E-Commerce Made Easy: Starting and Scaling Your Online Business

[00:00:00] I see a lot of these messages, I didn't get any traffic. Well, you don't buy a store and get traffic. You don't buy the perfect domain and get traffic. That's not how it works, right? But how many people do you think you need to get a sale? On a brand new store, conversion rate might be 1%. So that means you had to drive 100 people there to get one sale.

[00:00:20] Hello and welcome to the Next Level Supply Chain with GS1 US, a podcast in which we explore the mind-bending world of global supply chains, covering topics such as automation, innovation, unique identity, and more. I'm your co-host Reed. And I'm Liz. And welcome to the show.

[00:00:39] Reed and I just talked to Jesse Ness at Equid by Lightspeed about how best to start thinking about starting a business, how to get it online.

[00:00:50] Reed and I'm your host, how to avoid some pitfalls that he's seen and what kind of pitfalls kind of are prevalent when starting a business online. And one of the things that he talked about was not giving it enough time and the right kind of effort into it, getting comfortable with videoing yourself and using social media. It was an enlightening conversation, especially as a consumer who shops online. Enjoy the episode. Jesse, hey, welcome to the show. It's great to have you.

[00:01:19] Hey, Liz. Great to be here. I used to do a podcast, so I'm happy to get back online and speak to the world.

[00:01:26] Awesome. Welcome back to the microphone, as they say.

[00:01:29] Exactly.

[00:01:30] It's going to be such a great conversation. We've talked before, and I know Reed and I are looking forward to this conversation. Before we jump in, tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Equid by Lightspeed.

[00:01:43] Yeah. So I've been at Equid. It's Equid.com, and we've been purchased by Lightspeed for 12 years now, which is...

[00:01:51] Oh, wow.

[00:01:52] That's a lifetime in the marketing world.

[00:01:55] That's two lifetimes in e-commerce.

[00:01:56] Yeah. I've seen it all. We can go into some of that stuff because it's a different world in the past 12 years. But yeah, I've been there for 12 years. I've pretty much always ran paid search at one level. Now I'm in charge. So I have the creative side, the design side, SEO, social, kind of all rolls up to me.

[00:02:13] And by the way, Equid, we've been around a while. Do a search on Built With. We're number five. All the people ahead of us, they've basically had commercials at the Super Bowl. So we've done pretty good with a small budget, making our way in the world.

[00:02:26] So do you have a specific industry or vertical, or does it cover everyone being fifth largest? Are you guys broken up that way?

[00:02:35] Yeah, not really. We're pretty wide across all segments, right? We have generally always been really good for people starting out. So we're also a freemium platform. So with freemium, we get a lot of people like testing things out.

[00:02:48] Cheeking the tires.

[00:02:49] Yeah, yeah. There may be... It's their first time online testing stuff out. So with that, like we get a little bit of everything. Sometimes some very, very random stuff, like when we see their stores. But the big ones being apparel, home and garden, there's quite a bit of that.

[00:03:03] Even like digital downloads, it's kind of a smaller segment, but the platform is best for physical products that need to be shipped. Generally, you know, anywhere, even we work internationally. So basically anywhere around the world, we're probably best for people that want to get started or that like have outgrown another platform and want to get to the million, 2 million range. Maybe there's an employee or two.

[00:03:29] Because we were purchased by Lightspeed, I think it's like two or three years now. So we are really growing into small Main Street retailers that are purchasing from a lot of different vendors.

[00:03:41] Like online is a segment for them, but they might be better at, you know, they know their customers by name when they walk into their store. That's where we're headed is really being a good addition to retail stores.

[00:03:54] That's kind of if we look ahead the next few years. But yeah, with that, we see all types of stores, you know, different types of products. So pretty interesting.

[00:04:01] Yeah, it must be very interesting from your vantage point and to see how things ebb and flow. And we've heard this omni channel for, I don't know, 20 years now, maybe more, and it keeps evolving.

[00:04:15] You mentioned something that I would really love to get your take on. You talked about startup companies and smaller companies that are starting off. From your vantage point, what are some of the most important first steps one should take when they're starting a business?

[00:04:31] I'll go from the very beginning, right? Like you have an idea. You have like a great product in mind and maybe you're dreaming about it. You have the million dollar idea in your head. You just need to get it going.

