And before we get into this interview, I will let you know that this episode is brought to you by Rise25 Media where we help b2b businesses to get clients referrals and strategic partnerships with done for you podcasts and content marketing. And if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, you know what, I’m kind of curious. Would podcast work for me? Well, we say yes, absolutely. I’ve been saying it for 10 years. It’s the best thing you’ll ever do. And we specialize with helping b2b businesses with a high client lifetime value. So if you want to learn more, go to rise25.com or you can also email us at [email protected].
All right, so Kellianne is super excited to have you on here. And you know, we connected a couple years back when you came to one of our events that we did, and you know, you and I have this shared background of recovering attorneys. You practiced law for a number of years and then took a break to raise kids and after that you know, like many moms, I’m sure we’re kind of curious about going back into practicing law, do I go into something new? Tell us, take me to that point in your journey, when you know your kids are getting a little bit older and you’re trying to decide what to do next and how you decided, you know, what came up with what ended up being a thriving e-commerce business.
Kellianne Fedio 3:22
Sure, thanks so much for having me, John, really excited to be here. You know, I’ve shared the story so many times, and you know, I still to this day, look back and think, Oh, my gosh, how, how have I lived such a lifetime of like, two separate lives, right, from being an attorney? You know, you know, when you go to law school and you practice law, you’re pretty much thinking that that’s gonna be it for the rest of your life, right? At least, you know, that’s what I thought when I spent $100,000 on law school. That I wasn’t going to be leaving it anytime soon. And now I look back to that life and it just seems like a whole completely different life. So it’s crazy. But you know, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I really feel like the skills that I received, you know, going to law school practicing law for almost 10 years, you know, molded me into the person that I am today and continues to impact me. It makes you be very analytical and be able to evaluate situations, evaluate facts, you know, make arguments and conclusions. Sometimes that can get me into trouble because I can be quite argumentative at times.
Unknown Speaker 4:28
But you tried doing litigation?
Kellianne Fedio 4:31
I did civil litigation insurance defense. Yeah. So a lot of a lot of big egos a lot of contentiousness and, you know, arguing and all that kind of stuff. So, that part I really, I like debating, but I don’t like arguing when it’s just ego driven. So that part I don’t mess. You know, but I came out of law school at a time where the job market was for attorneys, especially in California was very bleak. And I was lucky enough to get a job at the biggest civil IP firm at that time in Sacramento where I lived, and really got thrown in the deep end very early on, which was great. I got like, you know, real practical experience. I wasn’t stuck in the law Law Library for the first couple years, which most first year associates are. So I really gained a lot of experience and it was, you know, a high stressful career and you know, when you’re in your 20s, and you don’t have family or kids or obligations, it’s pretty easy to just, you know, work most of your life and, you know, take that home and that’s what I did. And it was great. And I loved it at the time. But after I got married and had children, it was a completely you know, different story. I really did not enjoy the work. I didn’t enjoy it always being in my mind. I could never really focus on the present, being present with my family and with my, you know, with my life at home because I always had to work on the brain.
John Corcoran 5:55
litigation in particular is really hard that way because you’re always prepared to be annoyed about missing a deadline?
Kellianne Fedio 6:02
Yes. I mean, the deadlines. And again, this was, you know, this is quite a long time ago. And, you know, I mean, I had a legal secretary, of course, but I mean, I was still, you know, always sweating that missing a deadline, you know, preparing for hearings for trials for all that it just was very stressful. And so, you know, had a real kind of wake up call and, you know, talked it over with my husband. And at the time, we didn’t know, you know, how we were going to make it work going from two incomes to one but, you know, he knew that I was pretty miserable what I was doing at the time, because I just really wanted to spend time with my first daughter. And what was that wake up call? The wake up call was just basically not just just knowing when I was like, everyday, I felt like a robot. Like I would take my daughter to daycare. I would drop her off, I would go to work. I’d come back. I’d sometimes try to work out in between, pick her up and then it was just like this robotic act of just trying to feed her baby, put her to bed so I can work some more. And just one particular night I just remember that I just broke down crying because I just was like, I can’t do this anymore. Like, I’m not even here present with her, like, all I want to do is like I want to spend time with her, but I just wanted to get her to bed so that I could get my work done and go to bed and start the whole cycle over day after day. It was like groundhog day every day. And I just knew looking out into the future that’s not the kind of life that I wanted to live, that’s not the kind of Mother I wanted to be. I knew I wasn’t going to be the best version of myself. So you know, it wasn’t like this decision was made overnight this took probably months of you know, struggling and inner anguish and you know, at first not even telling my husband because again, it’s it’s such a big deal when you know you go to college and you’re preparing to go to law school, which I did from college, and then spending all that money and time you know, taking the bar exam passing the bar exam, practicing law, it’s it’s usually it’s most people don’t ever leave right
John Corcoran 7:56
and it’s part of your identity too. So yes to say to others, People that you’re not going to be a lawyer, you know, they question like, Whoa, what’s going on here? Why, you know, who are you?
