What 500 Ecommerce Conversations Taught Me About Business — Claus Lauter | What Kills Online Stores, What To Research Before Launching, How AI And Humans Split Jobs, How Remote Founders Work, How The Podcast Grew Into Media (#500)

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00:00:00:16 - 00:00:24:20
Claus Lauter
This episode is sponsored by Bizrate Insights. Star ratings tell you how customers feel. Bizrate Insights reveals what’s driving those ratings, helping ecommerce brands create smoother shopping journeys, inspire confident purchases, and build lasting loyalty. Turn verified shopper feedback into clear priorities and better customer experiences. Learn more at bizrateinsights.com/coffee. So I have asked Claude to be my interview host.

00:00:24:20 - 00:00:40:11
Claus Lauter
I would have never thought that this would happen if you had to name the single most common mistake you hear e-commerce founders make. What is it and why does that keep showing up?

00:00:40:13 - 00:01:02:23
Claus Lauter
Hello and welcome to another episode of the E-commerce Coffee Break podcast. Today we have a very special episode. It's episode 500. And there's no guest is just me. So something to celebrate. I would have never thought in my wildest dreams that this show will have 500 episodes. In fact, there's a few more, but the official number is 500, and I'm super proud to make it that far again.

00:01:03:00 - 00:01:26:18
Claus Lauter
I never thought that will ever happened, but this is thanks to my incredible guests. Over the last five and a half years we have posted means me and my team 1 to 2 episode continuously every week in all of that time. So definitely something to celebrate there. Now, I don't want to bore you with celebrations and KPIs and numbers and what we have achieved and so on and so forth.

00:01:26:19 - 00:01:46:21
Claus Lauter
Rather, I want to be a guest on my own show. So I have asked Claude to be my interview host and come up with a couple of questions that I myself can ask myself, sort of, kind of, if that makes any sense. So I found the questions actually quite good that came up. And we will go through it.

00:01:46:21 - 00:02:06:22
Claus Lauter
And there's like three levels to it. First of all, talking about the origin, then talking a little bit on what is happening in e-commerce. And then also I will talk a little bit about my location independent lifestyle and my way about and how it is to be a location independent founder and business owner. And maybe there's something in it for you.

00:02:06:22 - 00:02:30:15
Claus Lauter
So let's start from the first question going onward. So the first question Claude asked me is you have recorded 500 episodes of the show. Take me back to episode number one. What problem were you actually trying to solve? And did you have any idea it would would turn into a media business? That's actually a funny one, because I started this podcast with a complete different idea in mind.

00:02:30:16 - 00:02:59:12
Claus Lauter
Back in the time I was an active Shopify seller myself. So I still had my store, still was selling every day with everything that's involved with having a online retail business, and also was doing some coaching and consulting for other business aside in the range of e-commerce. Now, this happened in the middle of the pandemic, and I thought a podcast might be a good marketing channel to get the word out there that I do coaching on consulting and maybe find some more coaching clients.

00:02:59:12 - 00:03:20:13
Claus Lauter
So that was the original idea, and I was just sharing basically what was happening in my own Shopify business, in marketing, in fulfillment, in sourcing, you name it. You know, if you're an e-commerce business, you know what your day to day life looks like. Mine was the same. Now the podcast got a little bit on his own life.

00:03:20:16 - 00:03:49:03
Claus Lauter
The first, I don't know, 100 episodes, 200 episodes. If I listened back to them, I cringe. It's yeah, how bad I was. So you get better over time and I'm still far from perfect, but definitely right in the beginning it was bad anyway. So after a number of solo episodes, I took guests on board and that's where at some point things clicked together for me.

00:03:49:05 - 00:04:21:16
Claus Lauter
So podcasting, specifically interviewing guests about interesting topics is right up my alley. I'm a marketing guy, I'm a communication guy, and I thought podcasting is actually not too bad. And about 100 120 episodes in, I thought to myself, can you make a business out of a podcast now, as you maybe no podcasting, I would reckon that 98%, 99% of all podcasts out there in the world, and we're talking about 5 to 6 million podcasts right now, are not making any money.

