← Living Your Legacy
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- [00:00]
A
I see a lot of people that are amazing on camera, they have big audiences, but they're not making a lot of money. So in order to make money, you have to combine that creator mindset and creator like enthusiasm, excitement and passion with some basic business skills. Right. So E Commerce, in my experience, is one of the best ways to monetize for creators, for people that have audiences to monetize the audience that they have, the passion that they have.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
Alex Fedatov is a renowned, results driven
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B
and highly respected E commerce entrepreneur and the founder of E Commerce Scaling Secrets. He has generated over $100 million in e commerce sales and advised brands including Under Armour, Lululemon and Rhone.
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A
You can try and like come into the market with some unique product that no one has sold before, but that comes with a higher level of risk because you haven't seen like the proof of concept who want to make sure that there is already proven and validated demand for these products. Elon Musk, right? I mean he didn't invent cars.
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B
No.
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A
Right. He just created like started selling a different type of cars. Cars were already selling like for what, hundred years? He just started selling different kind of cars. That is the main starting point. Then you have it spans the globe like a super high cold Internet.
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B
Elvis Presley. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win. The Living youg Legacy Podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Oh, that is sensational.
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A
Jordan, open Chicago with the lead.
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B
You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream. Welcome back to another episode of the Legacy Makers Podcast. Joining me today is, you know, I'm going to take a moment and pause here. Alex, how do you pronounce your last name again?
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A
It's Faratov.
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B
Yeah, I'm not going to be able to pronounce that.
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A
No one can. It's okay.
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B
That's actually, that was, that was literally the intro, but. Literally that was the intro. I'm Ray Gutierrez for Inside Success. Today we are about to film Alex's last name Ferratov episode. But before we do, we're going to talk about something that I been really wanting to jump into. Headfirst without water and E Commerce. Alex, welcome to the Legacy Makers podcast. How are you?
- [02:31]
A
So much? Thank you for having me.
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B
Right on, brother. So what brings you to, to these neck of the woods? What are we talking about today?
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A
We talk E Commerce. We talk, you know, scaling direct to consumer brands and just adapting to the, to the new environment that we're in like just selling physical products all over the Internet.
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B
Cool. So how many podcasts have you done?
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A
I've done maybe like 10.
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B
Fantastic. Walk me through the journey. I'm going to be a client and we're going to make the 20 minute podcast about this and then we're going introduce legacy makers. I own Nintendo Pro. Com. Nintendo Pro. Com PlayStation label.
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A
You own it?
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B
Yes.
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A
Oh, wow.
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B
I own PlayStation Lab.com, xbox Live, Love.com. i own these two, three Amazing.coms. i used to work for PlayStation. I was the brand face for PlayStation for a couple of years and I've been squatting on these dot coms because I come from 2005 when everybody was on camera trying to hustle and I was one of the first to do this 20 years ago. And now I'm sitting on Nintendo Pro and I go, man, the Switch 2 is out. I got a triforce on my hand. I'm really good on camera and I can hustle. Nintendo product. What do I do?
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A
That is a great product to have. Are you licensed to sell these products?
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B
I'm not selling anything. I just have a dot com. What do I do? I'm coming to you going, I want to make E Commerce. Do I sell mouse pads? Do I sell Nintendo Switch covers? How do I make money off of this? I just want to make 20 bucks today, right now.
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A
20 bucks only.
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B
Whatever. Just start me somewhere. Nintendo Pro.come commerce.
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A
Okay, so that's a great. Okay.
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B
Yeah, shoot through it, brother. I'm waiting.
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A
So I have a friend, his name is Jordan Kilgar.
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B
Oh, he sounds amazing. I love it.
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A
How can he actually introduce you to him?
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B
You want to call him up right now?
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A
Yeah, because what I like to do is like I think all of the answers in life are just literally one conversation way.
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B
I know I'll wait.
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A
And so Jordan one, what he does is he sells these custom joysticks for maybe Xbox anyways, like Steam Deck Portal, like whatever.
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B
The. The new Xbox is coming down the pipeline. They're going to announce the Rog Ally, whatever, whatever. There's going to be a necessity. There is a premium customer service, which is why is Nintendo Pro. I do not want the children that go, no, I want the old farts that have tons of money because they've made it and they just want a nerdy product to spend $1,000 on. Yeah, Nintendo Pro.
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A
Okay, then are there like Nintendo like custom kind of like things that you can put on them? I don't know.
