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
into another episode of Reseller's Mindset Podcast.
Mike next to Johnny, as always. Today's going
to be a fun topic. We're going to dive a little
bit into Realm of... content creation and reselling,
how they go hand in hand, the challenges with
it, the benefits of it, and just kind of dive
into it. So I guess I'll kind of take it off
the wheels here since Johnny's newer into the
YouTube realm. I've been doing it now, I think
for, I just got a notification on YouTube, my
dashboard, that I've been doing it for five,
over five years, I've been creating Amazon reselling
content. And if you're probably thinking, man,
how can you talk about something for five years?
I just said that to Johnny before the call. Man,
how the hell I've been talking about Amazon selling
content for over five years on the YouTube channel.
And I don't know, when I first started, I will
say I think my mind shift has changed around
content creation. When I first started, it was
more of just a fun thing to do. I was editing
my own videos and full disclosure. I know nothing
about editing and I'm cheap. So I had to go find
a cheap editing software and try to learn the
ropes myself. And it was just a fun thing for
me to do and like interact with other people
in a reselling space and build relationships.
Now it's definitely shifted to more of like,
it's more business focused, I guess I would say,
because I don't rely on the money from YouTube,
but I do expect to make money off YouTube. And
I challenge everybody that has any type of business,
there's going to be a startup here. I mean, it
took me, it's not like you're monetized on YouTube
right away. You got to get 4 ,000 watch hours,
1 ,000 subscribers. And it took me probably two
and a half years to even get monetized. And I
just looked before this, just so you guys are
well aware how much a used book guy makes off
YouTube ads a month. All right, buckle up. I
know you're going to be like, wow. I definitely
need to like this podcast and donate all of my
money to the used book guy because estimated
revenue on YouTube for ads in the last 28 days
is $100 .85. This is my home alone phase. Oh,
my. And fun fact, I don't edit my videos no more.
I have. Thankfully, my editor is a lifelong friend
who went to school for audio and visual. So I
get a good deal. And I will say that I pay him
more than $100 a month to edit the four videos
that I put out because I still edit the podcast.
These are pretty easy for me to do. But my actual
thrifting videos, I have him take care of those.
So they look nicer and are kind of done better.
But that's it's become more of a business, a
branch of my empire, I guess. Right. It's one
of my. streams of revenue have a thousand streams
of revenue they tell you so that's youtube has
definitely turned into that for me but i spent
a lot of time on this shit like deb yells at
me every day i spend too much time in the discord
we got all these calls uh we're on i even pay
johnny to do the calls right so there's it's
not just like oh a cash grab like the membership
that i have through the channel i spend way too
much time on it my dollar per hour is probably
like three bucks per hour if i really kind of
mapped it out so content creation started as
a fun little thing for me to do and i quickly
realized it wasn't sustainable myself um that's
why i got johnny doing calls that's why i have
an editor editing the videos but all of that
comes with yeah they're not doing it for free
and i don't blame them because you shouldn't
just work for free so yeah it's kind of shifted
i'm curious uh since johnny's recently gotten
into youtube over the past few months kind of
what his experience has been so far with it the
Money, I am not even getting paid from YouTube,
honestly. I'm getting paid from my awesome Patreon
book club members. Go, you people. You know who
you are if you're listening to this. And ironically,
a lot of them actually do listen to this because
they know I'm here too. It's a fickle game. You
never really know what they want, and it's the
worst videos that you think are the worst videos
that tend to be your best view count videos for
whatever reason. I don't know why. like i'll
do a mediocre video just to get it up for the
week and it'll be like double the amount of views
all my other try hard videos do it's like right
why why why this one it makes no sense um and
that doesn't even include the and i'm bad at
this i need to start getting better at it the
social media that you got to pump out everywhere
and that's another set of correspondence even
if it's stupid heart emojis just to get the trickle
going there as well so there's a lot of back
-end work other than just her flipping on the
camera doing whatever it is you plan on doing
and then uploading it it's it's it's a little
nightmarish and um i'm not even really doing
editing i'm just doing raw because like you said
it it's it's a skill set it takes up time I have
no real desire to learn it myself. Maybe I should.
