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Press release

Amazon to invest $5 billion and create more than 50,000 jobs across the two new headquarters

Amazon announces Nashville as new Operations Center of Excellence with more than 5,000 jobs

SEATTLE --(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2018-- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it has selected New York City and Arlington, Virginia, as the locations for the company’s new headquarters. Amazon will invest $5 billion and create more than 50,000 jobs across the two new headquarters locations, with more than 25,000 employees each in New York City and Arlington. The new locations will join Seattle as the company’s three headquarters in North America. In addition, Amazon announced that it has selected Nashville for a new Center of Excellence for its Operations business, which is responsible for the company’s customer fulfillment, transportation, supply chain, and other similar activities. The Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville will create more than 5,000 jobs.

The new Washington, D. C. metro headquarters in Arlington will be located in National Landing, and the New York City headquarters will be located in the Long Island City neighborhood in Queens. Amazon’s investments in each new headquarters will spur the creation of tens of thousands of additional jobs in the surrounding communities. Hiring at both the new headquarters will begin in 2019. The Operations Center of Excellence will be located in downtown Nashville as part of a new development site just north of the Gulch, and hiring will also begin in 2019.

“We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia,” said

, founder and CEO of Amazon. “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come. The team did a great job selecting these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”

Amazon in Long Island City in New York City

Located just across the East River from M >Long Island City is a mixed-use community where arts and industry intersect. It is a diverse community with a unique blend of cultural institutions, arts organizations, new and converted housing, restaurants, bars, breweries, waterfront parks, hotels, academic institutions, and small and large tech sector and industrial businesses. Long Island City has some of the best transit access in New York City, with 8 subway lines, 13 bus lines, commuter rail, a bike-sharing service, and ferries serving the area, and LaGuardia and JFK airports are in close proximity. As part of Amazon’s new headquarters, New York and Long Island City will benefit from more than 25,000 full-time high-paying jobs; approximately $2.5 billion in Amazon investment; 4 million square feet of energy-efficient office space with an opportunity to expand to 8 million square feet; and an estimated incremental tax revenue of more than $10 billion over the next 20 years as a result of Amazon’s investment and job creation. Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of $1.525 billion based on the company creating 25,000 jobs in Long Island City. This includes a refundable tax credit through New York State’s Excelsior Program of up to $1.2 billion calculated as a percentage of the salaries Amazon expects to pay employees over the next 10 years, which equates to $48,000 per job for 25,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000 ; and a cash grant from Empire State Development of $325 million based on the square footage of buildings occupied in the next 10 years. Amazon will receive these incentives over the next decade based on the incremental jobs it creates each year and as it reaches building occupancy targets. The company will separately apply for as-of-right incentives including New York City’s Industrial & Commercial Abatement Program ( ICAP ) and New York City’s Relocation and Employment Assistance Program (REAP). The community will benefit from New York City prov >Amazon has agreed to donate space on its campus for a tech startup incubator and for use by artists and industrial businesses, and Amazon will donate a site for a new primary or intermediary public school. The company will also invest in infrastructure improvements and new green spaces.

“When I took office, I sa >New York State – one that is fiscally responsible and fosters a business climate that is attractive to growing companies and the industries of tomorrow. We’ve delivered on those promises and more, and today, with Amazon committing to expand its headquarters in Long Island City, New York can proudly say that we have attracted one of the largest, most competitive economic development investments in U. S. history,” said Governor

Of New York. “With an average salary of $150,000 per year for the tens of thousands of new jobs Amazon is creating in Queens, economic opportunity and investment will flourish for the entire region. Amazon understands that New York has everything the company needs to continue its growth. The State’s more than $100 billion transportation infrastructure program – the most ambitious in our history – combined with our education initiatives like K-12 tech education and the first-in-the-nation Excelsior Scholarship program, will help ensure long-term success and an unrivaled talent pool for Amazon.”

“This is a giant step on our path to building an economy in New York City that leaves no one behind. We are thrilled that Amazon has selected New York City for its new headquarters,” said Mayor

Of New York City. “New Yorkers will get tens of thousands of new, good-paying jobs, and Amazon will get the best talent anywhere in the world. We’re going to use this opportunity to open up good careers in tech to thousands of people looking for their foothold in the new economy, including those in City colleges and public housing. The City and State are working closely together to make sure Amazon’s expansion is planned smartly, and to ensure this fast growing neighborhood has the transportation, schools, and infrastructure it needs.”