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B
You tell me. Yeah, we can do custom skill dbrand is a great, I would say, but not bottleneck. Dbrand. I'm a huge fan of theirs, their branding, their communication, the tone of their voice, their Canadian base. All they hustle is screen protectors, skins for the Nintendo Switch. But they're naming conventions is like the Kill Switch 2 and they were the first ones to leak the schematics of the like they are on the edge of branding. Like literally customer support is them making fun of the customers in a way that it's like serving to the customer. Because it's like modern way of talking. Only nerds talk like that. Like I can insult it to your face and you'd be laughing about it because it's right. Because we're, we're so high intelligent that making fun of us ourselves is part of our nature. So I think as an E commerce with Nintendo Pro, yeah, it could be sold small little things, a case, anything. Like walk me through someone. Walk me through your passenger. Sorry, your passenger, your customer experience. You meet someone like me that's all fired up and like, dude, you've got the answers. Let's start hustling. How does this work? How does a customer come to you?
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A
For sure. So there's like two types of people that we work with. Number one is a category of people that don't have any idea what they want to sell. Right. So for them the journey starts with, you know, the product research. Right. So there's different tools where you can like look into other products that are successfully being sold online right now. And and so the key is to find something that is already proven and already validated. Right. And kind of like figure out like maybe slightly different way of selling that product. Maybe it was a different angle on advertising, maybe with some differentiation on the product side. So that's one type of people. Second type of people is people like you who already have the product or who already have some idea or the direction.
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B
Yeah, I got the name, I've got the North Star. I can hustle it, I can cut content. But what is the product? Is it just skins for your dental switch? Whatever it is. But I just got the name and I just want to point that laser beam to something 100%.
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A
Yeah. So in that case for you, it would start with research on specific products that are already being sold in that category. Because you can try and like come into the market with some unique product that no one has sold before, but that comes with a higher level of risk because you haven't seen like the proof of concept that that thing is something that people want. So for example, it would start with product research on Amazon, for example, Nintendo accessories. And you would see how much of each specific accessory for Nintendo is being sold every single month. There are tools like Helium 10 that you can quickly point out the specific volume, specific number of revenue that each product generates. So when we are coming, like, so when either it's with our own business, with our clients, when we come into the market, we want to make sure that there is already like proven and validated demand for these products. So we are not recreating like reinventing the wheel. We can bring some kind of like uniqueness about the product or idea. But we already kind of like going into validated demand. Like for example, Elon Musk, right? I mean he didn't invent cars.
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B
No.
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A
Right. He just created like started selling a different type of cars. Cars were already selling like for what, 100 years. He, he just started selling different kind of cars. And so that is, that is the main starting point. Then you have let's say 10 different ideas from that research. You have your, let's say, scans, cases, I don't know, like whatever.
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B
Yeah, as long as it doesn't have Yoshi's face on it. Right. Because now we have to license Nintendo. Like I. Sorry to interrupt you, but I understand your meaning. I see a lot of content creators on YouTube that are hustling the Nintendo verticals. Like, I'm a Nintendo fan. And then at the end of the spot it's like, well, here's a sponsored ad. Buy my Yoshi inspired artwork. It looks like a silhouette of a Yoshi. It makes, the thing is it makes you feel Nintendo. So you're going to buy it as long as it doesn't have the Nintendo seal of approval. Then you're, you're, you're as I'm assuming you're in cleared legal waters to be able to sell fan base work. So my vision is, sure, I'm Nintendo Pro, but to stay within the legal waters, I'm Nintendo pro.com where it's like, no, this is internal pro com.com to always say in our language like, no, no, no, no, no. We're not trying to steal from Nintendo hustle their shit. We just are a fan base that sees our, our top shelf client base and we're hustling our funnel through Nintendo Pro dot com. Like I don't have the social media handles. I don't have any of that. I'm just following this site that's actually part of a much grander universe and idea But I've got to start with it simple.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Even if it's just a mug, even if it's just shooting it in the red room, holding a red mug. I'm like, well, I'm going to hustle this mug now because I have a thousand of these, but I'm going to shoot 100 hours of content to move a thousand pieces of inventory. So that's how I see it. I just need to see what I'm going to chew on that day to sell.
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A
Right? Yeah. So you would have a list of all of the ideas, product ideas. Then you would prioritize those ideas based on the scaling potential.
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B
Got it.
