In-Depth with Paul Harvey

Richard Morgan
May 15, 2019

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We go in-depth with Paul Harvey talking through his Amazon successes and failures, the move from a successful cage fighter and how that prepared him for teaching in public and private schools in South Africa and the UK, plus his love for Gorilla Suits.

OG on in-depth selling on Amazon
Former cage fighter and school teacher
Co-owner of Sellerchatbot for Amazon Sellers
Ability to breakdown complex information

What did your parents instil in you as a child?

Do hard work and don’t stop
They kept working day in and out sick or otherwise
Parents would do anything for Paul and he didn’t realise the sacrifices they made
Realising this now as a parent of two children
Parenting is playing with another version of yourself – awesome
Paul wants to beat parent’s parenting

Earliest entrepreneurial memory

First job was selling counterfeit CDs at the side of the road in South Africa
The Sun wore Paul down over three months
Was Mr Bats the Gorilla at the local theme park
Wore a huge gorilla suit and the two biggest fears
- Kids run into you at groin height – hurts
- Lots of tourists yank you in all directions
Sweating in the suit and sharing the suit with others was not pleasant

Is school important to a waste of time?

Been a teacher and a Head Teacher in South Africa, UK and Private schools
Kids were in and out of jail
Headteacher of a PRU – People Referral Unit
Hurt Paul being there 6 years and made some huge differences to the kids lives there
A year after school they did nothing
Aim was to get kids into mainstream schools as £1,500 in a mainstream school and £40k for a PRU kid place
Did not get a single kid into mainstream from the PRU was Paul’s disappointment
School would have been helpful if the kids had a stronger foundation

Schooling was good for Paul

Schooling was good for Paul
His parents sacrificed a lot for him to study
Majored in maths & Psychology which was not a good move as they clash
Education needs to fit the person – some people education is not built for
Being a teacher Paul knows what’s involved

First meaningful job

First taste of internet marketing
Did not want to keep being a teacher
Had 6 weeks of holiday
Wife was working had nothing to do
Read a book about how to create mobile apps – knew nothing about coding
Then stumble on internet marketing to build mobile apps in 1 hour
Paid $500 for the course – started at 11pm one night, spent all night
In the morning started creating apps and a week later published apps on Google App Store
One was the FIFA13 news app – tips and tricks
All Paul did for 6 weeks and got £500 / month generated for the next 2 years
First taste of entrepreneurship
Was a learning success but not a long term business (spammy apps was not Paul’s thing)
Tried cold calling restaurants to create apps for them
Learned not to rock up in hoody and jeans
Turned Paul right off cold calling and sales

Something no-one else knows about you?

When teaching in Schools – the number of times Paul wanted to punch the kids back
Paul was not respected as he had an accent, taught maths and was Deputy Headteacher
Learned restraint on the kids when they punched you as a teacher

A Book that has influenced your Life?

Think and Grow Rich – Napolean Hill
Paul listened on Audible
Loved it as an old school gentleman

Who has been the biggest influence and why?

100% Paul’s Father
A very unhealthy man and diagnosed with MS and passed away in 6 years
He didn’t change who he was going through all the distress
Did not change as a person

Three positive habits on a daily basis

Love data and checking everything
Has an 80 point checklist to check every day for his personal goals
Teeth brush, shower, exercise
Every task has a point – teeth 1 point, meditation 5 points
To improve every day by 1 point every day
Stack ranking method
Biggest habit do everyday – this overflows into business
Also do Wim Hoff (breathing) – a Wim Hoff instructor qualified
Climb a mountain in not top and -20 degrees
Can do crazy things – mind over matter

Cage fighting

Paul does not look like a cage fighter
Back in SA in 2003 UFC was beginning
Longtime UFC Fan from UFC110
Paul watched and wanted to do that
He joined in SA and it was a day of trying to knock each other out
He did that for 10 years and took an IQ test before and then a few years in – it was not good
Now medically can’t take knocks to the head as too risky

Biggest weakness

Perfectionism – get this from Father
Moving the whole team to Asana for CRM for Management