Kellianne Fedio 8:06
Exactly. And, you know, what are you going to do? And I did towards the tail end of my career, I did try a whole different area of the law. And I thought that that would make me happier, you know, getting out of litigation. But it still involved a lot of travel. And it was a completely new area of law for me. And so it’s like, I had no learning curve, I had to start from the beginning. And so I just, you know, at that point, decided, you know, I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to law, but you can’t do
John Corcoran 8:30
it is right now. So you stop and you raise your kids for a while. And then at some point, you decide, I’m going to go back to work, but I’m not going to be a lawyer. And so you go down the rabbit hole of figuring out what that’ll be next. So what sorts of different areas Did you explore and how did you do that research?
Kellianne Fedio 8:47
Well, I knew that I wanted to be in business for myself, but I had no clue what that was going to entail. And I also knew that I didn’t want to have set hours that I wanted to be able to, you know, Work location independently. So that meant pretty much working from home. So like many people do, I started looking into how I can make money online working from home, right? Yeah, I’ve been in as a Google search. You’re gonna get bombarded with
John Corcoran 9:14
go down a rabbit hole for years and years. Yeah,
Kellianne Fedio 9:17
yeah. And it lasted probably I would say a good two years of going down these different rabbit holes and you know, along the way though, I did find some really great communities you know, online marketing communities and mentors and training programs, you know, all around you know, whether it was affiliate marketing or blogging or you know, being you know, a coach to others. You know, I tried so many different things and I did enjoy the journey so, that I’m thankful for but definitely wasn’t making any money during those couple years. Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn’t until I stumbled upon, you know, the world of e-commerce that things started to change
John Corcoran 9:54
and what and what were your first few products or how did you get in step into the world of selling products online.
Kellianne Fedio 10:01
Well, my first foray into selling products was selling other people’s products. And namely, I was doing online arbitrage. So I was basically just finding products that were listed for a price on various websites at a price that I think I could charge higher on a site like Amazon or eBay, so I was basically drop shipping. And, you know, that’s when I got my kind of first taste of the power of just selling physical products.
John Corcoran 10:26
Okay, and so you can use any product and just buy them from one place selling them somewhere else.
Kellianne Fedio 10:32
Exactly. I did a lot of pet products, I did a lot of things like home goods. But basically, you know, there was this whole model at that time that was taught on eBay of dropshipping and being able to sell from other big retail sites like Amazon like wayfair. Um, you know, and a lot of other sites that you could, you know, sell on eBay and as long as you optimized, you know, the listings correctly, you could, you know, get that in front of traffic and they would buy it And you would still have it shipped directly from like a wayfarer on Amazon and you would really never get questioned it was it was quite intriguing, you know. And then of course, it got totally saturated, and my account almost got shut down on Amazon. So I also dropshipping on Amazon. And that’s when I knew like, okay, I’ve just kind of found a full time job for myself, this isn’t scalable. This isn’t something that I can really see myself doing in the future. So that’s when I started looking into Okay, how can I create my own brand of products and sell them on Amazon? Because I knew that that was, you know, the place that had all the buyer traffic. And, you know, I started seeing different things about, you know, teachings and courses about selling on Amazon. So I started to go down that route. So what
John Corcoran 11:43
sorts of categories Did you did you work in and I should explain for those who aren’t familiar with the world of e-commerce, there’s this kind of funny thing where, especially in Amazon, people talk more about categories and actual products. Can you kind of explain took me a long time to realize this? But can you explain a little bit why there is a kind of sensitivity around that?
