In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA – Samer Brax The FBA Challenge Samer is an Amazon seller, a successful YouTuber, and a PPC manager at Incrementum Digital - A leading marketing agency for eCommerce sellers, shares his personal journey into eCommerce.
Samer was born in Lebanon but grew up in Saudi Arabia. After many years of efforts by his parents, Samer got the opportunity to migrate to Montreal in Canada. Initially in Canada, Samer found it challenging to find a steady job and settle. He then began to start selling products on Amazon as a side hustle.
About two months into working for Loreal Samer quit his job, as realized that he can make more money and have a great passion for documenting his eCommerce journey on YouTube along with selling his own private label products on Amazon.
Today Samer is active on 4 main business tracks:
Find out more about Samer Brax YouTube Channel
Find out more about The FBA Challenge
Find out more about GETIDA Amazon FBA reimbursement solutions
Yoni Mazor 0:06
Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of prime talk today. I'm really excited to have an extremely special guest. I'm having Samer Brax Samer is an Amazon seller, but he's also a successful YouTuber. In addition to all that he's also a PPC manager at increment incremental digital, which is a leading marketing agency for e-commerce sellers. So Samara Welcome to the show.
Samer Brax 0:28
Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Yoni Mazor 0:30
My pleasure, really. So today's episode is going to be all about you the story of Samer Brax, you're going to share with us, who are you Where you from? Where'd you grow up? Where'd you go to school? How did you begin your professional career and all the way to where you are now. So without further ado, let's jump right into it. Sounds good.
Samer Brax 0:46
So yeah, just like I said, my name is Samer. And I actually grew up in Saudi Arabia, but I'm from Lebanon originally. And I moved to Canada not too long ago. So wherever you want..
Yoni Mazor 0:59
That was a full speed ahead. Okay. So once again, just for context, reason, because I want to really the audience to get to know the story of you in the context of things. So, you know, you mentioned to me this before, but you're in Lebanon, kind of East Lebanon area called the Bekaa, right on the border with Syria. That is really where your family's from, but because it was, I guess, a job or economic opportunity. In Saudi Arabia, you guys moved to Saudi Arabia. But how old were you when you guys moved?
Samer Brax 1:26
I was probably like, a couple of months old, I think. Yeah. All right.
Yoni Mazor 1:29
Rreally young guys. Essentially, a baby. All right. And then you mentioned that used to come to visit Lebanon, like once or twice a year. So I assume his family is still around there. Maybe uncle's antiquarian pet grandparents?
Samer Brax 1:42
Yeah, yeah. Most, a couple of uncles are in Saudi, or maybe one, and then most everyone else is in Lebanon.
Yoni Mazor 1:48
Got it. And so in Saudi Arabia, you want to what elementary school or high school or what was the dynamic of education?
Samer Brax 1:54
Yeah, I went to a safe house, a French school for like 15 years. And then I went to an American High School. And right after that, I went to the American University of Beirut, in Lebanon.
Yoni Mazor 2:06
Got it. So but in Saudi Arabia, which party did you live in Riyadh, in Medina, in Copper Harbor.
Yoni Mazor 2:12
Where’s that?
Samer Brax 2:12
It's in the...
Yoni Mazor 2:14
Nice, big town business town or just a..
Samer Brax 2:18
It's one of like one of the top three hobo Riyadh and Jeddah pretty much, and it's right next to Bahrain. I don't know if you know, Bahrain, but it's like a bridge away.
Yoni Mazor 2:27
Sure I was. On the other hand, I believe it's on the Gulf, right. Yes. The Persian Gulf. Alright. And your parents just once again, just to understand better what kind of industry was involved in and Saudi Arabia.
Samer Brax 2:38
So my dad is a civil engineer, but he worked. I think in business pretty much you can say. And my mom is is a housewife.
Yoni Mazor 2:47
Got it. I so you graduate high school in Saudi Arabia and you move to Lebanon to Beirut, right? The American university? Yes, at the same university that I believe Steve Kerr's father used to be a professor he got killed during the 80s or something. There was a war there's a whole turmoil around the same rights. I think there's a whole area of the section there for him or attributor?
Samer Brax 3:11
Yeah, there's a dorm called Kurt. Kurt dorm. Yeah. I stayed in the one next to it.
Yoni Mazor 3:17
Yeah, yes. anybody listening to this Steve Kerr plays for the bulls also, he's the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Kind of a legend in the NBA. He does have you know, a connection to the Lebanese story and their turmoil. So so that's also for context. Reason. This is where he went to school. And what did you study?
Samer Brax 3:35
studied mechanical engineering for five years.
Yoni Mazor 3:37
Sounds like a copy picture of your father. Good, okay. So you graduate, which here let's let's start sticking the years into the story.
Samer Brax 3:46
So 2011, I got in and then I graduated in 2000 1605 years.
Yoni Mazor 3:51
Got it. Okay, say let's, let's ask a few questions here. So why did you choose that? And it was, because your father, he really had the passion for it, or
Samer Brax 4:02
I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just knew that I was good at math and good at physics and good at these kinds of things that fit into engineering. And then I didn't know which engineering I didn't care much about buildings. And then I was like, I like planes. And the closest thing to planes was mechanical engineering. But later in life, turns out that I just like flying on planes in first class.
Samer Brax 4:24
Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 4:25
Got it was five minutes is pretty extensive. It's pretty strong. So Alright, so you graduate 2000, you said 15 1616. And what's your next move? What's your next step?
Samer Brax 4:35
So the next step was to either go back to the Gulf, go back to Saudi Dubai, or one of these countries to have a career, just as all my friends did..
Yoni Mazor 4:43
Not have a career, for example, in Lebanon?
Samer Brax 4:46
That's not really possible, because it's like, there's not a lot of job opportunities. And if there are, they're not well paid. And if you're smart back in 2016, you would know that Lebanon was not heading to a good place, which is If you look today, it's not in a good place at all.
Yoni Mazor 5:02
How's that? tickets for a nutshell? I just for the audience to understand why isn't heading for a good place?
Samer Brax 5:08
Well currently,
Yoni Mazor 5:08
Are you sure you understand? Yeah.
Samer Brax 5:10
Yeah. Currently, it's really not in a good place. I think unemployment is like 40%. The Lebanese lira used to be 1500 for $1. Now it's 10,000 for $1.
Yoni Mazor 5:23
On fleshing out like crazy. Yeah,
Samer Brax 5:25
Yeah. And, and the ruling class is like, the same people that have been there since the war. It's actually the warlords who are ruling and they're not doing anything about it. Not to get too political is just trashed right now.
Yoni Mazor 5:37
Yeah, yeah, so it's the West construction is problematic. It's frail. So it's not really built to have an opportunity for maybe somebody starting from the lower tiers. But what compelled you to study there? Nevertheless, you know, maybe economically not just find a job there. But what was the drive to study there?
