Latest / eCommerce Podcast / Learning Is Not the Same as Implementation | Matt Edmundson

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Learning Is Not the Same as Implementation | Matt Edmundson · eCommerce Podcast

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If you are like me, then somewhere in your digital ecosystem is a
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folder called Great Ideas, and that folder has a layer of digital dust
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on it because it is rarely opened.
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Right after recording hundreds of episodes of the e-Commerce podcast, having
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interviewed some incredible experts in their field, having coached companies
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all around the world, and if I'm totally honest, taking a really long look at the
0:34
mirror myself, there is the same repeating mistake we all seem to be making.
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That is,
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we rarely put into practice what we have learned.
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So I want to talk about
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that today and I want to dig into it and share some changes that
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are also happening, uh, here on e-Commerce Podcast to help us all
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become better at implementing.
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Of course, if you are already perfect implementation, this show
1:02
might not be for you, in which case.
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Come and be my guest and share your insights because I would
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genuinely love to hear them.
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But if you are like me, then you probably struggle in this area, right?
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Just last week I sat there interviewing this brilliant expert
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about conversion optimization.
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Fantastic person really knew their stuff.
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But partway through the conversation, they start talking about post-purchase
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sequences and how critical they are for customer retention.
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And I'm nodding along because I'm really fascinated, I'm
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making all the right noises.
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I'm writing notes in my notebook, I'm asking follow-up questions, but
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it struck me in my mind, you know, I'm, I sort of thought to myself.
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Well, this is exactly what, uh, a guest told me three years ago and
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what another guest mentioned last month and what that 2000 pound course
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I bought covered in module four.
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Right, and I don't think I'm the only 1:00 AM I, if you look at the
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stats for online courses, and let's face it, there are more courses than
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we could possibly need right now.
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Uh, between two and 8% of original starters, realistically both finish
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and puts the knowledge into practice.
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That's a low percentage, but that's me.
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Right?
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And I've interviewed the experts, hundreds of them.
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I've made pages and pages and pages of notes.
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Uh, I've downloaded every single framework, every
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template, every checklist.
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But the reality of it is I've probably implemented about 5% of what I've learned.
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5%. That's it.
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And if you're honest with yourself.
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I bet your number isn't that much higher and you know, I could sit here
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and justify we're all busy people.
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Uh, we've all got stuff to do and I think we're all drowning
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in good advice, aren't we?
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While our businesses stay exactly the same, the e-commerce industry has
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become this sort of echo chamber of surface level tips and recycled wisdom.
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You know, the things, I mean, the sort of five ways to boost conversions.
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The secret to Facebook ads.
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I dunno how many secrets there are to Facebook ads, but there's
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millions of people telling me that they found the secret to it.
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There's a lot of secrets, right?
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Um, and my personal favorite is the how This founder went from zero to hero in,
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you know, some crazy amount of time, like 30 days or something like that.
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But no one seems to be talking about the real problem, which I think is
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well simply this knowing what to do.
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That's never been easier.
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I mean, just think about what you have access to now, the internet and with
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ai, I mean, the stuff that you can find out within a matter of seconds
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is mind boggling.
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So knowing what to do has never been easier actually doing it well.
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That's where things come unstuck.
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You know,
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I started the e-commerce podcast back in 2019 and I actually started with
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these sort of solo episodes where I had no guests, no interviews, just me
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and a microphone, a bit like this one.
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And yes, it is a little different if you're a regular to the show, um, you
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can still listen to those original ones, and I know a lot of you do.
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I, I know a lot of.
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People who go back like five, six years in the archives determined
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to listen to all of the episodes.
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And I take my hat off to you.
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I really do.
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That's a lot of episodes to listen to.
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Um, I, I think the, the early ones are a little bit cringe if I listen to them now.
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Not because necessarily the content was wrong, but because, well, I dunno
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if you've ever heard a recording of yourself from years ago, it can
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be a slightly painful experience.
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Right.
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I had all of this knowledge from running my own eCommerce businesses, from the
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coaching that I'd been doing, but I, I think I've learned a lot over the recent
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years in terms of how to communicate those better, more effectively.