Kellianne Fedio 12:06
Yeah, well, people think that if you identify the specific product you’re selling that other people are just going to copy you. And yes, that happens all the time. And you know, there’s lists that go around and hot products to sell in 2019 or 2020. And you know, that that really doesn’t work anymore. I think these days, you really shouldn’t be concerned with sharing your product. Because if you’re, if you’re building a true business, you’re building a brand. And you’ve got, you know, a moat around that brand, whether it’s intellectual property or some kind of, you know, product differentiation, or you have a unique, you know, supply chain, something that, you know, makes you immune to not competition completely, but just immune to somebody just slapping a label on a similar product. And
John Corcoran 12:47
So what types of categories and products if you’re willing, did you go into?
Kellianne Fedio 12:52
Yeah, so when I started my brand, I knew I wanted to start a women’s lifestyle brand. So I thought about the market, the people that I wanted to serve As the end user the customers that I wanted to serve before I thought about the particular products and that’s what I would recommend that anybody getting started in e-commerce you know, you have to find a need or pain point and then fulfill that with your products. So that’s what I did. So I was selling products mostly in the sports and outdoors category, some in the kitchen category. But those were primarily are and then also patio lawn and outdoor so those were like the three main categories that I was selling.
John Corcoran 13:27
Okay, and what were some of the challenges that you experienced in moving into developing your own brand?
Kellianne Fedio 13:33
Oh, so many It was a whole new skill set to learn. I mean, you have to learn everything from you know, product manufacturing to sourcing overseas if you know if you’re not manufacturing in the United States, which many products you have to go overseas to have manufactured So, you know, developing a supply chain in China. You know, how to, you know, really employ good branding tactics to create the brand, um, you know, just to name a few There’s like a lot of things that you have to learn, of course, with the power of the internet. And there’s lots of courses that can help you and mentors and paid training programs that can help you. So I took a course called amazing selling machines, it’s now called amazing. And that was kind of, you know, like the foundational course, a lot of my friends took as well, that we’re learning to sell on Amazon.
John Corcoran 14:19
Okay. And, you know, we’re recording this in July of 2020. And so the coronavirus pandemic has been going on for a little while now. There was a lot of disruption in the supply chain for people who are creating, you know, manufacturing products in China. What’s the status of that right now? And how are companies coping with that kind of disruption?
Kellianne Fedio 14:41
Yeah, it’s been really challenging. So I sold my brand in February of 2020. And so typically, yeah, it was really good timing for me. Typically, you know, in January, February, March, you’re dealing with, you know, the shutdown of China because of the Chinese New Year, and so on top of that, this year, we had COVID. And so, you know, many, many, many sellers were scrambling and continued to, you know, try to claw their way out of the situation. It’s very difficult, but I think that no matter what if you can stay the course, you know, e-commerce is still in its infancy. It’s, you know, growing by leaps and bounds, especially with COVID people realizing the power of online shopping. So, you know, if you can, if you can ride through that storm, hopefully, you know, a lot of people will make it, but I know that there are probably many sellers that didn’t make it through that. So it really just depends on the relationship you have with a particular supplier in China if you had alternate sources to manufacture your goods. So it definitely was trying time for anybody sourcing overseas.
John Corcoran 15:50
Yeah, I mean, is there there’s only so much you can do to prepare for something like this historic nature, that’s for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Having multiple suppliers is definitely a good one.
Kellianne Fedio 16:04
Yes, for sure having like secondary and tertiary suppliers. But again, you know, China, you know, was shut down just because of their, you know, the impact of COVID on them, and then also with Chinese New Year, or it would have been shut down with Chinese New Year. So, you know, it all comes down to proper inventory planning, but nobody could have foreseen this happening. And so, you know, a lot of folks were left with being out of stock, but also it’s a great opportunity to pivot and to, you know, think about products that you could develop that would serve, you know, this new economy, you know, what types of people sheltering in place, what types of products you know, are they using, you know, staying at home. I mean, so many different categories have opened up, that traditionally might not have been as popular at least at you know, the time of year when COVID first tip,
John Corcoran 16:51
Another big thing that happened that affected a lot of sellers is that Amazon deems certain categories non essential And so they’re prioritizing just the central category. So even if you had prepared for disruption in the supply chain, do the Chinese New Year, you’d stockpiled inventory. Even if you’d done that all of a sudden, boom, your products weren’t shipping because Amazon was, at least in the early days, prioritizing certain categories, correct?
