Welcome back to another episode of the Reseller's
Mindset Podcast. My name is Mike, also known
as the Used Book Guy on YouTube, along with my
friend and fellow full -time reseller, Johnny
B. We help people start and grow their reselling
businesses from the ground up. We also have a
weekly Zoom call and private Discord for all
YouTube members. Head on over to youtube .com
backslash usedbookguy to join the channel and
gain access to the full -length podcast, Zoom
call, and private Discord today. Let's get into
this week's episode. What is up, everybody? Welcome
to another episode of Resellers Mindset Podcast.
Mike next to Johnny. And I am going to be greedy
today. This podcast is going to be all about
me, Johnny. And you're just going to have to
chime in. And is it the We Roast Mike podcast?
It kind of sort of is, but it's in a good way
of roasting myself and you roasting me as well,
because if I can do this business the way I've
been doing it and making the money I make. I
am a true firm believer that anybody can do this
business, right? So why would I say that, right?
Why, if Mike can do it, why can anybody do it?
Well, as we know, I don't know nothing about
any type of books, right? Johnny, ask me a general
question knowledge about somebody that's been
selling books for four or five years now should
know. Name a valuable book. Just one. anything
signed maybe even that's really not true but
i mean like any specifics i have no idea you
could ask me like what were the band dr seuss
books right like i can't i can't tell you i can't
what who who wrote this famous book who wrote
that famous book right i have no idea about anything
so that's the first one that smacks you all upside
the head is probably every single person listening
to this Knows more about media than I do. Right.
So like you automatically have a leg up. Right.
I mean, there's nothing special about anything
I do. The next thing that makes this business
kind of foolproof and why I started the YouTube
channel, why I believe anybody can do this is
because it's just. It's busy work, right? I think
it's work ethic and busy work. I do believe you
get out what you put in with Amazon, right? For
those watching, I got my little scanner here
on the video. It's just a little Bluetooth scanner.
All I do is just scan stuff, Johnny. There's
no, I don't have any proprietary information.
And like, let's be real. My whole business model
is on YouTube, right? It's not like me and Johnny
have these super secret meetings where we do
things completely opposite of what we talk about.
Everything I've ever done with any software in
the history of my business or any type of big
plays I made because I decided to do something
differently. Like it is all out there for, you
know, the copy pasting to happen. And you don't
really have to differentiate yourself so much
from what I put out there to actually make a
lot of money. I think I think everybody should
be selling media on Amazon right now if you're
a reseller. That's how high I think the upside
is. And that's. how much of this stuff is out
there for the taking. Yeah. I mean, the thing
with you though, is you, you do a short amount
of man hours per se, but with those man hours,
it counts. And so I'm going to say this, you
found the smartest way to be the laziest Amazon
seller there was, and you make a lot more money
than a lot of Amazon sellers for the amount of
time you put in. That's what I'm saying. So like
why, Why doesn't everybody do this? That's why
I believe anybody can do this because I don't,
I'm not out there doing, you know, crazy hours.
Like, yeah, I'm working more this year, but like,
if we compare it to how much I'm working this
year versus having a job, like it's still nowhere
even close. Right. So if you can figure out a
way to make twice as much money to work half
the amount of hours, and we'll just call this
the lazy route. It's not lazy. It's, it's using
your time efficiently, really. So, you know,
when you're going to go source, you know, when
you're going to do your listing and packing for
Amazon and you know, when you're going to do
your bookkeeping and then that's on top of managing
a personal life and cat life and doing the ins
and outs of your paperwork and your business.
What is like, so the struggle is what, what would
stop somebody from doing, you know, I'm looking
at my past 30 day sales here on Amazon. I've
done 17 .7 K in the past 30 days. Like I struggle.
This is a struggle I've always had with what
is, what stops people from getting the results
I get? Is it, is it work ethic? Are they not
actually out there scanning the items? Is it,
I don't know what it is, man. And it's hard for
me because I know I don't work hard, right? Like
Deb even makes fun of me someday. She's like,
how the hell do you sell this much on Amazon?