Samer Brax 5:54
2010 216, even maybe 218 it wasn't horrible. And then it's a beautiful place. Like it's very frustrating because it's one of those. It's the most beautiful place.
Yoni Mazor 6:05
They call the Paris of the Middle East or something, right.
Samer Brax 6:07
I call it everything. They call it Switzerland, Paris,
Yoni Mazor 6:09
right. That's true. I heard
Samer Brax 6:10
Now. It's trashed. Like, if you want to say the truth, but, but it's beautiful. And it's an amazing place to stay that the other people are amazing. To some, I mean, yeah.
Yoni Mazor 6:21
Yeah, they're passionate, they're warm, they're very, very socially, they like to like to have a good time. There are some beautiful beaches that I do know and nice clubs around. Okay, so But still, I said that the place itself is an awesome place to be. But academically it was the university American University and outstanding, you know, a platform to learn was is there the credentials you get out of there when you get out? And you can get jobs around the world with how to kind of caliber?
Samer Brax 6:48
Yeah, pretty much. It's accredited in New York. And it's one of the best in the Middle East. And Lebanon is one of the best places to be in the middle east if it's standing if it's in good shape. Yeah. And I got accepted to a few universities in the US and in Canada, but my parents were like, you know, go to Lebanon. It's, it's, it's, it's easier. It's closer, you know.
Yoni Mazor 7:14
That's your right or your English is amazing. So is that from back in Saudi Arabia? Is that more from the university years? Back to mommy, then
Samer Brax 7:20
It's a combination of everything from the American High School in Saudi Arabia. My first year I actually didn't talk much I was just shy because my English was just starting pretty much just getting started. Yeah, yeah. And then I got better and better. And then in Lebanon, I think I talked less English than I did at the high school because like the American High School in Saudi was really American American professors American everything was on the American consulate ground.
Yoni Mazor 7:46
And your classmates were white Americans abroad or was it was just international from all over the world.
Samer Brax 7:52
Yeah, pretty much think of an American High School but a bit more international.
Yoni Mazor 7:57
American High School, like in New York City was very cosmic popular. You know, it's a very, yeah, a lot of immigration. Everybody from everywhere or more like Midwest where everybody's already the third generation.
Samer Brax 8:07
No, not not like that. So yeah.
Yoni Mazor 8:09
Well, a lot of Erica city vibe area. Yeah.
Samer Brax 8:11
I yeah, this
Yoni Mazor 8:14
guy. Okay, so he graduated, he said, All right, have options to go to Bahrain or back to Saudi Arabia to work. What were the other options? Or? What What, what? What happened?
Samer Brax 8:24
Yes. So a year before graduating in 2015. We got permanent residency in Canada, which is pretty much like a green card.
Yoni Mazor 8:34
Do you say? Well, we mean yourself and your family or just yourself?
Samer Brax 8:36
Yeah, the family. So back in 2006, when we were in Lebanon, and in the summer, there was a war that started when we were there. And I think 2006 with Israel.
Yoni Mazor 8:49
Oh, yeah, I was a soldier back then. I was on the other side of the uniform. Yeah, I was a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces in 2006. I was on the other side. Unfortunately. There was war. Yeah, actually. I don't know if you remember this. anybody listening to this podcast? I think from abroad, they shot a rocket ship. And two of their soldiers got killed and my buddies, they were my friends. I was in the Navy. So I mean, World War is a bloody business. Yeah. So it's funny how you're one side on the other side. But yeah, it's okay to then say there was a war. So you guys were there, actually. Because summertime is supposed to be a vacation. I guess you guys got trapped over there.
Samer Brax 9:24
Exactly. Yeah. My dad wasn't there yet. He was following us after but he couldn't make it. So we were there without my dad. And then we escaped through Syria, and then drove to to Jordan. And then we went to Saudi, and then I throw everything on the road.
Samer Brax 9:39
No, we flew. We flew from Jordan. And then I think that's when my parents were like, we're applying to Canada, like Lebanon is not safe, and it's not stable. But from 2006 or seven is when the application started and then we got in 2015.
Yoni Mazor 9:55
Wow. So seven to 15 years waited. Yeah. Resilience is interesting.
Samer Brax 10:02
Yes. So 2015 is when we got it. And that summer, we're supposed to do an internship as part of the university program. So I went to Canada to get my papers and get things started and then do the internship there, went back to Lebanon to finish the year and graduate, and then I had the option to go back to Canada and live three years and get citizenship. So I did that to the land to 16.
Yoni Mazor 10:25
And what did you have to do? You got to study for three years.
Samer Brax 10:29
You have to be there for three years, three out of five years in total, pretty much.
Yoni Mazor 10:34
You're physically there and you got it, but you just yourself or you can with the family,
Samer Brax 10:40
Just myself. No one else was able to move yet my sister just moved a few months ago, this year again.
Yoni Mazor 10:43
And your parents plan to come as well, or that's not out of the question at this point?
Samer Brax 10:51
It's not completely out of the question. They're trying at some point to make it happen.
Yoni Mazor 10:57
Yeah, what's happening? The career or the community?
Samer Brax 11:00
Yeah, here we are. Pretty much. Yeah, it's hard to start over in Canada.
Yoni Mazor 11:04
So it's, it's I mean, it's fair to say you can immigrate it all on your own and into Canada. Right? And you said Vancouver? That's where you settled?
Samer Brax 11:12
No.
Yoni Mazor 11:13
Oh, it's French-speaking it helped a little bit, or has it been three languages speak? maybe speak more you can share with me, but it's Arabic, French, and English? Which one is your core? Which one do you think and I usually ask for really want to know the fundamentals of language?
Samer Brax 11:29
You know, in math, sometimes I count or most times I count in French for some reason. A lot of times, I think in English, but also in Arabic. And depends on talking to but I, I yeah, mostly Arabic in English. French used to be the second one. But now it's like the third. And I learned a bit of Spanish for like four or five years.
Yoni Mazor 11:49
Wow, amazing international Person person in the world. Yeah. Got it. So 2016, you come to immigrate to Vancouver? Sorry, I'm not sure all on your own? What do you do in three years? How'd you support yourself to survive? I mean, just to get started, at least professionally, what were we doing?
Samer Brax 12:06
So I was looking for an engineering job, obviously. And I stayed with my aunt for six months, which was not in Montreal was like 30 minutes away. And then I tried as quickly as possible to move out. And it took me a year to find a job. It wasn't easy. And I think because like Montreal has at least five or six universities in like this little place. So there's a lot of students some competing with local students. And at the same time, I didn't have much experience. And that's one thing about my university, they tell you to do an internship. But I don't think that's enough, especially for engineering. I think for engineering, it should be like half studying half working because otherwise, you have no idea what you're doing after you graduate. So yeah, I looked for a job for a year. And during that year, I was trying to do anything. So I was trying to think of what can I do or what am I good at? Or what do I know to do? And social media popped into my head because I was always a child of the internet. In Saudi Arabia, sometimes there's not much to do.