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I just, the way I did them was I just sit down, you know, with a
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rough idea and to start talking.
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No structure, no stories, just.
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Really an information dump.
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And, uh, so I did what any self-respect in Britt would do when
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faced with potential embarrassment.
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Um, I got other people to share their expertise.
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That's exactly what I did.
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I pivoted to interviews and I learned how to ask questions and how, uh,
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and just dig to dig into things.
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And you know what, for me it was brilliant.
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Um, the show grew.
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We built this amazing audience.
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I learned from the absolute best in the business.
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And if you've been a guest on the show, I really appreciate you guys coming on
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and sharing your knowledge and insight.
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It's much easier to ask questions than to answer them in so many ways, but,
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you know, something was missing for me.
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Um, so when we've been thinking about e-Commerce podcast and,
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and going over it in our minds.
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I just wondered whether we needed to change a little bit.
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You see, every interview taught me something new, but it also
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highlighted the same pattern.
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We talk about these game changing strategies and
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listeners would get excited.
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You know, we would all make notes and I know this because you
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write in and you tell me, right?
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Um, but then what changes as a result of that?
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I get the occasional story of things that change, but not lots, because on average,
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5% implementation seems to be about.
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Where everybody's at.
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So you take the example of learning about Instagram marketing from an expert.
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Well, that's one thing, but figuring out how to actually implement what they
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have said, the lessons they've given in, into your sort of specific business.
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When you're already working 60 hours a week and you've got inventory issues,
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you've got, you know, supplier issues, they've just raised the prices.
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It's hard, isn't it?
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It's hard to implement.
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It's hard to figure out specifically for your business.
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And I wonder if part of the problem is that most of the
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content out there is created by people that have actually not been
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in the trenches.
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They share theory, but they do not share scars.
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Well, if you are
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an E-commerce, like I'm, if you are an eCommercer like I am, I love that word.
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Um.
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Then you're gonna have scars.
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You've got them.
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I've got them.
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I even have
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what I call my $38 million scar, which was
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created about 10 years ago.
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Uh, we had this online business.
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It was doing about 6 million a year.
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It was a good business, solid growth.
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Everything was working.
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But within months, revenue had halved.
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And after a few months beyond that, before the end of the financial year,
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we were down to about a million a year.
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We lost 5 million a year in sales.
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So what happened?
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Why did we do that?
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Well, there's lots of reasons, but one of them was we had a ca catastrophic, that's
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not an easy word to say, a catastrophic relationship with a key supplier.
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It totally went sideways.
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They instituted what I call a more you buy, the more you pay policy, which
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I appreciate is the complete opposite of how many businesses normally work.
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That's what happened.
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We were completely blindsided.
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There's no doubt about it, right?
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Overnight, our entire business model built on volume, discounting
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and efficiency became obsolete.
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Everything we knew about scaling, about growth, about business
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economics, they didn't help me one bit.
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We had to relearn almost everything, and that's why I call it my
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$38 million mistake because.
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If I'm honest with you, I think that's how much we lost in sales
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over the years because of what happened with that supplier.
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And one of the things that I learned the hard way through that whole
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experience was that real business isn't about collecting tips and tricks.
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It's not about
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having the first back, uh, the, the perfect get my words right.
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It's not about having the perfect Facebook ad strategy
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or the ultimate email sequence.
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It's about building systems that can survive when everything else goes wrong.
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It's about taking action even when you don't have perfect information.
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In other words,
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it's about implementation, not inspiration.
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So here's what's
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changing on the e-commerce podcast.
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Let me bring you up to speed with some of the things that are going on.
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First, I am bringing back.
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Uh, solo episodes.
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Hopefully not the, you know, the cringe-worthy earlier
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episodes that we did.
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Uh, hopefully these are gonna be different.
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They're gonna be shorter and sharper.
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Uh, about 20 minutes, uh, in length.
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And we're gonna look at specific challenges during those 20 minutes
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because if I'm honest with you, after 20 minutes of just me.
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Steve and I get bored with the sound of my own voice.
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And so I really, and I really like the sound of my own voice.
