From Couch Surfing to 30 Million in Annual Revenue Based Off One Focus: Progress with Tim Angel

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire! are brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like inclusion and marketing. Today, we'll be breaking down from couch surfing to$30 million in annual revenue based off of one focus, progress. To drop these value bombs, I brought Tim Angel into EO Fire Studios. Tim's dad fired him, and he was living on couches. When the iPad came out, he decided to be the best solution in the world for iPad cases. In two years, he almost went out of business, so he went direct to consumer, consistently improved, got five stars, scaled up advertising, and now has$30 million in revenue per year.

0:46And today, we'll be chatting about trying, failing, making the best product. We'll talk about Amazon being crowded. We'll talk about manufacturing. We'll talk about burnouts and motivation and so much more, Fire Nation. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Tim and our sponsors. Sales Evangelist, hosted by my friend, Donald Kelly, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Each week, Donald interviews the world's best sales experts, successful sellers, sales leaders, and entrepreneurs who share their strategies to succeed in sales right now.

1:20A recent episode you should definitely check out is the five ways to do daily outbound with LinkedIn. Listen to Sales Evangelist wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to check out NetSuite, the number one cloud financial system, streamlining accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, and more. Right now, download NetSuite's popular KPI checklist designed to give you consistently excellent performance, absolutely free at netsuite.com slash fire. That's netsuite.com slash fire. Tim, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with?

1:59Hey, what's up guys. Thanks for having me on. Well, I don't know if most people actually disagree with this one, but you get what you tolerate. So, you know, if you tell yourself you must have something, then you have a much better chance of getting it than something that you want. You know, usually what we have right now is things that we must have um and not what we want so I feel like that's kind of like really what's what's key I mean you just think about life and anything that you like there was no option you must have it you one way or the other you eventually get to it and you get it you know and um you know I think like also a main thing is there's no destination in your journey there's just milestones.

2:53So you better enjoy it because if not, when you get to your so-called destination, you're going to be devastated because it's not going to be what you expect. Fire Nation, I've interviewed over 4 ,000 entrepreneurs and I can tell you an unbelievably common theme is that they say, hey, I accomplished my goal and the next day was the worst day of my life because it was the progress. It was the gradual realization of that goal. When you wake up without a goal, without meaning, without relevancy, that's a problem. So you're so right about those milestones, about the day-to-day. And we're talking about going from crowd surfing to $30 million in annual revenue based off of one focus, progress.

3:35So many try and many fail, but you did it, Tim. How did you make a best-selling product on Amazon? And then how can we follow that model? You don't really need to get rid of your problems. You need to get better at solving problems because the only people without problems are dead. So you don't ever want to get rid of your problems. You just want to get better at solving them. Um, as far as making a bestselling product on, on Amazon, in my opinion, you know, what you want to do there is you don't want to go where the whole crowd is going, where they're fighting over price. Um, you know, very cheap and expensive products, which you're going to want to do is focus on the other area, which you have very few competitors, which is like the more higher end quality products.

4:26Then you have more money to spend on advertising. And if you're able to spend more money on advertising, you're going to be able to beat the competition. So what you want to do is you want to find an area on Amazon that you're really interested in. Find, you know, in that area, find like the top 10 products, but you don't want to just do the best sellers because a lot of times the best sellers are really cheap products. So you want to get a couple of the best selling inexpensive products. You want to get a couple of the more expensive, you know, still really good selling products. You want to get a couple of the highest rated products.

5:03You want to take all like five or 10 of those products, order them, get them in your hands, check them all out and go through all the reviews and all the different products and see what people like what people dislike you know and then you can you kind of compile all those features that people love put them together put your own spin on it and then any issues that people don't like you want to try and improve that or solve that issue so you put all that together and you can create your own product that's unique so you're gonna have a better product you're gonna be able to have more more margin for spending money on advertising and you're going to be able to crush competition because I feel like on Amazon, it started out where it's all cheap products and it's still a lot of inexpensive products that people go there for.

5:52But also a lot of times it's people, they need something immediately, you know, the next day or same day. So they're going on there, um, to find that solution. So I feel like it's, it's gone from being inexpensive products to more of like, you know, a luxury for people to get a product fast, you know, so there's definitely a huge crowd that want to buy a quality product. And they want it now. And they want to they want to buy from a brand that is American, you know, so even if you're manufacturing overseas, if you're American brand, you're still going to have, you know, way more of a pull than than the other Chinese cheap competition products.

