P52: The Perfect Partnership that Built an eCommerce Empire from Ireland (🔐 A Continuation of EP 218 🔓)
Video & Audio of Our Call:
Background:
Welcome to Part 2 and the continuation of our interview with Stephen Somers of Marketplace Superheroes. This time, Stephen brings along his Co-Founder, Robert Rickey to share their knowledge and experiences of growing their highly successful business. Here are a few things you should know about Robert. He has over 20 years of experience selling products online, over 500,000 imported items, and has sold over $12m of physical products online.
With the combined knowledge, creativity, and ingenuity of Stephen and Robert, they have created Marketplace Superheroes, which is a community where sellers can learn how to build an online business selling their own, branded products globally on Amazon. Their mission is to help people succeed through their coaching and training programs. Today, Marketplace Superheroes is considered as a top-notch platform for anyone who wants to become a great Amazon seller. The educational program is based on the many years of experiences of Stephen and Robert and the lessons they learned from navigating the online selling realm.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [1:10] Robert tells the story of how he and Stephen met for the first time.
- [3:23] Before Robert met Stephen, he already had a little bit of success in the eCommerce space.
- [5:41] Robert provides a brief timeline of their business from the first few months of working together with Stephen until they started Marketplace Superheroes.
- [8:19] The coaching and teaching business was a great opportunity for Stephen to share his knowledge with other people.
- [13:11] When Stephen started working with Robert, he experienced wearing work boots to do manual labor in the warehouse.
- [14:54] For a little while, Stephen considered himself as the breast pump king of Northern Ireland.
- [16:23] For Robert, it is all about doing and executing.
- [18:27] Being open to suggestions and listening to other people’s ideas can be beneficial, according to Robert.
- [22:01] In 1997, selling products online was a very exciting concept for Robert.
- [27:20] When Robert began his transition towards having his own brand, he didn’t hesitate or think about it for days or months, he just did it and got it done.
- [32:51] In a Starbucks in Belfast, Stephen and Robert started the idea of Marketplace Superheroes. Stephen talks about the early growth of their coaching program.
- [38:47] Both Robert and Stephen traveled to different places, including the US, to give talks and conferences. They got people’s attention because they have this no-nonsense approach and just give it straight to the audience.
- [43:53] Stephen recommends creating only a few modules ahead of time before going full blast and selling the course.
- [49:00] People in their coaching program were having problems with freight forwarding, which prompted Stephen and Robert to look into this side of the business. It was the start of their own Superhero Freight.
- [55:40] Dealing with investors abroad didn’t work out for Stephen and Robert.
- [1:00:30] They started their marketing apprenticeship program called Grow My Reach, where Stephen teaches all the things he learned about marketing.
- [1:03:54] At the very start of their business partnership, Stephen and Robert said to each other that the no can’t carry.
Key Point from the Interview:
- Robert: “To me it was just like, go jump straight into this and start learning it. There's nothing like playing the game to learn the game, I’ve said that a million times to people, but there’s so many people want to sit on the outside, read all the different theory, watch all the different videos before they ever put pen on the paper. And whenever you go through that route, you very rarely put pen on the paper, you’re too busy watching from the sidelines rather than actually getting involved in the game.”
Resources Mentioned:
- Email: [email protected]
- YouTube: Marketplace Superheroes
- Facebook: @marketplacesuperheroes
- LinkedIn: Somers Stephen
- MarketplaceSuperheroes.com
Secret Resources:
