Digital Social Hour - Be the Shark: E-Commerce Success Simplified | Robert Nikic DSH #1188

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

🚀 Ready to simplify your journey to e-commerce success? "Be the Shark: E-Commerce Success Simplified" dives into the game-changing world of entrepreneurship with Robert Nikic, CEO of Why Unified, on the Digital Social Hour Podcast hosted by Sean Kelly! 🎙️✨  Learn how to shift your mindset, embrace failure, and take the investor's approach to building an e-commerce empire. Robert shares his incredible journey from humble beginnings to creating one of the top 50 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. 🏆 Discover how the Why Unified franchise model eliminates the risks of traditional business, making it easier than ever to start your own online store with trusted brands. 💼💡 This episode is packed with valuable insights about Amazon, Walmart, and the future of e-commerce. 📈 From the benefits of licensed franchises to why you should "be the shark" rather than pitch to one, this conversation is a must-watch for aspiring entrepreneurs and e-commerce enthusiasts alike. 🦈🔥 👉 Tune in now to learn what it really takes to thrive in the competitive digital space. Don’t miss out on this eye-opening discussion! Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more insider secrets on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly. 📺💥 Watch now, join the conversation, and take your first step toward e-commerce success today! 🌟 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 01:57 - Why Unified: Mission & Vision 06:44 - Starting Why Unified: Founding Story 09:49 - How You Got on the Inc 5000 List: Achievements & Growth 14:25 - The Congressman’s Son: Personal Anecdotes 18:10 - Insider Trading: Ethics & Regulations 19:25 - Embracing Failure: Lessons Learned 22:14 - MLMs: Multi-Level Marketing Insights 23:55 - Dropshipping: E-commerce Strategies 26:54 - Why Amazon is the #1 E-commerce Platform: Market Dominance 31:58 - Walmart vs Amazon: Retail Giants Comparison 35:23 - Overcoming Failures: Resilience in Business 40:26 - Where to find Robert: Contact Information 40:40 - Where to Find Why Unified: Company Resources 41:03 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Robert Nikic https://www.instagram.com/robertnikic https://robertnikic.com/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Digital Social Hour works with participants in sponsored media and stays compliant with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations regarding sponsored media. #ad  #businesscoach #bestfranchisestoown #franchiseecosystemhub #franchisebusiness #franchisorvsfranchisee

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Wow. When I get a phone call with the worst news, I wake up. If there is nothing bad happening, whether it be at the office or in life in general, I'm not content. All right, we got Robert here from Y Unified. Thanks for joining us today, man. Hey, thanks for letting me be here. Absolutely. What's new with you? You know, for the most part, LA is a really big adjustment with the weather because I'll

never understand. In Florida right now, we just hit close. I would consider it sub-zero temperatures. It's less chilly in LA and then actually in Vegas than it understand in Florida right now. We just hit so close. I would consider it sub zero temperatures. It's, it's, it's less chillier in LA and then actually in Vegas that it is in Florida. Really? What's up with that? Damn. Wait, so you moved to LA?

Well, no, no, no, I didn't. I'm just saying, you know, in Vegas itself, it's just, it's not as, it's less chillier here than in Florida. We just got snow. What? Yeah. Where are you at in Florida? We're in Tampa, Florida, but most of the panhandle had snow.

That is weird. It's crazy. Yeah. You never- It came to Vegas and I'm just like, why is it warmer here than in Florida? That doesn't even compute in my brain, snow in Florida? Makes no sense.

What the heck? Why'd you choose Tampa? You know, for the most part, I don't think there was a particular reason. It's just, it wasn't Miami for the most part. Yeah. It's a fine balance between Miami. Well, that's state tax too, you know?

Yeah. No state tax. For the most part, yeah. That's why I chose Nevada. One of the main reasons. There you go. I was in Cali, man. Oh my gosh.

How was that? 15%. And the weather is amazing, but just like the lifestyle is not there. It's only gotten up though, right? It hasn't gotten any better. No, it's gone up, yeah. And networking is good,

but you could get that networking in other cities. Yeah, that's true. But it's also the thing just for you too, because you know, people always fly over Nevada one way or the other. So I'm sure you're capturing a lot of your audience. Oh yeah. I don't struggle to get guests out here at all. You know, you flew in today, you know, almost everyone did. So talk to us about why unified what's new there. Well, you know, for the most part, we became a top 50 company, grew rapidly over the last, I'd say two years. I mean, you know, for the most part, I, you know, what's really important to understand

why we grew is, you know, a lot of people, you know, have to ask themselves, why do they want to get in business? You know, there's a lot of inventors out there. There's a lot of, you know, entrepreneurs out there, but a lot of inventors out there. There's a lot of entrepreneurs out there, but a lot of them are getting into business the hard way. Look at this from an investor's perspective. So when an investor is evaluating whether they're gonna invest in the company or not,

what are they doing? They're trying to see, is this a proven concept? When I put money into it, is it going to make me money back? Right? So a lot of entrepreneurs out there are trying to build businesses. They're trying to invent new ideas. And, you know, at the end of the day, if you look in your kitchen, most of the products that are already proven, that are already selling are right in front of you. So what we did is we materialized that. We took that entire concept and brought mainstream

and actually selling brands on marketplaces. So we partnered up with a lot of actual large brands, got the authorization, the licensing, and we extended that opportunity to thousands and thousands of store owners. So now we've given entrepreneurs the ability just to start essentially franchise stores that are licensed to sell these brands on marketplaces without competition and so forth. So it brings me back to the point of, you know, how do you build a business that's shark tank friendly?

