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 usebookguy 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 Reseller's Mindset Podcast.
Mike's sitting next to Johnny. I just complimented
him before we started recording on his backwards
cat. Look. If you're watching on YouTube, he
looks way cooler and tougher of a guy with a
backwards cap on his head. And if you're not
watching, just take my word for it and like the
podcast wherever you're listening to us, right?
So today's topic is his topic, right? And I just
pointed to the wrong direction. That's all right.
Don't worry about that. Self -sabotage and getting
in your own way. And this is a fine line with
reselling, I think, because self -sabotage, I
mean, it's almost things that we don't. think
about or don't do is really self -sabotage. So
like the first one you would say for me, and
you gave up trying to tell me this, right? Like
Johnny's been telling me this for like five years.
Mike, why don't you just get an employee, Mike?
Why don't you get somebody to work with you?
And I'm just like, he finally gave up. Next month
we have this conversation. Mike, why don't you
get an employee? So it's not something that's
like in your face self -sabotage, but maybe it's
something you don't know that you're not doing
that is really kind of holding you back. And
that's kind of the interesting side of it. But
the blatant one, right, is like, I guess you
would say you're listing items price too high
or like you're listing items on eBay and the
descriptions are terrible and the titles are
terrible. Like there's so many things we can
do because we control every aspect of our business.
And that's scary to think about. If you think
about big corporations, like, all right, we got
the HR department, right? It's like me. I can't
say like. I can't say offensive things, Johnny,
because I'm a YouTuber, right? And we got this
pot and you're in the same boat now, right? Like
if Johnny comes out and does something crazy,
right? Like we're kind of linked together when
it comes to our credibility now. So he decides
to do something that's just way out there and
offends the whole country. Like I'm kind of screwed
too. So like, it's a fine line, man. Take us
away. Yeah, I mean, I talked to a lot of people
and I see them sometimes. saying you know what
everything is going great i'm gonna do this other
thing now i'm like why do more of what's working
why no please stop or i have or it's okay i'm
paying too much for items okay here is a laundry
list of ways you could pay for items cheaper
no i don't want to do that why why not you just
identified a problem and i hand gifted you the
answer why are we not um doing the thing that's
known to be cheaper or at least trying it question
marks it's tough man because i think all right
i'm gonna i'm gonna admit something else here
it's easier when you have a secondary set of
eyes that necessarily isn't involved in your
business to give you an opinion on something
right so for example when i'm doing like bulk
pickups um like i always run it by deb and she's
like she's got like an outside set of eyes and
a different kind of look at things and she saved
my ass so many times just being like nah you
didn't you see that they the way they said this
or like the photo in this photo like you could
see this or that but when you're by yourself
dude like you're betting on yourself and every
decision you make that's why i tell people man
it all circles back to us as resellers being
able to have a type of bankroll. So if we do
make a bad decision, we still can float the boat,
right? Like, oh yeah, it sucked. We might've
lost money, but it's not bankrupting us. So the
problem is if you don't have the capital and
you bet everything on black and the roulette
wheel spinning and your color don't come up,
then that's the end of the line. Self -sabotage,
man. This is, all resellers do it. We've all
done it. We all probably do it once every season,
I would say. We just try to do something that's
just completely asinine and stupid. And if you
don't have the buffer or somebody else to kind
of look over your shoulder and give you a little
bit of an opinion that you kind of trust, because
it can go the other way, right? If I say, hey,
Johnny, do you think this looks good? Johnny
don't even look at the photo, right? He's just
like, yeah, that looks good, right? Unfortunately,
there's people out there like that in the space,
right? Or maybe there's people like that in your
life that really aren't paying attention to when
you say something or talk about a situation.
And they just kind of having people around you
that just tell you what you want to hear is not
good. Yeah, and I do have a habit of giving advice
when it was not requested. Just because I see
an answer that they may not have a question on.