I don't know. But it's... YouTube is... I don't
think it was like in 2007 where you could just
do whatever. It's very formulaic. Everybody will
tell you what to do, what not to do today versus
back then where it was the Wild West and you
could... I don't know. You could watch a video
in a phone cam and you'd be okay with it. You
can't do that anymore. And we're talking, like,
the flip phone era days. Yeah, it's weird, too,
because, you know, like you're saying, it's different.
You know, what works on YouTube is clickbait,
like, scammy titles. But, like, in the realm
of, like, you doing the book -related stuff and
me doing resale, I'm like, there's only so much
clickbait, like, I can pull out here, right?
And then I think the audience I've curated, like...
To people that know me, like they know it's clickbait,
right? And then there's always the people like,
this is clickbait, yada, yada, yada. Like, not
that I care, but I think that's, you know, that's
just the world we live in. Like everything has
to be like rage baiting, enticing you to say
something in the comment section. I seen, you
know, for a while what people were doing, they
were like purposely misspelling. a word on their
thumbnail and in their title right like a common
word honestly i've done it not not on purpose
but uh i've seen that was going on for a while
because every comment every like boost your video
in the algorithm and uh like john you're saying
like there's you know the overhead cost like
i said it the other day like shout out to all
these resound content creators that you know
aren't aren't getting paid 100 bucks a month
a lot of these people aren't making nothing and
uh they're spending all this time editing i just
challenge everybody if you're going to be the
person to give your time away you better have
some payoff somewhere along the road i mean as
greedy as that sounds listen there's there's
no way i can continue on this path if all of
a sudden i'm making zero dollars on youtube right
like there's just no way I mean, I honestly don't
know if I would be doing it if I didn't have
the Patreon group. Because after 60 some odd
videos, my view count's really low. And I guess
part of that's my own undoing there with not
really doing social media as hard as I should.
But it's like 60 videos, what do you have to
show for it? Did you have a good time? Question
mark. If you did, I guess that's what you have
to show for it. Those people sticking to it without
like a membership or some kind of external fund
you while you try to build it up. Kudos to you
if you're able to do that. I mean, you're one
of those, this is what you want to do. It's your
passion. It's your hobby kind of people. And
don't get me wrong. I like books. Mike likes
reselling. We enjoy the content we're putting
out, but it's not like it's happy fun times every
time we do it. I mean, it's like doing your eBay
listings, doing your Amazon shipments. It's one
of those things you got to do. And if you don't
do it, well, you're only hurting yourself. What's
up, Amazon tellers? 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. I appreciate
all the relationships I got along the way. And
I'm sure I could probably leverage my social
media more if I wanted to like build business
relationships. You know, like, oh, yeah, look,
I help train people how to sell on Amazon. You
know, it can be another talking point when I
go in and talk to a library or whatever. The
relationships are the real payoff for me because
the money is not even life changing, even with
the membership. So like the biggest. The benefit
I have is having friends and people like yourself
that are like, hey, you know, this is somebody
that I can call, talk to about business, because
without that, right, who the hell knows where
I'd be? Who the hell knows where a lot of people
in the group would be? Because we've helped a
lot of people make a lot of money over the past
years. And yeah, we're not we don't take credit
because they actually got to go do the work.
But we kind of just lay out the whole the whole
plan for them to actually kind of follow and
make their own. That's the big benefit to me.
And creating the content, I will say, you know,
my content is pretty plain Jane. And now that
I don't edit it, it doesn't bother me as much
to make it. But there was a point in time where
I was editing and putting out three videos a
week by myself. Like I was doing the editing
and I was uploading three videos a week. There
is even with an editor, there is going to be
a hard sell. If you want to tell me we're going
back to three videos a week, Mike, even though
your editor is going to do it. Yeah, I'm thinking
about. And I've been doing a little bit of restructuring
and a lot of rumor mills about me going about
that. But anyway. You're like the hot topic here.
The Kardashians of reselling. It's weird having
people watch what you do, honestly, before I
get to my point I was trying to make. It still
throws me off from time to time. Like you hear
the whispers, the rumbling. And somebody messages
you, hey, is this true? I'm like, no, it's not.
But thank you for being concerned, stranger.
