How Selling on Amazon Can Boost Your Product Sales – with Selina Barker, Project You

Welcome to the bring your product idea to life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started today.

I am so excited to welcome Selena Barker onto the podcast. Selena is a career and life design coach and she helps people design lives and careers that they love.

It's Selena's eighth journal and this is the first year that she's been selling on Amazon. And full disclaimer. I've been helping Selena sell her journal on Amazon, which she does refer to in our conversation.

So I thought I would be upfront and tell you that. Now, Selena and I have been working together for the last few weeks to get her journal sales really going.

And she will tell you all about that as well as why she launched her journal. She has some really interesting views on Amazon for small businesses. She talks about self publishing.

She also talks about how when she first launched her journal, it was via a Kickstarter campaign. And I found that really fascinating as well. So there is so much covered in this episode. And I would love now to introduce you to Selena. Hi, Selena.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Oh, you're so welcome. Let's start by talking about you, your business, what you do and what you sell.

Yes. So I'll try and keep the answer short. I do a lot of different things.

So I am a career and life design coach and I have been doing that work for almost two decades. So helping people, particularly to change careers and create careers in lives that they love.

This is the 8th edition of the journal. I've been doing the process for even longer. I think I figured out it must be about 15 years now. So this is like my side hustle.

And this year I have been having a lot of fun and a lot of success selling it on Amazon. All thanks to you, Vicky. I absolutely would not have been able to do if it weren't for you. So, yeah, that's. That's what I do.

And I also wrote a book called Burnt out as well.

Oh, that's amazing. Thank you. Oh, thank you for sharing all of that. There's so much we can talk about. So where should we start? So let's start by.

Start by telling us a bit more about Project you. Let's start there.

Yeah. So what project you kind of grew out of? For about eight years, I had a business called Project Love.

We had a podcast that we ran for eight years with my gorgeous business wife during that time, Vicki Pavit. She also spells her name like you. She's the only other Vicki I know who spells it that way. And we had.

We experimented with all sorts of different things, memberships, courses. And in that time, I said to her, I really, really had this dream of this journal, this goodbye, hello, journal. I'd already started doing the process.

This process began as a Word document, as a PDF file that I first created for myself. So I think it was about 15 years ago. I had come to an end of a year that was just full of ups and downs, full of great things, full of tough things.

My heart been broken, I'd gone after dreams. It was. It was one of those years. And as I came to the end of the year, I thought I really.

Before I rush into the next year, and in those days, I used to just rush through life, I was like, before I rush into the next year, I just want to take a moment and reflect on all that I've done and all that I've been through and the lessons that I've learned.

And then before stepping into the New Year, I just want to take a moment and actually get clear on what I want that year to be about and set an intention for it. Because New Year's resolutions, it's the only main tradition we have, you know, as we step into the New Year, and they don't actually work.

All the research proves that New Year's resolutions don't work.

And I think it's so sad because I think it's such a great time to harness that collective energy of a new chapter and looking forward and what we're going to do with this next year. So I created this process. I love doing it, shared it with my friends and my clients at the time, and they loved it.

And I have to say, I've tried all sorts of tools and exercises and tried them out on people, but this was the one that really had people coming back Year after year saying, oh, you're doing that thing again.

And so I started to have this dream that instead of it just being a Word document or a PDF, what if it became a journal that you could then collect and you could see growing on your shelf year after year after year. So I said to Vicki, can we have a go at making this dream come true? And she said, okay, let's do it.

So we did a Kickstarter and we got, I think 150% of our target.

We sent out a thousand journals that year to about over 20 countries all over the world, which was hell because we were literally queuing up in the post office with the Christmas rush, with the Christmas queues being like, this one's for Australia and this one's for Germany and this one's, you know, all over the place. But then after that we were like, right, let's do this year after year.

And so at a certain point, Project Love came to an end and I turned it into Project U and to carry on. And I honestly, I want to be doing these journals until the day I die and hopefully someone will carry on doing them after that.

I want to have a whole bookshelf like into my 80s and other people around the world of this journal. And it's just becomes.

What's so beautiful for me is to see the tradition it has become for people over the years to do this at the end of the year or the start of the new year, particularly in that betwixtmas time.

You know, that time between Christmas and the new year is such a gorgeous kind of where the whole world seems to just go a bit slower and sort of pause and become reflective. So a lot of people do it in that time.

And per your recommendation, I got my fans of the Journal this year to put reviews up on, on Amazon when it, when I sort of really put it up on there.

And so far I've had over 50 the most amazing reviews of how people use this as a tool in their life to get clear on what they want and go after their dreams and stay on track.

So yeah, it's a, this is my real passion project and, and I love the, the game of selling it as well and seeing if I can each year just sell a little more. And yeah, this year my game has been Amazon and so far it has been selling more this year than any other year by quite a lot. And I.

And that's definitely because of being on Amazon, which I have to say I love.

Amazing. So many follow up questions I want to ask first of all, look, I've got mine here.

Yay.

And yeah, so I'm, I'm actually when you said about the in between time, that's when I'm planning to do mine because I love that time. Yeah, not everyone likes that in between Christmas and New Year. I really like it.

I love it.

And this year, actually this year I'm going to do on the 28th and I haven't announced exactly when, but I thought it is a time where a lot of people do the journal. So on the 28th of December I'm going to have it. Really encourage people to use that day if they can.

