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Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.

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My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube,

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along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B.

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We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up.

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We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members.

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Head on over to youtube.com backslash use book guy to join the channel and gain

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access to the full length podcast zoom call and private discord today.

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Let's get into this week's episode.

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What is up everybody?

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Welcome into another episode of Resellers Mindset Podcast.

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Mike next to Johnny, special guest today down sitting underneath us tech and sports.

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He's back for the second time, almost a year to the day.

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So now that we have him back again, we haven't watched the previous one we did.

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He kind of did a little bit of his background, his backstory.

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So today we figure we're going to jump into some more kind of right to it, right

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to the point topics when it comes to reselling and kind of how things have

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changed over the past year, because for all of us sitting here, all three of us,

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our businesses have changed greatly, but in ways they kind of have stayed the same.

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So tech, thanks for hanging out with us.

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Uh, and I guess you can give a little bit of a spiel for those that don't know

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who you are and then we'll kind of take it away.

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Um, so first and foremost, thank you, Johnny B.

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Thank you, Mr.

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Use book guy for having me on.

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Um, always a pleasure talking to you guys.

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Um, you're right.

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It's about one year to the day.

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I think it's one year, one week.

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And like you guys said, first repeat guests.

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So I got the championship belt for that one.

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I'll take that.

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Um, but yeah, so, um, I sold on eBay for, uh, over 15 years.

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I built up the number one pre-owned men's clothing business.

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We did a couple of million dollars per year.

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Um, I always had a mission to have the best eBay store when the listing

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quality report came out on April 15th, 2021, it showed that I was number one

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in every single pre-owned men's clothing category.

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And if you're like me immediately fall out of love.

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Once, once I'm the best immediately fall out of love.

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I got to find the best thing to do.

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Um, once I have conquered, I'm done.

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I got to find the next thing to do.

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So, you know, in, in the, the years after that, you know, I let my warehouse

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time out and the lease expire.

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And, you know, when, when I met my wife about 15 years ago as well, she kind

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of came into the picture when I started eBay, you know, we were working hard,

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both working very hard and we came up with this plan to kind of get after it

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as much as we humanly can until my son graduates high school.

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Make some smart investments and hopefully we have enough money where we don't

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have to grind this out for so long.

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Um, and you know, all of those pieces kind of fell into place, you know,

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ended up, you know, having the best store, making some smart investments,

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not on the come up anymore.

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We are much more fortunate these days.

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And, you know, we had a plan in place to hopefully put ourselves into the

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position to take a 50 year vacation, which is wake up and do whatever you

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want to do, however you want to do it.

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Um, and doing stuff like this, talking to you guys on a nice fine Sunday morning.

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This is what I want to do today.

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So this is what I'm doing.

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And after this, I'll go find something else that I want to do today.

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And, you know, that's just all thanks to the power of, you know, flipping stuff,

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all thanks to the power of reselling, all thanks to the power of eBay.

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And that's why I still like, like making videos, like helping people, like

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answering every single question that comes through on Instagram, because

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like I am someone who I don't want to owe anybody anything.

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So like if Johnny does me a favor, I'm going to do Johnny a double favor.

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Like Johnny's never going to have a one-up on me.

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I don't want anything, but like, I am so indebted to flipping and eBay and

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reselling that, you know, I just want to give back as much as possible and try

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to help as many people as possible.

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Like I said, whether it's on Instagram, whether I see people in real life.

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If I can just help someone somehow with some little piece of information or a

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big piece of information, whatever it takes, um, that's what I enjoy to do.

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That's what I love to do.

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That's what I enjoy to do.

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That's what I like to do because there was a lot of times when I was trying

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to figure stuff out in 2008, when I started, you know, we were in two world,

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we were in two wars.

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We were with Iraq.

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We were in Afghanistan.

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The housing crisis was happening.

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We were going through a recession and you know, a lot of times I needed help with eBay.

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I didn't, for a long time, I didn't know eBay had sales comps.

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So like, I don't know how the word I was pricing my items for a long time.

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I was writing every single address on the envelope and bringing us to the post-off

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because I didn't know you could print labels on eBay.

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So like, I never had anybody to, to ask a question to about eBay, whether

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a simple question, hard question.

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The YouTube community wasn't built out the way that it is now.

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There, there wasn't an abundance of answers on the internet about reselling

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the way that it is now.

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So, you know, if I could just give back, help people hang out, have fun, perform

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my duties, then you'll never hear me being unhappy ever again.

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I think that's going to take me into the first topic I want to address is you

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talked about the recession in 2008.

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A lot of resellers today, or say over the past, this whole year, 2024, they seem to

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be feeling it a little bit harder than, I don't know, years previous.

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But for those that don't know, Tech has a Patreon group and we've basically had

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every one of his coaches on, and we're probably missing a few, but we've had

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every one of his coaches on the podcast and they all are getting like super great

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results, doesn't matter the platform or the category.

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So it kind of like, I don't know if it makes me jaded because when I see people

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saying that the reselling business is on the downswing, my business has grown this

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year and I see other people on other platforms or the categories that are also

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getting results.

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So it seems like the, the, the wave is, well, it's not what it used to be, but

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here I am talking to people every month on a different platform and a different

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category and myself getting results.

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Like what do you attest that to the kind of mindset behind reselling over the

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past year and what is your thought process behind, has it just been a rougher

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year for reselling and maybe what does the outlook look like in your eyes?

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I mean, so like gone are the days where you could just throw up items with the

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expectation that they're just going to sell or sell themselves.

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Those days are gone.

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Like if you're not doing it in the proper way, if you're not continuously

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gaining an education, continuously understanding the customer, continuously

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understanding the platform and all of the changes that they're doing, you will

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get left behind.

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And I think that, you know, for, for me, I started in a recession.

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I've gone through the recession, quote unquote recession, cause they haven't,

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you know, come out and said necessarily that it is a hundred percent a recession.

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However, it did or does hit the definition of it.

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You know, there, there has been a downturn compared to when the stimulus was

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received, money was raining from the sky.

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The entire world was closed.

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People were stuck inside and they were shopping like back then you could list

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anything, however you want.

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And it's going to go not only sell, but it will sell for a humongous premium.

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And I think that, you know, a lot of people did fall into this, you know, when

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everything shut down and, you know, people were working from home and, you

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know, the entire world changed, you know, they discovered the world of online

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selling and, and these last, you know, three or four years, especially when

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you started doing this, and that is your kind of first impression, and that is

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your expectation that I could just throw up anything that I want.

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It's going to sell for a huge premium.

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It's going to sell quickly.

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There's stimulus money raining from the sky and sales are at an all time

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high, like all time highs eventually have to come down.

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Like you can't just have a trajectory of all time highs forever.

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And the sales coming down is what we're seeing because like, let's not beat

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around the bush, like there is more money available.

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There's more money circulating today than any point in history in time.

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So like the money is out there, but the money is not getting spent with, with

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us or our listings for a particular reason.

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The money is out there.

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Now, is it spread out a little bit more?

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Does eBay have a little bit more competition?

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There's Amazon, there's Poshmark, there's Macari.

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Yes, but like the money is out there.

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And if you look at the trend, the trends of like pre-owned clothing, for example,

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like pre-owned clothing, for example, this year is like $45 billion in

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the secondhand market.

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It's expected to go up to $450 billion in the next 10 years.

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There is not a reseller alive or resellers alive for the next 10 years.

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There is not a reseller alive that can maintain that trajectory.

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Like billions of dollars is such a huge amount of money, let alone half a

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trillion dollars is expected to come into the secondhand market.

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So like the money is there, but this is the problem.

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And you can go right onto eBay and you can go right onto Terapeak or as have

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they branded it now, product research, and you can search any brand you want to

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search and they have two nifty arrows on both sides of the graph.

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You can go to the seasonality and the price you can go over and they have a

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couple and then the third or fourth graph will tell you the distribution

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of sales per sellers.

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So if you have a hundred sales, an example, a hundred percent of the

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sellers will get a hundred sales.

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This is basic math, but they're not evenly distributed.

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The 100 sales are going to the overwhelming majority of 25% of sellers.

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25% of sellers are getting 75% of the sales in a lot of these brands that

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we're selling where 75% of the rest of the sellers have to fight over the

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remaining 25% of sales and that's not evenly distributed either.

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So you have your 25% that's getting the lion's share of the sales.

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That next 10% is getting a lion's share of the remaining 25% and so on and so

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so forth as you end up trickling down and going down.

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So like the good sellers, as you've mentioned are getting better, are

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making more money.

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Like there's we were just coming off of the month of November.

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I can't tell you how many people posted in the group.

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October was my best month.

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October historically was one of my slowest months, but here in the group,

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we have best months, best months, best months.

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Um, and, and, and there's a bunch of different reasons for that.

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So like, if you're just starting, if you're in grow mode, you know, but,

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but even people that are year over year have blown out last October's because

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you know, it reselling and eBay is a contact sport.

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If you just want to list an item and forget it, those days are gone.

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You used to be able to do that maybe in like 2015, you could list it, forget it.

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Someone's going to come and get it.

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Used to be able to do that, you know, during the COVID era, you could list it,

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forget it, somebody's going to buy it.

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But the most amount of hate and vitriol that I ever got on a podcast was in

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2021, when I said everything is going to rise.

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The thrift store price is going to rise.

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Gas is going to rise.

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Your insurance is going to rise.

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Labor is going to rise.

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Your warehouse is going to rise.

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eBay fees are going to rise.

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All of these things are going to rise and it will act as death of a thousand cuts.

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And it will, it will trickle down and decrease what our margin is because all

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of these expenses are going to rise.

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There's more resellers bringing down the price of the item, classic supply and

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demand.

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So our price has come down on, on, on our offer.

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Our expenses have gone up trying to get our offer up.

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And the only way to, to absorb this is to get better and do more.

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And people don't want to hear you have to get better.

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People don't want to hear you have to do more.

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But if you made a hundred thousand dollars in sales in 2021, a hundred thousand

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dollars in sales in 2022, 120, 23, and you're going to do 120, 24, get that person

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on the podcast who says, I'm making more money today.

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And my business has remained exactly the same.

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It's impossible.

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Everything has risen since then.

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So if we don't rise to the occasion and we get better and we do more net net, our

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sales are going to be down.

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And I think, you know, there's a few reasons for this reason.

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Number one, we love to source.

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We don't love to list.

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So we need to take an account and we need to audit where is the money.

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And I ask myself that every single day, where is the money?

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Wherever the money is, that's where I need to go.

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So where is the money?

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Resellers money is in one of three places sitting behind them, unlisted.

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That's where your money is.

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So you have a thousand items back there and you spend $7 each and your bank

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account is empty.

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You have $7,000 sitting behind you and you could call it a money pile.

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You can call it whatever cute name you want.

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00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:34,120
That's a debt pile.

232
00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:36,760
Like your money is back there sitting and it's gotten you a debt.

233
00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:38,600
You have $7,000 behind you.

234
00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:40,280
You have no money in your bank account.

235
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:41,480
That's reason number one.

236
00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:45,640
That's where primary, a lot of people who fail, that's where their money is.

237
00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:49,720
The second place where people's money is, is listed onto eBay.

238
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:51,000
They've done a fantastic job.

239
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:51,880
They've sourced items.

240
00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:52,840
They've photographed them.

241
00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:53,880
They've got them listed.

242
00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:55,720
They're up for sale on eBay.

243
00:12:55,720 --> 00:13:00,680
And if you have a thousand items on eBay and you spent $7 each, you have $7,000

244
00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:03,240
sitting on eBay that is unrealized.

245
00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:05,160
You don't get any credit just for listing the items.

246
00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:06,440
So we need to make an assessment.

247
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:11,400
Did I spend all of this time listing items that people don't want?

248
00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:15,480
And if you've listed items that people don't want, those items are never going

249
00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:15,960
to sell.

250
00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:19,560
It doesn't matter if you mark them down to one penny.

251
00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:22,600
If no one on the face of the earth wants them, it doesn't matter.

252
00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:27,000
So if you've done everything that you're supposed to do and everything is listed,

253
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,640
you have items that people don't want today.

254
00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:33,400
So it's either they don't want them in general because they're not good items,

255
00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:37,480
or the sell through is so long that no one wants them today.

256
00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,120
And your cashflow has been depleted.

257
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,680
Your business has no liquidity.

258
00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:47,160
Therefore you can't go out and buy new items to replace those items that are

259
00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:51,160
selling instead of having your money in your bank account, which all of us at

260
00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:54,680
the end of the day, our money needs to be in the bank account.

261
00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:58,360
And I was talking to someone the other day who is hugely successful now.

262
00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:00,520
They do maybe four or 500,000.

263
00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:04,760
And they said their biggest realization that when they joined the group is that

264
00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:09,080
when they first started eBay, they were doing eBay to like collect shirts and

265
00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:09,800
put them online.

266
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:15,320
Somehow, some way a switch got hit that they were supposed to do eBay to make

267
00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:15,640
money.

268
00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:20,760
And I think a lot of people, they don't hit that switch and go, wait,

269
00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:23,640
I'm supposed to be doing this to make money.