Yoni Mazor 13:14
But beyond that early. What year did you get the internet, by the way? Remember, or you were just born to it? I remember that year we got 1995.
Samer Brax 13:23
Yeah, I mean, that's possible. I was born in 1993.
Yoni Mazor 13:26
So So yeah. So you were really an internet age. You know, child.
Samer Brax 13:31
Yeah, I remember in the house. I remember the dial-up and like if someone picks up the phone, it's like, well, I'm on the internet.
Yoni Mazor 13:38
The cranky sign Yeah, the cranky. Yeah, when you log in. Yeah, that's how I started. I was about fifth or sixth grade. And I remember it. I know it's a life-changing event. Alright, so you go into the internet, you adopted it, you know, since you know yourself, and that compelled you to do what?
Samer Brax 13:53
Yeah, during University, a friend of mine was starting a food page on Instagram, like a food blog. And she was struggling with it. She had like 100 followers and she's like, Oh, this sucks. I don't know how to do this. I'm like, give it to me. Let me try Let me try something. And then I took over. And then I grew it to like, seven maybe 8000 followers. And then from there, we started getting invited to restaurants or to openings or too little, you know, shops...
Yoni Mazor 14:21
But share with us a little what's the magic she was stuck at 100 How were you able to all of a sudden come in and you know, move the needles around and make it spike into 70,000. Wow. happen.
Samer Brax 14:32
Everything happened organically because I had no idea what I was doing. I was just like, Oh, this is Instagram. So let's see what works. And I learned by watching people do stuff I don't learn by listening I learned by hearing what they're saying and what they're trying to do.
Yoni Mazor 14:49
So do you see any kind of message or whatever, visual or whatever you're trying to understand what how they're trying to communicate, and how and because of that, you obviously if you follow the successful ones able to break down the components that make the needle move in terms of, you know, the followers that's more like we need something in a restaurant, you think about the components that the chef used to make the dish, right, or you saw the little pepper, a little bit of coriander, whatever it is you're able to, to taste or understand the components of what you see and what you understand from, from the top leaders?
Samer Brax 15:18
Yeah, it's like, Don't listen to what I say, watch what I do kind of thing. So I did a lot of posting as I post from either influencer or from pages. And then as soon as I post that, I'd go follow everyone that liked their post. So then they see my post that's that they recognize from that other page, and then they might follow me back.
Yoni Mazor 15:42
Once again, once again, let you the drawdown once again, is too fast for a guy like me. Once again, what do you do? What is the trick? What was the technique?
Samer Brax 15:49
So let's say you go to a restaurant, what's the restaurant that you know, Burger King, Burger King, and then you eat a eat something from there. And that's like, old I don't know if it still works. But I would post a photo from Burger King. And then I'd go to Burger King. And I'd see one of their most recent posts and see who liked it because those are the most active people. And then I would follow them and then like their pages and like their posts, and maybe even comment something they would check out, like, Who's this person following me? And then they see that I've just posted about Burger King. And they're like, Oh,
Yoni Mazor 16:20
I recognize. So maybe they're a follow-up burger at Burger King comrade. Yeah, creates more of a sense of community, you know, we're on the same wavelength. And because I should follow him as well. So you gain fellowship this way? Yeah,
Samer Brax 16:33
I did that multiple times a week. I'd also message a lot of influencers in the niche. So people that posted similar to the posts that I would do, and just become friends with them. As soon as you become friends with them, you become a peer, no matter how big you are, and then you learn from them. But it wasn't that serious. It was just like for fun. Now that I look back at it, not I understand what I was doing. But yeah, so I saw that. And I was like, how can I use this because I have a lot of free time I'm looking for a job. And that's when I found the backend, Tai Lopez was blowing up. And he was selling his social media marketing course. He's like, Tai Lopez, who's
Yoni Mazor 17:13
that? Tai Lopez the guy with the audience understands that?
Samer Brax 17:17
But yeah, the guy on YouTube with a Lamborghini behind him, I'm sure you saw him back in 2015 or 16. He's like..
Yoni Mazor 17:22
Oh why, does he have a Lamborghini?
Samer Brax 17:26
Supposedly, while he's trying to sell his knowledge?
Yoni Mazor 17:28
What do you know?
Samer Brax 17:29
I don't know.
Yoni Mazor 17:32
A YouTuber that did exceptionally well in selling himself as a sort of guy that knows at all or knows something about something and then again, a lot of track so he’s a social media guy.
Samer Brax 17:41
And he wanted to teach people how to start a Social Media Marketing Agency back in 2015 and 16. And he was telling people how all these businesses don't know how to do social media and you can come in and help them do their social media. And it's smart. So I followed that course and then I was like, Yeah, I can do this. So I reached out to a bunch
Yoni Mazor 18:02
This is once again this is 2017 so from 2016 2017 you settling into my shell looking for a job for a whole year to 17 you help a friend out very quickly it goes up you involve the delivery of restaurants and then you discover this opportunity to help companies with social media.
Samer Brax 18:18
Yeah, but helping the friend was in university so it was before that.
Yoni Mazor 18:22
So that was University were in Lebanon.
Samer Brax 18:24
Yeah, 2016 was me remembering this I'm like oh god.
Yoni Mazor 18:29
I got it.
Samer Brax 18:31
So yeah, so I reached out to a few businesses and of the couple of them were like yeah, let's do this. But then, as I was learning, I saw the same people talk about Amazon and the same are some of the same people talking about reselling and selling on Amazon. So at around the same time I got a reselling for Canadians course on Udemy for like $12 you buy Yeah, I watched it in a day, and then it said to go to Walmart and then try to find some stuff on clearance and I did so I went to Walmart went to the dollar store and bought like $50 worth of stuff that is like you can and then it tells you that you can profit if you sell on Amazon
Yoni Mazor 19:11
Yeah arbitrage selling you find in one market and then you sell it in the Amazon market and you make you know make the difference. So maybe selling $1 for a dollar on Amazon might be being sold for 10 $12 $12 or $15.
Samer Brax 19:23
Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly it. I found coin holders, I think they use them in like little stores. And those were $1 at the dollar store and they were selling for 12 to 15 on Amazon and I think the gospel the case right now. And so if
Yoni Mazor 19:36
anybody listening to this is a good way to it's more like boot camp for e-commerce. Do it flip it a gun, send the platform well how it all works, the needle that works and probably you'll find a lot of cool things to do later on.
