254 : Jason Slone – Selling full time on ebay and Amazon on his terms
Jason aka “Prof Sales” on Youtube has a pretty typical story. Went to school, got a corporate job and chose to leave. I see this more and more in our world. There is more to life and I get so excited that more people are figuring it out. Great story about figuring it out and finding “it”!
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Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00:00] Want to jump in here and just bring back up episode 250 Toys for Tots campaign put together by Sellar lambs. It is such a great opportunity. I was with the seller on Friday. Their team is working on it. I’m very very excited. This is a chance for you to use the skills that you personally have developed. You’ve got sourcing muscles not many other people have it. And this is a chance where we can take and use our skills to help those less fortunate. All the information is on episode 250 such a great cause. Give back give back give back this time of year thanks hope your Q4 is going good. It’s
Stephen: [00:00:40] a great time to be selling and sell a lot. Watch repressors. I just got whacked on one last$15 a unit. I didn’t lose I lost in profit because I showed a blocked one wasn’t paying attention so please do me tell you by a couple sponsors you a scope from solar labs. If you’re not using it to even just to take your wholesale accounts of course you got to use it for private label. Right. You need to understand the key word you want understand a key word go look at your competitors get their keywords and then use them. That’s smart business right because they already have proven that proof of concept but take the same approach to your wholesale accounts make sure that those keywords are in there. If not upload those changes many times you can but many times you can’t take advantage scope from Selover labs go to Silver labs dot com slash scope use the code word momentum save a few bucks get a few key words get your listings found.
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Stephen: [00:02:08] And you still get the inventory Health Report. Take a look at it it’s set up for 2018 now. Take care and I sent you. When you think about Q4 lists and I hope you don’t use them just Q4 I hope you use them all year long again you want to learn how to fish right. And so the best thing to do when you’re buying a list is look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it and then figure that out on your own. That’s the approach that gay lesbian uses and a million dollar arbitrage list. It is closed for the rest of this year however I have asked them and they have said they would do it if there’s an opening. They will pull from the waitlist. OK so I have the link out on my site on this episode will have a link that will take you right on to the waitlist.
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Cool voice guy: [00:04:28] Welcome to the e-commerce momentum good guys. Well we focus on the people the products and the process of Commerce selling today.
Stephen: [00:04:37] Your host Steven Peters and welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 250 for Jason Sloan. So Jason goes by the youtube name prof’s sales and we get into why use is professor of sales which is what is short for. But he’s got a really interesting background. And what’s so cool to me is that he kind of figured out the parts that he wants to do on his terms and it’s kind of a neat place to get to because when you work for. And he was in retail and you’ll hear that story and you have opportunities and then you don’t agree with it. It gets to you. And so you really kind of want to do what you want to do and I hope more people do it. I mean I just I’m seeing more people doing because I’m interviewing them but I just hope more people figure out that there’s another way you get to choose. And I think Jason is a great example that let’s get into the podcast. All
Stephen: [00:05:35] right welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast are excited about today’s guest. He is a fellow content producer and I’ve been watching this stuff and I really enjoy it. And dude knows his stuff. Jason Sloan aka Prof. Sales on YouTube. Welcome Jason. Hey thanks for having me Steve. Glad to be here. I appreciate you coming on. I’ve been watching and I don’t know how I found you but somehow you come up and you know they’re smarter than us right. These Google guys and they know hey if he’s watching this type of video he’ll likely like this video. And you’ve been coming up a lot lately on YouTube for me and probably for a lot of other people. And so I’m interested to find out how you got started with YouTube. But first why profits sales. What does that mean.
Jason: [00:06:25] Well that long story short I used to be a professor. I used to teach at a local community college and it’s always been a passion of mine. So when I got into the reselling game and selling on e-bay and Amazon Craigslist I thought you know maybe I’ll start a YouTube channel and just talk about my experiences and so on. And in doing that I was like I don’t really want to use my exact name so I decided well what can I put together that will soar. You know capital-T what I do and who I am and who I’ve been who I want to be. So I combined the word professor. Shorten it down to process which I thought would be a little easier to spell though strangely enough it’s not sometimes for people. And then I thought you know and what am I talking about when talking about sales I’m talking about revenue.
Jason: [00:07:16] Talking about business I’m talking about being an entrepreneur. So putting those two together I thought would kind of generate a quick one two punch easy to understand name for you to that I could use this word you know my trademark and you know what my channel was about what I was going to talk about and that’s how I came up with it.
Stephen: [00:07:34] OK. It makes sense. I mean I immediately thought He’s a professor of sales right. He’s going to teach me sales. That is where I went but I didn’t think there was a story and I’m glad to know there is is there. So tell me what do you go to school for.
Jason: [00:07:47] Well I initially went to school for political science.
Stephen: [00:07:51] Oh that’s related to sales. I mean you know actually you know what a given given the political realm out there today that’s probably a pretty good one right for sale sign any kind of you could do both because you have to sell yourself so a line of whatever.
Jason: [00:08:07] Yeah once upon a time I was going to be a lawyer and you know life took me in a different direction for a lot of different reasons. And you know so a political science degree and a master’s degree in political science seem like a that’s a good course to go and then go into law school. And I did not go that direction. And you know it after I got out I really didn’t do anything specifically with that degree but it’s definitely helped me a lot of other ways.
Stephen: [00:08:37] So you’re going to be a lawyer. I mean was that I mean are you parents lawyers hers or what led you that way. No
Jason: [00:08:45] . My parents are not lawyers at all. They they actually worked a lot of years for the same company and not in that field at all. But when I was younger I loved to argue and argue in the sense that you know just trying to persuade someone trying to understand my own position better. So the law seemed like a reasonable course to use for that. So hey maybe I can get paid for arguing. That
Stephen: [00:09:13] sounds good. And you can use it to pick up girls too. That is a highlight as you get a little older. Well when I was a little younger that that might have been part of it at least some. Absolutely. I mean back then. I get it now. OK so you were going to go. You went to school and you got out with this degree and the starry eyed learned student said what did you go shovel snow or where do you go to work.
Jason: [00:09:39] Well I got married. So this was how it’s supposedly I know it just got serious. Totally different direction. Got married moved. Well basically staying in my hometown for a while ended up taking a sales job. Interestingly enough I had the opportunity to become a sheriff’s deputy and did not answer that. That would have been a totally different direction and probably in retrospect would have been a better direction at least at that time in my life. But I decided to go into the sales field which eventually led to retail management field as well. So
Jason: [00:10:18] I went off on a totally different direction I’m one of those I’m one of those three quarters of the people that gets their degree and then does not get a job in that field.
Stephen: [00:10:26] Well and I don’t know I mean I think I’m a poly side degree. It is valuable for I mean again it’s a communications right. That’s a lot of do. That’s valuable. Pretty much across any industry any more or less even government. I mean it really is. I would argue that that degree would be valuable no matter what. Versus a general business degree or even a history degree or a general history degree. If you’re not specific or even worse. My son was studying my youngest who’s to change his major. He was studying computer science. I mean the most generic computer science degree and I’m like that’s not going to get you anywhere. You’ve got to be a little more specific and he changed into digital media and now he’s booming all of a sudden is booming. So I think Polizei is actually a very good degree. However retail sales management that doesn’t sound fun.