270
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:28,600
Like if you want to do this for a hobby and like collect t-shirts, that's fine.

271
00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:35,240
But like the fundamental thing of why we list on eBay is to make money.

272
00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:41,080
So I think the whole COVID era, it was a great time to resell.

273
00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,240
Will that era ever come back?

274
00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:44,520
I'm not sure.

275
00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:49,720
But the people that are busting out are the people that were listing items and

276
00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:53,400
they were magically selling just due to the amount of customers that were on the

277
00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:53,960
market.

278
00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:56,760
Way more customers outpacing the supply.

279
00:14:56,760 --> 00:14:58,280
So the prices were up.

280
00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:00,680
Way more money that was easily disposable.

281
00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:01,960
So the prices was up.

282
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,320
And or they were selling so good back then.

283
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:11,480
And you see people who will report, I'm selling 30,000.

284
00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:13,000
The next month, they're selling 25.

285
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:13,800
Next month, 20.

286
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:15,480
Next month, 15, 10, 8.

287
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:16,680
I'm out of business.

288
00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:18,520
These people probably over leveraged.

289
00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,680
And they probably built out infrastructure that they couldn't financially maintain.

290
00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:24,040
And now they're out of business.

291
00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:26,040
So I'll never forget the day.

292
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:28,120
I was hanging out with my son.

293
00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:32,360
We were driving around and he was talking about everyone getting a stimulus.

294
00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:37,640
And back then, I don't know, maybe he was 16 or so.

295
00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:41,560
And he's like, everyone's going to have a lot of money.

296
00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:43,080
And I said, no, no, no, no, no.

297
00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:45,400
Sony is going to have a lot of money.

298
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:48,040
Nintendo is going to have a lot of money.

299
00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:49,480
Apple is going to have a lot of money.

300
00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:53,640
These people that are getting these $1,200 stimulus, that money is good as gone.

301
00:15:54,200 --> 00:16:00,440
So like all of the stimulus that came to us, ask yourself how much of that money we still have.

302
00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:02,920
And the money's gone somewhere.

303
00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,560
So like everyone got the money.

304
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:10,040
But the people who have the money today are the people who had the money before

305
00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:12,840
the shutdown and the people who have the money now.

306
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:17,480
And there was a saying that I heard a long time ago when I was really in my grind stage.

307
00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:22,840
I used to listen to a lot of inspirational stuff to get me through 120 listings at

308
00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:25,960
two o'clock in the morning knowing I had to wake up at four.

309
00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:32,360
And a guy on a video somewhere said, if you took all the money in the world and you evenly

310
00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:37,960
distributed it to everybody, the money would soon find its way back into the same hands.

311
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:41,400
So if you took every single dollar and you gave it to every single person,

312
00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:44,760
the people who know how to make money and know how to get money, that money's going to come

313
00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:45,480
right back.

314
00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:48,840
So I think that a lot of people fell into this.

315
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:53,960
A lot of people tried to turn a hobby into a business without the business acumen.

316
00:16:55,560 --> 00:17:00,600
And that's really what you see today because the prices have gone up.

317
00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:06,200
The quality of merchandise is not the same.

318
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:11,480
So if you're still selling items in 2022 and it's 2024, don't worry.

319
00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:16,120
This kind of leads me into my subject I want to talk about a little bit.

320
00:17:16,120 --> 00:17:19,960
Outside of business, they say the first 10 million is the hardest to get.

321
00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:23,800
I've noticed because I'm in various groups, people that are in the six figures,

322
00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,840
getting the seven figures seems to be the hardest hurdle to overcome.

323
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:34,440
Why do you think it's so difficult to go up from 100 to 7 million dollars essentially?

324
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:36,760
Why does it seem to take people longer to get there?

325
00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:41,960
Outside the numerical, 10 times the number, sure.

326
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:43,960
You have to change the kind of person that you are.

327
00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:51,240
So it takes years to get to that point for most people, unless you hit a crypto bazanga,

328
00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:51,880
that's different.

329
00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:53,400
But it takes years.

330
00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:59,480
It takes years to build up that amount of cash reserves because the money comes in

331
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:00,840
and the money goes out.

332
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:02,920
The money comes in and the money goes out.

333
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:04,440
And the money comes in and the money comes out.

334
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:07,000
And I look at it and I've always visualized it.

335
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,040
Like you standing on the beach, the waves come in forever.

336
00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:13,640
The waves are the customers and they crash on the beach and they come up

337
00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:15,960
and a little bit of that water touches your feet.

338
00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:17,320
And then the water goes back out.

339
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:18,680
That's your money going back out.

340
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:20,920
But the water that touches your feet, if you look down,

341
00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:23,400
you still have a couple of water drops on your feet.

342
00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:25,480
That's the money that you were able to keep.

343
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:26,360
That's your profit.

344
00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:27,080
That's you.

345
00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:30,680
The money that goes back out, that's our money going back out to the streets,

346
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:32,040
going back out to work.

347
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:33,720
And then those waves come back in.

348
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:37,080
That's how I've always visualized it, where the money is always coming in.

349
00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:38,520
The money always goes back out.

350
00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:42,520
But we have to keep a little bit of this to make sure that we can pay our bills

351
00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:45,960
and that our personal interests and our finances grow

352
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:47,640
while we always put our money to work.

353
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:49,560
So it takes a long time.

354
00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:51,240
You have to change your mindset.

355
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:53,400
You have to learn discipline.

356
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:56,920
If you can't be trusted, and we all know these people,

357
00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,120
every single person knows someone where you can't trust them with 10 bucks.

358
00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:01,880
You can't trust them with $100.

359
00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:04,920
And if you can't trust someone with $10 or $100,

360
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,560
how can you trust them with $100,000?

361
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:12,040
So you have to be immensely disciplined to have a target,

362
00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:18,040
to develop a road plan and a plan to get yourself to the $100,000 threshold.

363
00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:22,680
Or your first goal, my first goal was to get myself to $1,000 in savings.

364
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:23,560
Okay, I did this.

365
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:26,520
Now I have to do 10 times this to get to the next level

366
00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:28,600
and get myself $10,000 savings.

367
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,320
And there were many times where I was making great money

368
00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:33,080
and I got right down to zero.

369
00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,200
That was almost a monthly experience for me.

370
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,160
I was making great money, selling a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff,

371
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,120
making a couple thousand, bills come, things come, bang.

372
00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:43,320
I'm right back down to zero.

373
00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:45,000
I got to get back into hustle mode.

374
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,320
And I got to make this happen all over again,

375
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:50,200
because in 30 days, the same exact thing is going to happen.

376
00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:52,200
And I got to have these funds available.

377
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:56,920
So my first goal was to get you a thousand bucks savings.

378
00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:58,840
With that thousand, I try to get to 10,000.

379
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:01,160
With the 10,000, I try to get to 100,000.

380
00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:06,360
And the way that I did it was the same exact way that I made the first dollar,

381
00:20:06,360 --> 00:20:08,600
is the same exact way that I got to a thousand.

382
00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:12,200
The way that I got to a thousand is the same exact way that I got to 10,000.

383
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,400
The way I got to 10,000 was the same exact way that I got to 100.

384
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:17,400
And that's the same way that I got to a million.

385
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:22,680
I didn't wake up every single day with a new bright idea.

386
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:28,760
I woke up every single day and get exactly what worked the previous day.

387
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:35,080
So I have 15 years experience of doing the same damn thing over and over and over again.

388
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:38,600
So people see me, I can go to any flea market in the United States of America,

389
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,080
I don't care where it is, and I can go there and dominate.

390
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:45,880
Because I have 15 years compounding building of the same experience.

391
00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:51,160
But I wake up tomorrow and say, you know what, I'm going to try to sell cutlery.

392
00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:53,480
And then I go to a flea market, I'm going to find no items.

393
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:55,720
This is my first day selling cutlery.

394
00:20:55,720 --> 00:21:00,280
So how many people find something that works, wake up tomorrow,

395
00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:02,200
and choose to do something totally different?

396
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:04,600
Those reasonings are beyond me.

397
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:05,880
I don't understand that.

398
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:10,280
If you find something that works, wake up tomorrow and do it again.

399
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,240
Wake up tomorrow, do it again and do more of it.

400
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:19,320
So when I made my first dollar, I had to do a hundred times more to make my first hundred dollars.

401
00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:21,880
I had to do a thousand times more to make my first thousand.

402
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:25,000
I had to do 10,000 times more to make my first 10,000.

403
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,720
But it was never find something that works, wake up tomorrow, try something totally different.

404
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:31,000
We need one idea.

405
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:32,360
We don't need 20 ideas.

406
00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:35,000
There's a million ways to do it.

407
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,360
We only have to choose one.

408
00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:38,440
Choose one, figure out how to do it.

409
00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:39,880
Because this is the problem.

410
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:41,480
Everything works.

411
00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:44,680
You just have to figure out how to make it work.

412
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:48,360
Like you could run a business that sells tiddly wings for a penny each,

413
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:49,640
and you could build that business.

414
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:51,160
That business can work.

415
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:52,280
Everything works.

416
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,040
We just have to figure out how to make it work.

417
00:21:54,040 --> 00:22:00,280
And the way that I've made it work is spend five bucks, sell something for $25,

418
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,920
pocket a $20 profit, rough numbers.

419
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:04,680
That's what I have found that works.

420
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,960
Because $20 profit items, I have gained the education.

421
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:12,360
I have put enough boots on the ground to hit enough thrift stores, hit enough flea markets,

422
00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:17,080
make enough relationships where these items are available in abundance.

423
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:18,360
I can process them.

424
00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:19,560
I can list them correctly.

425
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:24,600
I can separate myself from every single person on eBay with the proper keywords,

426
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:30,120
proper title structure, most enticing offer, the best return policy, an accurate description,

427
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:32,680
good photos, good dispatch time.

428
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,240
I can separate myself from everybody else on eBay.

429
00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,840
So there's a lot of times where people say, oh, that item never sells for me.

430
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,800
That item sells fantastic for me because I have figured out how to sell it.

431
00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,680
I have figured out whatever the customer is looking for.

432
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:45,960
I've unlocked that.

433
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:51,160
So the beginning of your business is very hard.

434
00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:53,800
The middle of your business is very hard.

435
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:55,800
The end of your business is very hard.

436
00:22:55,800 --> 00:23:01,000
But once you get more money, like they say, like the first million is the hardest million,

437
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:02,200
it's absolutely correct.

438
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:05,560
Because then you can get to the point, you can transform your business.

439
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:06,600
And this is what I have done.

440
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:07,560
And I'm still learning this.

441
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,000
I'm still a student every single day.

442
00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,560
You can get to the point where you can allow your money to work for you,

443
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:16,200
not so much you working for the money.

444
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:21,160
So as I've grown, as I've matured, and I've been selling on eBay and running business

445
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:23,320
since I was 25 years old, I'm 40 now.

446
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:29,640
For 99% of my life, it was me waking up every single day, getting after the money,

447
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:34,040
me breaking my back, me 100 miles an hour, 20 hours a day.

448
00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:38,120
That was me for 99% of my life, my working experience.

449
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:43,320
I'm just now starting in the last couple of years to figure out how to get the money

450
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:44,200
to work for me.

451
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:48,440
And my first exposure or taste of this was buying a piece of real estate.

452
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:50,120
So I bought the piece of real estate.

453
00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:51,320
It still requires work.

454
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:52,120
It is management.

455
00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:53,000
Like I'm not there today.

456
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:54,200
I'm not there right now.

457
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:59,320
And the rent will be due for today's portion, which is going to be due at the end of the year.

458
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,000
But also it is an asset.

459
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,520
So that asset has risen in value without me having really to do anything.

460
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:05,880
It's just kind of risen.

461
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:12,840
So that overall has increased the net worth, increased, you know, potentially I can go sell it.

462
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:16,200
And then I get more money back way more than I put into like that kind of helped me.

463
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:22,120
I started using, you know, CDs in the bank and like, I'm not an expert on this, but like

464
00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:25,800
I started using some CDs a couple of years ago, maybe you get 5%, whatever.

465
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:26,920
You don't have to work for that money.

466
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:28,360
You're putting your money to work.

467
00:24:28,360 --> 00:24:35,080
I started really building out my businesses and trusting people that are really, really

468
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:40,920
trustworthy, really have their head on straight and utilizing them to help me build a business

469
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:42,840
where I don't have to be there every single day.

470
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,160
And speaking of COVID, that helped me a lot.

471
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:49,880
When COVID happened and the entire world stopped and we were supposed to be home for two weeks

472
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,400
to flatten the curve, it ended up being six months in Florida.

473
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,040
I used to go with the tree crew every single day.

474
00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:01,000
And I used to make sure every T was crossed and I was dotted and I used to come home and

475
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:02,200
I used to do eBay.

476
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:06,360
When COVID happened and we had to stay home for two weeks, if you remember, people were

477
00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:07,480
dropping in the streets.

478
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,880
They were spraying like fumigation in the streets.

479
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:11,880
Like no one knew what was going on.

480
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:14,200
Those are the videos that we saw.

481
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:19,560
So we were forced to split the crews and one crew would go out and then one crew would

482
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:20,360
go out the next day.