It's a Saturday to really create a day for reflection and doing the Journal. I'm going to do a one hour live workshop.

So people like at 10 or 11am on the Saturday, turn up in your PJs, cup of coffee, whatever you want to drink and let's get started in the Journal so that people can like, you know, just crack into it. Sometimes people are afraid of that first, you know, blank page and writing in it.

So I was like, well, let's all start it off together for those that can make it. And there's a real community around the journal, which is really, really gorgeous as well. I'll stop talking so you can ask questions. So it's good.

It's much worse if you don't talk. Never come on a podcast and don't speak. No, thank you. And I was gonna say I'll come on the 28th and actually this episode is with.

Obviously we were causing it in November, but it is coming out in Dec. There is still time. For anyone who hears this and thinks, oh, I'd quite like to come along to that. We'll make sure we have the details for that.

Yes.

In the show notes or the email, but they will be there. So anyone who's thinking, oh, I'd like to join in can come along because I think you're right. It's nice to.

Anything that feels part of a community is lovely and it's really. How have you. I've got so many questions, but how have you lent into creating a community around the Journals? Do you think?

Is there anything you've done or has it happened naturally?

So we with Project Love, like I said, we had a podcast for about eight years and a really gorgeous community grew. Grew up around that on there also connecting on Instagram and Yeah, so. So we'd already grown this community.

So when the Journal came out, that community that we already had really, I mean, came and really helped us with that Kickstarter. I mean, it was amazing to sell a thousand copies with that first Kickstarter. And so that community has just, has just followed on.

And even when Project Love Vicky then went, you know, on her separate path doing her amazing love coaching and I carried on, turned it into Project you, that community has sort of come along and I think people, I think people can really tell when something is made with love and is made with passion and made from the heart. And I think people want to be, you know, they want to be a part of that.

And so I do as much as I can to, to share my journey with my newsletter and the ups and downs of this journey, which there have already been many just in this year alone, uh, I think. And also what I do now is I really encourage people to sign up to the Goodbye hello club. So the one I'm doing on the 28th, that's going to be free.

And then in January I do a big online share. So everyone has finished, usually, usually finish their journal by the end of January, but I also think it's a great one to do in February.

But at the end of January I do a big online share so people come online again, it's free to join and we go through the whole journal and people in the chat on Zoom share their answers to the different questions.

And it's so uplifting and beautiful to hear human beings, most of which don't know one another, just sharing about their dreams, the lessons they learned, the challenges they went through, their happiest moments.

There's something so beautiful to gather with a group of, say about 60 people is what we normally get and it could be more this year, just really sharing from that place. I think it's something that we crave and we want more of. And so yeah, it's, it's, it's not been difficult to create the community at all.

That, that's, that has been required no effort. Everything else has required more effort.

That's amazing because there's something else I wanted to ask about and I've got lots of questions I should warn you.

Is that because your product is fairly seasonal, because you explained obviously you're going to be selling most of them between now and the end of the year. Now as in when we're recording in November until the end of the year. And then I imagine that from January onwards you don't get many, if any, sales.

It's fascinating.

So I, for a period of time, we self published the first two years, two or three years and Then we went with a publisher and that was great because actually we got it in shops all over Europe, all over the U.S. i'm presuming Canada. I think we. They were, they were in Australia. They turned up in shops in Australia and that was. And of course in the uk.

And we actually, when we were self publishing, got it into Oliver Bonus. But then I wanted to take it back because I. They were trying to get squeeze, give us less and less money, basically.

And I'd just been through a process of publishing a book with another publisher and I do not like how the publishing industry treats authors. I didn't like how I felt treated. And so I decided, you know what, actually it wasn't getting that much press.

I didn't feel like they were really putting it out there in the way I wanted it to. And I was like, I'm going to take my baby back and I'm going to self publish it now. I've forgotten your question. Why did I start with that?

I was going somewhere with this.

I was asking if sales drop off in the new year.

Oh, yes. So now, over the past few years, because I'm now self publishing again, I'm really able to see.

And last year I sent them all out as well, so I could really tangibly feel how the sales go. And it's the same every year, basically.

When I launch it in October, fans of the Journal, they'll buy it, they're excited, they want to get it, they want to be the first to have it. So you'll have an influx, then it drops off and then it's slow. Really low level. This year it's been more.

And I think because it's been on Amazon, so it's just that ease of buying or new people are finding it, I don't know. But up until Black Friday, it's just trickling. It's just trickling.

The moment Black Friday sales are done and we step into December, then boom, off it goes. It's like watching, you know, racehorse. It's like, go, go, go. Suddenly it goes nuts.

Hit the 2nd of January or the 3rd of January and it's like, this is. This is old news. Like there's no. It's amazing how you'll have all of these sales coming in.

I really love the Fact that I've got this basically really, it's one month to really go for it and really capture. But it's, I think it's also the reason that it does sell so well because it's a great Christmas present and it's so time specific.

So it's a small window and so I really harness that. But yeah, it's like a one month.

I mean, I'm making an ad this year for the first time and I was like, is it ridiculous to invest in having an ad made for Instagram and Facebook by the amazing Love Day Social? Alice. Love Day Social. It's a stop motion video. But I thought, yeah, why not?

Like, you know, it's just a concentrated time and I really like that, I really like that challenge and that focus.

That's really good. And it sounds like you've definitely made it work for you as well. Because I know that you go all out trying to sell as many copies as you can.