Amazon in National Landing in Arlington, Virginia

National Landing is an urban community in Northern Virginia located less than 3 miles from downtown Washington, D. C. The area is served by 3 Metro stations, commuter rail access, and Reagan National Airport – all within walking distance. The community has a variety of hotels, restaurants, high-rise apartment buildings, retail, and commercial offices. National Landing has abundant parks and open space with sports and cultural events for res >Virginia and Arlington will benefit from more than 25,000 full-time high-paying jobs; approximately $2.5 billion in Amazon investment; 4 million square feet of energy-efficient office space with the opportunity to expand to 8 million square feet; and an estimated incremental tax revenue of $3.2 billion over the next 20 years as a result of Amazon’s investment and job creation. Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of $573 million based on the company creating 25,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000 in Arlington. This includes a workforce cash grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia of up to $550 million based on $22,000 for each job created over the next 12 years. Amazon will only receive this incentive if it creates the forecasted high-paying jobs. The company will also receive a cash grant from Arlington of $23 million over 15 years based on the incremental growth of the existing local Transient Occupancy Tax, a tax on hotel rooms. The community and Amazon employees will benefit from the Commonwealth investing $195 million in infrastructure in the neighborhood, including improvements to the Crystal City and the Potomac Yards Metro stations; a pedestrian bridge connecting National Landing and Reagan National Airport ; and work to improve safety, accessibility, and the pedestrian experience crossing Route 1 over the next 10 years. Arlington will also dedicate an estimated $28 million based on 12% of future property tax revenues earned from an existing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for on-site infrastructure and open space in National Landing.

“This is a big win for Virginia – I’m proud Amazon recognizes the tremendous assets the Commonwealth has to offer and plans to deepen its roots here,” said Governor

Of Virginia. “Virginia put together a proposal for Amazon that we believe represents a new model of economic development for the 21st century, and I’m excited to say that our innovative approach was successful. The majority of Virginia’s partnership proposal consists of investments in our education and transportation infrastructure that will bolster the features that make Virginia so attractive: a strong and talented workforce, a stable and competitive business climate, and a world-class higher education system.”

“We are proud that Amazon has selected National Landing for a major new headquarters. This is, above all, a val >Arlington County Board Chair

. “The strength of our workforce coupled with our proximity to the nation’s capital makes us an attractive business location. But Arlington’s real strength is the decades of planning that have produced one of the most vibrant, civically engaged communities in the world. Those plans have paved the way for this investment, and we look forward to engaging the Arlington community about Amazon’s plans and how we can grow together.”

Amazon’s new Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville

Downtown Nashville, along the Cumberland River, is the heart of the city just north of the Gulch and is home to urban living, retail, restaurants, entertainment venues, hospitality, open green spaces, and offices. The area is served by commuter rail, more than a dozen bus routes, and is a 15-minute drive to Nashville International Airport. As part of Amazon’s investment, Tennessee, Davidson County and the city of Nashville will benefit from 5,000 full-time, high-paying jobs; over $230 million in investment; 1 million square feet of energy-efficient office space; and an estimated incremental tax revenue of more than $1 billion over the next 10 years as a result of Amazon’s investment and job creation. Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of up to $102 million based on the company creating 5,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000 in Nashville. This includes a cash grant for capital expenditures from the state of Tennessee of $65 million based on the company creating 5,000 jobs over the next 7 years, which is equivalent to $13,000 per job; a cash grant from the city of Nashville of up to $15 million based on $500 for each job created over the next 7 years; and a job tax credit to offset franchise and excise taxes from the state of Tennessee of $21.7 million based on $4,500 per new job over the next 7 years.

“We want to thank Amazon for its continued investment in the state of Tennessee and are excited about the additional 5,000 corporate jobs they will be creating in Nashville,” said Governor

Of Tennessee. “It has never been clearer that Tennessee is a great place to do business, and we continue to attract a wide variety of global companies that provide high-paying, quality jobs for our residents.”

“Amazon’s decision to expand its presence in Nashville is a direct result of the talented workforce and strong community we’ve built here,” said Mayor

Of Nashville. “These are quality, high-paying jobs that will boost our economy, prov >Nashville is a premiere location for business investment. We thank Amazon for investing in Nashville, and we look forward to welcoming them to this community.”

Press Release – FAA Proposes $350,000 Civil Penalty Against Amazon. com, Inc

For Immediate Release





June 13, 2016

Contact: Allen Kenitzer

Phone: 425-227-2015; Email: allen. kenitzer@faa. gov





SEATTLE – The U. S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposes a $350,000 civil penalty against Amazon. com, Inc. of Seattle, Wash., for allegedly violating the Hazardous Materials Regulations.