Jason: [00:11:22] If it wasn’t maybe fun although there were periods of fun but I did learn a lot of things I learned a lot about business without going through that. What
Stephen: [00:11:32] a what what kind of company you want to say who was to be what kind of company.
Jason: [00:11:37] Well I worked for actually I don’t mind seeing the companies I worked for Kmart were about your half learning lesson there. Yeah sure was. He basically told me I don’t want to work for Kmart. But I did learn some things for sure. I learned some things about managing a leading people and about you know business in general and profit and loss statements and inventory and sourcing and things like that. And then I end up working for Gap for I guess about six years. Can
Stephen: [00:12:07] I have a question that came up before we go there. Before we go on because you know I know they’re struggling so how is it working in it. And it’s not like they’re new struggling isn’t bankrupt I think once or twice already.
Stephen: [00:12:18] So how is it leading a team when the company is so struggling How do you motivate people. How do you keep them on task.
Speaker 12: [00:12:27] Great. That’s a great question. And it was definitely something that I struggled to do as I relatively new well as a new manager leader. I didn’t have a lot of experience doing it. I found that the only thing that really you could use to motivate people was the sense of accomplishment within the team because the sense of accomplishment in terms of the big companies goals and what their expectations were was not realistic. And we weren’t we didn’t really have the resources to do it. So we had to come up with basically what it looked like. Success for us and our team I was a sauf lines manager which is the clothing and the Martha Stewart side of the store and all that stuff. And it was difficult for sure. You really had to kind of focus because there wasn’t a really good direction from above in them and the morale the the mood of the company was poor at that time and since gotten worse.
Stephen: [00:13:24] You know I think it has what has Have there been tools or are I guess just learning that you have that you’ve been able to bring into your own business now because you’re I think a one person operation. Am I correct.
Speaker 12: [00:13:37] Well someone Carna helps me a lot as well.
Stephen: [00:13:41] We get a little bit of help there but so how do you. I mean were there skill sets that you’ve learned there that can bring you through because you know let’s face it this is a lonely business. Yeah the it’s high and low. Every 10 minutes or so is the best thing. I just gave this talk the best business in the world I can’t believe it. And then five minutes later oh my god what did I do. Why didn’t I stay at my job. That’s the way it goes. Were there things there that that are kind of pushing you through now because you’ve seen it and you you’ve come through the other side of it.
Jason: [00:14:13] Yeah. You know one of the things that was really eye opening about Kmart was their distribution their inventory. For instance dealing with that getting into the floor marketing and merchandising it was a real struggle. So because we really didn’t have the resources to get it done that direction was not always clear. We were always we didn’t have the Skewes we were supposed to have. So
Stephen: [00:14:34] it really presented a lot of challenges because it’s just old and they haven’t updated and haven’t invested because they’re just trying to stay alive.
Speaker 12: [00:14:43] Well I think at that point this would have been in the late 90s. They’re their supply chain was broken. They were struggling to get product at a cheap enough price. They were having to borrow more and more money. And Wal-Mart was just kicking their butt all over the place and they were struggling to get product in the stores. And a lot of the private key men came in without much. We rarely get trucks that would have all the pieces back and a piece could be you know just one thing or to be a case of something we would get you know a couple of thousand pieces and you literally would not know what it was and it would all come in mixed together on the same palettes.
Jason: [00:15:23] So organizing and getting out the floor was a super challenge to do with limited resources I assume to yes limit people and limited time to train people. I mean there was days Iran there were days of the manager in that store it was me and three other sales associates in the entire K-Mart. It was crazy. You know so obviously you can’t give customer service about the only thing you can do is ring people up and you know there’s all kinds of problems with that sort of system. That’s how bad it got.
Speaker 13: [00:15:55] OK so that was an experience though that that led you to a different company so you stayed there. I mean did you have a career potential path there.
Speaker 12: [00:16:07] I did but unfortunately it just it was one I wasn’t really ready to sacrifice my soul for. You made the choice not that I made that choice for sure or for you.
Stephen: [00:16:19] Absolutely. That’s awesome. OK. So you went to Gap and in a similar role or a lesser role because no matter what you wanted to get a role it was interesting it was somewhat of a lateral move but it wasn’t lateral in terms of the experience. Now gap I’m trying to think was Gap gap is part of a larger company my career gap is the larger company that owns banana republic.
Jason: [00:16:45] They also own old navy as well.
Stephen: [00:16:47] Okay. Okay. And so you’re going from a pretty much you know trainwreck to a much more corporate professional company yes.
Jason: [00:16:56] Night and day 180 degrees.
Stephen: [00:16:59] What was this gap doing right that Kmart was in you know me because if you think about that right why why are there outliers. Why are there successes and lessons for us to learn. Because in our business right now in the business you’re in right now. So in our name is on Sony on e-bay selling on Craigslist Etsy whatever else there are outliers that are just crushing us. Me too.
Stephen: [00:17:20] And you know are there lessons that you saw from Gap versus Kmart that we could apply to for sure.
Speaker 12: [00:17:27] I think gap was really gabbles a really well-run organization still at that time its since declined some mainly because they haven’t gotten their product as good as it could have but the structure that I went into was a highly performing team of managers. The
Jason: [00:17:44] leadership was really great. Gap understood that you can really only effectively manage just a few people. It wasn’t really realistic to think you know one or two store managers could manage a team of 40 or 50 sales associates is not really possible. They also understood that giving the customer experience right is kind of everything. If you don’t get that right nothing else really matters because you don’t have customers and then you’re not going to sell anything. So they understood that from top to bottom and everything that they did in terms of their training their marketing their signage the customer experience making sure that you know their sales associates and their management team was taken care of and so optimistic and engaged and part of the community of the store and the company and part of the mission. So that was it was really a holistic approach that I had never seen before and was really refreshing.
Stephen: [00:18:38] So you know I’m I’m assuming that you heard that same stuff from Kmart. Oh yeah we want to have lovably right every day often some quarters you know district manager come in or whatever. You know even here would be really great.
Stephen: [00:18:51] Oh yeah we want your part of the team. Did did gap have a good standard operating procedure documentation and training. You mentioned training specifically. But did they have that figured out.
Speaker 12: [00:19:05] They did. They one of the differences I saw was just that they partnered people with veteran sales associates when they started and that was a big difference because Kmart solution was hey you clock in front of a VCR DVD combo. You remember those Anania. And hey watch a bunch of tapes and you know everything which is not the case but instead gap had a system where they engage you with a sales associate who is a little more veteran.
Jason: [00:19:35] Been down the road you walked in they had this series of steps they took for the forward where they talked about you know different levels of people and when someone first starts you kind of have to tell him everything to do. And then when a little bit later you still tell him mostly what to do. But then you asked them some questions about what they’re doing. And then you start having them tell you what they think they should be doing. As a salesperson I thought that was kind of a unique approach. Just they let you become more more integrated as you understood more about the company and the culture and what they were doing.
Jason: [00:20:07] And all of a sudden instead of just having you know five or six managers it’s kind of like you had 40 managers you know little managers out there doing you know they understood and they took pride in it and if somebody wasn’t doing it right. They were able to to correct them and bring you know let them know how to do it. And that was that was pretty empowering us.
Stephen: [00:20:25] Yeah I wonder how we could apply that to our business today you know thinking about you know how you started in this business and we’ll get there. But it’s like you know you watch some videos or you have a friend tell you right and say oh you know Jason you’ve got to check this out. And this thing called Amazon or this thing called the best thing you know in the world right. Right. Right. And then you know how do you get them to that next level because I don’t know about you but I’ve had a ton of friends say Steve you need to teach me and I’m like there is zero chance I’m teaching you I can’t teach you right.
Stephen: [00:20:55] It’s taken me eight nine years to get to this level of you know you know pounding it out. Here’s Chris Green’s book or hears you know. Start here. Go sell something and then maybe when you get to that next level I wonder how we could apply that because I agree with you. I think that that method of learning because it is overwhelming even start early Gap store right just how many Skewes does this store carry.
Jason: [00:21:18] Oh my gosh. Yeah. Really. Yeah that’s right. Yeah that particular store had like 95 thousand units on hand at Christmastime.
Stephen: [00:21:27] Oh my goodness. And then you know that cash register you know and it was like oh they don’t know how to use. They don’t know how to do math anymore because they kept those cash registers are planned. I mean Braco those things. There were engineers who figured out where that button goes. Right. And so there’s so many. And then you’ve got the personalities right and charming and pleasant and I don’t know about you but not every customer is very pleasant. Cho can be challenging. So add all those things to the mix. Liken that to the business today for us. Right. I mean when you started how overwhelming when did you start an Amazon or eBay first. I started on eBay first. OK. So overwhelming was eBay for you when you started.
Jason: [00:22:12] It was overwhelming knowing what to sell. OK. That was the biggest challenge for me because I’m an analyzer and so but I knew also. It’s like I kind of reached a point where I said I have experience selling clothing. I have experience managing tools of selling clothing. I
Speaker 12: [00:22:31] have experience marketing clothing so I’m store there and then I had to narrow down from there.
Stephen: [00:22:36] That’s smart though because you knew what it was you taught others why this pair of jeans needs to be here versus there. Right. Right.
Stephen: [00:22:46] That’s a that’s a that’s a powerful skill set to have. Because if you understand it and then you can as we just talked about a little while ago when you’re helping others understand it you learn more too right when they’re telling you back was the example you used. That’s interesting. OK so with that skill set you then can approach pretty much any platform I think because that’s a skill set. Knowing what to sell is is a big piece of this business. I mean learning this software is pretty easy. Almost all the same you know there’s nuances right here. But knowing what to sell I would say is probably one of the hardest things to learn if it can be taught. I’m not sure can be taught.
Speaker 12: [00:23:32] I tend to agree with you but I do think that the mistake that I see a lot of people make and that I made this mistake at first too and maybe mistakes a harsh word but the challenge is people want to sell everything. And I understand that. But to a point but my thought was you can’t possibly analyze everything and you can’t scan everything. You can’t look at everything. You just run out of time which is always the one commodity. We can never get enough of.
Jason: [00:24:06] And so I decided it made more sense especially with e-bay to find some niches that I thought would make it a lot simpler for myself that I could replicate that I had to apply for that I had availability that I had a low cost of goods. You know all those things and that would help. You know I would gain efficiencies I would gain knowledge much faster than trying to be so wide that I had to look at every single thing and just felt like you know walking in a store or estate sale or whatever and just coming out like thinking oh man I just had a look at 87 different things and only one of them is really worth picking up and I was here for four hours.
Jason: [00:24:47] You know it’s like that that got kind of frustrating for me. So I decided to knit down to sort of take away some of that ambiguity right up front.
Stephen: [00:24:54] And so you went to your natural no clothing. Right you do right. That was your jeans was your niche. Correct. That’s correct. OK. So jeans was your niche so you took something you knew from Kmart right clothing. Right. And the organized chaos that the are the disorganized chaos. You go to gap where there’s organized chaos it’s still chaotic because of 100 queues is chaos uncharitably says right.
Stephen: [00:25:19] However you learn that for sharpen that skill set that you probably had to be unable to pick. And so when you think about that when you’re telling new people are suggesting to new people. I mean is that right where you go back to something that you know and just stay on it until you master it. Is that where you want to get to that master level.
Jason: [00:25:41] I think the important part if someone starting on e-bay for instance is not so much that they master the entire niche but that would be great if they do but at least be able to master all the nuts and bolts of being able to sell something. The process is in writing and having a niche makes it less overwhelming I think for a lot of people even if they don’t have tremendous success in terms of the probability and so on. That’s not what you’re really looking to gain. You’re really looking to get your get in there and get your feet wet get started get moving and find something that can you know get you moving down that road to maybe where you’re going to end up which is always going to evolve and change right.
Stephen: [00:26:21] May I ask you this. I’m thinking about this since year one or two person operation. Where do you get better practices because you’re you know what you do. And you know what you know right you learned it you divided it over time but there is somebody who’s figured out a better way pretty much for every step you have.
Stephen: [00:26:38] I mean to me. Of course me. So where do you get your best practices. Is that one of the reasons for the YouTube channel. I just heard Stephanie ing in John and that’s why I was thinking of this. She was the one who suggested we do you we should start meet up she started. She’s the first official eBay meetup group still operating first on. And she said that that’s what she gets from her group. Still to this day every month they meet Bandini for 17 years some crazy number and they still get that benefit of figuring out a better way. Right. So where’d you get yours now.
Jason: [00:27:20] It’s very similar. I realized early on that starting on YouTube was for two reasons one was to you know let people know what I knew my experiences were and document my journey. But also it was somewhat of a little selfish reason I realized I was going to meet people it was going to allow me to network with other resellers other watchers. And I was going to learn far more from them than they were ever going to learn from me. And that is absolutely the case and I have developed some really great close relationships behind the scenes with certain people as well that has just I mean I can even imagine two years ago you know having these sorts of connections when nobody knew who I was and I didn’t know who anybody was.
Speaker 14: [00:28:05] And you know they those connections and networking have taken me off and directions just are so invaluable. But you’ve got to make. I mean you don’t know all the answers. Even so nobody does.
Speaker 15: [00:28:17] And I think you’ve got to realize that and you’ve got to realize you’re always evolving and learning and growing. And if you do that then you’re always going to be seeking source of information whether it’s YouTube videos or networking with connections or meet ups are awesome. We’ve had a couple of them here in my area that we’ve sponsored where we’ve just learned like just tons of stuff. This is ridiculous. You would never even get if you and these people aren’t aren’t you tubers you know that you would never know these people and it’s like oh well I’ve done this for 18 years. Let
Jason: [00:28:45] me tell you about it. You’re like Wow. OK. Are these real relationships now. Yes they are they all got this.
Stephen: [00:28:52] So go back to your Kmart days your gap days where even your college days. Do you have those types of relationships from those events in your life still that are that deep.
Speaker 14: [00:29:05] That’s a great question. And I think what you may be getting at if I understand you correctly is just that with the way social media is and the way we interact on the Internet we form relationships but they’re not very deep. They’re why they’re superficial. Right. Right.
Jason: [00:29:20] But not deep and it’s hard because you can’t really have too many deep relationships with too many people it’s just too time consuming. And so you have to pick and choose and be very choosy. But you’re absolutely right.
Speaker 14: [00:29:33] But I think they’re critical because the onscreen relationships are only what people want to show you. So you have to find these ones outside of those and we found several least a half a dozen or so that we just who really really value quite a bit and learn so much from those people. But more so we just like them as people too which is also good.
Stephen: [00:29:55] And I think this is a rarity this is where I was going with it is that in your corporate life you’re it’s it’s still superficial and you see those people more than you probably saw your wife right. I mean if you’re a Kmart all day you spent more time with them. However you never got past you might have known they had a kid or somebody you know you might got into a birthday or whatever. However never generally generally doesn’t go deeper than that. In this new world that we’re in if you choose to accept put yourself out there as what you’re doing you can develop deep meaningful relationships. Think of a friend who was sick. The first person he called was me you know here we met through we met through right through Chris creed as a matter of fact or some or you know any and it’s like those relationships that depth because and I don’t know how this works in your life and I’ve said this a million times my our business and our personal lives are so intertwined but not in the negative way that it would have been working for Kmart and American and Kmart I don’t mean it in a negative way working for Wal-Mart working for you know 7-Eleven anywhere where you know when you had to get involved in the company it was always usually a negative.
Stephen: [00:31:05] When you’re on call or whatever you know they didn’t call you to say hey things are going great here you know just wanted to let you know. It was always the crisis right now. Our business and our personal life intertwined so often so many times a day but almost always in a positive way.
Jason: [00:31:23] Yeah you know I totally agree because you know you’ve you’ve chosen who you want to be associated with. And they’ve they’ve chose you but you don’t have to choose them. And once you’ve chosen those people you continue those relationships and build on them. I once read that it takes seven years of knowing someone before you can consider them a friend forever. And I have one friend who fits that mode. And but I’m working on some others. And a lot of these people in the recycling community that I have made relations with I hope I will have a relationship with them that long or longer because I think there’s value there because of who they are as people and what they know. So it’s a you know it’s both parts of that equation and who they are and what they know. And I hope that I can bring you know the same to them.
Jason: [00:32:13] And you’re exactly right. Like you can be connected to them all the time which is if you if you choose to be you can have an instant connection to them whereas in the past that was very difficult. You know you lived in different towns or places or you never even knew they existed. And it was just not as feasible. So it’s obviously changed quite a bit. There’s no reason to surround yourself with anyone but people who are successful and lift you up and you lift them up as well and that’s what I try to do.
Stephen: [00:32:41] I think it’s so powerful. So you have to choose that’s the intentional and it’s hard letting go of some difficult relationships or even relationships that didn’t appear difficult when you think about them. They were. And but you can become so much better and so much more positive. Right because you know life short and thinking about it. Dude you got me there.
Stephen: [00:33:03] OK so now it’s very po. Because here’s another thing I’ll say is you put yourself out there. It’s hard somebody you know when you log hit somebody like you do it. I’m
Stephen: [00:33:15] like I don’t know. You just do it and it’s hard. It’s not easy. Definitely. Can you come up against challenges in your career but you keep doing it. And I get ten hundred times back what I give. Right. And so you’re doing the same thing. And what does it take to have friends you have to be a friend. Right. And so you know I try to try to be as friendly as I can with any person that I can who ever ask a question or whatever I can do to help them. And I always get you know tenfold back with and I have no expectation I don’t want anything. I’m always around people know they’re always like Oh my no thank you I appreciate it. I’m good. But let me know if I can help you right now. So OK. So you were back to gap but which is a very fascinating discussion. You worked there for how long. And then what happened. I
Speaker 12: [00:33:58] worked there for six years and I reached a point in my career there were I thought I’m not really going to go much higher. Unfortunately you know I played the whole hate tag on to a certain person you know higher than you and hope that they do well. Their coats ride the coattails tails I’ve chosen wrong too. Yeah. And I did and I had I. They weren’t. It wasn’t that they were poor. They just they became disillusioned. The company unfortunately started doing more poorly. They brought in a CEO who you know just hey I concur. The bottom line I’ll just cut a bunch of costs which really doesn’t prove the bottom line but it comes with a cost. So I’ve reached the point where I thought I’m not going to go any further in this career. And it’s just not fulfilling at this point. And I don’t know how it’s going to fall for me. So I ended up leaving the company after I guess it was six years.
Speaker 16: [00:34:58] And it was a good decision because I did it it changed quite a bit from when I started and I changed. And but between the two. It
Speaker 15: [00:35:06] just didn’t make sense to continue you know going down that path.
Stephen: [00:35:10] So if your goals and your company’s goals don’t align your future goals then you need to make a choice. I think that’s very healthy.
Jason: [00:35:18] Yeah. And so many people that I talked to in the reseller community and this community who are working full time jobs and you know want to do this part time or maybe want to do it full time. They they they’re afraid they’re afraid of leaving but they don’t like where they’re at. And I always thought you know your fear of being unhappy unfulfilled stressed out napping and everybody around you. Horrible relationships with the people that love you and your family. Those things are more important than any job. So if that job is causing all that stress and putting all that chaos in your life you’ve got to say no to it.
Stephen: [00:35:56] You’ve got to make an exit strategy and implement it back to the friendship thing right. You have to be intentional in choosing right. You know it’s not leave your job. I think he would agree with me. Don’t leave your job right. It’s create a plan to extricate yourself from that job.
Stephen: [00:36:13] That guy meeting goals and setting milestones and you know once you hit that milestone OK this will happen. OK boom this milestone this will happen. That’s a that’s the I mean quite frankly that’s how I got to where I am I was able to retire at 51 because of hitting those milestones and it wasn’t easy and some cool things happened that allowed it to happen a little sooner than I planned. That’s awesome. But somebody asked me for seven years I worked seven days a week almost every single day I’d go and shift from our warehouse seven days a week.
Stephen: [00:36:47] That’s a that’s a long planned very that’s a long time. But but you get that right. That’s exactly right. And
Speaker 16: [00:36:53] you’re not so much running away from something as you’re running towards something else.
Stephen: [00:36:57] Yeah yeah yeah. And to be honest here’s one more little observation at least my personal observation and if it worked for you once you’re in the middle of that plan and you’re hitting those milestones your attitude changes right. Because it’s like OK I have a real plan not a what if. And could I make it stop asking could I make it because you know you could and then your attitudes like you could do it faster. Could I do it sooner. That’s a different place to go to work with that attitude. You know you’re not a negative and I always give 100 percent but it’s just that you get to that place and it’s a very interesting place to get to. Yeah. OK so you. Is that when the teaching career started.
Speaker 12: [00:37:40] It started not long after that I went I went back to it. I had done it a little bit in grad school during my you know was like a teaching assistant. And I left gap and here’s where you know at that time in my life I did not have the same with them inside.
Speaker 16: [00:37:57] I have no access for lack of a better word. Do you have kids. No I do not kid. But but I do not have a clear plan. Leaving gap. I really stepped out there on a limb and said well I’m going to figure it out. I don’t know what else I’m going to do but it’s going to be better than this. And you know teaching came back to me not a couple years down the road. And it was it was amazing. I love teaching and I loved teaching. You know at that level as well it’s so cool. One of my favorite things I’ve ever done. Tremendous sense of joy. So we don’t see the lights go on in somebodies eyes. It’s got to be very rewarding. It is. It is. And the light I look for is not the light that they’ve learned something the life that they’ve learned how to think about something and that’s important to me.
Stephen: [00:38:46] What is their gap experience here into teaching. Were you able to bring that that method of learning that you were like wow this is like night and day versus the K-Mart world I learned. Right. Were you able to bring any of that into the teaching world for students.
Speaker 14: [00:39:01] Oh sure. Because we would you know when we as employees went down the line of you know become more and more seasoned we would ask them more questions and sort of giving them the answers. So it became sort of a Socratic method a way of getting people to learn things because employees would come to you with a problem instead of giving them the solution you would help guide them into the solution. And teaching did the same thing.
Stephen: [00:39:25] OK. Here that’s what I was going I wanted to make sure that I understood that because with students today I think that my son who’s coming home today for the Thanksgiving break and he’s coming home today and I always am always trying to you know to impress upon them that you need to learn you know because as an employer I need to know that you know something right. I mean a degree doesn’t mean a hill of beans to me I need to know that you will learn something and bring something to our to our things so I’m interested to know more about that. When you’re teaching today how about that versus when you learned what did you do different I think that the biggest thing that I did was I did not assume that people we’re coming at problems from the same viewpoint.
Speaker 12: [00:40:17] To me they were not coming at situations. My classroom was more back then and is now I guess because of YouTube a classroom.
Speaker 14: [00:40:28] It was it was more or less it was more about realizing that people have different perceptions of things that are based on their experiences based on their biases based on their you know their life just as mine are. And it’s really hard to escape those and get outside of those for a moment. But I think there is value in the struggle to do that. So when I come in business even bringing it back to our business example for a moment you know I may think this is the way to do something and then I get exposed to somebody else’s method and you know the bias part of me would say oh we’ll discount that that’s not worth anything because you’ve already figured this out. And then I realized wait maybe there is some value there maybe I just need to look at this a different way.
Speaker 14: [00:41:13] And even if I even if all I get from it is all. I don’t want to go that direction doesn’t make sense to me because of this and this and that’s fine. But a lot of times I find that people are reluctant to change just because they’ve always done something a certain way or they’ve always thought about it a certain way and I struggle against that and I try to I hope that I get that message across to other people like there’s not the conventional wisdom often is very conventional nor very wise. A lot of times when you have to kind of always be asking these questions to evolve and grow as a resident reseller as a person for that matter. So
Stephen: [00:41:49] that was a long winded answer so it’s a good one because I think what has it gotten has the business gotten easier since you’ve taken that approach. Because I think that that’s a very sound right because you’re either going to learn that yes I’m doing it the right way or reinforces what you’re doing. You see somebody else and you’re like man I don’t want to do that right. Or you’re going to say ooh I could tweak and I can I can bring some of that in. Right. Or you know what the heck with my way. His way is so much shorter. Right. He has to touch points or whatever.
Stephen: [00:42:20] So has that been able to you know transform your business and if so. I mean isn’t it like one of the most powerful things the lesson right here in the conversation right here is have that open mind and take that lens and look at it from all sides.
Speaker 15: [00:42:36] Yes. And it’s it’s transformed things in the sense that it’s how to say this it’s important to me are more important to me to know why I’m doing something and what do I say I’m going then just be going in a direction you know we talk about being we talk about hustling and working hard and those things are important. But if you’re doing things that don’t really contribute to your goal then they don’t really push you in the direction of your objectives. You’re just wasting your time and your energy. So I’ve I’ve learned to spend a little more time you know reading educating watching my you know watching things and educating myself so that I can move in directions that I think will work based on what other people have done and then incorporate that into my own business you know and take my own experiences and shape that.
Speaker 15: [00:43:26] But you know if you’re if you’re going out and you’re buying something and you’re selling it for you know 25 cents profit on every single item you less you can get hundreds of thousands or millions of them. It’s not going to be very easy to make very much revenue. So just working harder is not enough. You got it. It’s such a cliche but you really have to work smarter first. And so hopefully you don’t have to work quite as hard because you only have so many hours so much time energy. You can put into something so you’ve got to be selective in how you invest. Every single hour what kind of return are you going to get for that. So I’ve really tried to do that my business specially the last six months to a year. And it’s definitely paid off.
Stephen: [00:44:08] Does it help that as I sit here thinking about this I think this is very good advice. Does it help that you were so niche. Because then you really you know those processes you didn’t have to worry about packing a lamp versus packing a pair of jeans requires a material difference in those two or sourcing them right and knowledge. And so by being so niched you could almost you know perfect is such a strange word because it’s going to perfect over time or it’s going to continue to evolve. But you could perfect it for the moment as much as you could and then evolve over time. I think that’s a very very sound piece of advice you just gave. Yeah
Speaker 17: [00:44:46] . I mean because if you think about the way you know a large company manufactures a product you know they they do the same thing over and over. The most efficient manner possible with the best equipment the best practices and that’s how they turn value.
Speaker 14: [00:45:02] And you can do that as an entrepreneur. If you are it’s down like with jeans for instance you know we were able to get you know the amount of time and so on to quality control a pair to list them to photo them get them all set up you know by five minutes. And when I tell people that there are some people so there’s no way you can do that quick. And that’s because they’re trying to do 12 different items every hour. And if you had to do 12 completely different items yeah I’d be hard to do each one in five minutes would be very difficult. But I talked to some other reseller friends who so on who have niches as well and they’ve really focused on their practice and they say the same thing like we compared our times on different things and they were very similar.
Speaker 14: [00:45:45] And it’s like yeah when you get your practice down and you have your efficiencies in place and you do things in an order that makes sense for your business you can get very quick and you don’t have to think about them because I don’t want to have to think about how to photograph a pair of jeans or how to pack up and ship a pair of jeans that doesn’t. I don’t really gain anything by doing that every minute I spend on that. I’m losing money I’m losing profit I’m losing productivity. So I definitely I definitely think there’s a lot of power in doing that.
Stephen: [00:46:13] You know I’m thinking it’s funny genes because one of the local flea markets that I barely attend anymore because I’ll go and buy a bunch of stuff and I don’t want to buy anything like that right. I have a buying problem there.
Stephen: [00:46:25] It’s like all scale by like I’ll buy the oh I’ll take it all you know. Right right. So I think of one though and their whole model is they buy jeans at yard sales for a quarter and they sell them there for five bucks I think they raise the price to six bucks. But all of them are price the same. That’s their whole business model is that. And I think to myself Man that’s a very very if they go to yard sales and all they do is buy jeans so that makes it easy. Right and right that’s it. Do you have any jeans for sale of asking for videogames like 99 percent of the any man under 50. Probably yes. No. I’m on jeans. Yes. Oh here you go. How much Harley quarter. I mean that’s probably what they’re going to go for.
Stephen: [00:47:04] Right. And so then they just go and they but they have little tags on them to tell you the size. And I think to myself I’ve seen that and I thought wow that is a very very simple business model. Buy one item sell one item right. Buy it at this price sell it at this price. And I think that that niche you could apply there is very smart because they don’t have the packing issues the storage issues that a lot of other things can bring. So
Stephen: [00:47:32] I think that’s really good sound advice. I think I’m going to use that going forward when somebody wants to come in instead of saying sell the stuff around your house it’s like no. Pick something in your house that you want to sell that interest you and then sell that and then replicate that. I think that’s that’s sharper. Yeah. Iron sharpens iron. As my one says iron sharpens iron.
Jason: [00:47:51] And I think it’s easy to research a niche as well. I mean it’s so much easier to say I’m going to go find out. All right what are 10 great jeans brand to sell and where are they selling for. How often does the sell through you know whether it’s eBay or Amazon or whatever platform you’re on. And it’s harder to do that if you’re kind of selling everything because you have to be an expert on everything and can’t be an expert on everything. You can’t even come close. So that’s why I chose to do it that way. I just thought it made sense given all those.
Stephen: [00:48:21] Well I think it makes perfect sense and I think it’s obviously learned over time. I think your experience of Kmart taught you that. Do you know when you’re that trucker you describe when you never knew what was going to be on it. That’s that’s chaos disorganized chaos.
Stephen: [00:48:36] You get to gap where it’s generally much more. I mean you know there’s a hundred thousand things but generally they’re tops mostly jeans whatever you know so that makes more sense. OK. So you’re teaching. How does eBay come into the picture. Is it a gap filler for income. Is it a hobby or is it a midlife. What was it.
Jason: [00:48:56] It was probably a gap filler to some degree and a bit of a hobby at the same time. I didn’t I started I think I started my account 2008. So I started you know selling a few things here a few things there. Nothing crazy but it was more of a gap filler or hobby. That’s a good way to describe it.
Stephen: [00:49:13] OK. So and I think that’s a very very sound gap filler right. I mean for a side hustle I like to use that phrase too. I think eBay is a very good one or Amazon whichever one you want or see if you’re if you’ve got those skill sets. So you were making money to sustain the professor’s job.
Speaker 14: [00:49:33] Yeah. Well it was it was not a full time position unfortunately but it was full time hours. And you know the teaching field especially higher education is difficult to break into in some fields. I didn’t have a doctorate which it was a big detriment. That was a deterrent to me getting to a limit. It is a limit. And I looked into getting one and I thought oh you know it’s it’s it’s a it’s a thing to have to go through to get one. I mean it’s it’s not an easy quick process and it’s not cheap and there’s no guarantee. So I realized that teaching while could always be you know a part time deal it wasn’t really like a long term solution.
Stephen: [00:50:18] Now your wife supportive this whole time.
Speaker 14: [00:50:21] Well that’s that’s another thing there’s a lot of life changes that were going on. I divorced for my wife and I was in a relationship with someone else at that time. And you know they were supportive for sure. But you know I was a bit directionless. To be completely honest I was a bit aimless in lots of ways not just you know a career or profession or business.
Stephen: [00:50:46] So in the divorce would do that to you I mean let’s face it that said I always say that you know marriage is life and that’s a death marriage and that’s a death that’s a real and because you are one and now you’re not bright it is a death and it’s a very difficult thing to get past. What gave you that direction. What was it that where the light came on and you were like aha. I have a plan. Maybe you don’t have a plan yet but it sounds like you have a plan.
Jason: [00:51:11] Well I started I guess about three years ago I started you know getting back more into the e-bay game and selling again. But I was still struggling with you know some of the leftover baggage. I hate that word but you know that from the previous relationship I had gotten into this relationship with Carmen who I’m with now and it was a struggle.
Speaker 15: [00:51:36] And actually I reconnected with my faith that was absolutely what did it. It made me realize some things about myself and made me show some grace to others as well as myself for you know things in the past and the state side of me and that you know tomorrow’s a new day. And there’s we all get you know a lot of second chances and that’s because that’s what life is it’s it’s second chances over and over some time. You just don’t get it right the first time a lot of times and it really just changed my whole perspective on a lot of things to be quite honest. So
Stephen: [00:52:13] it centers you if you embrace it whatever your faith is it centers you can great if you allow it. OK. So you get centered you get focused help with your help with your health.
Jason: [00:52:27] OK through all the help was good so far knock on wood.
Stephen: [00:52:31] Knock on wood. So you were you would do it. But I mean it didn’t start to slip as you started to slip. You didn’t get down that road.
Jason: [00:52:38] I did gain weight. I was about 30 pounds heavier than I am now. So.
Stephen: [00:52:43] So just that’s what creep’s I mean it happens right with that lifestyle. When you go that way. Sure. All right so you’re selling and what happens that makes you decide that this is a full time opportunity for me.
Speaker 16: [00:52:56] Well I had I had actually gotten a job with AT&T and it was you know it was an OK job. It was just something to get you know it was OK money nothing great. And one of the stores kind of said now was actually a technician for him. So I was the guy who would come out and hook up your your cable bill your phone your internet for lack of a better word and OK you know learn some interesting skills like how to climb a telephone pole which I’m not sure if I’ll ever use it. But hey if it comes up I think it’s a lot harder than it looks. I don’t know that it’s a lot harder yeah especially 30 pounds heavier. It was a little bit harder but and I got hurt on the job. Believe it or not I was out from the job for I was out of work for well over a year.
Speaker 16: [00:53:46] And I they they released me because I can no longer you know do the duties of the job which. That was kind of a blow to my ego a little bit a blow to my self-confidence. And but I understand you know I would do the same thing if I was an employer at this point you have to you know run your business. I get that. And I said you know I got to do something coming out of this like what am I going to do. And I decided you know eBay has been you know a nice little hobby in the past. Maybe there’s something there to it. So I started watching some YouTube videos on us or doing my research my due diligence and found a couple resellers on there the Stever Aikens of the world and to people like that and I was like you know I used to be in clothing management. I have some experiences maybe I can sell clothing on e-bay and that’s how that’s how it started.
Stephen: [00:54:40] And if you think about it I mean I don’t know how much you think about this but from Steve on the outside. I think in a you you know something about clothing. But you know mentor right. Right. You know how to move him and taught you how to process in HTML you can break things down. It sounded like he had to do some sourcing. Now you have this technical skill set that you’ve honed in on even with AT&T. Right. So all these things kind of give you a pretty good framework for this business in some way. I mean I think that’s very powerful and I think most people have that and it’s a shame that they don’t recognize that and sit back and say well yeah you’re right. I do know this. I do know this and we take it for granted.
Jason: [00:55:23] Yeah I mean it’s a cliche but there aren’t really failures. There’s just things you learn from and you’ve got if you treat it that way you look at everything that happened to you as a learning opportunity. You know even if you learn that’s not the direction I want to go. Well you know now you can check that off the list. So yeah absolutely.
Stephen: [00:55:42] Now is your significant other full time in the business with you.
Jason: [00:55:47] She’s not. She has other employment as well that she does. And she’s kind of developing her own social media presence and YouTube and some other things she’s doing blogging and so on.
Stephen: [00:56:01] But but she’s involved in some way action there. Right. So again we’re back to that network. There’s your network right. Yes. OK. And so when did you at Amazon is it just natural because Steve added Amazon and you start seeing you know Chris free or any of those guys start talking about it.
Speaker 12: [00:56:16] Yeah they did. And some of the guys in the green room I join the Green Room in 20 tomb because I you know I went on Facebook and started looking up groups and became members of a few and they were a bit chaotic for me. You know there was too much noise and I thought well what’s the deal with the green room you know and her some other people talk about them.
Jason: [00:56:41] So it’s a smaller group that’s cool and it’s a playgroup and I sort of think about like you know I didn’t look at it like a hate group do I really want to pay money for that. I look at it like that might separate so many people who are serious versus the people who aren’t. And I would rather be around you know there’s value in that being around people who are like minded and you know they’re serious about you know this business and networking with those people. So I enjoy that and that’s where I got exposed a little bit more to Amazon. People
Speaker 14: [00:57:10] like John Dougan and Jamison and some of those guys who you know were doing Amazon sort of like oh I should probably try out the same thing as well.
Stephen: [00:57:20] Right. And it’s the body’s right be on every platform you can. You know what I say I’m a member of the green room too and what I would say is that it’s a little more general e-commerce group where a lot of large sellers there or eBay slash Amazon slash whatever and they have that approach and that mindset is there’s not an Amazon only specific group or any specific group. They really are in the middle and they they they tend towards both. And a lot more of life style. I think that they talk a lot more about lifestyle riced I see that. Agreed. OK so you’re full time life’s going good and you decide I’m not busy enough I’m going to. So is it a payback thing kind of you know because you know a week because you’re centered because you’re focused now you can help others is it kind of a mission thing.
Jason: [00:58:13] If I could have stayed as a full time college professor that’s what I would have done. I loved it.
Jason: [00:58:20] And I still would love it on some degree but I didn’t I wasn’t willing to take the extra sacrifice for a lot of uncertainty and could go into. And as we mentioned earlier with you know record the doctorate route and they’re just not daring to use our positions hard these days.
Speaker 16: [00:58:38] So YouTube became an extension of that. I thought you know I can extend out what I know which is going to force me like you mentioned earlier when you have to teach something you really have to learn it. And it forced me to think about these things on a different level so I thought you know I don’t know and when I first went on YouTube was interesting because I was like I don’t want anybody to see me. I’m just going to be this a channel where nobody actually sees me asking for my voice. And I do powerpoint and it lasts about two or three years and then I change. But it was interesting you know to kind of go down that road and thought I’m kind of teaching again in a way. And you know it was really exciting.
Stephen: [00:59:18] It gives you that thing that you used to get when a student would be like ah I get it when you get those notes or those comments and I’m sure the negative ones take piece of your soul sir.
Stephen: [00:59:29] But the other ones when I get the I get a ton of notes and it’s just so heartwarming to say Hey that’s awesome.
Stephen: [00:59:35] You know and I don’t want anything. I mean it’s just cool that you figured it out and all I did was channel a little bit of it. So you get that benefit of what you like. You said you be full time. Well to me it sounds like you’re getting the best part without the grief because it isn’t all perfect right isn’t rainbows and unicorns working in escrow and all that. Especially with the pressures now financial pressures that are out there. You get to choose to do it. I think that’s that’s probably a better place and probably a better fit for you.
Jason: [01:00:05] Yeah. And you know it’s interesting when you mention you know the negative comments and the old Jason you know five six seven years ago I would have thought I have to answer every single one of these. I have to respond to this person and tell them what’s what and set them straight.
Speaker 16: [01:00:22] And now I realize you know with a little more perspective a little more age or wisdom I hope that people who say things that are negative to me or anybody it comes from a place of deficiency in their own life they’re deficient somehow. And when they see someone doing something that’s different than them or seem to be successful or happy it upsets them and that’s how they lash out. And it makes me it makes me feel bad for her. I don’t I don’t treat is there just an awful terrible person and I’m like you know people aren’t born good or bad they’re just born and then things happen and they get you know it changes. And so I look at it like even those people that just recommit me to be even more positive to be more energetic enthusiastic. You know to show grace and move forward and hope that you know at some point they will they’ll feel differently about things because nobody wants to feel like that their perspective at that point is there for that reason whatever.
Stephen: [01:01:20] As you mentioned all those external things that made them that way they still have a perspective and that’s not unfair. Right. However you know it will change it because life’s going to happen right. Life happens to everyone and then your perspective changes and then all of a sudden it’s like I think about the times I was a jerk.
Stephen: [01:01:37] I mean I do and I think about you know here’s one I’ll give you an easy one.
Stephen: [01:01:41] I pull up to the post office every day and I see this truck or these other cars pull back behind the meter in front of me the one that I’m supposed to use and I’m like I can’t fit now I’m going to cause a problem for the thing behind me. Boom I like when I pull when I park my truck and I go and look and here and now I’m that guy who’s parked in between the two metres in essence and I’m thinking man I was judging other people and yet now it’s now it’s made my perspective completely change and I’m like now I’m that guy. And
Stephen: [01:02:09] where in the past it would upset me and I’d be in it. And it’s like nobody you know. So anyway your perspective changes and it will change for all those people too. And I think that’s cool. All right. So I think we’ve gotten a good story. I
Stephen: [01:02:22] think it’s very cool where you’re at. It sounds like you’re in a lane you feel like you’re in a lane you’re in you know you’re selling what you’re selling because you like it you enjoy you know something about it you’re teaching which sounds like something you enjoy and you’re getting that benefit. Let’s let’s close with ways that other we can help others right. Two of us are kind of teaching a little bit here. What can we do to help people get past that point I’m stuck in or. I think it was in a press conference call we’re talking about somebody selling 300000 a month and somebody who’s stuck at 30 and you know what’s the difference between those two. Right. Who’s that guy who says it’s 10 percent good and great great the difference. What can we teach people. What can we give you a couple things that we can do that people can put into their business to get them moving forward pass.
Speaker 16: [01:03:13] Well the first thing is don’t play the comparison game. There’s no value in that there’s no value in looking at your results compared to someone else because you’re not them you’re not their business. You’re not starting from the same place. You’re not necessarily doing it the same way and it doesn’t really it doesn’t change anything if you’re perceived that you perceive yourself to be higher than them. You get a little confident and a little maybe a little cocky if you perceive yourself to be lower than you feel bad. And the competition is with yourself. So I try very hard to compare my results to my results. I compare my processes to my process as I learn from other people and incorporate what they do. But I want to incorporate their success not the results. It doesn’t it doesn’t mean anything to me to say oh I did as much as that person.
Speaker 16: [01:04:01] So what it means something to me to say I did better than I did last month or last year I changed and it’s not always just a numbers thing either. Sometimes it’s just the way you’re running your businesses the way you’re going up out.
Stephen: [01:04:15] You gain two hours in your life and you had the same revenue took another vacation. That’s true.
Speaker 16: [01:04:21] Yeah I mean life is about more than just business. I mean why are we doing this. We’re not doing this to to live. I mean you did it to retire early which is an awesome goal. It’s like now you have that freedom to go and do things because we’re all trying to gain the time to go do the things we really love and you’re not going to die wishing you spent more time at work. You know you’re going to die thinking Oh I’ve spent a lot of time with my family and that was cool and people that loved me and I did cool things and great experiences and that’s why I do it. The second thing I would say to people too is just don’t give up. The only difference is the difference between a successful entrepreneur or not is they persevered.
Speaker 16: [01:05:03] I mean all the most successful entrepreneurs we’ve seen that one thing that separates them is they they failed and then did not give up. And how many people give up now they get one little batch of results. They think it’s not up to their standard. And they just want to quit. And I’m like there’s no there’s nothing that’s ever going to get better quitting unless you just absolutely hate something. This is absolutely destroying your joy and robbing you of it. But you can’t give up on the stuff. Perseverance wins the game. Every time you’ll figure it out you’ll figure out better ways if you keep growing and evolving and learning and you can only do that if you keep going. You know you don’t have to know I said this quote the other day on a on a show and you don’t have to know you know if you’ve if it’s going to take you 50 steps to get to some objective.
Speaker 16: [01:05:55] You don’t have to know what steps 47 looks like. Or 32 just have to start with one and two and you’ll you’ll figure out three and four and five and six. So if you take those steps it’ll become clear clear and clear. And a lot of people forget that.
Stephen: [01:06:10] Now it’s smart. It will. The path will be shown as you go on. Right. Take that leap of faith. OK so those are both very very powerful. The other thing I would add to it is go back to that network. You know we started this conversation talking about networks and how important it has become. You know watch proft sales watch him on YouTube and reach out to him when you have a question or he says something that you can connect with. Reach out to him that network. You know I mean a million people. I love it. I love meeting every single person I do because at some point I’ll hear they’ll be they’ll send me a note and say hey you know I met you hey can I ask questions. Absolute right. You don’t even ask me a question.
Stephen: [01:06:54] But guess what. There are times where I’m like hey you know you mentioned something to us about this that you know about can I send somebody to you they’re looking for some advice. That’s the quid pro quo. I get back you know it’s like I gave you some help you give me. Right. And it’s just such a wonderful thing that network is probably the thing that will propel you. You take the advice they’re given and that network to it. Man I don’t think there’s any stopping you because let’s face it this isn’t an easy business but working at Kmart was not working the gap was not an easy working as a professor was there just nothing’s right. You just got to find your lane and enjoy it. OK. So somebody has a follow up question so I’m going to put the props sales youtube link out there. Is there another way somebody has a question they can message you.
Speaker 14: [01:07:42] Yeah they could they can message me on Facebook. I actually have a page as well. Facebook Dotcom’s last proft sales. Sales. No space in their right to right sales. And they can actually e-mail me as well. I have a that it’s proper sales page by the way. Cohn if I said that but they have I actually have e-mail proft sales or for e-mail that come profs sales for G-mail or. OK. The best way is I think I always leave a comment on a video maybe that you wanted to follow up on because I see all those I respond to all those you know emails get a little problematic sometimes because just the length of questions and replies that are needed it’s a little bit time consuming at times but comments on YouTube are great because then other people can learn from it as well.
Stephen: [01:08:37] Right. And they can expand on it. You missed the point right. I mean let’s face it we both agree. We don’t know where.
Stephen: [01:08:43] So my thoughts and then somebody can improve on it and improve on improve on it. And I think that that’s powered up to that’s awesome. Man I appreciate you taking the time. I know you’re busy. I really appreciate you taking the time because I think there’s there’s you know we’re kindred spirits in the morning and wanting to help others. And I just love that you put yourself out there and I just think it’s so powerful. So I just want to say thank you so much. I wish you nothing but success.
Jason: [01:09:07] Steven really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 18: [01:09:12] Actually follow me. Now hopefully this will not mean what a great guy. I
Speaker 19: [01:09:19] hope you go out and check out his YouTube I have all the links out there. I think it’s worth learning from someone else. And again I think it’s a choice and I think if you’re part time in your thinking about going full time listen to the advice I think it’s very solid. I think there is a way to get to where you want to be but make sure it’s really where you want to go before you get there because you don’t want to get there and say oh I don’t like this or this is it for me. Enjoy the ride. The ride is such a fun fun place and get your head changed when your attitude changes and it will when you get to the place where you’re successful with your be played your side hustle. Your attitude will change and then you don’t mind going to work because you know there’s a time line and you’re counting it down.
Speaker 19: [01:10:00] So e-commerce momentum dot.com and I wanted to remember my sponsors out there first off let’s do the scope for Sellar labs. But let’s not forget the toys for tots. I mean this is the time we guys crushed it. This is the time. 250 bucks get a shirt just send a copy to either me or to Japh of the letter and he’ll count towards their fifty thousand. But then don’t forget scope using it in a matter of fact I’m doing a bunch of wholesale products and I’m getting ready to improve the listing. And what am I going to do. I’m going to that one with the key word and I’m going to use their keywords. It’s one of. And that’s what I use a scope.
Speaker 19: [01:10:36] Very very simple process solutions for e-commerce. Karen I will chat with Karen. She’s the one who is creating these for variations for me so I’ll upload it to her upload all the titles stuff to her changes or upload the keyword stuff to her and then it just happens. That’s what I get when I use solutions for e-commerce. Very very powerful. That’s my account manager and I suggest you use her too. So it’s Sellar labs dot com slash scope use the code momentum and then solutions for e-commerce dot com slash momentum and you’re going to get that in minatory health report e-commerce momentum dot com. Take care.
Cool voice guy: [01:11:11] Thanks for listening to the e-commerce momentum podcast legs mentioned today can be found at combers momentum dot com under this episode nomer. Please remember to subscribe and the like.