[00:04:45] Some people get stuck there, right? But there's really no need. The technologies are so advanced, particularly for startups that want to get started. Obviously, I'll do a little shout out. Go to Equid.com, click that get started button. You'll get started that way.

[00:04:58] But in general, it's get a good domain. Get started is the key. But with that, I think the tips there would be, it's really like, take really good pictures. Take really good pictures, get really good descriptions.

[00:05:12] People forget that, you know, that idea that you had in your head, it didn't have like fuzzy pictures and bad descriptions.

[00:05:20] So when you look at your site, what do your customers see? If it's not a really good picture or multiple pictures, by the way, or even we have the ability to take 360 degree pictures with your iPhone if you want.

[00:05:33] Like you can get a 360 picture. So if other people are doing that and you're not, you're already at a disadvantage.

[00:05:39] And the descriptions, by the way, you got AI to help with the descriptions. It's not that hard. Do not do one line for descriptions. So those are kind of like just basics, whatever platform you use.

[00:05:50] Always just use good pictures, write good descriptions. Then I think the next part would be syncing up with all the other platforms, meaning Google, Facebook and beyond, right?

[00:06:03] The thing with online stores is, you know, you're, you're, you're going on the internet. The internet has to see you, right? It has to see your product names. It has to categorize them.

[00:06:14] Every product you can possibly think of. There's a category for it. There's usually a number associated with it. So as you go through this process of syncing up your store with Google, Facebook, TikTok, et cetera, get your product feeds going.

[00:06:27] And this is the time to get the right, like infrastructure set up. So then I would say another, like little tip on where I'm so frustrated that people don't do this right away is you have your store and maybe you start making sales, but like get an email signup form immediately.

[00:06:46] If you sign up with an email service provider, MailChimp, Omnisend, Klaviyo, they're all going to have some sort of method for you to start gathering emails right off the bat.

[00:06:57] And there's a lot of reasons why that's important, but if you just do it right off the bat, you'll thank me later. It's just a first step you must do.

[00:07:05] So those would be my kind of like, those are first steps in each one of those, like people write books about each of those items.

[00:07:11] I wasn't expecting the mail signup form, but as soon as you said it, I'm like, that's the one we miss. So I appreciate that.

[00:07:21] Yeah. People do it all the time. And then six months later, they're like, oh, you know, I made some sales. What should I do next?

[00:07:27] Like, well, send an email to the people that bought from me before. I don't have their emails. Why not? You know, usually it's free.

[00:07:34] So usually they have some other freemium method where you can gather emails up until a certain point. So use the free option there.

[00:07:42] It's interesting to me, too, what you said about good pictures and a good description. It seems so very basic.

[00:07:49] But I know that when I go shopping online, if the picture's not good, you're going to scroll right past it.

[00:07:55] So while super basic, also kind of in a term that I'm not a fan of, table stakes, right? To be able to sell and compete.

[00:08:03] I mean, hey, quick tip. I'm not a photographer, by the way. Get way more lighting than you think you need.

[00:08:09] Take a picture, take a couple different angles, upload it, and it's going to be way better than a lot of people out there.

[00:08:17] And yeah, let's see your point. If you're scrolling around, if you don't see a good picture, that speaks to the quality of the store.

[00:08:23] Are you going to actually get this product if you buy it? All that kind of stuff.

[00:08:27] Yeah, absolutely. So, okay, you've started. What happens next? Because you have really thoughtful tips for getting started.

[00:08:35] What about growing and scaling a business? And what should folks consider along that journey, too?

[00:08:42] Yeah, so we'll assume all the basics are ready. Your images are great. Now you need to start thinking about what's your message and what's your story?

[00:08:51] If you are just a nameless, faceless person selling products that you can buy on Amazon, you're going to have a little bit of trouble.

[00:09:01] But like if you have a message, if you have a story of why these products are so great, you got to learn to tell that story.

[00:09:07] You need to be a storyteller. If you want to kind of emerge from the pack of people that are going to start and quit, right?

[00:09:12] This depends on your product. Hopefully, you chose a product that you have some sort of passion for. It's a hobby. It's something you care about.

