Episode #21 - Trevin Peterson

#15MinuteFounder

In this episode of The 15-Minute Founder, we sat down with Trevin Peterson, an e-commerce entrepreneur and content creator who built his business from Amazon private label to TikTok affiliates over eight years. He’s helped thousands of people start making money online, and now runs multiple businesses including Viral View, a tool that helps creators find winning products to review.

Here’s the full conversation.

Highlights

Q: It’s 2025. What’s the best platform to make a dollar online today?

Trevin: TikTok affiliates. For those that don’t know, TikTok is a massive social platform with millions of people on it every day. As a TikTok affiliate, you make simple videos talking about a product, upload it, tag the product link — and TikTok pushes those videos because they make money when you make money. If someone watches your video and buys, you get a commission. No inventory, no ads, no complex funnels. Just your phone. We’ve got my entire family doing it now and we’ve helped thousands of people across the globe do it too.

Q: What do you actually need to be good at to make this work?

Trevin: The video itself. I call it the GRAB formula. G is grab attention — you’ve got the first three seconds. R is rush the tempo — no fluff, no dead space, be upbeat. A is act it out — show don’t tell, demonstrate the product. B is bait the click — have a call to action so they click the link and buy. The more you do it, the more comfortable you get. That’s really the biggest barrier: just learning how to make a simple, concise video that grabs attention.

Q: How do you advise someone to choose products when they’re starting out?

Trevin: Cast your net wide. Do five to ten different products, make five to ten videos on each, space them out, and let the algorithm give you feedback on what’s working. Once you start generating commissions, brands can see that on their back end. That’s when they start reaching out — and at that point you have leverage. You can charge per video, ask for an increased commission rate, be selective about who you work with. In the beginning it’s just get your videos out and get your feet wet.

Q: Should every e-commerce brand be on TikTok Shop?

Trevin: Absolutely. It’s the modern day gold rush. It’s like starting YouTube in 2014, doing crypto in 2012, Shopify dropshipping in 2016. The opportunity is right here right now. I took my existing Amazon private label brand, copied it over to TikTok, and did $30K my first month with no extra effort. Affiliates start noticing your product organically, and it just becomes this natural machine that prints itself. The playing field is equal — if you can create content well, TikTok boosts it, and it’s a lot cheaper than running Facebook ads.

Q: What about SaaS or high-ticket businesses — should they be on TikTok too?

Trevin: TikTok Shop is mainly for e-commerce sellers. But if you have any kind of business, there’s still extreme value in being on TikTok. If you’re already posting on Instagram or Facebook, just take that same clip and post it on TikTok — you can get great reach with no extra effort. I wouldn’t make it your only acquisition channel, but it’s a fantastic channel for exposure.

Q: Take us back. Why did you start eight years ago?

Trevin: I got married young, moved into a condo, and I was broke. I came outside one Saturday morning and ran into my neighbor. We had the same car, started talking, and he told me he sold neckties online. I went home, started researching, found Shopify, tried dropshipping — didn’t work out. Then a friend told me about Amazon FBA. I realized it solved my two biggest problems: Amazon already has the traffic, and they do the fulfillment so customers get their order in one to two days. The only catch was you needed capital upfront. I got creative, scraped together what I could, launched my first product, sold out all 100 units immediately, and I’ve never looked back.

Q: What’s the second best way to make a dollar online in 2025?

Trevin: Amazon influencer — and it’s going to surprise people. You get approved for the Amazon Influencer Program, make simple 60-second review videos on products sold on Amazon, and upload them. Your video gets displayed right on the product listing. If someone watches it and buys, you get a commission. No inventory, no need to drive traffic — Amazon’s traffic is already there. The success rate for people who just put in the work is honestly close to 100%. The only reason I put TikTok first is higher income earning potential, but Amazon influencer might actually be easier.

Q: Tactically, how do you find the right products to review?

Trevin: That’s actually why we built Viral View. You can scan your Amazon purchase history going back years, and it compiles a list sorted from best product to worst. You’re looking at two metrics: revenue — find a product that’s selling — and total influencer count, meaning how many people have already made a video on it. If you find a product doing $100K in sales with zero influencer videos, and you make one, you will be making money. Add strategy to execution and it becomes sustainable and long-term.

Q: What if someone doesn’t want to be on camera?