Kellianne Fedio 17:20
Yeah, that I mean, the effects of that last Gosh, I want to say at least a month or two, while Amazon was prioritizing that, and so, you know, some people got lucky and they happen to be selling What are deemed essential goods, you know, if you were happened to be in the beauty category, or in the, you know, cleaning category or anything related to disinfecting or cleaning, obviously, you did really well, but most of those folks probably went out of stock too. So, you know, I would say, you know, this was obviously the most challenging year any Amazon e-commerce seller could face but there’s great lessons to be learned from it and to be you know, prepared for the future. And so I think there’s going to be a lot of sellers that are going to come out, you know, better than ever. And there’s going to be people that just give up or have given up already.
John Corcoran 18:09
Yeah, given how many people each week each month, we’re hopping into selling on Amazon or selling e-commerce in general, is that a good thing that there are going to be fewer people with less competition? Or is it going to make that much of a difference?
Kellianne Fedio 18:25
You know, I don’t really think it should make that much of a difference. Because even though you know, there’s always this talk of, you know, selling on Amazon has become saturated. There’s so many people, so many new sellers coming in all the time. You know, the playing field has changed over the past few years. And really, to succeed, you have to be running a true business and have a true brand, you can’t just slap up any product. And so it really has, in a sense, leveled the playing field and that only people running real businesses are going to survive. And that means you have to have a more sophisticated and strategic approach than what might have worked just you know, a couple years ago,
John Corcoran 19:01
right now, I’m most curious about this, what are your thoughts on, you know, whether being a lawyer, how it affects you as an entrepreneur, because I have kind of a split opinion about it. You know, on the one hand, you know, as you pointed out earlier, you know, the law does teach you in law school teaches you, you can figure stuff out, you know, so you don’t have any doubt that you can figure things out. And I think that’s a great thing. On the other hand, it does teach you to be very conservative and careful and plotting and to focus on risks, which a lot of times lawyers are so risk averse, that they, you know, that they’re too slow moving. So your thoughts on you know, your background as a lawyer and whether that is good preparation for being an entrepreneur.
Kellianne Fedio 19:50
I definitely think it’s great preparation. Like I said earlier, the analytical skills and developing the analytical side of your brain is what I got most out of my Lawyer training in law school. And so being able to take any situation and you know, doing, you know, like a SWOT analysis to look at the strengths and the opportunities and the weaknesses and the threats, you know, and in-laws, you know, john, it’s, it’s never black and white. It’s always basically, you know, an analysis of a certain set of facts and drawing a conclusion or making an argument for that conclusion. So I really feel like from an entrepreneurial sense, that’s really helpful because it allows you to kind of see the whole picture and to come up with a solution, a creative solution to a problem.
John Corcoran 20:37
Now, you exited your business in February 2020, which is historically a great
Kellianne Fedio 20:42
time Wait, coincidence? It was a coincidence. Yes.
John Corcoran 20:45
Well, talk to me about how you prepared for that. Did a buyer materialize unexpectedly? Or were you preparing for sale? And if so, what are you doing in order to prepare for sale
Kellianne Fedio 20:59
Now, I prepared for about two years prior to my sale. And that’s one of the main things that Paul Miller and I are trying to reach Amazon sellers and teach them about is how critical planning is if you want to maximize the value of your business. And so I would recommend that anybody that’s planning on selling their business start to plan as early as possible, at the very least, you know, 12 months, preferably 12 to 18 months before you actually want to have that exit. So I did tons of research and became a student of exit planning. And they’re, you know, at the time and still, even to this day, the industry on exit planning, especially with respect to just e-commerce and specifically to Amazon businesses is, you know, very, very fragmented it, you know, I had to, you know, kind of learn from the ground up and certainly you know, when you’re working with intermediary to help you sell your business. You know, there are going to be a tremendous resource of knowledge for you. But you want to be prepared before you ever engage that intermediary. And you want to know not only the vernacular of exits and mergers and acquisitions, but you want to know all the things that you should be focusing on day to day operations of your business, that are going to move the needle and help maximize what you’re ultimately going to be able to sell that business for.