6:35And Fire Nation, just wait till that same day drone delivery becomes available all over the place. It's going to be pretty exciting and pretty crazy times. And they're definitely heading in that direction. And one thing that I love that Tim said they want to circle back on is about those price wars, about the cheap products. There's a great quote by Seth Godin that I love, is that the problem with the race to the bottom is that you just might win. Fire Nation, that's not a race you want to win, a race to the bottom, the cheapest, you know, the most accessible. You don't want that kind of race.

7:10You don't want to be involved in that race. You want to identify a luxury premium item that you have great margins on and that you can beat the competition because you know what's missing because you're filling that void. Now, we always hear that Amazon is too crowded in 2023 and 2024 and beyond for anyone to really be successful. Is this true, Tim? It is true when you're competing on price, you know, but when you're focusing in the other area where it's a high quality product, there's way less competition. You know, on Amazon right now for our iPad cases, we have like, I would say, 50 ,000 at least competitors.

7:51and when you go to like our actual competitors at higher price, you're talking about maybe less than 10. So it's a big difference. What I think was a stroke of genius for you with the iPad case is that I really believe you have to think, Fire Nation, about a product that people are really going to be willing to spend more money on because they're going to come in contact with it every single day. I mean, people that have iPads, they love their iPads. They're using it every single day. They're not going to want something flimsy that looks bad, that breaks. They're going to be like, you know what?

8:25If there's something I am going to spend money on, it's going to be on something that I want to show off, that I'm proud of, that's reliable, that's beautiful, that's well-created and manufactured and all these different things. So that's why I think a product like that, you need to sit down and think about, Fire Nation, because that's where people are going to spend on premium goods. Now, manufacturing is a really scary concept for a lot of us, Tim, because we're just, you know, like, where do you even start? I mean, you picture all these manufacturing companies in China and even in the United States and all over Asia, wherever it is.

9:01It's just scary in general. So what have you learned over the years as the best method to work with manufacturers? I couldn't find a good manufacturer when I was over here. And it was a roadblock for me. And I was like, OK, this is something I must figure out and I must do. So I'm not going to sit around here and, you know, tell myself it's it's too difficult. So I just bought a plane ticket and I figured it out over there, you know, kind of like burn the boats. So you have no choice but to succeed. But, you know, what you can do now is what I ended up doing. actually when I got into China trying to figure it out is go on to Alibaba and contact manufacturers there and you know start visiting them and see which ones which one you feel most comfortable with you know especially if you're able to meet the owner the first day you know that's that's a great relationship to have so I feel like a lot of companies now they're doing business with manufacturers just online.

10:10So if you fly there and you build a relationship with the owner or, you know, people in the factory, you're going to have priority over all those other customers that they never, you know, put a face to. And that's going to be, that's going to be really important. Yeah. So definitely also another thing you want to do is whenever you place your first order with them, you want to place the smallest order you can because pretty much always the first order, you're going to have some issues that you're going to need to tweak and fix. So don't go crazy and order, you know, a bunch of pieces that you think you're going to sell.

10:51And, you know, let them know that you just wanted to order a little bit so you can test it out and make some tweaks. Also, you know, they're going to be telling you a lot as you're going through the manufacturing product process, you know, this is impossible, that is impossible. You cannot accept, they're pretty much always going to say no at first, you know, oh, can we change this to do that? No, because blah, blah, blah. Really, most of the time, they're just too lazy to do it, and it's too difficult. But you got to push and push and push them to try and get them to do that. And originally, what I did when I went over there and found a manufacturer that I was comfortable with, I gave them my prototype that I made out of cardstock, like thick paper.

11:35And they were able to, you know, make a sample within a couple days. Then I was able to look at that sample and say, hey, let's change this, change that. And then they start working on that, making those changes. I go back to my hotel. I stay there for a few days and I'm focusing on spreading the word and doing whatever else I can. So it's kind of a lot of that back and forth. And over that time of you being there for a couple weeks or a couple months figuring out that product, you build a relationship with them and you're going to have priority over any other buyer that's just going to them through online.

