We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rafael Veloz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rafael, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

The Amazon seller industry is changing rapidly. The consistent pattern is that competition increases at a rapid speed between sellers. The level of sales you could achieve with little-to-no marketing before the pandemic is now impossible. Before, you could work with a $1000 budget and visual content from a Fiverr creator. Now, the consumer is more educated. The quality of the content translates to the quality of the product, so sellers need to have high-quality, professional images and content. You can’t cut corners the way you could before as a start-up.

Rafael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Rafael Veloz, and I’m the founder and owner of Share It Studio, an Amazon marketing agency that caters solely to Amazon sellers. I went to school for law and film, and applied this background to a 12 year career in marketing. Share It Studio was born with the sole purpose of helping small business owners or solopreneurs who were looking to escape the 9-5 via their Amazon business by empowering them with the best content so they stand out from their competition.

Our not-so-secret formula that makes our clients stand out from their competition, and increase profits, is that we are meticulous with our data-driven strategy. This enables us to create content that engages consumers and converts to more sales.

The biggest pride of the company is its employees, we could have not gotten to where we are with all the amazing people behind Share It Studio. They are the reason why all of our customers are successful. Each one of them is essential and the heart of the business.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

The biggest learning curve my business has had until this moment was a couple of years ago, when we were barely starting. It was a moment that defined us a business and made it clear that the business is not just one person, but rather had its strength in the unity and drive of the team and vision. At the time, we were a team of four: an art director, a graphic designer, an operations & sales manager, and then myself as a filmmaker, photographer, and editor. My business partner left, without notice. The art director asked for a 100% increase in salary to take on the extra load, which wasn’t possible for the company at that time, so she also left. We were a start up business in debt, short half of our team, and with project deadlines to meet. I honestly thought of calling it quits. I regrouped with Mary, my graphic designer at that time, and we divided and conquered, both doubling up on our workload. The rest is history. Today, we’re a 15-person company and hiring for two more positions. Mary, is the current Art Director and my right hand in the company. I am forever grateful for her believing in the company. Where there is a will, there’s a way. Keep the right people around you, and anything is possible.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Listen to them, try to predict what could go wrong, stay one step ahead. Just like every relationship in life, the devil is in the details. Stay curious- always continue your own education. Great resources are Udemy, Cursera, and management and communication books. My whole team is remote, so I have different practices. For example, we have daily meetings at 9am and at 5pm for 30 mins where we talk a bit about life and we catch up with work. On Friday’s we do things a little differently, I give each one credit for Uber eats and we all have lunch together (remotely) and then the 5pm meeting is a 15 min meeting where we focus on team bonding.

I also do monthly one-on–one’s with them check in with them, where they are and where they want to be, and how they think we can improve the work environment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shareitstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shareitstudio/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shareitstudio/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShareItStudio