291 : Andy Mccann – Settle back into your eCommerce business to move forward

andy

As the title suggests sometimes you need a reset. A pause, not a hard stop, to get forward motion. Andy did just this with his Private Label business as he focused on building out his Merch business. Building strong Merch processes now have allowed him to get back into PL mode. See you have to settle back sometimes! This applies to any aspect of your business and your life.

Mentioned:

Andy’s FB contact

Sponsors

Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List

Solutions4ecommerce

Scope from Sellerlabs

GoDaddy

Grasshopper

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]                     He just wanted to offer you a chance to get to the resonate conference that’s sold out that’s coming up in May. It’s May fifteenth and sixteenth in Atlanta. I bought an extra ticket and I’m going to give it away to someone who subscribes to my newsletter. Yes, you’re going to have to subscribe. You can text the word resonate to [inaudible] the word resonate to four, four to two. It’s gonna ask you for your email and that’s what it’s going to take to get entered into the drawing. It’s one ticket. I paid for it personally. Um, you get to hang out with me. Is Monday the 14th and includes a cocktail party. It includes lunch both on Tuesday and Wednesday in an. Includes an incredible dinner Tuesday night and I just can’t wait because I think it’s one of the best conferences. What I described it last year, [inaudible] bunch of people asked me, hey, what was it like, very technical and the attendees were younger.

Stephen:                             [00:53]                     Now I’m an old dude and compare to that. They were definitely younger, but they were so technical. Ah, one of the guys I was talking to is selling on 16 different channels. The details and the intimacy because you’re so close to the speakers, you get to talk to them, you get to ask and go deeper and it’s just really, really a valuable conference put on by seller labs. Yes, they’re one of my sponsors of the show, but I bought the ticket so you know, to be fair it is sold out. They didn’t give it to me, but I want to help them because I think it helps you and so for me to get a chance to see Ezra firestone speak, I’ve not seen him speak personally face to face. I’m dying. Bret Bartlett a. When you see James Thompson, I’m from prosper show, Peter Kerns. I’m. They’ve got this expert coming in who’s doing a talking about instagram and she is talking about instagram influencers and how to use them for your products.

Stephen:                             [01:48]                     I mean this is really, really intense stuff. It’s held in an amazing place. This was a new venue in Atlanta, so you’re responsible for your own hotel, your own flight, your own transportation to the event, but the ticket itself is paid for. I paid for it because I’d like to hang out with you, so if you’re interested in it, all you have to do is text resonate to for, for [inaudible], and it’ll ask you for your email. That’s the cost and you’re going to get subscribed to my newsletter, which I think is a valuable newsletter. But then again, maybe I’m biased, but if you want to come and hang out with me in Atlanta, it’s going to be in May. Coming up quick. So I’ll probably choose the, uh, the person pretty quickly. So any questions, just send me a note at Stephen and e-commerce, momentum [inaudible] steven and e-commerce momentum.com.

Cool voice guy:                  [02:33]                     Welcome to the podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of e-commerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.

Stephen:                             [02:47]                     I know, say it a lot and I love what I do. I love talking to people and I love. I love when somebody can help me understand something that’s way obvious and I’m just not bright enough catch. And when he says it, I’m like, oh, I get it now, number 290 here, Andy mccan. Now Andy’s a humble guy, a teacher, but a very cool teacher teaching in a very cool school district because they get, they see what, what, um, the value of having consistency is kind of a cool story. We do get into that. But what’s very cool for me is, you know, and I think it comes across in Andy’s call after the call, we talked about a little bit where we were talking about people leaving this world because they’re not as successful as x. They didn’t hit the same sales number as why and these w x and y people are just people.

Stephen:                             [03:41]                     But they’re measuring themselves against other in and said, you know, I kind of felt that way. He did. Um, and by him settling back, it’s a term I use for it. He was able to adjust some things and then settle back. And he’s in a stride now. We’re now a year later, he’s able to advance where he couldn’t before. It’s a very cool place to get to and I just hope that if you’re anywhere in that journey, that you listened to this and you take that as good, solid advice from somebody who’s done it and, um, and his contact information, reach out to them if you feel like you need to and take it forward, take it all the way and just realized that you do get more than one chance at this and you’re learned. You’ve learned something, you’ve learned a lot and there’s no sense in losing it. Just settle back and then move forward. Let’s get into the podcast.

Stephen:                             [04:33]                     Welcome back to the e-commerce movement and podcast. Very excited about today’s guest who is a. He is a very busy man and so the only time I can catch them is in between activities because he’s got kids, he’s got school, he’s got well, he teaches school, so that’s part of the story, but he’s always traveling. He’s always busy and so I’m very, very fortunate for a chance and an opportunity to talk to Andy mccan. Welcome Andy.

Andy:                                    [04:58]                     Stephen, good to good to be here.

Stephen:                             [04:59]                     Well, it’s good to have you here. Um, we’ve uh, met face to face at least once. Was it twice?

Andy:                                    [05:06]                     Yeah.

Stephen:                             [05:10]                     Rocky mountain and Andy’s a, a, a, a hulk of a man, a habit and slim. And so the two of them together, you know, it really intimidating. And what’s cool though is you guys have such similar stories and similar backgrounds and just that similar nature. You’re both gentle kind of giants, you know, just real kind, real, real, unassuming. How’s that fair for you in the classroom? I mean they’ve got to be intimidated by you. It

Andy:                                    [05:39]                     usually worked out pretty well, but then the middle are usually to intimidate anyone there in kind of their own little world. Uh, where I taught elementary school for awhile that was a little more, uh, the, the, was probably a little more of a factor for those kids.

Stephen:                             [06:02]                     You, uh, you teach gifted students and I’m interested in about that story and I love the fact that you’re with them for three years. I, I’m, that blows my mind because that’s somebody who gets it, that continuity and you could see them from when they start and can bring them all the way through. There’s some real thinking there. That’s really cool. How’d you get into teaching it? Was it, was it something that you just wanted to do

Andy:                                    [06:23]                     from a time when I was probably 11 or 12, I wanted to be a teacher and it’s kind of never, never diverted from that.

Stephen:                             [06:34]                     So you’re going to teach a subject that you wanted?

Andy:                                    [06:37]                     Yeah, I wanted to be an elementary teacher and I did that for about 10 years and realized that that was probably a better suited to specialize in just math and science. Um, I didn’t, I didn’t feel like I was a very effective reading teacher so I made the switch to middle school so I could work just, uh, with, with math and science and kind of fell into the gifted a position as something that, uh, I was interested in but hadn’t really worked with before. So, um, that my district started this program with the top 30 kids out of about 800 get bused to my school and then I get to instruct them for all three years in math and science

Stephen:                             [07:30]                     when you talk to your contemporaries in other school districts because that’s unusual. I’ve not heard of anybody who gets them for three years. I don’t know, maybe that’s a new trend, but what do you think is the benefit of having them for those whole three years?

Andy:                                    [07:43]                     It’s a very unique. So I’m, I’m fortunate for that. I’m just kind of, you really get to know the students well and I’m kind kinda can react well to kind of when they’re, whatever kind of their quirks are or you can even tailor assignments to kinds of their, uh, their strength

Stephen:                             [08:12]                     or over the summer. I mean, can you say, hey, this is a way to get ahead if you really want to admit because these are generally motivated kids, right? I mean, yeah, generally.

Andy:                                    [08:22]                     Yeah, absolutely. We, uh, we do try to, uh, you know, give them information about any camps that might be going on or classes that are available that we can pass that information onto the kids.

Stephen:                             [08:38]                     How old are these kids? Roughly?

Andy:                                    [08:40]                     Eleven to 13. 14 when they finish eighth grade

Stephen:                             [08:46]                     it, dude, I just sitting here thinking, I wonder how old. I’m like, oh my God.

Andy:                                    [08:53]                     Pretty funny though. Know they’ll grow a good foot between the time I meet them in the time they leave in eighth grade

Stephen:                             [09:02]                     and the boys have wasted a few octaves and the girls changed. It’s funny. When you think about your life, is there anything more that you would love doing that pr or that rewarding part of it?

