might mistype the year, or maybe it's a misspelling. And you'll see that exact customer search term associated with your broad match that you actually created a broad campaign for. And then you can use those customer exact search terms to create a new PPC campaign with a very long specific long-tail keyword phrases and then that is when you really start to see extremely low-cost sales. And that's when PPC starts to become really profitable.

JLD: This is the kind of stuff that gets me excited, Fire Nation, because I'm just seeing the power of Amazon and how I'm just sticking my little tiny pinky toe in there and just seeing massive results. You know, the two journals that I do are doing between 30,000 to 40,000 a month. That's on a non-holiday month, and we're gonna be way over $50,000 for the month of December because of the holidays. And it's just insane, every day I literally, I like show my seller central and I'm just like, where are these people coming from? And you don't know!

It's just the world, like these people are just buying, and they go into Amazon, their credit card's already in there, and they just buy stuff and it's Prime shipping and they love it, and it's there in two days, and a lot of the cities is one day, and there's even like hourly shipping. And now the drones are coming.

And now the people like, Kevin, you were talking about Alexa and people can just say, order me toothpaste and da-ta-da, and then like the toothpaste is coming! It's just, that's how easy it's getting for people to buy stuff on Amazon and spend money.

And, like I own mutual funds, the broad index funds of the U.S. and the world as well, but I only own two individual stocks. Facebook because I do think Mark Zuckerberg is a genius and is gonna take over the world, and then Amazon because just thinking about Jeff Bezos, he's literally going to take over the world. So, it's gonna be like him and Mark dibbing up the world into two halves, like that's the future.

And we just have to realize that. Because what you have to say is like, oh, somebody's gonna become more cool than Facebook; yeah, you're right, but guess what, Facebook's gonna own that because they buy everything. They bought Instagram, they bought Oculus Rift, they buy everything. And Amazon, oh, Amazon Fresh doesn't work, I wonder if it's gonna buy Whole Foods, and why not because it's pennies to me to do that.

So, man, there's really exciting stuff.

What we're gonna do, Fire Nation, we're gonna take a break, we're gonna thank our sponsors. When we come back, I'm gonna hit up Kevin in the Lightning Round, so we'll be right back.

So, Kevin, we're back, and are you ready to rock the Lightning Rounds?

Kevin David: I am so ready to rock. I was literally born ready to rock.

JLD: So, when you were first starting off, which wasn't too long ago, what was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Kevin David: I mean, I think it's probably just I wasn't around people who kind of shared that same mentality. You know, there's that saying that you are the product of the five people that spend the most time with, and I think that actually has a lot of truth.

And so, the people that I was with, I was working at a big-four company and everyone was telling me grateful I should be and how lucky I should feel to be chosen out of hundreds of applicants for that one position. And they really did a very good job of convincing us that we should be so grateful and we should work 80-hour weeks as a [inaudible] [00:17:26] machine and be happy about it.

And so, I wasn't around people who had that same inner burning fire that entrepreneurs all share. And not being around those people I think I just wasted too much time and I allowed too much time to pass, kind of just acclimating to what was normal in my present environment. I was around other people who were satisfied being at the big-four, I was around other people who were satisfied with the 9-to-5. And I knew that that wasn't for me, but you know, you just, people get used to things very quickly.

And the fact that I had to break myself and pry myself away from that normalcy was the reason that it took a little bit longer than maybe it would have if I had been around people who are more entrepreneurial.

JLD: What's the best advice you've ever received?

Kevin David: This one sounds kind of cliché and it's only two words, and I think advice can kind of be a little bit intangible.

So, I'm gonna give an example, but the best advice I've ever received in my life is be grateful. And this is very general, it's high-level, and I apologize for that. I could give some longwinded answer, but really, the difference between people who are happy and people who are fulfilled in their lives, and people who aren't, are the people who are grateful for what they have.

So, let's take an example. Let's say you see a homeless person on the street who's given the most basic one-bedroom apartment with running water, it's a tiny bed, no amenities of any kind. And we take that and then we compare it to maybe a teenager who was raised in a wealthy household, and for her 16th birthday she's given a $100,000 BMW which would absolutely be crazy for a lot of people. The monetary value there is drastically different in favor of the $100,000 car. But I can almost guarantee you that the homeless person would be genuinely more happy and appreciative and grateful for just having that normal one-bedroom apartment, just having that privacy and having running water.

And you know, really, life is all about perspective and the happiest people in the world take moments – where others might be jealous of someone richer or more beautiful or more successful in some way, and instead of experiencing that jealousy – they really express true genuine gratitude for the things that they do have. And JLD, that is the secret to being happy in your life.

JLD: Don't wanna go back to the journals again, but you just, you just kind of laid me up a softball with this one. I mean, that's why we start each one of the journals of Freedom and Mastery, Fire Nation, with "I am grateful for:", and then you just finish it. Because gratitude is everything.

What's a personal habit, Kevin, that contributes to your success?

