Ecommerce Is Crazy Right Now

Ecommerce has experienced a lot of changes since the covid-19 pandemic and the growth in the industry has only created more demand for services. With the demand in shopping has come the growth of the brands looking to capitalize on that demand. It's a dog eat dog world out there and nobody wants to be a cat, am I right?

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Michael Maher  00:00

Welcome to the Longer Game. I don't know if you've actually stepped into anything. But this is the Longer Game where we talk about retail, we talk about how retail is changed. We talk about anything retail. And I have a good friend of mine here, her name is Rachel Jacobs, and she owns eCommerce Partnerships. She also owns a lot of other things, and she does a lot of stuff. So I'm gonna let her talk about that. Welcome, Rachel, tell us about all the incredible things that you do.

Rachel Jacobs  00:22

Hey, Michael, thanks for having me. Um, so I specialize in eCommerce agencies. I used to be good brand site, did the eCommerce tech side, and then went to the dark side and join a big conversation. So yeah, doing that for about five or so years, maybe a bit more. I then left and built up my own business, which is specialized in helping agencies scale quicker. So I've worked with 60 Congress agencies now as sort of a fractional interim CEO, and consulted with over six hundreds in about two and a half years. So it's been a lot, spend a lot of conversations obviously COVID has helped. And I just eat speaking Bri, the ecommerce industry as it pertains to agencies, which is *inaudible*

Michael Maher  01:05

You had basically had a lot of downtime in the past few years is what you're saying.

Rachel Jacobs  01:09

Quarantine. Jesus, I relocate. I mean, as you know, I relocated I moved country I move from Ireland to, from Ireland, from Dublin to Spanish Island. And then three days later, we went into a national state of emergency, and the Werbach dying like a hard military rule, lockdown. Yeah, that weeks. So it's just like, what else am I going to do all of my face-to-face workshops that I have planned for Q2 2020. We're done. So I just like kind of pivoted 3D files and data online, and just then all of the agencies were like, Oh, shit, we need to get retainers in place. Can you help us?

Michael Maher  01:46

So that was a big change for business in general, when..

Rachel Jacobs  01:49

Huge for the industry, because when COVID hit obviously, or like a lot of people weren't investing money in projects, I had one agency that lost I think, in the space of like, two or three days in a week for sure. But I think over a couple of days, lost a quarter-million dollars off their pipeline of new business that just like it was 

Michael Maher  02:06

Over a million for the year?

Rachel Jacobs  02:08

No, no. In their pipeline.

Michael Maher  02:10

Oh,

Rachel Jacobs  02:10

That was gonna drop that quarter, quarter-million dollars. 

Michael Maher  02:13

Okay. 

Rachel Jacobs  02:14

A business projects that have been signed on, they just pulled the plugin like we're not investing anything right now. We don't know what's happening

Michael Maher  02:21

Did you intentionally, so you moved to Grand Canary? Did you intentionally move there because of a lot of the face-to-face things that you do that it would be cool to have those there? What was that? What was the reason for initially moving there, just change the pace?

Rachel Jacobs  02:33

Um, no, the reason for moving there is, to be honest, the reason we are here, because my husband, he's from West, but he's from Nigeria. So we were in Ireland for like, we met in London, and then retardant and cold. He was nearly as white as they after being there seven years. So for him, he was just like, we moved to 2013. And then 2016. I think he kind of said, like, kind of free pass off. Yeah. So he's like, we looked at a few different countries. And then about a year later of him, because he's got like a super planner. Right? He plans everything. 

Michael Maher  03:07

Yeah.

Rachel Jacobs  03:07

And about a year later, I came back from a trip because I travel a lot with business I have done for a long time. Okay. Usually every two weeks. I'm away somewhere. I'm traveling somewhere all the time. I remember coming home, he's like, yeah, we need to talk, and I'm like,

Michael Maher  03:20

Yeah, I hope we're still together.

Rachel Jacobs  03:23

Yeah, exactly. You still be my friend, please. And then he told me this plan. He told me my grand plan. And I was like, I don't really know what that means. And then he told me and I was like, okay, and he goes, I've been researching this and planning this for like six months, but I feel like it's a good move for us. And we'll have to learn Spanish. And I'm like,

Michael Maher  03:39

He had been planning it for six months. And you didn't know. Wow, 

Rachel Jacobs  03:43

I didn't know. No, of course not.

Michael Maher  03:45

Because he was such a planner. Yeah.

Rachel Jacobs  03:46

He's like, he's one of these like, Master planner. He's an investor, right? So it's like, *inaudible*

Michael Maher  03:50

Okay, that's how my wife is, she's a planner. She's like, we have trips planned for the next year and,

Rachel Jacobs  03:55

oh, my God, we have Google documents that I don't even look at because it would make me nervous. But it's like the next 20 years plan.