They're like, yeah, yeah, whatever. And I get
why they dismissed me at that point. But eventually
they may ask that same question, like, is what
I told you four months ago. You should go do
that now. You waited. I told you four months
ago. But so I guess that's on me because they
didn't ask for help and I gave it anyway. So
unsolicited help. I'm guilty of that. I'm famous
for that. I'll tell people all day long how they're
doing things wrong or how they're doing things
right. Or like, that's great. You should do more
of that. And then the other thing is when they
ask for advice and they necessarily dismissive,
but they're resistant to it. And I'm also I've
also been in that boat where I'm resistant to
the advice giving, even though I know them to
be correct. I just still don't want to. I still
don't want to, but I know I should. That's the
kicker. I know I should, but what they're asking
me to do is a Herculean monumental task. I can
lay it out for people, right? Like I have, I'm
in the same boat because I have a lot of one
-on -ones every single month. And some people,
you know, it's their first one -on -one. Some
people, I've been doing it, you know, well over
a year with the same person. And I can tell people,
hey, this is what you're doing wrong. And I can
give them steps, but. self -sabotage comes back
is what you said people ask sometimes for advice
or like what should i do and i give it to them
and then they don't do any of it but they expect
to get the result from everything i said would
be the result if you did x y and z yes it's it's
tough man because a lot of people can make a
lot more money reselling if they just changed
a few things right just tweaked a few little
things here did something a little bit different
but i think we're just so ingrained with We always
got to be right, right? We always got to, we're
always right in our business. That's a lot of
the people's mindset and reselling, I think is
100 % the worst mindset to have because there's
so many different business models and opportunities
out there where if you just kind of opened your
eyes a little bit and it doesn't mean you're
wrong, right? Like I just think about all the
shit I've adopted from different business models,
different people are selling different platforms,
different universes, basically. And you take
bits and pieces and you put it together and it
benefits your business. Never, ever do I think
everything I do is 100 percent right. We always
say in the group, right, you got your line. Everybody
can do business as they see fit. And I always
tell everybody now before I talk about like settings
or like a specific thing I use, like this works
for me. Different things work for different people.
But if you're hard headed and we've seen it over
the years, people are like. I've been selling
on eBay for 80 years. I've been selling books.
I used to sell books on Amazon when the fees
were a dollar. I was eBay beta. Yeah, yeah. Like,
dude, who cares? But they're still doing business
the same way. Like it's 1998 and we're living
in 2025. And that is self -sabotage. You're not
willing to, I guess, reflect and see what the
market's doing, right? I mean, you kind of can
take. what the live selling has become over the
past year and how many people have moved away
from eBay and gone to whatnot and had huge success
as them just saying, well, I might've done eBay
for the past five years, but this opportunity
is really good for me right now. So I want to
take the risk. And most of the time when you
bet on yourself and you take a calculated risk,
that's how you're going to win in life in general,
right? Like nobody ever gets anywhere without
taking a risk, right? Sure. If you want to go
work a nine to five job and go in Monday through
Friday. This ain't for you. But if you're trying
to be an entrepreneur, there's risks you got
to take in life. If you're trying to make six,
seven figures in life, sooner or later, you're
going to have to bet on yourself and take a few
risks out there. But as long as it's calculated,
it's a -okay to do it. And as long as you're
willing to make the change and commit to it,
then you really don't got to worry about it.
But we're talking a percent of a percent out
here. Right. And a good example of some things
you touched on, I sat down with a gentleman recently
and going over repricing settings. He took what
I was doing and then... on the fly screen sharing
was changing it all up i'm like ah no no that
works that's why i gave it to you and it's like
well i wanted to do this i'm like okay let's
talk let's talk this out if you do this this
will be the result if you stick to what i gave
you this will be the result if you meet in the
middle it will be the result in the middle um
and it was kind of a Not necessarily a tug of
war, but it was more of before you go making
rash changes that I gave you something that's
proven to work. You might want to consider everything.
And so he took a minute and he understood it
a bit better and made some additional changes
than what he was doing. Because I was like, no,
please don't. No, no, don't do that. That's bad.
Don't do that. But I had to tell myself it's
his business and he is free to run it how he
see fits. I would have felt guilty if I did not
give the explanation of, if you do that, this
will be the result. And it's kind of like, okay,
if I was that in that person's shoes and they
gave me something that would I not tweak it myself?
And the answer is yes, I would tweak it myself
because it's my business and that I am going
to. So it was kind of, I don't know. epiphany
type moment like it look if i was this person
i would do the exact same thing i really would
not not not the exact number for number change
or rule for rule change but i would make adjustments
it's uh it's pretty funny this is how this happens
to me all the time right somebody will ask for
like a piece of advice and i'll give it to them
and like they'll see the change but like The
change won't be enough or the change will affect
something else in the business that they get
frustrated. So the biggest one I see is I'm not
getting sales. I guess that's the biggest complaint
in reselling history. I'm not getting sales.
Well, I mean, what are you going to do to get
sales on Amazon? Well, you need a repricer. What's
your repricer settings? If you're on eBay, are
you promoting your listings? Do you have good
title structure? Do you have good descriptions?