[00:09:20] So that way, when you need to pick up a phone and look at it and maybe you get your little ring light and you're able to put on a smile and talk about it because you have a passion for it.

[00:09:29] You need to think about what's the story behind it. It's really all about social media and yes, vertical videos.

[00:09:36] Even though I personally do not like vertical videos. It's what it is, right?

[00:09:40] Everybody has their little vertical video format. And if you want to stand out, you're going to need to learn how to talk to the camera.

[00:09:48] And yes, you can film other things and you should. But if you're like we're talking startup, it's you.

[00:09:56] You know, like that's that's the reality. So and you are free labor. So you have a phone, you have a face, you have a voice, use it, post, get out of that comfort zone pretty quickly.

[00:10:10] And I would say that's for most people. Like, can you sell widgets on Amazon? Sure. Right.

[00:10:14] Like you can do whatever you want. But if you want to like, how do I get going right now in like today's e-commerce market? It's video and social.

[00:10:23] Do you think that the social aspect is a daily thing that you need to do or is it a weekly or does it depend?

[00:10:32] Because I hear what you're saying. Like a lot of us are out here working full time jobs, families, other things going on.

[00:10:38] It's like some people really like it, but some of us. I don't like the social aspect, but I almost feel like if you really want to be in it, you have to be in it.

[00:10:49] And it has to be fresh and it has to be new and it has to be, oh, I can't wait to see what they're going to post this week.

[00:10:55] Yeah, I think that's the reality. I personally, I'm not a digital native myself.

[00:11:00] I barely post on social media. It's like painful for me to even give this advice because I don't do it myself very well.

[00:11:08] But it depends on where you want to go. Right. Like I'll say at Equid, I have a whole team.

[00:11:14] I'm not the person on the camera. Right. So, you know, maybe I'm cheating by giving this advice saying you have to pick up your phone. Right.

[00:11:21] OK, fair. But somebody needs to. So somebody needs to make way more videos than you think.

[00:11:26] And yeah, you can do it once a month, but then don't be surprised that that video didn't do well.

[00:11:32] I think now we're also seeing a there's a little bit of a shift going on where all the platforms are now copying TikTok.

[00:11:39] Right. So it's not necessarily about the followers that you have.

[00:11:44] It's about the content that you made. So great.

[00:11:47] If you have no followers, this is good because you can make great content that has a chance to go viral and then it will die quickly.

[00:11:55] You'll be like, well, I went viral. Where's my traffic?

[00:11:59] You have to keep making videos, which is frankly a little bit annoying.

[00:12:03] I get it. But it's a kind of a skill, you know, kind of the more at bats you get at it, the better you'll get at making it.

[00:12:09] And they have a chance to go viral.

[00:12:11] What are some other common pitfalls that you've seen or lessons learned that are consistent?

[00:12:17] You see people doing that our audience can share from and learn from rather.

[00:12:21] By the way, at Equid, I see all the downgrade reasons.

[00:12:25] When people are, you know, they're canceling their subscription, we ask for them to fill in a sentence.

[00:12:29] And sometimes they're like, leave me alone. I'm just quitting.

[00:12:32] OK, that's fine. But a lot of times they get very insightful comments that we absorb and we try to learn from.

[00:12:39] So anyway, I see so many messages. It's amazing.

[00:12:42] But mostly they're giving up too soon. They're just not persistent.

[00:12:46] Now, that is the nature of startups. Sometimes you have people that are starting and maybe they weren't going to make it.

[00:12:51] But, you know, the little messages of like, hey, I've been signed up for a couple months.

[00:12:57] I'm not getting any traffic. I'm not getting any sales yet.

[00:13:01] If you were to open up a store on Main Street, if you open it up, like, do you think people just like show up?

[00:13:08] Not necessarily.

[00:13:09] Did you advertise? Did you get the word out that are you giving out coupons on the street?

[00:13:13] Like, did you do anything?

[00:13:15] It's such a good call out because I have a good friend.

[00:13:20] He's in the sign business.

[00:13:21] OK, he's actually been helping us out with some other stuff.

[00:13:25] And I'm always like, why do you have this and why do you have that?

[00:13:29] It's not important what he has.

[00:13:31] But the point is, it's like, it's like you don't understand.

