How To Be of Service and Create Value for Others with Izabela Hamilton

Intro (00:09):
Welcome to Innovations and Breakthroughs with your host Rich Goldstein, talking about the evolutionary, the revolutionary, the inspiration and the perspiration and those aha moments that change everything. And now here’s your host, Rich Goldstein.

Rich (00:33):
Rich Goldstein here, host of the Innovations and Breakthroughs podcast, where I feature top leaders in the path they took to create change. Past guests include Joe Polish, Roland Frazier, and Mike Calhoun. This episode is brought to you by my company, Goldstein Patent Law, where we help you to protect your ideas and products. We’ve advised and obtaining patents for thousands of companies of the past 28 years. So if you’re a company that has software, product, or design anyone protected, go to goldstein patent law.com where there are amazing free resources for learning about the patent process. And you could email my team welcome goldstein pc.com to explore if it’s a match to work together. You could also check out the book I wrote for the American Bar Association that explains in plain English how patents work. It’s called the ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent I have with me here today.

Rich (01:23):
My good friend Izabela Hamilton. Izabela is the c e o and founder of Rank Bell, an agency that helps Amazon sellers to launch their products and get them ranked highly by the Amazon search engine. She’s highly respected keynote speaker, business strategist, and an advocate for helping other people create their own financial freedom. She hosted the Seller Sessions program weekly for more than two years where she focused on all all things mindset. And, uh, I don’t know if it’s proper to introduce someone by saying that they’re just simply amazing. Like, if you don’t know Izabela, you have to know Izabela. But I’m happy to welcome my amazing friend Izabela Hamilton, to the show. Welcome, Izabela.

Izabela (02:04):
Oh my goodness, Rich Goldstein. What a pleasure and an honor to be here with you. And you know, those words mean so much to me cuz it’s one of those words that I always use. You know, when people ask me, how are you doing? I’m amazing. I’m amazing. So, you know, also, if you go back to the importance of how we use words, you know, the more you use a word, the more it becomes part of your identity. So thank you for saying that because uh, it really means a lot. But also, I wanna point something out Rich. I think you are missing one important thing in your preview for podcast. I think you’re forgetting to tell people how amazing of a singer you are and how also you remember the words to every single song on planet earth. I think that should be in your introduction, Rich, what do you think?

Rich (02:56):
Yeah. Or, or maybe that’s just a nice little surprise that some people find out <laugh>.

Izabela (03:01):
Well, if they’re, you’re right. But if they’re lucky enough. But as you know, your podcast is probably less than to thousands and thousands of people and the chances of those people to be with you in a car ride in London, for example, where you’re just singing every single song that comes along, baby Slim. So I think we should let people know that you are just an amazing human yourself. Oh,

Rich (03:25):
Thank you. I appreciate it. Of

Izabela (03:27):
Course. And you know, one more thing I do wanna mention, cuz this is kinda close to my soul. Um, and I know you remember this cuz you literally remember everything in your life, a human computer, but you took me to an amazing acting class a few years ago. Yep. Uh, and by the way,

Rich (03:44):
Josh Pece

Izabela (03:46):
Exactly. We’ve been friends I think now five, six years at least. And, and uh, that they changed my life. And not in a way that, you know, most people think, oh, just an acting class in her life. But you know, one, you took me outta my comfort zone and you, you know, I trusted you completely. You said, come with me to this one thing. It’s hard to explain what it is. You’ll see what we get there. And I trusted you fully. And because of that, my life has taken such a different course to where I thought it was going. Well, again, one, just being there and being in another environment that I would never consider myself putting myself into. But also I met my mentor who’s been with me for almost four years now, and we have a call every single week. So I wanna thank to you because you literally made that destiny happen, if I can say so myself. So thank you.

Rich (04:37):
Oh yeah. That’s awesome. I love that. I mean, first of all, I love connecting people. Um, so like I get a lot of pleasure out of that just knowing that I’ve connected you with someone who’s important in your life. And, um, that course committed impulses, something very important to me. It’s made a huge difference for me too. That was pre pandemic, that was January, 2020 that we did that course. And, um, I’ve been waiting for Josh to do an in-person workshop. He does them online and he says that they’re great, but I want to go back and do a workshop again. And I messaged him and he said, um, um, coming soon there will be an in-person event again. And I’ll be there and maybe we’ll, we’ll both go do that again. Cuz it’s, you know, every time that I’ve gone and done that course, it’s just reminded me, you know, it’s like a lot of tools for getting out of your head and getting into the present moment.