You don't even know how to crack an egg open,
right? And I think to myself like, well, she
ain't wrong, right? Like I'm not out here touting
myself as some genius. I think it all just boils
down to. putting in the work and scanning as
many items as you possibly can and maybe that's
it because when i go into a store i still scan
90 95 of the shelf i don't play the game of trying
to pick out which ones are worth it which ones
aren't worth it and you'd be surprised at what
i pulled that i know other people don't scan
i would say work ethics probably the biggest
factor for you uh and for myself honestly um
and You take the time to research or try hard
through it, meaning you're teaching yourself
how to do it, than most people are willing to
do ever. Like when you were setting up Scoutly
or let's call it Scout IQ back in the day, I
am sure you researched how to do it. How many
videos did you watch? How many Facebook posts
did you watch or post in? I don't know, the book
flipper community back when Caleb was doing his
thing. He was around and he was available. Most
people don't do that. And I'm going to yell at
people in our Discord. That question channel,
I'm about to delete it. Unless you guys ask proper,
non -Google -able questions. Google the fucking
shit, you motherfuckers. They have to bleep me
out there, but I'm getting fed up with that channel.
You guys aren't even Googling it. You should
just put Ask Google First as the little thing
on the side instead of questions. It should be
the Ask Google First channel. I read that because
I want to help people, but I've assumed. You've
done the basics of at least Google first. Yeah,
but dude, I don't even think, I think even you
saying that, I think you're overcomplicating
it. Like, I don't even think you need any of
that. I think you literally can start today and
take everything I have and just go scan stuff
and make thousands and tens of thousands of dollars,
if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
selling media on Amazon if you gave it time.
Absolutely right. Like I said. You don't need
to watch a bajillion YouTube videos. You don't
need to watch a lot of Facebook stuff. If you're
part of a group, you got to leg up. If you're
not part of a group and you're just listening
to this podcast, I honestly, if you were just
to go out and try it, you would, A, screw up
and mess up, but you would learn from it. And
as long as you continue to learn from it and
not just recognize the problem, but do something
about the problem. I think that's another key
thing, doing something about the problem rather
than just acknowledging it. you're going to get
constantly better and better and more refined
as you go in your processes. I think it's those
things. It's work ethic, being willing to pump
in the time when it's needed. It's refining your
processes, learning from your mistakes, and do
research when it's necessary to do it, not when
it's unnecessary to do that. Those three things
combined, I think, sum up you. How long did it
take you to do your first Amazon box? Like what,
five hours? It's way too long, dude. Yeah, five
hours. Somewhere close to that, yeah. So how
many people here would spend five hours committed
to a project? It's like building an Ikea shelf,
right? How many people actually finish the Ikea
shelf? It's the same thing. If you're willing
to power through it until it's completed, I guarantee
you his next box took way less than five hours.
And then the next box after that took even less
time until it is what it is. in today's standards?
I think one, one big differentiator I have that
I will say, you know, it's going to take time
to develop. And maybe this is another reason
why I've lasted this long. And a lot of people
we see kind of come and go in the space is finances
on the back end, right? Like I believe your personal
finances are going to reflect your business finances.
And I'm, I've just. I was used to being so broke
and every dollar mattered to me personally. And
working the 50, 60 -hour weeks and not having
any money at the end of the month, I think that
did 100 % translate into my business. And that
allows me to, when I make money, to actually
make money and not just spin my tires. Because
as we all know, a lot of resellers, yeah, we
make money, but... the adult age, where does
the money go? Johnny, at the end of the week,
at the end of the month, where's the money going?
And I think, you know, kind of clawing my way
out of debt. Being as frugal as I possibly am,
it's translated 100 % to the business side because
I make money and I actually put money away every
single month in addition to all the normal expenses
you have with taxes and everything else related
to resale. I think that might be the one big
differentiator that I will say kind of sticks
out for me if I just try to tell somebody, hey,
to go start doing this, it's money management.
That takes discipline, man. It's like, you know,
it's kind of when I was on the weight loss, right?
It takes discipline. It takes a lot of self -restraint
and self -reflection and just being willing to
commit to a process. Maybe commitment's another
one, right? Like you got the work ethic, committing
to something for a period of time until you get
results. But man, it pains me when I see people
quit or give up before they even give it a chance
because I know that. I'm not nothing special
and that anybody in any walk of life, we have
it in the group, whether it's somebody that's
in high school, whether it's somebody that's
80 years old getting results doing this business.