[00:13:34] Signs go in the ground.

[00:13:35] Signs go on buildings.

[00:13:37] Signs go in windows.

[00:13:38] And he's talking about physical signs.

[00:13:40] He goes, this is how people truly learn and come into your store.

[00:13:46] Yes, the store may be great, but it's kind of like eating food.

[00:13:49] If it doesn't look appetizing, you really hesitate to eat it.

[00:13:52] It might be the best meal you're ever going to have.

[00:13:54] But people that don't know, they're not coming.

[00:13:57] And it's such a good point.

[00:13:59] You take it for granted.

[00:14:00] We see tons and tons of businesses open up on Main Street.

[00:14:04] The first day it's packed because they did a lot of advertisements for their opening.

[00:14:08] But then they can't sustain.

[00:14:10] Yeah, so like a new restaurant that opens up.

[00:14:12] It might be great, but I have my little bubble.

[00:14:16] I work from home.

[00:14:17] I don't really care about your great pizza place.

[00:14:19] But, you know, did I see an advertisement for it?

[00:14:22] Is there a reason for me to check it out the first time?

[00:14:24] It's advertising, right?

[00:14:25] So same with online.

[00:14:26] I see a lot of these messages.

[00:14:28] I didn't get any traffic.

[00:14:29] Well, you don't buy a store and get traffic.

[00:14:32] You don't buy the perfect domain and get traffic.

[00:14:35] That's not how it works, right?

[00:14:36] And drive people to it.

[00:14:37] Yeah, so if you didn't drive people to it, don't be surprised.

[00:14:39] And then I think the other maybe pitfall there is that, so great, you drove traffic there.

[00:14:47] So what?

[00:14:48] Like, how many people do you think you need to get a sale?

[00:14:50] On a brand new store, conversion rate might be 1%.

[00:14:55] You know, so that means you had to drive 100 people there to get one sale.

[00:14:59] But if you're brand new and you don't have the store, you have bad pictures, you have bad descriptions, all that kind of stuff.

[00:15:06] Like, you know, you're going to get under 1% conversion rate.

[00:15:09] So those are just the numbers, right?

[00:15:11] And I think people are not aware of that.

[00:15:14] Like, do you buy from every store you go to online?

[00:15:16] Probably not.

[00:15:17] That's what happens there.

[00:15:18] I think the other lesson learned is that there's plateaus in any business.

[00:15:24] I have a side business as well.

[00:15:26] And I've had plateaus where when you're growing, things are great.

[00:15:29] And you're like, man, I am so smart.

[00:15:32] I figured this out.

[00:15:33] I'm making money.

[00:15:34] And then you get to this point, right?

[00:15:37] Like I hit a plateau at $300,000.

[00:15:39] And then I was not so smart for a while.

[00:15:42] I'm like, man, what's going on?

[00:15:44] I did all these things.

[00:15:45] I did what I did before.

[00:15:47] Well, that's what that business can do.

[00:15:49] So I had to figure out the next step to get to over half a million, right?

[00:15:54] Then there's going to be new things that you hit.

[00:15:56] And it's going to be different for everybody.

[00:15:58] But I think it's not just a up and to the right, a straight growth chart that you can draw, right?

[00:16:06] There's going to be plateaus.

[00:16:07] At each step, you might need something different.

[00:16:10] And usually that might be some other expertise, right?

[00:16:13] I have recently hired somebody to help me with email because I can write emails, but maybe they weren't that great.

[00:16:20] So now I needed help with email.

[00:16:22] So like, let's get that revamped.

[00:16:23] Let's get all these automations set up.

[00:16:25] Okay, great.

[00:16:25] Do you need help with SEO?

[00:16:27] Do you really need help with the videos?

[00:16:29] We talked about the videos.

[00:16:31] Maybe you just, you're like, I can't do this anymore.

[00:16:33] I can't talk to the camera.

[00:16:34] Okay.

[00:16:35] Then you need to hire somebody to help with videos.

[00:16:37] So I think it's just knowing that that happens.

[00:16:40] It's not like you just grow and then, and things change too.

[00:16:44] Like there we used to be, you know, Facebook advertising used to be kind of easy.

[00:16:47] All the privacy controls weren't really in there and people had all these success stories with Facebook, right?

