In-Depth With Liran Hirschkorn

Richard Morgan
April 15, 2019

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Liran is here and we’re going in-depth on his journey to Amazon and beyond covering his parents instilling in him the ability to achieve, most important daily metrics, the book that most influenced him and what his current sourcing strategy looks like.

Two time seven figure private label seller
Regular to Amazon Towers giving the Seller perspective
Co-host to the Amazon Seller Podcast
Partner in Amazing Freedom Training and
Hunter of Scammers

What did your parents instil in you as a child?

Brought up in Israel
Dad took an offer to come to the USA as promotion with his work
Education was very important in the family – striving for excellence
If you got 90% then it’s not enough – instilled sense to succeed
With three elder siblings there was a lot to live upto
Siblings as Dentist, Solicitor and Project Manager / Entrepreneur

First Job as a Child/Entrepreneurial Memory

Elementary school – brother bought candy near his school for 10c and Liran sold the candy for 25c in his school – arbitrage at an early age
Being a camp councillor and working in a Restaurant
When 18 years old got his real estate licence and ran around Manhattan to rent apartments
Spent the whole Summer and sold only one apartment – a good lesson in hard work and the Hustle of New York real estate market

1st Meaningful Job you Enjoyed?

At 19 years got internship and Citicorp Investment Services
Dream growing up was to be a financial adviser / stock broker
As a kid used to watch Dad’s friend trades stocks and loved seeing the stocks go up and down
Made calls in the role and became a Sales Assistant before getting licences and becoming a financial adviser
First real job in Corporate America nad very exciting

What was your first Owned Business?

In Life Insurance in 2010 was the first real business and was a success
Along the way from 2007-2010 had tried a bunch of things in Internet Marketing that had failed
Buying and flipping domain names and affiliate marketing
Bought a domain name in 2008/9 MyBear.com was going to be an e-commerce business that Liran was going to setup but didn’t get off the ground
Later on would sell on eBay kids clothing in Gymboree clothes lines that had been discontinued
These were side-hustles alongside the Corporate Job 9am-7pm and weekend for the side-hustle
Once bought ZuZu pets and put it on eBay and years before knowing about selling on Amazon
Always looking for a hustle until starting the Insurance Business in 2010
Was in a Network Marketing company and became the no1 enroler for that company by creating a website and drawing people in
Hired someone on Upwork to build this website and drive traffic to it and articles
It worked and started getting leads that Liran called and sold them on the Network Marketing company to enrol
Joined Facebook in 2008 to help with this marketing
Doing this after work or before going into his day job as a bank manager
Started making $5k / month and quit his corporate job to travel around with Jim Wolf selling Network Marketing
This taught Liran a lot on learning techniques, psychological techniques and how to close someone
Eventually company closed and Liran went back to corporate America
Learned a lot about self-development as a result because in selling network marketing you all have a level playing field – to build the advantage you need to build yourself

Name a Business Book that has influenced your Life and Why?

Think and Grow Rich – Napolean Hill
Taught that you need to have a goal and a journey and vision in place with belief that you can achieve it
Then take massive action around it to make it happen
Really started Liran to have a drive

Something about you that no-one else knows?

Hanging on the wall is a picture of Howard Stern from Liran’s wife
Liran is a super fan and has listened to him over the last 28 years
Message Liran with the secret codes from the shows…

Who is the biggest influence on your life and why?

Starting out as an intern at Citicorp had two key influencers on Liran’s approach to selling and communicating
Parents setting the high expectations of their children

Three most important positive habits you do on a daily basis?

Lifelong learning is a key with daily reading, listening, watching and consumption to learn something new
Spending time with family and daughter every day
Meditation – not every day but every week

What investment do you make in your health habits?

Did the Keto-diet and lost 20 pounds
Joined the gym again recently
Transcendental Meditation in 2012 that’s had a positive influence
Healthy diet and maintaining good health
Get better sleep when exercising
Exercising in the evening (9-10pm) works for Liran as Wife and Daughter are asleep and so not stealing time from Family

One thing you believe in that goes against the grain for others?

Work hard in school and get a good job was the old school mentality
Liran is not such a believer in that
If his daughter came and said she wanted to build a business rather than go to college – he would support it
Believe in being transparent and honest – maybe not so against the grain

Biggest weakness?

Knowing when to say NO
Been working on this recently – protecting time more and more often saying no to certain opportunities

What’s your darkest hour before the dawn?

Toughest time personally more so was going through a divorce in 2002-3
Got married at 21 and separated at 23 while she was pregnant
Trying to do all that and pay attorneys, child support, doing work, fighting to see daughter all at once
Was a difficult and challenging time in life
Ended up meeting current wife a year later and best thing that could have happened in Liran’s life

Greatest comeback from adversity?

Being able to find success in different industries has been an achievement
Ability to move up in the corporate world was good
Sold the insurance firm
Amazon business successes

Most common advice you give to people?

