211: Success, Family, and How Entrepreneurs Are the Answer with the E-Commerce Queen, Ann Sieg​

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Ann Sieg. Ann is considered one of the pioneers of attraction marketing. In fact, she generated over $4.2 million dollars in her very first online product, an e-book that helped her generate over 400,000 subscribers.

She is the CEO and President of the E-Commerce Business School – a company that has taught more than 8,000 entrepreneurs over the last decade on how to setup an automated e-commerce business in a 90-day sprint. And she’s impacted the lives of 10’s of thousands through her coaching and training programs.

She is the top affiliate of just about every affiliate program every created, but what interested me most about Ann from my initial discussion with her, is that, like me, she believes deeply that entrepreneurship is the answer to many of the world’s problems. I just had to have her on to talk everything from making it big online to entrepreneurship, family, and success. ​ ​

www.Ecommercebusinessschool.com

www.joinebs.com

Ann started selling at 7 years old, buy selling hand-made Christmas bells. She went door to door selling them and even had bundled offers. She sold out. This gave her the underpinning, but as she grew, she got into sports, specifically gymnastics and devoted herself to it. As she says, it taught her ridiculous, insane mental and physical discipline and taught her how to incrementally get better.

She learned that with a lot of discipline, you can find success. She then went on to coach gymnastics for 15 years and had to quit because of the pain she would get in her hands from spending most of her life in the sport. This experience gave her the love for tracking everything, stats, etc. to incrementally get better and this later translated into a good skill for selling online.

“There is a very distinct difference between someone who is a master at something and someone who is a great teacher or mentor. They are two different skill sets.”

She never planned to be an online marketer, but got into it later after raising her boys. ​

Why is having a strong family environment so important to your success and an entrepreneur and what have you done to create that in your life?

• Ann looks at things differently than maybe society does today.
• As she says when she got married, she made a “covenant” and a vow that she would not break. It means that she will follow through to the end.
• Human endeavors hinge on multiple things: ability, our word, and our bond.
• The family unit with the mom and dad is critical to this – and Ann believes, critical to success.
• You have to make it work in business – and making it work in a marriage is great practice and training for that.
• One of the best predictors for happy children is that the mom and dad truly love each other and it shows.
• You have a responsibility to your children to do right by them and it begins with doing right by each other.
• Ask yourself, “Whose feet will your children sit at?” Do they carry your world view? Entrepreneurship can be fostered and taught at home – because it isn’t in school. Ann homeschooled for this reason.
• Being in tune with family and business also helps with clarity and purpose.
• She believes in giving yourself and your children permission to fail and encouraging it because that is one of the best ways to learn and foster entrepreneurship. ​

How did you get into E-commerce later in life?

• It started with her sons.
• They decided to start an EBay business selling swords.
• Ann was in the world of direct sales at the time and she needed leads, so she followed some of what her sons were doing to help generate leads online.
• Ann found an online mentor, went through the training, and then learned about how to develop a target market.
• She started doing well and partnered with her son. – who had become a top affiliate marketer. Together they were a powerhouse.
• They started with digital products and then turned into e-commerce with physical products.
• She tried doing direct sales online and found it did not do as well over time, so she pivoted to teaching E-commerce and what she had learned about how to make money online.
• She focused on Amazon and EBay as they build the sales funnel for you (the funnel is the hardest part).

What are the products you are selling today? Take us through the steps of what you do in 90 days to get someone up to speed?

• Amazon and Ebay in an arbitrage model was the start.
• Then developed training method for arbitrage, wholesale, private label, self-actualization with a Shopify store, etc.
• Each has more risk because of variables that involves and her courses cover everything needed for each of them.
• Her programs focus on results and how to keep better ones.

At the 30 min mark, Ann talks about what stops people and how she found ways to help them keep at things to success using the 90-day sprint.

It all comes down to systems and teams.

• Ann figured out the systems to give like a franchise would and also helping them set up an outsourced team.
• They key is to develop people – not just sell a course.

What does it take to create a business that generates $10k online in revenue?

• There are two types of business – You own the funnel and have to create or e-commerce where it is already created, such as at Amazon.
• Arbitrage is easiest. You take others’ products and sell them and take a cut.
• $10k/mo is about how much money you can bring to the table, you can do 28-50% profit with deal stacking on your front end.
• Amazon is the easiest way. With $4-5k in investment in product inventory using Fulfilled by Amazon, you can accomplish it. This taps you into Prime customers.
• You will need to use a prep center to make sure your products are set up correctly for Amazon’s criteria.
• An example, you can go to Walmart and scan with the Amazon app, buy the products in bulk and ship them to Walmart – such as back to school materials.
• You can do the same thing with product online. Arbitrage is just buying low and selling high. ​

Give us your thoughts on why entrepreneurship is needed now more than ever?

This inspiration came from Paul Zane Pilsner, who wrote The Next Millionaire, and Robert Kiyosaki. Richard Mayberry as well- there is no free lunch.

Ann shares that we have shifted to a handout society.

Ann calls it the redistribution of opportunity. She abhors calls for redistribution of wealth.

What sets entrepreneurs apart is that we live by our ability to calculate risk and take it – stepping out on a tightrope without a safety net.

Handouts cause us to lose our muscular strength as business owners. Bailouts do not foster strong business owners – mentally and entrepreneurially.

Challenging times offer the opportunity for great innovation. Ann cites Panera Breat starting Panera Grocery during the coronavirus as an example.

The extreme of total government control over business robs people of their intellectual capacity, mental, and spiritual capital and destroys the freedom of the individual to create and do great things.

 

Best Quote: "There is a very distinct difference between someone who is a master at something and someone who is a great teacher or mentor. They are two different skill sets..."

 

Ann's Misfit 3:

1. Find your wheelhouse. This is different than finding passion. The wheelhouse is your strength where you really shine.
2. What are you called for to be in service to others?
3. Begin with the end in mind. What is the legacy? What do you want to be remembered for?

 

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