#517 - The Struggle Is the Shortcut: Lessons from a First-Time Amazon Founder Warren Smith
Built by Business: Amazon FBA, E-Commerce, Brand Building
Andy Isom | Amazon FBA Seller & Agency Founder
4.9 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Success on Amazon isn't about avoiding problems, it's about growing through them.
In this episode of Built by Business, Andy features one of his coaching students and now Weavos agency clients - Warren, who launched his first product just a month ago and is already building momentum. Warren shares raw lessons from his early journey: learning to expect delays, the importance of first impressions, and why struggle isn't a setback, it's the shortcut to success.
If you're preparing for your first launch or fighting through growing pains, this is the reminder you need to keep moving forward.
Learn more or request your free Amazon Brand Audit at www.weavos.io
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Everyone wants the success story. The million dollar brand. Maybe it's quitting the nine to five. The passive income. But nobody wants the part where you're stuck in customs. Your listing is delayed or suspended. Your photos don't quite look right yet. The truth is the struggle is the shortcut. Today, one of my students and now one of my Wevos clients, share some |
| 0:22.2 | thoughts fresh off his first 30 days of selling on Amazon. And he's got a good perspective. Every |
| 0:28.1 | new business owner needs to hear. Welcome back to Built by Business. I'm Andy Isum. This episode is a little bit different. We're going a little bit more on the mindset side of things. I've got another guest feature for you guys today who happens to be another one of my Wevos agency clients. And Warren just launched his brand and his first products on |
| 0:55.4 | Amazon just a few weeks ago. And I've been coaching Warren for about the last year, probably |
| 1:00.5 | even a little bit longer, through this entire process, way back from figuring out what product |
| 1:05.5 | he was going to sell. And I've loved working with Warren over this past year because he's not |
| 1:10.6 | chasing quick wins. |
| 1:12.1 | He's mastering patience, preparation, and perspective. |
| 1:16.4 | I think today's episode about the struggle actually fits really well with the current state of e-commerce and my personal life, honestly. |
| 1:25.0 | The tariff war is heating back up again. |
| 1:27.3 | I'm sure you guys have heard |
| 1:28.4 | over the past couple weeks, but the United States and China are starting to puff their chests |
| 1:33.1 | again at each other, threatening 100% tariffs, threatening holding back core metals or earth |
| 1:40.2 | or whatever it is to make AI chips. And so we're back in that stage of just a whole lot of uncertainty. |
| 1:46.4 | We really don't know what's going to happen over even the next week when it comes to the |
| 1:50.9 | trade war. |
| 1:51.6 | And in my personal life, I got my yearly sinus infection. |
| 1:55.4 | I don't know why this happens to me, but every time the seasons change and it goes from |
| 1:59.5 | summer to fall, it gets colder. I feel like |
| 2:01.8 | I get a sinus infection. It knocks me down for about five days. Hence why this podcast episode is a little |
| 2:07.3 | bit delayed. But again, I think the lesson there is, there is always a struggle. There's always |
| 2:12.1 | going to be something that comes up that can inhibit you from progressing towards your goals. |
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