The FAA alleges that on Oct. 15, 2014, Amazon offered to United Parcel Service (UPS) a package containing a one-gallon container of “Amazing! LIQUID FIRE,” a corrosive drain cleaner for transportation by air from Louisville, Ky., to Boulder, Colo.





While being transported, some of the Liquid Fire leaked through the fiberboard box. Nine UPS employees who came into contact with the box reported feeling a burning sensation and were treated with a chemical wash.





The FAA alleges the shipment was not properly packaged, was not accompanied by a Shipper’s Declaration for Dangerous Goods and was not properly marked or labeled to indicate the hazardous nature of its contents. Furthermore, the FAA alleges Amazon failed to provide emergency response information with the package, and that Amazon employees who handled the package had not received required hazardous materials training.





Amazon has a history of violating the Hazardous Materials Regulations. From February 2013 to September 2015 alone, Amazon was found to have violated the Hazardous Materials Regulations 24 other times. The FAA is continuing to investigate Amazon’s compliance with the Hazardous Materials Regulations applicable to air transportation.





Amazon has 30 days from receipt of the FAA’s enforcement letter to respond to the agency.





How New Entrepreneurs Sell Millions Per Year On Amazon (The Definitive Guide)





The Step By Step Guide On How I Built A Million Dollar Business In 12 Months (With Screen Shots and Examples Included)





That’s how much revenue my businesses made selling things on Amazon In one month this year.





And I did it without touching, storing, or shipping anything myself. I don’t have a big team, special connections, or an industry background.





In fact, just three short years ago I had never sold a single physical product online.





Yet my students and I alone Sell more than $100 million in products every year, just on Amazon. I know what you’re thinking, but what I’ve done to become successful is probably the exact opposite of what you think it is…











In this (long and detailed) post, I’m going to show you how I do it, and how you can copy the process… even if you don’t have any good >then I will show you my plan to take just about any business to $1m in twelve months or less. This post is very detailed – almost exhaustive – but it outlines exactly how I’ve made millions.





I’m also going to outline some of the strategies that have taken me from one million to ten million. Truth be told, I get the most excited about helping million dollar businesses become industry giants. That’s what people pay me to do, so writing all of this out helps bring more successful people into our incubator (The Tribe) or our private mastermind.





Before I show you everything, here are my selfish reasons for this post:

1) I get asked questions about this literally every day, and I am tired of answering them over and over again. So I have compiled everything that I have said into this post so that you can view it easily. And if you like the stuff that we give out for free, then you’ll probably want to come to my workshops and go through our training courses. Win-win. Plus, if you become successful using these strategies, then you will likely want to join our more expensive programs, too.





2) Sometimes, I invest my own money into my student’s businesses. In fact, I am part of an investment company that buys these types of businesses. So the more people that do this stuff, the more opportunities that come across my desk.





3) I believe that the entrepreneurs and capitalists are the driving force behind all of the world’s greatest change. We need more entrepreneurs, and we need more people to be rich. We don’t change this world by re-distributing opportunity, we change this world by creating more opportunity. If I can inspire one person to be an entrepreneur, then I have changed their family tree and all the people that they touch. I believe that to my core, and that is my mission in life.





So with that, here’s how I went from zero to making millions of dollars every year selling things on Amazon:





In mid-2013, I was a struggling entrepreneur that knew that he was meant for more, but I didn’t feel like I knew how to have predictable business success. Tired and frustrated, I needed to make a change fast. (Maybe you know what that’s like?)





I had been an entrepreneur all of my life, but I was burnt out, and my life was quickly spiraling into a whirlwind of too much stress for too little money. I felt trapped doing what I was doing… until one day, while driving home, I thought to myself, “I can’t do this one more day, and I don’t have to.”





From that day forward, I vowed that I would only put my time into something if it met the following criteria:

1) It must have multi-million dollar potential.

2) I must have complete time freedom – I never want to be a slave to a business or a boss.

3) It must sell good products to customers that love it. In other words, it must make a positive difference in the world.





To put it simply: I stopped chasing random opportunities and started building real businesses that had real value.





A friend of mine was successfully selling on Amazon, so I decided to tweak his business model and make it follow my criteria.





I’ve now built multiple million-dollar-per-year businesses, and I even built and sold one of my businesses to a multi-million dollar company.





In one year flat, I was selling more than $200,000 per month on Amazon, and after that, it grew to even more. Today, my businesses do as much as $1,000,000 per month (yes, you read that right). I outline all of it below.





Within a year following this model, I was out-performing every business that I had ever been a part of, all while working less. I had built a million dollar business in twelve months. Today, it does approximately $10 million in sales per year.