Michael Maher  04:02

Oh, I see. I don't even at whatever document my wife is even now

Rachel Jacobs  04:07

Yeah, I don't even know what's happening for the next 20 hours. I'm just like, let me just get to my next meal. It's there, lightning gets tomorrow's that live. And then,

Michael Maher  04:14

I think you probably make a good combo for each other because he's probably more exciting. And he's got everything planned out. He's expecting things to happen. You got to,

Rachel Jacobs  04:21

And he just needs somebody who's just by freestyle. So here, I'm just like, Okay, let's go. That's cool. Whatever you want.

Michael Maher  04:29

I have the best vacations because I like showing up and just kind of doing whatever. But my wife has gone ahead and planned. She knows like the top three coffee shops, the top five restaurants and the three best things that those places. So when we wake up in the morning, I'm like, let's go to coffee. She's like, Okay, let's go to this place. I'm like, that sounds great. We show up and she's like, get this thing and I get I'm like, Man, this vacation is incredible. And we're just kind of winging it, but really, it's been planned really, really well.

Rachel Jacobs  04:54

Yeah, that's basically might have been the last 10 years of my life. 

Michael Maher  04:58

I've actually heard so you know, I'm a big Prince fan. I don't have my typical Prince memorabilia up behind me just yet. But he, I heard him say that if you want to perform a really good solo, practice it, practice it so you know what you're doing. And so I think that maybe your husband and my wife, know what it means to have good trips, or just good things in general, because they practice it. And so maybe I need to get on that bandwagon.

Rachel Jacobs  05:23

Yeah, but you have some people, but their life is all about the destination and other people don't like is about the journey. And I think the people that love to plan, it's about the destination where you're going, I don't really care where I'm going, it's all about the journey.

Michael Maher  05:34

You just want to be anywhere.

Rachel Jacobs  05:36

Yeah, I don't really care. So that's kind of what happened that he told me and at the time, I was CEO of this leading Shopify plus agency. So we plan to move and then things have changed, there was a few internal stuff. So I, we put the move off a year, and then the following year, like, okay, 2018 is not a good time to move. But next year, we'll move and by that time, I kind of knew that it was coming to the end of the road for me, I'd done what I need to do there. And that was like, next steps. And I knew that next steps for me, were not going to involve another company, it was going to be myself. And then it just all just happened really quickly. So by the time then I left, I didn't really have a clear idea of what I was doing. And then I was like, okay, we want to move this year, but I need to get, we need to get our like, I need to get my shit together, and then built this business. And by the end of that year, she was like six or eight months later, then we were like, freezing our arms off over Christmas, and double down and we just looked at each other and we're like fuck this, let's just, let's just go. Let's just go and visit the place and see if we like it.

Michael Maher  06:35

Great Canary, I had to look this up. It's technically a Spanish Island, but it's more off the coast of Africa, isn't it?

Rachel Jacobs  06:40

Yeah, it's like 150 miles like west of Morocco. Okay, but we get a lot of like this, the Apple logo. So the Group of Seven Islands, I think there's 89 *inaudible* has been added. But the group of islands that we have, it's like below Portugal, but off Morocco. Like, it's like, I think it's for three and a half, four hours to Spain. And it's technically a Spanish Island. But even here, the people it's more it's a really Latin American vibe. There's a lot of like Latinos, here. So the vibe is really common, and some of them they do consider themselves Spanish, but a lot of them when they meet my husband and oh where are you from, he's like Africa, and they're like, I'm African too brother and I'm like,

Michael Maher  07:18

No, not really.

Rachel Jacobs  07:20

You're a tiny old white man with a massive beers. 

Michael Maher  07:23

Yeah, that's how I tell people I'm from Africa here too. And then I'm like, Well, technically, everyone kind of came from there at some point. 

Rachel Jacobs  07:28

Sure. I know, exactly.

Michael Maher  07:30

My 23 and me said 100% European when I looked at it, and then I remember it got updated. And I got a message it said that your 23 and me is updated. I was like, okay, that's weird. So I looked at it again, it said 99.9% European and I was like Huh, that's weird. And then I looked down at said point 00 point 01 percent Sub Saharan African was like, isn't like didn't Adam and Eve all technically come from there. So like, did they just now remember this? Like, oh, 

Rachel Jacobs  07:58

*inaudible* would explain the curls?

Michael Maher  08:00

Yeah, of course. Yeah. And I've had a big Afro before. But it wasn't like, it was it was pretty *inaudible*. 

Rachel Jacobs  08:07

Throwback.

Michael Maher  08:08

Throwback. So when things changed with COVID, everyone had wanted to get retainers in place, because there was a lot of business that stopped. I think a lot of people. So I mean, you know, my area of expertise is Amazon. And we had a lot of people, we actually didn't lose clients. But a lot of people were like, We want to stop spending advertising, we want to stop doing all this stuff. And it actually made sense to keep going because of the demand that was coming on the back of that. But a lot of people didn't know that. And so we had to tell clients and one of our clients wanted to pull all ad spend. And he said, I get that you want to pull some and you want to reflect on what's going on right now. But at least your branded ad spend because that's super important. You want to own that space on Amazon, but at least keep that in place. Because if you don't, other people could potentially come in and take over but there are a lot of changes that happen just kind of general eCommerce as well for you, right?