Rich (05:28):
And when I go and do that course, I, I often have the realization like, wow, it’s actually been a really long time since I’ve been this present. And so it’s just a good remembering of what matters. And so, yeah. That, that means a lot to me. And I’m, I’m, I’m glad that, that we got to share that together. Um, and also just noting on what you were saying about amazing, um, yeah, we create a reality with our words, with our language. Um, and uh, you know, one thing that I took on years ago was noticing when I’m about to say the words can’t or have to mm-hmm. <affirmative> and just stopping it in its tracks and changing the words, it makes such a big difference be because it’s like, if you say, yeah, I can’t go, um, I have to go to my friend’s, um, parent’s funeral, right? You’ve just made yourself a victim of that whole circumstance. Like you’ve got no control over it. But if instead you say like, you know, I’m sorry I I won’t be at your event tonight, you know, I’m going to support my friend at her mother’s funeral. Like, you’ve just made yourself in your own mind powerful. You’ve taken back your power. And that’s just an example of how like with the words we use, we create a whole reality

Izabela (06:53):
That is so beautiful. Thank you Rich for mentioning that cuz it’s like those little things that we don’t even think about. And even though we use it all the time, I would’ve never thought of it the way you just did. But obviously now hopefully will stay with me for a long time. Cause you are right when you say I have to, or it’s almost as if you’re right. Like you give yourself no control over the situation. And even though you, you know, quotation have to, you can rephrase that and Right. Uh, say it in a way that you are now in full control of

Rich (07:25):
That you’re choosing, I’m choosing to, I’m

Izabela (07:27):
Choosing to go. And that’s what a what a great way to start the podcast, you know, with such a, with such wisdom. And, uh, you know, also, I was pondering on your name, you know, rich and gold, I mean <laugh>, how fortunate are you to have two of the most, the wealthiest, uh, names out there right on planet earth? So, you know, you, you totally deserve that. I mean, you are just, uh, you, you beside just being a connector that you are, you just spread so much love and so much wisdom. And um, also every time I see you, it’s always a good time. It’s always that some event that you’re either throwing, which it’s a lot lately or participating in other events and it’s just been so beautiful to see you soar over the years and wanna congratulate you again on your recent, uh, stardom. I am speaking out to a full-on actor. So just wanted to personally say congratulations. That must have been so exciting for you.

Rich (08:23):
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I haven’t mentioned that on the, the podcast before, so I might as well do that now. I guess <laugh>, so I have, oh you have to. I had the, the, um, the random but good fortune to be, um, in a movie. I got to play the part of a doctor in a boxing film, um, name of it as Lola too. And it’s streaming on the A m c, um, a, um, all B L K network. Um, and uh, you can actually get to it through Amazon Prime. You’ll have to get a a seven day trial subscription to all B L K. Um, and then you can cancel if you like. But, but yeah, so I’m a, I’m a doctor in that movie and you catch me. I’m just exactly 24 minutes in.

Izabela (09:08):
Oh my goodness. So I, my congratulations and I’m definitely going to watch it cuz I have to see my friend. You see all those academia lessons, they, uh, they’re paying off not just in the normal life, but also in movie life. So that was so good to see.

Rich (09:23):
Well, that’s the fun thing about the course that we did is that it’s usually about half like working actors that you see in things from time to time and half entrepreneurs that just want to get better at public speaking and things like that. But it’s like toward the end of the course and we all do these scenes and like, you can’t tell who the actors are and who the entrepreneurs are. It’s all great. And I’ve thought many times while I was doing that, like, hey, it would be fun to be in a movie. It would be fun to actually do this and film some scenes for some like TV show or movie. And, and lo and behold it happened. So, so that was how

Izabela (10:01):
We manifested that yourself. Again, words and what you say and the intention that you place onto the things that you do, they, uh, end up turning, uh, you know Exactly, you know, the way you wanted them too. So that’s, uh, that’s important. Yeah.