Well, the thing you get back to at the end of
the day, it's always going to be. You need to
be the lowest price. And for some reason, resellers
have this mindset of, I know what I got. I know
this book is worth X amount of dollars. I know
this shirt is worth X amount of dollars. So I'm
not going lower than this. Look, the last sold
comp, Johnny, is $300. Why would I lower my price
to $200? It's something I'll never get through
to people. And I really, you know, I'm at the
point now where, listen, if you don't want to
make money. That's on you. I always said the
group is about making money, not caring about
books, not caring about anything else besides
having a profitable business. And there's plenty
of people still out there that are so scared
to lower their prices and take dollars less,
tens of dollars less, but actually sell the item.
You still make money. And it's the biggest self
-sabotage out there. Let's sell our items, dude.
I don't care if I bought this item and it was
supposed to be a hundred dollar item. And for
whatever reason, it hasn't sold. And it's been
90 days, 180 days. Guess what? It's a fire sale.
Let's get rid of this because my money's tied
up and give me my money back. 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. Right. And though I don't
prescribe to your methodology in whole, I do
in part as I wait a certain amount of time before
lowering my prices to something you described.
It's not like I'm unwilling to, but I do want
to try to scoop up my maximum dollars if I'm
able to. But I'm self -conscious that I may not
be able to do that on 100 % of the items I send
in. And I have a rule in place like, okay, let's
apply the Mike methodology at this stage. And
I'll say this publicly, your methodology does
work. You will sell more items quickly, a little
less money, but you will sell them. So don't
be resistant to that. The penny undercutting
method does work. Now, will it price tank a few
things when you do a reprice your war? Absolutely.
Hell yeah, that's what I want. But it's a war,
man. It's a war. We're all fighting Amazon at
the end of the day. It's true, dude. I take pride
on the penny undercut, but you're right. And
I mean, I think it's more important to be more
calculated and be more cashflow -focused when
you're smaller, right? You kind of look at our
businesses, we have, you know, thousands and
thousands of units sitting at Amazon. So we don't
need to sell like a large percent of our inventory
every single day versus a small person that's
maybe got 500 units. And like, and maybe they
need the money because they're trying to grow
the business, or maybe they need the money to
cover the bills. I still think all the time,
you got to be like the best price, the best offering
to get the sale. And for some reason, people
are just fine. I mean, I related it to something
on one of the calls like, It's 105 degrees out.
You're at Disney World and you can pay an extra
$20 to get the little wristband that gets you
to the front of the line. That's what I equate,
you know, being the lowest price item to. Am
I going to wait to sell my item or am I going
to pay the $20? It's so damn hot out here. I
just want to get on the water ride. So I'm cooled
down and then, you know, it's business as usual.
I work with a person pretty much one -on -one
for and still working with them. Got the buy
box in less than 90 days, sending in consistently,
and a few months have rolled by now, and just
evaluating the cash flow issue. I'm like, it's
a marathon, not a race. You just got to keep
on doing and believing. And I know you've been
believing for six plus months now. You're starting
to get money to roll in, decently so, and it'll
just slowly compound. But it's hard for that
person to... put full blind trust into it'll
work because i'm just some dude on the internet
um so it's like just be patient just be patient
keep on doing the same thing because she wanted
to make some drastic changes just to speed up
cash flow i'm like no just do the same thing
i promise you it will compound will it compound
overnight or over the week no but over the months
and the course of the year absolutely it will
you're going to make the majority of your sales
in q4 um and you're you're your payouts will
gradually become bigger and bigger. That $100
a month will become, or a payout will become
200, then 400, then 800, et cetera, et cetera.
Just keep on pumping it. Do the same thing. It's
boring. It's the same thing. It is. And I mean,
I guess that's another thing when it comes to
self -sabotage is you actually have to get out
there and do the boring work, right? Especially
in Amazon land. You just, we just scan things.
I mean, there's nothing exciting about spending
all day with this little stupid R2D2 Bluetooth
scanner. And scanning every book, CD and DVD.