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A
Like difficulty of manufacturing or sourcing that particular product. And so you would kind of like shortlist that to probably like three to five. Ideally, if there is no clear winner, maybe there's like a clear winner. There's a lot of search volume. You can easily source the product. Margins are great because one of the keys with E commerce is to make sure that you have great margins. Like, for example, you have, you know, iPhone here. Right. How much does this cost to manufacture?
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B
Oh, I would say 300, $400.
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A
Probably less than that.
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B
I heard it was 15, $20. Some really smart dude on stage dropped like a crazy number. I'm like, that's not possible.
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A
It's like 100, 200 bucks.
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B
Right? That's more reasonable. I believe that.
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A
So. And that's selling it for a thousand bucks.
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B
Yeah, a lot more than that.
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A
So it's like, it's like 5x.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Right. So in E commerce, in my experience, you want to be if you want to have the scaling potential for the business. Because in our business, like with our clients, businesses, I don't like to touch anything that like, cannot generate, like at least like million dollars. Like even more like.
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B
And I started at 20. Okay, yeah, no, no, no. I'm gassing you up because you can clearly see my client journey where I'm like, I've got a great name. Your eyes pop up. But look at my confidence. And I'm the guy, I'm the one. I'm the one dressed in stripes and gold shoes. But I go, well, I own Nintendo Pro dot com. What should I do with it?
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A
And you could be a great content creator. I mean, the advantage that you have.
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B
But I make money for shit. Because I don't know how to. Because I don't think that way. I want to make cool shit. I don't know what it's worth.
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A
I mean, now, like, okay, so, but like with all of the energy that you have with natural excitement, enthusiasm and knowledge of that industry, that, that is your competitive advantage that most people don't have, because most people have no idea. It's like, okay, should I sell a beauty product? Pet products, like you are naturally inclined and knowledge and ignore. Yes.
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B
Yeah. Which is the toughest market to break into, trust me. Do not mess with us. We can see you a mile away. We can send bullshit a thousand miles away.
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A
And so. And you can direct that energy into selling like a physical product. You can be your own content creator. The upside that we have these days, for example, like my friend Jordan who's selling these.
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B
I love my friend Jordan. I love it. Yeah.
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A
I'll show you some of his products. It's incredible. So he's selling these products organically.
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B
Wow.
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A
Only organically. Wow. Like, he's big on TikTok shop. He's probably one of the top, like 100 shops on the TikTok shop. And so he's selling these, like, just creating pieces of content. He has a studio like, like we have here, right? You guys have a studio. Like he makes content. Post on TikTok. Some of those posts, you know, getting like tens of millions, hundreds of millions of views, organically driving traffic to his product. And so once you identify kind of the product that you want to sell, like out of the whole list, you can just start creating content and driving people to say like a TikTok shop listing.
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B
Got it.
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A
Or, you know, for us, like, is
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B
it an affiliate program kind of thing where I'm just, I'm creating content, I'm just sending traffic to a link that's going to give me a kickback. Or is this link to my store?
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A
If that's your product, like, you create your own TikTok shop listing.
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B
Right. Okay, because. Because I've been doing research on this on subreddit, where I'm looking at Alibaba, I'm looking at drop shipping, I'm looking at all sorts of funnels where I'm like, I've got the brand, I've got the energy. What am I hustling, what am I selling? And I clearly am not making it myself because I don't have time because I'm running four studios at this very moment. So that's why I've had to shelve these passion projects. But I know now if I just create a mini version of myself, almost like an AI where it's hit the first focus is Nintendo, Probably Xbox, love, PlayStation, laugh, murder palace, all these other suicide, Miami, all These other eccentric brands. Now I literally am running four studios, having a podcast and I have five brands making me money and all I have to do is wake up at 4 in the morning. That's all I gotta do.
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A
I have seen people successfully combining like a full time gig and running their business on the side.
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B
Oh sure.
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A
As long as they're like efficient with their time and know what to prioritize and what to focus on and they have the passion and excitement, you know, so they either like you either wake up early, like you said, or like you stay late, you know, at night.
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B
Stay late is more my time.
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A
And so you just start creating content and some of that content, you know, pops up.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And so you start asking questions.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And so with TikTok Shop, for instance, like you have the kind of distribution platform, your main kind of priority is to create content, which is something you're really good at.
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B
Like, which is what we do here. This is a content creation production facility.