Darkest Hour just before Dawn

Two years after quitting job and going to Amazon full time
Second biggest weakness is teacher training – taught how to be a teacher not run a business
This came home to roost
Was supporting family on Amazon income
Had a big shipment that had to pay £20k of stock and £100k in retail
Container took 8 months as it went back and forth 3-4 times
The money for the stock was loaned from a friend and respected him so much – think he burnt his bridge with him
The loan was for 6 months for the stock and give it back to him in 6 months
This friend had to pay his £20k back but Paul could not pay
His friend sent a lawyer and Paul had to go to his Wife’s parents to ask for a loan
That amount was a fortune in South African rand – a really tough one to ask them
Paid them back in 3 months with interest but really tough

Best comeback from adversity

Paul also has MS similar to his Dad in his 50s
Paul got it in his 20s and the cage fighting was the catalyst
Biggest achievement in climbing the highest mountain in Poland in shorts with Wim Hoff
Paul when he passed the 5 year mark of having MS he’d beat his Father’s time and went on the Mountain trek as a celebration

Most common advice to people

Just get it done
Fail as fast as you can and just get it done and figure it out later
The amount of people that did not sell on Amazon because of fear of tax
Don’t worry about what-ifs

What advice should people ignore?

No matter what the in-depth marketing says – it is not easy
Kicking a ball – is easy but not easy
For you it is for Paul it’s not

When did you find FBA for the first time?

Was designing apps and launched own consulting for businesses
Not going well – only the spammy apps were making money
Saw Amazing.com and Amazing Selling Machine
The Amazon storefront is very similar to the App storefront
Thought it was an opportunity and paid for the course using some of his wedding budget
Paul was upset that his Brother surprised him with a Vegas weekend because he wanted to complete his course

Breaking down Technical Information

ASM one was the course that Paul got in on early doors
Paul put a post out about starting a Mastermind when ASM2 came out
Paul chose five people and Paul was the lowest earner out of them
One is now doing $8m / month
Paul formed partnerships in the Mastermind with those 5 and Paul got invited to speak with webinars and coaching
Paul wanted to teach so this was all cool
Helped a whole bunch of people – been around since ASM1
Some people stole Paul’s strategies and used them in their coaching and Masterminds

Sourcing Process?

What makes you think of the products you choose?
It’s such a valuable thing
About 5 years ago had a goal of finding an amazing sourcing agent
Spent £5k in testing sourcing agents but it was a great investment
His agent was working out of their garage when they started but now are $100m a year with a large team
Has a very strict checklist for his assistants to do product research
Paul then sends the URL to the sourcing team in China to get quotes from 4-5 suppliers with the tweaks he wants
He gets a sample and if happy gives the go ahead and a month or two later it’s in Amazon

Metrics you track?

Record the daily traffic, sessions, sales, conversions and everything
If we make any changes to the pricing we can see it
Had one product doing reasonably good sales (60-70) and in 6 months was doing only 10 per day
Caused by tons of new competitors undercutting one another and so sold out and left the niche
Give team about 6-8 weeks and the conversion rate is through the roof due to these metrics

Most important channels for marketing

Fear of Facebook Ad account being closed
Also the Amazon ad account
Facebook are not as forgiving as Amazon
Purely just do facebook

Product Failure

Kids musical instruments
Musical maracas – one day an email on Facebook page was about a child swallowing a small little ball from inside the toy
Asking if they are poisonous as they small child had swallowed it
Paul had it all safety tested but not the balls inside
Fortunately there was no problem and the child was fine
It opened up a gaping hole for Paul in his business and this was a shock
Had to close out this product and it was in 4 x Separate Listings (ASINs)
A big heavy problem
If you sell anything in kids toys make sure it’s all checked and safe

Biggest Win as an Amazon Seller

Eight-Nine years in and had to rebuild the business from scratch 3-4 times
Every partnership has failed
From no-money and doing it fulltime
Win was to restart everytime and relaunching Amazon brands

Worst advice you’ve heard given to Sellers?

Person reached out to Paul – “I don’t understand you seem to always be working, I don;t understand why after being on Amazon for years should you not be on a beach with a laptop?”
This is a fallacy and it doesn’t really work that way

Advice to Advanced Sellers today?

Focus on external traffic because
Facebook is Amazon’s biggest competitor
The winners will be those with a big presence in-depth on Facebook so when Facebook starts competing with Amazon you’re in a good place

Seller Sessions Live

Teaching a lot of what he teaches his clients in-depth
See himself as an Amazon Seller first
All is tested in his own Amazon Business
How to use chatbots to make your customers do your bidding and bend over backwards for you
Leveraging search and buy, asking customers what you should sell
Build a subscriber list so you can send traffic to