It's so boring. Yeah, it is. But like, that's
a self -sabotage because you go to that store
or you decide not to go out today because say,
for example, like yesterday, like almost 90 degrees
for the first time all year. And maybe that was
supposed to be my thrifting day. Well, Johnny,
the ice cream shop's open. I really want a vanilla
cone with rainbow sprinkles. I don't think I'm
going to go thrifting today. And that is what
reselling is such a deadly balance of self -motivation.
self -sabotage and i think it's just it's a certain
type of person that's gonna win it's working
but it's not working fast enough why do we need
to work fast we don't need it to we just need
it to work ah man it's it's tough because a lot
of i mean you could almost i mean i guess not
all of them but you probably could say like night
i don't know i'm just throwing a crazy number
out here because it just came to my head but
i'm gonna stick to my guns here 90 of people
that fail in resale and it's because of themselves
right it's self -sabotage because who else can
you blame unless you get banned you know from
a platform where you weren't responsible for
the reason you got banned everything else falls
on you i mean who else can you blame i mean sure
we all have life going on so you can't give life
an excuse i'm glad i kind of weeded that one
out many many moons ago because we got people
all walks of life in the group You've dealt with
them. I've dealt with them. Doesn't matter. Six
kids still pumping in 40 hours a week to their
business. No excuses. Love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And like, I just think it's a type of person
that, you know, it's entrepreneurship and it's
such a huge part of, you know, the, I guess,
American culture now is people wanting to start
their own businesses. But like you said, it's
doing what we do. Like the return on investment
is good. But it takes a lot to scale this into
something where you're going to be making six
figures a year, right? So, like, if you think
about the average income in America, I think
it's around, like, $70 ,000, right? Well, of
America, that's probably correct. I was thinking
by state. But, yeah, America, that's probably
right. So, like, if you think about it like that,
it's, you know, to make that resell is a lot
of damn work. It's a lot of time. It's a lot
of effort. but it's not spun up that way. And
I think the self -sabotage comes into place is
when you go and you first discover reselling
and you first start your business, you see the
people that are already established, right? You
see the big names because that's what's promoted
out there in most places on social media platforms.
And you're like, oh man, like this person's doing
$20 ,000 a month. I'll be doing that in two months,
three months. And like you said, that's not the
reality, right? We're building something bigger
than. you know, three months, six months. We're
trying to build a business here that's going
to sustain us for years, right? And you always
have to be willing to accept the fact that it
takes time for anything good. You know, this
isn't some type of crazy scam where you're going
to get rich quick. No matter what any business
model says out there, unless you have an infinite
amount of money, which then you really don't
need to resell, right? Why do you resell it for
fun? Exactly. So you're not going to get rich
quick, no matter what platform, no matter what
category. Unless you have a lot of money, but
then you don't need to be reselling. So if you
accept the fact it's going to take time and not
self -sabotage yourself thinking, hey, I've seen
Joe Blow posted a video and they found XYZ at
the Goodwill bins and I'm going to go do the
same thing. And within three months, I'm going
to be making an extra five, $10 ,000 a month.
And I'm just here to tell people that's not the
case in 95 % of the brand new resellers that
start. Okay, here are a couple of scenarios.
There's a difference between somebody. It has
slow sales and all of a sudden they get a repricer
and things start selling magically. Then in the
same similar scenario, a person already has a
repricer. They are tempted to pull a couple of
levers and see what happens. Then it's a magical
lever pull. I've doubled my sales versus, okay,
I have a repricer. Things are selling. I want
them to sell faster. Maybe I'll leave this alone
and I'll cut my. sourcing spend in half and send
in the same. That's huge if you're able to do
that. If you're able to go to $1 to $0 .50 a
unit, huge. That's a bigger impact than your
testing and guessing lever pulling will do. Now,
if there's something fundamentally wrong with
your repricer, that's a whole different story.
But for the scenarios I laid out, it's think,
okay, that's where I see the shift is people
who want to increase their cash flow when they
have something that's working. What do they do?
They tend to go the Liverpool route. And I'm
advising against that. What's something else
you can do? Because it's either, there's only
a couple of ways to really expand. It's either
you send in more, you cut your expenses down.
Or you add in something different into the mix
in addition to, or you switch to addition to
in general. Like if I switched to video games
right now, I could tell you I would probably
double my sales very shortly. Do I want to go
into video games? No, it's too much risk for
me with the section threes and stuff. I'm red
flags. I'm good. I want stability in my business
because I plan to be doing this beyond five years.