Rachel Jacobs  08:58

Oh, yeah, for sure. And I think was the same thing on my side because that, by that stage COVID have hit impacted Europe slightly earlier than it impacted the US but I mean, when I say slightly earlier, like by a couple of months, because I did I attended. So I'm from the Shopify space, but I worked with a lot of different eCommerce platforms. And we shop by having a, an events for the network co pursuits. And the last event the shopper ever did was pursued in Amsterdam. And at that stage that was February 2020. At that stage, there was like COVID was a word of people sort of knew what it was but it was very much a sort it was like a something that was impacting Asia more than anything else. And then it started slowly creeping over to like mainland Spain, like May Italy in Spain. I think Italy really suffered really badly first, I don't know why. And then Spain, but what we didn't realize at the time that Amsterdam was actually a hotspot, obviously because so many people, yeah, the people traveling for that. So then when we left there was like a But when I found being like, there's been cases, we're not doing any more events go and get tested, blah, blah, blah. And then I moved country within a few weeks after that, like literally a few weeks later, *inaudible* probably had COVID to be fair, because in hindsight, I think the symptoms were there, but because I was moving country and I had so much shit to do in a short amount of time, I just was like, well, I'm fucked, 

Michael Maher  10:23

Well, you got locked in anyway, when you got here. So you did your time in quarantine. 

Rachel Jacobs  10:27

Exactly. And all of the agencies then I had a probably think, like, 40 30%, my agencies were US based, and the rest were European. So my US-based agencies were like, fuck is happening over in Europe, like, it's gonna hit us, but it really impacted yet. So then I started bringing those two communities together, which is where some of the work that I do now was born, the Brian tables, and the masterminds and building this community of agencies that I've built, 

Michael Maher  10:53

I've come to those roundtables. And I've been part a part of one of the masterminds that you're putting on right now. And I've really enjoyed myself, because while I'm the only one of the only people that really is doing Amazon, I'm getting insight into what's happening into just general eCommerce. And that's super helpful for me, because I can talk about Okay, what are the plans for my business? What are we going to be focusing on? What am I seeing in the eCommerce world? What should I be talking to our clients about who are on Amazon? Are they seeing some of the same things that some of your agency owners are seeing their clients experience in the eCommerce world, it just kind of helps me get a better perspective on what's happening in general, because I'm sometimes so niched down. But really what, what happens, I mean, what happens in brick and mortar that affected the growth in eCommerce, so many people, I mean, it was like, I think eCommerce is a percent of total sales in the US jumped by 4%, from quarter one in 2022, quarter two, and so went from 12 to 16%, of total sales. But it had only been growing by like point 4%. So it means eight to 10 years worth of growth on the commerce side, you know, rapidly there was actually a day in March, it was March 13th. And I think that was a Thursday. And that's when like when, across every account that were managing, managing an Amazon there was like this big dip, because that's like when I think mandates started coming out from the CDC, I know that Ohio, where I'm at was very close on the tails of that, because I was supposed to be, I was supposed to be rehearsing for playing at this church and that weekend, and they were like, Hey, we're changing things up, just you know, because what's going on, but we'll keep you posted, we're definitely gonna have service. And then it was like, an hour later, hey, we're not really sure what's going on, but we'll let you know. And then an hour later was like, everything's off canceled. And that was like the shutdown of stuff. And so I went home from wherever I was working. And that was like, you know, the last time I went out for a month, but that, that changes happened. So there was a huge dip. But then things by April, things were, like skyrocketing up.

Rachel Jacobs  13:01

Because everybody panicked, right? I think through March, March, and April, little bit, everybody sort of panicked and, 

Michael Maher  13:06

Everyone else's stores bought everything they could.

Rachel Jacobs  13:09

Yeah, just 14 years worth of porn at roll store. It was just like, absolutely mental, like people do stupid shit when they panic. And then everybody, especially on my end of stuff, because at the agencies I was working, with the agencies that were coming my way. It's like, everything is frozen. So I think the general consensus was then will people don't want to spend but they still need the service. And in hindsight, when shipped, stopped, was the time those the businesses, the ones that push through, are the ones that are in the open up. Now the ones that pulls, they had a much longer time to get going, because at that time, the cost per acquisition across the board, so whether it was Amazon costs or the roas, whatever it is, which was so much greater, there was just such a better return on that because the market wasn't as saturated. So those agencies that encourage their customers to push through in some cases, some agency said, Look, we're not going to charge you a because I mean, in your line of work, you're used to charging a flat rate and then a return on spends, 

Michael Maher  14:06

Right.

Rachel Jacobs  14:06

And a lot of the agencies that I work with that have that kind of model for advertising spend, we're just like, we're not gonna charge a flat rate, we're just gonna take a higher percentage on the return. 

