Andrew Lock Interview

By: Michael Dunlop     Topics: Blog

Andrew Lock is one of the most clever and prolific internet marketers I know. In this interview Andrew gives us great advice such as: “be Prolific not Perfect’ and ‘and above all, focus on speed of implementation’. Andrew is also the host of Help My Business Sucks – found at http://helpmybusiness.com .  This is a video series aimed at business owners. Learn how to get more done and have more fun in your business.

I have known Andrew Lock for a little over two years and without doubt he is one of the brightest minds out there. Andrew is originally from England but now lives in Utah, USA and really, he is one of the nicest people you are ever likely to meet.

And please don’t make the mistake of thinking this is some(thing to do with Ebay selling – that as you will find out is only a very small part of what Andrew Lock is about.

Hi Andrew

1) You are well known as The Renegade Auction Seller – The man that ‘cracked the eBay code’. Can you tell us about this side of your business. What is your business model here, how do you make money as The Ren(egade) Auction Seller?

Well first of all, thank you for inviting me on this interview Michael, you’re building up an amazing resource with this site, it’s very impressive. In answer to your question, I’m sharing my discoveries about eBay, based on my unconventional approach to that marketplace. You see, whereas most people view eBay as a place to clear out junk from around your home, I saw it as the largest collection of buyers online – 243 million in fact. I also saw that most eBayer’s that try to create a business from selling their products directly to end users, fail. There’s 7 reasons why that I go into on the home page of my site, www.andrewlock.com So, although conventional selling doesn’t work very well on eBay, it’s an amazing tool to generate leads. In other words you can attract customers who are interested in topic X, with my H3 system. Anyone who’s interested in finding out more about that can get a free sample of my printed newsletter and 4 free audio interview CD’s where I reveal the basic strategy. If that’s of interest, it’s at www.sendmyfreegift.com The lesson for readers with what I did, is, if you have a talent or you’ve made a discovery that’s brought in an income for you, there’s a lot of money to be made in selling that ‘secret’ to others – sharing what you did and how you did it, so that they can shortcut the process. That’s a great business model, right there, even though some people believe that eBay sucks.

2) What in your opinion are the biggest mistakes that Newbie Ebay sellers make?

Wow, well the biggest single mistake is believing that eBay in itself is, or can be a business. eBay is a selling channel, just as Amazon.com is a selling channel. The difference with eBay is that it’s super-competitive now. Even if you’re a smart marketer, you’ll find it hard to sell products directly on eBay because the other users aren’t very smart for the most part. The only way they know how to compete is on price – so you end up with a downward spiral of sellers dropping prices until there’s no profit margin left. Other, more specific mistakes include not using keywords in titles, not using images in listings, using poor quality images in listings, not doing research before starting a listing (use www.auctionresearchtool.com – it’s my favourite ‘secret’ weapon for finding out everything about anyone’s business on eBay.

3) For someone new to Ebay, what are your top 2 or 3 tips for getting started?

The best tip I can give is to hang around the marketplace for awhile. Observe, then buy some items. The thing that most people don’t realize about eBay when they come across it for the first time is that it has it’s own culture and language. If you barge in as an outsider, trying to be a slick, corporate style seller, you’ll be rejected because that’s not what eBay is about. The eBay community embraces the ‘little guy’, the small, independent seller. Most eBayers will buy from a small seller than a large seller when there’s a choice. And like I said, there’s a unique language, terminology to know, like the abbreviations. Even the word eBayer was developed by the community, not by the company. It’s a very unusual marketplace from those respects. The other big tip I’d give for when you get started is to build up your feedback rating as fast as possible. eBayers simply won’t buy from people who have less than 30 or so feedback generally, so it’s crucial to get the feedback built up as quickly as possible on a new account.

4) I have known you personally now for over two years and two things in particular have always impressed me about you Andrew – one has been your passion about “Systems”. Tell us what Systems means to you and why it is so vitally important in business.
I define system as ‘Save Yourself Time Energy & Money’ and that sums up why a system is so powerful. It’s the missing link for most entrepreneurs because they don’t have any methodical processes for their marketing. I made the mistake of not having systems for many years, and my business growth was painfully slow. When I implemented systems, to repeat important procedures over and over again almost on autopilot, it skyrocketed. Make a lot of sense, but so few business owners have any kind of system.