So you got to weigh those things out. There's
all the risk factors also there is what I'm going
to be doing or trying to do too risky. Like if
I'm going to try to sell video games, I know
there's a huge risk there right now because video
game sellers are getting slammed left and right
with these section threes. Me in book land, as
long as I'm not sitting in textbooks, I'm fairly
safe. It's, man, because I've pulled the lever
and I'm always conscious of, I want to be the,
I want to buy stuff for as cheap as I possibly
can, right? I, my cashflow in my business is
the highest it's ever been. But that doesn't
mean I just go out and just decide to spend more
money just to spend more money, right? Like you
hear a lot of other business models, like a big
thing in like online arbitrage and retail arbitrage
is like set a daily spend goal, right? So because
theoretically, if you're spending more, you should
be making more on the backend. I think that's
different for us. That's what we've been brainwashed
to believe, yeah. Yes, yes. Even outside of reselling,
in the world, that is the brainwash. quote right
yeah yeah yeah so it's like i want to keep my
my buy cost as low as possible by going to the
same sources finding new sources but i also recently
have changed my repricer settings after five
years of you know having the same ones and yeah
i sell more stuff at lower prices i just want
to sell stuff right my new motto is like i just
i should just have a shirt that says i just want
to sell stuff like because all that matters at
the end of the day is selling items to fill up
the bank account Nothing else matters. Your category
doesn't matter. The widgets you sell don't matter.
How cool the stuff you sell doesn't matter. All
that matters is, are you making money? Because
last time I checked, you're a reselling business.
And I mean, I guess that's another, that's a
whole nother topic. Most of it don't treat us
like a business. We're here to make money. We're
not here to have cool items that never sell.
We're not here to have, you know. Be the person
that touts their inventory because they got 300
,000 listings on Amazon or eBay. Okay. Well,
imagine if you sold all 300 ,000 listings and
made two bucks on each, right? Like that's over
half a million dollars in your bank account.
Give me a dollar followed by eBay listings right
now. I'll take it. That's what I'm saying, man.
It's self -sabotage because we all think we know
what we got and we don't want to part ways with
it unless we're 10, 15, 20 X in our money. And
that's another thing. My sourcing, my sourcing
has changed this year as well. So I've changed
basically, I wouldn't say my whole business,
but pretty much my whole business this year.
Sell -through is what matters to me, not ROI.
If I can turn a quick two into $5 and all I have
to do is slap a little stupid label on the book,
right? Like, boom, get it out the door. I'm done
with it. It's that quick. It's that simple. But
we can't get this store ahead because we're looking
for the 10X. Like, if I'm spending a dollar,
Johnny, I've got to make at least 10. I'm here
to tell you, if I'm spending two and I have the
data in front of me, we have the data in Amazon
land that shows this sells this often. This is
how fast this item is going to sell. Well, I
know I'm going to send the $2 item and I'm going
to, you know, 2x my money. I'm going to make
$4 on the back end and it's going to sell the
day it gets to Amazon or the day I drop it off
at UPS. There is nothing wrong with this business
model, but it's not exciting. We get back to
this idea of self -sabotage because turning two
into four is not exciting, Johnny. But I'll tell
you what's exciting, my bank account. And that's
all I care about. All right, I'm going to put
Mike in the hot seat for a minute. And in the
hot seat, we'll get to a controversial topic,
I promise. You guys are going to love it. You're
going to put all kinds of fun comments in the
video. It's going to be great. So Mike, here's
the play. There's an item for a dollar. How much
do you want to compound your dollar after fees?
Or how many Xs do you have to go over that dollar
to account for fees and put money in the bank?
What is your comfortable X compound? Is it 3X,
4X, or just a double or 10X? If it's, I guess
it's kind of skewed, right? Because if it's a
more expensive item and it sells for more money,
right? Like then the X doesn't matter. If I buy
it for 40 and it sells for 80, I still make 40
bucks. I'm fine with that, right? So I guess
like, where does my, what's my - That's double
right there, but are you going to do a dollar
into two? What's my bottom? So I guess it would
be like, it won't be a dollar. I guess, I mean,
I would say a dollar into, I guess, 350. Okay,
so three and a half X is where you're comfortable.
doing for your lower end of the spectrum here?
It varies. I will say that. I will go lower in
some cases. But I feel like 3 .5 is kind of a
good benchmark to give the general idea out there.
But this thing needs to sell the week it gets
checked in. I'm not buying something that sells
once a month. That's the caveat. If I'm buying
something down at my 3x, 2 .5x, that thing is
going to sell within the week of it getting there,
guaranteed from the data I see in front of me.
That's what I'm saying. So as you go down with
that X, it needs to be something that's guaranteed
to sell. The sell -through rate has to be amazing
to go below three and a half X. And I tend to
mostly agree with that. Now, here's the fun part
where we're going to get a lot of fun comments.
So there's this platform and you can pretty much,
I would say comfortably two extra money all day.
And it's whatnot. I know people have already
guessed it. And they're very successful whatnot
sellers. Why don't, if you could 2X your money
all day, as long as you could throw out a camera
and had inventory to display, why wouldn't you
do that? Too much work. Yes, I agree with that.
