Below is the transcription for this episode:

Matt Heltzel: Today we are live. It is Wednesday. My computer's completely frozen. So I think it's the 17th but who the heck cares? It's Wednesday. Welcome in, I am Matt. I'm the CMO here at legendary we are live and if you are tuning in live with us, let us know where you're tuning in from. It's always fun to see where people are tuning in from. Usually people all over the world tune into this and we'll have a couple 100 or so or something like that on these live and then a few 1000 More watches as a replay. You probably already know the drill but for those of you who are newer, every single Monday through Friday for the past, I would say about well we've been doing this for years and years but Dave and I have been going live personally for the last about 18 to 20 months, something like that since last March or April. And we've got people from Charlotte, LA, Iowa, Tennessee, Atlanta, North Carolina. We've got the Netherlands in the house. See, it's people from all over. The internet doesn't discriminate. Based on location. Anybody from anywhere, can hop on and get a little morning inspiration. We've been doing these for a really long time and they're powerful. It's a cool thing for me personally, to be able to see and witness people's stories, their journeys, what they've experienced and then and then what they've been doing and what they're up to right now. And this morning, we've got another awesome guest. I'm excited to bring him on and never chatted with him. I literally sided. I was trying to sign into this thing. Usually I do this from my computer. And I just showed him basically I was like doing a spinning wheel of Death on my iMac. And, anyway, let's bring in Matt. What’s upman? How's it going?

Matt Chambers: I'm doing well. How are you? Doing? Well, thank you. 

Matt Heltzel: Where are you calling in from?

Matt Chambers: Minneapolis. area in the Great North.

Matt Heltzel: Nice starting to get a little chilly up there. A couple years ago. I have family there and a couple years ago we went and visited some sort of resort kind of thing. That's a couple hours north of Minneapolis and it's like you get further north of that. It's just like and it was like negative 15 degrees every day. And I was like look, I grew up in South Dakota so I got to the Midwest but I was just like this brutal. Cold. It's like showing your bones. It's insane. You have to want this for sure. Yeah, that's true. Well, and this summer and like you know spring fall is just epic. It's beautiful. But anyways, I was kind of reading through your questionnaire and reading through some stuff. I thought it would be interesting if you would share a little bit about maybe did what you do full time or you don't have to go super into that but just give us a little background on you and kind of what your interests hobbies and stuff like that are but it's specifically I thought it'd be interesting just to hear a little bit about your story with with E commerce and your journey in that realm in that arena. And just like how did that go, and why did you get into that and tell us a little bit about now while you're trying out a new business model?