John Corcoran 22:28
So when you went through the due diligence process, was there anything that was surprising or unexpected, you know, if you could go through it again, where you’d maybe realize, Oh, I would have worked on this piece to make sure that this was in place.
Kellianne Fedio 22:44
The due diligence process, I think, for me it was smooth because now doesn’t mean it was easy, but it was smooth because I had done my research and planning and i i mentally knew what I was informing due diligence is a very trying time. Because that’s basically when the acquirer of your business gets to look under the hood and verify everything that you’ve represented to them about that business and ask you any possible question related to that. So it’s, it’s a, it’s a heightened time of sensitivity. I definitely, it was like an emotional rollercoaster during that time, but yet I knew that it was going to be challenging, and that I had to have endurance to get through it. And luckily, with the m&a advisor that I used, helped me sell my business, they really focused on doing all your due diligence upfront meaning before we ever listed, you know, went out to market with my business, we gather all the appropriate documents, and we had, you know, phone conversations about them, and we looked at it through the lens that a buyer would be looking at it to answer the hard questions that can come up.
Unknown Speaker 23:50
And when do you find buyers?
Kellianne Fedio 23:54
Well, it depends on the types of intermediary that you use. So and that’s another thing that Paul and I are are really excited to be able to help educate the Amazon seller community about the different types of you know, exits that you can have and the different types of intermediaries that they are there are out there, for example, there are websites that you can list your, you know, business on such as like an Empire Flippers, or, you know, website closers, things like that. And then there are Business Brokers. There are m&a advisors, there are Amazon acquisition companies. And so there are many different ways that you can go about selling your business and it’s really going to depend on the particular business as to what is the best exit strategy and the best intermediary for that business.
John Corcoran 24:42
What are some of the big mistakes you see people making going into an exit? Like for example, not preparing ahead of time but what else are there?
Kellianne Fedio 24:52
Yeah, so that’s like, that’s just the biggest one in general not preparing. I mean, it’s, it’s not really a sexy topic to you know, Plan and be proactive about exit planning, right? Like who wants to do that? Right? I’d rather focus on, you know, the latest launch or rank strategy on Amazon, right. But you know, specifics within that. And I see this time and time again. And I mentioned it all the time, but so many sellers do not have clean financials, they do not have their books in order. And not only do they not have their books in order, I mean, they might very well even have a bookkeeper and accountant. But they have no clue what their cash flow is, they have no clue, like, you know, for inventory management or planning, like how much cash are they going to need, and it’s kind of like flying by the seat of your pants. So really good cash flow management and bookkeeping, clean financials. And that really what that allows you to do as the business owner is to always know what the value of your business is at any given point in time. And as a business owner, you should always know what the value of perhaps one of your biggest assets is worth.
John Corcoran 25:55
And we’re running a little short on time. So we’ll wrap up shortly but Why move from you know, you’d spent all these years it’s kind of like, you know, you’d gotten your law degrees spent all these years becoming a lawyer. And then you spent all these years getting really good at selling products on Amazon. You sell it and now you’re going into coaching, consulting, helping other sellers. So kind of in a new business endeavor. So what drew you what attracted you to moving into coaching, consulting other helping other sellers, other brands?
Kellianne Fedio 26:28
Well, I’ve always had an interest in coaching and consulting. And I’ve done that all throughout my career as an Amazon entrepreneur, whether it be you know, friends and helping mentor them, or you know, paid consulting, I’ve done a lot of that helping sellers with strategy and helping brands that know nothing about Amazon and there’s so many consumer product brands out there that have great products and they know nothing about Amazon and so I’ve had a lot of different engagements. And I love doing that. I love teaching. I love helping people understand the Amazon platform. But you know, for my current venture with Paul and our Amazing Exits podcast and, you know, wanting to really help sellers, you know, understand that they need to practically plan for exit planning. No, I’m just really passionate about helping brand owners, you know, maximize the value of their business, this is most likely the biggest financial event that they’re ever going to see in their life. It’s really, really important and it could change the whole trajectory of your financial future. And for some, it can mean complete financial freedom, meaning that they never have to work again every day in their life. So, you know, I really want to, you know, get out there in a big way and impress that upon sellers that you know, you need to take this really seriously, it’s super important. You don’t just decide one day you don’t wake up and decide I’m going to sell my business. You need to be planning in advance for that so that you can really maximize every last dollar that you get for the sale of that business.