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Uh, anyway, 20 minutes is what we're aiming for.
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Uh, it doesn't mean that we're not gonna be bringing the expert
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interviews, we're still doing those, which is what the show was founded on.
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And also we're doing more founder episodes as well.
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So we're gonna have three episode types.
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This, these, we call them internally the solo episodes, which is me talking about I
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need to come up with a better name really.
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If you have any ideas, do let me know, but this is where I'm gonna
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talk about e-commerce as I see it, share some stories and stuff.
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We're gonna have the expert, uh, interviews, which is what we've been
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doing, where we bring in experts in their field and we are also
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gonna have the founder episodes.
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Uh, why am I doing this?
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Well, let me tell you, there is no hidden agenda, uh, total transparency,
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you know, when experts come on the show, um, they're amazing.
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Don't get me wrong.
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I think they're brilliant and I, I, I love what they're doing
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and I love talking to them, but.
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They are also promoting something more often than not, right.
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Their agency, their software, their course, um, that's the
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deal and that's fine with me.
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They come on the show, we talk about a specific area.
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If they deliver value, there's a chance you may sign up to their services or at
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least connect with 'em and find out more.
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Right?
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I get that.
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But these solo episodes, I didn't want any of that.
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I just wanted sort of pure, unfiltered.
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Conversation really.
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Um, just from the stuff that I'm doing every day, uh, and
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learning about e-commerce.
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So we're gonna be talking about real implementation, uh, not just what works,
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but asking and digging in, like how do we make this work for our specific business.
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Um, so hopefully we'll bring you some stories from the trenches, uh,
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you know, what we're actually doing in our own business and with our
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clients, what we've been doing with our acquisitions and all that sort of stuff.
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Um, and if you've been listening to the show, you'll have heard me
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recently talk about e-commerce cohorts.
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We used to have an e-commerce cohort where people paid to be a member,
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and that was great and I loved it.
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And you listen to the show, we're gonna release some of the content from cohorts.
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From the paid cohorts onto the e-commerce podcast, we're gonna
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make those available for free.
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Because cohort, we have changed it.
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We're no longer charging for the cohort memberships.
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Uh, the cohort now is, uh, free.
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So free membership groups, uh, where you can work alongside other entrepreneurs to
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actually implement what you are learning to learn from your peers, your e-commerce
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peers, and share stories and share scars because there's a truth, right?
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That we can, we can just spend all our time learning, can't we?
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You can listen to a thousand podcasts.
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I know this 'cause I'm an avid podcast, podcast listener.
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I love listening to podcasts, but listening to a thousand podcasts
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is not the same as working through 10 ideas with my peers who get it.
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'cause guess which one actually moves the needle.
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Which one moves your business forward?
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Um, I, you know, one cohort member recently just shared
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with me that they, um.
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They went from working two days a week on their business, their econ
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business, to three days a week.
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Not because of some magical tactic, but because, you know, working with
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others gave them the confidence and the clarity to take that leap.
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Now sure, it's not the, well, I joined cohort and I went from zero
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to a million in 30 days, but you know what I'm, I'm grateful about that
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because that story I think applies to.
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Wow, what 0.0, 0, 0 0 1% of our listeners maybe.
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But you know what?
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Getting the opportunity to reduce your part-time job to work more on
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your e-commerce business, I think that applies to thousands more.
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I genuinely do.
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So we're gonna be talking about stuff that actually matters to all of us.
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Now let me be completely transparent about why I'm doing this because, uh,
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one, I just wanna be transparent and two.
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I just wanna be transparent, right?
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It's always a good thing, isn't it?
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Um, why am I doing this?
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Well, the podcast helps me grow my business.
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I mean, it's an obvious statement to make, but it genuinely does.
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When we first started the podcast back in 2019, it started as a passion project.
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I just wanted to do it just to see where it went really and see what happened.
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I had no strategy.
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Um, it's not like now where we help other people set up podcasts 'cause
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of all the stuff that we've learned.
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Um.
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I had a strategy.
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I had no strategy.
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We just had a microphone.
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That was about it really.