Samer Brax 19:47
Yeah, yeah. And then you get to learn from doing it instead of just you know, thinking about it.
Yoni Mazor 19:53
So I can enjoy engineer instead of just studying. To be an engineer for you all along the way can actually do some engineering work will probably Be the best track to succeed.
Samer Brax 20:01
Yeah, that that would be much, much better. Because then you would know what you like and what you don't like, and more importantly, what you're good at and what you're, you're less good at naturally. Because if you lean on lean in on that, life is so much easier, right? So yeah, I did some arbitrage. And then I got into Amazon, much more than social media. I was like, well, this is like, this is legit. And I liked it. And I enjoyed it. So I quickly moved on from the social media idea. And got in.
Yoni Mazor 20:29
So you never really got into the social media thing. It was really a concept-level idea, I have this, I'm gonna do this. But the Amazon e-commerce world kind of swept you into to its realm much quicker because you find instant success.
Samer Brax 20:40
Yeah, it was like almost, I almost got two clients, I started talking to them, they were on board almost, you know, like it's a phase, and then it just didn't work out and then didn't work out. I just didn't want to do it anymore. And then I got into Amazon and then from reselling. I did that for a few months. And that's when I started getting into all these Facebook groups and learning about the process and asking people about the process and getting into private labeling because that was the way to go for me because I don't like shopping. I don't like being in stores and looking at all these things, which is what reselling is. So, I liked the idea of private labeling. So as I was learning in all these Facebook groups, and asking all these questions, I pretty much made a bunch of online friends. And, you know, I knew who was in those groups, and people in those groups knew who I was just because we were in there interacting all day, every day. And then I was close to launching my first private label product. And I asked people in that group, and I was like, are you guys interested in following the journey on YouTube? Like if I post a video, and that's when I got like, my first few 100 subscribers? It was those people that are like, yeah, let's like I was part of your journey, answering your questions or asking you questions. So let's see where this goes.
Yoni Mazor 21:55
Hold on, hold on, let me see if I get this straight. So you get involved in the community on the Facebook site of things or social media side of things. You're asking questions, you're bonding, connecting with the community members. And then you raise it up and the group saying, you know, I want to document my journey, and you guys are part of it. You think it's a good idea said, Yeah, we'll follow you with you. And there, you give you a flush a wave of, you know, a couple 100 subscriptions right away to launch your YouTube channel, which once you get documents, your your, your journey and newcomers. That was pretty much what happened that? Yeah,
Samer Brax 22:28
I was also getting a lot of questions just because I was very active. And I noticed that a lot of the time my answer was the same. And I got bored of writing the same thing. So I was like, What if I just film a video to answer this question? And that's what that's when I was like, oh, YouTube.
Yoni Mazor 22:44
So this is all 2017? Or this is a few years later.
Samer Brax 22:48
Yeah, I think it's 2017. Maybe the end of Yeah, I think so.
Yoni Mazor 22:53
And that's 2017. That's when you launched the YouTube channel.
Samer Brax 22:57
I think I'm bad with dates, but it's either 17 or maybe 18, early 18.
Yoni Mazor 23:01
Guy, why did you dump it?
Samer Brax 23:04
The name?
Yoni Mazor 23:05
I'm Abraca Samara Barracks, I needed to say still, that's the name. Even until now. Right?
Samer Brax 23:11
Yeah, I've actually considered changing it. Because it's not really all about salmon rocks. It's just Amazon like my Amazon side of life. But for now, it's that.
Yoni Mazor 23:20
You know, they say you don't change a winning horse. If the horse is winning Get on. You don't have to change anything. But yeah, it's alright. So you can disassemble said this is my channel. This is my journey. This is my documentary.
Samer Brax 23:30
Yeah. And that was before I launched my private label product. So I started like, Hey, this is what I'm about to do. If you want to see what happens follow along, which is what we're currently doing with the FBA challenge.
Yoni Mazor 23:41
It's the same idea I want to package that towards the end. Because I want to see the progression how you got to current, you know, fair things. Alright, so you launched the page, I mean, the YouTube channel, and then while you actually started the launch your Amazon brand, or?
Samer Brax 23:58
Pretty much, I found a product around like August. And then I was not too confident with it. So I kept looking. And then by the end of the summer, I just went back to that product, and then the market still looked good. So I sourced it, launched it. I think I spent like $2,000 Max, and it was the scariest thing to send $2,000 to China. Really? Yeah. It was like I was I was unemployed back then. I was on, I was at my mama, the back of my mind.
Yoni Mazor 24:24
I'm asking how are you supporting yourself financially, all these years? You already were 2016 2017 even to the Trojan financially was backing up your parents, your aunt? Are you making a sandwich outside jobs?
Samer Brax 24:37
Yeah, during that year, my parents were helping me out. I think I worked at a restaurant for like a month or something. But then right after starting Amazon, I put all that stuff on my resume on my CV. And at the same time, I applied for a McGill diploma. thing. It's like a thing that you can take classes during the day or during the night. And it was in supply chain management. So I thought if I put McGill on my What do you call it a resume or CV?
Yoni Mazor 25:06
Say my CV is like the cover letter of the resume believe what worked as fine.
Samer Brax 25:10
Yeah, because I noticed that some Americans don't know one of them. So yeah, I put, I thought that if I put McGill on my resume, which is one of the biggest universities in Montreal, then people will take me a bit more seriously. So I applied for the supply chain management diploma, which is pretty close to engineering. It's like industrial engineering, in a sense. And it’s also happened to be pretty close to Amazon, which is sourcing product logistics. Exactly. So I put that and I put the Amazon side of the supply chain on my seat on my resume. And then through the McGill program,, I went through their career center. And before starting the first class, I went to these sessions in their career center. And then I found a job before even starting class because of McGill.
Yoni Mazor 25:58
Nice, like think oh gosh.
Samer Brax 26:00
Yeah, I think in the summer, and it's funny now, a lot of people that come from Lebanon, I end up hearing that they did that little hack. They're like, Yeah, I did the McGill.
Yoni Mazor 26:10
You were the first or you mean that you can pave the way for them.
Samer Brax 26:15
I didn’t hear from anyone else. So I did it for myself. And then I told it to a friend who did it. And then he told it to a friend who Yeah,
Yoni Mazor 26:20
Okay, good. paving the way for a lot of people, it's great. So the medela stamp of, you know, McGill opens up the door, you know, to to, you know, especially the immigrants to find their path to high paying good jobs, and you know, the good industries as soon as possible. That's the answer. A great thing to do. Yeah, it kind of shows you how branding still is very important in life, trying to create a private label brand in the marketplace, but an educational marketplace. You know, having McGill as a brand name, so McGill University helps open up doors in the you know, the world of engineering. Okay, so you got your McGill stamp, and you got a job? Yeah,
Samer Brax 26:57
I got an internship at railways, which is basically the train company in, in Canada. And that was a four-month internship.