Compared to work too, like Amazon land, right?
Like we just literally put a label on an item
and throw it in a box and never ever see it again.
Right, so I can 2X my money on whatnot. I could
probably 8X my money on Amazon in most cases.
I would take less X on Amazon because it's less
work. Yeah. It is less work because there's no
packing outside of the one package in the box.
There is the counter argument of multi -quantity
orders. All of those items are going into similar
size boxes, sure. And I'm not saying you cannot
make money. It's just if there was a way to 2X
our money all day, why wouldn't we all do that?
And it's not discrediting anybody on whatnot.
I just kind of wanted to bring that up. That's
a platform you could two extra money pretty consistently
all day. No doubt about it. Yeah. Especially
when your buy calls with 50 cents a dollar. Right.
But the caveat to that is if we look at the huge
sellers that are like knocking it out on whatnot,
dude, this stuff shows up to their door. Right.
So if you're telling me that I'm getting quality
inventory to my house and I got to go and whatnot,
four hours, five days a week, then the conversation
changes, but I still got to go out and get this
stuff. And I'm just sending it to Amazon. There's
no point in me spending the extra four hours.
five times a week doing a live stream when i
can just box it up in an hour and never see it
again never have to pack a single one of those
but now if you tell me johnny once a week you
know the tractor trailer backs up and i got everything
i'm going to sell for the week and i don't have
to go to the thrift stores i don't got to run
the routes then that's a different argument to
be made but yeah 100 that's why these people
do it right because they just push volume and
just to clarify you can make more than 2x on
your whatnot channel if you bother to build up
i'm not saying 2x all you're going to make but
i'm saying out the gate you can comfortably make
2x Just start now. But I mean, there's easier
ways to do it unless you have the inventory coming
to you. I think that is a big takeaway. Like
there's a lot easier ways to do it instead of,
you know, just sitting there and going to stores
and then coming back and trying to sell it on
whatnot. Like, dude, I've seen some crazy stuff.
These people are in the thrift stores trying
to sell stuff on whatnot. Like they're in the
Goodwill bins. They sold it before they bought
it. It's in their cart still. It's hilarious.
Dude, there's better ways to live your life.
Do we not care about our quality of life anymore,
Johnny? I mean, some people just want to live
at the best. Oh, my God, dude. Well, I'll tell
you what. Sporting the Goodwill t -shirt, I'm
a company man or gal. We have the biggest opportunity
in reselling to create the life we want to live.
And if starting this week. Johnny said, the only
way your business goes forward is going to the
Goodwill bins for all of your inventory. I quit.
I'm out. It's not even up for debate. Deb's not
even going to argue because I'm just going to
go get a normal job. I thought the whole reason
of resale was to get our life back, make a whole
bunch of money in doing so, and be able to kind
of do what we want, be our own boss, right? Not
be tied down to this dreadful place you got to
go. Ain't nobody in the comment section going
to come tell me, I go to my Goodwill Bend and
it smells like air fresheners and they got a
coffee bar. No, they're like the landfills of
America, basically. But it's crazy, dude. It's
self -sabotaging the fact you take time away
from your own life to not make a whole bunch
of money. If you're telling me, if Donnie came
to me and said, hey, Mike. you're going to be
making 250k a year you just got to go to those
bins five days a week dude i'm rolling up hazmat
suit whatever it takes right i'll drag my own
lazy boy in there but the problem is dude that
ain't the case we're in the bins making pennies
nickels dollars oh well your truckload thing
is interesting to me because there's a lot of
amazon sellers who do do truckloads and they
tend to have buckets for things either If it
goes in this bucket, it's going to FBA. If it
goes in this bucket, it's going to Merchant Fulfilled.
If it's going in this bucket, it's going to sell
back your book. Or it's going in this bucket
for wholesaler A through Z. Or it's going in
this bucket to be cross -listed. And some of
them actually are doing whatnot in addition.
That's a bucket too. It's a whatnot bucket, right?
So they're doing it all with the truckload scenario
because they signed up to do it all. How do we
make money on? pretty much everything that rolls
up into the truck and more power too um and that's
it dude that's self -sabotage you think you can
do it all you think you can do all the platforms
right why do you think i just stay in my little
amazon lane and every time something hits the
fan and everybody runs away because this is the
end of times I just keep doing what I'm doing
because you said it early on. You take time and
effort away from something that's actually working.
I have the proof of concept that Amazon works.