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A
That's it. And so I. And that's like, you know, just kind of like looking at the bigger creator, like landscape. Oh yeah, is that. I see a lot of people that are amazing on camera. They have big audiences, but like they need, in order to make, but they're not making a lot of money. So in order to make money you have to combine that creator mindset and creator like enthusiasm. It's like excitement and passion with, you know, some, some basic business skills. Right?
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B
Yeah. Logan Paul.
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A
So you just kind of. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Right, so. But like there are a lot of people probably that have bigger audiences. Logan Paul. But they're not monetizing it as much because they have not chosen the right path. So E Commerce in my experience is one of the best ways to monetize, you know, for creators, for people that have audiences to monetize, you know, their, the audience that they have, the passion that they have.
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B
Absolutely. So how does one discover you? What's your website? What's the journey for someone to discover you and work with you and be mentored by you?
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A
So I have Instagram, it's called Alex Ferratovsk. Like my name you cannot pronounce it. Just. Yeah, it's. But it's.
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B
Yeah, it's a great way to market yourself. I'm glad you're here, Baba. You've come to the right place.
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A
I'm actually thinking about buying like, kind of like shorter.
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B
Like Rudy's going to drop his last and go, Rudy red. He's looking at the legal possibilities of doing it. Yeah, it's he's going for it. It's just, it does, it's just a no brainer. Dude. Look at the day we live in. We live, it's 2025. We live in a video game. Like really look around you. Like, what the hell, why not?
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A
Right? So let's say, you know, I have Instagram people, people message me on Instagram asking some questions.
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B
What about Reddit? Do you have an audience there? Do you?
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A
No.
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B
No. Okay.
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A
No. So we just run ads, we run ads on Facebook and you know, people, we sell the stores. So on Facebook we're selling this like, done for you stores where we're creating like Shopify stores for people.
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B
See, that's another avenue. Shopify. Why can't I just have a Shopify on Nintendo?
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A
Probably 100%.
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B
Yeah, you know, that's it. Okay, cool. Sorry to interrupt you.
- [16:15]
A
Yeah. With, with, with your product, with your idea specifically, I would look for like, or kind of like more organic way to, to sell it and find an audience. Cool. Because I think there's like probably TikTok, there's like hundreds of thousands or even millions people that are into Nintendo. So you can tap into that audience already for sure and just drive them to, you know, to the product that you have.
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B
Right on. Cool, cool, cool. So again, let's go back to. I'm a, I'm, I'm finding you on Instagram. I've clicked on your ad. We're. What's the first thing I see? Do I get a zoom link to a scheduled call? Walk me through the onboarding process.
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A
Yeah, so it's people, people apply to kind of if people are interested in getting some mentorship or coaching, they have an idea, maybe they want to move away from their nine to five, they want to start a business on the site or they want to grow like already successful E commerce business to kind of the next stage. They just fill the application, they book a call with one of our team members, we ask, ask them some questions about their experience, their motivations, how much time they have, how much capital they have. Because you know, you'd have to invest capital into some of these things. And from there, you know, if they're, if they're a good fit, it's, you know, something that works for both sides. You know, we start working together.
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B
Let's talk about capital. When people hear that word, that other C word, they stop, they freeze. What is too little capital? What is a reasonable amount of capital that's not wasting anybody's fucking time? You know what I mean?
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A
Right.
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B
And I say that f on purpose because it's like, to succeed, you need money. You need, like, I believe in this, and this is what the worth I will enhance. That's the way of the world. Sorry to tell you, but that's the way it is. It's that simple. You value your time, and I've given you capital. How much capital is enough that you respect me?
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A
I respect you. Either way, you're awesome, human.
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B
You know what I mean? But I mean, like, let's do business.
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A
Okay.
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B
Is it a thousand bucks? Is it five to 100,000?
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A
Our mentorship program is $10,000.
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B
Right on.
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A
Yeah. So that's. That's our program. And then if you want to go like the paid, paid ads route, which is something that most people choose because they just want to get something to the market faster. They don't have the creator skills or the passion, enthusiasm, product idea like you have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So they. They do pay that, which means, you know, they're creating ads on Facebook. They run those, and then as ads start getting momentum, they just reinvesting into apps to grow their business. This way, people growing their businesses to seven figures, eight figures, some nine figures. So that's one of the paths. Another one is organic, where it's mostly kind of like your time and effort trading content. So let's say you invest into mentorship program and we kind of guide you through the whole process. Like in our community, we have, for example, one of the top TikTok shop creators who's like, coaching you and guiding you on how to kind of like, put all of these elements in place.