483
00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:22,520
One crew would go out, one crew would go out the next day.

484
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:25,880
So like I was on the B crew, the A crew would go out and guess what?

485
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:27,000
Everything still got done.

486
00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:29,560
No customers complained.

487
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:31,080
Like customers were happy.

488
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,880
They were still upselling jobs and I didn't have to be there.

489
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:38,120
So that taught me like I have good people in place and I don't have to be there.

490
00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:43,400
So put very good people into place, pay them very well, take care of them very well.

491
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,800
And again, that's my money going to work.

492
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:50,360
So even today, I've always said, you know, for a very long time in the group and even

493
00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:55,720
going back to the first podcast I ever done in 2017, I always say like eBay is not going

494
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:56,280
to be forever.

495
00:25:56,280 --> 00:26:01,960
eBay for me is a stepping stone to multiply the money to make sure that I can make enough

496
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,280
money, put it into enough investments where those investments pay for everything that

497
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:11,560
I need and those investments give me enough money where I can reinvest it back into more

498
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:16,200
investments and kind of create in my head what I see as like an infinite money loop.

499
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:18,680
So I make an investment, helps me pay the bills.

500
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,480
I don't have to actively go out and work for the money.

501
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:22,840
The investment helps with that.

502
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,600
You make enough investments and all of your bills start getting paid by the investments.

503
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:27,880
You make enough investments.

504
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:32,280
Now you have extra money coming out from those investments, which you can reinvest into more

505
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:33,800
investments to make more money.

506
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,480
That drives me every single day and that's what I've been doing for a very long time.

507
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:46,520
And I always said, as eBay scales down and I've talked about every single milestone,

508
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,920
every single step of the way, I told people on May 1st of this year, this is what's going

509
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:51,320
to happen.

510
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,480
On January 1st of this year, this is what's going to happen.

511
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,240
On September 15th, this is what's going to happen.

512
00:26:55,240 --> 00:27:00,200
So like I had the scale down many years ago, but I always told everyone I'm always going

513
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:05,240
to be involved in clothing in some sort of capacity because the clothing is the best

514
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,120
way to multiply the money that I've been able to identify.

515
00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:09,320
For you guys, it's books.

516
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:09,880
That's fine.

517
00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:11,480
You can put 10 cents into a book.

518
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:12,600
You can get eight bucks out.

519
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:14,280
You could do that an unlimited amount of times.

520
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:18,200
Like there, if Warren Buffett knew what we were doing, he would pull all of his money

521
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,160
out of Berthes-Sire Hathaway and he would put it into eBay items.

522
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,560
He would get a 500% return in 90 days.

523
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,200
Like if he knew what we were doing, he would be doing this.

524
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,360
So like I'm always going to be involved in clothing to some capacity.

525
00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:36,680
So for my eBay career at the biggest peak of the eBay career, I had 50,000 items on eBay.

526
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:39,720
I sold between 250 and 300 items a day.

527
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:42,600
I had the best listing, best products, best selection.

528
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,400
I never one day sold a thousand items.

529
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:46,840
I never sold 1200.

530
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:48,200
I never sold 500.

531
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:48,760
Never.

532
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:52,280
I always sold between 250 and 300 for whatever reason available.

533
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,320
So made fantastic money, was doing great.

534
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:58,680
But now I sell 4,000 pieces of clothing per day.

535
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,360
Do I make $20 profit or $15 profit each?

536
00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:04,520
No, I might make $2 each.

537
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:11,880
If I'm selling 4,000 pieces net net, I'm making more money, putting out my money, buying 4,000,

538
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,800
throwing it into a palette and then selling it to somebody else so they can go and make

539
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:17,080
the lion's share of the money.

540
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:20,760
So I'm letting my money work by continuously buying these clothing.

541
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:22,200
And I could be in New York City.

542
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,280
I could be in Los Angeles.

543
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,440
Los Angeles, I could be in Kalamazoo.

544
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,240
eBay is not going to tell me I had a late shipment.

545
00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:32,200
eBay is not going to tell me I need to list every single day.

546
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,000
So if the guy's car breaks down, we ship out pallets tomorrow.

547
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:35,800
It's okay.

548
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:42,920
So I had to understand, realize and identify these ways that I can let my money work for

549
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:43,480
me.

550
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:48,840
And that's the part that comes after you make a couple dollars, it's much easier to

551
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:49,640
make more money.

552
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:53,400
So like with the clothing thing, I can make $4,000 or $8,000.

553
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:58,760
I never in my wildest imagination knew that I would be able to make $4,000, $8,000 in

554
00:28:58,760 --> 00:28:59,560
a single day.

555
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:00,360
Never.

556
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:02,520
I look at some of my old tax returns.

557
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:04,760
I used to make like $8,000 in a year.

558
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,520
But that's because I didn't have the skills that I have now.

559
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:10,280
I didn't have the experience that I have now.

560
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:15,400
I didn't have everything that I had to painstakingly learn every single day of my life

561
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,000
over the last 15 years.

562
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,080
So people ask like, how long is it going to take for me to achieve this?

563
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,560
And the answer is however long it's going to take.

564
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:25,560
Like this stuff does take time.

565
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:27,480
It's not get rich quick.

566
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:28,600
It is a marathon.

567
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:29,960
It's not a sprint.

568
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:35,560
But as you do build up more capital, you can start allowing your money to work for you.

569
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:40,840
And every single person that sells online, to some extent, you are letting your money

570
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:41,640
work for you.

571
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:46,040
But you're still actively working for a lot of that because we have to do photo ship,

572
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,720
you know, customer service, everything that that source, everything that is all

573
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:51,560
encompassing of reselling.

574
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:57,080
But hopefully, we can take this money that we are making from reselling up and above

575
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,320
whatever our bills or requirements are.

576
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:03,960
And we can find another vehicle, a different vehicle where we don't have to work so damn

577
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:05,960
hard because I have worked very hard.

578
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:08,280
And I'm very fortunate.

579
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:14,280
And if you gave me a contract today and say, dude, do everything I've had to do for almost

580
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:18,440
the last 20 years and you'll be in the position that you are, I'll sign that contract every

581
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:21,000
single day of the week because I have no education.

582
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:21,960
I didn't go to college.

583
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:23,560
I had a son at 18 years old.

584
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:28,200
And to be in the position where I am today, it's only due to the power of reselling,

585
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:32,280
multiplying the money, being smart with the investing and getting after that every single

586
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:32,920
day.

587
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,840
So I know these are like long winded questions, but I'm very passionate about this stuff.

588
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,160
Now we've free the thorough honestly.

589
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:44,680
So the person who's I'm not talking about just anybody, but a person who's been at the

590
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:48,600
game while they're in the six figure club and they decide to push all their chips in

591
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:49,800
to try to speed it up.

592
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:51,480
What do you find happens to those people?

593
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:55,640
The majority of the time, do they fall on their place or they bet on themselves and

594
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:56,120
go big?

595
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:03,240
I think like the speeding up part, I think is dangerous for reselling.

596
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:10,040
I think that because there's so much processing involved and then the processing costs time.

597
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:14,520
And if you want to buy your time back and get an employee, now you're overhead Costco

598
00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:15,080
up so much.

599
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,240
So I think that like there has to be a healthy, steady growth.

600
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,080
And I've talked to thousands of resellers.

601
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:27,000
I've never talked to a single reseller that has scaled the profitability.

602
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:33,240
And with the margins that reselling affords us, I don't think there's any reason to scale

603
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:34,760
to profitability.

604
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:39,160
We should be able to be profitable from day one and maintain that profitability through

605
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,840
our entire reselling eBay, Amazon career.

606
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:44,920
We're getting 500% returns.

607
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,680
If that's not good enough for you, then maybe sell drugs.

608
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:49,080
I don't know.

609
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:53,400
But this is the closest to selling drugs as you can get without going to jail.

610
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:54,920
It gets the same principles.

611
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,920
You buy a bunch of stuff and you break it down and sell it individually one by one.

612
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,000
And our street corner is eBay or Amazon.

613
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:02,280
It's the same principles.

614
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:03,800
You just don't go to jail for it.

615
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:11,800
So the speed to do it, if you don't have a couple of years to get yourself into a

616
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,000
different position in your life, I don't know what to tell you.

617
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:22,440
If you don't have 10 years to lock yourself away and imagine if someone did every single thing

618
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:27,400
the exact same way for 10 years and compounded and built that in the reselling space,

619
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,480
they'd have more money than they know what to do with.

620
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:30,440
And that's 10 years.

621
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,880
And you talk to people and they say 10 years.

622
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:36,040
10 years is not a long time, man.

623
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:38,040
My son is 21 years old.

624
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,200
In a blink of an eye, that dude was at my knee.

625
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:41,960
It happened so fast.

626
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:43,880
Like 10 years is not a long time.

627
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:49,320
Do it for two years and report back and do it for five years and report back.

628
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,640
It's not a long time.

629
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:53,080
Forever is a long time.

630
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:54,120
10 years is not.

631
00:32:54,120 --> 00:33:00,280
I think what you're hitting on here is there are sacrifices that have to be made if you

632
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,120
want to turn this business into a business.

633
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,800
And when you said a lot of people started in the COVID era and those are some of the

634
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:07,800
people that are kind of getting phased out.

635
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:11,400
I just think back, you're 2 a.m. listing stuff.

636
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,960
I was working a full-time job and I had to drag my wife out on my days off.

637
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:20,440
And thank God she stuck around for it because two days off a week, one day off a week,

638
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:22,680
I'm dragging you to a stinky thrift store.

639
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:28,760
I think it is accustomed people to not really have to sacrifice as much or feel like they

640
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:33,400
have to sacrifice to get the results because of the YouTube, the social media, the way

641
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:34,280
it's spun up.

642
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,960
The way it's being resold is you can just go to a thrift store and make a bunch of money.

643
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,400
And reality is, I try to tell people this, you're talking years.

644
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,400
I can't get people to sign up for six months of just sticking with something to get results.

645
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:49,800
So the idea you're talking five, 10 years, it's just too big for people to handle.

646
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,960
And I shoot straight now with people and they're like, hey, I work full-time.

647
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:55,880
I want to quit my job to grow this business.

648
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:59,000
I said, well, there's going to be sacrifices you're going to have to make along the way.

649
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:00,680
And it's going to be a lot of your time.

650
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,600
And if you have a significant other or kids, you're going to have to figure it out because

651
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:06,520
it's hard to fit everything in to make it work.

652
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:08,920
I agree with that 100%.

653
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:14,040
And those posts that you're referring to, we went through a couple of those on the morning

654
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:18,840
call a couple of weeks ago because people were curious, how did you make all of this work?

655
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,600
So I got posts all the way back from 2019.

656
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,920
And a lot of those posts, I was finishing my listings at 2 AM and saying, hey, I got to wake

657
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:28,200
up at 4 AM.

658
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:31,080
And every single one of those posts, I said, I'm tired.

659
00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:32,760
I was tired.

660
00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:33,320
It was hard.

661
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:34,120
It was not easy.

662
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:41,080
But it was the best way that I could find to make the kind of money that I was making.

663
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:46,680
At those times, finishing at 2, waking up at 4, I was making more money than a doctor.

664
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:51,000
And a doctor has to go through all of that school and be responsible for somebody's life.

665
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:55,080
And they have to carry that on top of them, on top of everything that they have to do.

666
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,120
Like doctors ain't getting out of the office at 5.

667
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,200
Like sometimes they got to stay till 5 30.

668
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,280
Sometimes they got to come in when they don't want to come in.

669
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:09,800
Like if you want like extraordinary results, there's going to be a large portion of sacrifice.

670
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:15,720
If you want the most basic results, then there's going to be the most basic amount of sacrifice.

671
00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:22,760
And I think eBay is one of the things that the amount of energy and effort and time that you

672
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:27,080
put into it is going to be a direct correlation of what you get out of it.

673
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:30,840
And I always say eBay, but like eBay is like a synonym for reselling.

674
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:32,840
It doesn't matter what platform you're on.

675
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:38,520
Reselling the amount of time, effort, and energy that you put into it on the front side

676
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,080
is a direct correlation of what you get out.

677
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:46,920
So if you see the people that are doing the bare minimum, bare minimum listing, inconsistent,

678
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:51,720
bare minimum product research, throwing up junk, bare minimum everything, those people are going

679
00:35:51,720 --> 00:35:53,240
to get the bare minimum results.

680
00:35:53,240 --> 00:35:58,680
If you see the people that are actually putting in extraordinary effort, extraordinary energy,

681
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:05,960
doing great research, consistent every single day, these are the people that are doing fantastic.

682
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:12,360
But like you can't, like we said in the beginning, you can't run a reselling business

683
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:15,480
like we were in 2020.

684
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,360
Brands in 2020 are not good in 2024.

685
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:23,240
If you're still buying those at the same clip for the same price and listing them in the same

686
00:36:23,240 --> 00:36:25,160
percentage, those brands have fallen off.

687
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:31,720
We have to constantly call the bottom 10 or 15%, 20% of our brands and replace them with

688
00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:32,760
the new kid on the block.