Michael Maher  14:16

Okay,

Rachel Jacobs  14:16

But we're gonna keep pushing, we're gonna keep moving things along. So I mean, I think it took like, it really polls things for Q2, like Q2 of 2020 was like, it was just a big freeze, and then things started thawed, and then it just exploded. 

Michael Maher  14:30

Yeah,

Rachel Jacobs  14:31

The problem was that no, we're Q3 2021. 

Michael Maher  14:36

Yeah,

Rachel Jacobs  14:37

I don't know where the time crawls. 

Michael Maher  14:37

Crazy. Yeah.

Rachel Jacobs  14:39

And this quarter has been even from the top, even from some of the big platforms that keep that communication dying. This quarter has been one of the quietest quarters in a long time. Because I think last year, everybody just was so hot and heavy and nine that we're going into the sales season, people are kind of just, they've done all the stuff and invest all the money to invest that they would have invested elsewhere, whether it's in-person costs or events or whatever. And now because we've got black Friday around the corner, it's just like, let's just cruise control line for this quarter, and then ramp up. Because on the agency side of it, I see a lot of my agencies were like, we've got fuck on the pipeline, but there's nothing coming in. So it's been really interesting. It's been really, really interesting. Just to see how much the pandemic has just impacted. Of course, I don't want to make this all about the pandemic, because *inaudible*

Michael Maher  15:25

I know, but you're right. I get that. And because it's like, you know, you get people it was funny when I'm very active on LinkedIn. And it was like six months in everyone was like, so how are you doing to the pandemic? And I was like, Where were you like six weeks in? Like, if you really cared about how I was doing in your sales pitch, you would have said like, hey, pandemics hitting there are a lot of people I know that changed business models right during that time,

Rachel Jacobs  15:52

I had to pick I pivoted my entire business because the pandemic, my business model walls, in person workshops, followed by three months, like coaching program to fit 

Michael Maher  16:02

Okay,

Rachel Jacobs  16:02

problems within the business, 

Michael Maher  16:03

and you move to everything virtually, 

Rachel Jacobs  16:05

I had no option. 

Michael Maher  16:06

Yeah, 

Rachel Jacobs  16:06

I had all of these and I like you've said before, like, I moved to Grand Canary. So one of the reasons I moved to Grand Canary, of course, my husband wants to move here, but also being in a location where it's kind of isolated. It's an island small by raising a family, especially raising a mixed-race family, you want to be conscious of where you're going to be raising that child. But that's something celebrated as opposed to *inaudible* all of the things that you need to think about. But also if I want to build this business site that I can, rather than me going and traveling, because I was traveling all over the place, I was traveling to New York, Sweden, Germany, like all over the place to go and do these workshops, Australia and then create a location at Gran Canary that people can come and actually have downtime. 

Michael Maher  16:46

That's what I know. Whoo, yeah. 

Rachel Jacobs  16:48

Super attractive. I have a group of agencies coming I think they'd like 20 of us, 

Michael Maher  16:52

Thank you. My mom is very younger looking too. 

Rachel Jacobs  16:54

show us why not. Why not? It's what's on the inside, I mean,

Michael Maher  16:59

They won't know what's on the inside. It's terrible the outside *inaudible*

Rachel Jacobs  17:02

The truth is Michael, as long as you just remind yourself that you've got a great face for radio and podcasts. That's all it matters. 

Michael Maher  17:08

And I will do, I'm going to do super well.

Rachel Jacobs  17:11

You're going to be fine. The podcast, they can't see you. So it's totally fine.

Michael Maher  17:15

Yeah, it doesn't matter. Well, they'll see this but for people that are listening on Apple Music podcast thing, I have a really dark skin tone. Very big Afro, 

Rachel Jacobs  17:25

Extremely good-looking. 

Michael Maher  17:27

and I'm from Spain. Who knew? Actually

Rachel Jacobs  17:32

*inaudible*

Michael Maher  17:32

I'm I'm pseudo-Irish. At least that's according to what you say. 110%

Rachel Jacobs  17:37

Well, no. Yeah, that's entirely accurate. If you don't even know how to say Irish names properly in our round table calls. 

Michael Maher  17:45

Yeah, I can't say my own name properly. Apparently. 

Rachel Jacobs  17:48

True. True. Maher. How do you say?

Michael Maher  17:52

Maher.

Rachel Jacobs  17:52

Maher? Yeah, that's very America.

Michael Maher  17:55

Gen, that's the gentile way of saying it.