You know, and you have to ask yourself, do you actually want to be the shark or which side do you want to be on? Personally, I'd want to be on the side of I put money into something that's proven it's working and I receive money back. The days of actually creative entrepreneurship, I don't want to say that they're gone. It's just, it's 2025 now, there's shortcuts. Why not utilize them and why not take a concept that's working and make it work for you? It's a safer route, right? Much more so. I mean, let's think about what goes

into building a business. At the end of the day, when you're building a business, you have to create the idea. If you're an e-comm, you have to find the product, create the product. We're talking about significant upfront manufacturing costs. We're talking about the risk.

We're talking about work, hard work, countless hours. At the end of the day, not a lot of people are in that position to put that type of capital, time and risk upfront. Definitely not. Plus the knowledge itself is pretty hard to obtain when you're starting out. Tremendously.

So it can take years. So at the end of the day, entrepreneurs should really kind of take that route of, why don't I take the investor's because look at it this way, all the products that our actual platform offers to our store owners, their parent companies are all listed on the stock exchange. Wow. So think about it.

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and piggyback off of it, right? Why go through all the treacherous factors of actually building a business and all the risk when you don't have to? Yeah. So, you know, what we do is we really allow entrepreneurs to kind of be the shark instead of actually be on the other side of the sharks, right?

Yeah, you're minimizing risk for the average person, right? Yeah, for sure. I mean, you've watched Shark Tank, right? Yeah, I used to love that show. I've probably seen every episode up until season eight. Yeah, and I want to make it clear we're not affiliated with Shark Tank in any type of way, but when it comes down to it, all of the sharks are there gauging one thing. Is there a proof of concept? Is there, you know, viability in the business?

If there isn't, they can them. And if there is, they take it. They take the actual offer. So with our actual franchise model, the reason we became that top 50 on the Inc 5000, it wouldn't surprise me if we hit number one this year, is simply because we've taken a model that's really been out for decades. There's nothing new about it. And we fully mainstreamed it and made it available to entrepreneurs. They don't have to go through the same exact risks as everyone else does.

Right. You didn't reinvent the wheel. No, absolutely not. And I don't think any entrepreneur should reinvent the wheel. I think a lot of them are just, you know, number one, procrastinating on the word entrepreneurs really overused. It's almost a negative word. It is. It is. I personally hate it. I use it for just more so, you know, giving context.

But when someone says they're an entrepreneur, is that really me? Yeah. You know? Yeah. But when it comes down to it, like I said, you know, just skipping all the hassle of building a business is really, really what our model offers. Did you have this mindset when you were starting the company?

When I started this company, I mean, I did not have that mindset. So any capability. When I started, we got mocked for selling toothpaste. I was going to buy Crest toothpaste when they can buy it at Walmart. Well, guess what? Amazon started peaking right around that time and they became consumer friendly. Now, what does everyone do? They buy consumable products on Amazon.

Do you remember when they used to have those little buttons where you could put in your kitchen for reordering products? Amazon, it would have like brand names, it's like a little button, you click it, and then out of a news, the product. They had that. I never had that. Well, they tested it for about a year and they canned it

because it looked hacky. People having all these buttons in their kitchen and so forth. Right. But why did they do that? Because Amazon knew that they would be the largest consumables marketplace in the world. So at the end of the day, not many people still go to Walmart and buy toothpaste. Sure. But I'm a large majority is adapting towards purchasing on Amazon. It's faster, it's cheaper, you don't think about it. You don't gotta get out of your house,

you don't gotta go to the store. So just the mainstream availability of it is really what enticed me. I love Amazon. I get stuff in two hours. Yeah, well, I mean, when we first started it, like I said, no one was doing it. We were the pioneers,

the say of actually selling toothpaste on Amazon. Was this before Prime? This was actually a little shortly after Prime. Oh, wow. So you are super early. Super early. Yeah, this was a little bit after Prime as far as it goes. And from there on forth, we broke those deals with them with a lot of actual larger brands

and made it legit and genuine. But you see now the problem is out there is there's tons of copycats, there's tons of e-comm companies, right? It's really highly saturated. Everyone and their mother is selling e-comm courses. Everyone's a coach. Everyone knows everything, but they really don't.

There's great coaches out there, don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, what's really, really important about our model is that all of our products are licensed. They're legit. So when you sell it on Amazon, you're not just like, oh, I'm gonna try and sell this toothpaste or these chips on Amazon.