689
00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:36,520
Like there's new kids, there's new brands right now that are very popular that are at

690
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:40,280
the thrift store starting to get into the thrift store, flea markets, garage sales,

691
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,160
where the old ones have fallen out of favor, falling out of style.

692
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:44,680
We have to constantly call this.

693
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,920
And one of the ways that we can do this is I've always done an aged inventory markdown

694
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:49,480
strategy.

695
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:54,840
So for me, as the item gets older, the percent goes up and the offer becomes more enticing.

696
00:36:54,840 --> 00:37:00,360
So if I price to that $50, you mark it down, maybe it gets all the way down to the point

697
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:04,280
where it's $25 and that's enticing enough for someone to purchase the item.

698
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:07,480
Once upon a time they used to sell for 50, now they're selling for 25.

699
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:08,840
Did it fall out of favor?

700
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,680
Is there more on the market and the demand has remained the same?

701
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,160
So the supply has outweighed the demand.

702
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:16,680
So the price is coming down.

703
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,600
Various reasons why items can come down.

704
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:24,840
But when items get to my most aggressive markdown, I take an inventory or an audit of them.

705
00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:26,120
Am I seeing patterns?

706
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:31,160
Are certain brands that used to sell out before they were getting marked down this much now

707
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,400
all in the most aggressive markdown?

708
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:37,640
Are certain sizes, do I have to stop picking up men's extra small?

709
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:41,640
Because even if it's a fantastic brand, it's in my most aggressive markdown.

710
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,120
We have to audit our inventory.

711
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:48,920
Are items that used to sell fantastic, no longer selling fantastic?

712
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:52,760
If the answer is yes, we need to come and we need to do our research and we need to

713
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:54,120
identify new items.

714
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:58,280
On one of the calls, I said, you know what, I'm going to identify a bunch of new brands

715
00:37:58,280 --> 00:37:58,680
today.

716
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:05,800
In 45 minutes, I identified 18 brands that will get you $20 to $50 plus profit, 90 day

717
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,600
sell through just in the golf polo category.

718
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:09,720
18 brands.

719
00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:15,960
But all of this auditing, all of this running markdown sales and promotions, all of this

720
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:22,840
doing homework and education, all of that comes after we're done with what we already

721
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:23,720
have to do.

722
00:38:23,720 --> 00:38:26,360
And that's the extra, that's the sacrifice.

723
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:30,200
Did I want to clock out after my listings were done and go do something else?

724
00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:31,160
Absolutely.

725
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:35,320
But that's doing a disservice to my business because my business isn't getting better.

726
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:41,240
The education taking an hour and doing mind numbing, scrolling, it sucks.

727
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:45,880
But that's what you have to do to get those new kids on the block that are actually coming

728
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,120
in and people are finding and having success.

729
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:49,560
We have the zip code call.

730
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:55,800
So to do the zip code call, to study the sold, study the comps, learn your customer, do audits

731
00:38:55,800 --> 00:39:00,200
of your inventory, run your numbers, make sure everything is all situated.

732
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:07,880
All of that is extra because people want to source, photo, list, ship, and then they're

733
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:08,840
done for the day.

734
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:11,480
But what about all this other stuff that we have to do?

735
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:12,600
That's extra.

736
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:20,120
And if you do this other stuff in place of source, ship, photo, and list, then you don't

737
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:21,240
get your listings up.

738
00:39:21,240 --> 00:39:24,040
So then we hear the people that go, oh, well, there's so much to do.

739
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:25,800
I can't be consistent.

740
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,040
This is the sacrifice portion of it.

741
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,200
We have to do the things that we got to do.

742
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:32,920
And this is the crazy part about having freedom.

743
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:35,080
And a lot of people join reselling to have freedom.

744
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:37,480
You have to do certain things.

745
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:44,360
There's a requirement and a commitment to do certain things every single day to have

746
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:45,320
freedom.

747
00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:46,520
It's like a conundrum.

748
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:51,480
Like in order for me to have the freedom that I want as a reseller, I have to be consistent

749
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:53,400
every single day as a reseller.

750
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:53,960
It's crazy.

751
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:58,760
There is no ultimate freedom where you don't have to do anything and have no obligation.

752
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:04,120
But in order to have the freedom that reselling allows, we have to actually do certain things

753
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:05,240
every single day.

754
00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:06,680
There's no getting away from that.

755
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:10,920
And those things that we have to do on top of the things that we have to do, that's where

756
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:12,120
the sacrifice comes from.

757
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:16,280
Because a lot of the studying, a lot of the running the numbers, a lot of the figuring

758
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:21,720
out promotions, a lot of figuring out markdown sales, a lot of all this figuring out stuff,

759
00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:25,800
that's after and in addition when our work is already done.

760
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:31,640
We can't just play, oh, I'm going to do research today in this whole week and not get any listings

761
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:31,720
up.

762
00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:33,000
That doesn't work either.

763
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:38,680
So like the sacrifice comes with all this additional stuff that we must do in addition

764
00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:39,960
to the things that we have to do.

765
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:42,760
I think you hit it on the head here.

766
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:48,600
I do truly believe that the blueprint is out there for every single person to be successful

767
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,160
reselling, no matter what the platform is.

768
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:55,320
But it's those people that are actually going to put in the work and make the sacrifices

769
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:57,160
are the ones that are actually going to see the results.

770
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:01,960
And what happens here, some people might sacrifice for a month, maybe two months.

771
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:07,160
And like you said, with the money management side of it, if I'm up at 2 a.m., there's only

772
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:09,480
so many days, months I'm going to be up at 2 a.m.

773
00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:12,440
And my bank account is still $0 before I give it up.

774
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:16,600
And I think that's where people fall into the trap is, well, I feel like I'm sacrificing,

775
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,200
but the bank account ain't going up.

776
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,680
Well, then there's something else you have to address in your business.

777
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:23,720
And you said it earlier, it's hard to take criticism.

778
00:41:23,720 --> 00:41:23,880
Right.

779
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:28,120
Like if I bring you over into my house and say, here, break down my business, what do

780
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:28,760
I have to change?

781
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:30,520
What kind of looks out of whack to you?

782
00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:34,520
And as a store manager at CBS, like people could not take criticism, but I'll be the

783
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:35,400
first one to take it.

784
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:35,560
Right.

785
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,760
Like hit me with what I'm doing wrong or maybe something I can do better.

786
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:42,440
And that's the that's like the whole benefit of like listening to your podcast.

787
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:46,600
Having Johnny sit next to me every single week is because there's always ways we can

788
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:46,920
improve.

789
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,080
There's different people doing different things.

790
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,200
And most people just feel like, well, this is how I do it.

791
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,120
And this is this is the right way.

792
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:58,600
And I'm just here to tell people, like, just open up your ear for five or 10 minutes and

793
00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:02,360
have somebody else give you a little bit of perspective and just take it into consideration

794
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:03,160
a little bit.

795
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:07,400
But yeah, the sacrifice when your bank account ain't going up, there's something else going

796
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:07,560
on.

797
00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:08,520
It's not your sacrifice.

798
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,080
You're doing it, but there's something else wrong with the business.

799
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:13,320
There's a couple things.

800
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:20,200
So people first and foremost are intimidated and afraid of the numbers and we have to get

801
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:21,000
over that.

802
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:22,040
Numbers are the numbers.

803
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:22,840
They're not going to lie.

804
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:25,160
They're not going to do anything.

805
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:26,200
They're not going to hurt you.

806
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:27,480
Numbers are the numbers.

807
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:28,440
They are black and white.

808
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:28,920
They don't lie.

809
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:30,440
There's no escaping them.

810
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,080
So people are afraid and intimidated by those.

811
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,400
People love to talk about numbers when the numbers are going up.

812
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:42,680
People run away and choose to ignore the numbers when the numbers are going down.

813
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:49,400
So for me, I do every single month on the 10th, I reconcile my net worth.

814
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:54,120
So everything that I have under management, every single chainsaw mower that I have for

815
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:58,760
the businesses, my eBay inventory, my liquid cash in the bank account, I do this every

816
00:42:58,760 --> 00:43:00,040
single month on the 10th.

817
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,920
And I do this because on the first, you got a bunch of money coming in and out.

818
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:04,840
So on the 10th, most things are settled.

819
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:06,920
I do this every single month on the 10th.

820
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:10,120
And I do it because the numbers don't lie.

821
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:13,640
And if we don't pay attention to the numbers, we don't pay attention to the money.

822
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:15,960
It starts to slip and it starts to disappear.

823
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:16,840
I'll tell you this.

824
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:21,800
When real estate is booming, I can't wait to the 10th because I know my money's way up.

825
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:26,280
When real estate is kind of stagnant or it starts going down a little bit, I start,

826
00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:29,720
but I still do it because the numbers don't lie.

827
00:43:29,720 --> 00:43:34,040
So like when things are going good, people love paying attention to the numbers and looking

828
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:37,640
at them, but when they're not going so good, we need to figure out why.

829
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:41,240
And I think resellers, we don't ask ourselves why enough.

830
00:43:41,240 --> 00:43:43,880
Like why does eBay want us to do this?

831
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:46,440
Why when I list this in a certain way, it works?

832
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:48,920
Why when other people do this, this is working.

833
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,480
Like a lot of people are running promotion sales and they don't know why.

834
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:54,840
Like why are you running a promotion sale at that percentage?

835
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:55,400
Why?

836
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:56,600
Well, I don't know.

837
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:59,960
It's because someone else told me or someone else is finding success with that.

838
00:43:59,960 --> 00:44:04,200
Well, do you have the same offer, the same business philosophy, the same storage capability,

839
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:08,040
the same everything as this other person that has this same percentage?

840
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:13,400
Or are you trying to run a business out of a studio apartment in New York City?

841
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:18,280
Like that person is going to have different needs on the back end than you who might live

842
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:23,160
in Wisconsin and has a $20,000 building or 20,000 square foot building in the back.

843
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:25,000
Like your needs are going to be different.

844
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:31,000
So all of these things, like you can't copy, you can take the foundations and the framework

845
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:36,680
that we all talk about all the time, but after that you have to figure out why and what works

846
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:37,560
for the business.

847
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:43,160
So when we talk about staying up till 2 a.m., staying up till 11, staying up to 10,

848
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:48,280
then we get into the conversation of, oh, but I joined reselling to have work-life balance.

849
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:49,240
That's correct.

850
00:44:49,240 --> 00:44:52,280
But work-life balance, the first thing in it is work.

851
00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:55,160
And then after that, you could find the life and you can find the balance.

852
00:44:55,160 --> 00:45:02,360
But a lot of people who scream work-life balance are people that have a three-hour eBay day,

853
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:04,360
but take 16 hours to get it done.

854
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:07,160
How is that work-life balance?

855
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,520
If you have a three-hour eBay day, it should be done in three hours.

856
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:15,160
But if you have a three-hour eBay day and it takes you 16 hours to do it,

857
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:17,320
you don't have work-life balance.

858
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:22,040
So there are people that are putting in extra effort taking the initiative to do more.

859
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,440
And sometimes the days do run late.

860
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:25,240
That's how it goes.

861
00:45:25,240 --> 00:45:26,200
That's a business owner.

862
00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:30,840
And if you don't want to do that, go right back to CVS like me and you used to do.

863
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:35,000
Clock out when your shift is done and tell them to pound sand till I come back.

864
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:36,120
Not my problem.

865
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:37,640
Go get a nine to five.

866
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:39,480
Go get a two to 10, because that's what I had.

867
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:40,680
I had a two to 10.

868
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:44,120
I went in that Tuesday till 10, got off of work at 10.

869
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:46,200
And that sucks because you wake up tomorrow morning,

870
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:47,800
there's not enough time in a day to do anything.

871
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,360
I'm devoting my entire day to go work at CVS.

872
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,000
So there ain't nothing you could do between nine and two.

873
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:54,280
Your day is done.

874
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:56,120
So go out and go get a job.

875
00:45:56,120 --> 00:46:02,600
If you don't want the extra responsibilities of dedicating your time to your business

876
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:05,720
and getting better, because there is a humongous difference

877
00:46:05,720 --> 00:46:09,480
between signing the front of a check and signing the back of a check.

878
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:14,680
If you sign the back of a check, someone else has taken on every single burden of responsibility.

879
00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:16,840
They have made the money and they are paying you.

880
00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:20,360
If you are signing the front of a check, you are a business owner

881
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:22,040
and it's up to you to make sacrifice.

882
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:24,840
And if you want to get to the point where you're having an employee,

883
00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:30,600
where you're having a warehouse, where you're signing your name on the dotted line,

884
00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:36,360
you have brought yourself voluntarily an immense amount of responsibility.

885
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:39,480
No one is obligated to do anything that we're doing.

886
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:43,320
However, we all have voluntarily signed up to resell and sell on eBay.

887
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:45,560
We have voluntarily decided to do that.

888
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:50,760
With that voluntary decision, all of these things that we're talking about do come into play.

889
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:53,400
There is no two ways about it.

890
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:58,360
If you want work-life balance, you have to get your work done in the allotted time

891
00:46:58,360 --> 00:46:59,880
and then go do something else.