And I know that everybody could get results if
they actually just tried and put in a little
bit of effort. And here's the thing on that.
Mike crawled himself out of not necessarily poverty,
but he basically had no money. I mean, he was
he was. House poor, I guess, is the best way
to put it. All his money went toward bills. Never
had any excess money. And he crawled his way
out of debt. He's very frugal. He doesn't spend
money on anything, even though I tell him to
buy certain things from time to time that are
tools. He still doesn't listen to me. He'll use
his brother's printer just like tech does. But
those key elements. And now that he has money,
he's still the same way. He's very frugal. He
has no debt. He's been in debt. And he knows
what debt can bring. So operating your business
out of debt -free with a frugal mentality with
a high work ethic is a success little soup there
you got going on. What's up, Amazon sellers?
We wanted to take a second to talk about GoToLister,
the software me and Johnny both use to list and
manage our inventory and grow our businesses.
With the fastest listing speeds out there and
built -in profit analytics, it's a no -brainer.
Easily and quickly have items available for sale
using 2D barcodes and get more for your items
with its built -in smart pricing. Make sure to
check out the 30 -day free trial at gotolister
.com backslash Mike or using the link in the
description below. And I've seen Mike do this
a couple times. Back when we had the Excel class,
way back when, he didn't know a damn thing about
Excel, but he was determined to learn it, and
he did learn it. having no background in Excel
whenever we were doing that special project.
Dude, those classes, I wish I had recordings
because I was asking the most basic, I don't
even understand how to sort of sell in Excel.
I was surprised you were even able to open the
application. That's what I'm saying. I remember
I couldn't, I couldn't figure it out. There's
like two different Excels installed on my computer.
I couldn't even figure it out. Oh. But like,
I knew that was an important part that I had
to understand was. okay, if I get through this
Excel stuff, I'm going to have a spreadsheet
worked out. So I'll be able to actually understand
the numbers of my business. And I knew you're
right, dude. I knew I still probably know maybe
2 % of Excel, but going into that class, I knew
nothing. Like there wasn't, I didn't, I had to
install Excel. I had to figure it out. Like I
was literally the most basic, no clue how anything
works student. Right. But is your determination.
His determination, if you're wanting pronoun
context in the podcast, seeing the benefit and
then writing out the painful process of learning,
because I'm sure it wasn't a joyful experience
doing it, but it was joyful after because now
you had a new tool that you could use for the
rest of your business duration. That's opening
your eyes to those, okay, this is going to suck
and I have to embrace the suck. to have a benefit
to myself and to my business. I don't know why
a lot of people don't have that. I do a lot of
sucky tasks that I don't like to do, but I understand
they are necessary in my business producing what
it does. I don't know what the word is, but I
think I'm just going to word it like this, right?
It's like people are scared of self -humiliation,
I guess, and I could care less. I think it's
hilarious. That all you suckers out there that
know everything about books make a whole lot
less money than me. I laugh at myself to sleep
at night because I'm just out here like I know
nothing and I'm just going to go scan everything
and I'm going to make a whole bunch of money.
And honestly, if I had to choose knowledge in
my business or money in my business, give me
the money. And I think that's the difference.
I treat it as like. it's all business transactions,
Johnny. Like everything I do, the thrift store
is not a giddy up treasure hunt, right? It's
a business transaction. I approach it all. It's
like an entrepreneur mindset. Like everything
is, it's business related. It's not, oh, this
book, I want this for myself. Or, oh, this author
wrote, oh, this book's cool. This, I could care
less. I'm just in there scanning things. I can't
even recall 98 % of the stuff I actually scan
and 98 % of the stuff I send in. But I do think
it is, you know, a little bit of self -humiliation
where I'm just like, Dude, I don't care. I'm
out here doing the thing, right? Like, sure,
I might not know a lot. Sure, you know, I got
a, you know, a 2008 Altima, right? Like, but
who cares? I got no car payment and I'm chilling
like a villain and I'm out there getting the
job done. I could care less about anything else
and I'm open about it. It's not like if Johnny
says, Mike, you know shit about books, you're
an idiot. I'm like, so what? I don't think you're
an idiot. You know nothing about books. I don't
care. I don't care that I know absolutely nothing
about the stuff I sell. You're smart enough to
realize you don't need to know anything about
books. It's just data. Like we're just looking
at data. It's just like supply and demand. It's
analytics. It's supply chain. Like any reselling
is that business, right? You're looking at the
sell through. How much are you paying versus
how much you can sell for? That's all this is.