And we have major actual deals with all these marketplaces to purchase. $10 million worth of product. So that way there's always availability and accessibility. Yeah, the Amazon space, a lot of negativity there with the FBA stuff, a lot of scammers,, the Amazon space, a lot of negativity there with the FBA stuff, a lot of scammers, the wholesale Amazon space.

For sure, and the reason why is none of these actual agencies have the capability or the capital to reach out to brands and actually break deals with them. Most of them have minimum PO requirements of a million dollars. Wow. Yeah, and most of these guys are working out of their garage. So what all they're doing is literally

finding a very small supplier, heck, I bet you send them or even go into Walmart and purchasing as much of the product as they can. And they're literally just selling it on Amazon. That is not a legitimate way to do business in this space. There is companies that do a great job in this space. I can't say that for everyone, but I'd say a large majority of these companies are fly by night companies. That's why there's not a single company in our space that's landing on the Inc 5000 list.

To my awareness, especially in the top 50. Yeah, well done on that, man. Was that first year you got on that list? That was second year. We were actually in 2023, we were 418 and then we landed on 35 last year. I confidently will be heading number one this year. That's insane. So you're growing even faster?

Tremendously. Yeah, we've garnered a lot of attention. I mean, you know, over the last, just in last year itself, our growth probably doubled of what it was the year prior. If not tripled. And is that because of the rise of e-commerce mainly? I wouldn't say it's the rise of e-commerce. I think it's because of how we've actually made our model more easier. You see, we're not really, we don't categorize ourselves as in being in the actual Amazon

space. We categorize ourselves as actually being a franchise. So with our platform, you know, anyone can start a franchise. And what that means is it's two-sided. Number one, you can jump into an already profitable store. We have franchises, legitimate registered franchises that are actually aged. They've been running, the actual businesses have been running for two to three years and they can purchase annually, take over the business. Everything's substantiated with in terms of earnings claims, documents and so forth. And you know, the other side of our model

allows you to jump into an FBA like experience where you choose where you want to sell Amazon, Walmart, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And from there on forth, you select what type of store category products you want to sell. You get licensed to sell on that end. So I wouldn't really categorize this FBA because we're a licensed and registered franchise in Florida and we're currently expanding our registration across all 50 states. Got it. So you've just made it really easy.

Really easy. And I'd say more credible too. I mean, look at all the agencies in the FBA space. They're fly by night companies. Right. I mean, genuinely, I'm not saying that, you know, myself, I consider myself young. I'm 32. But at the end of the day, a lot of individuals in this space are far younger and that's okay.

I mean, there's far younger individuals that have done much greater things than I ever have and there will be for sure. And at the end of the day, when it comes to it is there's just no credibility behind the model. There's nothing to protect the actual businesses that are joining the model at any capacity. You know, our particular company, we're a licensed franchise registered in state of Florida. There's extremely large legal requirements that need to be met and need to be followed in terms of every stores claims being a hundred percent accurate.

I mean let's be real on e-com everyone throws claims around. Oh yeah. It's a bunch of bullshit. So it genuinely is and a lot of people come out and call it out. But at the end of the day our model with our franchise model it just adds a lot of legitimacy to it. A lot of it. Yeah. FTC's cracking down on some of those guys, the bigger guys. 100% they should be. And they should be, because a lot of them

are money laundering operations, a lot of them are fraudulent Ponzi schemes. Yeah. It's plain and simple, that's what they are. The intent from the very beginning is to be a fraudulent operation. So, you know, in comparison to our actual company, in contrast to our company, you know,

we've taken the appropriate actual steps to grow the company for the concept to actually work. Most of these companies, they don't have the intent of making the concept work. They don't wanna improve their model in any capacity whatsoever. So I can't say that once again for everyone. Don't wanna categorize the entire space under that label.

There's great companies out there. There are some competitors of ours that I can say great things about also, but a large majority of them, and what the FTC has done, I think it's a great job. And I think it's a job well done. I think it needed to be done. Yeah, they're getting them for the false money claims.

That's like the big one. For sure. And you know, it's really important. And that's why, you know, with our company, we wanted to head towards the Fred Trans model because we wanted to add legitimacy to the space. We have our earning claims document is 300 pages long. Damn. So all fully substantiated, all available online

because at the end of the day I don't understand why any other agency doesn't have it either. You know why and I've asked this question to counsel like why are we the first? It's not strange. I was one of the questions asked right. They're like nobody cared. That's why nobody cared. They just don't care. They take the money and they leave. I'm like, but why? The concept is proven.

It works. Actually, the substantiation is, do the brands sell and do they make money? Can you historically prove it? Yes. How many times can you prove it? Can you prove it favorably across hundreds of clients? Yes.

Is there bad cases? Yes, of course. There's unsuccessful cases and that's fine. And that's why, you know, at the end of the day, the actual products themselves, I guess that they're listed on the stock exchange, the parent companies, they sell, they have a history of decades of sales. Not a lot of these companies care. They really don't care.

They're just pumping dump operations in my opinion. Short term versus long term picking, right? For sure. And you know, speaking of legitimacy, it brings me to like, we actually had the congressman's son, I'm not gonna name which congressman, you know, actually sign up for our company.