Obviously. Yeah. You talking before about, you know, try every year trying to sell more. So I think it sounds that, I guess that was doable.

If you're doing that for a month, six weeks, whereas that level of intensity all year, I think you just burn yourself out.

I burn myself out. But also, you know, my, my main priority as well are my, my clients, you know, my one to one coaching clients.

So I'm still coaching my clients at the moment. So actually it's not that I can do this full time.

You know, we say this is a side hustle for me and I do it on top of, in addition to my coaching and looking after my membership. And those really need to be my priority. So those, I never want those to suffer because I'm suddenly focused on the journal and interesting.

Next year if I just print a thousand, I won't obviously make as much of a profit, you know, per, per book. It's more expensive to just print a thousand.

But it could be if I just print a thousand or even just 500, I'd need to do very little in the way of effort to sell it. And then maybe you know, it works out better that way. So for me, the most important thing is sustainability. I want to make sure I really enjoy.

I love my work and I've loved my work for 20 years, apart from a few tricky years here and there, largely caused by things like the pandemic. But it's really important to me that I really enjoy what I do.

So trying to get, trying to hit, you know, more and more sales each year has to feel fun and it has to feel sustainable, it has to feel enjoyable.

And if it feels too stressful or if it's too much effort or I drop, you know, the ball and other things, then I would actually go, maybe I'll change it up and to make this sustainable and long term, I'll sell fewer.

But this is why this year I really wanted to experiment with, with Amazon and seeing how it goes, really, you know, putting a lot of my journals there, as well as selling on my own website and the Tate Modern, the one shop I've got it into.

Oh, that's amazing.

Yeah.

I didn't realize you were in the tape this year.

Yeah, yeah, and last year as well. And we got it into Oliver Bonus when we were self published. Oliver.

Oliver Bonus, the Tate Modern, some of these bigger ones are actually really supportive of independent publishers and makers. So, yeah, I always. I'm gonna go with my, my son and my husband on Friday and see it in the tape. Modern celebrate.

That's really cool. He SHARES. I'll be looking out for the picture of that. Yeah, we do. And I think thank you for sharing all of that.

And also, I guess we talk about sustainability and this is a different type of sustainability, but equally, I guess you don't want to be in a situation where you're printing more and more books and one year you have surplus books because as you said, if nobody wants them past January, what do you do? That's just. And that must be really tricky actually working out how many to produce each year.

It's so tricky because.

And I, I did one year, the year before last, I found a really great charity that works with women recovering from domestic abuse and I donated a bunch of journals to them. And I, and I thought actually that's if I can find places to donate journals, if I have surplus, that would be ideal.

Even then you got to get in there relatively quick.

And yet in terms of, you know, even recycling, because I sent them out all last year, those three, maybe it was about three or 400 that I couldn't sell, I had to rip off because I've got this lovely spot, uv I don't know if you can see shiny glossy on the front and back that can't be recycled. So I had to rip the COVID off every single journal so I could put it into my recycling bin.

And I've still got boxes that need to be ripped and then put, and then bit by bit recycled.

So I do as much as I can in terms of, you know, environmental sustainability, my packaging and all the rest of that is, you know, in fact, actually last year, every year I experiment, every year I learn lessons. Every year something hilarious goes wrong. Last year, when I first sent them out, I got that paper tape that you wet.

Not sticky craft tape, but like you, you, you wet it with a sponge and then, you know, wrap stuff in that. And I was. And because I didn't have the right boxes to send, I think three at the time.

So attached one to a box of two and wrapped with this, you know, tape I sort of wet down and people started writing back to me saying I only got. I got one box with like these tape hanging off. The other box had just fallen off and gone wandering somewhere. And like. But it was all part of my.

Then I got a more robust craft tape. But it is really important to me that. Of making sure that I am as environmentally friendly as I can be.

So that thing of the surplus, it's really tricky. So, yeah, again, it's that it's, it's a real game there. I decide, okay, I'm going to go for 2,000. Let's try.

And I've got my little fight, my candle saying 500, and I've got ones for 1,000 and 1,500, I'm going to blow out on Instagram on a cake to celebrate hitting my milestones.

That's amazing. Congratulations. And I should say it's the 26th of November, so you have done really well.

Yeah. So, yeah, very exciting.

Thank you for sharing of that. Because it's just having a seasonal product, I think is maybe there's more to consider than people might realize there is to consider.

Which is why I know I'm digging down into quite a lot of details, but it's just really interesting because lots of us sell products, you know, the same products all of the time, and but because yours has such a short window and I hadn't actually considered some of the challenges of that. I could definitely see, by the way, that it could work as a limited edition thing where there's only however many and when they're gone, they're.

They're gone equally. It's sad for those who miss out, isn't it? So it's.

This is the thing. I mean, this is the thing. And also because right from the start, we made it such a global thing, which is wonderful.

You know, with our first Kickstarter just doing ourselves, we sent it out to over 20 countries. Then once we got it, we teamed up with a publisher and they were getting out all over the world.

So we've got a lot of people for whom this has become a yearly tradition. And so I am really passionate about trying to make it available to us, you know, in Europe, in the us, obviously, in the uk, Ireland.

And that's been one of the biggest challenges. Even this year I had someone in Germany sending the journals out. She did last year, through the snow, every day. Loved it.

And this year we could not get the German customs to allow the journals into the country. And we've tried so many different routes. And even German, the Amazon. German, Amazon.