12:11Fire Nation, lots of great advice here. I mean, again, people love saying no or impossible because they just want you to make it easier for them. They just want you to go away. They just want to do what's easy for them. They want to be lazy. Don't let it happen if you want to be great. And we have so much to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Happy 2024, Fire Nation. Q1 is here, and that means new goals, more growth, and upgrading your day-to-day workflow. While most sales folks are stuck in the mud of manual scheduling, digging into data, and tracking down leads, let me share a better way to win so you can get a jumpstart on your year.

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14:37Tim, we're back. Burnout is very common with entrepreneurs. It just happens all the time for various reasons. How do you personally not run out of motivation for what you do? When my back is against the wall, that's when I work really hard. I make a lot of progress. Things are going good. I have a little bit of money in the bank. And then I start to relax a little bit and do a little bit less. And things just kind of fall apart. because for some reason I'm trying to put myself subconsciously back into that position of my back being against the wall and um where I really make progress so over the years I was I was really it really bothered me you know like why do I keep doing this to myself um sabotaging myself you know so um i feel like what really changed it for me was going to tony robbins a tony robbins seminar called business mastery and you know that's really expensive and i and i at that time i felt like i was making the biggest mistake of my life because it's a ten thousand dollar ticket um but it turned out you know because i try everything even you know i'm just like used to failing at everything so that at least I get one good win and then I try another 10 things and you know one of those things work but I went to Tony Robbins and not only did it change my my mental mindset but it also changed I mean just everything in my life you know I went from I would say every day being at like a 5 out of 10 to going to like an 8 or 9 out of 10 just you know just feeling great and really positive and not going through that same issue of losing motivation so what really what really got me there was thinking about I think what I was before I was just focusing on myself like oh I don't need any more money I got some money in the bank you run out of motivation when it's just for yourself but when you put that on other people like your family for instance like for me like there's a lot of a lot of um pressure like to to rush in order to make to build up money grow the business because there's a lot of new treatments coming out medical treatments for people so you know my family i always want to make sure they're safe my family and friends you know and if they get sick or something happens I want to be able to offer them that treatment to save their life.

17:17So I feel like the pressure is on me. I have all these people that rely on me. So I'm doing it for all these other people, which the motivation for that never runs out. So not only family and friends, but also some type of charity that I have a tie to emotionally. Like for me, I went through really dark depression when I was younger and I know how terrible it can be. So I think about those people that are suffering really bad and that I need to push and keep going so that I can help them get people out of that dark place. It makes me feel like I have a purpose, like I'm here for a reason. Fire Nation, these are words coming from an entrepreneur who has been down that road, who has hit roadblocks, got knocked down, got back up, and created quite a special business.

18:11Now, Tim, I want to end on a high note here. I want you to give Fire Nation one key takeaway that you want them to really get from our conversation today, one meaningful tidbit that you want them to remember today, tomorrow, next month. You can only fail if you quit. When you're trying to do something, if it doesn't work, try something else. If that doesn't work, try something else. If that doesn't work, try something else. And guess what? You just keep doing that. And the only way you can fail is if you stop trying things. Now, Tim, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, what call to action do you have for our listeners today?

18:50You can contact me on my Instagram, which is TimothyCharlesAngel. You can also email me at tim at zugucase.com. My website is zugucase.com. We are the only iPad case in Amazon's top 100 that has five stars. There's only four cases in Amazon's top 100 that have five stars, and all four of them are Zugu case. So it's always important to make progress and constantly improve. And eventually you'll get to five stars and you can scale your business up like crazy. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with TA and JLD today. So keep up that heat for links to everything that we talked about.

19:37Visit EO fire.com type Tim in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Tim, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks so much, man. Really appreciate it. Have a good one. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Tim for sponsoring today's episode in Fire Nation. Are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side.

20:12Sales Evangelist, hosted by my friend Donald Kelly, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Each week, Donald interviews the world's best sales experts, successful sellers, sales leaders, and entrepreneurs who share their strategies to succeed in sales right now. A recent episode you should definitely check out is the five ways to do daily outbound with LinkedIn. Listen to Sales Evangelist wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to check out NetSuite, the number one cloud financial system, streamlining accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, and more.

20:45Right now, download NetSuite's popular KPI checklist designed to give you consistently excellent performance, absolutely free, at netsuite.com slash fire. That's netsuite.com slash fire. Thank you.