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But over the years, over the 20 years, we've built, you know,
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multiple seven figure operations and a portion of that success.
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Has come from relationships I've established through podcasting right now.
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When I give value freely, I meet some amazing people.
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Some of those people then become clients, and some of those also become partners.
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We've even acquired businesses through connections made here.
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Just recently, we took an equity stake and partnered with seven Yays.
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Um, which is a, you know, it's a, it's a work in progress.
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That company, um, and that relationship started through content and
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conversations, which is just brilliant.
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Right?
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Love it.
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Absolutely love it.
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It's a great business.
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Um, and I'm really excited about the future of it, but
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the podcast grows my business.
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Just again, full transparency.
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My coaching rate, what I charge for coaching is $4,000 a day.
15:36
Right.
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And there are frameworks that we share, that we've shared with.
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Companies all over the world were the large pharmaceutical companies
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to small e-com companies, right?
15:46
People have paid serious money for them, but we're gonna put them all
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out here for free on the podcast coming up, um, over the coming months.
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Why?
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Well, we've just, we've shifted our business model a little bit,
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um, and it's based on the premise.
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You know, you sow, you reap.
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The more people I help grow, the more our ecosystem seems to thrive.
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It's one of the things that I've noticed,
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the more successful e-commerce businesses there are out there, well, the reality
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is the more potential partners we have.
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So it's not totally selfless, I'm gonna be honest with you.
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Um, but it is a journey that I'm looking forward to.
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I genuinely looking forward to, you know, e-commerce is constantly moving.
16:27
The playing field is, is evolving all the time.
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The rules, the boundaries.
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I mean, you've gotta stay up to date or you are quickly irrelevant, doing
16:37
the podcast, interviewing guests, prepping content, doing the research.
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It means I have to stay sharp, right?
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I can't, I've gotta do that.
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Um, so like learning that fact that only 2% of, uh, well, two to 8% of folks
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finish and put into practice what they learn on courses that they have paid for.
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I find that really interesting, right?
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When I do the research and it helps me, you know, when figuring
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out ways to put content together that actually helps people.
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So, all the courses that we've done historically, if
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they still make sense today.
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We're talking at the moment about, do we just put them all online and make
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them free for everyone to access?
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I don't know.
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We'll see.
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Right?
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So truthfully, the more I learn from implementing alongside you,
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the better I can serve our equity partners, our coaching clients.
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The podcast, what we're doing, it's not a charity, total transparency, but
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what we're building is that idea of a rising tide that lifts all boats.
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You sow, you reap.
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It's the Alex Hormoz approach.
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Just put content out there that is valuable and you'll
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be amazed what comes back.
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Right.
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So that's, that's it.
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That's why we're doing it.
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The total transparency, and here's my challenge to you, right.
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Uh, as I wrap up
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today's episode, stop taking notes and start taking action.
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Simple principle, right?
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Pick one thing from each episode, so when you listen, just take one thing.
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If you're not implementing right, take one thing and then do it,
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and then tell me what happened.
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Reach out to me on LinkedIn @mattedmundson and let me know.
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The other thing you can do.
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Which I'd totally appreciate actually, is send me in your questions.
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So in these solo episodes, I'd really love to do a deep dive on some of the
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things that you've got top of mind, some of the questions, some of the challenges
18:28
that you are facing, um, in e-commerce.
18:32
Running a business, all that sort of stuff, whatever they are, fire 'em
18:36
across 'cause well, you know, we'd love to get in there and, and deliver
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some content that creates value for us.
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Over the coming weeks you'll see this evolution sort of roll out.
18:46
We've got new solo episodes tackling stuff like preparing for the summer
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sales slump, which you know, at the time.
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As I, as we started to do this, that seemed like a good idea.
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We're just a bit delayed in getting these episodes out, so that that's
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probably gonna come out maybe a little bit too late, but it.
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The idea is it will help you prepare and learn for next year.
19:07
We're gonna be talking about Black Friday.
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We've got some content from Cohort, which I mentioned, which we are
19:12
gonna be releasing for free.
19:14
Um, especially the stuff around Black Friday that's gonna be coming up as well.