And then one little thing happens in the universe
and all of a sudden we got to blow everything
up or maybe something fancy comes along. And
hey, I like talking to people. I got a YouTube
channel. Mike, if you did whatnot, you'd be great.
I probably would be great. But listen, it's going
to take too much time and effort. And I'm going
to make money. I don't want to be. I don't want
to spend more effort. People don't factor in
every hour that you're doing the show. It's probably
an hour of packing. How much are we sourcing
per hour, right? And that's if you don't do photos
and do the pre -sale show stuff. And that doesn't
include your advertising. And then you tack on
what the rest of us do, which is sourcing. All
of us do the sourcing part, whether it's coming
to you, buying online, you're going to the bins,
you're going to the thrift, you're going to the
yard sale. It doesn't matter. Is extra work tacked
off what I know that I'm currently doing in addition?
And is the work worth it? It can be. Is it worth
it to me? No. I don't think it is for me personally.
I'm not speaking to everyone in the world. I'm
speaking for myself. The same with me with eBay,
dude. Like, I got probably 20 things that are
decent items to list on eBay, right? So it's
just like... I don't even look at the books that
don't have ISBNs no more, Johnny. I don't, I
could care less. Like they would go in your trash
bucket. They do. They don't even come out. I'll
open the box and I stack them before I scan them.
And I'm just like, well, this ain't coming out
the box. I don't even waste time with it, but
to somebody else, right? Like maybe I would spend
time with your trash bucket. Exactly. But for
me, I'm just like, nah, this ain't, this is not
for my business model. So I keep it moving. But
the problem is the person that isn't getting
results on Amazon. or ebay they split their time
and you wind up with two things that are completely
half -assed and not done right instead of one
thing that you're just focused on and just being
the ebay person or just being the amazon person
and getting real results on that platform you
sell yourself short you self -sabotage 100 by
trying to be the person's like I got to diversify
because, oh, my God, there's something that's
going to happen. I better diversify. Like, all
right, we're not, you know, this ain't mutual
funds here. This is a business. You need to double
down on what's working. If eBay works for you,
then let's go. Let's ramp it up. If Amazon works
for you, let's go. If whatnot works for you,
go on whatnot. And here's probably one we didn't
mention about self -sabotage, and we would. And
it kind of goes into what we're talking about.
Is it worth our time? Some people say get an
employee for that. And I see them do that and
they assign this employee to either take on a
task that they don't want to do or they assign
it to a potential money making expansion of their
business or they've assigned it what I consider
the proper way first. And this is for new employees.
I'm not talking about the guys already established.
They assign it to I cannot complete all of my
work in one day. I am tapped out myself. There
are no extra minutes. I need somebody to give
me some minutes back. That's when you should
get an employee, in my opinion, versus these
other two. I want them to take on the task I
hate, and I want them to take on the task that
is a potential money -making revenue stream that
I have no time to explore myself. Or I've written
a rough draft, and here you go, employee. Go
forth and make me millions off my $20 an hour
I pay you. It's so true, dude. It's so true with
the employees and resellers. It's just like,
come on, guys. Like, guys and girls. That's self
-sabotage, in my opinion. It is. Like, we got
to be realist when it comes to this stuff. And
sometimes, at the end of the day, most of the
times in our businesses here as solo entrepreneurs,
we are the problem, but we also are the solution.
Yes. So you just got to kind of, I don't know,
man, you got to, it's tough. We're never, none
of us are 100 % right. And to avoid comment blasting,
because I already know we're going to get blasted.
That's all right. When you're a little bit more
established, you got a couple of employees under
your belt and then you want to explore. OK, I
want to send an employee to go down this rabbit
hole. You have the luxury to do so. Sure. Or
I you know what? I can't do another single photo.
I've taken a million of them by now. I need that
extra person. I've earned this. I'm bringing
on the employee to take it out of my life because
me personally, I hate photos. I hate them. All
right. Well, since Johnny put me on a hotspot,
I'm going to put him in a hotspot. This will
definitely get them blasted in the comments.
Oh, let's go. Let's comment, Rage. How much money,
bottom line, extra income every single month
after taxes, buy costs, everything. So is it
extra money you have coming in from your business?
Do you think somebody should have before they
hire a part -time 20 -hour a week employee? Oh,
part -time? Yeah. I would say three months. Three
months to factor everything in on a part time
level. Three months of you're saying like covered
expenses. No, I'm going to take this back. Sorry,
I misunderstood the scenario. So you want to
have at least three months of all of your expenses
paid free and clear, plus three additional months
of their salary. For a total of three months,
bringing them in and to cover all your expenses.