I started teaching this model to other people, and they started having success, too. In fact, my “Zero To $1 Million On Amazon In 12 Months” presentations have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and many many millionaires credit it with their success. I’m proud of that.





But full disclaimer : I have had a lot of business experience in the past, and that gave me kind of a “fast start” into what I’m about to teach you. This is not a quick fix or an overnight success, and it takes a good six to twelve months to really be lucrative. Not to fear – I’ll share with you some of the shortcuts that I’ve used to make it happen faster.





Anyway… first things first:





I don’t mean to “baby” you, but for those of you who are just getting started or have never heard of me before, Amazon has this service called “Fulfilled By Amazon.” That’s a writer-downer. Amazon does all the shipping, payment processing, sales, and even some customer management. They do everything EXCEPT the marketing, which I’ll show you how to do below.











What utilizing this service does is essentially automate most of the complicated steps that used to be involved in business. In fact, I heard Robert Kiyosaki describe Fulfilled By Amazon as a way to cut a ten year process down into six months. Why? Because all you have to do now is to define your business and market it. All of the logistics are now handled by Amazon. (What a cool world we live in eh?)





As a personal side note, this is why it frustrates me to no end when people whine and complain about the economy, about “greedy capitalists,” or about how minimum wage needs to be higher. It’s not because I don’t want people to be successful… it’s just that starting a business and creating your own success is easier than it has ever been!





Anyway, based on the fact that Amazon handles all the logistics, I have boiled down how to get to $1m in sales into three essential steps. I’ve outlined them below. And once again, I am sharing this with you 100% selfishly, because I want to invest in and buy more businesses.





Step One: Building A Business: Choose Your Brand and Products





First of all, I’m NOT going around to garage sales and discount stores and then listing those products on Amazon. com. I’d rather shoot myself in the leg. I know people who do this and do pretty well for themselves, but that model just ain’t for me.





Instead, the business model that I’m following is to pick a really big market and release products under my own brand. Then, I get manufacturers to make the product and ship it straight to Amazon, and I test the market by putting a few hundred units on Amazon (this costs as little as $1000 to get started).





For example, one of my first brands was a yoga products business called Zen Active Sports, and we sold yoga mats. Yoga is a huge market, which is why we decided to start that business (truth be told, I have only ever done yoga a handful of times in my life). We found several suppliers on Alibaba. com, and we paid to receive a few samples, and we attempted to differentiate it by making it thicker and double sided.





What do I know about yoga products? Nothing. I just listened to what the market wanted, and I had that made by an outside supplier.





Then, once we had a product that we liked, our suppliers shipped it straight to Amazon, and we created an Amazon listing. Here’s a screen shot of the listing in its early stages:











So, in other words, we got a product made as quickly as possible, had it shipped over to Amazon, and then started selling it within days.





The “traditional” way of doing business – or at least the one that most of the entrepreneurs that I have met attempt to follow – is to spend years inventing a new product, “hustling” it in any way that they can, and maybe getting a retail store or an investor to give you a shot. When you hear that 95% of businesses fail, it’s because they are following a business model that was made for 1998.





My model is a little bit different. My model is to create good products in big markets that already have a lot of demand. Sometimes it’s a new product that has never existed before, but usually it’s a twist on something that’s already working (like my yoga business that sold mats and towels, until that company was bought by a multi-million dollar company).





The first part of the equation is good products in huge markets that people want.





The second part of the equation is putting your products where people are already buying them.





In a lot of cases (not all), Amazon. com is the low-hanging fruit, simply because there are millions of buyers that are already shopping there.





Really important point: a lot of people think that their business is Amazon. It’s not. Your business is simply the products you put into the marketplace, and the customers that you serve. Amazon is just one of the easiest place to sell a lot of products and be in front of a lot of customers.





My rule of thumb is that Amazon is good enough to get a lot of products to about $100,000 per month in sales. That’s enough to be a million dollar business, which can either fuel your life (so you can retire, travel the world, or whatever tickles your fancy) or give you the funding to go even bigger (my life goal is to own the Cleveland Indians, so I aim to go WAY bigger). This is why so many of my students are so successful – they keep it simple by creating good products and going to where all of the customers are already waiting to buy.





At this point, a lot of questions come up. What should you sell? How do you get the products? What type of investment do you need? Answering every question that comes up would be an extremely long blog post, so I decided to address this in a podcast that allows me to explain it a bit better.





I made this podcast episode to explain some of the nitty gritty questions that may come up for you, so I discuss how to choose products, where to find suppliers that will make them for you cheaply, and how to get your products over to Amazon for sale.