Anyway, yeah, and I may have to go up to five
because it's going to be a grind. And I know
that. And it's like, well, how do I speed up
the grind? And even like listings or sitting
in Amazon boxes, how do I get more money? Well,
you do more. That's the thing. You just simply
do more. And then a heavier side of social media
pushing. So I'm restructuring stuff. amazon and
ebay business to accommodate that and it's it's
been interesting and the the amount of effort
you have to put in for the small amount of gain
for the potential of a big gain is i mean it's
a struggle you have to rack your brain around
but um yeah the as far as the relationships go
i've had a lot of good relationships come out
of all the groups i've been in whether i've been
on a podcast or not a podcast here has definitely
uh helped me at least with the consignment portion
that wasn't something i would have ever thought
about on my own but you nagged me for like a
year or something to do it it's actually been
pretty good um and uh we're starting to get like
people are wanting to send us pallets and stuff
and we're able to take those in now and it's
a lot of It's a lot of be patient, be patient,
and be more patient, and then it will pay off,
honestly. And it's just now starting to have
its bigger fruits, I would say, at least on the
consignment, this kind of podcast thing. Now
I have to work on my own channel, doing my own
thing to build my own little tree. Right now
my tree is like this big out of the dirt that
I'm building. But it has the potential to be
really big at some point. I'm really excited
about that. I think there needs to be like...
I need to pass the torch on to somebody else
to be the main, the used book guy, the new used
book guy in the Amazon selling space. It's weird
because there used to be a lot of content creators,
even just in the book space. And a lot of them
have gone away, especially over the past year
or so. And I don't blame anybody for doing it.
I just wish we could get like a little goodbye
video, right? When I go, Johnny, I'm making a
crazy video. My last one, I got a long list of,
Johnny, of names and people and places that will
be exposed. Burning all bridges. I love it. Dude,
I'm going to be the joker out here, right? I'm
bringing down the whole entire damn thing when
that comes. But I don't mistake anybody for being
like, hey, because you're not making no money.
I just told you guys how much I'm making off
it. Yeah, there's some content created out. creators
out there that are making, you know, thousands
of dollars a month and good on them, right? They
just have a different business model to me. I'm
niched down. I niched myself into a corner with
Amazon media selling, right? And there's, that's
my choice. And is there a time where I have to
pivot away from it if I want to continue YouTube?
The answer has got to be yes, because there's
only so many people that want to start selling
on Amazon that are still selling on Amazon. I
mean, they say Amazon sellers go up year over
year. but it's rarely in the book space. It's
everywhere else. It's not as easy as it used
to be. Like when I started the channel in 2021,
it was 2020, you know, everybody was trying to
get in on it, right? Doing the side hustle, reselling
online was the biggest thing ever. And now, like
Johnny said, my best videos are the doom and
gloom ones, right? Like the piss everybody off
ones. Like, oh my God, this is the end of times.
Like I... I should literally do this. If I want
to make more money on YouTube, once a month I
have this is the end of times video. That's all
I'll title it. Every single month I have one
video titled this is the end of times and it's
got me going crazy in the thumbnail and the sky
is falling and I guarantee I would see a boost
to my overall views every single month. It's
that or you go the sexy way with it and you have
a bunch of girls in bikinis behind you. There's
a Lambo, and you got one of those douchebag Miami
shirts unbuttoned and the little sailor hat on.
There's that way to go, too, on YouTube, but
you're really selling out at that point, I think.
Dude, it's like you said. I used to love making
those videos where I broke down my actual numbers.
They do 10 views. And I think it's this, the
general consumer doesn't want that. The people
that are, or watcher rather, and the people that
are in your group and stuff, we love that stuff.
But we're smaller compared to those people who
are just the casual passer buyers. So they'll
perform bad, even though they're great information.
And it's like, oh, it's not just me. Or hey,
this list lines up. it's just they can't relate
because they're not actually doing amazon they
may watch amazon content for i don't know what
reason or maybe they're curious but that group
of people is so much larger than us that are
actually in it yeah and it's it's weird right
like an alternate universe uh there's probably
no shot that the used book guy sticks around
this long but thankfully we're in this universe
and i don't plan on stopping creating content
i just you know It's good to be a part of the
community. I think another thing that keeps me
going is there's so many of these fraudsters
out here in the reselling space, even still in
the Amazon space. There's these fake gurus that
pop up all the time. They want to sell people
this thousand dollar course. And, you know, there's
this one company that still exists, Book Profits.