Wow. And start our store, start a store with us. And at the end of the day, you know, the intent of actually a congressman's son wanting to do that just shows the legitimacy behind our model. That, you know, the government, I would say, because once you're a congressman's son, you're meddled and you're involved in the government in one way, shape or form, whether the public wants to admit it or not. That's my opinion. But when it comes down to it, it gives really a lot of legitimacy to the model of,

that it works. But you see in this particular case, what a lot of entrepreneurs understand, everyone fights this rat race. They wanna become a top 50 fastest growing company. They want to make millions and millions of dollars, right? Is that the repercussions that come with it. Once you enter the territory of crossing that top 50,

I mean, your revenues have surpassed 50 million plus, 100%. And at the end of the day, there's a lot of scrutiny that comes with it too. Really? In this particular case with the Congressman's son, the trust factor in him actually choosing our organization, believing in our companies and our platform is excellent, is great.

But you see what came with it was really maliceful, bad intent. And you know, what ended up happening was an entire orchestrated scheme to actually really just defame our organization and cause tortious interference with our clients happened. Really? Trying to frame, put us in bad and negative light using allegedly the congressman's resources to accomplish that in order to gain a win in a reelection attempt. What? This is a hundred percent true and you know, once again, this is all my perspective and my opinion on this matter on a personal level, but I do want to say that, you know, that's a lot of what a lot

of entrepreneurs don't see. That's what a lot of people don't paint the light of in entrepreneurship, everything that comes with it. Everyone paints the great picture. Everyone paints, oh, you're on a boat, you're on a jet. You know, no one actually shows the behind the scenes of what happens, what consequences they are and how politics can even meddle

into an actual private business at that type of level. So, I mean, I won't comment further on it but I will tell you that a federal lawsuit will address this and really just paint a full picture of how certain members of the US government are involved in large level of fraud and not just for our particular organization, but many others also too. We have one of the largest law firms in the world representing the case and it'll be released

pretty soon. So it'll really paint a really good picture of why, you know, you know, our company has received kind of the backlash that it has. You know, we have a lot of successful, successful, successful stores. That's why I paid RFGC actual earning claims doc is 300 plus pages. That's why we opted into to be a licensed franchise. We don't care. We know what we do is right.

But at the end of the day, there are special interests out there that once you reach the tip of the top or you're about to break through, that really want to use that to their advantage and get an easy win in their pocket for reelection. That is nuts. Well, if it's out when this episode drops, we'll link it in the video, the lawsuit. Yeah, I can't tell you when it's going to be out, but it'll be out pretty soon. So definitely like for you to link that in there. I mean, people know within Congress, I mean, look at the stock trades.

I mean, they know there's some fraud and BS going on. For sure, for sure. I mean, there's many cases that I've seen where, you know, a congressman and family members are involved lobbying for special interests, daddy signs the bill, and then from there on forth, the money goes straight into the son's pocket. So, interesting. I've actually heard about whistleblowers too that are- Making a lot of money.

That are really making a lot of money on it too. Wow. Yeah, I've spoken to a few. That's scary, man. Yeah, it goes up to the highest level too of government. It's scary. It does. It just, it gives you a good perspective of entrepreneurship. A lot of people don't see, you know, what it really takes to start and run and

grow a business. That brings me right back to the actually square one in itself is do you really want to? Some people are made for it. They're, they're built for it. And you know what? If you are, you'll know. I talked to Tai Lopez about this actually. It's like finding that sweet spot so where you're not a target, right? So like once you start making tens of millions, you are a target. For sure.

So he tells people like make a few million a year. Like you won't be a massive target. For sure. For sure. Absolutely. Yeah. It's a game that you really don't want to get into unless you're built for it. Unless you're really designed and born for it. So, you know, and I've just learned that all through my life really because of honestly failure, failure, failure, failure, failure.

Throughout my entire life I've failed and I say that proudly and a lot of entrepreneurs really don't embrace failure, don't leverage failure, don't really want to recognize that is a good thing. I personally love when bad things happen. Wow. When I get a phone call with the worst news, I wake up.

If there is nothing bad happening, whether it be at the office or in life in general, I'm not content because I look at them as opportunities and many entrepreneurs should look at it that way too. Oh, this happens, you lost $100,000. What did you learn for it? How are you gonna take that $100,000 loss and turn that into actual, an opportunity, revenue, whatever it may be. How can you now take that and, and, and duplicate it and grow it? You

know, that that's the mindset that a lot of entrepreneurs should have. A lot of people don't speak about their failures publicly. I love to, um, in any type of case, because everyone just paints this perfect, perfect light when it's really not. Not at all. And it makes other people want to get into entrepreneurship and e-comm also because it looks so easy when actually starting and building a legitimate business is very hard. Super hard. I get asked a lot like should I get into entrepreneurship? I usually say no to people. Yeah. You know, if you have to ask, I don't know if you're really designed and built for it. You'll know.