[00:16:53] It's tougher now.

[00:16:54] So like, and maybe you figured that out three years ago and then you're like, I'm not growing anymore.

[00:16:59] Changing again.

[00:17:00] Yeah.

[00:17:00] Maybe you need to master TikTok.

[00:17:02] All right.

[00:17:03] Or it depends.

[00:17:04] So anyway, there's plateaus.

[00:17:06] They happen.

[00:17:08] Sorry.

[00:17:08] You're going to find them.

[00:17:10] It sounds like these are proven things like over and over again, there's plateaus.

[00:17:15] You need to shift and pivot and all those things.

[00:17:17] Are there kind of that same themes of challenges and opportunities in this space that you've seen over time that you can share?

[00:17:27] I would say there's another challenge that people, that marketplaces are getting a little tougher as well.

[00:17:32] Especially dealing with, you know, UPCs and things like that.

[00:17:36] You guys are probably a little closer into the marketplace world.

[00:17:39] It's tougher.

[00:17:41] I've sold stuff on Amazon like many years ago and I figured it out.

[00:17:46] But now you need to advertise in marketplaces.

[00:17:48] It's just kind of a new challenge, you know, but then there's also an opportunity side.

[00:17:51] There's always something new.

[00:17:53] E-commerce is like, there's a lot of money.

[00:17:56] There's a lot of people chasing the next big thing, trying to figure out the next way to help people sell because they're going to make their money.

[00:18:02] The trend I'm seeing right now that I wish I had a little more time for is live social selling.

[00:18:10] So live social selling has been talked about many, many times.

[00:18:13] It's never quite broken through in the North American market.

[00:18:18] Very big in Asia.

[00:18:20] Yep.

[00:18:20] Huge in Asia.

[00:18:21] People use the super apps where it's easier to watch a streamer and purchase very easily.

[00:18:27] It's very natural.

[00:18:28] It's just never really worked in the U.S., but there's a lot of signs that it is starting to break through.

[00:18:34] There's one particular app right now that like if you really want to see where we're headed, I would check out WhatNot.

[00:18:40] WhatNot.com.

[00:18:41] So you'll check it out and you'll be like, wow, this is weird.

[00:18:44] Right.

[00:18:45] There's a lot of like collectibles that are being sold there.

[00:18:48] You know, if you're into like collectible cards and antiques and just and that's what they call it.

[00:18:54] WhatNot, I guess, like just a lot of random stuff.

[00:18:55] But the ability to build a community and have like.

[00:19:00] It's sort of like a tick tock combo, if you will.

[00:19:03] It's got all the little hearts flying and all the little emojis and chats, but you can very easily purchase.

[00:19:09] And then they have the ability to build in auctions and giveaways and things like that.

[00:19:15] It's pretty cool.

[00:19:17] That may not be for everyone, by the way.

[00:19:19] Like if your product is not really a community is not important.

[00:19:23] Okay.

[00:19:24] Maybe this isn't for you.

[00:19:25] Right.

[00:19:26] Do you think this is the new like QVC of selling?

[00:19:30] QVC still around, still doing well, still has a good market.

[00:19:35] But it's like, is this social selling the next wave of that?

[00:19:39] I think you're right.

[00:19:41] This is the QVC of e-com.

[00:19:44] It's all going to happen pretty soon.

[00:19:45] What does that look like exactly?

[00:19:46] Who knows?

[00:19:47] But I think if you, even tick tock and tick tock shops is another little window to this where, you know, yeah, there's influencers.

[00:19:55] And, you know, the tick tock shops is also, I would say very similar, like same idea.

[00:20:00] It's the QVC.

[00:20:01] Everybody's selling something right.

[00:20:03] And talking to the camera and buy now, buy here.

[00:20:06] Right.

[00:20:07] Like it is like a QVC thing.

[00:20:09] I think it's becoming a little more natural, though.

[00:20:12] It's just becoming more integrated.

[00:20:14] I have a feeling everybody else is going to be getting there, too.

[00:20:16] Like YouTube, Facebook.

[00:20:18] They're going to figure out their own mix.

[00:20:22] You know, so that's why if you're starting out now, it's time to get your practice.

