384 : Eric Spears – Design your ebay business to fit your physical nomad lifestyle
Can you get or keep your dream job and make it align with your business? Does that make sense for everyone? Eric will tell you that sometimes the best road traveled is one you never dreamed of. In his case he gets them both. A dream job helping others and a great aligned business. Traditional no by standard career advice. But sustainable by design, yes!
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Here is transcript- It is automated so it is not perfect but it does seem to get better over time.
Eric: [00:00] It’s, it’s like the dopamine receptors are, are a lot less sensitive than they used to be, but it can be, I don’t know if you’ve heard about the jacket flip, but I found that during my last contract. Oh, so, so one of the weekends I was working, uh, it was in northern Arizona, southern Utah and I went to a yard sale and bought a vintage Levi’s jacket from um, from a yard sale. You know, it was a dollar 50 and I thought maybe it was worth like 500, maybe it was like $1,000, something like that. Yeah, it’s a biggie. It’s a biggie type big e type two blanket line jacket, beautiful condition. This was work wear. So you’re thinking that it would have been trashed? Most of them would have been trashed. I knew it was early because it was a Biggie, you know, pre 1973 or whatever it is and being in such good condition, I was like, this thing has to be worth like really good money. And I, once I got, I didn’t even have to signal there. This is how rural it was. Like there was no cell service. I couldn’t look it up till I got like two hours away and then I started looking it up and the value of a destroyed one on Ebay was asking $1,200 and I was like, okay, well
Cool voice guy: [01:08] welcome to the ecommerce momentum jazz. Well, we focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce selling today. Uzi, your host, Stephen Peterson,
Stephen: [01:22] if you’re ready to set up a strong, reliable accounting system when it’s a real strong foundation for your business, we think we have the answer for you. If this is from accounting, we will go. You’re here listening to us on this podcast. We set up a course and it’s called Amazon accounting simplified. Yep. Simple. And we only say Amazon yet it’s really all across ecommerce. We’re talking about integrating quickbooks into your existing or new ecommerce business, and new is great because you could set it up right that way, but, but if you have an existing business, how do you integrate, how do you get quickbooks online specifically? How do you get set up in there? Well, we have modules. There’s over 48 modules that will walk you through each one of those steps. I’m going to talk about cost of goods and I didn’t even talk about it.
Stephen: [02:02] We’re going to dive in, parse it, peel it back and help you understand what it takes. How about chart of accounts, setting up the right accounts, ones that you can use to make decisions. We’ve had hundreds of clients and we come up what we see at have seen as the best practice and I think that’s going to be the best thing for you. Reconciling 10 99 from paypal and Amazon. Good luck. Challenging. Well, we’re going to, we have modules, unique modules for each of those because they are unique and so vendor management, accounting for Amazon loans. It goes on and on. I’m just skimming the top. There’s 48 plus modules and more will be added over time. It’s going to help you get up, get set up or get caught up with strong foundational accounting books. Um, we use it to help make decisions. We use it to help predict cash and cash.
Stephen: [02:49] Pinch points. What you’re going to have. If you’re buying inventory and you’re waiting to get paid for it, you’re going to run out of cash at some point. Wouldn’t it be great to know you? It’s not great that it happens, but it’s great to know when it’s gonna happen. So you can plan for, you can make different decisions based on real solid information, historical information that you keep building. Best part about quickbooks online is our CPA signs right in and does his tax voodoo right through the system. And so I don’t have to hump it over there and we can get a little better rate by doing that. So how do you find out more about it? And again, you should look into it. AMZ accounting, simplified.com forward slash, podcast I’ll say it again, amz accounting, simplified.com forward slash podcast check out all the different modules.
Stephen: [03:30] Checkout what you can do if you really want to get your house in order. If you’re really looking to get that building block established and in locked in place, and then you can build from there, then we recommend the courts. So you’re looking for an advantage to help you will a brand, while one of the tools that you can use his scope, you could check out their product and then check out their competitors and find the keywords that are competitors are using and check out theirs and see that they’re not. And then say, okay, I’ve got an idea. Let me do this. Let me enhance your brand. That’s the thing you can bring to the marketplace. When you can enhance the brand, you’re going to win that account. So try it. You get a free trial, but seller labs.com forward slash, scope use the code omentum and save 50 bucks.
Stephen: [04:12] It’s a free trial. Try it and see if you can enhance the brand. It’s time to get the listings right. So what should you do? You should get your images right, right. So amazing freedom has a program to help you do then, and we’ve used them. It’s phenomenal what they can do. You got to go look at this. So you go to amazing freedom.com, forward slash photos and take a look at the examples of what you can do with an image you take and you give them some sample images. Um, some simple images and then what they do is they take and um, insert them with the lifestyle photos. And so all of a sudden you’re going to see an example of what a plain image looks like and then what it can be enhanced to. Why is this of value to while you were in the wholesale business.