892
00:47:00,520 --> 00:47:06,040
If you want to be a business owner, you have to handle the responsibility,

893
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:10,760
the obligation and the duty, and you have to wake up every single day,

894
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,680
put your feet on the ground, and you and only you are responsible

895
00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:16,840
for getting the money, making your profit.

896
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:18,200
No one is coming to save you.

897
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:22,120
No one is a manager and you're going to work at their direction.

898
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:24,120
You have to be a self-starter.

899
00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:28,520
You have to be a problem solver, and you have to constantly ask yourself, why?

900
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:30,520
Why am I doing these things?

901
00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:32,360
Challenge the things inside of your business.

902
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:33,640
Challenge yourself.

903
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,480
A lot of us, we have limited beliefs.

904
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:40,280
We are capable of anything that we put our time to, put our education to,

905
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:42,360
put our skills, put our experience to.

906
00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:44,440
We can accomplish great things.

907
00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:49,320
But being a business owner is a much heavier burden and responsibility

908
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:50,680
than just clocking a paycheck.

909
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:55,720
And a lot of that burden and responsibility comes with doing these extra things,

910
00:47:55,720 --> 00:47:58,760
making their sacrifices, and putting in this additional time,

911
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:00,440
which a lot of people don't want to do.

912
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:06,200
So what I've noticed is a lot of the more successful people

913
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,240
have made their work life very simple.

914
00:48:09,240 --> 00:48:10,760
Everything is generally the same.

915
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:14,600
Their systems are refined to a point.

916
00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:21,640
But what I find more on the 6K figures, they try to reinvent the wheel so often

917
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:25,480
versus going simple over and over and over and over again.

918
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:29,560
And there are some people who do something very complicated

919
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:32,120
and are very successful with that overcomplication.

920
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:36,200
But by and large, the more the seven-figure, eight-figure people,

921
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:40,920
they just, it's just very, very simple and plain.

922
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:45,080
Why do you think we get in our own way with overcomplication?

923
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:48,760
Or we're trying to make better than sliced bread, essentially.

924
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:49,800
Why do we do this?

925
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:54,440
I think a lot of people, they think, they associate

926
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:05,000
difficulty and more complication with, I guess, less likelihood

927
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:06,280
to fail.

928
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:10,680
So for me, I grew a multimillion-dollar eBay business,

929
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:13,320
the number one in the entire world in my category.

930
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:15,560
By far, nobody was even close.

931
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:20,280
And it was built on plastic tubing, cardboard, and pieces of wood

932
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:21,240
that I drilled together.

933
00:49:21,240 --> 00:49:22,440
Like, that's what I built it on.

934
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:23,640
It was nothing fancy.

935
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:27,720
There was no robots or anything like that.

936
00:49:27,720 --> 00:49:30,520
It was low cost, no cost.

937
00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:33,160
Really breaking it down, bare bones down to zero.

938
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:38,680
And the way that I think reselling should be scaled, and it worked

939
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:42,520
for my business, is to make sure that you can get yourself to a

940
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:46,680
point where you can make a carbon copy of whatever you're doing,

941
00:49:46,680 --> 00:49:48,680
and then that doubles the business.

942
00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:51,480
So for me, I had my photo set up.

943
00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:53,160
I was able to do 120.

944
00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:56,680
So why don't I get an employee and then have them have the same

945
00:49:56,680 --> 00:49:59,080
exact setup, and then they can do 120.

946
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,080
So now I've gotten an employee.

947
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:04,760
I've assumed that burden and responsibility, but I've doubled

948
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:06,120
the output of the business.

949
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:10,200
And their station, believe it or not, was an exact copy of my station.

950
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:11,720
It was a carbon copy.

951
00:50:11,720 --> 00:50:16,680
Same computer, same camera, same clicker, same carpet, same lights,

952
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:17,560
same everything.

953
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:20,120
It was an actual rubber stamp side by side.

954
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:24,040
Once that worked, then I got another one side by side by side.

955
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:26,680
Once that worked, side by side by side by side.

956
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:30,360
And it was like an assembly line all the way through.

957
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:34,120
So I could have built this out 40 different times all in the right

958
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:38,760
direction of the exact same thing just built out four different times.

959
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:42,120
And I could have built this out 40 different times if I had warehouse

960
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:43,240
space that would allow it.

961
00:50:43,240 --> 00:50:46,680
That way, that method was going to work forever.

962
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:50,280
Could I have made it more complicated and added a whole bunch of other

963
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:50,760
stuff?

964
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:54,120
Maybe I could have, but the way that I listed my very last piece of

965
00:50:54,120 --> 00:50:57,880
clothing on eBay was the same exact way that I listed my first piece

966
00:50:57,880 --> 00:50:59,000
of clothing on eBay.

967
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:03,560
I just did more of it, refined it a little bit more, made a couple

968
00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:08,120
improvements, gained some experience to the reps, the repetitions that I

969
00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:11,160
was putting in, and gradually got faster.

970
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:18,920
So when I had the goal of doing 250 a day, I had three people taking

971
00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:20,600
photos, three people doing listings.

972
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:21,480
So the same three people.

973
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:22,200
I didn't have six.

974
00:51:22,200 --> 00:51:24,600
They were taking photos and they were doing listings.

975
00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:27,640
So they would all get to the amount of listings that we needed.

976
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:32,840
We needed 360 a day because I needed to do seven days worth of work in

977
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:35,320
five days because people work five days, not seven.

978
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:37,080
Only business owners work seven.

979
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:39,080
So they would go home Saturday and Sunday.

980
00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:43,240
So they needed to get to 360 a day in order for me to have 257 days a

981
00:51:43,240 --> 00:51:43,800
week.

982
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:46,680
When we first started doing that, they would be able to get all the

983
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:48,600
photos done, but not all the listings done.

984
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:51,880
I would have to spend a couple hours drafting the rest of the listings.

985
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:54,840
A couple of weeks go by, they're able to get all the photos done and all

986
00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:55,560
the listings done.

987
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:56,840
I didn't change anything.

988
00:51:56,840 --> 00:51:59,960
A couple of more weeks, a couple of more months go by, they're able to

989
00:51:59,960 --> 00:52:03,160
get all the photos done, all the listings done and get a head start

990
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:04,040
for the next day.

991
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:05,160
I didn't have to do anything.

992
00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:11,080
Eventually they got so good at getting, you know, 360 items done every

993
00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:13,880
single day that we became 11 days ahead.

994
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:16,360
That's how fast they were doing it.

995
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:17,800
I didn't change anything.

996
00:52:17,800 --> 00:52:22,440
They just got faster by them having the muscle memory, figuring out little

997
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:26,280
things that worked individually for them to speed up their process, getting

998
00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:30,520
better at the listing process, you know, listing basically with their eyes

999
00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:34,280
closed and by them just repeating the process, they got better.

1000
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:39,720
So when you have a business, the first hire that a business makes is going

1001
00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:40,760
to be a generalist.

1002
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:43,400
It's going to be someone that does the exact same thing as you.

1003
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:48,120
You want to double the output of the business and a lot of resellers, they

1004
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:52,920
hire for the reason of, I don't like to do this, so I'm going to hire this

1005
00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:53,560
out.

1006
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:57,800
And when we hire for, I don't like to do this, so I'm going to hire it out,

1007
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:01,000
your output never increases.

1008
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:06,440
So if I don't like to take photos and I don't like to list, I love to source

1009
00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:07,400
and do everything else.

1010
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:12,440
I'm going to hire a photo and a lister to do the same 20 that I used to do.

1011
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:15,960
Technically speaking, you have voluntarily taking a pay cut because

1012
00:53:15,960 --> 00:53:20,440
you are paying somebody to do the same 20 that you used to do without them.

1013
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:24,520
So if you're going to hire somebody, your output needs to go to 40 in order

1014
00:53:24,520 --> 00:53:30,520
to afford and offset the new financial burden that you have instituted into

1015
00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:31,160
your business.

1016
00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:34,920
And whenever you hear me talk about the business, the business is sitting

1017
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:36,120
right here next to me.

1018
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:39,560
They are a silent participant in this podcast.

1019
00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:42,120
I am not speaking on behalf of my business.

1020
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:43,640
My business is over here.

1021
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:45,320
It has its own EIN.

1022
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:48,440
The United States of America looks at it as its own person.

1023
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:49,720
This is not me.

1024
00:53:49,720 --> 00:53:55,400
I have to, my duty is to make the correct decisions for my business in the

1025
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:57,240
best interest of my business.

1026
00:53:57,240 --> 00:54:02,520
And if I'm going to hire someone for my business, it's going to be in the

1027
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:04,040
best interest of the business.

1028
00:54:04,040 --> 00:54:07,560
And when you hire people in the best interest of the business, you also have

1029
00:54:07,560 --> 00:54:10,680
to fire people in the best interest of your business.

1030
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:12,680
And that's a part that comes with it as well.

1031
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:17,240
So if we are going to hire someone, our first hire is usually a generalist,

1032
00:54:17,240 --> 00:54:20,520
someone that does everything that we do, mirrors what we do.

1033
00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:21,800
If we ship, they help ship.

1034
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:23,000
If we pack, they help pack.

1035
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:24,360
If we photograph, they help photograph.

1036
00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:25,640
That's what I want.

1037
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:29,080
A lot of people, their first hire in reselling is a specialist.

1038
00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:33,320
A specialist is someone who is going to take away from the business without

1039
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:34,600
increasing the bottom line.

1040
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:40,200
So a specialist would be in the conventional world, a HR person.

1041
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:43,080
HR is not driving revenue and putting product out the door.

1042
00:54:43,080 --> 00:54:47,480
A specialist would be someone that specializes maybe in law.

1043
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:49,080
Maybe you have to hire a lawyer.

1044
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:52,840
The lawyer is not driving revenue and bringing money to the bottom line.

1045
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:54,840
That person is costing you money.

1046
00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:59,560
So the first hire most businesses should make is a generalist, someone that

1047
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:02,600
does the exact same thing as you and can double the output.

1048
00:55:02,600 --> 00:55:07,240
Once you've hired enough generalists and your output has grown by so much,

1049
00:55:07,240 --> 00:55:11,640
and now you start having people problems, which means you have so many people and

1050
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:15,480
everything is moving smoothly, that's when you hire a specialist.

1051
00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:17,240
That's when you hire a manager.

1052
00:55:17,240 --> 00:55:19,320
That's when you hire someone for HR.

1053
00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:22,520
A manager isn't pushing the blue button on a reselling business.

1054
00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:25,320
A manager is an outsourcing for a reselling business.

1055
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:28,840
Very few businesses get to this point, but you understand the point that I'm

1056
00:55:28,840 --> 00:55:29,800
trying to make.

1057
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:34,600
When we hire a specialist, the output doesn't go up.

1058
00:55:34,600 --> 00:55:39,640
We're just subcontracting out a portion of what we don't want to do.

1059
00:55:39,640 --> 00:55:43,640
Every single time that I've made a hire, it's been a rubber stamp, double the

1060
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:44,360
output.

1061
00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:49,000
Eventually, you build a business that hires only specialists.

1062
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:51,640
The hugest companies, they don't have generalists.

1063
00:55:51,640 --> 00:55:53,640
They have everyone that is a specialist.

1064
00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:54,840
They have a PR person.

1065
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:57,640
They have someone that only cleans, someone that only does it.

1066
00:55:57,640 --> 00:55:59,640
They're filled with only specialists.

1067
00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:03,640
But for us, our hires need to be generalists.

1068
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:05,640
They need to be side by side with us.

1069
00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:09,640
And every single time that we make a hire, the output needs to go up

1070
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:10,640
proportionally.

1071
00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:16,640
So for us, when we were listing 360 a day, that was 120 every single person.

1072
00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:21,640
If I had a $20 profit, that's $2,400 a day in profit for every single person

1073
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:22,640
that I hired.

1074
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:25,640
And I was paying $20 an hour, so I was paying 160.

1075
00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:31,640
So it was costing me $160 to put up $2,400 in profit every single day.

1076
00:56:31,640 --> 00:56:36,640
A million dollars in profit every single day for $160 was my cost.

1077
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:43,640
Now, if I hired someone for $160 and said, I'm not going to list anymore.

1078
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:46,640
You're just going to do my same 120.

1079
00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:51,640
The business would have still sold the same amount, but I would be out $40,000

1080
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:55,640
as a voluntary pay cut because now I'm paying this person to do a portion or

1081
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:57,640
a piece of what I used to do.

1082
00:56:57,640 --> 00:57:02,640
So even though I was hiring people, I was still doing the work right along with

1083
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:07,640
them because as you hire people, the revenue generation, the profit should

1084
00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:12,640
also increase proportionally to the people that you are bringing around.

1085
00:57:12,640 --> 00:57:17,640
And that's why for me, when I reached 100,000 or when I did my first hire,

1086
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:19,640
that's why my business exploded.

1087
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:26,640
So in 2019, I did $1.2 million, almost $1.3, and I did that by myself, no

1088
00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:27,640
employees.

1089
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:30,640
When COVID hit, I started really paying attention more to eBay because

1090
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:31,640
everything was shut down.

1091
00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:32,640
I was forced to do so.

1092
00:57:32,640 --> 00:57:34,640
That was the only thing that I could do.