Listen to the How To Make Money On Amazon 101 podcast below:





What Products Should I Sell?





There are basically two schools of thought when starting any business: you can go into a really big market that has a lot of proven buyers, or you can try to create something new in the marketplace.





For example, the yoga industry is proven. Some people would call it “saturated” or say that there is “too much competition.” I think the opposite. I prefer industries that have already proven that they can sustain million dollar businesses.





The downside to this is that “me too” brands typically have a cap of about $5m – $10m. It’s very rare that a business that sells the same thing as everyone else ever becomes a really big business. However, they do have a higher success rate (if you consider $1 million in sales per year to be successful). For this reason, I call this approach a “cash flow business.”





If you’re a Tim Ferriss fan and want to live the proverbial “Four Hour Work Week,” then you should start a cash flow business.





The other option is to bring something new to the marketplace. This is a higher risk, higher reward strategy. If you want to ensure that you succeed, your product should truly disrupt the marketplace. By this I mean that your product must be so good that it forces your competitors to react or scramble. Uber disrupted the taxi industry. Apple disrupted the cell phone industry. The hover board is disrupting the personal transportation industry. That’s what a disrupter does.





Disrupter companies have a much higher fail rate, but when they succeed, they can be worth many many millions of dollars (or billions of dollars). They also have higher sales potential… Instagram disrupted social media, which is why it was acquired for $1b by Facebook.





In my experience, most entrepreneurs start cash flow businesses, and once they have enough capital to pay for their lives and never worry about money again, they then start to work on disrupters.





If you’re not sure which approach to go with, I have recorded a podcast episode that speaks to this and will help you to determine the best path for you:





Step Two: Getting To Six Figures





Once you have chosen what product to sell, getting to the six-figure mark (selling at least $10,000 per month) is very straightforward.





Literally anyone can open an Amazon account, send products there, and put up a listing. Anymore, it is very, very easy to start a business. And that’s cool, because business is awesome.





However, most people get stuck at that point. Once your product is made, what the heck do you do next? How do you sell your product and get to be successful?





When I first started coaching people to become entrepreneurs, this was a huge struggle for them. However, I consider Step Two to be the most simple part of the process, so I’ve outlined how to get any product to six figures.





In order to get your products selling, you need to do the following:

1) Get Amazon. com reviews.

2) Advertise your product.

3) Hold a “product launch.”





This process can be a pain (meaning, it can take some “grunt work” before you see results), but I will attempt to make it as straightforward as possible.





Nobody buys your product unless you have at least 50-100 reviews. So your first step to get selling is to get as many reviews as possible.





How do you do that? You can start by shipping everyone you know a unit of your product and have them review it. Then, give your product away to bloggers. Go on Reddit. com or any specialized internet forum and give your product away in exchange for reviews. Make posts on Facebook and let your friends review it. Do whatever it takes to get the initial 50-100 reviews that you need. That’s your first step.





Once you have a set of reviews, start advertising your product. DO NOT ADVERTISE UNTIL YOU HAVE AT LEAST 50 – 100 REVIEWS. That would be a waste of money, because no one will buy your product until you have a good foundation of reviews. There are a hundred ways to advertise your product; you can make a demonstration video and put it on Facebook or YouTube. You can write articles on other people’s blogs and start sending people to your Amazon page. You can run Google Adwords.





I recommend two forms of advertising for people just starting out:





A) Use Amazon pay-per-click. Amazon has a program that allows you to pay to show up for keywords. As long as you have good images of your product and strong reviews, people will buy your product when they see it show up for keywords. One of my students, Kelly Fedio (a stay-at-home mom of two) built her multi-million dollar business entirely by leveraging Amazon pay-per-click. Most people that I know used this service to generate their first real sales.





B) Build an audience in your market. The people who will buy your products are already hanging out in groups. Go to where they are and get in front of them. You can do this by starting a podcast, blogging about your industry, putting videos on YouTube, building up a social media following, or starting a Facebook page. As you build up a following, some of those followers will buy your products, and that will drive up your exposure on Amazon.





One of the examples that I like to use is ONNIT, a fitness company based in my hometown of Austin, TX. ONNIT was started by Aubrey Marcus, who created a product that he hoped would “disrupt” the marketplace. He didn’t have any connections… except for a friend named Joe Rogan. Together, they shared the vision of the company with Joe’s podcast audience, and the product exploded. Today, the company does tens of millions of dollars in sales each year.