Yoni Mazor 27:08
It's a 17 or 218, or 80.
Samer Brax 27:11
I'm really bad with dates, but it was like, the September after my first year.
Yoni Mazor 27:17
So that's 2017 because your first year we landed around 216. Yeah, obviously this September, I saw you landed an internship. A paid one, I assume?
Samer Brax 27:26
Yeah. Yeah. Paid and pretty, pretty well paid. Actually. It's what it's like a big company. It's a big corporate company. Luckily, it's, it's the most English-speaking company in Montreal. Usually, they're happy with that. But it was very, like corporate and suits and stuff. And I did not like it. I wasn't comfortable with that. But I was my best. Like, sometimes I'd wear a hoodie because I'm cold and be like, Why bring it? I'm like, I'm old. What do you do?
Yoni Mazor 27:51
Anything? It's not Sunny, like Saudi Arabia or Lebanon? Yeah, it's cold. Yeah. Gotcha. So that helps you stay afloat financially. You know, having the internship.
Samer Brax 28:01
Yeah, definitely. And then I actually got a full-time job at L'Oreal.
Yoni Mazor 28:08
Right after doing what supply chain?
Samer Brax 28:11
Yep. Yep, same thing.
Yoni Mazor 28:14
It wasn’t a crossing into 2018 assumes, you know, computer for months. And it's CNA, the company. So you're already early. You already shipped into Laura L'Oreal.
Samer Brax 28:23
Exactly. So January of 2018, is when I got 1000 subscribers on YouTube, December, January. And then I was doing pretty well on YouTube, I was making like good cash, because like there's no expenses, good enough money to where I'd get to my job at L'Oreal in the morning, and I had already made more that day than I would at L'Oreal. So it was very demotivating. And to be there, and at the same time, the job was really not good. And I hear that a lot of people that work there, they're not happy the workload is, is like they told me in the interview, they're like, yeah, we're excited that you're an entrepreneur, we need someone like that. And it's like being an entrepreneur without the benefits.
Yoni Mazor 29:08
And without the I think handled low, stay creative, stay on top of it, but you come to the paycheck, it's not as rewarding.
Samer Brax 29:14
Yeah, or even the long-term thing that you're building. And I saw my manager that I was working under that I was training to become like, and she was so stressed in life. She was like, bed, banging on the table all day. And like she'd have to go to yoga like three times a day to be to be to relax. And I'm like, what's motivating you to stay here? Like, I don't want to become that person who I'm supposed to become. And two months into it, I quit. Because YouTube was making me enough money to just live off of that.
Yoni Mazor 29:44
And just to share with us, if you may, how do you make money on YouTube? How does that work? For the audience? Just understand, we will probably most of the lessons on how to make money because they sell on Amazon or sell stuff online. But how do you make money on YouTube? How does that work?
Samer Brax 29:56
There's a few ways of posting on YouTube. And then putting ads on the video. So if you're watching this video on YouTube, and then you see an ad, someone's making money. So whoever posted this video is making money, so probably you. And then because it's the Amazon niche, it's the highest paid niche, one of I think it is the highest paid niche on YouTube, when comedians get like $2, for every 1000 views, we get up to $60 per 1000 views. So I don't need to get a lot of views to get paid. So that's one of the way,s one of the ways.
Yoni Mazor 30:28
So let me get this straight, you have a channel so you don't get paid for this subscription you pay you just get paid for the video views, correct?
Samer Brax 30:34
Yeah, it's, it's, it's the views is mostly what it is. But it's really like who's interacting with the ads. And then who's watching the ads.
Yoni Mazor 30:44
So it’s because your channel is all about e-commerce and selling on Amazon. So advertisers or probably solution providers, or agencies or whatever, they're targeting your channel or your videos, and they're paying top dollars two together, you know, a little bit of ad space. But so, so you have you know, you release a video, you get 1000 viewers, you pay, you get paid $60 pretty much it changes, but that's pretty much it.
Samer Brax 31:08
I've been getting paid around $1,000 at least every month since you know for a while now. And then at the same time, whenever I talk about, let's say get EDA and I show a tutorial on how to use get EDA, and then I give them like the first $500 free, I get affiliate referrals. And a lot of them are recurring. So and there's a lot of tools that we need for the Amazon business, helium 10 Jungle Scout feedbackwhiz. And I've just shared my my my own experience with them. And then I give people discounts. And then I get referrals. And they're recurring a lot of them. So it adds up to
Yoni Mazor 31:44
Yeah, so YouTube is a platform that you're able to make income, but collaborating with all the solution providers, and getting them exposure and helping others financially, they get rewarded, but also there's an opportunity for you to also get financially rewarded. And that grew up, you know, in a very robust way for you to make, you know, a good income. But I would assume this is all aside from that your main focus or intention was to sell on Amazon, right become a brand. Right?
Samer Brax 32:09
Right. Everything that happened on YouTube was very organic. And like, it just happened because I was following my instinct. I was like, Yeah, I want to document, and then yeah, I want to show them how I use this tool. And like, yeah, I want to, I want to share this story. And then I also do consult pretty much. And that's also started very organically, like someone in Montreal reached out, they're like, hey, I'd love to meet with you and ask you about my business that I'm starting. And I was like, Yeah, let's go to a restaurant or a cafe and talk. And then we went and he shared a story. And I was like, yeah, maybe you can do this and do that. And then he took out $40. And he gave it to me. I'm like, What are you doing? It was a good time, man. I'm like, No, like, we're just, we're just talking. He's like, No, no, it's for your time. I remember calling my friend. I'm like, yo, someone just paid me for my time.
Yoni Mazor 32:51
Like that's good. So yeah, this is when opportunity knocks on your door and telling you this is what people need. This is how you can help others and they're willing to financially reward you. That's great. That's the best way to really find you I guess destiny or, or a way into an industry or career or something. Yeah, that's a good vibe. Okay, so let's talk let's hone in on your private label launch or what's going on with the marketplace level.
Samer Brax 33:15
So back then. Back in 2018.
Yoni Mazor 33:16
Already, we were L'Oreal, you, you shifted away because you had YouTube running for you. But I still will all this was documenting your private label journey. Yep. Which was fitting your YouTube journey. Yeah. But let's, let's go back on the, I guess the marketplace side, what? What was your directory there?
Samer Brax 33:34
So that was my first product. And it did pretty well. Looking back, like if you look at it, it's not a it's not an amazing listing. It's not I didn't do an incredibly amazing job I just did it was one ace.
Yoni Mazor 33:45
In one product, or was a whole variety of products.