Rachel Jacobs  17:58

That is the gen-, the gentle, gentile way. But yeah, having I mean, for my business model. And I thought, okay, Grand Canary, people can come here. And I have three agencies, four agencies lined up for workshops over a five week periods. *inaudible*

Michael Maher  18:12

And were you doing workshops inside, like for the agencies inside their agency, or is it like, okay,

Rachel Jacobs  18:18

So I would go for like a day, a day and a half, on location. So when I went to Amsterdam, Germany, America, wherever it was, and then I would have I had a, I have a framework that I run through and do these workshops, pretty intense for two days. In some cases, they used to come to me in Dublin, and a lot of cases I would go to them, if I'm spending more time with a team is just like two days, two or three days where it's like really in depth, or two days in depth actually is more accurate, then if it is COVID head and I have these, excuse me, I had these workshops lined up and I was just like, I said to all these guys, let's just put things on poles for a month. I just moved country up super fucking hearts. I'm Irish. I'm just like Jesus Christ, I get something from a strong lamp. So lead along the actual sun. Yeah, that's like, I'm just gonna hashtag chill for a month and climb a climate eyes. Again, I think in hindsight, probably was COVID. I thought it was just getting used to this hot sun. And when I say hot sun, it was like 22 degrees. And I was literally boiling from the inside out. Because in Ireland, anything more than 12 degrees centigrade, it's tropical.

Michael Maher  19:19

And for everyone who's in the US at 22 is like maybe 80 to 90 I think degrees Fahrenheit,

Rachel Jacobs  19:26

something like that. And I'm used to probably around 50 or 60. And that's like, borderline like, you need to get the SPF out because it shits about to get crazy.

Michael Maher  19:34

I need to get SPF 150 because the sun made a peek around the cloud. If you're like a vampire that's like,

Rachel Jacobs  19:42

Yeah, well, not anymore. I mean, look, this is like this is the real Irish skin. It's like a completely different color. 

Michael Maher  19:49

Like this is a family show. Okay, 

Rachel Jacobs  19:51

Sorry. I just showed my shoulder. Oh my God, forgive me. 

Michael Maher  19:55

This is a family show Rachel.

Rachel Jacobs  19:57

Yeah. policy. For those listening on the podcast that was,

Michael Maher  20:01

It was very racy. Yeah, 

Rachel Jacobs  20:03

*inaudible*

Michael Maher  20:04

I actually think my wife and daughter, they got very sick in January, February of 2020. And of course, everything that was going on in China was like, November, December, or there was, and that's like a time when kids are always getting strapped and flu and all that kind of stuff. But my daughter had already previously been sick. And then she had a terrible cough. And she had it for like, probably eight weeks. I kid you not, it wasn't terrible, but it was still lingering. And she was negative for flu, negative for strep, and they were testing for pertussis because like, what is this? We don't know what it is. She was negative for that. My wife and I are convinced that both her and my daughter had COVID back then.

Rachel Jacobs  20:44

But you could get tested for antibodies because there'll be *inaudible*

Michael Maher  20:47

That's true, but by the time we figured that out, the antibodies would have already been down by like, x significant amount. 

Rachel Jacobs  20:53

Yeah. True. 

Michael Maher  20:55

But we really think that that spread because it went to the school like wildfire, and we're just like we don't, we have no idea what this could be. It just was like this mystery thing. So I think looking back, similar to your experience, it was like that had to have been that hadn't been related to that.

Rachel Jacobs  21:10

Exactly. Almost certainly when you hear I actually have a friend night right now. He's very bad asthmatic, very serious asthma. He's just got COVID he's three weeks, and he is fucked. I mean, he is just really not well at all. So thank Gosh, I mean, I feel so bad for him because he went to meet another friend of ours, who was his birthday went to meet him for like lunch, and call it somewhere so not pleasant, not pleasant at all. So that’s for me, I had to significantly pivot my business for sure. I had to change everything almost overnight. Because I said to all the agencies, let's just pause things for a month or so and see how this shakes out. And they all just said to me, I don't want to pause. 

Michael Maher  21:48

Oh, wow,

Rachel Jacobs  21:48

I'm like now, things are quiet. Not a lot of projects are launching, now is a perfect time for me to really focus on my business and get things whipped into shape. And yeah, and to be honest, in actual fact, all of those clients, there's five of them, and that was April 2020. All, all five of them are still agencies that I work with different capacities for the my three of them I work really closely with and to more high level. But all five agencies I still work with.

Michael Maher  22:17

But haven't changed when there's that when there's a pause, I feel like the or there's a big change, people want to pause. And if you can pivot and move quickly, I know when I first started selling on Amazon, and selling a different marketplace channels, I was very resistant to change. And that hurt my business because I thought oh, well, this is like when Amazon was really wanting people to start fulfilling stuff in prime. I was like, well, Amazon just wants to make more money because they're getting more of a percentage off of it. And maybe that was true. But people are so much more active that are Prime members, people, Prime members spend two and a half times what non-Prime members do so really was the right move. And I was resistant to change that actually hurt my business in the long run. And so in this agency side of my business, I've said we're just going to embrace it, if there's something that's going on something new that Amazon's rolling out, we're going to take, we're going to tackle it, if it works, great. If it doesn't work, we're going to know more about what they're thinking for the future. And we're going to have a better understanding of what does and what doesn't work. And so I think it was smart for those agencies to say and you to just be like, Alright, well, like let's keep going and just find a way to make it happen. Instead of like pausing and breaking everything down and saying how are we going to do this? Like, I think most, most quick changes like that. It's not necessarily a well-thought-out change. It's just how can we make things work. And that ends up developing into something a lot bigger, or something that can be sustainable, just by saying what's going to work right now.