Why? Because Aubrey had access to an audience. When you have the audience, it doesn’t matter where you product is for sale; however, combining an audience with Amazon is immensely powerful.





If you’ve never built an audience, or you need extra help, check out the How To Build A Profitable Audience podcast episode.





Being in front of an audience also allows you to do a product launch, which is a fancy way for saying “sell a lot of products in a short amount of time.” Doing so gets you a lot of attention and also gives you more weight inside of Amazon so that you rank for keywords.





Amazon rewards products that sell a lot by placing them higher for keywords, so you need to manufacture sales however possible… even if that means taking a small loss for awhile.





In 2014, I gave a presentation about building an audience and conducting a launch to that audience. Some of the elements are out of date (Facebook advertising has changed a bit), but the process is still 100% the same. Watch the presentation of this video below:





A great example of this is Shredz supplements. Shredz has built their entire following on Instagram. They pay models to talk about them on social media, and they engage heavily with their following. When it comes time to promote their products, they have millions of people ready to buy their products.





You can do the same thing, whether it is developing a Facebook page, a Periscope following, an email list, or a list of blog readers, combining the power and respect of Amazon with an audience that loves you is a great way to start a business.





If you had a few thousand people following your company, and then you gave them the opportunity to buy a product that already had 100 reviews or so, your product can take off very quickly. That’s the strategy that I recommend.





I confess that I’ve never been a detail guy – I think in high-level strategy. Details stress me out, so I asked my business partner, Sean, to sit down with me one day to go over the technical details of getting to six figures. We recorded this step-by-step podcast, and it has become one of the most downloaded episodes that I have ever done.





In this episode, Sean and I talk about more of the “step by step” stuff to getting a product off the ground and getting it to six figures.





Listen to the step by step podcast here:







Once again, if you don’t have time to listen to these podcasts, you can subscribe to the podcast for free and listen to this episode later, or attend one of our online trainings to see more examples.





Sean and I have also mentored several groups to implement this part of the strategy inside of the Tribe Incubator. Since it was relevant to the content in this blog post, I have posted one of our calls that outlines the implementation of this piece of the process. If you have product that just is not selling, then you will find this video particularly valuable:





Step Three: Getting To $1m And Beyond





If you’re still with me at this point, that means one of two things:





A) You’re seeing the simplicity in this business model, and you can see why anyone can have a successful business. If that’s you, then I would highly suggest that you sign up for one of our upcoming training classes; you’ll see more details and examples, so that you get more of the “how to” of this model. The rest of the stuff in this post is for more advanced people and probably won’t be very relevant for you.





B) You’re already doing well on Amazon, and you skipped all the way to the bottom to see more of the advanced stuff. I’ll address you in this section.





Getting to a million dollars per year (or a million dollars per month in my case and the case of some of my students), is just as simple as the other steps … it just takes longer and requires bigger thinking.





Once you have proven the model and know that you can get things to sell, your primary goal is to release as many products as you can comfortably handle. It’s at this point that many of my students start to hire people, because they want to be able to carry more products.





Releasing new products is the fastest way to grow a business exponentially, Assuming that the business has already generated demand by selling product. One of the mistakes that some people make is releasing multiple products at once; this makes no sense. Prove the concept first, and then release as many products as you can.





You can get to $100,000 in profit with just one product. It’s been done many times. But getting to a million requires multiple products (at least within the context of Amazon). We crossed the million dollar mark with about five products, and then crossed the $500,000 per month mark with ten products.





That’s what it takes to get to a million.





I know that seems fairly simple, and it is. I once did a presentation about getting to $1m with more step-by-step action items, and it has been viewed on YouTube over 300,000 times. This video alone has created many, many millionaires, so I have included it below (warning: this is by far the ugliest outfit that I have ever worn on stage – I do not know what I was thinking):





Once you are at a million or more in sales, the process “pivots” a bit to one that is more about long-term growth and sustainability. Like I said, *most* Amazon businesses plateau at about $10 million in sales per year, and many people get there JUST by releasing new products and duplicating what I have covered in this blog post.





Getting beyond the $10m point requires you to A) control your own audience and b) getting into other sales channels.





One of the most overlooked sources for profit on Amazon is building a long-term relationship with your customers. How many times have you heard it said that it is easier to sell to an existing customer than a new customer? Yet most people entrepreneurs who utilize Amazon fail to connect with their existing customers at all.





If you get your existing customers to follow you on social media or join your email list, then growing and protecting your business will be much easier in the long run. It will give you a greater launch platform for future product sales, and it will also give you a way to get your customers to buy products that may not be popular on Amazon.