Still, Vicky, are not letting me sell on there because of packaging, which I don't actually have. But anyway, it's, that's part of the challenge.

That's part of, part of the game for me is, you know, trying to get it as available to as many people in as many countries as possible. I do my best. I do.

And I'm glad you're viewing these challenges really positively. And I will say with the packaging thing as well, because that's a new requirement.

Hopefully by this time next year it would have, when I say, worked itself out. What I mean is, I think at the moment it's, it's, it's a requirement, it's a compliance issue.

But by next year I think they probably will realize that actually you don't have any packaging. It's just at the moment everything's so strict.

Yeah.

As it should be.

But it's, it's also hard for someone like yourself where actually these rules don't apply, but it's really hard to prove that they don't because it's new and people don't have the experience of. Do you see what I mean? It's.

Yeah.

And also hard when the people you're communicating with in Amazon are obviously not reading the email that you sent that explained very clearly that you don't have packaging. But anyway, you know, perseverance is the key with Amazon customer services, I have learned. Plus, hire Vicky.

We'll talk a little bit more about Amazon in a moment.

We definitely will, because I know you want to talk about Amazon, but first I just want to say as well, I did not realize that you launch of a Kickstarter.

Yes, I would love to talk just a little bit about, because I know it was eight years ago and I'm sure that Kickstarter has changed in that time, but I would still love to hear your experience because, yeah, it sounds like it was massively successful and I'd love to know what you think helped with the success.

Yeah, so I've actually done two Kickstarters for the Journal. So we did.

The first time we launched it, we did a Kickstarter and then I did it again three years ago when I took it back and I was like, I'm going to self publish this.

I think using a Kickstarter is brilliant as a marketing tool, actually, because talking about community, bringing a sense of community, people feel really excited when they feel that they have played a part in turning this into reality. And I got some brilliant advice from a friend at the time who'd also done a successful Kickstarter when we did it eight years ago.

And he said, bring it to the point where you actually even have. They can see the copy and say, look, we've designed it, it's ready to go. We've even got these two copies for you to look at.

But now we need your help to raise the fund so we can print it and send it out to you. So that's already. And it's creating a game, it's gamifying it so people can see, you know, that countdown, you've got the sort of numbers going up.

He said things like, there's all sorts of statistics. If you could get over 50% in the first week, then you're more likely to, you know, definitely meet your target. What kind of target to go for?

Some people go for a low target and massively pass it. We went for a fairly chunky target. I think we went. I think we tried to raise £10,000, is that right?

That sounds like an insane amount, but I think that is what we went for and I think we managed to make 15,000. That now sounds like a lot, but I do think that was, that was the case, it would make sense. We sold a thousand thousand journals.

It's really valuable as a marketing tool. Great. Creates a great community, creates great momentum.

The second time I did it, about three years ago, I think I went for maybe a slightly lower target, I can't remember. But it was again, it was a really good way to kind of launch and make a buzz and get people involved in. Come on guys, bringing community together.

Share with your friends so we can make sure you get the journal. And it was also, you know, people really do want to get it now.

People who are using it every year as a sort of New Year's tradition instead of New Year's resolutions or in that lovely betwixtmas period. They wanted to make sure it happened.

And so they, they share it out amongst their friends and say, come on, come and buy one so we can make sure it happens this year. So they're, they're really powerful.

I have to say, doing it on my own three years ago, I mean it pushed my, my stress levels and my anxiety to the max because I was like, the moment I hit like go on the Kickstarter, I was like, what if I don't, what if I don't meet the target? But actually there are some really good tricks. Again, this friend told me eight years ago, he said, have some really high ticket sort of rewards.

So have a couple of rewards that are a thousand or two thousand or five hundred, whatever it is.

And if you're almost there, if you're almost there, get someone to choose that high ticket reward to push you over into the, you know, because what happens with Kickstarter if you don't hit that target, it's not like 80% have bought it. Still get it. No one gets it. So I was just like, we can't risk no one getting it. He's like, so have someone push it over.

And then they don't actually have to. Then when it, when it goes through, they say, yes, I do want you to take this money. They can just go, you know.

So I don't know if that's cheating, but I thought it's an important trick to know about because everyone, most people doing a Kickstarter, it's, you know, trying to do something that makes a difference or is a creative project. And I think it's useful to have these, have these little tips. But it's, yeah, you have to have a strong nerve to do a Kickstarter.

One of the things also we did in, in the first one and I must have done it in the second one, I can't remember now, is we made a video and spent invest. My brother's makes videos. So we were able to do it with him, but made a video explaining the story and telling the story.

And it's really good for brand awareness as well. I think doing a Kickstarter, but definitely creates that community straight away around the product that you're putting out there.

And I think it's great for books. I think it's a really. Yeah, I think it's a really good, good way to launch a book.

If you're self publishing is doing as a Kickstarter, that's really useful.

Thank you. And actually I would also mention that we did an episode on crowdfunding, I want to say, a year ago.

I can never remember because when you've been podcasting for four years, it's really hard to remember. I'm going to link to that one in the show notes for anyone who's interested. Thank you for sharing all of that.

I didn't know the thing and perhaps I did, but I completely forgot that if you didn't hit your target, you.

Don'T get anything that's on Kickstarter. So different crowdfunding platforms are different, but definitely Kickstarter Starter that, that one. I think other ones don't do that.

