In this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, host Josh Hadley shares how the COVID-19 pandemic caused a devastating 90% overnight sales drop in his Amazon party supplies business — just as he'd bought his dream home and left his corporate job. Facing financial pressure with no safety net, Josh pivoted boldly, launching educational homeschooling posters that quickly became bestsellers. He shares three key lessons: focus on what's already working before diversifying, build a cohesive brand, and take calculated big risks. Josh also emphasizes saving profits for emergencies, illustrating how resilience and adaptability helped him scale to over $20 million annually.

Links and Mentions:

Tools and Websites
"Etsy": "00:08:09"
"Facebook": "00:08:09"

Key Concepts and Strategies
"Printable Files": "00:08:09"
"Virtual Party Invitations": "00:08:09"
"Stay-at-Home Family Celebration Party Kit": "00:08:09"
"Educational Posters": "00:10:57"
"Whole Life Insurance": "00:22:03"
"S&P 500": "00:22:03"

Lessons Learned
"Do not diversify too early": "00:14:51"
"Focus on building a cohesive brand": "00:16:41"
"Be willing to take risks in competitive categories": "00:19:12"

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction & Background
Josh introduces himself, his business background, and the premise of the episode about overcoming a 90% sales drop.

00:00:55 Pre-COVID Life & Buying a New Home
Describes family situation, decision to buy a larger home, and the excitement and anxiety of making a big purchase.

00:02:44 Closing on the Dream Home & COVID Hits
Details closing on the new house in late February 2020, and the immediate onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:03:39 Immediate Impact of COVID on Business
Explains how COVID caused gatherings to stop, leading to a 90% overnight drop in sales of party supplies.

00:05:27 Financial and Emotional Pressure
Discusses the stress of a new mortgage, loss of business income, and having just left a corporate job.

00:07:18 Initial Scramble & Early Pivots
Shares the first attempts to recover revenue, including printable files, virtual invitations, and new product ideas.

00:09:00 Experimenting with New Revenue Streams
Describes launching a family celebration kit membership and turning off Amazon ads due to poor performance.

00:10:01 Gradual Recovery & The Big Pivot
Outlines the slow sales recovery and the decision to make a bold move into educational posters for homeschooling.

00:10:57 Launching Educational Posters
Details the launch of educational posters in late August/early September 2020, quickly becoming a bestseller.

00:12:55 Lessons Learned: Focus on What Works
Reflects on the mistake of focusing on Shopify over Amazon, and the importance of doubling down on successful channels.

00:15:49 Lessons Learned: Brand Cohesion
Discusses the lack of a cohesive brand and the need to define and serve a specific customer avatar.

00:18:14 Lessons Learned: Take Bigger Risks
Emphasizes the importance of focusing growth, taking bigger swings, and not playing it too safe with product launches.

00:20:07 Action in Crisis & Doubling Down
Encourages taking action during tough times, experimenting, and doubling down on what works to drive recovery.

00:22:03 Preparing for a Rainy Day
Advises saving profits, investing in safe assets, and building a financial safety net for future downturns.

00:22:56 Conclusion & Final Encouragement
Wraps up with encouragement to focus on proven channels and make bold moves when facing adversity.

Transcripts:

Josh Hadley 00:00:00 I lost 90% of the sales in my business overnight. At that point, I felt like my business was done for. It was time to close up shop and find something different to do. Today I'm going to share with you the exact strategies, the tactics, and the lessons learned that I implemented in the business to be able to resurrect it from the dead and to get it where it is today of generating over $20 million in annual revenue. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. First and foremost, who am I? My name is Josh Hadley. I'm a man of faith. I am a father of four and a husband to a beautiful wife. I have been selling into e-commerce space for over a decade, doing multi millions in revenue on different sales channels such as Shopify, TikTok, shop and of course, Amazon.

Josh Hadley 00:00:55 And I am also the host of the number one business strategy Podcast in the e-commerce space, and that is E-com breakthrough. So what drove a 90% decline in my sales? Well, before we get to that point, I have to tell you the story of where my wife and I were at at that specific moment in time before the 90% decline in sales happened overnight for us. Well, this was January of 2020, and my wife and I were looking at needing to move to another home. And that was because we had kind of, frankly, outgrown our existing home. We knew we wanted to grow our family. We had a three bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom, two bath house. We had two kids at the time, and we knew we wanted to be able to expand our family and continue to grow. And, you know, especially working from home, that three bedroom, two bath house and being 1900 square feet became really small, really quick, especially trying to run a business out of the house.

Josh Hadley 00:01:49 And so we were trying to find like, where is the place that we need to be? Well, it came one Sunday. We were driving around and we stumbled upon an open house, and we went into this open house and we felt moved upon to move into this house. Now, this house was almost triple the size of our current home. This was figuratively like a dream home for us. It was in a dream neighborhood. We got to still attend the same church and be around the same family and friends that we were around at the time. And so we felt like with that, like this was our godsend. This was an answer to prayers and we need to go close on this home. And so although this was a very exciting time, it was also very nerve wracking for me because this was the biggest purchase that I was ever going to make in my life. I had never had a mortgage, a need to take out a quote unquote a jumbo loan for a mortgage, ever. And this was a lot of money, all of the money that we had been saving up for.

Josh Hadley 00:02:44 And, you know, basically taking profit from the business was going to go to a big down payment on this property. Well, guess what? We did close on this property of February 28th, 2020. And as many of you know, what was just around the corner was going to be Covid and basically the lockdown and the shutdown to the world as we knew it at the time. And so my wife and I, I remember this like it was just yesterday. My wife and I were there at target late at night just before, like it was closing time at target. And I remember, you know, thumbing through on my phone just kind of like the news and things like that. As I was waiting in line and I saw the information where it was, I think it was the jazz, it was the Utah Jazz and some other team. Maybe it was the Houston Rockets, I'm not sure. But that game was canceled and the NBA literally canceled that game before it was about to tip off.

Josh Hadley 00:03:39 Like people like people were ...