For example, my companies now focus on launching more “disrupters” in our industry. There is no internal demand on Amazon for the products that we release, but we have hundreds of thousands of customers who love our stuff. We no longer have to depend on what is popular on Amazon, we simply give our customers what they want! That’s when you have a truly sustainable business.





If you rally your customers behind a big cause, then getting them to follow you will be much easier. I recommend building your company branding around a problem or a cause, rather than a product. One of my favorite examples is Quest Nutrition; their cause is to end metabolic disease. Everything that they make is within the context of solving that problem. As a result, their customers assume that all of their products are healthy (I know this because I am one of their customers). If you focus on solving problems rather than selling products, your customers will follow you wherever you go. That’s when you are a real brand.





When you a) have an audience that follows you and b) have a big cause, then it becomes easy to take advantage of non-Amazon channels as well. Retail stores are more likely to pay attention to you. You have more social media attention. It’s easier to get your audience to share your videos and blog posts. And getting PR becomes much faster and easier.





More importantly, you have the funding and the exposure that you will need in order to market yourself properly. That will give you the visibility and the sustainability to grow bigger than Amazon and have a $10m – $100m company.





If you think of Amazon as the place where you prove your concept and develop your initial customer base, then getting independent of Amazon and growing a real “Breakthrough Business” becomes much more straightforward. It simply requires you to use the foundation that you have built to do more organic promotion of your brand and diversifying your sales channels.





Thoroughly Confused? R >This is the model that I have used to build several multiple million dollar businesses. My students have used this to be successful, as well. Most people who teach this stuff do it wrong, because they build an Amazon-dependent brand, rather than a real business. If you want to have a $10m or $100m company, then it requires you to be more strategic.





I run an online incubator for online businesses owners (Amazon and non-Amazon alike) called The Tribe. We train new entrepreneurs to give them profitable ideas and build million dollar brands, and we also work with already-successful-businesses to get them to the next level. We create strategic partnerships, open up retail opportunities, have regular workshops and meetups, open funding opportunities, and bring in coaches and experts to mentor our members. We also partner businesses with potential acquisition arms if you want to sell your business.





As a result of being in The Tribe, you will have the full “how to” model on building a business with multi-million dollar potential. You will be operating ahead of the curve instead of from behind, and you will have more sustainability and predictability in your business, because we focus heavily on creating a business that is bigger than just Amazon.





The Tribe is expensive, intensive, and worth every penny. But regardless of where you are now, you will benefit immensely by signing up for one of our free training classes.





On this free training class, you will see real examples of what is working right now. You will see case studies of businesses who have followed this model, and of people who started from zero and became millionaires by using the information from this blog post. And most importantly, you will see the exact steps that you need to take Right now in order to start putting this to use. Sign up for the Zero To $1m In 12 Months training class here.





Final Fantasy VII Remake: What We Know And What We Want











Final Fantasy is one of the best selling franchises in video game history and its fans are loyal to a fault. You may have noticed how big of a fan I am from LRM Ranks It, especially of Final Fantasy VII. So it should be no surprise that I am really excited about the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake. Square Enix has a lot riding on FF7 Remake though. There are millions of fans eagerly awaiting an updated version of a game they have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing and replaying. There’s a lot of money going into making the game too, which is said to be so big that it must be released in multiple chapters. That means the company has to get it right, all of it. Square Enix has been very tight-lipped when it comes to information about this highly anticipated title but we do know a few things. What we do know is both exciting and worrying to this writer.





Battle System











One of the biggest questions about this game, when it was first announced, was what type of battle system would it have. The original game used the classic Final Fantasy Active Time Battle (ATB) System that blended together turn-based combat but with how fast turns came about being determined by character stats and status effects. A little timer gauge would fill up and when it did that character could take action. That system seems to be less appealing to younger gamers that are more used to Action Role Playing Games in the style of Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Dark Souls than they are classic Japanese RPGs. This is part of why Square Enix went with a real-time battle system in Final Fantasy XV, which in this writer’s opinion worked well for that world. However, this is FF7 we’re talking about and at its core was a strategic battle plan that required using all members of your party and taking time to plan moves well in advance of making them. A real-time battle system doesn’t allow for that as much.