They literally just scam seniors like. All their
videos are like AI reviews on their page. Don't
go to their website. But if you ever see an ad
from Book Profits, which you probably will now
because I said the name and everybody's listening.
They're Googling right now. You told them not
to. I've had multiple one -on -ones with seniors
that were basically scammed out of thousands
of dollars by these guys because they sell the
dream of online arbitrage book flipping. And
it's all, it's basically just. a 100 % fake kind
of Ponzi scheme type thing. So I guess that's,
that's why I keep going because if I go away
and some other ass clown shows up and it's just
like telling people all the complete wrong information,
then I'm going to have to make a comeback. Right?
Like, and when you retire, you want to stay retired,
you know, like bring down a Jordan Jersey. That's
what I'm saying. I don't want to be like, Oh
no, put it back up in the rafters. I got to come
back out of retirement for a video. Oh man. and
yeah the the in this space the content creators
i don't know we were talking a little bit about
the caucus there's like maybe five to six and
maybe maybe one to five smaller people that i'm
unaware of honestly out there it's a small small
space and again i agree with mike i mean pre
-covered all the content was great it was banger
we couldn't get enough and and those people a
lot of them have gone away and the few that remain
it's like well we've heard it all before none
of this is new and exciting anymore you're late
to the party my friend so it's it's not like
we're on the cutting edge forefront of everybody
waiting for the next update to come out from
a youtuber um i think those days are long past
and the curiosity factor for hobbies and getting
spare money i think people are more interested
in how to run a doordash and uber business than
how to run an ebay or amazon business now yeah
and i think You know, I think a way I've seen
this, like for you to be a reseller, I think
you got to make it more personal than I do. And
I'm just not up for like recording me going to
the cafe and recording me, you know, laying butt
naked in the waterbed at night. Right. Like I
just like I think those types of content creation
where it's beyond reselling and you have more
of a personal connection will be good. I also
think long form content works. But yet again,
I'm just going to the thrift store, Johnny, and
pulling out the GoPro and recording it at all
10 thrift stores I go to today. Like, I'm just
not cut out for it. It's going to eat up too
much of my time just all over the place, right?
But I do think there is still, there's still
opportunity if you are a reseller content creator.
I think it's just, you got to be almost the everything
seller where you got to. be willing to kind of
lay yourself out there more personable and more.
I guess, more things outside of reselling included
in your content. So it's not just reselling or
like the long form, like when you had the bookstore
and saying, hey, just set up a camera and have
like a live stream 24 -7 of the bookstore, something
like that. I think there's still room for innovation
in this space. I think a lot of us, including
myself, kind of are just, oh, look, we went to
the thrift store. Oh, here's what we found. Oh,
here's what things are selling for. Like that
old rinse and repeat. crap it doesn't work so
like if you want to grow your youtube audience
i think there's a way for it you definitely don't
want to have a name like the used book guy because
God forbid I stop selling books, right? Then
all of a sudden I'm, why the hell are they even
selling that? You're selling more CDs and DVDs
now. And I, I, I jab them a lot. Mike, you're
going off brand. Yeah, I am. I am. But there's
still plenty of room for it and there's still
benefits. I mean, I got, I got people that reach
out to me all the time. I've made great relationships
from this. I've had business opportunities to
buy stuff from people. I, I, I'm not big on social
medias. They exist, right? But like, The best
way to get a hold of me is through my private
Discord. Like I'm not on Instagram every day,
X. None of these platforms you see me post on
because I had to automate that too. I can't be,
you know, creating shorts every single day, right?
I schedule them out a month or two ahead of time
so I can have time to still run the business
because at the end of the day, the reselling
makes me the money, not the YouTube as we kind
of already seen here, right? Like a hundred bucks
a month. ain't squat i actually still gotta actually
go have a business and to be able to keep the
lights on and everything it's it's a weird balancing
act i do think there are some things like i could
definitely do different to get more people in
change my name from the used book guide to something
else uh start doing different content i don't
know if it excites me though right and i'm i'm
at that point now where if i'm not excited about
something It's going to be a hard sell for me.