Rachel Jacobs  23:36

To be honest, I think that that is a good lesson just for being an entrepreneur just in business. That's one of the reasons that I jumped ship or parted ways with the agency that I was running as CEO and I was a big part of that agency and built up a huge network and partners and but for me, it's just like in business, when you never stay stationary, no matter what it is that you're doing. If you're staying stationary, you're moving backwards. So for me, it's like to stop. But I know that it's like, sometimes it's like good to like just pause and see what happens. But in business, I feel like that's never the way to do things. You need to like break shit, and you need to knock on doors. And if doors closed, and you need to go in another path. Staying stationary is the only time that you're going to, it's not even that you achieved nothing you actually regress. I find in terms of confidence. And I just think the smart thing to do is like let's just keep moving forward. Even if it's like at a slower pace, you still need to be moving forward. Because what happens is you have other people that are stuffing around you, you're going to be ahead. And I think for me that's one of the greatest lessons as an entrepreneur and running a business and all of the entrepreneurs that I have the pleasure of luxury of working with, it's about pushing forward and it's just like I don't really feel comfortable right now I'm a little bit nervous like fuck it, just go for it. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Michael Maher  24:50

I think there's a big difference between, between reflecting and planning that and pausing because you can still have for momentum and say alright, I'm going to take this day, I'm gonna take this week to just review and say, okay, is what we're doing working? Or how can we make adjustments and change? So I think that I 100% agree with you. And I also would say, there's something everyone knows about IQ, you know, intellectual quotient, how smart are you? Everyone's hearing more about EQ? How emotionally, you know, intelligent, are you but there's also something as entrepreneurship, as an entrepreneur that's called AQ, or adversity quotient. And that's just how much shit can you take as an entrepreneur? How much can you stand? To? How can I, how much can you withstand that's coming your way. And I think having a high adversity quotient is something that makes entrepreneurs more successful, because they're able to say, Okay, I deal with failure is something that that happens, it's a regular part. And if you don't get so caught up, in that you're gonna see successes as well. And but again, to your point, if life is really about the journey, and it's not about the destination, you're always going to be moving. So if you're upset with where you're at right now, wait five minutes, wait, you know, five months. And hopefully things are a different place if you're continuing to move, because this year will constantly change.

Rachel Jacobs  26:07

For sure, for sure, entities like running a business, whether you're running a business, a lot of the agencies that I work with, but like yourself, they are solo entrepreneurs, I'm a solo entrepreneur. And there's other agencies that have the luxury of then working with a business partner or working with Mazal multiple business partners. Either way, it has its strengths and weaknesses. The first example worked with a brother-in-law, and that had a strength, but it also had his weaknesses. And I have some people that work with a co-founder, and that I would never do this alone, and I have people who work there solo. And then I would never do this with a business, I could never do it with a business partner. I mean, I have my husband, and we run the business together, but he's very much in the background. But in terms of like a day to day making those decisions together. I'm a total Renegade, so I just say whatever,

Michael Maher  26:50

You know, I've that, I've done both. And I feel like it really just depends upon the partner. Like if you have someone, especially in your case, like you said, Your husband's a planner, he's more in the background, you're the one that's out front, you're the face of the business, and the shoulder of the business, apparently, but you're the one that's out, you're the one that's out front, that's kind of you know, leading and running things, that's a pair that works really well together. If you've got two front runners, and they're constantly buying for attention, that's going to be difficult. If you've got two background people, and no one's leading from a sales or marketing perspective, that's going to be a problem. So I think it just, it has to be a good match. And it has to be the right person. And if you know, I think it's smarter to have, you know, hey, I'm the person that wants to get out in front, and I don't really want to have to wait on someone else to get something approved. And that's what works for you then go out and do that, you're still gonna have to build a team of people that are I guess, if you're the Quick Start, that's one of the types of that's one of the terminology that's in a personality test called the COVID assessment. It talks about, you know, where, where you were at birth, what you were meant to be, and so if you're quickstart, you're out there, you're doing things, you're making mistakes, but you're figuring it out, if you've got someone that is if you're going to still have to find people that are going to be more operationally sound, they're going to perfect things and get them better, you might say, Hey, here's a early prototype. Now fix this, I'm gonna go on and move to the next thing, you guys make that work better, you're still gonna have to find those people, they just aren't necessarily going to be partners.