Samer Brax 33:50
It was just one product. And then if you look at it, it's just like I did a bit better than my competition. There was a thing that comes with my product that for some reason, my competition was not highlighting and their main image. And I was like, yeah, you get this for free with the product. And then people saw that. And it was like a competitive advantage even though everyone or a lot of people had it, not everyone. So I highlighted it better. And it did a good job. It did like 70,070 $5,000 in that. I think it was like the first year, but then I stopped selling it because it was actually electronic. And there's a lot of defects. There's a lot of headaches. Every time I get an email. I'm like God did I blow up someone's house? Like, I don't want that headache, guys up selling it. And I was learning more and more about Amazon. And I was hearing a lot of people like Ryan Moran talk about branding and creating a brand and all this fun stuff. And I was like, Oh, that sounds cool. That sounds like something that I I'd want to do. So the next adventure with Amazon was to really create a brand and start something legit from the start. And that's what I did in December 2018. I launched that new brand with one product and that's what I'm doing. currently selling right now. We have at this point five skews in the US and like two skews in Canada. And yeah, I really focused on the branding with that one.
Yoni Mazor 35:12
Nice, I realize that you can make a private label product that was your first tag, and then realize I can make a private label brand. And now is your main focus your main take on the marketplace side. And you know, being an Amazon seller yourself. So that's very, very cool. And is that still is the journey that you are in? And you're still documenting? I assume on YouTube, right?
Samer Brax 35:30
Yeah, pretty much.
Yoni Mazor 35:32
Got it. So this is one because you know, I consider you an entrepreneur and a businessman, I think you will mature and graduate very quickly to become a businessman. So that is one shell of your business, which is online retail and having your own brand. Another track of business that we discussed, was YouTube, and I guess social media influencing or I'm not sure well, what other titles and that that are relevant. But there are more forks, right, there are more junctions that you entered into. Right now you're also involved with advertising for incremental, right, digital. So show us how did that happen? Or how did that trajectory fall into place?
Samer Brax 36:10
Yeah, so that started in November of 2020. And at that point, that was when you know, mid-COVID, mid, mid lockdowns made everything. And I was thinking a lot about like, what am I doing? Where am I heading? And I was remembering that when I quit my job for L'Oreal, it wasn't to replace it with YouTube. I actually had a car back then. And I was like, willing to do Uber and willing to do you know, any side hustle on Upwork, just to not work at that job. And I didn't want YouTube to be the main thing
Yoni Mazor 36:44
I want was that what was that?
Samer Brax 36:46
I don't know. I just didn't, I didn't want to depend on it to make money. Because when I think like how can I make more money on YouTube? Then I have to think like, how can I promote getting more and that doesn't? Like, I don't want to do that.
Yoni Mazor 37:00
Why do I to commercialize in a way so to speak, so it's not as organic for you to keep rushing out things that are not really from your nature? Right?
Samer Brax 37:07
Yeah. I just wanted to do whatever I felt like doing and if I didn't want to post for a month I’d i don't want to do that.
Yoni Mazor 37:13
Yeah, so I got that makes sense. Alright, so once again, I'm trying to send the dynamics of of your mind so you leave L'Oreal you didn't have the brand or the private label product yet. And that came a little bit after when we actually are you ready to launch it and you are L'Oreal.
Samer Brax 37:28
Not launched it, it was already selling.
Yoni Mazor 37:31
So but so even though you had a product online, and your YouTube channel, you left L'Oreal, you still basically economically you said I need to get a hustle that, you know, economically will sustain me that was still the dynamic economically.
Samer Brax 37:43
Yeah, yeah, I always struggled with cash flow with Amazon. And I always didn't order enough. And I always had to order more and more because the product did well. So I never could take money out of it. And that's something that I've learned a lot like I've read the book profit first, and it took me some time to understand it. And it's really a struggle, but I'm getting better at it. Like taking the profits first, you know.
Yoni Mazor 38:10
So you gotta Yeah, yes. And say this is something that I think a lot of entrepreneurs who enter to the e-commerce space overlook, they think, okay, sales charm, you know, make million seven figures. So that's good, top-line sales is good. But if you don't have any idea what's coming, what happens in the middle of it, and what trickles down, you either make, you'll make a little bit of money, or you're gonna burn money, you're gonna dig a nice hole and yourself financially. So the art becomes we're understanding of every penny, where's it all go to? How does it all trickle down? And the more you understand it, the more you can control it, the more you'll probably have left in your pocket, that this is kind of the pain points that I believe the overwhelming majority 70 80% of the seller’s experience, even if they're already top organizations, it could be already a billion-dollar business, you know, selling a brick and mortar, they want to add into the online game, top-line revenue, top-line revenue, they don't sell all the types of fees and costs, you know, around and they get hit, they take all these hits and tell the other day get out of the game, or they learned so well. And that they perfect it and they stick around. So you said you had the same experience now?
Samer Brax 39:09
Yeah. And like the stuff that catina does, I never got into it. I never looked into all these things that Amazon owes me and I because it's I don't think it's where I spend most of my time. I'm better at other things, you know?
Yoni Mazor 39:21
Yeah, I always say that sellers always got to focus on the magic on what creates the brand that demands growth, you know, the stickiness that people want your product. Well, you know, for malaria, and I don't want to put to get too much into this to this episode. But our mission is kind of to be like archeologists, we go into the past we dig into the past, and only if we find something that is a value, we'll you know, we'll extract it and bring it back to the seller. That's our mission. That's kind of our mission, which makes it a very good dynamic in partnership with the I know, a lot of the sellers that we work with, alright, so economically you feel that you still gotta you know, get ahead. So it's in the pandemic hit 2020 that's When you what happened with incremental what was dynamic for you the start position there.
Samer Brax 40:05
I was noticing that I wasn't motivated enough to be on YouTube all the time. And I have to be on YouTube all the time to keep growing my income and make more money. And I was like, I want to make more money, I want to move up in life. So I was like, yeah. And at the same time, I want it to be part of a team. And I wanted to not work alone all the time. And that's what I was doing with everything else that I was doing. I was like, this is boring. I want to do something more fun. I want to do something that's bigger than me. So incremental was one of the options I actually went to, to Toronto for a month in October. And I stayed with a friend, seller, a friend of mine, we he was my roommate for a month, and he worked to increment them. And I saw the dynamic and I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. I want to be part of something like that. So yeah, that's when I joined in November. Right after that.
Yoni Mazor 40:54
You got it. When did you move to Vancouver? Right, right. Now you reside in Vancouver, is that correct?
Samer Brax 40:58
I'm here in a hotel room. So I'm here for a month. Just in Montreal, it's a full lockdown. There's no rest, restaurants are closed. The takeout-only gyms have been closed. Everything has been closed since September. And there's also a curfew at 8 pm. And there are also negative degrees. Negative 20 degrees Celsius outside.