1093
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:43,640
And from 2020 to 2022, I built the company from $1 million to $5 million in

1094
00:57:43,640 --> 00:57:44,640
sales.

1095
00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:46,640
That's because I was adding people.

1096
00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:47,640
I was adding processes.

1097
00:57:47,640 --> 00:57:52,640
I was adding more revenue generating arms of the business.

1098
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:54,640
I also opened up a brick and mortar store.

1099
00:57:54,640 --> 00:57:56,640
I started doing a little bit on whatnot.

1100
00:57:56,640 --> 00:58:01,640
I started dabbling into the wholesale, where now it's only wholesale and the

1101
00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:05,640
business has just increased from there.

1102
00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:09,640
So I think that's where a lot of people get stuck is that they start hiring

1103
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:14,640
people and maybe they hire too many specialists right at that point to do

1104
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:17,640
portions of the business that they don't want to do.

1105
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:20,640
And when you do that, you take a voluntary pay cut rather than hiring

1106
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:24,640
someone who's going to work alongside you, be the same generalist.

1107
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:28,640
Almost have their own eBay business inside of your eBay business.

1108
00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:31,640
And then they could just list their items, sell their items, and you just

1109
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:34,640
keep doing that same way, same thing.

1110
00:58:34,640 --> 00:58:37,640
I've got a fun hypothetical for you because I've had a discussion with

1111
00:58:37,640 --> 00:58:43,640
people that lived in high expense states like California and New York.

1112
00:58:43,640 --> 00:58:47,640
So if you were to live in one of these particular states, would your volume

1113
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:51,640
or the type of items you were to do in these states, would they have to

1114
00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:56,640
increase to basically make, like I live in Texas, make the equivalent, I

1115
00:58:56,640 --> 00:59:00,640
would probably have to work maybe half as less, I think, than if I were to

1116
00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:04,640
live in California or New York, honestly.

1117
00:59:04,640 --> 00:59:07,640
So I've had the pleasure of going to both recently.

1118
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:11,640
I was in California for about three weeks, New York City for a month.

1119
00:59:11,640 --> 00:59:16,640
I actually hit a thrift route in New York City, downtown Manhattan, on foot

1120
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:19,640
it was a five and a half mile thrift route.

1121
00:59:19,640 --> 00:59:22,640
I could have did it in a car, but I did it on foot.

1122
00:59:22,640 --> 00:59:24,640
I went to about five or six stores.

1123
00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:29,640
My average cost of goods was $11.28 in New York City.

1124
00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:32,640
And Johnny B, he did the reaction I was looking for.

1125
00:59:32,640 --> 00:59:36,640
But my average sale price was $53.

1126
00:59:36,640 --> 00:59:37,640
There you go.

1127
00:59:37,640 --> 00:59:38,640
So it works.

1128
00:59:38,640 --> 00:59:40,640
It still works.

1129
00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:43,640
And may they have maybe challenges with storage?

1130
00:59:43,640 --> 00:59:44,640
Perhaps.

1131
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:47,640
I talked to a lady, her storage was in Staten Island.

1132
00:59:47,640 --> 00:59:50,640
So maybe she's got to jump on the Staten Island ferry and go over there and

1133
00:59:50,640 --> 00:59:51,640
ship and pack.

1134
00:59:51,640 --> 00:59:54,640
So there are going to be challenges for every single situation and scenario.

1135
00:59:54,640 --> 00:59:57,640
But when I went to New York City, I'll tell you this.

1136
00:59:57,640 --> 01:00:01,640
Down here in Florida, we have a pretty high cost of living as well.

1137
01:00:01,640 --> 01:00:04,640
The thrift store prices were the same.

1138
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:08,640
There was one store up there that was about 10 or 20% higher than the others,

1139
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:11,640
but we have stores down here that are 10 or 20% higher than the others too.

1140
01:00:11,640 --> 01:00:13,640
The thrift store prices were the same.

1141
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:15,640
The flea market prices were the same.

1142
01:00:15,640 --> 01:00:19,640
But in New York City, they don't have any junk.

1143
01:00:19,640 --> 01:00:22,640
The stuff that they have over there is fantastic stuff.

1144
01:00:22,640 --> 01:00:27,640
Where for me, I have to sift through a lot of junk to find winners.

1145
01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:29,640
They have really good stuff up there.

1146
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:33,640
So maybe your infrastructure cost is going to be a little bit higher.

1147
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:36,640
Maybe the rent for your apartment is going to be higher.

1148
01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:37,640
Maybe.

1149
01:00:37,640 --> 01:00:42,640
But you can spend $10, $20 per item in New York City.

1150
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:44,640
And you can get $100 profit items.

1151
01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:47,640
And I did that two weekends in a row at the flea market.

1152
01:00:47,640 --> 01:00:50,640
I did that at the thrift store.

1153
01:00:50,640 --> 01:00:55,640
I identified a vendor at the flea market who ended up having other stuff

1154
01:00:55,640 --> 01:00:56,640
where I went to their house.

1155
01:00:56,640 --> 01:00:58,640
I didn't know who they were.

1156
01:00:58,640 --> 01:00:59,640
I didn't have a car.

1157
01:00:59,640 --> 01:01:04,640
I got into an Uber, went to some city in New Jersey that was an hour away in an Uber,

1158
01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:09,640
and I bought $50,000 worth of stuff for retail price.

1159
01:01:09,640 --> 01:01:10,640
I bought it for $5,000.

1160
01:01:10,640 --> 01:01:14,640
And it ended up being a company that has 100% sell-through.

1161
01:01:14,640 --> 01:01:16,640
It's in the Lululemon category.

1162
01:01:16,640 --> 01:01:18,640
It has 100% sell-through.

1163
01:01:18,640 --> 01:01:22,640
But I found out, due to I started talking to people at the flea market,

1164
01:01:22,640 --> 01:01:27,640
I found out that this company had a storage unit where they used to store some of their items,

1165
01:01:27,640 --> 01:01:29,640
and they lost the storage unit.

1166
01:01:29,640 --> 01:01:34,640
So they had a whole bunch of stuff still brand new at Tags where someone won the storage unit on an auction,

1167
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:36,640
and now this stuff was out at the flea market.

1168
01:01:36,640 --> 01:01:43,640
So the thrift store, the street vendors, I got a $500 jacket off a street vendor for 20 bucks.

1169
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:46,640
I got a $300 jacket off a street vendor for 30 bucks.

1170
01:01:46,640 --> 01:01:48,640
There's money everywhere.

1171
01:01:48,640 --> 01:01:52,640
So while they do have some increased costs and overhead,

1172
01:01:52,640 --> 01:01:56,640
you can't just walk down the street in most cities,

1173
01:01:56,640 --> 01:02:01,640
and there's racks of clothing sitting there and pull out a $500 jacket for 20 bucks.

1174
01:02:01,640 --> 01:02:04,640
That pays your storage for the whole month, 20 bucks.

1175
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:09,640
Or have access to a tremendous flea market right across the river,

1176
01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:11,640
or network with these people.

1177
01:02:11,640 --> 01:02:12,640
There's stuff everywhere.

1178
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:16,640
When I went to California, I pulled $100,000 of stuff in California,

1179
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:21,640
dead stock from the back of some old building that had rats, roaches, water, and mildew.

1180
01:02:21,640 --> 01:02:23,640
The stuff is out there.

1181
01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:26,640
We just have to put ourselves in the position to go get it.

1182
01:02:26,640 --> 01:02:29,640
And as I go, and this is the thing, too,

1183
01:02:29,640 --> 01:02:32,640
you find all this stuff in the big city,

1184
01:02:32,640 --> 01:02:36,640
and they go, oh, well, you can only find all that stuff because it's in the big city.

1185
01:02:36,640 --> 01:02:38,640
Go to somewhere that's a small town.

1186
01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:41,640
I've gone to places where the town is 3,500 people.

1187
01:02:41,640 --> 01:02:43,640
I found plenty of stuff.

1188
01:02:43,640 --> 01:02:46,640
The place that I go to, all of the flea markets on my videos,

1189
01:02:46,640 --> 01:02:50,640
and I do this by my own initiative,

1190
01:02:50,640 --> 01:02:55,640
I go far away from my house because I don't want to go to my flea market where I'm El Presidente.

1191
01:02:55,640 --> 01:02:56,640
I've gone there for almost 20 years.

1192
01:02:56,640 --> 01:02:58,640
Everyone knows me. Everyone holds stuff.

1193
01:02:58,640 --> 01:03:01,640
I don't want to go to my flea market. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

1194
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:05,640
I wake up, I go four hours away where nobody knows me

1195
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:10,640
to a flea market that has more strawberries in their city than people,

1196
01:03:10,640 --> 01:03:12,640
and I still find a tremendous amount of items.

1197
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:17,640
And when I go to the big city, people say, well, try to do it in a small town.

1198
01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:20,640
When I do it in a small town, people say, well, there's no competition.

1199
01:03:20,640 --> 01:03:22,640
That's why you can do it in a small town.

1200
01:03:22,640 --> 01:03:24,640
So, like, you can't win.

1201
01:03:24,640 --> 01:03:27,640
So if you do it in a big city where all the competition is, you can't win.

1202
01:03:27,640 --> 01:03:29,640
You don't get credit for that.

1203
01:03:29,640 --> 01:03:33,640
You do it in a small town where there's no competition, but you still find items.

1204
01:03:33,640 --> 01:03:34,640
You don't get credit for that either.

1205
01:03:34,640 --> 01:03:37,640
So, like, at the end of the day, the stuff is out there.

1206
01:03:37,640 --> 01:03:38,640
The stuff is everywhere.

1207
01:03:38,640 --> 01:03:41,640
I have found it in towns with 3,500 people.

1208
01:03:41,640 --> 01:03:44,640
I have found it in towns with 13 million people.

1209
01:03:44,640 --> 01:03:49,640
And if you know what to do, you put boots on the ground, you get out there at the right time,

1210
01:03:49,640 --> 01:03:54,640
you ask the right questions, you don't beat people up, and you are a professional,

1211
01:03:54,640 --> 01:03:57,640
it's amazing what type of items you start to find.

1212
01:03:57,640 --> 01:04:02,640
See, it's funny you say this because in my book, there's about 25% of them are all in California.

1213
01:04:02,640 --> 01:04:07,640
And there's stuff they're pulling out just amazes me on the frequency they're able to pull this out from.

1214
01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:10,640
But it correlates to what on my sales, like where I'm sending my stuff,

1215
01:04:10,640 --> 01:04:12,640
because I track location where they're going.

1216
01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:14,640
A lot of them are going to California.

1217
01:04:14,640 --> 01:04:15,640
A lot of them are going to New York.

1218
01:04:15,640 --> 01:04:19,640
A lot of them are going to the high cost of living states that I mentioned.

1219
01:04:19,640 --> 01:04:26,640
So it's no wonder they're pulling it out more frequently because we're all selling it back to these high cost of living states.

1220
01:04:26,640 --> 01:04:28,640
And at the end of the day, we can move.

1221
01:04:28,640 --> 01:04:30,640
Like we could just move.

1222
01:04:30,640 --> 01:04:41,640
And like every single person that lives in a small podunk town is no more than a half day drive from a mega metropolitan area where they can go find stuff.

1223
01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:47,640
Like the way that the United States of America is built out, even if you live in the plains, you can go to Kansas City.

1224
01:04:47,640 --> 01:04:48,640
You could go to Omaha.

1225
01:04:48,640 --> 01:04:55,640
Like there's still places out there, even if you live in the middle of nowhere that are a half day away, six hours away.

1226
01:04:55,640 --> 01:05:00,640
Go drive six hours, source all day, get a hotel, drive six hours back.

1227
01:05:00,640 --> 01:05:02,640
You'll pay for your entire trip.

1228
01:05:02,640 --> 01:05:03,640
There's no doubt.

1229
01:05:03,640 --> 01:05:07,640
What do you feel about the natural progression of getting better sources?

1230
01:05:07,640 --> 01:05:11,640
Because I look back when I started, it was always like the goodwill, the Salvation Army.

1231
01:05:11,640 --> 01:05:16,640
And now I preach to everybody in my group, like let's rely on thrift stores last.

1232
01:05:16,640 --> 01:05:21,640
Right. Because now in our business, at least a lot of thrift stores scan the items and they keep the good stuff for themselves.

1233
01:05:21,640 --> 01:05:26,640
So I'm a huge proponent of all right, where can we get our stuff that isn't the thrift store?

1234
01:05:26,640 --> 01:05:29,640
Maybe go up a little bit and get better quality stuff.

1235
01:05:29,640 --> 01:05:33,640
And believe it or not, usually when you go up the river here a little bit, it's cheaper.

1236
01:05:33,640 --> 01:05:36,640
So not only do you get better quality, it's actually cheaper.

1237
01:05:36,640 --> 01:05:41,640
Do you think that kind of plays into the whole people aren't getting results or they're not what they used to be?

1238
01:05:41,640 --> 01:05:45,640
Because everybody just relies on that thrift store to have everything they need.

1239
01:05:45,640 --> 01:05:51,640
And in reality, it's changed so much over the past six months versus you were talking four years here.