Yeah. You'll be so driven and you'll be, then nothing can stop you for it. You don't have to ask the question. You don't need, you don't need to be gone. I didn't ask anyone. Oh no. Him and himself wouldn't have to ask the question. You know, he would be, he would already be doing it. That's what I'm saying. So, but for those that it isn't actually, they're not built for it. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing. You know, it doesn't have to mean that you don't get into it. It means that you need to just jump on,

have the same mindset an investor doesn't say, hey, okay, I'm not designed for actually starting building business. Maybe I don't want to, maybe it's too late for me right now. I don't think it's ever too late, but maybe it's just not an appropriate time in life. How can I just go ahead and take an investor's approach and say, why can't I just jump into something

that's kind of already working? Don't actually be the one going in front of the shark, just be the shark in itself and do what they do. Sure, you don't have to do it in large scale of millions of dollars. You can start very small and grow into it. And that's exactly what our actual franchise platform allows you to do.

So we're the only actual online franchise that allows you to start a franchise for up to $8,000. So there's no other franchise model out there that'll allow you to do that. Every other franchise model, you need hundreds of thousands of dollars. Super expensive. You need huge net worth requirements. But here's the problem. The fancy red tape that's there is there for a purpose, right?

It's there for qualification. You're running a business under their brand. The problem is there's the net gains over a five-year period. They're not here over a short-term period period and a lot of entrepreneurs that aren't really designed for it that want to jump into a model, they need something relatively sooner than later to actually validate that investment that they made. Yeah, you got to be careful. Certain franchises are fads, right?

For sure. Like the yogurt one, frozen yogurt. I didn't hear about that one. Tell me about it. Well, frozen yogurt was big in America probably when I was in high school but a lot of them went under really it was like a dessert trend I guess but yeah there's a lot of franchises where like it's around a trending food or whatever right right right then it dies off was an MLM or no that one wasn't but yeah

there's MLMs too yeah no that's all silly stuff at the end of the day the 4x ones oh yeah yeah those are nasty that's that's something you know what I never understand is The Forex ones. Oh yeah. Yeah, those are nasty. That's silly. You know, what I never understand is why people still believe in that. Yeah, MLMs, you know, they get a bad rep unless you're at the top. You know, that's what it brings me to is a lot of people aren't built for entrepreneurship, so they rely on these little scams at the end of the day. And what I don't like about it is they know going into it that it's not the right thing to do. They know the odds, they know the risks and at the end they play victim about it.

Yeah, I think 90% of people lose money on them. Some of the praise like that. For sure. And it's publicized. So at the end of the day they come out of it and they say, oh, I was scammed. And at the end of the day, sure, many of these people truly were, but that's how you can take that. How can I take, okay, I failed, I lost tons of these people truly were, but that's how you can take that. How can I take, okay, I failed, I lost tons of money.

What am I going to do about it? Am I going to be here and sit here and cry about it? No. Okay, great. I lost $28,000. I really depended on this money. My family depended on it, whatever. I expected to do this.

How am I going to take that learning lesson now and amplify and make sure it never happens again? That's how you really meet what they need to do in actually learning and leveraging failure. That's what's worked for me. That's the only reason I've actually built this company because way before I even got into the model we're at right now, we used to drop shipping.

Drop shipping is a complete fucking scam. I used to do it too. Yeah, it is. I mean, on the large, like I said, on the mainstream model and how it's being advertised in 2025, it is not the way to make money, build a long, sustainable business at any circumstance or any case.

So, but it's still being backpedaled and pushed every single day. Which is crazy. Just because there's a few winners and there's a few winners because they built the business the right way. They built relationships with suppliers that are credible. They've vetted the products, they've seen the warehouse,

they've done Q&A on the products. The products, maybe they've actually tested themselves. Maybe they even created the product themselves that's R&D on the other side of the world, right? They put actual effort into building a business. And then, sure, it's drop shipping because they're fulfilling the other side of the world, but they took those extra steps.

And now it makes it seem like drop shipping is this whole entire business that can make multi-millionaires, which it is not in my opinion. At the end of the day, the same core values of business apply in every single business in every single case, right? So you can't just ship products from China that you've never seen, never touched, never vetted from a supplier, name you can't pronounce.

You don't know, you don't know who he is. You don't know if it's a real, you don't know. Are the products even being shipped? Sure. You got a tracking number costing 39 cents to send an e-packet. What's in there? And at the end of the day, guess who pays the price? You do.

Stripe comes back for a process, come back, start blacklisting you. Put you on a TMF list, no more selling for the next five years. So that wasn't a business model I wanted to be involved with. Yeah, in there, done that, man, all of that. No, absolutely not. That's why I exited the space entirely, because if I couldn't build a relationship with the supplier, vet the supplier, have a trusted relationship with them, I didn't want to be in it.

And most of the actual suppliers are fly-by-night companies overseas. And, you know, you're in US territory dealing with US laws, working with overseas part of suppliers who have no accountability for any actions that happen. And you're the US territory dealing with US laws, working with overseas part suppliers who have no accountability for any actions that happen. And you're the one who pays the consequence. So that's why the entire model we have now with our franchise models in the United States as a whole. And it is more legitimized

than anything that there is out there right now. I love it. Yeah, I remember all the drop shipping courses. Now they're all teaching AI courses. Yeah. You know, they're onto the next. Yeah, and the FTC is cracking down on that too. AI courses.