And you get what you know, you still get whatever you did make. But with the Kickstarter, part of the buzz is like, we need to meet the target for anyone to get a journal.

So then everyone's really invested in spreading the word and getting their, you know, grandma and their friend and their whoever to buy the journal. And so it's. Yeah, it's, it's. It can be a really good launch and marketing tool.

I can see that. Because you'd be so much more invested if you really want something.

You're going to be so much more invested if you realize actually you, you know, you might not get it if another. Yeah, yeah, I can see. And there's people then doing your job for you because they're exactly people to.

Buy, you know, and there's the game of it. There's. It's got a deadline. It's got a deadline by which you need to buy it. It's got, you know, it's gamified. So you can see that number going up.

So you can be creating that bars and, you know, reminding people one more week to go. If you've got any friends you think that would love the journal, please let them know so we can reach our target. It's, it's.

I think it's a really powerful tool and has a really positive feel to it. It's about communities supporting, you know, the products and Helping those products they want to see in the world become a reality.

So yeah, it's very cool.

Thank you.

And speaking of community, this is the last question before we move on to Amazon is that I've obviously this is my first year that I've got my journal. Very excited and you mentioned you have a community and people get the journal every year.

I'm just curious, does the journal change from year to year?

So I it yes and no.

So one of the exercises in there is you write about your dream life five years from now.

You can go back and you can see your answers and see how you've grown and see how your dreams have changed and evolved and which, which of those dreams have come to life.

However, I can't help but each year come as I'm going through the journal, I'll be like, I feel like something could that bit could be done better or I feel like it's missing a little something. So this year, for example, for this first time I've added in, we now have quarterly check ins in it.

Then that kind of evolved probably two years into doing the physical journals to add these quarterly check ins to keep you on track, which is really lovely. And this year I've put in for the first time. Well, for those of you who are watching a video, well, no you won't.

Most of you are just listening, aren't you?

But I've put in a yearly life design plan, so a calendar for the year on one page so you can sketch out some of the bigger things you want to commit to doing this year, what you want to fill your life with this year. So I like to add new things and obviously the design is different each year. So people always excited to see what color will it be this year.

In fact, there's a group, I love this as a group in Colorado. Is it Colorado? Colorado? I've forgotten. Is it Culvert? I can't remember. Somewhere in America.

And they every year they, they gu amongst them what the color of the journal is going to be in the year to come. So they all get together in this bookstore in the US and this intergenerational group that gets together and does their quarterly check ins.

And yeah, one of them this year guessed it would be a purple color and they were correct, but they all had different guesses of what color it would be. So. Yeah.

Oh, that's really fun and I think it's brilliant the community you've built and all these people who are just waiting. Waiting. How lovely is that? That people just waiting for you to have it so they can buy it.

Yeah, I mean it's. In terms of. I mean, honestly, I feel like one day I'm going to discover, well, Paper Chase no longer really fully exists, do they?

But some big brand is. Sainsbury's is going to do their own version of this or something because I don't know, I think it's. But they wouldn't have the community around it.

They wouldn't.

Crazy.

I don't actually think that anyone could copy what, or replicate what you're doing because I think a lot of people are in it for you and the history and the community. So I think there's a lot to be said for that. So yes, someone else could come out with their own. And there will be other.

There are other journals out there, aren't there? There are plenty, yeah.

Oh God, there's loads of other journals. Yeah.

But I think people are buying yours year on year because of the community and because of you.

Thank you. That reassures me that Sainsbury's can't go and do it.

No. And I think that's really important.

I think it's important for everyone to hear because whatever we sell, most of us, somebody could come along and do exactly the same thing.

Yeah.

There's only so many original ideas and unless you've got some kind of IP and even if you have, there's nothing to stop someone trying to rip it off. But it will be different. And actually I guess that there were so many of everything now, aren't they?

Yeah, but people and everyone, you know, everyone has their customers.

So I just think that's worth everyone remembering because it can be so hard to think, oh, that person's selling something really similar to me, so maybe no one will buy mine, but I guess their customers won't be your customers and vice versa.

Exactly, exactly. And there are other similar things out there. There's. And I can't remember what it's called.

There's some something Compass which also has a beautiful community around it and it's. Theirs is like a PDF version and it's also something you do in the new year. Some people do both of them.

They do that one and they do the journal in my journal. And so. Yeah, but they're. Yeah, I think it's.

And it's also, I don't know if it would be worth the while of somewhere like Sainsbury's doing it because of the fact that it's such a, it's got one month window really of selling it. They might be like, oh God, no, it's not, it's not, it's not worth our time because of the issue with the surplus. So anyway, we'll see.

It hasn't happened yet.

I don't think you have anything, anything to worry about. And actually interesting.

I've just recorded another podcast episode before this where we were talking about comparison and the key point of that was that everything's inspiration but people will always gravitate to you or to your products. And it doesn't matter whether you think someone else, someone else's product looks nicer than yours or they've got more followers than you.

That's all sort of relevant, really easy.

Yeah. You're giving me ideas of things for next year as well with this.

Oh, that's exciting.

How to develop the community. But yeah, okay. Thank you.

Oh, you're welcome. So let's move on to talking about selling your journals on Amazon because I know you've done it before this year, but.

Yeah, you know, when we spoke a few months ago, you mentioned this year you really wanted to go for it on Amazon. So that's. First of all, why was that? Why did, why is this a year you thought, right, let's see what I can do on Amazon.

Again, because of the timing. Because of the timing. You know, Christmas time people need these journals, particularly as we get closer and closer to Christmas.

They want them asap, obviously before Christmas day for gifts. But you know, sometimes people are like, oh, I need to get it now to, you know, I'm going to go and see so and so in two days. And people.

I'm a very last minute person so I'm always thinking of the last minuter. I also know, I know there's so much out there about don't buy from Amazon.

But for me as, yeah, as an independent publisher creator, it's so valuable because it gets to a huge marketplace. It means that being fulfilled by Amazon, I don't have to be dealing with the stress of getting these posted out on time. Relying on Royal Mail.

So the first year I started self publishing was the year of, you know, all the Royal Mail strikes, which I totally understand, you know, and it's really important that people get paid well. So I get why they were doing it, but it really impacted on me.

Like, the people were very understanding and very patient with it, but the stress of being like, I don't know when it's going to arrive, like, it's a nightmare. Also, actually, you know, one of the other things is I'm seeing more and more scammers appear on Instagram and Facebook and online.

And I think that there's something, if people can find it on Amazon, there's a, there's a, there's a level of trust in terms of that it will get sent on time that we can, you know, if it is a scam, you're protected. Like, I just think, actually. And also the other thing about Amazon is then seeing.

I knew it would get to Ireland, so last year, getting any journals to Ireland, whether we sent them out from Germany, which was our base for the eu, or from the uk. Don't know what's going on with the getting post into Ireland, but most of them just never arrived.

And then I discovered when I did put it on Amazon for a period of time, UK Amazon, that then it was fine that people in Ireland could get it on, you know, Amazon uk. So all of these things combined.

And then of course, Prime, Amazon prime just before Christmas is, you know, for people who use Amazon Prime a lot then that's a massive bonus. So because of the time of year, it just, it just felt like, yeah, it more and more realizing the benefits of it. Interestingly, we did look at Amazon.

I've got a friend who works at Amazon and when we first started self publishing eight years ago, in the second year we did it, we did look at Amazon and we called up Amazon and we spent ages trying to understand the guy on the phone that was explaining to us how it worked. And my friend was like, oh, yeah. And then you can just send it out to the, you know, to all of Europe and Amazon has its own planes and da, da, da.

And we attempted to do set it up and just could not get our heads around it. I just was so afraid. I just thought it was, it was beyond my capabilities to understand how to make it work and I didn't dare send them out.

So that's kind of why the last couple of years I experimented just Sent a few to Amazon US and then I was like, wow, it worked. Then I sent some more and then it, the, the, the boxes did a full circle.

Went to the us, came all the way back to the uk because the UK courier that I sent them with just lost all of the paperwork.

But anyway, less again, lessons have been learned how to make sure that your boxes are just completely covered with the correct, you know, everything. But yeah, so I think I also, I didn't know if it would even work I think the last couple of years.

So as tiny experiments, when I managed to get it, was able to make it available on Amazon prime last year, I was so excited and it was only on there for about a week and then it was back to me fulfilling it myself. I was sending them all out last year. I thought, well, I make more money this way if I fulfill it myself.

But actually the cost of my time of chasing the postman down the street, of never being able to leave my house because he might come between like 12 and 4pm that day, of slugging through the cold weather to the post office because the postman hadn't come that day and I had to get, you know, it was just, I was like, you know what? I would rather completely outsource this to Amazon. But I knew from experience that with things as complex as this as well as.

And I've done the same thanks to you with my Facebook and Instagram ads, it's really important to me to actually get the help of someone who really knows what they're doing to make sure that I'm not missing a trick and not accidentally doing something wrong. And, you know, so I, I'm really, really grateful for Amazon.

I feel like I'm one of the only people out there vocally saying, I think Amazon's really great for some of us, you know, independent creators and, and publishers. But yeah, it's, it's been really exciting and it has proven this.

I mean, it could be, yes, year one year I do see growth, but I feel like this year the growth has been greater because of Amazon. And yeah, I've, I've definitely been selling more through Amazon even in this quieter period.

So I'm excited to see what happens now when we step into December.

Well, I think one of the great things about Amazon is it puts you in front of new people. And I know there is a bit of resistance often selling on Amazon because people say, oh, I want the shops and small businesses actually.

And I mean, I know it sounds like it's within my interest to say it and it kind of is, but it's true that small businesses are on Amazon. So by saying I'm not going to shop on Amazon because I want to support small businesses.

Actually a lot of these small businesses are on Amazon and a lot of small businesses on Amazon need sales on Amazon because when you consider Amazon's a great marketplace but as you know there are fees and there are things that make it less than ideal. You need people to buy from you, you need to get sales for it to be worth you being there.

Yeah.

And especially if you've got, if you're using FBA because if you end up, hopefully you won't end up in a situation. But if you're using FBA and you find out actually you've got units left and they expire or they're sat there and no one's buying them.

There's, it's, Amazon's complicated. So I think small businesses that are on there need people to buy from them on there as well as on their own websites and other places.

Yeah, I mean I saw someone the other day on Instagram, she's this amazing poet, wonderful. And she's, you know, really using her platform to make a difference and she made this big announcement. So excited.

We've, we've convinced I don't know how many thousands of people never to buy a book again on Amazon. And I was like oh no, no, what about this, what about the self published. I mean I'm not an author.