00:04:21:16 - 00:04:52:02
Claus Lauter
So there was basically no role model for me that I could just look at and copy. I had to basically come up with a plan myself, and the plan to monetize a podcast took quite a long time to figure it out. Again, there was nothing that I could copy was trial and error. And here we are. The podcast has become a full media business, which is not only the podcast, it's the newsletter, it's social media and a lot of other things around that that run a media business.

00:04:52:02 - 00:05:33:22
Claus Lauter
And I would have never thought that this would happen, specifically knowing that I did not know what I was doing. And that took a long time. The real idea of what I'm doing, it took years to figure out looking backwards is like, oh, that's what I'm doing. I'm building a media business. So luckily enough, podcasts. And that's not because of me, that's because of the market itself have involved, are seen as a legitimate marketing channel out there where businesses assign marketing budgets specifically for podcasts, for podcast interviews, for advertising, on podcasts.

00:05:34:00 - 00:05:56:16
Claus Lauter
Again, nothing that I did influence, but obviously this place into my business that I have right now, five years ago, that would not have been possible, but I just kept going and interesting enough, things fall together. So that's the original story about how the e-commerce coffee break started and where it is now. This episode is sponsored by Bizrate Insights.

00:05:56:17 - 00:06:18:17
Claus Lauter
Your analytics can show you what shoppers do, but verified feedback reveals why BizRate Insights helps e-commerce brands understand the full customer journey from discovery and checkout through post-purchase and fulfillment so teams can create smoother experiences, drive more purchases, and strengthen customer loyalty. Move beyond just star ratings, and uncover the insights that show you where to focus next.

00:06:18:18 - 00:06:48:04
Claus Lauter
Turn shopper feedback into clear, practical action at BizRate Insights.com/coffee. Now let's go to the next question. If you had to name the single most common mistake you hear e-commerce founders make, what is it and why does that keep showing up? Now from my perspective, and this is just my opinion, you might have a different opinion. I think one of the biggest mistakes that people do is that they do not know who they are actually customer, their buyer is.

00:06:48:04 - 00:07:13:06
Claus Lauter
I see that quite often, specifically with new founders, new brands, they have a rough idea, but they actually don't know. They don't have any data based, driven decisions yet. They're not focusing on it too much. They are too scared to ask their first customers to reach out to them, to pick up the phone and to talk to your customers of what made them by, and what's the person.

00:07:13:07 - 00:07:35:02
Claus Lauter
They always talk about the perfect audience or about the ICP ideal customer profile, but a lot of them actually do not know. So they just think, I have a product, I put it out in the world and somebody will buy it. And that usually does not happen because there's many more things that go into it. You need to talk the lingo of your customer.

00:07:35:06 - 00:08:06:23
Claus Lauter
You need to have an understanding what problem you're solving. You need to have a visual picture in front of you of who is buying from you. Once you have this, all your marketing, all your communication, all your copy, all your artwork is focusing on this particular one person or group of people that you're selling to. And I think that's the biggest problem where a lot of specifically startups in e-commerce and sometimes even established companies completely miss on and have a problem with.

00:08:07:00 - 00:08:30:10
Claus Lauter
And it's a very common problem that they don't know to whom they solve. So they either try to sell anything to everyone like Walmart that's a difficult one, or they try to sell to a group of people and have no clear picture who that is. So that's definitely something I see a lot. And another thing that I probably would say is that they are chasing new channels.

00:08:30:10 - 00:09:02:02
Claus Lauter
No tactics, no strategies all the time without fixing the fundamentals. So basically you offer your copy, your margin, your retention, fix these things first and then go to the next one. Next question what's the topic guests are obsessed with two years ago that almost nobody brings up anymore, and what replaced it? It's a good one. So I think two years ago there was a huge drive in regards of promoting retention marketing.

00:09:02:02 - 00:09:24:19
Claus Lauter
Now, not saying that retention marketing has gone away. It's part of every marketing strategy and you should really focus on that. But it's not a topic that comes up that often. It's a given fact that you need to do retention marketing, but there's not so much focus on it now. What replaced it? Obviously in the last three years, you can imagine it's AI.

00:09:24:22 - 00:09:53:16
Claus Lauter
AI is everywhere. I don't think I had any interview in the last two years where AI in one shape and form or another shape and form was involved either complete AI solutions for ecommerce sellers or AI as a part of a solution, or even a service. So AI, yeah, definitely the thing to go. Next question. After talking to this many founders, what is the most common reason people don't succeed?