[00:20:27] Get your reps in of staring at the camera, putting that smile on, even if you're not in a great mood, getting excited.

[00:20:34] You need to entertain people and you need to sell stuff at the same time.

[00:20:37] Sounds exhausting.

[00:20:39] It is exhausting, by the way.

[00:20:40] Yeah.

[00:20:41] That's what I was just going to ask, Liz.

[00:20:44] So, like, Jesse, you know, I always laugh at this.

[00:20:47] Oh, passive income.

[00:20:48] I'm like, these side hustles are not passive income.

[00:20:51] It's called a hustle.

[00:20:52] Like, you're working.

[00:20:52] You're sweaty.

[00:20:53] Like, can you give us just a little view into this?

[00:20:56] Like, I hear people like, oh, school teacher, retired person, you know, somebody that's running three jobs or 40 years old, three kids, an executive, and they have this business on the side.

[00:21:08] Like, this to me still sounds like hours of work a day, if not a good 10 hours a week.

[00:21:16] I would say yes.

[00:21:19] It is going to be hard work, right?

[00:21:21] Like, did you think it would be easy?

[00:21:23] Like, if it were that easy, everybody would be doing it.

[00:21:26] Yeah.

[00:21:27] And you wouldn't have all these people quitting before they gave it enough time to bake to get to the maturity it needed to be.

[00:21:33] Absolutely.

[00:21:34] And by the way, sometimes it does seem easy for some people, and I'm a little jealous.

[00:21:38] You know, see, it's okay to be jealous, but also to just realize, like, it will be hard.

[00:21:43] You will have to put in the hours.

[00:21:44] You have to put in the reps.

[00:21:46] It's like dieting and working out.

[00:21:48] Yeah, like, it's, hey, welcome to life.

[00:21:51] It's going to be hard.

[00:21:52] And if you keep working hard, eventually you're going to get lucky as well.

[00:21:55] That wasn't luck.

[00:21:57] Like, you said something earlier about something that you're passionate in and that storytelling.

[00:22:02] I think if you're passionate about it, it energizes you too.

[00:22:05] So while it is hard work, it doesn't maybe seem as hard work until, I don't know, however.

[00:22:11] But I think that's important too.

[00:22:14] Yeah.

[00:22:14] That's a great point, Liz.

[00:22:16] All right.

[00:22:16] So we're kind of coming up on some time here.

[00:22:19] And I wanted to get, we're going to change a little bit here.

[00:22:21] Now we're going to focus in on your answers here.

[00:22:26] What is your favorite technology that you're using today?

[00:22:30] Whether it be at work or personal at home or when you're energizing yourself, whatever it is.

[00:22:36] But what's your favorite tech that you're using?

[00:22:38] So for work, the tool that I like the most is Jasper.

[00:22:42] I will say my whole team uses it.

[00:22:45] It's, I think it's Jasper.ai or something similar to that.

[00:22:48] But it's an AI tool and I like it better than saying, just go to ChatGPT because we have built

[00:22:56] in our tone and voice into it.

[00:22:59] And we actually have said, here's our help center.

[00:23:01] It knows to look for equid.com for the truth and equid.com.

[00:23:06] I think it's forward slash support for our like support answers.

[00:23:09] So it knows what's quote unquote the truth and the tone that we want to give to it.

[00:23:14] And it has all these templates built in.

[00:23:16] So if you want to start over, you want to create a landing page, for instance, you can

[00:23:21] start filling stuff in.

[00:23:23] So when people are saying, oh yeah, I love, I love AI.

[00:23:27] I love ChatGPT.

[00:23:28] And then you hear about this massive prompt they use.

[00:23:31] It's like a whole page.

[00:23:32] Okay.

[00:23:33] That's hard by the way.

[00:23:34] Like it's programming.

[00:23:35] Yeah.

[00:23:36] I get the quick little chats and you get some awesome answers.

[00:23:39] That's cool.

[00:23:39] I do like Jasper as far as creating content.

[00:23:42] That's my easy answer there on, especially since this is sort of business related, check

[00:23:46] that out.

[00:23:47] It's pretty cheap as well, but ultimately it's powered by ChatGPT and the other AI tools.

[00:23:53] And then for the rant, this is one where I wish I would use this more often in my day

[00:23:57] to day process is perplexity.