We know that FF7 Remake will utilize an Action RPG style battle system and we recently got to see some of it in action in the recent teaser trailer below. Screenshots from that trailer do not give a lot away but you can see there is a command menu available under the preset attack buttons. I believe this will be used in a similar fashion as Kingdom Hearts III which has one of the best Action RPG battle systems I’ve ever played. The ability to map magic, summons, and items to different buttons and to switch between pages of presets could really make up for the lack of the ATB. We also know that you will be able to switch control between the characters in your party, unlike FF15 where you only set fighting styles for your partners. One big question is how customizable the other party member’s actions will be. I personally hope for a detailed gambit style setup similar to Final Fantasy XII which allowed you to control everything from item and magic usage to the order of targets a character would go after. By combining elements of KH3, FF12, and FF15 the combat could be really fun and keep the spirit of the original game intact while attracting younger gamers.





Environments and Music





FF7 was huge on the original PlayStation and it took up three CD-Roms. It saved room by having pre-rendered backgrounds and MIDI music even though CDs were capable of real recorded instruments and high-quality audio. Those corners can’t be cut in this remake. The worlds of FF15, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Horizon: Zero Dawn are amazingly detailed and beautiful. Games with worlds like that have spoiled us and we have high expectations for exploring town, cities, dungeons, and the world of Gaia as a whole in FF7 Remake. Part of this size, and the depth of the story scenarios, of course, are why the game is expected to be split into at least three episodes that will each be sold separately. The game designers have told us that we can expect to travel to all of the familiar places as well as areas we couldn’t in the original. There’s no real information on how the transition between the world map and towns and cities will happen. The PS4 is a powerful machine, but the city of Midgar, the Gold Saucer, and the harbor of Juno are huge. They will have to be rendered by the machine separately from the rest of Gaia. I believe that a transition similar to the dungeons in FF15 would suffice and feel mostly seamless.











One of the coolest things about Final Fantasy games are modes of transportation. From Chocobos to airships the developers give you some nice rides. There have been no shots of any of the known vehicles from the original game but they HAVE to be there. Having vehicles plays with the scale of the world and the look of the environments. Part of the original game had areas blocked off by environmental obstacles, those don’t seem to do well with modern gamers that are used to a truly open world. FF15 got around this by having enemies blocking areas and straight up invisible walls. I personally hope for something more organic and realistic. Change the environment to be unpassable on foot instead of just a different texture. A certain amount of suspension of belief has to come with this game, you’ll eventually (hopefully) spend hours breeding giant birds to get a golden one that can walk over mountains and on water.





The music we know will be fully orchestrated. Say what you want about classic MIDI background music, certain games benefit from an orchestra and Final Fantasy games are in that category. Famed FF composer Nobuo Uematsu who had actually left Square Enix a while ago. We can expect and deserve, a great soundtrack full of the classic pieces we know and love. The only real question is will we get the Rock infused version of “One Winged Angel” from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children?











If there’s one thing that can go wrong, it’s the story. We’ve been told that the game will contain all of the scenarios we are familiar with as well as some new additions. We also know that some so-called problematic scenes, such as Cloud cross-dressing, will be modified or removed completely. It’s 2019 and the world is sometimes run by the outrage of a few versus the understanding of historical or cultural context. Besides that, we will see the bombing mission at the start of the game (which seems to be the only footage we’ve seen), Aerith’s background (hopefully they correct her name for the U. S. release to match Japan), Sephiroth’s meltdown, and the big cannon firing at Weapon.





The story of FF7 was nothing amazing in and of itself. It was a common save the world and the girl scenario, but it was the depth of the characters involved that has created such loyal fans. Almost every FF game has an epic story, but only a few can make you care about the characters so much. The original game had some mistranslations but got the story from Japan mostly right, and people will be expecting that to be told in its entirety. The idea of adding new stuff to this game is scary because the good idea fairy rarely has really good ideas. As long as the main story remains intact I could forgive some lame addition, but if they replace story elements with something new… It had better be damned good!





What We Want





We want Final Fantasy VII just updated for modern consoles. We want that epic story with great character development. We want beautiful music to add to our tears during that one scene, you know which one. We want the ATB, but we’re not getting it, so we demand a lot of attention to detail that’ll give us the expected level of control of our party. This game has been in demand, and teased, ever since the PS2 hit shelves. Each system announcement has had rumors of a remake of this title, and now that it’s finally coming, all eyes are on Square Enix to not f*** it up. We want the whole game out as soon as possible, but I figure there’ll be close to a year between episodes being released. No information on that, just a feeling. This is one of the most important titles in many gamer’s histories and its success is probably more important to us than it is Square Enix themselves.





We can expect more information about this game in June according to Sony and Square Enix. Hopefully an idea about how much of the story will be in Episode 1 and a projected release date. A release date we know will be pushed back at least six times…





What do you think about what we know so far? Are any changes deal breakers for you? What’s the most important thing to keep? Let us know in the comments below!





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