Yoni Mazor 41:18
Like in Fahrenheit is what? It just tells you way too cold. And it doesn't tell you zero just says don't get out that way too cold. Yeah,
Samer Brax 41:24
Yeah. So I was like, What am I doing here?
Yoni Mazor 41:28
Like so you're an exile? You know, you're in Vancouver, instead of being in Montreal, that's pretty much what's outside the bubble.
Samer Brax 41:34
Yeah, for a month for now, who knows if I stay off, or if I don't, but here I've been going to the gym restaurants are open. Wearing a T-shirt and a jacket. It's beautiful here, but it's expensive. That's the thing. Got it. Got it.
Yoni Mazor 41:47
Okay so once again to package what you have in your pocket. And in terms of financially, your own brand, YouTube channel. And, you know, working for a leading agency doing PPC spend.
Samer Brax 41:59
Yeah, yeah, PPC marketing.
Yoni Mazor 42:01
How did you get to that? Like what? So you basically derived from your own experience of running your own brand? Yeah, pretty much on the PPC side. So talk to us a little bit about that. If you know, let's get tactical a little bit. Why what makes you so exceptional that you can work for such a leading agency?
Samer Brax 42:15
Well, I'm an engineer, as I shared, and I'm good at this stuff. I'm good at numbers. I'm good at Excel. I'm good at logic. I've learned to code. And I did PPC for the past three years for my own brand. And I did pretty well with it. And I saw what my roommate was doing over there and he was one of the leading PPC managers. And it didn't seem challenging, not challenging, but it didn't seem what's the word seems to fit like a glove.
Yoni Mazor 42:42
It was like this filler was you know, they fit like a glove. He wasn't even imposing anything. You're just like, organically just slide right into the position very confidently.
Samer Brax 42:50
Yeah, everything that I've shared so far has come out of something organic, like
Yoni Mazor 42:54
Yeah, it seemed like yeah, you're a very organic, natural guy. Like it's nice. Yeah, got it. Okay, let's, let's touchpoint into something. Okay. I want to touchpoint into the NBA challenge. I gave a little bit of an explanation of what's going on with that? So I'm proud to say that, you know, we're a sponsor of this, I guess, project, right. The NBA challenge projects, essentially this project, but there's two entrepreneurs involved. There's yourself Samer Brax right. But there's also mean Ilyas, you came together to launch a new brand new product on Amazon. Right. It's essentially an alternative for coffee drinkers. People love coffee. But, you know, they offer too much coffee can have its toll. So this is kind of the purpose of this product. And then you're documenting the whole journey. You're it's a documentary, or like a reality TV documentary, right? Show. It's a reality show. But the mechanism of distribution is through the summer backchannel, right? Yes. So share with us. Now they understand the project was going on? how this all happen? How'd you cook the storm in the summer? I mean, you and I mean, how'd you even get to know me? No.
Samer Brax 44:00
So Mina watched a few of my videos, I think and then he joined my Facebook group community. And then I mean..
Yoni Mazor 44:06
When they just started joining our touchpoint with you, probably 2019, or maybe earlier.
Samer Brax 44:11
Yeah, probably 2019 I think Yeah, pretty much.
Yoni Mazor 44:15
Got it. It's still around. You're shipping from the east coast to the west coast. He was living around a Connecticut area then was shifting to I think, California or LA or San Diego.
Samer Brax 44:24
Exactly. He was deep in Connecticut when we met got it and he was very active in the group you know, Mena he's he has a ton of energy. And he's, he's, yeah,
Yoni Mazor 44:35
He's a qualifier. Amazing. Yeah. You know, motivates me, you know, I'll tell you that much. And I got a whole crew of 40 plus people around, and when every time I touch with me and I get energized to finish the conversation, I want to work harder. You know, its pretty good.
Samer Brax 44:47
Yeah, exactly. That's, that's who he is. So we connected through the Facebook group through my Facebook group. And then we noticed that we had friends in common because he grew up in Dubai and a lot of my friends at the US University American University of Beirut, they came from Dubai and me coming from Saudi Those were the people that I actually bonded with the most like the Falesia.
Yoni Mazor 45:09
Fondo golf from the Persian Gulf from Dubai and I so there's a Dubai connection, you know, you guys feel a little bit fraternity there. So you click right off on a personal level. Okay, but what happened next.
Samer Brax 45:20
I've always wanted to launch a product openly on YouTube. If you've watched YouTube, YouTubers talk about Amazon, they're always hiding their products, and any amazon seller, a lot of them hide their products between the community just because you know, it's easy to either replicate your successor to mess with your success like anyone can target you.
Yoni Mazor 45:39
You don't become a target of any kind or any source.
Samer Brax 45:43
Yeah, I was gonna say, the ideas. Got it. But yeah, I've always wanted to be a bit more open. I don't know if you've noticed, but like, I like, I like being honest. And I like just speaking my mind.
Yoni Mazor 45:55
I admire that very much.
Samer Brax 45:56
Holding back was annoying. And at the same time, I see my channel as a series of, of, of series, like a bunch of documentation. So the first documentation was me getting into Amazon. And then I started another documentation, I called it the brand new brand, which is when I launched the brand in 2018. And I documented that journey without sharing the product. Now I'm like, Alright, I need something new. I need something new. So now I'm like, okay, step it up. Let's show a product and share, same, idea, sharing the journey. But now let's, let's do more, let's share more. And let's provide more
Yoni Mazor 46:31
Now it's full transparency, full disclosure, not only that, all the insights of how you do it, I think you guys are publishing, you know, the playbook, essentially. Right?
Samer Brax 46:40
Yes. So so we have an Excel playbook of every single step that we're taking in the business. And this is something that I've had for a while, even before the FAA challenge, and it's a checklist like you check it off, you check every step, and then it shows you a completion bar that gets you closer to a roadmap.
Yoni Mazor 46:55
Of how do you launch it properly, and set it all up? So it's nothing like a good engineer?
Samer Brax 47:01
Yeah, exactly. And then every single step that we complete, we record a video of what we did. It's hard to document everything on YouTube, because I have to go based on what's going to get clicks, what's going to get views, otherwise, no one's going to see it and then algorithmically. If no one's watching my videos, you know, YouTube deems my channel as not good. And it's not gonna push the good videos anymore. So I really have to play the YouTube game. So I can't show every single detail. As much as I realize...