Rich (10:17):
How did, how did I know that we were gonna end up talking about mindset

Izabela (10:21):
Because Rich, it’s, you know, it’s I think at the core of both of our souls, you know, yes. It’s this thing where it’s just we cannot wait to, to share the wisdom that we, we’ve learned. I mean, both of us, we are in so many masterminds. I mean, you beat me by who knows how many <laugh>, uh, now, but, uh, you know, so many masterminds and you know, we do it not necessarily, I mean cuz most people don’t know this, but we do it cuz we just have a love for learning and the, you know, what is learning if you don’t get to share it with, uh, you know, your audience in this case, but those you love and really changing lives as you go, otherwise, what’s, what’s the point? And it’s just fun and it, it feels good to have, um, such a connection and such a, such a communication where, you know, there’s always a gold nugget at the end of it. So of course we were gonna talk about mindset <laugh>.

Rich (11:12):
Yeah, no, absolutely. And um, you know, it’s, it’s also, I guess we’re we’re two people that also like to muse about that type of thing, so Exactly. We probably could talk for hours about something like that.

Izabela (11:25):
We could. And I think we should. It’s like philosophers of our times, you know?

Rich (11:30):
Right, right. <laugh>. Exactly. And I mean, how do you bring that into your, um, into your business? I mean, like, first of all, lemme just talk about, if I roll it back, reel it back quite a bit, it’s like you, you know, when I, when I look at you and, and I think of you, I think of, of this incredible entrepreneur leader, um, person. Like as if you were born to be like exactly as you are, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but at the same time, you were born in a, in a communist country. You were born in a very, very poor, um, country and, and you did not grow up with your circumstances destined to to be the successful entrepreneur that you are. And so like, but, but I’m sure that the spirit of who you are was very much present when you were younger, right? Like it’s, the circumstances might have been a certain way, but you were determined to become who you are. And so tell me a little bit about like those beginnings and kind of how like you discovered yourself to be this powerful person, even, even in the midst of, of being in circumstances that would tell anyone like, Hey, you’re not going anywhere.

Izabela (12:53):
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What a beautiful way to say it, Rich. Um, I wanted to sit a second with that cuz that was, uh, that was quite deep. So thank you. Um, you are right. You know, uh, Wayne Dyer, one of my favorite, favorite, um, writers who has passed a few years ago, you know, he talks about the soul in such a different way than I’ve ever heard anybody talk about. Um, you know, he talks about this like body that we have as just the house for the soul, right? It’s, it’s not this material that makes the soul, the soul was already there. It just happens that, you know, this body is a bella body embodies this, which now covers the soul. So going back to your question, you know, having that essence, I think at my essence, at my core, I was always somebody that strived to be more.

Izabela (13:43):
And, you know, looking back over my life and being born in Romania in such circumstances, even though when I was younger, it wasn’t necessarily pleasant, you know, because we were lacking so much. But looking back now, I’m like, thank you God, thank you Lord for having me, having giving me that opportunity. Cuz I think it did help a lot co-create who I am today. You know? So not having enough, obviously, you know, the human instinct is, you know, I need to, I need to get more, you know, going back to, I need to, I have to. So it was a lot of that, you know, how do I get out of my own circumstances and become who I need to become, even though at that time when you’re so young, you, you’re so little, you don’t know, but it’s, it’s like a, a yearning and a desire for something that you haven’t yet encountered, which is so weird because it’s like, I want something, I just don’t know what it is.

Izabela (14:35):
It’s like when you are hungry, you just, but you don’t know what to eat. So I think, you know, maybe my soul always knew that I was meant to do something with my life. So with that, you know, every single day I just, uh, decided that I was going to become somebody I didn’t, again, I didn’t know what, I didn’t know who it, it was first that desire. So, you know, going back to when I was young, um, you know, not having the possibilities that somebody will have in this country being born here, it didn’t limit me. It actually empowered me to, to strive for more. And you know, that answer for me at that time was America. It was like, it was this land of all dreams and possibilities where everything came true. And, um, it was easy because I had a one mission and one mission only, and that was get to America and everything else. It didn’t matter at that time. And maybe another thing, maybe that was it, Rich, maybe the fact that I used up all my energy and all my mental abilities to focus on one thing and one thing only. Maybe that’s a lot to be said about that.