It's, it's, this is a journal, sort of somewhere in between. Well, it's a planner, isn't it? We're calling it a planner. Anyway, it's not a book but for all intents purposes it's a book.

And I was like, well hang on a minute. But Amazon is amazing for self published authors and the publishing world actually.

And sadly independent bookshops can't support self published authors. A lot of them can't. Because what we found trying to get the journal in there, they were like we only go through the main distributors.

We go through main distributors because otherwise it'd be a logistics.

I spoke to an owner of an independent shop and he said bookshop and he said I do take on some self published authors because we want to support them but it's a logistical nightmare because of keeping on top of all of, you know, from these different suppliers. Basically you're having thousands of, essentially having thousands of suppliers. If you got three books from this person, four from that person.

So what I found as a self published author, journal creator Was that you can't get into the main distributors, you can't get into the main bookshops, you can't even get into the independent bookshops. And with the Print on Demand with Amazon for, for authors. But I also know people creating journals through Print on Demand.

I didn't want to do it that way because I've got a sort of, you know, more luxury journal that Amazon wouldn't be able to create with this lovely spot UV and it's got lovely inside flaps and all the rest of it.

But, but you know, with Print on Demand with Amazon, people can publish their books on Amazon and not have to fork out loads of cash and it's really making publishing your book accessible to people.

So I get it when people are saying that, but I'm like, you kind of do need to understand how amazing Amazon can be for independent creators and makers.

Like this could make a huge difference to my business because I can't now send all of my, and I don't have a huge amount, but customers in Europe, I was dependent on my friend in Germany. We couldn't get the, we could not for love, no money get the journals. We tried three different ways into Germany.

And so with your help, Vicky, I've been setting up France, Spain, Italy, Sweden. Those are the ones that will connect. And so now I can get my FBA inventory in the UK sent out to those European countries.

And again, so that's made it fun, you know, to reach out. I don't know how many people will, I'll. How many people I'll get to that way. But I want it to be available and yeah, it's just, it's just amazing.

But yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't have done it without you guiding me through the steps. It's, I feel like otherwise you have to go and do an Amazon degree before being able to sell on Amazon.

And now I'm experimenting with ads, which is really exciting, which again, I needed you to show me because otherwise I would have been in January and still not figuring out how to do all the, all the steps to make it work.

It is the least user friendly marketplace that I found.

It's amazing.

I mean, Amazon and Meta I think are definitely like, you know, on some mission to keep people on their toes and make it, you know, hard to get onto these places. But once you do, maybe there's something in that. Maybe it's like it's a way of quality control or something. I don't know. I don't know.

I can't Be deliberate. I think it's just made by people who have no interest in making it intuitive or easy.

So strange though, because what I don't get and something I talk about a lot with like my membership and like one to one clients is obviously Amazon and business they want make money. That's what they're about.

They could probably make a lot more money if they had a platform that was much easier to use and more people could access it. Because I know people who give up, who walk away, they go, do you know what? This is an absolute nightmare.

I'm either not going to, you know, they get so far down the process and they stop or they sell on there for a while and they have so many headaches they go actually just not worth my time. And I totally get that. What I don't understand is why. Because it doesn't have to be that way.

If you look at Etsy or Shopify, I know Shopify is different but you look at all these other marketplaces or platforms, they're so much more user friendly. They're so much easier to get started on. I don't understand why it has to be so hard.

No, that's why I just wonder if it's actually a strategy. It's a strategy affairs to make it deliberately difficult. But I, although you know what I do though think that I think selling physical products is.

Isn't easy and straightforward. You know, there's always challenges to it because you're moving physical products around.

There's lots of, you know, moving parts to that kind of business and part of me enjoys the problem solving aspect of it. So different to my coaching which is also there's a lot of problem solving in that but very different kind. There's a.

And it's hilarious because I'm not a very logical or practical person, but I seem enjoy this challenge once a year for a month.

It's probably because it is only above the year.

Yeah, I know. I, yeah, absolutely. I'm very much someone. I like projects so I like the fact that it's, you know, for a short period of time I dive in.

But what was funny is like when I got back to my Shopify shop, for example, or even my Facebook ads, I had completely forgotten how any of it worked and I was like, why didn't I make any notes? I'm having to start from scratch. But luckily I had lots of things set up so I didn't, you know, I didn't have to relearn everything.

But each year, yeah, learning a little bit more. But I'm really enjoying. But, and, and you know, I really do mean this is.

I'm enjoying selling on Amazon because I've, you know, had my sessions with you to show me step by step what to do because otherwise I definitely would not be enjoying it. And also I don't know if it would be working actually. So thank you.

Yeah, it's really nice to hear because obviously my whole goal is to make it easier for people to sell on Amazon because despite all the challenges we've mentioned, people still want to and it's still a good opportunity and I never want someone to miss out on sales because they can't use the platform. Platform or because Amazon won't help them when they have a problem. I never want that to be the reason people aren't selling.

Yeah, well, you. Even one of the brilliant things you said to me was because it's a planner and not a book, but it was categorized as a book.

And you just said, don't give up, write to them again and state very clearly, but this is a planner, it is not a book and therefore it should be. And they responded to that one and went, as of, for the first time ever, as a valued customer, we are going to change it to a planner.