00:09:53:18 - 00:10:26:00
Claus Lauter
I don't say lack of money. Thanks, Claude. Yeah, I think there's a couple of things to it. So first of all, I think there is quite a lack of focus often there, specifically with solo founders, small teams, and they have obviously a lot of things on their plate, but their focus should be on really building systems and create a sort of a repeatable process they can use to save them time and not to make the same mistake over and over again.

00:10:26:01 - 00:10:55:19
Claus Lauter
I think that's the main driving force behind a successful business is focus. Focus on the one thing, and that might vary from employee or founder to founder, but focus on the thing that you're good in and then create systems around it. And then these systems will help you to outsource. The other thing I think is inconsistency, and I think that helps a or this applies to a lot of status in e-commerce.

00:10:55:19 - 00:11:18:12
Claus Lauter
People who just want to start a brand or a online store is that is a side hustle, and they think they can work on it on and off over the week and when they're in the mood to or whatever. Now that might this might be a little bit of a left over from the golden years seven, eight, nine, ten years ago when Shopify came up, dropshipping came up.

00:11:18:12 - 00:11:44:03
Claus Lauter
All these new things came up. Now, if you want to build our online retail business, no matter what platform it is, take talk Shop, WooCommerce, eBay, Amazon, Shopify, all of them. You need to be consistent. You need to treat this as a real business you want to build. If you have never built a business, then go out and talk to people who have built businesses.

00:11:44:04 - 00:12:06:09
Claus Lauter
Might be a completely different industry or vertical or niche, but talk to people who are who run businesses, because a lot of things that you need to know and you need to implement when you start a e-commerce business, apply to other businesses as well. So that might be sourcing, that might be accounting, bookkeeping might be service support, all of these things.

00:12:06:10 - 00:12:27:08
Claus Lauter
Pretty much you have this in every business, but you need to talk to people who have done it. If you haven't done it yet, because the learning curve is very, very steep. And specifically in e-commerce when it comes to paid traffic and other expensive, you will burn money very, very quickly. And this sometimes kills businesses before they become a business.

00:12:27:10 - 00:12:48:13
Claus Lauter
Another common thing that people don't succeed with or don't focus on, is they try to do everything for too long, and I'm a victim of that myself. And so even if I have the credo that I live by is learn the process, do it yourself for a while, and then outsource it and give it to someone who's better than you.

00:12:48:13 - 00:13:10:00
Claus Lauter
So easier said than done. Again, wake them myself on this one, but you learn over time and you want to focus on the things you're good in. And the other things probably are things that you don't like anyway and are part of the business. And somebody else loves them and is better than you. And then the last thing is confusing.

00:13:10:00 - 00:13:34:14
Claus Lauter
Being busy was being productive. I think that's a big problem that a lot of people out there have. They are one of printers. They want to be an entrepreneur or a business owner, and they do a lot of busy tasks. So it makes them look busy more for themselves than for anyone else. But these things often do not have any impact on the business success.

00:13:34:14 - 00:13:59:09
Claus Lauter
So that's something where you need to get your priorities right and focus on the things that make you money first, and then do the rest of outsource the things that don't make you money directly. That's what I do. Okay. Next question. Everyone on the show talks about AI as a great equal equalizer for small sellers. When do you think AI and e-commerce is currently overhyped?

00:13:59:14 - 00:14:25:00
Claus Lauter
Thanks, Claude. That's a good question. So I think AI is one of the greatest inventions that we ever came to in mankind, and we are just scratching the surface. So as scary or exciting AI is when it comes to e-commerce, I think a lot of things are overhyped. As I saw it in the last more than 25 years.

00:14:25:00 - 00:14:44:23
Claus Lauter
I saw trends and technologies coming and going. I saw people and brands coming and going. So that's the advantage of being a little bit older and in the business for a long time. You get a bit of a different perspective. Sometimes you can just take a step back and compare with things that you have seen in the past and how they involved.