It's not a, you don't get paid. All right. You
do get paid for your knowledge when you can spot
certain things, right? Like, sure. You couple
money with knowledge, you make more money. Exactly.
But you don't need knowledge to make money. You
don't need knowledge to start making money. You
don't need, absolutely not. Okay. Knowing nothing
about books, you would buy a random box of books.
You can figure out a way to double up, okay?
I'm not saying this is the best way to do it,
but I'm just saying, for instance, if you're
smart enough to buy a random box of books for
$10, if you can figure out how to make $20, you
can do this business. It's just there's a lot
of easier ways to do it, and you could not only
double, you could quintuple your money. And you
learn that as the way you go. But if you're able
to persevere, and I think that's the best word
to put for Mike is perseverance, you're going
to be very successful in this business. But if
you're not willing to persevere and you're still
flipping 10 to make 20, you're in for a rough
ride, a slow ride. It'll work out at 90 years
later, but that's 90 years. I do think another
thing that you kind of just hit on there a little
bit is giving something enough time. to actually
come to fruition right like i look back you know
when i first started right five hours from my
first box you know deb thought there was no shot
i was going to turn this into an actual business
and i don't blame her um it takes time with anything
in life i mean think about when you first learn
how to ride a bike right like you learn how to
ride a bike you can get on the bike johnny and
you can go straight you can ride the bike straight
well now you got to figure out the big impossible
turning the bike around right like you can ride
the bike but when you go to turn you're falling
over every single time like business is kind
of the same like First, you got the training
wheels and the training wheels come off. Then
you can drive straight. Well, now you got to
figure out how to turn and then you want to figure
out how to brake. And you get it's just I think
I love this analogy so much. And then you get
cocky like I'm going to do a jump. off a steep
hill and then you're gonna fall and break something
but you know what you're gonna learn that you
did it too soon or that doing those jumps isn't
for you you're fine just coasting down the street
on a hill but you trying to go off a ramp or
something that's a totally different ball game
it requires some skill to do now if you're determined
to and persevere you can eventually learn how
to do that without ever falling Yeah. And I think
back on like the financial side of it, like I
didn't just jump into the business like just
from zero. Right. Like and I need to rely on
the business like day one. I need to rely on
the business income. I I was financially prepared
to say, OK, if I leave my crappy job at CBS,
then. I have a runway of, you know, six months
to get this business where I need it to be. And
it wasn't even starting the business from zero
because I was already doing it on the side. I
think another part of it is just like wanting
to be your own boss and having like the hunger
to get things done, I guess, because at the end
of the day, dude, like if me and you want to
sit here next week and do absolutely nothing.
That's on the table because who's going to tell
us, who's going to make us? We're not getting
written up. We're not getting fired. We'll still
get sales on the platforms we sell on. So a lot
of it is self -motivation. And I think, you know,
that's a hard, it's hard for somebody that's
used to structure to kind of switch it off and
just be able to kind of do what you want when
you want. Yeah. I mean, you kind of transitioned
to needing a schedule because you got a lot busier
with the YouTube and maintenance and stuff. Whereas
before, in the infancy of your YouTube and just
going full -time reselling, you didn't need a
whole lot of structure or discipline to create
a schedule. But as time goes on, you've realized
you've needed that. And depending where you are
at your business, you may not need an ironclad
schedule. I need that because I got a lot I need
to do, as does Mike now. And having the discipline
to sit down and... Self -reflect of where your
business is at and where you're wanting to end
up. That's a key thing, too. If you're just doing
the day -to -day and like, okay, where am I going?