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B
Sure.
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A
How to choose the right products to promote, to sell, how to properly position your listing. So all of the moving parts that come with successfully, you know, selling the product.
- [19:07]
B
Oh, yeah. And then you're off to the races. And then you ascend and keep. You keep it in your ecosystem because that's really essentially the knowledge. It's like, here's the tribe that I joined. I learned to do this. Now I have to build my own tribe. But my vertical is this, My vertical is that. And then you eventually started helping each other out, and you're like, oh, well, I started this, I started that. Well, let's partner up, up. And then. Oh, wow, what an ascension.
- [19:28]
A
Yeah. We have. We have, like, thousand people, over 1,000 people in our community, and it's incredible. So we have, like the WhatsApp community and people just like every day there's probably like 200 messages. People just like, sharing each other, helping each other. So people find their friends, people find their partners, people find, you know, people to collaborate with and learn from and, you know, just. Just raising each other up.
- [19:50]
B
The emozis of the world start school, they give it a brand, they start their villa, and they're like, wow, the point of entry. It's like, I would much rather spend this money here than be broke in a university. Excuse me. That's the devil choking me at the moment. It's like, don't say that out loud, Ray. Don't let him say that. What are we to learn about your episode with Legacy Makers? You're about to step into studio for an interview with Jason. What's a good preview about on your episode?
- [20:14]
A
Man? I want to share my story because I was reflecting on this recently. I went through, like, I think my, you know, I think people go through different challenges in life and manage to. To build something, you know, successful. I want to inspire people, and I want to do that by sharing my story. Like, I was, you know, I was born in Ukraine. I was born in poor family. I haven't seen my mom from the age of, like, seven to the age of 15. And because she was working abroad to provide for her family, my dad has a surgery so he couldn't work. And I want to share the story that would inspire people and show them that it doesn't matter what circumstances they have right now, if they have the passion, they have desire to change their life, they can do it. At the age of 18, I came to the United States. I. I came on the student visa.
- [21:09]
B
Wow.
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A
I stayed here illegally for three years.
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B
Wow.
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A
I overstayed my visa. I didn't have Social Security number. I didn't have driver's license. I was still driving car, sure. Of course. Like, I never. I was never stopped by police in three years. And. And then I came back to Ukraine, and then I managed to come back to the United States. And so I want to share this story with people to kind of like, show them that if they have the passion, if they have desire to create something better for themselves and for their family, they can do it. It's all possible. And so I want to kind of demonstrate it by. By my own example.
- [21:44]
B
I know it's nuts coming from Ukraine, spending some time literally living on the edge of, you know, I. I don't want to use the D word, deportation. But you. You are now in south beach have filming a podcast with me hustling. I. I use the word hustling because it's real. It's a hustle. Hustling E Commerce. Educating. You're not you, you're. And then I use the word, the other word educating. Because this is what this is about. It's educating. And that's something that Rudy's done for for me and what I continue to do for, for, for you and vice versa. So how can people find you? Do you have a.com like besides your Instagram? Like I want people to know, like, you're, you're reachable right after this podcast. How can folks find you?
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A
E commerce scalingsecrets.com e commerce scaling secrets
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B
com.com e commerce scalingsecrets.com I love the name is straight to the point. Has like a moody fight club fight to it.
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A
It's a long man. Like, it's a long name.
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B
But it' you. You're going to filter out the idiots that are not. They're too lazy to type it out. If you can get through the dot com, you've already been through the first funnel.
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A
It's like I was considering, I was considering buying E commerce dot com. That would be awesome. But the guy who got it got it like 10 or 20 years ago. And like he, he wants like $10 million or something. Yeah.
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B
For that domain, I'm like, e commerce.com it's for sale and he only wants 10.
- [23:01]
A
It's. It's not for sale. He's kind of like, he's playing like, you know, you know, he's playing this lady who's like, hard to get. Oh, I don't know.
- [23:09]
B
Yeah.
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A
Make me an offer.
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B
I think that's why I was going to hustle Nintendo Probe, do something with him. Like I can make maybe 5k off of this. Maybe. I don't know. But I know, I know I'm on for smarter of a smarter strategy, my friend. Thanks to you, Alex. This concludes yet another episode of the Legacy Makers podcast for Inside Success. I'm sorry for all the editing. I'm Ray Gutierrez.
- [23:32]
A
Sam.