00:14:45:00 - 00:15:16:01
Claus Lauter
So I think AI in a lot of aspects right now is overhyped, is overheated, is to a certain degree a bubble and will level down at some point. Now, a lot of AI companies that are out there that are serving e-commerce sellers or businesses in general, have a good approach on how to use AI to make your life easier, to be more productive, more creative, and so on and so forth.

00:15:16:04 - 00:15:44:09
Claus Lauter
Unfortunately, a lot of them are based on a large language model that's not their own IP intellectual property. So they are basically running on thin ice in moment when ChatGPT OpenAI clawed, I don't know, Gemini, Google decide that you will not have longer access to their data pool. Your business vanishes and with that, the client of your business will vanish.

00:15:44:09 - 00:16:20:19
Claus Lauter
So basically saying is like they build their business on someone else's land, which is always risky. So whenever you work with AI company, then make sure that you do your homework and try to find out if the solutions really contribute to what you do and what you want to achieve, and not just fall for the latest AI grace, it might backfire that you buy something that probably could be solved in another way or in a more sustainable way.

00:16:20:19 - 00:16:49:12
Claus Lauter
So that's that's my my opinion on AI, overhyped or not. Next question. Claude's asking me. You have watched hundreds of AI and human hybrid pitches accounting, PPC, customer service. What's your honest read on which jobs in e-commerce operation actually get replaced first versus which ones? Just get a copilot. That's a good one. I think that a lot of jobs will change.

00:16:49:13 - 00:17:14:11
Claus Lauter
I won't say necessarily all jobs will disappear. So it might be also the volume of what jobs will be needed for. So let's go for support, for instance support. In the past, if you have a business, you probably would have outsourced that to a country like the Philippines or so, where you find high quality employees and they would have taken over your support.

00:17:14:11 - 00:17:45:02
Claus Lauter
I have done this for years. I had very good experience, but nowadays I reckon with AI you can answer the recurring questions that are coming in very easily with AI, without the help of a person sitting there and typing an email or copying and pasting a email template. So that's something definitely AI will kill a lot of jobs, but there is a certain percentage when it comes to customer support where you will need people.

00:17:45:04 - 00:18:21:20
Claus Lauter
People who answer more complicated problems or if something I don't know has has an increased speed or I don't know, needs just more attention, or is just out of the ordinary, where AI at this point cannot provide a solution or provide a human voice that convinces a person to buy from you? As you know, in life, sometimes it's better to talk to a real person, and we know that, for instance, bank and insurance companies, they have this fully automated telephone systems for 20 years and everyone hates them.

00:18:21:22 - 00:18:42:14
Claus Lauter
Stay in the loop procedure, blah, blah, blah. And you just want to talk to a person. And I think that's where AI will take a part in the journey, and where a human is still in the loop to take over. And the same goes for other things, even for accounting. I'm sure that a lot of things can be automated in accounting.

00:18:42:16 - 00:19:06:21
Claus Lauter
But then there is the part which comes to experience and how to bring your business to the next level, and what kind of accounting structure or business structure you would need. And that's where a accountant, a CPA with a lot of business experience comes into play. To look explicitly into your business and give you advice that 100% only fits your business.

00:19:07:00 - 00:19:34:06
Claus Lauter
So again, there I see a human hybrid AI approach there. And we will see, I think AI at this point, a lot of people are already getting tired of that. Everything is AI labeled and AI will take over everything. And that has nothing to do with being scared. It's just marketing guys like me who are just over hyping it and labeling everything AI.

00:19:34:11 - 00:20:05:22
Claus Lauter
And I see us coming full 360 and bringing the human back into the loop, if that makes sense. Next question from Claude to me. Where have you actually put AI to work inside your own operation, and where are you still doing it? By hand on purpose? That's a good question. So I have used AI or started using AI basically from the day one, three and a half years ago when GPT came out and still was very, very wobbly.

00:20:06:00 - 00:20:32:14
Claus Lauter
Now, I must honestly say that the e-commerce coffee break as a media business in the B2B space is only where it is now. With the help of AI. I wouldn't have made it this big without AI specifically, as my business is on purpose built as a solo business, which means I have some freelancers around me and people that I hire on a on a task basis.

00:20:32:14 - 00:21:02:05
Claus Lauter
But in the core, it's a one man show. And with the workload and with the growing business, AI has taken over a lot of things. I'll give you an example. So we are using Riverside Tool for recording our podcasts, and Riverside has added over time a lot of amazing AI features. Still, I do have a audio and video editor, which I love, and she's doing a great job and polishing and doing a lot of things.