Rachel Jacobs  28:19

And then that's another good point. Because if that's the case, so for example, if you're running a brand, or running a retail business, or whatever it is, and it's just you, or even if you have a business partner, find experts, great, I can find experts to help and advise you on certain stuff that you don't know. And I think that's the smart thing, what makes from my experience, I work with ATC owners and entrepreneurs. But those leaders, the best leaders are the ones that know where their strength is. And in most cases, your strength is like direction, vision, creativity, like looking at the big picture, what scale looks like, the details, the nuts and bolts of it should be of no interest to you after you scale past a certain size. And the more that you live into where your potential is, in terms of being a visionary, the more then you should lean into people. So whether it's people in house that you hire that team at house, or you go and work with, for example, if it's a brand that's working setting on Amazon, they go and then work with an Amazon specialist who knows how to maximize the money that they're investing, rather than trying to figure that in house and then you have a team of in house for doing in house stuff. It's about being smart, because you don't need to have all the solutions. And I think that's what makes really good entrepreneurs, really good business owners is the people that know this is where I'm shit hot. For me, I know that I'm sure to finances can hate me, you know this, I just can't be are sending out invoices, or my invoices are like six weeks later, my contents are like, Oh my god, you're running a bit.

Michael Maher  29:42

I was like, Hey, are you gonna charge us for this thing? Or like, I already sent that out? I don't know, 

Rachel Jacobs  29:46

*inaudible* send up two months ago. No. And I'm like, whoops. I think I created it somewhere. But *inaudible*

Michael Maher  29:51

I totally get that like, I don't know anything about I learned about finances and accounting because they had to, but I found someone that was great. And he's helped me even from a business perspective, he's been like a business mentor to me, my accountant. And so I hold him in high regard. And I worked with him for maybe seven, eight years now. And he's been incredible for me helped me, just taught me simple stuff. Like, I'm not a business. I didn't go to school for business. I just, I got a college degree in Asian Studies, I'll let you know when I start using that. But,

Rachel Jacobs  29:56

In what?

Michael Maher  30:23

In Asian Studies, generalized studies of Asia, that's essentially what it was. I took Japanese like a long time.

Rachel Jacobs  30:30

Yeah, like Asian Studies, like food, or language, or culture, or just a bit of everything,

Michael Maher  30:34

A bit of everything, not so much the food part, that would have been cool. But I took Japanese for so long in high school and college. And I was like, I want to get the heck out of college. I don't want to be here anymore. I hate this place. And I was like, What can I, what do I have the most credits for? It's like, well, you get a generalization studies degree. And before they said, degree, I was like, yep, that's what I want to do. I want to do that. And so I still haven't used that, much to my chagrin, but I became an entrepreneur instead. So that was anyone that's got an Asian Studies degree right now. If you're not double majoring, you're planning to become an entrepreneur at some point in your life.

Rachel Jacobs  31:04

Yes, for sure. For sure. I always tell people, I'm an entrepreneur through defaults. That's just because working for other people, so frustrating for me, I'm working for other people not working with working for other 

Michael Maher  31:16

Working for,

Rachel Jacobs  31:17

They just are too slow. And I just got so frustrated that I'm like, okay, I can see what the plan of attack is. And I'm then being held back. Because if,

Michael Maher  31:26

If someone doesn't have vision then, you're just going on and on. And I want to see progress. I don't want to just work for the day-to-day and just keep doing day to day stuff. Like I want to I want to be out there. I want to have vision, I want to say, Okay, let's get our hands dirty. Let's if this doesn't work, then we'll try something else. I don't care. But I want to be out there and I want to be pushing. So I totally do that.

Rachel Jacobs  31:48

Yeah, but entrepreneur by default. I think we're both in the same boat. I didn't study any business. I didn't even do business studies in school, like when I was younger teenager didn't do any of it. I can justify because I have a calculator. Like *inaudible*

Michael Maher  32:00

I learned to balance a checkbook in high school. And then that was pretty much my finance. And *inaudible*

Rachel Jacobs  32:07

No, I wouldn't even do that. *inaudible*

Michael Maher  32:09

My wife handles all the finances now. So I don't even need that. It's like, Well, I didn't need to learn how to balance a checkbook because I got married to someone who knows how to do it. You guys are idiots, you should have told *inaudible*.

Rachel Jacobs  32:18

When I first met Dave, one of the first things I said to him, I was like just so that, you know, we were just dating in the early days, when it comes to the money and the numbers. I'm not interested. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want. 

Michael Maher  32:30

My second job interview. Like, I need a finance. I need a husband. But I also want a financier.

Rachel Jacobs  32:34

Can you just like manage that shit? I was very good with money. Like I saved a lot. But I don't want to deal with it. Like where it was being invested, where it was going and what we're doing with it. And I said at the very start. We were only dating a few months. I'm like, I don't wanna deal with any of that shit, you deal with it. 

Michael Maher  32:47

What did he say? 

Rachel Jacobs  32:49

Fine. He loves numbers.

Michael Maher  32:50

Great. Man. *inaudible* That was a match, legit match made in heaven.

Rachel Jacobs  32:55

He's like, I don't want to deal with kitchen stuff. I don't want to cook. And I'm just like, I love cooking. Perfect. You give him the numbers. I'll do the foods. It's fine. 