5) Recently you have been launching your Microwave Marketing website – Tell us about this and in particular, how it helps entrepreneurs?

Microwave Marketing is a monthly ‘how to’ product that’s delivered as a printed guide and instructional videos on CD. It’s all about ‘Instant, ready to use marketing recipes for fast results.’ I’m very excited about this product because it fills a tremendous need. Microwave Marketing contains lots of step-by-step processes for promoting any business- the all important systems we just spoke about. Basically, if it can’t be explained in a step-by-step format then I won’t include it. I’m very proud of this product because it’s helping so many people to finally get their act together and be successful. And it’s the product I wish I’d had when I first started in business. That’s how it came about in fact.

6) The second thing that has always impressed me Andrew, has been your almost unlimited supply of awesome online resources. At Yanik Silvers Underground 4 seminar, you were without doubt one of the most popular presenters, mainly because of all the valuable resources you shared with the audience. Can you suggest two or three top websites for entrepreneurs (other than your own of course) – sites that help them run their business better, perform better?

Well, you’re quite right that I love discovering resources – I call them ‘Nifty Clicks’ – nifty web resources and productivity tools – again, anything to make processes streamlined, faster, and often more fun, too. Obviously different things appeal to different people, but my current favourite is a super fast screen capture tool from Techsmith called Jing – you can download it for free at www.JingProject.com – it’s much faster than Camtasia for basic screen captures. Another one I get a lot of use from is www.youconvertit.com which converts an unbelievable number of file formats into other file formats. It works really well, it’s a web app, and again it’s free. If you like those, you need to check out my weekly web TV show where I share more Nifty Clicks every week. You can view it for free at
www.HelpMyBusiness.com

7) If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were first making a name for yourself, what advice would you give yourself ?

What a great question, now I just have to come up with an adequate answer, don’t I?! One of the things I would do is focus on speed of implementation. In the early days I used to believe that the person who has the best product is the one that wins. I learned the hard way that that thinking can make you go broke! It took me 6 months to produce my first information product, and if I was doing it again today I’d create it in a week or two, no more. Remember, there’s no shortage of brilliant ideas. I’ve got more ideas than I know what to do with, so ideas aren’t the problem – you can come up with your own or get them from others. It’s implementation and marketing that are the biggest issues.

If I was starting over again I’d remind myself every day to be ‘prolific not perfect.’ In other words, produce a product FAST, promote it FAST, and then when there’s some money coming in you can tweak it and make improvements. I’ve struggled hard to come to terms with ‘good enough is good enough’ as my mentor Dan Kennedy puts it. That’s a great quote to stick on your monitor or your office wall. ‘Good enough is good enough.’ It’s not about having the best product, it’s about having the best marketing. Sony learned that lesson the hard way with Betamax, and now Toshiba learned it the hard way with HD-DVD. In both cases, those companies had the best products, but they weren’t the best marketers, and the results say everything. It took Sony years to get over losing the Betamax vs. VHS battle and they lost millions, probably billions in fact. Think of all the VHS decks and cassettes that were produced over the years until recently.

8) Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

I believe that anything can be learned, but I also know that some people have an advantage. For no explicable reason, I was entrepreneurial from as young as I can remember. I didn’t consciously follow anyone or model, I was just interested in business and marketing, even though I had no idea what that word even meant back then. So, some people will find it easier than others, but the only limitations in our life with regard to learning are self-imposed ones. It brings to mind the four minute mile story. The fact that it was thought humanly impossible, yet after the first person did it, many more immediately repeated the same achievement. I find that to be a fascinating example of how little we really know about the capacity of the human body. So don’t let anyone tell you that something can’t be done. Many times, the ‘impossible’ has been achieved, and why shouldn’t it be you, next?

9) Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on? [You can name more than one]

I’ve been influenced by lots of people over the years, and it’s important to say that those influences were by design. In other words, I deliberately made the effort to soak up the influence. I bought business books, I sought out people who I respected, and I applied myself to increasing my knowledge and experience of marketing. Specifically, I’ve learnt a great deal from people like Dan Kennedy, Richard Branson, Rich Schefren, Dale Carnegie, and Paul Daniels, [British Magic Act] who I used to manage. Now that’s a whole other story.