Yeah, for sure. Not even the AI course itself, but how the word AI is actually being used and leveraged. I mean, our platform uses a lot of AI because when you see, when you start a franchise store with our actual platform, you connect your seller account, depending on what plan you are on. Your plan you're on,

you connect your actual seller account to our platform. From there on forth, everything is done for you, managed for your platform, literally analyze your seller's account to our platform. From there on forth, everything is done for you, managed for your platform, literally analyze your seller's account's health to see where it's at, what products are assigned to your account when, and a lot of those actions are dictated by AI. Sure. Nothing on a huge massive scale, but there's definitely a good amount of machine learning behind it.

You see a lot of companies out there are actually just using the terminology, there's nothing behind it. We actually have the software behind it. You see a lot of companies out there are actually just using the terminology, there's nothing behind it. We actually have the software behind it. So, but a lot of people are just saying that. It sounds very interesting to people. They're building value, right? And they're delivering nothing at the end of the day. Yeah, it's like a buzzword. Yeah. So that's why, you know, what interests me is, and what I think everyone's look at it should be is all these Amazon automation companies are literally just getting hammered. All the, and I hope that's all the legitimate ones that are. So at the end of the day, we're one of the top 50 companies in the country. Why is it that we have not had anyone knock on our doors?

That has to tell you something. It does, other than the congressman's kid. We're one of the largest actual, like I said, in the entire space. Yeah. Other than the congressman we're one of the largest actual like I said in the entire space Yeah, so it's not not a big secret. Most of these companies keep their revenue secret until it's listed in the FTC complaint So we publicly listed we don't care. So we know our models works. We know it helps entrepreneurs In many cases, like I said, there's cases where it doesn't work for us for some people. You can't shoot a hundred percent No, you can't there's so many factors that are beyond our control so many factors when you connect our control. So many factors.

When you connect your seller account to our actual platform and our platform analyzes it, in some cases you might not be eligible and sell. Maybe you've sold in the past and your seller account, you broke Amazon policies. No matter what authorization we publish in your account for these products, Amazon's not going to let us push out those listings. Right. Because how it works on Amazon's end is, do I, okay, number one, we connect the account

and they analyze, is this account trusted, yes or no? No, it has five policy violations, whatever, and they're significant for trademark or IP, whatever it may be. And then from there on forth, what it's gonna do is, it's gonna see, okay, they're gonna be selling a Crest product or a Lay's chips product, high volume product, no.

Or they might list you, it'd be shadow banned. So in some cases, we don't know when you're shadow banned. In some cases we do, and we just don't even accept it. Like I said, you as a customer. Wow, I didn't know Amazon shadow banned account. For sure, this is, I mean, they have to. Saturation at the end of the day. I mean, number one, what's Amazon's goal?

They want to protect consumers. And especially on the marketplace that sells, they have a lot of liability, especially with the FBA, they want to protect consumers. And especially on the marketplace that sells, they have a lot of liability, especially with the FBA, they are delivering the product. They have a responsibility to make sure the product is genuine, not expired, not counterfeit. So at the end of the day, if they don't actually screen people on an individual level,

with hundreds of thousands of sellers, they carry liability and they don't want to get caught up with the FTC either. That makes sense. So they want to maintain their presence and being number one, right? So that's what a lot of people don't want to get caught up with the FTC either. That makes sense. So they want to maintain their presence and being number one, right? So that's what a lot of people don't understand in this space either.

There's a lot of, I don't care what FBA company you choose, you know, whether it's our actual franchise model or whether it's another FBA company, you have to understand that there are so many factors that are beyond their control. Yeah. And I'm only speaking for the legitimate actual companies that are actually doing their job because many of them just don't even do anything.

You just pay them and they disappear. So, but the ones that are actually doing the job, there's so many factors that are truly beyond their control. So, now it's up to them and how they handle those type situations, how they identify them and so forth. But, I think it all comes down to setting expectations.

Absolutely. And it all comes down to setting expectations. Absolutely. Very start and it all comes down to the mindset the person signing up has also too. For sure. I was on Amazon yesterday. So now in the search bar, it says ask a question. Have you seen that? Yeah, I did. So you can shop by questions now. That's so innovative. For sure. Because they're also using AI. They're analyzing your actual history, your browsing history, what you're doing, your spending habits, your shopping habits, and you're asking the question

for something, they're gonna pair you with a product that they think you'd be interested in, but here's the thing, it looks so innocent. People don't understand that I wanna buy a pair of shoes. Amazon knows what your average spending pattern on shoes is. They know that you're a consumer that is likely to pay more for shoes. So they're not gonna pair you with a particular product for a shoe or a listing that's going

to be maybe 30% above retail. They know you're going to buy it. You know, a lot of people don't understand that, you know, and I hate to say this because Amazon, we work very closely with Amazon, not in the official capacity at all, but at the end of the day, a lot of consumers overpaying on Amazon. Really? For sure. I mean, you know, our sellers on our platform, our store owners have the ability to dictate the pricing

of the products in their store. So, you know, if Lay's chips are listed for $3, you know, I've seen so many cases where sellers list them for six to $8, and there will be more orders than there would be at a retail price. It's incredible. What?