John Corcoran 27:49
That’s great advice. All right, so we’ll wrap things up with the question I always ask which is, let’s pretend Kelly is at an awards banquet, much like the Oscars or the Emmys. you’re receiving an award for lifetime achievement. for everything you’ve done up to this point, who do you think? Who do you acknowledge in your remarks?
Kellianne Fedio 28:05
That would definitely have to be my husband. I mean, he’s my biggest cheerleader and biggest support. You know, he lets me be not only the wife and mother that I want to be, but also the entrepreneur that’s always going to be in me and, you know, that requires a lot of patience. You know, I still get shiny object syndrome from time to time and I’m always looking at different businesses, different investments. So he’s very patient with that. So definitely my husband,
Unknown Speaker 28:28
Cool. Anyone else?
Kellianne Fedio 28:30
My kids, of course, I have to include them with that. And then you know, I would say, you know, in terms I’m a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki, I mean, obviously, he’s not my personal mentor. But you know, his books have had the biggest impact on me in terms of entrepreneurship and what it takes to be financially free. So Rich Dad Poor Dad, of course, but I love his book, Cashflow Quadrant, you know, that really teaches you, you know, in order to be financially free the way that you need to make money and it’s you’re never going To get there if you’re an employee, or you know, a really small business owner that doesn’t have, you know, scale. So, you know, that’s really what I strive to do. And everything I do now with regard to investing in business is to make sure that I’m on the right side of the quadrant.
John Corcoran 29:16
Yeah, good. Good advice. Good book resources. All right, Kelly, where can people go to learn more about you, connect with you or reach out?
Kellianne Fedio 29:24
Well, they can first and foremost go toamazingexits.com and enter their email right now we just have a landing page, but we’re working on our website, and we’re going to have a really cool resource there. When you sign up for our email list, it’s going to be an exit readiness assessment. And that’s going to really give you some keen insight into where you’re at in the exit planning stage for your business. And also if they want individual consulting, they can go to digital shelf strategy, and I offer a complimentary 15 minute you know, discovery call and you know, really kind of try to pinpoint you know, what are the hidden profit opportunities in your business. You know what your Amazon business needs. I’ve, you know, between Paul and I, we have every resource that any amazon seller would ever need to not only run their business, optimize their business, maximize the profitability in their business, but also sell it for a big payday. So digital strategy and amazing excellence.
John Corcoran 30:19
And really it’s, you know, I think it’s underappreciated how much can be accomplished in that amount of time, because we were just talking this morning about how you helped another seller whose sales were completely halted. And in five minutes, you identified what the problem was. And so when you take someone like yourself, who’s got years of experience and years of looking at other businesses, in a couple of minutes, you know, it can save someone hours and hours of trying to diagnose the problem themselves, because of the level of experience so I think that’s, that’s great.
Kellianne Fedio 30:53
That’s a great point. And that’s exactly what I love doing. I love getting in there and looking at the big picture and diagnosing exactly What an Amazon seller needs to focus on to move the needle on their business. And that’s all with an exit in mind, you know whether you ever decide to sell your business, you still want to be generating the most cash that you can from it the most.
John Corcoran 31:12
And that’s a, that’s a great point. Because, you know, a lot of times people haven’t gone through the process of making their business more ready for an exit, they discovered that they enjoy it more because they’re less involved in the weeds and it runs better and it spits off more cash.
Kellianne Fedio 31:27
Exactly, exactly. That’s the whole point. So just that you have options,
John Corcoran 31:31
right, right. All right, Kelly, thanks so much.
Kellianne Fedio 31:34
Thank you so much, John. Thank you
Outro 31:36
for listening to the Smart Business Revolution podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com and while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution podcast.