Matt Chambers: Yeah. So probably about 10 years ago, I had lunch with a buddy of mine. He had kind of this new thing called a side hustle going on where he was, you know doing some fulfillment by Amazon. And he was importing stuff straight from China and really making a living at it. And he had grown up in the consumer electronics world and really was trying to hone his skills on how to leverage the manufacturing in China and Amazon's network of billions of customers. So as we're chatting over lunch, just gonna flip this computer around and show me his true earnings on a monthly basis. And you know, he was selling some small little security alarm or something at the time and it was doing you know, $100,000 a month in sales, and I'm like, how I need to know and, you know, over the next couple of weeks, he kind of answered a bunch of my questions for me what he's doing and it eventually led me to kind of kicking off doing it myself. I didn't follow any of this advice, in terms of, you know, buy small products and find stuff that's easy to ship. I went into it with a coworker of mine and he and I both started searching for products and he came up with I believe it is actually his wife that came up with the idea of making a beanbag for babies. And I'm thinking, okay, whatever, we'll give it a shot. And he actually finds a manufacturer that says, I'll send you 50 units for free just to just call you and it's expected that they were fully stuffed and ready to Ship onto the customer. It arrived in a box that was about 12 by 12 by 12. And it was 50 empty shelves and we were complete noobs and didn't know what to do and we started researching how do we fill these things? How do we ship these things? On behold our buy in foam from Kmart at the time to fill them and go around the local office depot to buy boxes and FedEx. We put them on Amazon and set up a Facebook page and literally had zero followers. I mean, it was absolutely nothing. We sold out in two days. It was just one of those things. It was a product that just was in an underserved market at the time and got Facebook at that point back in 2013. It wasn’t the advertising juggernaut it is today. Still by throwing some ads out there and you know, even just unpaid ads. Were able to find some quick success with it. You know, we started ordering, you know, different colors, different patterns. You know, I converted my unfinished basement into a warehouse. And within six months, I had hired my sister in law to fill the beanbags. And, you know, multiple different people within my family helping me out to just keep up with it. I was still working full time and still working full time today is just one of those things where it kind of really took off and you know, within that first year you know we've done probably a quarter million dollars in sales on Amazon and something that was just from a whim. It wasn't anything that we were planning or at any experience and we continue to grow that business. It was very successful. We had retail buyers coming to us from Walmart and Target and some larger big box retailers. That, you know, had seen the product and, you know, whatever reports they were looking at, and they wanted it in their their stores and we continued you know, growing that business over the years and then come to about 2017 Facebook changed some algorithm and they're no longer you know, even no matter how much we pay for advertising, we've got zero traffic, like almost overnight. You know, and we struggled putting it together for a couple more years and, you know, eventually my partner moved away and he didn't want to be a part of the business and I'd moved it. We had grown it you know, we think we had three different warehouses over the years. I brought it back home and was out of my garage for a while and it just came time I ended up liquidating everything. Another buddy of mine wanted to give it a shot. So he’s a web designer by trade, so still trying to make it work and figure out how to navigate higher SEO and everything else but then over the years, you know I kind of like it probably went out for almost 10 years and years and we got used to having that side hustle and that extra income coming in and you know, when I sold the business last year, it kind of gave me some free time to start looking and you know, personally I had never even been on TikTok until my daughter got an iPad and said hey, can I have tic tock and like clumsy okay, but I'm gonna watch what you're doing and one more time you know scrolling through videos and Catholics just flipping through what's your dances and our Washington or driveways and whatnot could do that? Upon somebody one time saying hey, you want to make X 1000s of dollars a month working part time I'm like, I’ll bite you know, and, you know, down the journey I went, you know, with, you know, watching the video from Dave and you know, really understanding the education behind it. You know, trying to apply that to what I've known from the past it from ecommerce, and I long time ago, I actually worked for a large e commerce facilitator that had a whole affiliate marketing department and we glide, knew what they did I understand it, but never really applied it and, you know, I started in Denver, my my journey and my my tic tock time, if you will, you know, became just watching everybody that I could within the industry to start learning and start seeing how they're doing things and what they're doing and who's successful and what's making them successful. And, you know, finally ended up going through the 15 Day Challenge and you know, really just tried soaking it up watching multiple episodes several times just to make sure I'm understanding things. And then it was just a matter of kicking myself in the butt to apply it. And I'm glad that you know, it's been less than two months, I'd say, since you really started promoting things. And you know, I'm enjoying what I'm doing and I'm seeing the successes, you know, by applying what I'm learning, so it's really been fun.

Matt Heltzel: Yeah, I feel like you're pretty creative, you've got some creative content. I think that in a way you're utilizing things like stitches or doing stuff like that. And also, yeah, the content that you're putting out is pretty unique in itself. And I think it's getting a lot of views because of that, but I mean, you've really grown to you're not quite at 30,000, right? You're like 27 which is awesome. That's super cool. And you've had a couple videos that are really blown off, but one in particular talks about retail affiliate programs you can join today. Isn't that funny that just a simple video like that can just take off? 

Matt Chambers: Yeah, it was one of those things I posted probably five minutes before we left for one of my daughter's softball tournaments. And literally by the time I got to the tournament, watching the first game I looked down at 50,000 views and I'm like, What did I just do? You know, where did I click wrong? But, you know, that really kind of obviously led to a lot of my followers. You know, trying to recreate those same moments over and over again now and you know, really you know, instead of going after, I think a lot of just a massive amount of views. And firstly, trying to find the right ones, you know, people that really want to educate themselves on you know, how can they do the same thing, you know, how can they create some sort of whether it's a side hustle or full time income by leveraging, you know, social media and online platforms? And really enjoying that mentorship? You know, I'm with some people and, you know, they may not all be subscribers right away. A lot of people go into you know, these sorts of things, thinking it's going to be, you know, cost them a lot of money or they have to dedicate, you know, eight hours a day to this and really try to just educate them that you don't need to. Yeah, it's certainly not something that you have to, you know, put your life savings into a new business. And you can start slow and you can grow things, you know, at your own speed. And, you know, I learned from a lot of failures, you know, I've been kicked off TikTok so many times the last two months. I can't even count it. And you know, I'm probably right at that point where they're just gonna ban me for life. But I didn't realize sales funnels and affiliate marketing was so sad to talk about, but I guess you know.