1240
01:05:51,640 --> 01:05:56,640
So, so my disregard where the best items are, don't worry about that.

1241
01:05:56,640 --> 01:06:02,640
Only go to the closest thrift store to your house and only go there once a week.

1242
01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:05,640
I'm done, dude. I'm bankrupt. This is over.

1243
01:06:05,640 --> 01:06:08,640
Wouldn't that be utterly ridiculous to recommend?

1244
01:06:08,640 --> 01:06:10,640
But that's what people are doing.

1245
01:06:10,640 --> 01:06:20,640
Disregard where the best items are, only go to the three closest thrift stores to your house and get whatever they present you and then come back home.

1246
01:06:20,640 --> 01:06:22,640
That's what people are doing.

1247
01:06:22,640 --> 01:06:28,640
And if we sat here on this podcast and said, this is the official recommendation, disregard where the best items are,

1248
01:06:28,640 --> 01:06:34,640
only go to the closest bins to your house three times a week and the closest three thrift stores three times a week.

1249
01:06:34,640 --> 01:06:37,640
Find what they have there, bring it home and build your business on it.

1250
01:06:37,640 --> 01:06:41,640
By disregarding where the best stuff is, do that.

1251
01:06:41,640 --> 01:06:47,640
People would hear that and think that's utterly ridiculous and they don't understand that that's what they're doing.

1252
01:06:47,640 --> 01:06:53,640
They're disregarding where the best items are and only going to the most convenient place.

1253
01:06:53,640 --> 01:06:58,640
So I have a Goodwill, maybe six baseball throws from my house on a roll.

1254
01:06:58,640 --> 01:07:01,640
You let the ball roll. I could pick it up and throw it six times. I'll hit the Goodwill.

1255
01:07:01,640 --> 01:07:03,640
That Goodwill sucks.

1256
01:07:03,640 --> 01:07:09,640
It would be amazing if I can go to this Goodwill and I can get all of my sourcing done for the week.

1257
01:07:09,640 --> 01:07:11,640
However, that store sucks.

1258
01:07:11,640 --> 01:07:15,640
So at the peak of my thrifting route, I had to go to 55 stores.

1259
01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:20,640
Do you think all 55 of them were right outside of my neighborhood, six baseball throws away?

1260
01:07:20,640 --> 01:07:26,640
No, I'm driving hours and working my way back in one direction, driving hours, working my way back in another direction.

1261
01:07:26,640 --> 01:07:31,640
I'm waking up at four o'clock in the morning, going to the flea market three times a week.

1262
01:07:31,640 --> 01:07:34,640
Saturday and Sunday, I'm going to two different flea markets.

1263
01:07:34,640 --> 01:07:37,640
And in a lot of my videos, I'm going to multiple flea markets.

1264
01:07:37,640 --> 01:07:42,640
You have to put yourself in the best position to find the best items that you possibly can.

1265
01:07:42,640 --> 01:07:45,640
Not go to the most convenient place.

1266
01:07:45,640 --> 01:07:49,640
The most convenient place to me is this Goodwill. This Goodwill sucks.

1267
01:07:49,640 --> 01:07:54,640
So this is the difference between Goodwills, flea markets, garage sales, all of that.

1268
01:07:54,640 --> 01:08:01,640
The thrift stores will have a steady supply of the bread and butter items.

1269
01:08:01,640 --> 01:08:10,640
On a percent basis, you are more likely to run into a hundred dollar profit at a garage sale or flea market versus the thrift store.

1270
01:08:10,640 --> 01:08:18,640
On a percent basis, you are more likely to run into a Grand Sam item at the flea market or garage sale versus the thrift store.

1271
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:31,640
On a humongously disproportionate percentage, you are more likely to run into a business changing, life changing deal at a flea market, garage sale versus the thrift store.

1272
01:08:31,640 --> 01:08:36,640
I have got so many hundred dollar home runs at the flea markets at garage sale.

1273
01:08:36,640 --> 01:08:43,640
I've got so many 20 pieces that I'm going to make a thousand dollars on at the flea market at the garage sale.

1274
01:08:43,640 --> 01:08:49,640
I have got so many business changing, life changing deals at the flea market at the garage sale.

1275
01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:55,640
I've never walked into a thrift store and have found a deal where I'm going to make $10,000.

1276
01:08:55,640 --> 01:08:59,640
Have found a deal where I'm going to make $50,000, $20,000. I've never found that at the thrift store.

1277
01:08:59,640 --> 01:09:07,640
However, the thrift store is all reliable, constant supply, constant flow of these bread and butter items.

1278
01:09:07,640 --> 01:09:11,640
And the bread and butter items are the items that meet the metrics.

1279
01:09:11,640 --> 01:09:17,640
If your metric is as an example, and it could be anything, you can have a $10 profit in a six month sell through.

1280
01:09:17,640 --> 01:09:23,640
If every single item that you pick up meets that metric, great. You can have a $20 profit and a 90 day sell through. Great.

1281
01:09:23,640 --> 01:09:26,640
You can have a hundred dollar profit with a one day sell through.

1282
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:32,640
So long as every single item that you pick up meets, and this is the important part, meets the metric.

1283
01:09:32,640 --> 01:09:35,640
When we talk about meeting the metric, what does that mean?

1284
01:09:35,640 --> 01:09:41,640
That means those are the worst items that we pick up and accept into our business.

1285
01:09:41,640 --> 01:09:46,640
Every single item above a $20 profit is a better item.

1286
01:09:46,640 --> 01:09:51,640
Every single item above a 90 day sell through with a $20 profit is a better item.

1287
01:09:51,640 --> 01:09:58,640
So that metric of $20 profit and 90 day sell through, we're not tied and bound to that.

1288
01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:01,640
That's just the worst item that we're going to accept into our business.

1289
01:10:01,640 --> 01:10:06,640
And every single item is going to meet or exceed and be on top of that.

1290
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:15,640
So in reality, if your metric is $20 in a 90 day sell through, your average profit is going to be above $20 profit per item.

1291
01:10:15,640 --> 01:10:19,640
Because the worst item that you accept into your cart is $20.

1292
01:10:19,640 --> 01:10:28,640
And all of our business decisions as resellers start and end when we accept that item and we put it in our cart.

1293
01:10:28,640 --> 01:10:37,640
Because when we accept bad items and put them into our cart, every single business decision after that is how can we fix that problem that we just committed?

1294
01:10:37,640 --> 01:10:45,640
If you don't commit the problem, you can focus your attention and time on actually building your business and having those be your decisions.

1295
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:52,640
But if you accept garbage items into your cart, every single decision after that is trying to fix that problem that you just committed.

1296
01:10:52,640 --> 01:10:56,640
So, we're stores, they're great, they're fabulous.

1297
01:10:56,640 --> 01:11:06,640
But if you really want to make gains, if you really want to put yourself into a position where you are finding really fantastic items, they're not in the thrift store.

1298
01:11:06,640 --> 01:11:13,640
The thrift store is reliable, you can find $50 items, you can find $100 items every now and then you get lucky and find a $200 profit item. Great.

1299
01:11:13,640 --> 01:11:19,640
But the thrift stores are getting smarter. They're calling the inventory, they're putting it online.

1300
01:11:19,640 --> 01:11:25,640
And even if they're not profitable online, which we had this discussion this week in the group, even if Goodwill is not profitable,

1301
01:11:25,640 --> 01:11:36,640
which they are, even if they're not profitable, putting items on online and it's a waste of time and they're better served selling it in the Goodwill stores, that part doesn't matter.

1302
01:11:36,640 --> 01:11:49,640
They can be not profitable doing that. The problem is $100,000 a month we're taking out of that store that used to go into our pockets and is now going into a different endeavor for them, which may be profitable or not profitable.

1303
01:11:49,640 --> 01:11:58,640
That part doesn't matter. Those items have been eliminated from the store and given to someone else, whether it's an Amazon account. You know how many Goodwills have Amazon accounts?

1304
01:11:58,640 --> 01:12:03,640
You know how many Goodwills have eBay accounts? Some of the biggest accounts on eBay are Goodwills.

1305
01:12:03,640 --> 01:12:15,640
These items used to be in the store so we have to get better than them. We have to show up more often, we have to put in more reps, touch more clothing, gain more exposure and experience, and we have to outsmart them in their own game.

1306
01:12:15,640 --> 01:12:22,640
Goodwill is outsmarting a lot of people and that's why a lot of people are failing as well, in addition to everything that we've talked about.

1307
01:12:22,640 --> 01:12:29,640
We have to constantly put ourselves in the position where the best items are, not put ourselves in the most convenient position.

1308
01:12:29,640 --> 01:12:39,640
I have a Goodwill Binz that's literally within walking distance of me and I'll never go in there. They have nothing for me. People are like, man, if I had a Goodwill Binz, I'd be rich.

1309
01:12:39,640 --> 01:12:45,640
Maybe I should rent this place out and put in the listing. Great for a reseller because the Binz is within walking distance.

1310
01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:48,640
Excellent location. Give me 20 bucks and I'll tell you where it is.

1311
01:12:48,640 --> 01:13:05,640
I got two things for you. Based off everything you just said. Bread and butter, I think people get confused with junk a lot of the time because bread and butter to me, I see as like a Stephen King book versus James Patterson, which is an abundance.

1312
01:13:05,640 --> 01:13:10,640
Both are everywhere, but one I should pick up and one I should leave it where it lies.

1313
01:13:10,640 --> 01:13:19,640
And I'm wondering your thoughts on if most people still do not know what a bread and butter item is kind of deal.

1314
01:13:19,640 --> 01:13:24,640
Like both we're going to sell. It's just one's going to sell for 10 times the money.

1315
01:13:24,640 --> 01:13:52,640
Yeah, so I think that we should identify the metrics. The metrics are our desired profit in how long we want the item to sit and sell for. So how long do we want our money out before we realize the profit and those items that are kind of in that zone or in that area that that meet the metric, meet the sell through metric, the profit metric, and we kind of run across a lot like those are the bread and butter items, everything that is outside of that.

1316
01:13:52,640 --> 01:14:18,640
So if you want to make a $20 profit, the $50 profit items like those are the outliers. We don't always run across $50 profit items. But like the thing about outliers is outliers don't scale the bread and the bread and butter, the desired metric, those items that we constantly run into and constantly, you know, kind of keep the gas in the engine or like those old steam locomotives where you constantly got to fire and coal to keep them going.

1317
01:14:18,640 --> 01:14:34,640
So that's the bread and butter, the foundation of our business in respects to our product offering. Anything like in that next kind of echelon of items, those are going to be those outliers, those more profitable items, those home run items, those Grand Slam items.

1318
01:14:34,640 --> 01:14:51,640
So both of them, we need both of them. And we also need deals and I was talking about this the other day. We need like deals, we need to come across those items where we can make 500 bucks when we buy 10 of them, where we can make 1000 bucks when we buy 20 of them.

1319
01:14:51,640 --> 01:15:06,640
And like when you go to the flea market, we need to find the people that have the items on a reoccurring basis. Like we need to walk across that vendor who's got $500 worth of stuff and he's selling it for 50 bucks.

1320
01:15:06,640 --> 01:15:16,640
Like we need those deals too. And like if we can get the bread and butter, we can get our outliers and we can run across those deals, then you become unstoppable.

1321
01:15:16,640 --> 01:15:24,640
I agree. And my next one here, I said this on a podcast not too long ago and they probably hate me for saying this. Hi, Hunley and Sam.

1322
01:15:24,640 --> 01:15:37,640
I said most people probably should stop doing lots or bundles or assembly of these items to try to make a dollar off this massive quantity you acquired somehow some way.

1323
01:15:37,640 --> 01:15:54,640
And I see this in the book world so so much, probably in the media world in general. I have all this extra stuff, it can't stand on its own. So let me try to put it together with some similar type things, throw it up to make it a passable as if it were one item metric item.

1324
01:15:54,640 --> 01:16:04,640
That's an absorbed amount of time to do in scale and I just, I'd rather just list a single item that can stand on its own. What are your thoughts on doing lots versus not doing lots?

1325
01:16:04,640 --> 01:16:18,640
When is the appropriate time to do lots? So for me personally I've never done lots and I don't know how well they work in the clothing, you know, sphere but because like if I list five Tommy Bahamas shirts, without a doubt you're going to get the message of going,

1326
01:16:18,640 --> 01:16:32,640
oh I only want the green one, can you separate? So I've never done that before and then, and I think that selling lots on eBay is challenging because eBay is set up usually just for one item so I think it's a little bit challenging, but it just comes down to just the opportunity cost.

1327
01:16:32,640 --> 01:16:51,640
Like you said, the time it takes to set up a lot, like, dude it could take you 30 minutes to photograph a lot of items. Are you better off taking 30 minutes to photograph this lot that's going to sell for X, or are you better off just doing what you're supposed to do for 30 minutes

1328
01:16:51,640 --> 01:17:12,640
that's going to sell for X? So if you spend 30 minutes to do this, sells for 50 bucks, could you list enough items in the next half hour that can get you 100 bucks or can get you $51 or 200, whatever it may be, and odds are is, if you just spend your time doing what you're supposed to be doing, you're going to outperform whatever lot is.

1329
01:17:12,640 --> 01:17:24,640
Otherwise, why are every single YouTube channel or every single reseller on the face of the earth, why is every single listing not lots? Like if lots are the way to go, like why isn't that like the official recommendation?

1330
01:17:24,640 --> 01:17:28,640
Just have a giant floor space of just piles of what you're going to be listing.

1331
01:17:28,640 --> 01:17:29,640
Yeah.

1332
01:17:29,640 --> 01:17:31,640
It doesn't work.

1333
01:17:31,640 --> 01:17:57,640
I want to get into the idea of eBay, you have your days, you mark things down in days. I think the big thing I realize is, you might have a desirable item, but the price is out of line. And when I used to do eBay half-assed, I'll be the first to admit, I never went back a single time and like check to see if the markets changed or maybe you or Johnny came on the listing with a quantity of 50 and undercut me.

1334
01:17:57,640 --> 01:18:16,640
And is that like a big reason why people don't get their money because I'm a firm believer now that I'm in the same mindset you have is, I'm not getting paid to the item sells, right? So if maybe when I listed it, it was a potential $20 bill, but if I lower today and take my $3 that I can actually get if I drop it down, I'm going to take that $3.

1335
01:18:16,640 --> 01:18:24,640
You think a lot of resellers just don't go back and revisit the items they listed and that's where all their money's tied up and that's why they wind up going away.

1336
01:18:24,640 --> 01:18:33,640
So no one wants the item is reason number one, people like to list a lot of stuff that they think are cool, but it's not good.

1337
01:18:33,640 --> 01:18:46,640
Someone likes the item, but it's only one person on the face of the earth and it takes them a long time to find your item that sell through that that's where number two is number three is like you're saying, maybe you see a comp.

1338
01:18:46,640 --> 01:18:57,640
That was an astronomical outlier and you go Oh, this is market price that happened one time, maybe you see a couple that that that was maybe an outlier you price it at that.

1339
01:18:57,640 --> 01:19:05,640
Maybe the market has decreased. Maybe there's an error in the listing maybe there's a typo in the title maybe you put short instead of shirt that happens a lot.

1340
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:19,640
Maybe you have, you know, some sort of discrepancy between title photo and item specifics maybe the title says extra large, the photograph says large the item specific says large that causes customer confusion so that's going to happen.

1341
01:19:19,640 --> 01:19:31,640
Maybe some items just fall through the cracks, and that's what happens sometimes too like so for me when I sold clothing. I used to concentrate on maybe 30 to 50 brands so I would get the same type of items all the time.

1342
01:19:31,640 --> 01:19:45,640
And some items, exactly the same would sell all the time, but there would always be one that kind of like fell through the crack and worked its way down and no one ever got it that's just how things go sometimes maybe it has a flaw, maybe something so there's some kind

1343
01:19:45,640 --> 01:19:56,640
of discrepancy on the listing for whatever reason doesn't result in a sale. So you can you can go back, audit the listing and ask yourself figure out why is this item not selling.

1344
01:19:56,640 --> 01:20:11,640
Let's, you know, revisit the price okay the price is good. Let's revisit our title are we do we have like a generic title, where we are saturating our own opportunity of selling the item, because we're using the keywords that every single person on the face

1345
01:20:11,640 --> 01:20:23,640
of the earth already knows like casual or long sleeve like no one is searching for that like no one types in, you know, I collect dollar bills casual shirt they don't type that in.

1346
01:20:23,640 --> 01:20:32,640
And if you had the pertinent keyword, and you may be included my name into that shirt that you're wearing, someone will actually find it and it's going to come up.

1347
01:20:32,640 --> 01:20:48,640
So like, we have to ask ourselves, are the keywords pertinent to the item, are we, are we creating separations from the competition of everyone else that lists on eBay and if everyone else that lists on eBay is very generic, you know very intermediate

1348
01:20:48,640 --> 01:20:59,640
level of knowledge and you have a better level of knowledge and you can identify a keyword like for a hiking item maybe ripstop, because for a hiker maybe ripstop is important.

1349
01:20:59,640 --> 01:21:09,640
But if you don't have ripstop and they search for, you know, Patagonia ripstop pants. 99% of people have been eliminated from the game, they're done.

1350
01:21:09,640 --> 01:21:27,640
So if you people know the keyword, they have ripstop now you have a 33% chance of getting sold. First a point 0000 33% chance of getting sold. So having that identifiable marker that that that pertinent keyword that your customer is actually going to search,

1351
01:21:27,640 --> 01:21:43,640
that will help you to so rework the price, identify and assess the market, put in keywords that actually move the needle not junk keywords, make sure all of your item specifics match the photo photo matches the title, and if everything is good and it still doesn't

1352
01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:52,640
sell, we have to ask ourselves does anybody want this we asked to ask ourselves, does anybody want this in the amount of time that I'm comfortable presenting this item for sale.

1353
01:21:52,640 --> 01:22:02,640
And then the item gets marked down and we make it more enticing because every single item on the face of the earth has a one day sell through at a certain price.

1354
01:22:02,640 --> 01:22:17,640
Can you afford to sell your item for the one day sell through magical pricing the answer is usually no, we usually need to make a profit, but like the closer we can get to that 100% one day sell through and still afford us the margin that we're looking for

1355
01:22:17,640 --> 01:22:29,640
that's the spot that our price that our items should be priced because for me, I don't care what the market says I disregard the market. If Johnny B want to sell his items for $20 and I want to sell mine for 18.

1356
01:22:29,640 --> 01:22:39,640
Good luck Johnny B he's out of business Johnny B's business is not my concern. The eBay business the eBay market is not my concern my market is my market I have bills to pay.

1357
01:22:39,640 --> 01:22:52,640
If you're coming up to me and going yo looks like you had a tough time on eBay this month you need a little bit of help on the bills, it ain't happening. So your market is your market bless your heart on your market, but if I can get this item $2 cheaper,

1358
01:22:52,640 --> 01:23:01,640
and I can make the same margin as Johnny B but I can be $2 cheaper and Johnny B can't be $2 cheaper, because he paid too much or his overhead infrastructure is too high.

1359
01:23:01,640 --> 01:23:13,640
Good luck to Johnny B that's not my problem my problem is a selling problem. Every single reseller has a selling problem. We all have selling problem, we have selling problems because we all need to sell more items.

1360
01:23:13,640 --> 01:23:24,640
So forget what the market is, I need to make this amount of profit in this amount of time. Good luck to everybody else and every single time someone else makes a sale. I take it personal.

1361
01:23:24,640 --> 01:23:34,640
I shouldn't get sales, I should get all the sales. So I want to operate and conduct my business in this manner, and I don't care about Johnny B's business I don't care about your business.

1362
01:23:34,640 --> 01:23:44,640
I care about my business, putting food on my plate, building my business and that is the United States of America in a nutshell we are a capitalist society. They don't care about your business.

1363
01:23:44,640 --> 01:23:49,640
They care about making money. And until we understand this. Nothing else matters.

1364
01:23:49,640 --> 01:24:03,640
I'm so glad you said this because we had somebody on the media call, I won't disclose her name so I won't embarrass her. But she was mentioning how she couldn't compete with high end media sellers like secondhand sale, big time media player.

1365
01:24:03,640 --> 01:24:07,640
Do you think they care? No, they don't. They don't care.

1366
01:24:07,640 --> 01:24:19,640
And I made a sale, and I pulled it up and I showed her, see second sales price at $8, me over here, $30, still sold mine because look at my listing compared to theirs.

1367
01:24:19,640 --> 01:24:30,640
Technically they should have way faster sell their over mine but again quality listing and doing the rules of eBay, the algorithm, knowing how to do it properly.

1368
01:24:30,640 --> 01:24:54,640
And I also told her to stop doing lots. That's why we also we also don't know how many they've sold at $8 for you to sell yours. Right, they're going to sell 10,000 more items than me on any given Sunday, because they're that gigantic so they don't care if they're selling this for $8 or 80 cents probably because they can just put more up continuously.

1369
01:24:54,640 --> 01:25:11,640
I mean, you just summed everything up I think we're going to wrap it up here. What you just said is like that, that three minute. You got to get your money, like who cares what else is going on like that is that is I try to tell people there's so much like you have to get paid to be in business

1370
01:25:11,640 --> 01:25:28,640
right and like, I'll take. I got 4500 items at Amazon, if somebody came to me today and said, Mike, I'll give you, you'll make $3 on every single item. Sure I got some items in there that are 2030 4050 profit, I'm taking that money today because technically we should be a better business owner,

1371
01:25:28,640 --> 01:25:44,640
and we can find better items better brands, and we can just rinse and repeat this right, but if you don't have the mentality of it's all out there for the taking you just got to be willing to do it, then you're always stuck in well I can't I can't make the bills my items don't sell and I'm just glad you, you dove in the YouTube

1372
01:25:44,640 --> 01:25:59,640
the way you did because it's always there for people to just be like, well, there's no difference between tech and somebody else who shows up at that flame market besides him just going in having a conversation and knowing what to look for anybody can do what you do like

1373
01:25:59,640 --> 01:26:08,640
and I, that's how you come off and that's how you are right you, you're not like well I'm special you're like, no, you can do this, anybody can do this.

1374
01:26:08,640 --> 01:26:21,640
And I show people exactly where I go exactly what time I show up exactly who I buy from everything, and there's nothing fancy I record the videos on a cracked phone.

1375
01:26:21,640 --> 01:26:32,640
I record my podcast on a laptop with no special camera on headphones from a galaxy s 10 these headphones are probably 10 years old in an empty room.

1376
01:26:32,640 --> 01:26:46,640
All of this on purpose. All of this is to show that you don't need anything special to get started you just need to get started. Could I have a nice fancy background like like our good friend down here with the library behind us I sure could but for me.

1377
01:26:46,640 --> 01:26:48,640
I have nothing.

1378
01:26:48,640 --> 01:27:02,640
I have nothing. I have no special talents no special advantages the only advantage is that I put myself in the best opportunity to find the best items, that's it, and it's best items, best price, not best price, best items.

1379
01:27:02,640 --> 01:27:10,640
I want to pay fair price for a fair item. I don't want to get everything for a penny and find the best items that I can for one penny that's a different model.

1380
01:27:10,640 --> 01:27:25,640
So, we don't need anything we just got to wake up every single day. Take action, don't listen to this as if it was the TV. There's much better stuff out there on TV go watch, maybe LeBron tonight or go watch desperate housewives watch whatever you want

1381
01:27:25,640 --> 01:27:36,640
they're more entertaining than this. Listen to this and take action. If you're going to listen to this and take no action, then you've done yourself and your business a disservice.

1382
01:27:36,640 --> 01:27:49,640
Yeah, and just necessarily just because somebody's on a different platform or has a different business model, like, I'll probably never sell on eBay again but like I take things away from what you say in the podcast don't don't let that limiting belief that just because

1383
01:27:49,640 --> 01:28:01,640
somebody's on a different platform has a different business model that you can't still learn from them I mean, we talked about it earlier, all the coaches from your, your, you know, patreon group we've had on completely different business models and every single conversation

1384
01:28:01,640 --> 01:28:14,640
there's something I can take away and I'll never sell on Poshmark I'll never, you know, do do the categories they do I'll never sell a car part I can't even fix a car to, you know, I could barely pump gas in the thing but you take things away from business model so we

1385
01:28:14,640 --> 01:28:27,640
appreciate you. And next year will be round three. Well, you know, and that'll be exciting so yeah man. Why was links down below most of you know where he's at but I'll tag them down below and thanks for hanging out with us tech as always.

1386
01:28:27,640 --> 01:28:41,640
Thank you both of you guys for having me on again I always enjoy talking to you guys and usually I like my podcast like everyone else does all the talking so it's, it's interesting sometimes to have the tables turn and have questions posed towards you so I do

1387
01:28:41,640 --> 01:28:54,640
appreciate all of you guys always and you summed it up pretty good like when I listened to Johnny be on the media call like I can learn stuff even though I don't sell media I don't sell on Amazon listen to Jared with the car parts I don't sell car parts but it's just, it's

1388
01:28:54,640 --> 01:29:09,640
interesting to listen to I like to be absorbed into the entire just reselling atmosphere and I think just like surrounding yourself with people that are, you know, doing things, being productive being actionable people that are better than you.

1389
01:29:09,640 --> 01:29:26,640
And I think you know you can only go up and only you know, excel, what you are already trying to do so you know it doesn't take any special talent or skill to do this but you just have to do it and do the same thing on a daily basis it's mundane it's boring at times

1390
01:29:26,640 --> 01:29:36,640
but you know we could all be out there digging ditches as well so we gotta put everything into perspective. We appreciate you will talk to everybody in next week's episode.

1391
01:29:36,640 --> 01:29:51,640
Thanks for listening to another episode of the resellers mindset podcast. Today's full episode and all previous episodes are available to all YouTube members, along with the weekly zoom call and private discord, head on over to youtube.com backslash to use book

1392
01:29:51,640 --> 01:30:07,640
and we'll be streaming for as little as 299 a month.