Andy:                                    [09:20]                     Not really. I really found my, my niche niche niche here with the gifted students and uh, now that I’ve gotten into that, I really kind of feel that fulfillment that I, um, was kind of lacking a little bit in my first 10 years or so of teaching. Um, I, I enjoyed it, but it just always felt a little forced. Um, it really took me awhile to realize like, I’m, I’m doing something for two, two and a half hours a day that I feel really, uh, not very good at the teaching reading and um, so, and despite my efforts to improve, just never felt like, uh, like I was getting there. So

Stephen:                             [10:14]                     that forced, I think that’s a very powerful term and I think that happens in a lot of businesses. A lot of life’s probably did a lot of ecommerce businesses and I know this isn’t a discussion and we’re going to get there, but, but I think that’s a powerful term. Who recognized that it was for. So was it you internal and is that a failing? Uh, did you ask for help because guys don’t ask for help. I mean, walk us through that. I mean, it’s reader.

Andy:                                    [10:38]                     Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. Um, it was kind of identified really in my, uh, in my student teaching, we have like a college professor who kind of advises us and he kind of mentioned, you know, that was kind of my, my weakest area. So really from the get go it was something I was aware of, but um, it really took, I switched school districts after about five years and that, that new district just had a different approach to teaching reading and um, I could just never really, never really felt like I was doing it as well as I could have or areas others were. And it’s such an important thing to know that for that.

Stephen:                             [11:30]                     Why was it a, was it a, you know, like, like what’s the difference because I think is important when you go to math and science, you were in your lane, right? Things really easy for you with this other thing. Is it, is it not, be? Not that it’s challenging, it’s just not enjoyable.

Andy:                                    [11:49]                     A lot of it was, I had a really hard time connecting kids who struggled with reading because I just never, I never remember having any sort of struggle with it. So it was really hard for me to relate. And.

Stephen:                             [12:07]                     But what do you do with the kid that struggles with math and science? Very difficult subjects.

Andy:                                    [12:13]                     Yeah, it really is. Um, those are subjects that I felt like I struggled with a little more in my schooling. So it’s, it seems to come a little more naturally for me to do.

Stephen:                             [12:27]                     You can relate to those kids were the other ones you can liken that to e-commerce, right? So thinking about the parts of the business that you love or you get passionate about and the parts that you don’t. Because I always think people walk away from this and I’m always like, no, wait, there’s so many sides to it. I mean, before, before Merck came along, Andy, because Andy is a big guy and we’ll talk about that, but before March came along, do you think you would have stayed in e-commerce as heavily as you did? I mean, you were big Ebay seller for a long time and you do Fba and all that kind of jazz, but could you see some of that passion potentially leaving?

Andy:                                    [13:05]                     Yeah, for sure. I’m eva in college really, and I’m Kinda went in and out of that. Um, you know, I did books for awhile and then vintage clothing and kind of um, never really hit my stride. Um, for, for a real long time with either of those and then, um, when merchant Kinda Fba came hand in hand for me really as far as when I began those, um, I reached out to Andy Flemings because I kept seeing in his, uh, posting on facebook. He and I were, we knew each other growing up in Aurora, Illinois. So he, we’ve known each other since, you know, I was maybe 14 years old. So, um, we, I would see his postings about Amazon and I just Kinda was a little dissatisfied with my, with my job, a teaching job at the time

Stephen:                             [14:12]                     in that lane.

Andy:                                    [14:14]                     Yeah, there had been a little shift. I taught the gifted a few years and then the district made a couple changes and I was just wasn’t real happy for about a year and a half. And um, I was able to know. I talked to andy and I just said like, Hey, you know, I’m interested in e-commerce. It’s kind of always been something I’ve, you know, like being a part of and I see you’re being successful with it. And so andy was the one who pointed me in the direction of merchant Fba, and March comes naturally. I’ve always had kind of a design, uh, enjoyment of design. So

Stephen:                             [14:58]                     you take design to a new level. I’ve seen some of your designs. I mean, you have a gift worth, you know, it’s funny you’re the, I think the third person that I can think of right away at the top of my head that has adopted that they basically had something they weren’t enjoying and they were able to fulfill it and fill it in specifically with merchant. I mean, it definitely seems more of the artist’s side. Um, it fills out that piece of their life that they were missing and then all of a sudden it’s not like they get complacent and where they were, they, they could settle back into where they were. It’s like they need something, needs something. They found this and it allows them to settle back in life without like running away from something. That’s a very, very cool thing to figure out my friend. That’s a very cool thing.

