The 2026 eCom Trends Report
Top Report Findings: This is our sixth Trends Report with 300 owners representing $3.5...
What happens when a successful eCommerce entrepreneur decides to walk away from it all? After spending more than a decade building eCommerce brands and co-founding one of the industry’s best-known communities, Mike Jackness made the surprising decision to leave it all behind and start again from scratch. In this episode, he shares why he stepped away, the personal and professional factors behind his decision, and what he learned from building an entirely new business around YouTube.
Listen in to learn how Mike transformed a passion for Las Vegas into a thriving content business, what has been the biggest driver of YouTube growth, and the lessons eCommerce owners can apply to their own brands. You’ll hear about the realities of running an Amazon business with shrinking margins, how audience feedback shaped his content strategy, the importance of building a personality-led brand, and why YouTube presents one of the biggest untapped opportunities for eCommerce businesses today.
You’ll learn:
- Why Mike decided to leave eCommerce behind. (3:50)
- What he misses about it. (6:00)
- How he chose YouTube as his next venture. (11:00)
- The biggest lessons from growing a YouTube channel. (16:00)
- How audience feedback shaped the content strategy. (18:00)
- The business model behind monetizing a content brand. (20:05)
- Why eCommerce brands should be investing in YouTube. (23:00)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music
(With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Michael Jackness of DesertDegens.com)
What Was Mentioned
- Michael Jackness: LinkedIn | Twitter
- Desert Degens: Website | YouTube
- eCommerceFuel Forum
Ideas Worth Sharing:
"You put all your energy into one thing, you're going to get way more out of it." - Michael Jackness Tweet this "Consistency and hard work are beneficial in everything." - Michael Jackness Tweet this "The real thing that I miss about eCommerce is the people." - Michael Jackness Tweet this
Post by Andrew Youderian
Founder and Chief Instigator, eComFuel
Andrew quit an early finance job to sell CB radios online — an admittedly unorthodox career path. It set him on a course to found and sell multiple businesses, host a decade-running podcast, lecture at Harvard Business School and create eComFuel, the leading community for 7- and 8-figure online business owners. Andrew is fascinated with branding, AI, building community, investing and growing meaningful businesses that don't require sacrificing what truly matters.