Matt Heltzel: Well, it's, yeah, there's the it's mostly usually it's just people who are annoyed from seeing it, start reporting, and it's not necessarily that it's actually against a sort of terms, and then you get enough of those. But I wanted to go back to you know, I think that there's an interesting flow, so to speak, of creating those more viral high viewed videos, and then following it with lives and following it with more high level high value, but yesterday, I thought it was really interesting that Dave was talking with a guy who's just exploded and also, not only exploded, but just has done it in a really unique way. Where he's had a couple of those high viewed videos. For instance, a lot of his growth over the last month has been after he did a video that got 10 million times where he did a little work from home for Apple video and he had an apple on his finger. He slipped the apple off of his finger, and it was kind of a funny, like, humorous thing. And he had 10 million views and turned into a ton of followers. And some people are skeptical about that. They say oh, yeah, but those don't actually turn into sales. Now in his case, he's been going live two to three hours a day and being real with people being vulnerable with people and combining those elements, the right one and the other don't really work independent of each other. So if it's all just this, like high level education that's almost beyond what people who are new can grasp. Or even understand, or if it's just virality. Neither of those really work explicitly. It has to be both right? Like this guy. Austin just got off Ian's live show, like, typically guys like Calvin Hill, they'll go live for hours in a day. And they'll have, you know, 50 to 200 viewers at one time. But then at the end of it when they actually hit and it says you know, 45,000 people get this live and that's a really powerful thing. I mean, that's a lot of freaking people. When they get to see you in a live environment, or even just in an environment where you're creating videos, like you talked about, that is just more kind of straightforward content. Because when you get on the for you page to that degree, like your video that has $600,000 You are guaranteed to find people who are not interested in this who have never heard of it, right. And so what happens in our community and in this niche in particular, is that people start telling themselves like, it's like everybody's standing in a circle looking at each other. We're all talking about like, oh, what's happening? And everybody's like, Yeah, everybody's sick of these videos. And you know, it's not about going viral. But the truth of the matter is, is that, you know, one of those 600,000 followers or 600,000 Viewers, probably a lot of them had never heard of any way to make money. Online in their lives before. And that's a powerful idea that a lot of times we end up forgetting, and underwriting I would say undervaluing massively undervalued.

Matt chambers: if I look at my master to-do list of everything I want to do with my businesses, going live carving out that time just to be able to do it on a regular basis because I enjoyed a lot of them I watched a lot of those comments on a lot of them. I've just never done it and I know it has huge powers within the community, especially the checkout platform. You know, it's one of the things that you know, even my, you know, if you look back at my early videos, I wasn't putting my face out there. So, you know, like you said, it's that vulnerability factor. And, you know, I've gotten over that ugly mug out there and let people ask me if they want but, you know, it's one of the things I just need to do it and, and be comfortable with it and not worry about, you know, the 95% of the people that are gonna laugh at it, you know, focus on the 5% of people that are going to take something away from it.

Matt Heltzel: It's impressive to me the journey, just that short journey that you've taken from sort of starting out testing the waters with somebody as they just didn't really like it, didn't show your face and you were like, Hey, let me edit some videos. And now here you are today live, you know, Wake Up Legendary. Just kind of cool honestly, you know.

Matt chambers: It is and you know I was talking to my wife, my daughter about it. You're going to go live on their show. And chuckles And she's 12 and thinks that TikTok started out because I got invited to this. So I guess you know, in her eyes, I'm cool. 