00:21:02:05 - 00:21:36:00
Claus Lauter
And so here we have this AI human hybrid situation where the tool could probably do everything, but I just want to have a human making it better and checking and squeezing the most of what AI provides to us when it comes to, for instance, for the newsletter. The newsletter I write myself in the most part, but I use AI to proofread to optimize the copy just to make it smoother to read, easier to read all of these things.

00:21:36:00 - 00:22:03:19
Claus Lauter
I use AI to research news articles and so on and so forth. So there's a little a lot of agents around me that help me find the right content into my direction. But the newsletter itself is still written by me, so and this will not change. I will continue to do so because I think, I hope that I should have a look at it, because I think people who read my newsletter are humans and they should get something from a human.

00:22:03:21 - 00:22:37:11
Claus Lauter
So then it comes to accounting, for instance, that we use a system that's connected to a accounting online accounting system and so on and so forth. So yes, I'm using AI a lot in my business. Again, I wouldn't have grown the e-commerce coffee break to the level that it is now without AI. But I'm old school and there are still a lot of things that I do by hand on purpose, and there might be some things that I should outsource, and maybe I will, but for now, there's a lot of manual work still.

00:22:37:13 - 00:22:59:19
Claus Lauter
Next question Claude is asking me. Klaus, you spent 25 years building online businesses. If I gave you a blank Shopify store today and told you to make it profitable, what would you do first and what would you absolutely not do? So first thing I would do is product research and audience research. And I would do this to the point.

00:22:59:21 - 00:23:23:05
Claus Lauter
So you need what is called a product market patch. So and I think a lot of people see a product and then just put it out there without knowing the audience or the other way around. And they see an audience, and then they just try to find a product come from the perspective of, you want to solve a problem for a person.

00:23:23:07 - 00:23:49:12
Claus Lauter
I would spend a lot of time in there. When I started to buy shop, I didn't have that. And then over time, after like two years into into the store, a problem that people were looking for a solution for sort of came out. And then I focused completely on this, and this changed my online store massively. The whole direction of the store changed, the revenue went through the roof and so on and so forth.

00:23:49:12 - 00:24:14:08
Claus Lauter
So if I would do it nowadays, I would start with doing a lot of research before I even would touch a Shopify template or open any kind of account. A lot of research there, get as much data as you can get. Do a market research on competitors and so on and so forth. So that's where I would spend potentially, I don't know, weeks and months on properties a couple of weeks.

00:24:14:08 - 00:24:48:19
Claus Lauter
And to create a sort of old fashioned business plan with all the risks of beauty that you can have and really figure out is, okay, how do I want to approach this? How do I want to build this as a business? At the end of the day, things change always along the way. Normally, a business plan that you write in advance never turns out in real life, but it should give you a good indication and it's a good exercise to prove yourself.

00:24:48:21 - 00:25:17:08
Claus Lauter
If you're built to be a founder, a store owner doing online retail. If you consider or think about all the things that are involved. If you think, think about your own time. If you think about your marketing or your budget overall, that you have to invest into this new business. So yeah, start with finding a solution. Start with doing the homework before you even open a online store.

00:25:17:10 - 00:25:43:01
Claus Lauter
That's my take on that one. So next question. What's a gross tactic you tried that completely flopped the kind of thing that looked smart on paper. It just didn't work. So thanks a lot on that one. Yeah, I did definitely. So back in the time 25 years ago, SEO was like the solution for everything. And I was big into search engine optimization.

00:25:43:02 - 00:26:08:02
Claus Lauter
That doesn't work anymore to a certain degree. Now it's AA and Geo and SEO still to a certain degree. But over the years SEO is a midterm long term strategy. So and I have met a lot on spoken to a lot of e-commerce founders, online sellers. We said, I don't have marketing for Facebook ads. I don't have a budget for Google Ads.

00:26:08:04 - 00:26:37:23
Claus Lauter
I would just do SEO and optimize my page and then the traffic will come. Bad news for you. That's not happening. That can happen over time eventually. And it's like going viral. You don't have any control over it. And as Google is changing massively, so the search results page with your ten links long gone, it's zero clicks. Now you get your AI summaries and people do not scroll down and do not put click on links anymore.