19:19
Um, because if you're listening to this, you, you should definitely
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be thinking about Black Friday.
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If I go, you know, if this comes out when I think it's coming out, you
19:26
should definitely be thinking about it.
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We are gonna dig into the mindset shifts that separate six figure
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survivors from seven figure thrivers.
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Love, love, love that phrase.
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Um.
19:39
So, yeah, we're gonna be getting to all of that.
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You know, some of the still the stuff that we find out.
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Now, let me just bring you up to speed on the e-commerce cohort.
19:46
If you've been a regular to the show, you'll have heard me mention
19:48
about this over the last few weeks.
19:49
E-commerce cohort has had wait lists in the US and in the UK for
19:54
the new cohorts that are starting.
19:56
They are gonna launch, uh, after the summer, um, probably
20:00
around September, October time.
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So if you haven't done so already, make sure you're signed up for
20:03
these, these aren't the courses.
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Um, and it may be that all the courses we have done and deliver free, we'll
20:10
put in, in effect into the cohort.
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There's some conversations around that.
20:14
But cohort is free to join.
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They aren't courses that, let's just call them implementation groups, right?
20:21
Think of them.
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As a sort of a board of your peers who are also your advisors.
20:27
You know, they're all in the trenches with you and they are completely free.
20:32
So do check that out.
20:34
Um, you can go to the website eCommerce podcast.net, um, and check that
20:38
out, uh, and learn more about it.
20:40
Just click the cohort button.
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Uh, honestly, it'd be great to see you in there.
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Uh, the other thing that's happening again, you'll have heard
20:46
me talk about this on the show.
20:48
Starting in September, our new newsletter, um, is gonna be launching
20:52
as a complete overhaul, not just the, here's what this week's episode
20:55
is, you know, with a few lines, but we want to make sure that there's
20:58
some real additional value in there.
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The stuff, you know, that I can't fit into the 20 minutes basically.
21:03
So, um, again, with these solo episodes, we're gonna be doing.
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Worksheets, checklists, freebies, those kind of things that sit alongside
21:10
it that you can get access to.
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Um, all of that sort of stuff will also be in the newsletter.
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So yeah, lot of change coming up.
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Let's change, let's say there's pivots.
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Um, no, let's not say pivots 'cause I hate that word.
21:23
Let's say improvements.
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Uh,
21:27
let's use that word, um, because I just, I, I just love this show and we really
21:32
want to help deliver more and more value.
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So, uh, you know, we this real passion for focusing, you know, on that gap
21:39
between learning and doing, because after 20 years in e-commerce, after
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building and selling multiple businesses, and even after my $38 million lesson.
21:50
I know the difference between the businesses that thrive and
21:54
those that merely survive is not knowledge, not in this day and age.
21:59
It's not even talent.
22:02
I think a lot
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of it is the ability to take imperfect action consistently.
22:09
Everyone out there is waiting for the perfect strategy.
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You know, the revolutionary tactic, the course that changes
22:15
everything, but the real secret.
22:19
I think it's doing the basics brilliantly.
22:21
Learning from what actually happens, not what you think should happen, and having
22:27
people around you who get it right.
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And that's what these solo episodes are all about.
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That's what cohort is all about, and that's what this entire evolution is all
22:41
about, because learning is not the same.
22:45
As implementation.
22:46
I'll say that again.
22:47
It's one of my favorite phrases.
22:49
Learning is not the same as implementation, and I reckon
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it's probably time we all stop pretending otherwise.
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Look, if you are serious about actually implementing, instead of
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just learning, join the seriously join the cohort, the links in the
23:05
description, uh, in the show notes.
23:06
Or like I say, head over to eCommerce podcast.net.
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Uh, send me your questions, you know, the messy specific actual
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problems that you are facing.
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'cause maybe just maybe, uh, we'll do one of these shows on that particular
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problem and let's work through them.
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Let's see what happens.
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And remember.
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That folder of great ideas on your desktop, open it.
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I dare you.
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Open it, pick one thing, implement it this week, and then drop me a
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note telling me about what happened.
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After all, your implementation story is worth more than another expert's theory.