[00:24:00] Of the other platforms, I'm like, I like perplexity when I'm, I have an idea in my head and I can

[00:24:06] just talk to a chat bot.

[00:24:08] That's kind of my favorite there.

[00:24:09] I know people are like replacing Google as their, with perplexity as their search, preferred

[00:24:15] search.

[00:24:16] I should probably do that.

[00:24:17] I was thinking about that as I answered this.

[00:24:18] I'm like, yeah, why don't I just do that?

[00:24:20] But I love the, like the depth of answers.

[00:24:22] Yeah.

[00:24:23] I had a friend who's been using that for a year and he turned me onto it a couple of months

[00:24:26] back and he was looking at me like, where have you been?

[00:24:28] I'm like working, you know, I can't keep up with everything all the time.

[00:24:32] Yep.

[00:24:33] I feel a little bit the same way.

[00:24:34] Okay.

[00:24:35] So last question, and this is going to be interesting only because you're kind of on

[00:24:38] the forefront of a lot of this stuff, but what is something new that you want to learn

[00:24:44] about in the near future?

[00:24:45] Actually, it kind of relates to my previous answer here.

[00:24:48] We're all aware of, oh, AI is going to change the world.

[00:24:50] There's all these tools.

[00:24:51] I get sent or read about like five tools a day and then I bookmark them.

[00:24:58] And then my browser's got like 25 apps.

[00:25:01] I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:25:03] I'm going to do that.

[00:25:04] And then work, family, the day is done.

[00:25:07] So I feel like I need like a AI bootcamp.

[00:25:11] Like I need some training from somebody that not uses this like once every other day, but

[00:25:17] somebody that uses some sort of AI tool every hour because I know it would supercharge my life.

[00:25:22] That's a goal.

[00:25:23] I think we're getting close to the new year here.

[00:25:25] If I have a new year goal, that might be a, how do I really like let AI take over my life?

[00:25:31] But, you know.

[00:25:33] Enhance it.

[00:25:33] Yeah.

[00:25:34] Enhance it.

[00:25:35] Yes.

[00:25:35] Before it takes my job.

[00:25:36] You know?

[00:25:38] So that's one.

[00:25:40] And then I think the other would be if I want to be very specific.

[00:25:43] I didn't mean to have a theme about video here, but it looks like I do have a theme.

[00:25:47] I would like to use the various tools to be able to make 15 to 30 second videos for ads.

[00:25:53] I think that is a very, very important skill.

[00:25:58] And there's a lot of apps that do this piece, that piece, but.

[00:26:03] And that whole thing.

[00:26:04] Yeah.

[00:26:05] I want to be able to make the, you know, I want to have a concept.

[00:26:08] Maybe I can write it out.

[00:26:09] Maybe I'm using Jasper to write out a script.

[00:26:11] And then I'm using Mid Journey to start putting this into pieces and something else that packages it into a 15 to 30 second video.

[00:26:21] And I don't know, maybe somebody can hit us up in the comments like, oh, you should be using A, B, and C.

[00:26:28] Great.

[00:26:28] I'd love to.

[00:26:29] You validated me.

[00:26:31] So thank you very much because I have like 15 tabs open just from lunch on things that I want to learn about more, but they'll stay open until my system reboots on Friday.

[00:26:41] Similar problems there.

[00:26:42] Like, yeah, one of these days I'm going to go in there, I'm going to test it out and put my headphones on and I'll be a master.

[00:26:49] But yeah.

[00:26:50] Exactly.

[00:26:51] Well, Jesse, thank you so much for spending the time with us and sharing some knowledge and some experience.

[00:26:56] There's a lot of good nuggets to take away.

[00:26:59] I took some real serious notes and who knows?

[00:27:02] I might be starting a store on Equid pretty soon.

[00:27:05] Awesome.

[00:27:05] Love to hear it.

[00:27:06] We'll help you out.

[00:27:07] Talk to support.

[00:27:08] We'll use some AI together.

[00:27:10] We'll figure this out.

[00:27:13] Thank you for joining the Next Level Supply Chain with GS1US.

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[00:27:23] Don't forget to share and follow us on social media.

[00:27:26] Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.