I mean, Mike's first thing was getting out of
debt, right? And then he's out of debt. Okay,
what's next? Making sure we got enough money
in the bank. Okay, what's next? You've been talking
about getting this house, right? Next step. And
then after he gets the house, what's next? Well,
he'll probably decide after he gets the house.
But staying focused on the end goal. Like it
wasn't, he was in debt and thinking about a house.
There's no way he was probably thinking about
a house. He had to get out of debt first. So
what is your current goal? Get your eye on the
prize and get to that goal. Then you can set
a new goal. And then after that one's met, and
then another, and then another. If your goal,
if your absolute end goal is to think about a
warehouse, okay, fine. That's great. We know
what's there. But let's take a step back to where
you are now. I'm still working a full -time job.
I'm doing this part -time. I'm nowhere near that
warehouse. But what is my first step in the staircase
to getting that warehouse? That's what you need
to think about. There needs to be progress towards
a set of goals that you have, regardless, no
matter what it is. you're reselling, whether
you have any type of business in the universe,
you need to have a goal and there needs to be
progress towards the goal. Even if it's not huge,
even if I'm saving up for a house, Johnny, and
I'm putting away $1 every single month, as long
as you can go to that account and see that it's
going up by that dollar, you're going to be more
motivated to continue down the path. I mean,
think about this. Me and Deb have been looking
for this house now for Three years I've been
talking about this damn thing. Right. Is it something
we're just going to jump into? No. So what's
been going on for the three years? All we continue
to do is put more money away. So when we find
the house, we can put more money down on the
house. Does it suck that I'm not in a house and
I'm still on the third floor to an extent? But
right. Like it always be worse. You just accept
the fact that it's just going to take a little
bit longer to get there. And I'm still making
progress. It's not like. I'm currently losing
in life right it's not like because I don't have
a house like I'm failing at what I want to do
no I'm just putting more money away towards it
and you know it's I hate to get back to it but
like we used to be so broke like I wish I was
lying when I said we were we couldn't afford
internet so we would go to McDonald's for wi
-fi uh that was that's like a true story and
Those little changes you make financially, it
all translates personal to your business. There's
nobody that sucks with personal money and is
great with business money, and vice versa. There's
nobody that's great with personal money and just
blows all the business money. And I know personal
finances, you basically sounded like Dave Ramsey
earlier. I know it's kind of a touchy subject
for most, but... We're resellers, dude. We're
buying junk for a dollar that we can sell for
$10 and it's everywhere, right? It's not like
these, it's not like we had to go out and mine
for this stuff. And we got to hope the next rock
we hit our pickaxe into that there's a gold nugget
in there. This stuff is in every thrift store
across the country, across the globe, and we
can turn our money into more money. So why doesn't
everybody do it? I don't know. That's why, that's
why I don't understand. I have never been, I
think you've only mentioned this once, gone to
a place to source from, like a thrift store or
equivalent or library, and come back with zero
items. Zero. It's very, very, very rare that
that happens. Normally, a scanner has lower metrics
than you and they scooped it all up. Or they,
I don't know, the shelves are empty. I mean,
those are the only two scenarios I could think
of. Meaning, there were good books there, just
their competition got it. Working hard and make
no money versus working smartly hard and making
a lot more money, I think is a good difference.
Because if you're just, I don't know, you've
assigned yourself an hourly rate by not caring.
And again, it goes to the $10 box trying to make
$20. But let's make it an hourly rate. You're
making $30 an hour in this business. That's pitiful.
If you aren't making a couple hundred dollars
an hour with your time, when you're putting in
the actual hours, I'm not talking about sitting
here and watching YouTube videos, that doesn't
count. But when you're putting in the work, is
your work worth $200 or more an hour? It should
be if you're doing it correctly. If you're somewhere
in the middle, okay, great. Now you need to figure
out how can I increase my hourly more? If that's
too micro analytically for you, well, look at
year over year. How much are you growing? Are
you staying the same? Did you make $100 ,000
last year? And this year, you're going to make
$100 ,000? Well, there's a thing called inflation.
