94: From Engineer to Entrepreneur, The Man Who Created Financial Freedom with Instagram, Seth McKay

Show Notes

Seth grew up with a pretty traditional view of going to school, getting a good job, etc. as an engineer.  He did just that.  He came out of college and went to work.  He worked at several companies as an engineer.  He then decided to go get his MBA.

It was this time that he had his first child.  Between traveling for work and study, he started to notice that he was just tired.  He was tired at home.  Not present in the way he should have been.  And he started to realize that there was a difference between what he thought he wanted and what he really wanted.

What it came down to is that “if you don’t control your time, you don’t control your life.”  That is when he started looking at creating his own business.  It was foreign to him.  But, after about 5 months, he started.  He began small by selling a website.  He then went through a couple of other things.  But, he knew he needed something that had the ability to impact at a larger level and that was scalable.  It was when he was working out with his friend, Ryan, a former NFL player that they came with the idea to improve on the fitness bands they were using.  SR fit was born.

You primarily use Instagram to sell your product, can you talk about the unique process you’ve developed for how to sell using that platform?

Like most things – it’s not as easy as you think

You have to put in the time

Engagement is key – make your followers part of your strategy, especially if you have a physical product and you can show pics of them using the product and help them gain influencer status.

Focusing on a very narrow niche works very well.

Interestingly, Seth posts only 1x per day – he focuses on quality over quantity

Stories work and he uses those often

For promoting your product – giving useful and educational posts that incorporate the product work best

He uses the full amount of hashtags per post

Seth suggests that you should be a member of a Facebook group on Instagram marketing

At the 22 min mark, Seth talks about hacks you can do with Instagram stories using polls, links, and other features.

Top Do’s and Don’ts for Instagram?

Do

Do use Instagram on your computer.  The browser is limited for the website – you can comment and like, but you could also use Facebook messenger.  A way to use the full site is using Bluestacks.com and it functions on your computer just like it does on your phone.

Engage, engage, engage.  Comments over likes.  And quality comments.  Don’t write what a bot would write.

It is ok to consider outsourcing, but you do have to put in the time.

Don’t edit a post right after you submit one.  It slows engagement.

Posting time matters and consistency matters in posting.

Make sure you have good standards for your posts.

How did you know when it was time to make the leap from employee to full time entrepreneur?

It is easier when you are single, but when you have a family it changes things.

Seth and his wife committed to saving up for several years to have a big enough nest egg that they could live without an income for a while.

Set real concrete goals that need to be met before you leave.  Keep them realistic.  Leave as little as possible to chance.

Your business should be making some money.

Delay gratification.  Even when you think you are ready to leave your job for good…stretch it out a little while longer.

What do people need to know about building a business online with Amazon and sourcing and fulfilling a product?

It is not as difficult as it may sound.

If you are going to go overseas, Alibaba is the platform.  It will give you the details of the suppliers you can choose from.

Seth uses “fulfillment by Amazon” which gives you Prime and makes it easier.  It is a little more expensive, but being to be Prime makes it worth it.

You have to create your listing and is important to have good quality pictures and a good description of things.  There is an art to having a good listing page.

You get 5 bullet points and they are most important – You need to weave your key words into these points.

Reviews are very important

Have a good quality set of pictures or even a video are key as well.

Make sure that you take full advantage of the description area

Seth uses software called “Manage My Stats” that tells him how his keywords are doing

At the 48 min Mark, Seth tells us about how to get things done on Alibaba…

Alibaba is more of a product directory

You go on and search for what you want to get made

Most likely a product exists and is being made by several suppliers

You can then take it an innovate

The key is to overcommunicate and be extremely descriptive

Get samples from 3 companies before moving forward

You can then negotiate terms and move forward

Like anything, it takes work, learning, trial and error, but anyone can go through and do it.

At the 51-minute mark, Seth talks about his podcast, Fatherhood Fitness Finance