00:26:38:00 - 00:27:12:20
Claus Lauter
So if you think you can start an online store and do some C.O. optimization and you will get the traffic, that's not happening. So I tried SEO in the beginning of my podcast and yeah, not working. I get generic traffic in, but I'm not focusing my time on search engine optimization. I do a few very things that are standard, but sitting down over optimizing and all of these things, that's definitely not not working anymore.

00:27:12:22 - 00:27:48:09
Claus Lauter
Next question. You build e-commerce coffee break as a one person handling the podcast, the newsletter, the tech and the monetization. What was the first task you finally handed off and how did you know that it was time? This brings me back to my audio and video editor. So I did the first probably 100 episodes. I edited them myself, and I'm not a audio and video editor, and I hope I did a half decent job, but I'm sure compared to a professional, which my editor is, I did a very crappy job.

00:27:48:10 - 00:28:10:05
Claus Lauter
And also it's very time consuming. And five and a half years ago there were no AI tools, so it was completely manual and every episode would cost me anything between 2 to 3 hours of my time. Just get the filler words out and just to polish it, and then up to a level that obviously was a papa. So this was the thing.

00:28:10:05 - 00:28:41:02
Claus Lauter
The first thing that I outsourced was the editing and the auditing and the polishing of the video and audio episodes of the podcast. Next question. Before we come slowly to the end of this episode, you've worked across the United States, Germany, South Africa and Singapore and built businesses while living a very mobile life is a business that gives you freedom actually realistic or is that mostly internet fantasy?

00:28:41:04 - 00:29:03:09
Claus Lauter
So this is a very subjective. And that this is this is what I do. And this will probably not fit a lot of people out there. But I know a lot of people who have the dream of traveling the world and working location independent. And I'm doing this for a very long time. I have founded businesses in the US, in Germany, in South Africa, in Singapore.

00:29:03:10 - 00:29:28:00
Claus Lauter
My current business, the E-commerce coffee Break, is based in Singapore. I have traveled extensively. I have lived on four continents in six countries. Right now I'm in Bangkok, Thailand and will leave soon, going back to South America and have spent time in 80 countries. And I worked from all of these. Sounds like the dream, but I hear this a lot.

00:29:28:01 - 00:29:56:11
Claus Lauter
You living the dream. It's just a different lifestyle and it's not for everyone out there. I'm meeting digital nomads, remote workers, basically on a daily, on a daily level. But some do this for a year, some do this in as a working holiday visa or something like this. I'm traveling now. Say what? I call myself a slow nomad because I tend to stay by now longer into places.

00:29:56:11 - 00:30:17:12
Claus Lauter
I'm doing this for almost ten years now, and before that I have traveled a lot. But I'm sort of don't have an apartment with the name on the door for the last ten years. So I'm living out of short term rentals of Airbnbs and so on and so forth. And my stuff that I own, I can carry everything at the same point in time.

00:30:17:12 - 00:30:46:15
Claus Lauter
So I, I'm a minimalist. I love the minimalist lifestyle. I love being able to decide on a on a side note to to go somewhere else and try try it out, but that's completely me. And this kind of lifestyle, this freedom and location has a lot of downsides. So that's why I would not recommend this to everyone. It has its benefits and you see a lot, but there's a lot of disadvantages to.

00:30:46:16 - 00:31:12:22
Claus Lauter
So when it comes to a business, freedom of a location does not mean that I'm working from the beach. I still have the full ownership of my operations, from outreach to negotiations to recordings to marketing, to sales, to bookkeeping, to banking. Everything you need in a business as a solo producer. I have to do on a daily basis, and I haven't taken a day off in more than 500 days.

00:31:12:23 - 00:31:37:18
Claus Lauter
I don't want to brag about this, because it's nothing to brag about to work every day for one and a half years, but that's just what it is. If you have a solo business that is growing, that is scaling. And so yes, I'm in different places, but my life, my day to day life pretty much looks the same when I'm sitting in front of my computer and working from a co-working space or whatever.