Rich (15:42):
Hmm. Got it. And so it was li it sounds like a hunger for discovery, which is what you still have. I mean, that, that’s still seems to be who you are is like you, you are hungry to discover more and more about what you can become.

Izabela (15:56):
I do. And I’m smiling. I don’t know if this is going to be, um, you know, in a video format or audio, but I’m smiling because it just, it’s, it’s so true to my heart and it’s, yeah, it’s that what makes me every single day do something, do something and, you know, we can talk about my, my agency and you know, I love Amazon and I love truly what I do. But you’re right, it’s like every day is like, what else can I learn now? And what can I do now? And you know, not only to support my own dreams, but you know, as you get older and you, you know, you get the experience more life, you have this, um, you know, burning passion inside of you. Like how can I use what I already have to help others? And I think you are also in that position cuz I’ve seen you over, you know, the past five years.

Izabela (16:41):
You know, you not only we do stuff for our companies, but how can I help more? How can I help more? Which is if you look at it, which is why you became who you are, Rich, I mean, I don’t know one person that doesn’t know you and is because of you helping others, not because of you asking people to use your services. It was through the love that you had for connection. You know, you connected me with my mentor, you connected this person to this person and because of that also who you are and who your work net worth also rose because you are doing exactly what, uh, what do you love?

Rich (17:22):
Yeah, I mean, I feel at my core like I’m here to be of service, you know, and it’s like little tiny ways that manifest itself. Like, you know, I see someone drop something a across the way while walking through the airport. I’ll stop, I’ll pick it up, I’ll chase them down. Like it’s just like, it, it, I don’t even think about it, right? Um, so like, being of service is just kind of, um, at my core, that’s who I am. You know, when it comes to like what I do for a living, I’ve gotta build a business model around it. So like, you know, I, I make money from being of service specifically with regard to IP and I’ve gotta do it in a way that makes sense. And so like, I don’t, you know, I don’t do provide those services for free, right? And like, you know, I don’t do free consultations and people are like, well, don’t you just want to help me? But I have to do it in a way that makes sense because I have about 300 people a month that are like, Hey, I wanna do a patent. Hey, I wanna do a patent. Could we get on a call or whatever. And I just can’t do that. I had to build a business model that makes sense for that. But overarching is that I want to maximize how I could be of service and how I could create value in the world though.

Izabela (18:35):
And I think you’re, you’re doing just that and you know, for those listening, this is definitely something you might wanna write down. And you know, cuz it’s, it’s almost, you know, people use it so much, like follow your passion and money, you know, will come. But it’s, it’s truly true if you think about it because you know, in, in your case you really love connecting people and again, you, you created like a mold around it, right? You created this opportunity around it that you also help people through it that, you know, you help them save on time, save on legal matters down the road. So, um, you know, I don’t think we should be, uh, ashamed in any way of selling our services and sell them for the amount that it definitely makes sense, especially in your case where you have, you know, so many employees and uh, so many expenses around it. So I think, um, you know, you have my vote and everything that you do, it’s, it’s incredible.

Rich (19:28):
Hmm. Thank you <laugh>. You know, one of my favorite ways, um, um, to be of service is to see people like, cuz I feel like to me, like one of my favorite ways that other people can impact me is to see me, right? To get me and they get exactly what’s going on when they, when they really nail me. And they’re like, I saw that you were like, you know, you wanted to to blank and so you, I I saw you stop short right there and you were like, being seen to me is one of the greatest things in life. And like, so one of the ways that I really like to serve other people is to see them mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And a lot of times the way that I like to see people is by bringing up something that like, how did you even remember that? Like someone will, maybe they put out a book under a certain name 10 years ago, and then I’ll like, I’ll work that into a conversation with them, like related to the, the present moment. Like there’s something about like, well that’s kind of like the whatever, I dunno if it’s making much sense, but like, it

Izabela (20:29):
Makes complete sense.