So whatever you're going to pay that employee,
that's 20 hours a week times three months, plus
three months saved up of your business and personal
expenses in the bank for a part -timer. Full
-timer, well, add another three months to that
at 40 hours. Okay, now the second question that
kind of follows that one up. How many, what do
you think the percentage of resellers that actually
hire an employee meet those requirements? None.
People pull the trigger early on employees. I
get why. Like, okay, once they bring them on
and make so much money, screw it. And we'll play
this race game, right? I got a month of their
salary in the bank. Not even my own expenses
in there. We're just going to roll the dice and
see what happens. And you know what happens when
you roll the dice? Some of the time it works
and some of the time it don't. That's just what
the dice giveth, man. Now, if you take a minute
to say, for every person I bring in, I compound
my business X amount of time. Unless you know
this, you're guessing. Because it's going to
be unforeseeable because maybe they're a bad
employee and you're going to have turnover. Nobody
factors in turnover on their first employee.
They just think, I'm going to get this individual
once I hire them. And they're going to be great.
They're going to be there. And they're going
to stay forever and ever. Yeah. Or there's a
conflict. Like, you don't know that they're a
undercover alcoholic until this one day. And
you question everything that they've touched.
Yeah. Another thing to consider is. It's really
tempting to bring on, again, it's so tempting
to bring on an employee for the thing you hate
the most. But is it the thing that you bring
them in on going to make you the most amount
of money? Now, taking on tasks like shipping
and photography to free you up to make the money
is also a consideration if that's what's being
done. If you're just bringing them in. and no
additional time is being set to make more money,
that's a bad reason. Like if I were to bring
in a photographer just to free me up from photography
and nothing were to change, I'm actually paying
negative dollars. I'm giving my business negative
dollars. I've gained nothing. But if I'm bringing
them in to do photos so that frees me up to source
more or be able to put up more listings, my business
will grow versus go worse than it was when I
brought in the photographer. Yeah, self -sabotage
when it comes to hiring an employee is 100 %
real in the reselling space. And I guess the
last one we're going to leave you all with this
episode, I'm going to throw it out there. Comparing
yourself to other resellers. Oh, that's a good
one. I mean, dude, I mean, I used to be this
way because I'm in the YouTube space and I used
to compare myself to other YouTubers that resell
or booksellers. Now I could care less, right?
Like I'm only focused on what I got going on,
but I know a lot of people out there get down
and out. I try to stray away from posting numbers
as much because I don't want to turn off somebody
that just started or somebody that maybe has
been doing it for a long time and not getting
results. But I have to be transparent in what
I do. I got to put my numbers out there. And
I just think you can easily get stuck down this
rabbit hole of, well, why is Johnny making X
amount of dollars when I'm working more than
him? Or why is Johnny making X amount of dollars?
I got more items listed than him. Why am I working
harder and I seem like I'm making pennies as
opposed to their... $100 bills. What you see
95 % of the time isn't the real picture of what's
going on behind the scenes, right? Like we talk
about an Amazon land, some... This guy, Benny,
he comments on a lot of my YouTube videos. I
made a post saying, you know, how I finally broke
20K a month in sales. And he said, is this gross
or net? And I was like, yeah, that's like the
big thing, right? In Amazon land, you just see,
oh, well, my sales, my bars. Oh, gross dollars.
Everybody talks in gross dollars. Yeah, yeah.
So it's like, you got to take everything with
a grain of salt at the end of the day. Don't
compare yourself to other people. Johnny, final
thoughts before we wrap it up. Think before you
act. Because if you take the minute to really
think about it and or get other people's thoughts
before you execute something that may set you
back six months, it will do you a better service
than you just acting. And as we stated earlier,
roll the dice to see what happens. Patience is
a virtue in this business, but that virtue actually
comes with dollars in the bank account. It's
a marathon, not a race. you gotta take it slow
and steady it's really tempting just to pour
gasoline and see what happens i'm saying leave
the gas tank in the shed ladies and gentlemen
and just be patient find yourself a deb somebody
that's on the outside that can give things a
second look And I promise you, they will save
you from making some terrible decisions in your
business. You know, it doesn't have to be a significant
other. It could be Elle. It could be me. It could
be Johnny. It could be somebody, you know, that
has some business mentality behind them. But
don't always think you're right because most
of the time you are not. That's going to do it
for this week's episode. We'll talk to you all
next week. Thanks for listening to another episode
of the Reseller's Mindset Podcast. Today's full
episode and all previous episodes are available
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