I guess I'm becoming more old and stubborn about
it. I wouldn't have a problem doing it, and I've
thought about doing it. Having the glasses that
have the camera so I can record when I'm in the
stores and basically everything I'm doing throughout
the day. Just try different things. Go to flea
markets and record that stuff. The monetary payoff
for me to slow down and make YouTube videos is
not worth it if I just... focused on what i'm
doing don't have to worry about making a youtube
video go to the stores i need to go to get my
shit get home get it listed i don't think it
ever reaches close to what my reselling business
makes me that youtube possibly could right and
doing what you're doing you have to always ask
yourself am i a reseller first or am i a youtuber
first and it's okay to pick either one but oh
yeah just be true to yourself if you know you're
a youtuber that just happens to have reselling
content, do that. If you're a reseller that kind
of reports about your YouTubing, well then do
that. Either way is fine. You just got to pick
your personal passion, I guess is the best way
to put it. I just think reselling educational
content, it's a dying thing, man. I think you
kind of hit it on the head earlier. Like nobody's
really looking to learn. about reselling like
everything already exists right especially now
you google anything they don't even deb yells
me all the time she said look this up and it
gives me like the ai answer she's like i don't
want the goddamn ai answer i'm like i don't know
how not to have the ai answer so like questions
are so easily answered now in depth right because
it's not like you say hey what how do you make
the color purple and then like it'll just say
this and this it'll give you like a five paragraph
essay on how and why or what are you using it
for how's it going to work like I think it's
the information is more readily accessible. So
reselling like educational content is not as,
I guess, sought after at all anymore compared
to what it used to be. Right. Like I'll give
an instance for this and I'll make it book related.
So we're on brand J .R. Martin or R .R. Martin.
Everybody craves to get one book out of this
man. And they just want it, want it, want it,
and they can't get enough of it because it's
few and far between. He doesn't write that much.
Nora Roberts, on the other hand, she's putting
out a book every other month. She's on Lifetime
with her made -for -book movie. She's everywhere.
But the comparison, as far as the general audience
goes, as far as that hunger, I think it's more
for Martin than a Nora Roberts book coming out.
So there's your analogy for the day, boys and
girls, brought to you by the letter E. And as
far as what we're talking about, as far as what
kind of content you should be doing these days,
not you personally, Mike, but just in general,
here's the best one. And feel free to steal this,
Mike or somebody else listening. You go in. You
source a couple things. You go out to the checkout
line. Hey, Goodwill man or lady, I was wondering
if I could talk to you after hours. And you have
a little sit down. You go, tell me your story
of why you're poor. And they'll tell you why
they're poor and working at the Goodwill. I want
to change your life. Will you let me? And then
you go on a reselling journey. You totally reality
TV the bullshit and make them to have more money,
and then they're just throwing away their Goodwill
jersey, and now they're no longer working at
Goodwill. Everybody will have the tears. They'll
be shouting and celebrating in the streets. That's
what the content would need to be for it to be
boomingly successful. Yeah, and, you know, I'm
trying to work. a few resellers and i think their
content's on point but that's like for me right
i'm not i'm not the the new generation of people
that want like all the dramatics and all the
stuff like i rather see the business nitty -gritty
of things i'd rather see some of the bolos because
you know i've made money watching people over
the years and just seeing what you know i should
be on the lookout for um But it's tough though,
man, because your average person could care less.
They want the flashiness. They want the dramatics.
They want the drama. They want the, you know,
they want the beef of resellers, right? This
person versus that person. Mike, I want to hear
you having a bad day and I want you to cry on
camera, man. I'll make millions. I'll make sure
I, the first link in the description in the comment
section is like my PayPal. Please help me. Yeah.
Never want to see me cry again for only three
dollars a month. Make sure you turn on recurring
payments. I do challenge every reseller, though,
like what is the long term play for for your
channels? How much time are you putting into
it there? There's got to be a payoff at some
point. As much as I appreciate the relationships.