Rich (20:31):
I like having people feel seen and known. Like that’s one of my favorite things. Mm.

Izabela (20:35):
I love that. I mean, we all wanna be seen. So, you know, if you are able to really cultivate that, uh, that skill, I mean that, that again says so much about what you have built. So I can, uh, I can attest to that.

Rich (20:50):
Thank you. Well, we should take at least a couple minutes and talk about what you do professionally, right? With Rank Bell, which is, um, you know, I mean Rank Bell is famous within the Amazon world, uh, for, um, for the results that you’ve achieved for people. I’m just let just talk, let’s indulge me, let’s just talk for a couple minutes about Rank Bell and what and what you do there.

Izabela (21:12):
Oh, thank you so much. It’s always like, I wanna talk about everything else, but, but work sometimes, but, you know, it’s definitely necessary because, um, just like you, you know, I am here to serve and one way that I found that I can serve best people, at least within the Amazon community is, you know, to help them just like you said, be seen and was the best way to be seen if not to show up, you know, on page one of Amazon. And, you know, I started the Rank Bell, uh, about eight, eight years ago or so, and it wasn’t always rang Bell, it was just me. And then he turned into this, uh, beautiful agency that I still run today. But it was born from, you know, one curiosity of, you know, who is Amazon and why are they the biggest baddest platform out there and how can I be part of it?

Izabela (22:01):
And if I’m part of it, uh, what’s the best way for me to, you know, to learn and what’s the best way for me to make an impact within the community? And the one way I found was that, you know, amidst furious large competitions, you know what, what makes one seller stand out is, you know, one obviously having an amazing product that is worth having and is worth raving about. But more than that, you have to have it be seen first before anybody can even try it. So of course, you know, in the beginning, I mean, rein has gone through so many changes. Um, you know, I mean, with Amazon changing rules all the time, you know, faster than Kardashians change their hairstyle, uh, should we say that, um, you know, I had to stay with the times and I always had to almost like predict these kind of changes looking into the future.

Izabela (22:53):
Luckily for me, I’ve been in the space for a long time that, you know, not, not that I’m like some future forcer, but you know, if you just look at what Amazon does, you can kind of tell when the changes are coming. And you know, uh, the latest change that we’ve seen, at least in my domain and in what I do is ranking. So in 2021, um, close to the end of the year, Amazon decided that search find buy was no longer allowed. And, you know, that came kind of a surprise for a lot of sellers because, you know, that was maybe the only way that they were bringing the ranking up. And, you know, most sellers leads, the ones that I work with, they wanna stay within, um, you know, the t o s they don’t want to do anything that will get them, um, kicked off the platform.

Izabela (23:42):
So, you know, when you take in consideration all the requests, uh, from your clients, that you wanna make sure that you follow everything correctly. So one way that we found out that works, that does not upset Amazon, because what, what we realize is that Amazon does not just wanna punish us. They just wanna make sure that everybody gets a fair chance. So of course when you send, you know, hundreds of hundreds of people to search for a keyword, it will bring visibility up, but it’s not fair for the rest of the competition. And I completely understand that. So looking at that, we, we decided to come up with a completely different way of, of ranking a product, but in such a way that again, it’s allowed by Amazon. And we came up with a full product analysis. So when a seller comes to us, uh, first of what we do, we identify their customer avatar.

Izabela (24:34):
And by the way, for those who don’t know how to do that, just email me. I’ll tell you my email at the end, and um, I have a free pdf f I’ll send it to you. No problem. This way you have something to start with. But you identified the, the avatar, who is the person that’s going to purchase these products? And once you’ve identified that, then you can actually go out into the world and basically get some of these shoppers to come and do a full audit of your product, of your listing, of your reviews and everything that has to do with your product. But again, you are asking the right people. So when you do that, it’s almost as if you’re now your product is exposed to who your future shopper will be. And if they’re able to tell you raw, straight up exactly what is lacking with your product or what’s working well, then you are eliminating a lot of the problems that you’re going to encounter in the future.