Matt Heltzel: You are! I also tell a lot of my parents. I'm not a parent, but I tell a lot of parents this all the time. I feel like seeing like parents doing things that are stretching me like that maybe they kind of know or understand is like a little uncomfortable. I mean, and that's a really powerful thing to watch. I feel like so I just feel like that's a really cool thing for her to be a part of and for her to like to see or experience or hear about you know, it is a real vulnerable thing to go on. Any sort of social media, you know, we're all we're all insecure and like, God, what are people gonna say? Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, like a lot of what I'm so just on and we're just kind of keeping in mind at times for your sort of, you know, content creation strategy and sort of your routine and stuff. I mean, I tell people if it doesn't feel right or feel good, you know, test out the waters. Occasionally. But ultimately, don't push yourself to do something that you hate. You know, the reason Ian or somebody like that goes live so often for so long. It just feeds him you know, and it's like, for some people, it just doesn't do that and that's okay. But also sometimes we just don't do stuff because it just is comfortable. We just need to figure it out. But I like the approach that I've seen a lot of people doing where it's like, Hey, we're just gonna get coffee together. You know, I'm gonna go live on Tik Tok. I just brewed up my pot of coffee. I'm gonna sit here, we're gonna chat for 20 minutes and then I'm gonna peace out to work you know or something like that. I'm gonna peace out to my other job or I'm gonna peace out and I got to create videos, but we're gonna hang out for 20 minutes. You're here for a round, hop on let's chat. You know, and they'll answer questions. They'll just chat about life and it's crazy how that small stuff that's seemingly insignificant ends up being the stuff that really moves people and speaks to their heart rather than just to their mind. But in terms of your routine and stuff and what you're doing, Would it be found to be impactful from a content creation strategy standpoint? And then I'll kind of give you the last word to like everybody who's here. What, what's something you would recommend to people who are getting started creating content? There's a lot of people here and we're trying to figure it out trying to figure out what fits. What would you recommend based on sort of what you've experienced on what you found for somebody who's getting started?

Matt chambers: I think the thing that I'm finding that works for me is kind of the pain point of being stuck in that nine to five job and really just hating, hating Sunday. Nights on Monday mornings, living for Friday afternoons and really just trying to help educate people that there's something else out there that they can be doing that can replace that, you know, that grind? You know, I've always been one that I work a full time job and I don't mind working a full time job. But eventually I don't want to find that kind of thing. That ultimate side hustle that turns into a career. And again, I'm really trying to focus my business towards that and you know, the stay at home moms stay at home dads. You know the people that are slaving away, you know, at their eight to six, it's no longer night. And over the last two years, we're all been working at night from home, you know, answering emails at midnight, doing stuff that we normally wouldn't have done before. And I'm really trying to find that piece and as well as how can I help share that with others and really help people understand that there is something else out there.

Matt Heltzel: Man, that's so true. I even have, I mean, I even have friends who have worked at Office Depot. And over the pandemic Yeah, they find themselves working just weird hours. They have no ability to disconnect. My buddy who's freaking like the most would love to work from home all the time. He told me the other day was just like, Man, I don't like this anymore. Like I miss my people. I miss collaborating. This is stupid.

I think so many of us are like that, just striving to go back to an office and see other people. 

Matt Heltzel: Yeah, or just or you know, and that and also just to leave it all behind to it just like hey, I want to do my own thing or have a side income that I've got coming in. That doesn't make me so dependent on it. Alright, well Matt, you've got stuff to get to. I've got stuff to get to. Thank you so much for coming on. I really enjoyed it. I love watching people's journey throughout going on tick tock figuring out content. And that was really cool for me to be able to go through your TikTok channel and take a look at those and everybody else will too because I'll put up your handle and I'll let you get rolling.

Matt chambers: I appreciate it, thanks for having me.

Matt Heltzel: Totally. Guys. I'm going to put up his right here so Empower underscore your underscore future. You can find him on TikTok give him a follow and then you know what I usually tell people to do is go comment on a video and let him know Hey, I saw you on wakeup legendary Hey, I you know I was watching. Tell him one thing you took away from today's interview. He's got a run. He's got a meeting coming up. He's a busy dude. And I also have lots of meetings in the morning. So we're gonna hop off the back here tomorrow, same time, same place. 10am. Eastern. We're here Monday through Friday. Empower underscore your earnings for future and also if you are newer to our community, you can text WUL to (813)-296-8553. If you send the letters WUL. You can get a text message reminder, every single thing when we're going live. There'll be a little link to our Facebook you can literally just tap it. It'll send you right into Facebook and you can watch our lives. So again, if you want to follow that empower underscore your underscore future and we'll be back here again.

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