00:31:37:18 - 00:32:08:07
Claus Lauter
And when I close the computer, eventually at some point during the day or go outside, then I quite often have this effect. It's like, oh, I am in Bangkok. Well that's true, I could have been in Medellin or Buenos Aires, or Cape Town or Cyprus or any of the other places where I lived longer. So. So basically working remotely, it's freedom on location, but it's not freedom in not working.

00:32:08:09 - 00:32:31:03
Claus Lauter
So I have a founder workload. If you're more office person and your value your family and your free time, then probably a remote office job would be better suited for you. Also, just touching on the negative things, I have to constantly deal with visa issues. Finding a new visa. How long can I stay in a country without overstaying?

00:32:31:05 - 00:32:53:08
Claus Lauter
I need to make sure that my banking works internationally. I have to buy SIM cards all the time. I have to figure out stuff all the time with every country that I arrive at over time, you get street smart and it becomes sort of repetitive, but it's always some couple of days, specifically when you arrive, that you need to have a lot of administration for yourself to get your life up and running.

00:32:53:08 - 00:33:23:02
Claus Lauter
And also, this can be stressful and this is not for everyone. Second to last question here of everyone you could still get on the show. Who's the one guest you haven't landed yet and why does it bug you? I would love to have someone from Shopify directly from Shopify on the store. Now they have a company policy that employees of Shopify are not allowed without the consent of their company to talk on external podcasts.

00:33:23:03 - 00:33:49:17
Claus Lauter
Now, Shopify, they have their own podcast, which is also a good podcast, but I would love to have someone from Shopify on my show. So if you know one at Shopify or even someone from the highest management over there, I, the founder is a German like me, so you never know. I would love to have someone from Shopify on this show and giving me inside of what we can expect going forward into the future, so has not happened.

00:33:49:19 - 00:34:19:09
Claus Lauter
A lot of them, they just they would love to come on the show, but they just can't because of the internal policies of Shopify. Now, last question what does success for ecommerce coffee Break look like a year from now? Not in downloads or subscribers, but what it lets you do with your time and your life? Now that's what I'm working towards to, I said I haven't taken a day off in a very long time and I love what I do, otherwise I wouldn't be still here and doing this.

00:34:19:11 - 00:34:45:20
Claus Lauter
But I want to come to a point where I have outsourced more, where I have more free time for myself and can take up other interests time wise, a little bit more than I can do now. So the show is growing. It is a solid business and has established itself in the top Shopify or e-commerce podcasts globally. Same for the newsletter.

00:34:45:22 - 00:35:12:11
Claus Lauter
Also growing. Also very established newsletter. So I'm happy when it comes to the numbers, to downloads and everything. This from here on is only growing. I want to sort of outsource more things, delegate more things, and I'm particularly bad in delegating and then just get some more time for myself and maybe find a place for a home base, a long, long stay home base and maybe get a dog again.

00:35:12:12 - 00:35:31:10
Claus Lauter
I don't know, definitely do some motorcycle trips. We'll see. So that's it from my side. 35 minutes of hopefully not a ramble cast. I hope there was something in for you in this 500th episode of the e-commerce coffee break. Thanks again. Who stayed for me? Who came on board? Who? I'm sure not everyone is listening to every episode.

00:35:31:11 - 00:35:53:20
Claus Lauter
Who is coming back once to learn all of this is only happening because of the great guests that I have. I have some very great episodes and partners lined up for the rest of the year, and I'm looking forward to talk all these interesting people, because one thing that keeps me driving is I'm learning with every interview. I'm learning something new.

00:35:53:22 - 00:36:11:00
Claus Lauter
I got to meet interesting people and I'm looking forward to meet more of this. That's it for now. Thanks so much for listening. And if you have any questions, then always reach out to me. You'll find me on all my socials and I read all the messages myself, so feel free to reach out and hope to talk soon.

00:36:11:00 - 00:36:17:08
Claus Lauter
Have a good one and see you in the next episode!

00:36:17:10 - 00:36:35:04
Claus Lauter
And this episode was sponsored by BizRate Insights. Every customer journey has opportunities to improve. BizRate Insights, turns verify chopper feedback into clear priorities, helping e-commerce brands make smarter decisions, strengthen customer relationships, and help customers coming back. Learn more at BizRateInsights.com/coffee.