Have gratitude and be grateful for where you are – don’t complain about being busy as the alternative is not great
Business side has no perfect roadmap for success in business as there are bumps along the way
Having grit and perseverance to fight through the challenges
Having the right mindset is the key to success

What advice should people ignore?

When Family & Friends tell you you’re crazy for going for a business idea
Getting away from a day job and having more freedom has been a big benefit to Liran
Not taking the opinions of others who have not been there or done that
Pay attention to their life before taking that advice

How did you get to Amazon?

FIrst real foray into ecommerce was 2014 with a Facebook Ad for a course ‘Dropship Lifestyle’
Was a pretty solid course on how to build a Shopify site and contact US companies and seeing if they dropship on a wholesale basis
Cost $400 to setup a Shopify store and sold balance bikes for kids
Learning more found groups on Facebook all about Amazon FBA focused on arbitrage

How much did you invest to get started?

A few thousand dollars to get started
Spent it on a few different things rather than all in one product
Risk was quite low in not being able to sell stuff
A good foundation to learn about best seller rank and shipping into Amazon before getting into Private Labels
Learned a lot about flat files and variations

Your first product launch?

Summer of 2015
Had gone to ASD show in Las Vegas
Sat on plane back with a guy with a $100m business in perfume nad electronics
Was flying out to ASD to see one of his clients for the day
Both had gone to the same high school so a connection
He wanted Liran to come and work for him – but it went south after 2 months
Motivation was to develop a private label product for them, so had the time to focus on the private label for himself
Life was funded by commissions from Insurance sales so got on with it
Started with FBA in Summer of 2015

Issues with Product Launch?

Had used all the friends and family and incentivised review clubs ,etc
In hindsight the learning was not being more aggressive in getting those reviews in as Sellers that had thousands of reviews back then have grandfathered themselves in
Didn’t go as aggressive with the policy back then as he could have been
Didn’t know of any launch methods (Viral Launch, Giveaways) until 2016 when they got more popular
Had an initial product that did pretty well
Second product did not do well
Was at a wholesale show and saw a woman selling baby moccasins
Liran didn’t think the wholesale price would work for Amazon
She suggested to Liran he could get these made in China himself rather than buy wholesale
Went for a premium quality leather and expected to got $18 over the $9 most people are selling them at
Amazon is a price driven marketplace and realised that bringing in premium does not mean people will buy

Your Sourcing Process?

Differentiation is important
How to find ways to differentiate your product
Products with design opportunity to them is good
A barbecue glove can’t easily be differentiated
Done some stuff that’s needed moulds – maybe $750 for the mould not bigger
Have hired Designers for graphics and demo
Like to go for little bit higher priced products $50-$150

Most important Daily Metrics?

Daily profitability (daily sales – PPC costs and Cost of Goods)
Look at regularly
Lifetime Value of a Customer – you’re willing to pay more to acquire them
Not got consumable type products to focus on this
Would like to move into that more
Monthly metrics is Sessions and Conversions to keep track of

Key Marketing Channel you couldn’t do without?

Sponsored Ads is a necessary channel for launching private label products
One of the best ways now to rank and launch PL products
Amazon is that necessary channel for Liran
Have tried eBay and more effort in selling through the website but not the focus
Put a bunch of money into an Agency to run ads for the website – it didn’t work

Biggest win as an Amazon Seller?

Transitioning from Arbitrage to Private Label was a key milestone
Started getting infringement claims while doing arbitrage and so decided to stop and go all in on Private Label
Waiting for a possible offer on one of his brands – a nice milestone if it comes through

Planning on Exiting the business?

Being able to come into the game and leverage knowledge to make another income stream
All the brands you build – you make your money when you sell the business
Goal is to grow a brand further with a partner and looking to sell next year
Combined two brands into one account that made it more difficult to sell a brand
If sold these two brands the goal would be to develop the remaining one and follow up the training and sharing

Where do you see your business in 2 years?

Hopefully two exits and down to a single brand
Taken some chips off the table to invest in more and put some away for the future

Outside of Friends and Partners – who do you rate in the community and why?

Happen to be a big fan of Casey Gauss of Viral-Launch
Really genuine and really wants to help Sellers
His story is quite interesting
Like Danny and respect a lot of what you do
Respect my partners

Importance of Giving it Back and Paying it Forward?

Side effects of Seller Sessions has been great for Danny with benefits beyond Money
Sellers send Liran on Facebook all the time
Never think of it as how can I monetise this….
Great to share with others
BNI – “givers gain” motto
When you give to others you end up getting it back in return
Networking is what got Danny & Liran together
Putting yourself out there and striking up conversations with others can take you places
A number of Liran’s best connections have come from Conferences

Worst advice you’ve heard given to Sellers?

A seller asks something and another person in these groups says ‘That’s against Amazon ToS – don’t do it”
People giving these limiting beliefs / advice are not the ones doing 7 figures
Be careful who you listen to – is their mindset right for you?
Make your own decisions