Andy:                                    [15:44]                     That’s a good way of putting it. It really, it does feel that, that desire to create and um, you know, does it, like you said, within the, the ability to kind of keep my other passion for teaching going as well, so. Right.

Stephen:                             [16:02]                     Otherwise you’d have to give it up completely and then more and then that longing would be there and so it doesn’t have to be, maybe you’re definitely one of the top five. I could see that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. The parents, I mean, did your dad have that option? I don’t think so. I mean, I’m probably,

Andy:                                    [16:26]                     yeah, he was, uh, he was actually a commercial photographer and um, yeah, he just was kind of stuck within, in the confines of that and uh, yeah, definitely couldn’t really branch out, you know, it would have a. yeah, just had an effect on his overall business and uh, yeah, just the focus on the business had to have always going to be there. So,

Stephen:                             [16:58]                     so you adopted a, this Fba lie you fed and it was going pretty well, but the emerge specifically. So how much time do you spend on your business now? Um, because you’re having a pretty good year and you’re going to do better this year based on your sales, so you clearly figured some things out for your level. Now you’re not going in trying to make the million dollars. That’s not your goal. Your goal is to make some additional income and fulfill, quite frankly, I think it’s very cool that you get to fill that niche, that, that piece of their life, that lane, what, what have you done that others can learn from to kind of get that levelness because I think you’re doing a good job at it.

Andy:                                    [17:41]                     I try to, I try to keep my, uh, my family life is important to me. Um, you know, I, I’ve never wanted to sacrifice that time in, of spending the time with my, uh, merge business or my FBA business. So, and that’s, you know, it’s kind of perfect because those are so flexible. I can work on that stuff once the kids have gone to bed, uh, you know, even when I have 30 minutes over my lunch break, I can kind of take that time to throw a shirt designed together or shoot them emails off or uh, looking to get some merchandise. Um, it’s just such a flexible thing, but being kind of purposeful with your time time, I think it’s real important to, uh, to making sure you’re, you’re able to kind of, instead of all those aspects of your finances are important to you.

Stephen:                             [18:56]                     Would, would you say that that’s a strong suit. Does that come easy, that being purposeful for you or is that a struggle? Um, and then if it is a struggle, is there, are there any techniques or trips that you can offer us?

Andy:                                    [19:10]                     Sure. In general, I’ve always been a pretty hard worker. Even in my early years of teaching, I ran my own painting business for about 10 years and that was, I was full time and that all summer and throughout the school year even I’d had paint over the weekends and such. But really, once we had kids, I realized like that type of work didn’t align with my, my desire to be with my family as much when I had the, the opportunity. So I moved away from that and that was within a couple, maybe two or three years because when I started getting into the FBA and that, that flexibility, they’re really aligned very well for me. And I’ve always, uh, I’ve never been to the one who comes home and throws my feet up on the couch and correct the cold one in. Just relaxes for the whole evening. I’m jealous

Stephen:                             [20:26]                     time. I’ve seen you do that by the way. What’s interesting is I’m sitting here thinking about what kind of impact has this had on the kids in the classroom because they’ve gotta be inquiring minds and they’re smarter than just walk us through some, either things you’ve been able to bring into classroom to teach young because I’m interested to see, you know, have you run into an entrepreneur yet? I mean, do you, have you been a kid that you just know? There’s no doubt in your mind he’s an entrepreneur,

Andy:                                    [21:04]                     uh, that desire there, you know, the, the spline of a year or two ago, I had kids, I’m making it and selling it at school, which I whole-heartedly encouraged. And then the, uh, administration kind of cooperation that doesn’t fit the system. There’s one way to do everything, right. Yeah. But I definitely have been able to bring my, my passion for the entrepreneurship angle into the classroom and really just use it as an example of, um, the amount of, kind of a how wide open your options are. The kids. Yeah. They’re progressing in their careers. Um, you know, I’ll use some of the things I do as an example and you know, I’ll talk to them about that. I went to, uh, you know, the grocery store the other day and I bought 50 boxes of cookies. I’m going to resell on Amazon and they just think it’s hilarious. Why would they buy these cookies? Well, yeah. And I knew that kind of is a teachable moment to say, you know, to kind of explain the reasons why someone would buy these on Amazon. And, uh, you know, the distribution of it and in a really kind of take that, you know, a couple minutes to, to point out some of the, I think the things that kids don’t think about all the time, you know, they’re, they’re very black and white, like a concrete thinkers with that age.

Stephen:                             [22:53]                     Let me ask you this, because, uh, you’ve been teaching long enough to have a frame of reference the kids today versus 10 years ago, whatever you could go as far back as you can in the same level, the gifted program, what technology has had to, you know, vastly changed in 10 years. I mean, it’s changed in five years, let alone 10 years, right? Today meet a is, are you surprised at how advanced some of them are just so technically savvy with their phones and they realized that, that the phone is better than any computer you and I would have had as a kid. Right? And, and therefore, do they see those bigger opportunities because it’s evolving so quickly? Um, it really is, and I’m just doing that

Andy:                                    [23:43]                     by the time they get to eighth, they’re definitely starting to become aware of some of that kind of opportunity that’s out there

Stephen:                             [23:52]                     thinking girls and boys. Yeah. Puberty thing that really does play. Yeah.

Andy:                                    [24:00]                     Um, but that’s, you know, it’s really something that I, I like to try to keep it the forefront of their mind and I point out to them when I was, their age was literally 92, 93 when the Internet was just something you might have at your house. Like, you know, there might be a handful of people in your school that had a computer and, you know, the, the AOL or whatever. I’m at their house and, but then 10 years later when I graduated from college, it was everywhere and people are starting to get jobs at Google and things that didn’t exist 10 years before. So I really try to point out to them they need to be forward thinking in terms of what they’re, they’re going to be doing in 10 years when they enter the workforce. Um, chances are it won’t be something that’s around right now.

Stephen:                             [25:04]                     My wife told me yesterday, now we live in a small town, it’s a mega grocery stores, so number two in the world, corporate headquarter US headquarters is in our town and so our local store tends to get a lot of the trial and error stuff and she tells me, she said, did you go down to the other store? She said, there’s a robot that cleans the floor. And I’m like, what? She goes, yeah, there’s a robot, like, you know, think of the, uh, what’s the zoom room for your house, have a, they have one cleaning the floor. And she said it’s got these little eyes. And she said, the kids are loving it, watching it falling and this and that. And I said, well, that’s cool. I said, but here’s something to think about. Do you realize that that’s probably taken one to three people’s jobs?

Stephen:                             [25:49]                     And she’s like, mom exceeded. Think about it for a second. And I’m like, well, here’s the deal. They put, it’s such a big store. They probably have four or five people that do that, right? Because it’s just so big and mega sent. There is some guy following that device, right? Or programming it, you know, tweaking it, whatever they’re doing because obviously they’re experimenting with it, but I said more than likely there was a guy who’s actually going to lose his job there and that’s just the start now that starting in my little dinky town and we could sit there and say, well, nobody wants to be that, that floor sweeper or that floor cleaner. However, you know, it’s, it’s so prevalent and across so many industries, truck driving them. Right. You’re seeing it. There are uber drivers, right. It’s, so what do you do? You know, you’re dealing with smart kids here probably won’t be floor sweepers, but they’re going to employ or not in this case. Those things when you’re looking that, when you’re thinking about that, you brought up a good example. The jobs that they’re going to take are probably not even thought of yet. Yeah. What’s that? What’s that? Do you know, even even for yourself, I mean, when you’ve got kids, what are you thinking about as you’re trying to help lead our future?

Andy:                                    [27:01]                     Yeah, definitely more, uh, I try to teach process more than the content so that we try to approach tasks from that standpoint of OK, what’s, what’s the design process, you know, if we were an engineer that we would go through to complete this task, um, and just approach things from that standpoint rather than just a, a kind of learning vocabulary only or, or a memory memorization of facts that, you know, the kids can look up and in five seconds on their smartphones.

Stephen:                             [27:46]                     Well that’s a real big issue. Like we had to learn all that stuff. What do you feel about college? She, you obviously benefited from college dealing with smart kids issue.

Andy:                                    [28:01]                     Yeah, absolutely. That’s a tough, that’s a tough one because I definitely see the benefit of education, but I also see the, uh, the struggling with it and that kind of produces, once you’re done and you know, so many kids are graduating with debt and they, you’ve been a major in something that they actually aren’t that interesting or is even that useful when they get out in the real world. So it’s a tough, tough.

Stephen:                             [28:40]                     Well, let’s talk about, let’s talk about this. For me as an educator, it’s tough. Let’s talk about your example. So you, you mentioned, uh, in some of the pre interview stuff about changes in your business when you make changes that you say to yourself, I failed. I mean, you give a specific example from rocky mountain, you realize you’re going too many directions, you’re doing too much. Is there

Speaker 5:                           [29:06]                     family or is that a win? Because you can acknowledge it which way?

Andy:                                    [29:14]                     That’s something I struggle with is I tend to view it is kind of initially I viewed as a failure. Um, but I, I’ve had to adjust my mindset when it comes to things like that because it is a, it’s just a fact of life that you’re obviously, you’re not going to succeed at everything you try. So, um, that’s definitely something I have to kind of continually come to grips with is like, it’s OK that you’re, uh, you’re not doing online arbitrage as much now because you just don’t have time for it. And it’s taking away from the other things that, uh, you know, are, are being successful for you right now. So I just really had to view it as my time is finite

Stephen:                             [30:11]                     because I think about some of the people like, uh, David and Ivy Hawkins, Jamie’s in Philippi or some of the others that are just crushing it in Ra. I applaud them even more because they could sustain it. That’s what I look back. And I’m like, man, they have figured that out, that that’s an art that I’m going to get by. That’s a cost that I’m not willing to give up because I have different things in my life. Right. And so, you know, to me, I see it as a. When I sit back in ICU, I see a couple of things about you and that very, very impressive and cool to me that others hopefully see also is that you’re kind of self aware. You’re willing to adjust with that self awareness. I think that that’s a very powerful. And I just hope more people do it for themselves because I think that Tommy this year, a year later, or probably a little bit more net, how much pressure have you taken off yourself? Because he’s like giving yourself permit.

Andy:                                    [31:14]                     Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s a really been huge. Um, yeah, I’ve taken the pressure off myself to stop trying to want to do or a wholesale private label Ra merge. Um, you know, I literally a year ago was trying to be successful in all of those things. And my wife has an etsy shop that was really.

Stephen:                             [31:43]                     Cause you’re not busy.

Andy:                                    [31:44]                     Yeah. So. And that’s really been successful in growing and that’s something I helped her with too. So, um, it was really putting a ton of pressure on me. So kind of taking that step back and realizing like it’s just not feasible to kind of start from square one and become successful and all those things at once.

Stephen:                             [32:09]                     I’m able to help her with that business by the way I was sitting there because that’s a very cool, like a common point. Kids obviously it’s another common point. Your life in a hallway. There’s love there too, but then to have this other cool thing that you’re both kind of doing your own little thing and then it crosses. Oh

Andy:                                    [32:27]                     yeah, no, I, I helped her quite a bit with um, you know, graphics stuff, you guys a calligraphy and a wedding, a place cards. And so there’s times where she has to digitize something I can help her with that I help with, uh, some of the painting of a things and packaging and shipping sometimes. So they’re definitely a lot of time that I’m spending maybe 10, 10 hours a week just on helping her.

Stephen:                             [33:05]                     Yeah.

Andy:                                    [33:07]                     No, I definitely, I liked the fact that there’s times when I can contribute to her success.

Stephen:                             [33:16]                     It’s a two way street and I just, again, as a guy I think, you know, just came up with my wife the other day about, you know, my degree or whatever, and it’s like, man, I couldn’t have gotten it because I went back and got a master’s degree. I couldn’t have done it without her and in the house and the kids and all the rest of that. Important that people realize that that is a real partnership, ebbs and flows because you’re on and you’re not right. How about this? When you weren’t feeling so good, you need her to be the strong one, right?

Andy:                                    [33:50]                     Yeah, for sure. There was definitely times when, a lot of times when she’s had to pick up that slack and yeah, just kind of, uh, you know, even even when, when I’m trying to do so many things. Yeah. Like kinda like you said, a lot of it falls back onto her. Um, and you know, she’s been really great about, about shouldering that and supporting me. Uh, you know, being able to continue teaching and doing all these other things as well.

Stephen:                             [34:29]                     That’s pretty awesome to. All right, so one of the coolest things that you did is you figured something out about not everybody wants to sell their own stuff. Not everybody can sell the wrong stuff. Fair.

Andy:                                    [34:47]                     Yeah, absolutely.

Stephen:                             [34:50]                     They don’t want to. Why? Because that part of it sucks. Right. You know, a of, you know, lots of mechanics don’t like to work on their own cars because you know, they want to walk away from it, they want to get away from it. And so you figured something out about a with your merchant business and so I don’t know how deep you could go into it or whatever, but if you could walk us through, I think it’s fresh perspective, I think. I think, uh, it’s very fresh.

Andy:                                    [35:14]                     What am I. One of my hobbies, I enjoy collecting rock poster art and about a year or so ago I thought I should reach out to some of these artists and try to see if they can, uh, they’d like to license their work to sell.

Stephen:                             [35:36]                     We stopped there. What is rock?

Andy:                                    [35:38]                     So I think back to the rock of when I was a kid, which would be stuff you, you know, you were being born around that time. So walk me through what, what is. So there are specific people that’s their, that’s their, that’s their thing. They draw art for a lot of company or big bands and stuff. Is that what a lot of bands will have a show specific posters made and um, is a pretty big community of people who collect those and can I have their favorite artists? So they’ll.

Stephen:                             [36:12]                     So they’re like comic book artist. I mean they are literally the same artists. Oh, you could get you get a name for yourself in that where it’s fascinating. Blew my mind.

Andy:                                    [36:22]                     So, uh, so yeah, it’s a pretty big sub sub culture. Um, and so I reached out to a couple and one in particular, a guy named Amick who he’s done posters for the grateful dead for two fighters, Pearl Jam Queens of the Stone Age, just basically you name it in the last 25 years and he’s, he’s done a poster for them and you know, some of his stuff, you know, will sell for thousands of dollars, you know, once it’s been out for a few years and such. Please. Very collectible, very know, very well known. And so I just emailed him one day a sitting there at my desk at school and lunch and send him an email and say, hey,

Stephen:                             [37:16]                     you just email to me.

Andy:                                    [37:20]                     I see you don’t have any shirts for sale on your site and that’s that something that I do and I’m might have, might have a little bit. Yeah. You know, but uh, you know, he replied and said, yeah, we just got rid of our guy who was, we’d been doing that and you know, we kind of went from there. And so, uh, that’s something that I’ve been focusing on a lot lately, uh, with kind of building a shopify store and I’m getting some other, uh, merchandise, uh, with his artwork on it. Like a,

Stephen:                             [38:01]                     that gives you a big name in, Hey, uh, you know, Steve, you. Oh yeah, we go way back or something that I think you realized and uh, you know, I’m sure you, this was the light bulb that went on for you as it’s going on for me is their industry has been completely changed my musical changes, right? The Internet and records and cds and whatever that means. Manufacturers who used to print all that stuff. Amazon coming in that world and teespring and, you know, t public, all those companies upended all that. What happened to all that? So the people that weren’t pushing it, they get lost, they got missed, and you have a skill set that you’ve learned and earned that you could go and fill in that niche. Dude, I’m telling you, it was like, the minute I saw it, I’m like, oh my God, that was like a light bulb that went on for me. And I’m like, wow. But this is across other industries, right? I mean, they were back to this teacher moment if people could hear this and see that this is across a lot of industries, these type of opportunities.

Andy:                                    [39:06]                     Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. I just kind of other instances where someone can kind of do that. And if you say you’re into, uh, you know, animals, you could find a, uh, an artist that does, you know, how people get self portraits of their pets. Um, you know, you find somebody who’s really good at that and you just license their work and you saw, uh, you know, a golden retriever tee shirts with a really, really good drawing on it and you know, you could, you could kind of, uh, you know, or the artists can make it an add on for their client. They could say, here’s your portrait and if you want, you can get tee shirts with your daughter’s picture on it too,

Stephen:                             [40:05]                     because otherwise, what’s the option? They’d have to go learn how to do this. They’d have to find a local person to do it by a bunch of them in their house and then ship them out. I’m telling you, I was like this whole niche, uh, this whole group of people didn’t have this option until this came along. And the fact that you have this skill set, I think, you know, to me this is the story for your kids because this didn’t exist as many that had jobs sweeping robot is eliminating that position. You just found a whole whole bunch of jobs that didn’t exist. Right. And now can exist.

Andy:                                    [40:48]                     Definitely a a good point there. I hadn’t thought of that before.

Stephen:                             [40:53]                     They blow my mind telling me to get me excited because it’s just a, again, I think you figured out how many amateur you’re going to commit to it and I just hope there’s some people that don’t leave because that’s what a lot of people do. They just disappear and then that we don’t know what happened to them. They’re gone and I’m like, but wait, you had so much stuff you learned if you can find and settle back like Andy did because it was 60 or 70 percent of your job, you said two and a half hours a day. So that’s [inaudible]. That’s 30 percent of your day. Wasn’t great and fun.

Andy:                                    [41:27]                     That’s absolutely a key that it usually worked out to be about a day where I wasn’t feeling very, very effective or like you said, even just having fun.

Stephen:                             [41:42]                     Yeah. So the goal of the podcast is to help people move forward. Two things. One is if somebody has a follow-up question, is it OK if I put your facebook contacting in there? Um, be great. All right, so the goal is to get people moving forward and I quite frankly think you already did, just by demonstrating that not all is lost. Maybe there’s some adjustment you can make and you can settle back in. Um, give us a tipper, something that we can get people who are stuck to get past that point,

Andy:                                    [42:20]                     accepting the fact that maybe if something’s not working out, like you’d like it to just to kind of pivot and spend more time on something that is now being successful for you. And then that might free free you up to a find that success in that which, you know, you could kind of revisit whatever it was that, that you were feeling kind of stuck in or just not as successful as you’d like. Um, yeah. And, and that’s, that’s kind of something with me for a private label. I was trying to really get into that and just felt kind of stuck and uh, you know, a year later now after kind of stepping back a little bit from that I have right now I’m feeling like, you know, I’ve got kind of a little more focused and energy to put towards it.

Stephen:                             [43:18]                     That wasn’t right at the moment. That doesn’t mean you give it up, you just put it off until it’s right. I’m, I’m, I’m so impressed. And again, I love the fact that you’re teaching kids this kind of stuff because quite honestly that’s the future. Not all or nothing. It’s not all or nothing like our parents had. We have options to. I’m so impressed and I can’t wait to see you again. I wish you nothing but success. Thank you so much.

Andy:                                    [43:48]                     Thank you, Stephen, for having me. I appreciate it.

Stephen:                             [43:50]                     I appreciate it,

Stephen:                             [43:53]                     man. I’m so excited after that call because it’s just so cool to see somebody. So cool. Figure it out. Uh, it’s cool to be cool. Right? Um, it’s just so neat. It really is. And I just hope again that, that others take this moment to sit back and say, you know, yeah, I’d like to do that, but right now it’s just not the right time. I’m not willing to give it up. I think about the summer coming up for us and we like to travel or we have grandkids, so we want to spend time with them. So guess what? Something’s going to have to sit OK, great, let’s move on to something else. And then that way that can sit and then I could come back to it. And you know, quite honestly whenever I do prolong something or I put it off, usually it’s for the better and then I’m that much better at it. When I started up again, something else gets changed or I learned something new or I figured out that maybe I didn’t want to do it to begin with. And so guess what, you have permission. Give yourself permission. The teacher and mechanic tells you you can do e-commerce, [inaudible], e-commerce, momentum, [inaudible]. Take care.

Cool voice guy:                  [44:54]                     Thanks for listening to the e-commerce momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at e commerce momentum. Under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and like us on itunes.

 

Stephen-Peterson

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