Michael Maher  33:02

Yeah, I told my wife. I was like, I'm gonna handle everything in the bedroom. I don't even need you. I'm gonna do it all on myself. And if you can run the rest of the house, *inaudible*

Rachel Jacobs  33:11

You mean like making the bed with hospital corners. 

Michael Maher  33:13

No, I mean, like the intimate part of the relationship. Like I'll take care of that myself. I don't even need you for that. 

Rachel Jacobs  33:18

You're not necessary, no. *inaudible*

Michael Maher  33:22

Immaculate conception. Yeah, that's actually I have another podcast. It's starting called immaculate conception. It's gonna walk through the journey of my daughter being born. 

Rachel Jacobs  33:32

*inaudible* 

Michael Maher  33:34

Yeah, that's that's pretty much it. So Rachel, if people want to find you, where would, where would they look like under 150 sunproof, sunscreen? Are they looking into the Blarney Stone? Where are they going to find you?

Rachel Jacobs  33:47

150 is that a real thing? Is there such a thing as 150 SPF?

Michael Maher  33:51

No I think I think 100 might be the highest. 

Rachel Jacobs  33:54

100 days just like the number is only in relation to how long it lasts for.

Michael Maher  33:59

Something like that. Yeah, I don't I don't know I just knew that I pretty I put on I just keep, I know that I put on at least 30 or higher.

Rachel Jacobs  34:07

Okay,

Michael Maher  34:08

No oil.

Rachel Jacobs  34:10

No, no sunflower oil is not a good idea. Yeah, I made that mistake many times.

Michael Maher  34:15

I think you're gonna tan and then you just burn like a lobster and then turn back into a white tilapia.

Rachel Jacobs  34:22

I don't know when based I turned into bronze gods it's pretty quickly, but I just have to go like 50 shades of red first and the sun just slowly hits me and I'm like I said 15 minutes. I'm like, Oh, that's nice. Cool day wasn't too hard to like, come in. And I literally looked like I've been *inaudible*

Michael Maher  34:36

Looking for a microphone. Yeah.

Rachel Jacobs  34:39

I'm pretty Irish in that way. Where can they find me? LinkedIn? Rachel Jacobs. I think my name is Rachel Jacobs on LinkedIn hoax.

Michael Maher  34:47

Yeah it is.

Rachel Jacobs  34:48

Okay, that's good. It's not like I have a spy name, or my website eCommercepartnerships either or.

Michael Maher  34:55

Cool. Well, I appreciate you always bring a lot of liveliness and apparently little bit of skin to the show. Yeah, love to see that other shoulder.

Rachel Jacobs  35:05

Oh, no, I'll be charging me for that one.

Michael Maher  35:08

Okay. Thanks for coming on everyone. This is a longer game where we talk about retail, we talk about what's changing in the retail game, what's new, what's old, what's being redone. Or sometimes we talk about the pandemic or sometimes we talk about 

Rachel Jacobs  35:24

Immaculate conception

Michael Maher  35:25

Yeah, it just really depends. But thank you guys for joining us and girls. You can catch Rachel on LinkedIn, eCommercepartnerships is it .com eCommerce?

Rachel Jacobs  35:34

Yeah.

Michael Maher  35:35

That's a pretty clutch URL, by the way.

Rachel Jacobs  35:37

Thank you. It actually came to me in a vision as I was cutting onions in the kitchen. True story.

Michael Maher  35:43

Right? Did you just go right to like, Go Daddy's *inaudible*

Rachel Jacobs  35:45

I was chopping onions and my eyes were screaming, I'm like, I'm gonna cut my finger and this finger. Is it gone? Or I'm totally gonna lose a finger here. And then all of a sudden it was like in my mind, this word just popped up and I left the agency by like, three or four days. I just I saw the word eCommerce tarnishes my mind, but I'm like, Oh, it's the Lord speaking to me. I'm delivered, get on the computer. I go on to whatever I mean 

Michael Maher  36:06

fingers all over the computer.

Rachel Jacobs  36:08

Yeah, exactly. Onion smells for days on the laptop and then I just went on domain.com ecommercepartnership.com. Yeah, fuck it. I'll buy it and then I went into my husband's like the weirdest things happened. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with this. But,

Michael Maher  36:19

Yeah. Just like even planning to move to Grand Canary for six months and he didn't even know.

Rachel Jacobs  36:25

Yeah, but my example was

Michael Maher  36:27

Yours was like immediate

Rachel Jacobs  36:27

It was like an immediate I'm gonna buy this domain and then come in a bit. I feel like I don't know what's next. But this is like the first step towards something. And then a week later, I'll have the whole entire business unfolded in my mind and well, I started speaking to people,

Michael Maher  36:41

You can find Rachel at ecommercepartnerships.com, if you're an agency owner and you're in the eCommerce world, Amazon, whatever the case might be, should definitely check out one of the free roundtables that she does once a month. They're a lot of fun. You get a chance to talk to other eCommerce agency owners and see what's going on in the world and connect. This has been The Longer Game, we're out. Peace out.

Rachel Jacobs  37:01

Peace.