Yoni Mazor 47:27
Yeah, you got to capture the heart. So it's still entertaining. So you know, it is a breeze for the viewers. You can't Yeah, it's not like the BBC when they go like a seven-hour documentary just on what's underneath the rock or something like that. Yeah,
Samer Brax 47:38
Yeah, YouTube is storytelling. It's a bit of tutorial as well, but it's like surface level. And then the playbook itself is like, every single step that we take me and Mina sit down, we're like, yeah, we just did this. And then we put it next to that checklist step. So if so I wanted this to be like a guide for people to download, and to use it to either follow our journey and see like, oh, what did they do next, or to make a copy for themselves, and then use it for their own business, where we're going above and beyond, and we're doing Kickstarter, we're doing all these extra things that are to be fun, and also fun for the story. And that's part of the playbook, but you don't have to do all that stuff. But you can do the basic Amazon steps. And, and for every step that you're on, you just go to what we did. And you're like, Okay, these guys did this.
Yoni Mazor 48:24
And then you use it as a compass, or as a map for your own, you know, you know, components to do whatever you need to do, you can use part of it, all of it, bits and pieces of it. But you guys are doing it aboveboard meaning and it's on Kickstarter, it's the whole intention is not just to create this product that somebody can call him a copy, it's, you know, that can be done a product, or copying a brand is not easy. The brand awareness and brand appreciation is something that is tremendously hard to do because that's when it becomes organic. The people behind it, the message behind it is something that's very hard to replicate. If I wanted to copy-paste every summer, I couldn't, no matter what I'm sure a lot of cool people around but you want to the kinds of sending goes from you know, like a combination between you two, I think will make it a lethal combination. So the launch is successful, the whole aura around it is it will be successful. And that is something that cannot be replicated, replicated, even if needed. But if somebody has their own kind of story to say and create their own aura, by all means, there's no there's the market is so huge, so wide. Yeah, do it, you know, do it flourish, you know, yourself, have a kid, you know, and this is kind of your dedication and contribution to you know, the community of sellers out there and you know, helping them grow as you document your growth. There's that kind of mindset and purpose of things.
Samer Brax 49:33
Exactly. Yeah. And then we have no idea if it's good, like Kickstarter, for example, we have no idea if it's gonna work. It's our first time doing it. So I'm excited to just document that as well. It's like, Is it gonna work? Is it not?
Yoni Mazor 49:44
I have no idea. Yes, you're tactically excited about this, because it's a really new journey, a new trial, a new path for you to walk in, which you kind of never did.
Samer Brax 49:53
Right. And I've been looking for something exciting to do with YouTube. And that's that that was the answer.
Yoni Mazor 49:59
Right? So you also mentioned that for a few points of time you, you feel you know, you're not compelled to push more content, that's all you need to other businesses like you know, working on a job. But now you are passionate about this new project is driving is motivating you which is good, which hopefully will keep fueling your channel. Alright, so let's try to package everything we have so far amazing, tell an amazing story, you know, appreciate so much that you shared so far. Let's see if I can embody this in packages, right. So I'm born in Lebanon, I grew up in Saudi Arabia, I went back to Lebanon, I got my education. Soon as you got your education, we able to migrate as you know, to Canada into Montreal, for the first year you were kind of trying to you know, find yourself You do remember that back in you know, Lebanon days of the university that you're helping in social media. So you're thinking maybe you get into that domain that area but you commerce while Edu faster, you know, the ability to flip products online, and then you kind of start to realize that you know, there are better ways to do it and when you will get your own private label brand. And the same time you got into you went to McGill got a degree there, or at least kind of a stamp of approval of being educated there that opened up in our internship with the railroad company and then we led into a L'Oreal and they realize that you can also document your journey of launching your brand, your product on Amazon, so that gained traction on your YouTube channel, which passionate you know, give you much more satisfaction and financially rewarded you even better than your job at L'Oreal. So you quit L'Oreal, you move ahead with focusing on I guess, let's put it for four tracks, right, you got your own private label brand, you got another private label brand that you're working on a project with a B challenge, by the way, follow everybody follows this project that's super interesting. Also, you got your own channel right your YouTube channel plus you're working you know digital marketing agency and all this in one person only three-four years here in North America that kind of detail in a nutshell
Samer Brax 52:00
Yeah, that's pretty much it I'm trying my best.
Yoni Mazor 52:03
Good job you know it's much respect and it's not to be taken for granted that you come from the outside but you succeed in such a fashion manner and holding on your family still, you know back in Saudi Arabia and you hold the gun on your so that's the Bible Not only that, not only holding on Yo and you helping so many others, your clients in the agency, your followers in the social media groups, Mina Tierra, you're helping us also know we're Darn it. So it is pretty amazing how you know, the circles of influence, help so many others. So thank you so much for that. Now I want to kind of focus you know, the part two points, the first one of course, if somebody wants to connect with you reach out, give them a handoff and the last thing will be is what is your message of hope and inspiration for entrepreneurs listening out there?
Samer Brax 52:46
Okay, so sure, yeah, if you want to reach out my youtube channel is Samer Brax. You can find me there on Instagram, I'm Samer Brax can message me there and then join the Facebook group, which is the Brax Amazon FBA group. It's in my opinion, one of the best groups out there to ask questions and to share your own experience. And there's always someone out there to answer your question, which and then go to the FBA challenge.com. The FBA challenge comm follows the story of the FBA challenge, and if you want the playbook you can go to the FBA challenge comm slash playbook. You can download that use it for your own business or just, you know, follow our own journey and see every single step that we're taking. And yeah, just reach out. And let me know that you came from this interview and we can chat. And that was what leads me to the next question, which is some advice, I'd say, ask, network as much as possible and ask as much as possible. Because if you don't ask like you're not going to get anything that you want. And then just surrounding yourself with the right people and surrounding yourself with people that are doing what you're trying to do. Even without having to ask you'll, you'll learn a ton and you'll get a lot of answers for yourself. And that's part of the reason that I'm here in Vancouver. There's a huge e-commerce community. Right after this, I'm going to have lunch with a bunch of killer Amazon sellers like way bigger than me. And we're just hanging out and I get to learn a lot from how they like I said like I watch how they move and stuff like that. I don't ask them about the strategies too much, but I watch what they're doing. And yeah, if you surround yourself with that kind of people or anyone who's just a bit above you, or at your level, trying to do something that you're trying to do. And that's what I did with Mina at the beginning, we actually had a little, little group me, him, and a bunch of people where every week would get on a call. And we'd ask each other like, where are we at? How can I help you? How can we help each other? So yeah, do that.
Yoni Mazor 54:46
Yeah, connect. put yourself out there. Surround yourself with brilliant people, you probably have a few good things that will stick to you and you'll find yourself becoming even more successful. Alright, awesome. Samara. Thank you so much for watching, guys. Much more, you know, tremendous success, you know in the future along the way. I hope everybody enjoyed. Until next time. Stay safe, everybody.
Samer Brax 55:07
All right. Thanks for having me.