And everything I've built up to this point, it
took years, five years to get where I'm at. And
honestly, the money I make even with the memberships
is not nowhere near enough to justify the time
I spend. But I value being around people that
are in the same business as me that are actually
working in the business. In YouTube land, anybody
can say they do anything. In YouTube land, anybody
can say they make millions of dollars and they
sell this and they sell that. I like being around
people that are actually down in the weeds. That's
why I'm not big on like these conferences, any
of these conferences, because I rather, you know,
I got my own conference every single week, every
single day in Discord is people that are actually
out there in the business, in the weeds, in the
thrift stores. It's listing on Amazon. And that's
kind of the biggest value to me. It holds me
accountable and keeps me motivated. I don't know
why, because who cares if I don't post a video
this week or next week or, you know, like I've
seen plenty of people just stop posting videos
altogether that were posting videos for the longest
time. And you never hear, you know, we need like
an end to the story. Like I've been watching
your channel for five years and you just. disappear
like you can't even be like hey you know now
sure there's things that happen probably for
different reasons life happens you know um but
when you hear these people are still like around
in groups and everything it's like why can't
you just make a video saying hey i'm going to
step back from content creation yeah a little
farewell video and um yeah i mean it's not like
it was and i It's a hard market to be in. I mean,
we've been trying to get you to 10 ,000 subs.
Hey, and you can help us get to 10 ,000 subs
by liking and subscribing to Mike, the used book
guy on YouTube. For a long time now, we've been
trying to get him to 10 ,000 over a year now,
and it's been a struggle, slow growth. And that's
not because the people we have aren't disinterested.
They're very successful in what they're doing
and are on the attempts to be so. But the amount
of people, the new people. I think that pool
has gotten smaller because, again, I think they're
looking, how do I make money? Either using ChatGP
or extra money or they're using Google or they're
hitting YouTube for other things that have come
up since reselling. And they're exploring those
avenues. There's more options than there was
before, honestly, because there's different jobs
available as well. And I do think, I don't know,
where do you see your YouTube channel in? Five
years. I'm going to have to pivot from I'm going
to have to at least pivot away from the used
book guy. I mean, if Amazon keeps raising fees
on books like we talked about before, books are
going to be such a small percentage of my business.
Right. So there definitely there definitely is
a route where I change my name. I'll still be
reselling to what extent. Right. Who the hell
knows in five years? Sure. But I mean. everything
you got to change with the times right or you
kind of just become irrelevant i think you know
one thing i wanted to talk about too was like
you got to be thick -skinned dude you got to
not care what people say on the internet like
i have a perfect example beginning of this year
amazon started caring about condition i tell
people as the used book guy i'm the guru right
well Len, if Amazon cares about condition, let's
condition according to Amazon's guidelines, right?
And unfortunately for me and everybody else,
our stuff falls under the category of being like
new condition, right? Yeah. So I sell used books.
A lot of people that sell books are passionate
about books. I think I'm a small outlier. I got
a few people in the group that really don't give
a shit about books either, right? everybody freaked
out because their standards are different than
amazon standards yes so to them that book is
not like new but to amazon it is right so like
in every facebook world clash every facebook
group cancel the used book guy and honestly i
thought it was the funniest thing ever and people
are just absolutely idiots and johnny says it
all the time everybody can run their business
as they see fit if you don't want to do it you
don't got it we tell you all the time just because
me and johnny say this is working for us you
don't necessarily that doesn't mean it's going
to work for you and it doesn't mean you should
go try to copy exactly what we're doing right
so when you do start creating content it's going
to put you in weird binds um I'll tell you right
now, this also happens to me. I have people in
my group that'll make controversial posts that
are just members of my group and they're associated
with me. Maybe it's even somebody we brought
on the podcast, right? So for some reason, I'm
just like instantly a relative to this person,
right? All of a sudden, I'm a brother, sister,
uncle, cousin to everybody that's a part of my
group. So when they do make something controversial,
like people will message me and be like, hey.
What did Johnny say, right? Like this has even
happened with things Johnny has said. What did
Johnny, did you see what Johnny said? And I'm
like, what do you want me to do? Spank the guy?