And I know it's a touchy subject. I'm not going
to go into the nuances of that. But if you aren't
growing year over year, you're doing something
wrong with your business. You need to be constantly
growing. If you're plateaued and you're making
the same, what's something you could tack on
to do better? Whether it's another revenue stream.
uh that's adjacent to your business or part of
your business whether it's a different platform
maybe you jump on youtube or uh maybe you start
wholesaling or maybe you do those pop -up uh
monetize your dutch kind of sale events on a
monthly basis kind of deal doesn't matter you
need to figure out how to continuously compound
your money or else at some point five dollars
ain't worth what it used to be kind of scenario
happens you got to figure it out I need to make
$10 needs to be able to sustain me, whereas $5
doesn't. It's impossible. And savings. You talk
about savings a lot too. Put some back. If you're
blowing all your money and you have no savings,
you're doing a dangerous game of when you want
to do something or invest in something either
for yourself or for your business. If you're
just constantly, I don't know. buying inventory
and truckloads and or doing backroom cleanouts
constantly. You need to put some money away.
All right. Before all you nerds are yelling in
the comment section about Johnny saying to make
$100 per hour doing this, I'm going to give you
all a real life example from my life that happened
two weeks ago. Last week, I was sick, so I didn't
do nothing. But the prior week, I went to two
library sales. So we're going to do the full
math of potential profit, how much I spent, how
many hours I spent. So I'm going to factor everything
in here. Drive time was 15 minutes one way for
the one. So that's 30 minutes, right? I'll round
it up to an hour. I'm even going to be super
generous here for this sake. The other one was
probably 20 minutes one way. So we'll say another
hour. So we're at two hours. I spent an hour
at one, which is at three hours. I spent two
hours at the other, puts us at, what's that,
five hours total, right? So that's me getting
everything. Let's say listen took another two
hours. So it puts me at seven hours. I just went
and looked. Does the listing include scanning?
Well, no. How long I was at the library. So I
already factored that in. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay.
Gotcha. So we're at seven hours total. Sure.
I got everything here at the apartment at this
point. Everything's listed seven hours. I went
and looked. It was six boxes full. I spent a
little bit under $500. My estimated profit before
my buy cost was right around 3K, give or take
a little bit. So we minus our $500. What is that?
2 ,500. We spent seven hours total. $357 .14
per hour. And that is no bullshit, no fluff.
That's the actual numbers, even rounding up the
hours I spent. Now, the caveat to that is. These
were quality sources where I know I was going
to make money. Right. These are library sales
and these are large sales and you go in. But
that's what we're talking about. He said it right.
You're not just spinning your wheels. That's
the difference. That's maybe the big difference
is my attacks are planned. Right. I'm not just
like charge and everybody's running in a million
different directions. Right. My army is lined
up and we're all. We're all going to defeat whoever's
on the other side, right? We're all running in
the same direction. That's the possibility of
this business, man. I just, 300 and something
dollars per hour. Sure, not every working hour
is going to be that, but these are sources where
I just knew it was a library sale. I wasn't first
in line. So get all that nonsense out of the
YouTube comments as well. I was 10th -ish and
then I was 30 -ish in line. So by no means necessary,
am I the first one in there, but. Johnny, I go
in, I scan the stuff other people don't. The
fiction, the kids books, the books without barcodes.
Dude, this business is foolproof. Can I just
get everybody to just start selling on Amazon
today? Like there's plenty. I don't even care.
You all can start coming to sell media on Amazon
and you don't even got it. Just do it. Just start
it. And I promise you within six months, you'll
be like. why didn't i do this sooner oh dude
amazon's going to shut down oh man dude did you
see the the tariffs dude this that i ain't got
time for it bro i'm trying to make money today
johnny i'm trying to build a future today i ain't
worried about you know the independence day happening
mars attacks uh critters night of the living
dead like i'm good to go let's get out there
today let's scan some stuff let's make some money
i mean I could have said it better myself. That's
it. I think we just need to end here. Yeah. We're
out of here. Anybody can do this. Even if you're
dumb, ugly like me, you still can make a lot
of money selling media on Amazon. We'll talk
to you all in next week's episode. Thanks for
listening to another episode of the Reseller's
Mindset Podcast. Today's full episode and all
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