Kevin David: We are really fine-grained with this one. So, I use an app called Clear. I'm not huge into project management and making things really complicated like Trello and Basecamp. And while they do have their uses and specific more complex scenarios, for me, I like to keep it very simple.

I use an app called Clear, it's the most basic app you could ever possibly have. It's basically like stickie notes on your phone. And I probably go in there 50, 100, more than 100 times a day and just leave little notes for myself. And at the end of every day, I take all of those little notes and I aggregate them all, I summarize them, I minimize them, I shrink them down as low as possible, and I plan out the most important tasks that I need to figure out and accomplish for tomorrow.

And that single habit has probably made the biggest difference in my life out of anything.

JLD: Recommend one internet resource.

Kevin David: I'm gonna be really boring here, and I'm gonna say You Tube. I don't know how many other people have recommended that, but You Tube is so incredibly important, and more than anything else in my entire life it's changed my life.

So, my passion, I love Amazon FBA, I love Shopify, I've made a significant amount of money selling there, I've been able to become free and do things and live life on my own terms. But really my true passion is teaching people. I love just seeing things click for people. I love to see that fire, I love to see people create these things that allow them the freedom that they've always wanted.

And so, You Tube is such a valuable resource for any entrepreneur. Because I think one of the most important things about being a successful entrepreneur is moving yourself away, as far away as you possibly can, from the mentality, you know, that I don't know how to do that.

So, maybe you're setting out to make an email follow-up campaign and you say, well, could you create that, well, I don't know I've never done it before, I don't know how to do that. Right? So, that's Person A.

Person B says, okay, well, I'm gonna think about it, let's talk about the internet marketing space. I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna sign up for Russell Brunson's email campaign, I'm gonna sign up for Ty Lopez, I'm gonna sign up for Gary Vaynerchuck, I'm gonna sign up for all these entrepreneurs who are very successful, who have been doing it for years. I'm gonna look at all the things that they're doing and then I'm gonna creatively create my own version that's better and more specific to what I'm doing.

And so, You Tube and Google, right, the difference between somebody who is average and somebody who is successful, in my opinion, and I've seen this proven over and over again, is people who are successful are just slightly more willing and capable to Google things and to You Tube things that they don't know how to do and learn them.

JLD: There's been so many times where I've just been like Google it, what are you waiting for, why are asking me these questions. Literally, you're wasting so much time, just Google it.

Recommend the one book, Kevin.

Kevin David: One book, this book is very applicable to my specific space, but I think it just contains so much value. So, I'm gonna put two on the table, is that okay?

Kevin David: Yeah.

JLD: I'm gonna say, How to Win Friends & Influence People. I know probably a thousand other people have said that. That has really made a huge difference in my life. Just because people, you know, people are not creatures of logic, and I'm a very logical person and it took me a long time to realize that people are not logical. Everyone's emotional, people react to things differently. And so, you really need to understand people, and to grow you have to have a network; you have to people who care about you and believe in you. And How to Win Friends & Influence People is the best book ever written on that, in my opinion.

So, the other book that I would say, really quickly, is a book called Influence by Robert Cialdini. And so, this book is basically about buyer psychology. It's how to influence people. And if you have any type of sales in your business, which pretty much everyone does, this book is an absolute must-read. It really summates sales and how to sell and how to interact with your customers better than other book I've ever found, and I've probably read hundreds on the subject.

JLD: Kevin, both all-star books, Fire Nation if you don't wanna read those books listen to them on Audible. And if you're not currently an Audible member, you can choose one of them for free, just go to EOFireBook.com.

Kevin, what's the best way we can connect with you?

Kevin David: I've kind of Pareto principled my life. When I first, and for those of you who don't know, that's 20 percent of things you do produce 80 percent of the outcomes.

And so, when I first launched I was active on Reddit, I was active on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, all of these different social media avenues. And what I realized was the biggest impact and the biggest way that I was able to reach people and change people's lives, and help people be free from the 9-to-5, was coming from You Tube and it was coming from Facebook.

So, if you wanna find me on You Tube you can just go into the You Tube search bar, search Kevin David. I put out videos as often as I can. I've been traveling for the past five years on and off, and so I don't put out two or three a day like some of JLD's awesome best. But I put them out as quickly as I can, and I try as hardest as I can, guys, to add as much possible value completely for free on my You Tube. So, search Kevin David, or search THATLifestyleNinja, you'll find me both ways.

And if you wanna reach me on Facebook and you wanna actually chat, then you can go into the Facebook search bar and just search Official Kevin David, or you can just put Facebook.com/officialkevindavid. And I try to respond to every single message that people send me. I get hundreds and hundreds a day now, but I still, I think it's so important in giving back to the community and helping people as often as I can.

So, I'd love to reach out with and all of your amazing followers on both of those platforms, they're the two big ones for me.

JLD: Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with KD and JLD today. So, keep up the heat and head over to EOFire.com; just type Kevin in the search bar. His Show Notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about today. Best Show Notes in the biz! Timestamps, links galore.

Kevin, thank you, brother, for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side.

Kevin David: Thanks, JLD.