Like he's a grown man. He can do and say whatever
he wants. Like, but that is the reality. When
you get into content creation, there's so many
different layers that you really don't see. And
especially when you're not getting paid to deal
with the headaches. If I answered every question,
every DM that came through and every social media
platform ever, there's not enough time in the
day, especially as you continue to grow. And
for me, that's the challenge, right? Because
you want to help people, but you also can't just
sit here all day and help for free, right? Like
that's not, you got to pay the bills at the end
of the day. So there has to be some type of balance.
And that's kind of why the membership exists.
It just so. The time I'm spending helping people,
which is still severely underpriced, right? $25
for, you know, 25 minute one -on -one is nothing
in the coaching space of reselling. I'm literally
the cheapest ever heard of. So like, even that
you have to value your time here. As much as
I want to sit here for free all day, every day
and talk about reselling. I have a household
and retirement I need to work towards. I'm still
trying to get a house. I have my own goals that
require me actually making money. If that wasn't
the case and I had all the money in the world,
sure, we could sit here and kick it. I can tell
you exactly what I'm doing. And I probably wouldn't
be doing it though if I had all the money in
the world. But there has to be some type of financial
thing, but also realize. As people get into content
creation, there's a lot of drama that goes on
behind the scenes. I'm not in the biggest book
group that's been around forever, the book flipper
community on Facebook. I'll say it right here,
right now. That group was toxic back in 2020.
And it's even worse nowadays. I'll never join
that thing. It's the biggest and worst group
around book selling that's ever existed. And
everybody's in it but me. And when my name gets
brought up, hey, Mike, did you see the book flipper
community? No, I didn't because I ain't in there
because I ain't got time for fools. Everybody's
got an opinion on the internet. Unless you're
paying my bills, unfortunately, I appreciate
your opinion. Have a great day. Right. And I
get asked that, too. Like, you see this or that
or who said this or that? I watch very little
content these days. I'm in Facebook very little
these days. I don't got time to be keeping up
with TMZ of reselling. I'm sorry. I got better
things to do. That's like me logging into Facebook
and I see, I don't know, Republican versus Democrat
kind of discussion going on. I don't got time
for that. Nobody's going to win here. It's a
losing situation to engage. Why would I engage
with this? It's not worth it. And, yeah, I mean,
we got some people that are kind of controversial
or kind of like to push buttons just because
they want to. If you've got the excess free time
instead of pumping that in your business, I guess,
I mean, it's your free time. Who am I to tell
you what you want? If you get your rocks off
poking the book flipper community people to watch
them spaz, I think there's better hobbies, but
you do you. i i'm not you and if you get happiness
out of that whatever and and as far as like my
involvement i i see mike working really hard
i got i joined i don't know what three four years
ago something like that yeah very early on i
was seeing what he was trying to do i'm like
yes this is the pathway to helping people i signed
up to help people i ain't doing it for what mike
pays me i could make more money not doing that
yeah but the genuine helping people every now
and then somebody comes along who needs genuine
help whether it's a little or a lot but once
you give them that help or guidance and they
make it that that's what i do it for for those
people just trying to get a little just trying
to figure it out once they do they can fly on
their own now for everybody else wasting my time
who will never fly on your own i gotta endure
year two but i'm waiting along for this person
be honest with you oh it's so true right it's
uh me me and johnny believe we'll we'll be paid
in good karma uh good you will come back our
way it's not like a monetary it's not like i
open my wallet and there's like karma bills in
there but i do i do believe in uh think what
goes around comes around in this lifetime and
i i'm on the same boat right we do it for those
that because we we were both dead broke right
we both had jobs we didn't want to be in resale
and gave us the out to get out of those things
so we can help a few people do the same exact
thing even if that means we have to edit our
own videos for three years before we make a dollar
on youtube right like that's just you know that's
what the universe wants us to do and you know
so be it and everything we say is not always
right and nothing nothing offends me on the internet
i think it's funny when people i never spoke
to all of a sudden have my name in their mouth
i'm like who this guy really like he's famous
people worry about what people are worried about
what i'm doing i'm sitting down watching unsolved
mysteries at eight o 'clock at night you're worried
you're worth talking about you're famous you're
worried about what they use unsolved mystery
robert stack book guys doing eight o 'clock at
night i'm watching a rerun of unsolved mysteries
for free on the roku channel right like and people
are like he's conditioning his stuff as like
new and i'm just like amazon said it could so
i am i don't i don't even care but it is funny
it's uh there's so many challenges to creating
content and being a reseller and uh it's just
it's a weird balance i like seeing resellers
that are youtubers kind of hit their stride and
make a lot of money um and i don't think there's
anything wrong with that i'm just in the educational
space of helping people start on amazon and grow
their business so it's a different trajectory
for me but yet again it's kind of like my business
i'm fine with what i have right now right like
i don't want to be the biggest reselling youtuber
i never set out to be the biggest reselling youtuber
so i'm glad when i see other youtubers winning
around me and getting all the views and making
all the money because i'm perfectly content with
the life i have in the business i have i think
the problem is a lot of people that do want to
start content creation you start chasing the
likes and the subscribers and you know that that
becomes your only focus and It is a grind that
you think you're going to just have this viral
video and you're going to get a million views.
