George: Hello to everyone listening today. We have a very, very special guest—Bradley. He’s been in this space for some time. If you don’t know who Bradley is and you’re in e-commerce, especially Amazon, you’ve probably been under a rock. He’s been dropping gem after gem at online events—strategies to grow brands. Bradley, it’s a pleasure and an honor to have you. Thanks for joining us.
Bradley: Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here.
George: I want to do something different—people usually see you sharing hacks and how to make best use of tools. I want to talk about your history. When did you first get into e-commerce?
Bradley: About 25 years ago—around the first Fast & Furious movie. I had a Hyundai, and back then hardly anyone had parts for Korean cars in the U.S. I found a Korean site selling parts. I’ve always been entrepreneurial, so I contacted the owner and said, “Let me open a U.S. warehouse, handle CS and shipping—ship containers to me.” That became sharkracing.com. I haven’t been involved for ~20 years, but it’s still around. That was my first e-commerce play.
George: And your first sniff of Amazon?
Bradley: Mid-2010s. I’d worked with Korean companies for years; one group started selling phone cases on Amazon—thousands a day back then. I didn’t know the inner workings, but I handled the U.S. entity, warehouse, FBM—shipping 500–800 phone cases a day myself and sending to FBA. When we split, I got curious how they came out of nowhere and sold so much. I started going to conferences and learning.
George: While learning, were you doing anything else?
Bradley: It was fast. I went to a 2016 conference—ZSquad Live in Chicago. I was so broke I chose a rental car over a hotel and slept in the car. It blew my mind. I spent a month learning everything I could. Instead of selling my own stuff, I immediately started consulting—first for my ex-partners (turns out they’d lucked into sales), then for others.
George: What made you love this space enough to keep producing content for so long?
Bradley: The “science” of it. I like predictable systems. I got obsessed with launches: visibility, page-one, stickiness. I reverse-engineered what worked, chased the algorithm changes. That puzzle still gets me going.
George: Biggest Amazon change that forced everyone to shift?
Bradley: Two. For me: when search-find-buy and 2-step URLs were nixed. I’d launched hundreds of products with services like ZonBlast/SixLeaf; overnight, that playbook changed. The other: incentivized reviews—Amazon used to allow them with a badge; then one night it was gone, and lots of people’s launch strategies evaporated.
George: Feels like review enforcement keeps getting stricter.
Bradley: Yep. Amazon hates bad press; they’re consistently strict on reviews. I’ve seen them link friend groups who bought and reviewed from a WhatsApp chat and slap bans. They’ll go deep on connections.
George: How did you connect with Helium 10?
Bradley: I wasn’t using H10 at first. A keyword tracker I used broke; someone suggested H10 around 2017. I also hate misinformation, so I’d jump into their FB group with long rebuttals and screenshots. The founders noticed and invited me to the office (I didn’t realize it was a job interview). I initially resisted the commute, but they persisted—and I’m glad they did.
George: For people new to Helium 10, top three ways to use it to propel Amazon results?
Bradley: H10 is all-in-one—you basically don’t need other Amazon tools. Our keyword research is what we’re most known for—quality and depth from unique data sources (Brand Analytics, Search Query data, long-term rank history, Amazon-sourced relevancy signals). That yields more high-value, sales-driving keywords than others. Start with that foundation—everything else (listing, ads) builds on it.
George: If I’m an existing seller but new to H10, where do I start for fastest wins?
Bradley:
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Cerebro: analyze your ASIN + top competitors to pull true opportunity keywords.
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Black Box (Brand Analytics mode): surface high-intent terms and competitive gaps.
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Listing Builder: load your keyword set and structure copy the way Amazon actually reads it; check indexing/phrase coverage. Amazon may eventually index you via behavior, but don’t wait months—capitalize now. You’ll likely find 10–15 missed keywords that move sales immediately.
George: What common issues are sellers facing right now?
Bradley: Distraction by shiny objects. Example: everyone’s obsessing over Rufus while they’ve never opened Search Query Performance. Rufus can be useful (I’ve optimized listings to answer Rufus questions and saw near-instant indexing), but there’s a hierarchy: nail SQP, Brand Analytics, ad search term data first. Second: AI misuse. AI is great, but if you use it without feeding real data (H10/Cerebro outputs, SQP, APOE), you’re getting plausible guesses, not truth. Use AI to speed work—powered by real data.
George: SQP API access just opened—how’s Helium 10 using it?
Bradley: We launched Search Query Analyzer this week. You can:
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Combine multiple ASINs (even cross-brand) and multiple time ranges at once.
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Instantly filter by CTR/CVR variances vs. market, impressions vs. search volume, where you’re outperforming the category, etc.
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Pull “show me all keywords that brought sales in the last 5 months” without downloading 50 reports. It’s v0.1—tell us what you want next and we’ll build it.
George: What opportunities should sellers lean into now?
Bradley: AI for workflow + creatives. Think AI agents doing tasks a VA used to do. On our side, eventually you’ll be able to say: “Find profitable keywords in this niche that I’m not optimized for,” and it will orchestrate across tools. Also, Amazon’s rolling out A+ Content API—expect one-click creation/submit flows (potentially AI-assisted) to remove tedious steps. Stay on top of new APIs and implement fast.
George: Any AI concerns?
Bradley: Hallucinations. We need reliability if we’re making money decisions. Rufus, ChatGPT—any LLM can fabricate. That’s why grounding AI in verifiable data matters.
George: Anything important we didn’t cover?
Bradley: Don’t forget the basics: product research, keyword research, listing optimization. Shopping behavior on Amazon won’t change overnight. If someone knows they want an “insulated water bottle,” they’ll type a few words and browse results—that’s not getting replaced by a paragraph-long prompt. AI may replace discovery steps that used to happen on Google, but indexing for the right keywords and winning the shelf still rule. Stop losing money chasing unproven shiny things before you’ve mastered the proven ones.
George: That’s everything from me. Tons of insight—thank you! For anyone who wants to use Helium 10, we’ll include a link in the description (YouTube/podcast). Bradley, thanks so much, and have a great rest of your day.
Bradley: Thank you very much. See you later.