Trevin: With Amazon influencer, you don’t even need to show your face. Just hold the product in your hand and talk. But honestly? If you don’t like money, this isn’t for you. Once you do it 20, 30, 50 times, it’s just like talking to somebody. I started my YouTube channel in 2018 specifically because I was uncomfortable on camera. My first videos were terrible — bad setup, bad lighting, barely piecing together a sentence. The thing that scared me most was the reason I had to do it. Now I’ve created over 5,000 pieces of content. It’s like the gym. The first day it sucks. After a year of consistency, it’s easy.

Q: How does everything tie together behind the scenes?

Trevin: It started with private label, then YouTube, then Instagram and TikTok, then consulting, a PPC agency, TikTok affiliates, software. It got complex fast. One of the most important things I did early on was delegate the stuff that consumed my brain — like taxes and bookkeeping. Once I offloaded that I suddenly had more time to focus and grow. Now my TikTok affiliate business takes me ten minutes a day. I film ten videos, send them to my assistant, and she handles everything else — editing, uploading, brand outreach, payments. But I could only get here because I did it all myself first. When she told me editing was taking her 15-20 minutes per video, I knew it should take under three. I sat down, trained her, got her to under five. If I hadn’t done it myself, I wouldn’t have known that.

Q: How do you structure your week with family, a toddler, and multiple businesses?

Trevin: Every Sunday after my son Brixton goes to bed, my wife and I do our weekly planning. We lay out the schedule, figure out what can’t move, and work around it. Since having a baby I’m actually more productive — the time I have to work is more defined, so I’m more focused with it. Before he came I was working 8am to 1am, whenever I wanted. Now I have longer breaks, but when I’m working, I’m really working. Most people don’t realize how much it actually takes. Here we are on a Sunday morning when most people are sleeping off a night out. That’s the sacrifice. But now, eight years in, I can do whatever I want when I want because I made those sacrifices. You can have it all — just not all at once.

Q: What’s your biggest motivator — money, power, pleasure, or fame?

Trevin: Money. And not for the reason people might think. My biggest why is my family. I want to be able to go to every soccer game, take my son to school, pick him up, be present. My dad worked incredibly hard but was gone 99% of the time — he just made sure to never miss a single one of my sporting events. I want to do that and more. Without money, I can’t send my kids to soccer camp, I can’t buy golf clubs because my son already loves golf, I can’t go on vacation. Money is the vehicle for all of it. And a big enough why can overcome any how.

Q: Is there a book that changed everything for you?

Trevin: The 4-Hour Work Week. I was driving from job site to job site working construction when I first listened to it. Hearing about people making $30K a month working four hours a week felt impossible — I had all these limiting beliefs. But I started implementing the things in that book: outsourcing, virtual assistants, systems. I got to a point where I was doing $30K profit a month working about four hours a week. And you know what? I eventually got bored. That’s when I realized I actually enjoy the process. Sitting on a couch watching Netflix sounds great until you’ve done it for two weeks.

Q: What’s the best advice you’d give on building relationships in business?

Trevin: Just be you. That’s led to more opportunities than anything else. I built my YouTube channel by showing actual sales numbers and real revenue when most people were faking theirs. People took that transparency, related to it, respected it. That’s why I’m here speaking at conferences. Just put yourself out there, be genuine, be authentic, try to be the best version of you. I’ve had plenty of failures and moments I wish I could redo. But you accept them and move on.

Q: Best parenting advice?

Trevin: Be present. My 18-month-old can tell when I’m on my phone and not giving him my full attention. He’ll boss me around until I put it down. Those moments aren’t going to last forever and they are better than any business I’ve ever started, better than any amount of money I’ve made.

Q: Best relationship advice?

Trevin: Communication and intimacy. And take accountability. My wife used to take 45-minute showers at the hottest temperature imaginable and I’d lose my mind over the utility bill. I finally just let it go, accepted it, and started loving her for it. That’s when I realized — I was the problem, not her. Same with business. I spent years trying to push her to become an influencer because I saw the opportunity. The second I stopped putting that pressure on her and took responsibility myself, I 10x’d my business. Stop looking for someone else to blame. The shower example, the utility bill, none of that was her problem. It was mine.

Q: What would you want your obituary to say?

Trevin: That I was a good dad and husband. I don’t care about the net worth, the cars, the countries traveled. Those things are great, but if my family doesn’t respect me, none of it matters. If my wife told me I was cringe, that would hit my soul. What some stranger thinks? Doesn’t touch me.

Q: One message on a billboard in Times Square?

Trevin: Start sooner.