10) Do you have any favourite business related or personal development related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

I have a huge library in my office, and I probably read at least one business or marketing book a week on average. I recommend the entire ‘No B.S.’ series by Dan Kennedy, anything by Peter Drucker, Branson’s autobiography, Good to Great by Jim Collins, and Strengths Finder 2.0. You might be familiar with many of those, but they’re worth reading several times. If you’re ever looking for me, chances are I’ll be in Barnes and Noble or Borders book store here in the U.S. Reading and learning is a pleasure for me.

11) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice I’ve ever been given, and unfortunately I don’t remember who gave it to me – it might have been several people actually. But the advice was to follow your passion, not the money. That’s worth a million. It really is. So many people chase the latest ‘bright and shiny’ opportunity that attracts them, because they think they’ll get rich. What they should be doing is following their hearts desire. They should be making a hobby, an interest, something they love doing, into a business. It’s a lot easier than most people think. The problem with following the money is that as soon as the next opportunity comes along, that distracts you and you head off into another field. It’s a real trap, and like I said, most people fall into it, so I’m very grateful for that logical direction that I was given. As a result, I love what I do. It’s totally my passion, and I look forward to every new day of work because I don’t view it as work, I view it as fun.

12) If the Internet had not existed – what do you think you would be doing?

You know, I’m sure I’d be doing something connected with marketing. Actually, a big part of my business doesn’t use the Internet. I think there’s over reliance on the Internet, because offline marketing methods work extremely well. Don’t get me wrong, I love online marketing methods, but the pendulum is too far in that direction right now, in my opinion. There IS life beyond the Internet!

13) What do you like best about the Internet?

 

I love the productivity tools, the cool resources that have been developed. There’s a lot of extremely talented programmers out there who have been able to embrace the platform and run with it. Just the other day I came across a website called http://a.viary.com that has an entire suite of incredible online software apps to rival what Adobe offers. It’s incredible. There’s ALWAYS something that makes me go ‘wow’, and I love discovering and then using those nifty resources.

14) What do you like least about the Internet?

There’s the obvious misuses of the technology that almost everyone is concerned about, but in a business setting I’d have to say the over-reliance on it for marketing. When I tell other marketers that I’ve just sent out letters in the mail, or a postcard promotional campaign, many of them give me a look of disbelief, as if I’ve gone back to stone-age methods of marketing. The fact is, it works. Online promotion is cheap, but there are many other methods that are more effective. At the end of the day, it’s results that matter, and I’ll continue to look for any methods that get results.

15) Have you any plans [personal or business] that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

Well, I’d love to tell you about my new web TV show, called ‘Help! My Business Sucks!’ – you can see the latest episodes at www.helpmybusiness.com. I guess if I’d produced it in England it would be called ‘Help! My Business Could Be Doing a Tad Better!’ Anyway, as you know, I live in the States now which has by far the largest audience of entrepreneurs, so the show is designed primarily for them, although the lessons are universally applicable to any business. I have experience in the world of TV production so I wanted to produce a high quality, 10 minute weekly show to help entrepreneurs get more done, and have more fun. It’s been going a little while now and the response has been phenomenal. I love sharing the marketing breakthroughs that I’ve discovered, and the audience seems to enjoy watching the show. Again, this is something that I’m very passionate, very excited about. I’m in a position fortunately where I can afford to make the show available for free. There’s no charge to watch it, I don’t sell anything, and there’s no opt-in required, just good solid content that people can benefit from. My goal is to challenge the ridiculous way that marketing is taught in schools these days, and expose people to a much better way. Conventional marketing is dead in my opinion. It’s outdated, costly, and ineffective. It’s essential to stand out from the crowd, so that’s what the show mostly focuses on – how to present your product or service in a way that gets noticed.

Thanks again for inviting me to do the interview, and best wishes with your website Michael.

Find out more about Andrew at http://andrewlock.com – and make sure to )Check out his Video on the home page (it is FUN and a great example of Video SELLING)

“