It's truly incredible. And it'll come from, you know, it'll come mostly from different states. New York, California, I'll see that a lot. Because- That makes sense. Yeah, so, you know, it does make sense, but also at the end of the day,

it's like a gray area between price gouging. Yeah, their algorithms are so advanced, right? It is, right? So that question of, you know, ask a question, it looks innocent, it looks helpful, but it's really the dry profits for Amazon. Wow, that's nuts. Yeah, I bought a weighted vest yesterday

and it knew which one I wanted without me even browsing. Yeah, sometimes when you're doing that, just compare the price. See what actual listing it gives you and then go compare that price to retail and see if it's the same price. See, most people won't do that. No, they won't, They'll just hit buy now.

Because Amazon's so easy. Fast, fast, fast. Yeah. I don't even price check anything these days. It's, it's, we've been programmed to that, that way because we just want it now. We want it fast. Yeah. You know, we don't want to wait. That's why shopping in the store for those basic things is going out the door for the

most part. So I mean, have you seen Walmart stepping, stepping their game up? I mean, Walmart is actually, has the potential to outgrow Amazon. For sure, absolutely. They came in as losers in the game. When Amazon stepped in, I think that they are currently right now

leveling up with Amazon. I can't say on a financial sense, but I can say on the business sense, they're kicking ass. And they could over take Amazon from just what I'm seeing. We have thousands of sellers on Walmart. And believe it or not, they're actually performing better and many of them on Amazon.

The reason why is a lot of consumers are used to buying consumer products at Walmart. So your chips, your toothpaste, your toilet paper, et cetera, they're used to buying that Walmart. So where are they going to buy it? They're also going to buy it at Walmart. So... Makes sense. Plus not everyone has Prime, right? They're also going to buy it at Walmart. So.

Makes sense. Plus not everyone has Prime, right? So. That's true. That's true. So. Wow. Yeah. Cause I know when they originally launched their marketplace,

it didn't do that well online. No, it didn't. No, Amazon was a big, Walmart was a big flop when it actually started. Yeah. I heard about that. Huge, huge flop. They weren't really technology focused. Amazon was.

I mean, Amazon's infrastructure is built on, you know, AWS in itself. Yeah. So that's why they have a level up against Walmart. Walmart is a... They're probably on AWS. They're probably, right, exactly. So they're just a brick and mortar. They're used to just transactional situations in person.

So Amazon came out and they're like, oh shit, we got to do something or we are closing our doors. We're going to be the next Toys R Us. So they did it. They did it very slowly. They're catching up and it would not surprise me if they surpass Amazon in some way, shape or form one day.

Wow, keep an eye on that one. So those are like the big two right now, Walmart and Amazon? The largest ones, yeah. Because you know, Walmart actually introduced something like Prime, it's called Walmart Plus. So it's their FBA model for Walmart. And it's truly doing great things for the most part for our store owners, anyone that is on Walmart plus and you purchase inventory, our actual

platform ships it off to Walmart. It sells the same day. So there's no question about it. I've been watching Beast games on Amazon. Have you seen that Mr. Beast? Brilliant business model. So they lost a ton of money upfront because they gave them a ton of money. But since they're getting Amazon customers and they know the LTV, they're going to make more than a hundred million.

For sure. Without a doubt. Such a brilliant model. Yeah. I couldn't believe that. That's going to change entertainment industry. When was the last time you had an interview with Beast Games? With MrBeast? Not yet. No, I think he'll come on eventually. But that was an interesting model because they lost a ton of money up front, but the Amazon LTV is crazy. It is extremely high. I probably, myself, probably spend 10k a year on Amazon. The average repeat order rate on Amazon is truly, truly insane.

And that's really what's driving the model for our customers because for actual store owners, because when our store owners get listed on Amazon, their products get listed. Let's say you have 30, 40 products listed on Amazon. Well, ask customers if you're buying them. They subscribe to those products. You know, I need toothpaste every month. I need toilet paper every week. I need this, I need that.

So the actual repeat purchase rate is huge. That's what drives the LTV through the roof. And that's why it works so, so well. The actual brands that people trust, people buy it every day. There's no question about it. They see it, oh, okay, this is Crest, great, yeah, I need that, okay, great.

They're not looking at the price they're shopping. That's where our actual store owners are making their profit margins. The subscribe orders, because you save 5%, but. 100%, right, but it's marked up by 30. Anywhere between 10 and 30% from what I'm seeing, they set their own pricing, what they want it to be and their preferences, right?

Wow. So we just see it on a global scale of what they're doing and see how it's performing. That's cool, man. You mentioned failures earlier I'm curious what your biggest ones were how you overcame them. I'd say you failed startups for the most part. That's where that's where That's where a lot of I would say my perspective comes from, you know I've started way before I started wine if I I tried getting I was I've had hosting I started a little hosting company I was 13 years old. So I was 13, what did I know?

And at the end of the day, along that journey, I've had just so many failed startups, and I just kept failing and failing and failing. And nothing worked, plain and simple. If when I look back now, I'm like, it was the timing was right. And at the end of the day, it comes down to just, I really didn't recognize, and I got really torn down about it. Because the the end of the day, it comes down to just, I really didn't recognize,

and I got really torn down about it. Because the reason I got torn down about it is because I came, my family came from nothing. Right. We came overseas from the Balkan War over there, immigrated Germany, immigrated to the States here. So my family really relied on me. There was a lot of reliance there.

And I was the oldest sibling in the house. My parents didn't speak English. So that's the only reason I got up in the startup culture you can say or entrepreneurship in general is because I had to not because I really wanted to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So from a very young age and that's where I learned just really just after every failure,

just really just capitalize on it. I come into the office and someone tells me, hey, there's this going on. I'm like, that's wonderful. They look at me like I'm crazy. Like, what's wrong with you? This is very serious. There's consequences for this and that.

And great. Now we're gonna, that's happening. What are we gonna say here and bitch about it? No, absolutely not. We're gonna take the situation and we're not just gonna fix it, but we're gonna just pull out a perspective and make use of it in many different cases and scenarios.

That's what a lot of people don't do. They're people like, oh, you know what? My advertising campaign's not doing so well. I'm failing, I'm going to lose all my money. And they just sit there and will in the corner. They don't understand how to leverage that and take it and turn it into something. Every time my phone rings, I'm excited if there's a problem.

When it's too calm, I'm stressed. It's just not good. So it is not a good thing at all. So if things are going great, I'm excited if there's a problem. When it's too calm, I'm stressed. It's just not good. So it is not a good thing at all. So if things are going great, I'm terrified. I'm scared. Actually at that point, there's signals in my head telling me that, you might fail, but this time not in a good way.

So I think people need to realize that a lot. Well, there's that quote, right? There's no growth without discomfort or something. For sure. For sure. It's true. But people read all these quotes and they don't really do anything with it. Facts. I mean, I want, anyone that's watching this podcast,

I really encourage you, the next time you experience a problem, next time something happens, your husband comes to you, your wife comes to you, your boss comes to you, you need to sit there and analyze, okay, this is happening. There's nothing I can do to change it.

I can get stressed, I can get pissed. I can feel many different types of emotions. What can I do right now to take this situation, not just fix it, I'm gonna fix it, of course I am. I'm a problem solver. So how am I gonna take this now, after I fix it and apply it to make it better, more efficient, and solve other problems along the way?

So that's the perspective people need to have. Yeah, turning lemons into lemonade. 100%. Yeah, a lot of people fold under pressure or tough circumstances. A million percent, that's why there's entrepreneurship is just an overused term. If you can master the trait of not folding under pressure and learning how to leverage failure, learning how to take problems and smile, because you know at the end of the tunnel, it's going to literally generate you millions of dollars. You'll do great. Yeah.

When we started selling Crest, we had a small supplier years ago. This goes way back, way before we became top 50 and the supplier just disappeared. They dipped on us. We had customers we'd delivered for. We had orders to fulfill this years and years ago. At the end of the day, what do you do? How are you going to get access to millions? You know, at that time we needed $20 million in capital to work with

the partners that we work with now. Holy crap. How are we going to do that? So what are we going to do? How are we going to do it? You know, take that situation. If that situation wouldn't have happened, we would never be in the position we are today.

I am thankful to God that that supplier disappeared. Wow. Whoever was behind it, whatever's behind it, whatever the reason was, if you're watching this podcast, I thank you from the bottom of my heart because it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Because if it wouldn't have happened, there would be no change. A lot of people just get stuck in that same cycle, comfort, right? So, and genuinely at that time, I was comfortable.

Things were growing great. Our stores were making money, our supplier was delivering. But we have grown to what we've grown now, probably not. Yeah, it's such an interesting dynamic because a lot of people chase comfort. 100%. I'll create problems. Yeah, but once you're at that comfortable lifestyle, it's almost like what's the purpose from there. Some people find it. Some people actually enjoy the actual comfort. I don't know personally how. When it's too calm, like I said, I get stressed out, I'll create

a problem and then that problem will solve 30 other problems that would have happened and it'll make us tons of amounts of money and make our stores tons of amounts of money and so forth. So you got to fight for what you want. You got to fight for what you believe and that doesn't come with comfort. Absolutely. Robert, this has been cool, man. It's been really interesting mindset stuff. Where can people keep up with you potentially get involved with Y-Unified?

Instagram at Robert, N-I-K-I-C for the most part. If you want to get in touch with me for Y-Unified, just go to yunified.com. That's W-H-Y to why unified.com that's wh why unified.com and yeah you know be the shark you don't want to be on the other side of the actual table pitching your idea to the shark you should be the shark and you should jump on to a model that's actually proven something that works and has higher odds and actually just starting a business on your own absolutely we'll link below link below. Check them out guys. Thanks for coming on, dude.

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