I'm going to tell you, it's not the case anymore.
Even just generic reselling content, you're never
going to get these crazy videos that are going
to get hundreds of thousands of views. It's going
to be a grind like anything. You're going to
have to grow this into an actual business. And
even if you're just starting, have a roadmap
for where you want to be in a year, two years,
how you're going to be able to turn this into
things. I have the little Amazon links in all
my videos for like the supplies. I don't make
a lot of it, but I make an extra 10, 20 bucks
a month off people just buying the random supplies
that are linked in the description of all the
videos. Like there's little ways you kind of
can incentivize yourself along the route of trying
to turn it into something that generates money.
Now, if you don't want to do it for the money,
then this whole podcast was a waste of your time.
But I do think if we're going to put excess time
into something. There has to be a payoff monetarily,
especially for somebody that's not in, you know,
not in. If we can't retire today, then we should
be focusing on getting to that. I personally
believe I want to retire as soon as I possibly
can. And I need money to get there. Right. Because
money is going to allow me to continue to make
more money off my money. So my main goal in life
is to be able to retire. and not resell until
i'm 100 years old right i want to be able to
enjoy some time that i have here on planet earth
and i need money to kind of get there and youtube
has just kind of developed itself over five years
to contribute someone to my bank account on a
monthly basis but i put a lot of time in the
back end on the membership so it's all a balancing
act i guess and here's something to think about
reselling i don't care what your platform or
reselling on, or I don't even care what you're
selling. Reselling should be a means to go do
what you want. If you really want to run a business
that has a startup cost of $3 million, well,
then you're going to need $3 million. And if
you're going to generate that with reselling
stuff and then go do that, great. Or like Mike,
you just want to retire and live off the dividends,
interest or whatever of his savings in some home
somewhere. um great but you're gonna need the
money to do that therefore we have the reselling
stuff or if you want to go open a restaurant
or i don't know a food truck or um start your
own counter uber business whatever it doesn't
matter what it is we're all in this because we
want to go do something else there there's i
don't know one percent or less that are in it
to do resell until the day they die I agree.
We're going to wrap it up here. The last analytic
I'm going to give you all is, since the lifetime
of my YouTube channel, my channel has gotten
1 ,276 ,440 views since I first started my YouTube
channel. It's really not a lot in the grand scheme
of content creation. I mean, just go look at
some other genres where they have more. I mean,
hell, Mr. Beast probably gets a billion views
per video. I spent five years to get 1 .3. I'm
not saying it's not worth it. I'm just saying
have, I guess, a runway for what you want it
to be. kind of the content you want to create
and there's going to be times where you have
to pivot we talked about it earlier if you want
to be the content creator then you got to go
with what's on trend right you got to go with
what the algorithm wants the algorithm right
now wants long form content i'm just not going
to sit here and make hour -long videos right
it's just not worth it for me with what i'm currently
at and there's only so much thrifting i can put
out to people so they're like wow you're just
going into another thrift store wow you're just
going into another thrift store so like It's
all a balancing act. As always, we appreciate
you watching, listening on the podcast platforms.
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
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