I mean, that's probably one of the only positive and useful emails I've got back from Amazon, but it was thanks to you knowing how to communicate with them and how to get, you know, just, just how to navigate that as well. Which as you say, it shouldn't be that way.

But while it is that way, I'm incredibly grateful because we did try once with Amazon and we did walk away, you know, in the early days we gave up because it was just, we, it was like trying to learn a different language and I was like, I did not have the head for this. So.

Yeah, but once, once you get set up, every day I've got my tracker, I have my spreadsheet, every day I go in and I look at what the sales were for the day before and I add it up and see if I'm, you know, what the, what the total number is. And it's. Yeah, it's a, it's a fun game. I like it.

Okay. And, and I think once it's working, it does work because we was. You mentioned earlier about books and I'm, I'm so, I am with you.

Like, I love bookshops. I don't want bookshops to close. I love going into a bookshop. However, I have a book, my book self published.

And as you said I cannot get my book and I've given up now. Well, I was like, have I given up? It's certainly not a priority, put it that way. Because I spent a long time trying to get my book into shops.

I can't get in any shops. However, I sell books on Amazon and I do print. The quality's brilliant. People can find it, people can buy it, people can get it the next day.

If I said, you know what, I'm not going to buy books on Amazon, then I can't really sell my book on Amazon and then I don't sell any books because that is the only place people are buying my book. You could buy it on my website. Every sale I get comes from Amazon. And yeah, do you know what?

Actually I also didn't sell on Amazon for a few years because of the kind of, oh, let's keep away from Amazon, you know. And I was just like, why am I gonna stop myself from getting sales? Amazon's not gonna notice Amazon.

Oh, have you seen Selina Barker isn't selling her journal on Amazon. Well, maybe we should change our ways.

That's like, you know, and, and it is important that people can get the book, get the journal in other ways because I know there are some people who have, you know, as a point, don't buy on Amazon and I really respect that and I totally get it. But there are so many people who do buy on Amazon.

And yeah, and like I say, particularly with books, I think what people forget and don't realize is it's a huge champion of self published authors. You know, it's not a black and white thing with Amazon. It's, it's a, it's a tricky one.

I think it's hugely beneficial for small independent businesses once we get through. Yeah, horrible system. With your help.

I agree with you that it's complicated and I know there are people who would never ever want sell their products on Amazon and I get that and I respect that and I completely understand that. However, you can't get away from the fact that if you want to, and you have to want to, if you don't want to. Well one, why would you be there?

And two, it's hard as we've spoken about, if you don't want it, you're probably not going to like everything that's coming your way because it's not easy to get set up. However, if you want it, I do think the opportunity is there and I'm not saying it's for everyone because I think I've said to You.

When we first spoke to Selina, my goal isn't for everyone to sell everything on Amazon. That's not it.

But I think if you want to, because it has to be a business decision, if you think for your business it'd be beneficial for you to have your products on Amazon for whatever reason, I think great, it's a good idea. But if it doesn't work for you or your rather put your effort somewhere else also. Good.

Yeah, exactly.

And I've tried, I've tried different ways and I've done it without Amazon and I will be able to report back better, you know, at the end of, the end of December on how it's gone.

And this year I'm also experimenting, like I said, with an ad, some you know, really lovely stop motion ad and I'm going to put a bit of spend on Facebook and Instagram so I'll be able to see there how sales do that way.

But certainly so far, even with my shop available, people can now buy through the shop and that gets sent by Royal Mail to uk, Australia and New Zealand as well.

But it's still people are choosing to buy it on Amazon because they're just all set up there and it's just a swipe or a click or it's Amazon prime if people have Amazon Prime. And it's definitely already showing an increase in sales for me. And that's pretty exciting that is.

And I'll be looking forward to getting the update.

Yes, exactly. I've got my, my little 500 candles here ready to blow out.

I think by the time this goes out. I think we've got about two weeks. It'll be interesting to see where you are when it goes out. We'll have to do an update for everyone.

Yes, exactly. Yes.

If you watch me over on, on Instagram on actually Selina the Coach I do have project you project you on Instagram where I, I talk about the journals. But my Selina the Coach Instagram gets a lot more, a lot more reach because I think I've got, you know, it's a face.

People are, you know, more engaged in a face than a book.

Yeah, of course. And I'll put it on my stories as well. And thank you for mentioning.

So you, thank you mentioning your Instagram handles and we'll also put a link in the show notes where people can buy your book and we'll put, we'll link to your website and we'll link to Amazon as well. Yes, people have got the choice where they'd like to buy it from. Thank you and thank you for everything you shared.

Selena, have one final question before we finish, which is what would your number one piece of advice be for other.

Product creators who I think make sure that whatever way you're selling it and whatever way you are marketing your product, make sure you're doing in ways that feel fun to you. Fun is a massive value of mine. I need things to feel fun and playful so you could replace that with.

You want it to, you know, really involve feeling connected to people, whatever one of your values are. But I think it's really important that you sell your product and market your product in a way that feels really good for you, that you really enjoy.

So for me, that means I need to make it fun. I need to make it feel like a game. I need to get support when I need support. It's really worth. I'm so, so grateful for your.

For your support, Vicky, and investing in time with you has been absolutely priceless. But yeah, I think it's really important for us.

It is stressful and it is hard work and to be selling a product and so I think making sure you do it in ways that feel good, that feel fun where you and get the support that you need. Yeah. So this should so it can be an enjoyable experience.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode.

Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg.com Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend who think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.