Izabela (25:32):
So most of our clients that are using the service is obviously clients that have sellers that have been on the platform for a few years, but this service also works for brand new sellers that don’t even know if their product is going to do well on the platform or not. So what do I mean by this? You’re able to, even before spending tens of thousands of dollars on a product, you can actually get feedback from a shopper before you even list your product. You can get a, a sizable audience and say, Hey, what do you think of this product? And you might be surprised in finding out what are some things that most people don’t even like about the existing products that are out there because it’s kind of hard right now to just go on Amazon and look at the one star review and five star reviews because they don’t have that much content around it.

Izabela (26:24):
You know, just by somebody telling you your product sucks or your product is fantastic, doesn’t leave room for much. So with our service, you’re able to really get in depth with what you can do with your product. And a lot of our clients also use the service for future products. So, you know, a brand that already has, let’s say five products and they’re running out of ideas, then they can ask their avatar, Hey, what are some other products that you would like to see from our brand that’s going to improve your life? And then they’ll give you ideas. I mean, may, maybe not all of them are good, but if you get a hundred to 300 people telling you all kind of the same things, maybe that’s a good sign that you should start a product like that. And then again, you’re able to create a product based on what shoppers want, not based on, you know, what you learned in a course or what somebody said and who said this,

Rich (27:21):
What your hunch is. Like, I think this is what they want, but instead you’re getting your customers to actually design the product exactly as they want it and you are also getting them to suggest possibly new products that you ought to be offering.

Izabela (27:36):
Exactly. It really takes the gassing, um, out of the game. And you know, and Amazon supports this and they support this because they want you to have a great relationship with your customer because the better relationship with your customers, the more sales you have on Amazon, the more people stay on Amazon and they don’t have to go to sites such as Walmart or, you know, go through your site directly. They, they wanna keep you there. So, um, you know, I always like to look at this relationship between Amazon and, um, Amazon, Amazon sellers as a really friendly relationship. I mean, you can look at it the way you want to, but instead of saying, oh, they’re punishing me by removing search, find, buy, well, maybe they kinda did you a favor because you know, as much as I love search, find buy and how fast it, it, it got your ranking up, it didn’t really leave you with much at the end, right?

Izabela (28:26):
You would, you would raise and rank, but then you would fall back down. But now the way we do it, you are still able to, to kind of write the algorithm in a way if you are doing it in such a way that gives you all this product feedback, this audit, it also boosts the visibility up. So now you have a product that’s on page one, but also you have all this amazing data that will allow you to stay on page one for as long as you want, as long as you keep improving, keep asking feedback. And you know, for those listening, I don’t want you to think that this feedback is actually reviews on Amazon because that’s, you know, that’s not something that we condone, but, you know, take that data and, you know, update your listing in such a way that it says those specific words that the shopper told you. And there’s just so many more ways to do this.

Rich (29:18):
That’s awesome. I love it. And thank you for telling us about that and about what you do. Uh, and uh, if people wanna learn more about you or get in touch with you, how do they go about doing? So,

Izabela (29:30):
Uh, you can go to rankbell.com, that’s Rankbell.com or you just look for me on Facebook. Izabela Hamilton, same with uh, LinkedIn. Um, I am taking a little break from Instagram right now cuz I’m doing this like whole social experiment. Um, I haven’t been on it for three months. Uh, but you know, when I do come back, I, I plan on giving a little bit more of an explanation and my findings of why I quit and what I found in the meantime. So, uh, if you wanna follow me at that point on Instagram is Bella, b e b e l a, dot Iza, b e l a,

Rich (30:08):
Right? Because it’s Izabela with a z and one L.

Izabela (30:12):
Exactly. See you, you remember? Thank you Uhhuh.

Rich (30:16):
I do. So Izabela, thank you so much for, um, being on the show. Thank you so much for bringing your fabulousness here as always. And um, and uh, yeah, hope to see you soon.

Izabela (30:30):
I will see you I am sure at the next event and I know it’s going to be a party <laugh>.

Rich (30:35):
Oh, absolutely will be. Thank you.

Izabela (30:38):
Thank you.

Outro (30:43):
Thanks for listening to Innovations and Breakthroughs with your host Rich Goldstein. Be sure to click subscribe, check us out on the web at innovationsandbreakthroughs.com and we’ll see you next time.