Stephen: [04:53] And guess what? You want to add value to the brand. And this is just a simple way to do it. They offer all those kinds of services. Scroll down to the bottom. If you really want somebody to help really improve this service and you want to bring value to that brand because you want it exclusivity, the services that they offer for listing enhancement will blow your mind. So again, it’s amazing. freedom.com forward slash photos take a look at what you can do for your brands that you’re trying to get. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 384 Eric Spears, Aka college picker. Man. Oh Man, I, I’m so inspired. You know, I, I say that probably every episode because I get to talk to the most incredible people. But here’s a perfect example, um, that I’m going to use when somebody says, Steve, I want to leave my corporate job.
Stephen: [05:46] How can I leave my corporate job? It’s sucking my soul out. I’m going to say, okay, are you willing to make some trade offs? Yes. Okay, great. Then come and listen to this episode. I’m going direct them to this episode because here’s a kid kid to me. I have a son older than him so I can call him a kid who has figured how, what it takes to be debt free. I mean, we didn’t get to that part of the call, but he’s completely debt free by design. Now the guy has a Pharm d degree and he’s young. He should be paying payments for 30 years on that debt for college. Yet he isn’t because that was such a, a line in the sand for him and he put himself through college. So that is a line in this and an absolute for him, his absolutes and probably the most important absolute.
Stephen: [06:26] And we never got to it in the story, but I am now because it’s so important to him. But he has figured out a way to define his life and he is married so it’s not like he’s doing it alone, um, on his terms and yet still sell an ecommerce, still enjoy all the thrill of the hunt and do it at the level that he wants for his life right now. He can ramp it up if he needs to. He can pull it back if he needs to. It’s all done by design. So this is an episode for those of you who are looking to leave their corporate job or looking for another way. I just want you to keep an open mind and understand they’ll be some tradeoffs. This might be right for you. It might not be, but start thinking that these things are possible today.
Stephen: [07:09] They are. Let’s get into the podcast. Alright, welcome back to the ECOMMERCE men and podcast. I’m very excited about today’s guest because he’s kind of like one of the coolest jobs in addition to being an ecommerce seller. But he’s got like one of the coolest, most modern things that I’ve heard of. Never. I never heard of it until I read it. I’m like, whoa. Um, but what I love is the consistency, uh, knowing who you are, being aware of who you want to be and not pretending to be anybody else I just think is so rare today. And we’re very lucky to have Eric Spears, Aka the college picker on the show. Welcome, Eric. Well, thanks for having me a congratulations. You’re, we’ll set 400 podcasts. It’s a lot of work you’ve put in. I can tell on the website. Uh, I thank you very much.
Stephen: [07:55] I’ve been very fortunate. Um, you know, I’ve been very lucky and I’ve met some amazing, and it’s funny, I tell people this all the time. They’re like, well, how do you know so many people? I’m like, I put myself out there and I will help anybody. But I also, when I go to an event, I’m not the wallflower sitting in a corner. I’ll go and talk to anybody because they all got great stories. I’m not some expert. They are, and I learned something from every single person I meet, let alone that I talked to on my podcast. Yeah, that’s awesome that you can put it all together and an archive with just like all the good stories on your website and just have all these people that maybe wouldn’t have been able to have a platform to tell their stories on and get it out there.
Stephen: [08:30] So it’s very professional. I really like what you’ve been doing. Well, I appreciate that. It’s not as nice as your doctorate, but it is an MBA in ecommerce. I would say. Well, I hope to add value to your all your listeners. I know a lot of them are Amazon sellers, not kind of what I do, the one off flips, but I still hope to add some sort of new angle. ADDS some value to their lives or maybe something, you know? All right, I’m going to blow your mind. I have them pulling it up. I never lie. 5,176 active listings on Ebay on this account. I have more than one account. Okay. 5,176 top that my friend active Sku’s on Ebay. So I am a flipper myself. I uh, in addition to Amazon. So you will add value because you’re going to teach me some things, you know when I think about what you’ve done, you started in college period. Correct? I mean this was hence the name to college picker. Right? You were in college when you got into this world. Absolutely. Yeah. So why though? I mean, what was it? What was it that you were trying to do? I mean, were you an entrepreneur because you’re going to study to be a pharmacist? W W what was it that drew you here?
Eric: [09:40] I wasn’t even studying to be a pharmacist at this point. I was still an Undergrad not knowing what I wanted to do. Oh wait, wait. You are one of those undeclared undergrad students undeclared. But I was, I knew I was in sciences because I enjoyed chemistry. I enjoyed biology. I enjoyed math. So I knew I wasn’t going to go get like an art degree. So I was in sciences and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.
Stephen: [10:03] And so you know where your parents cool with, cause I had both of my boys, uh, both of my boys who go out college graduates and they were pretty specific in their career when they went in. I don’t know if I would let them or if I would pay for an undeclared. How did that conversation go a tad?
Eric: [10:19] I’m going to figure it out. They weren’t paying for any oh, okay. Alright. So I guess they had no say. All right. Now I still, I’m sure there’s some concern like what are you going to do with your life, Eric? What are you going to do? Well, I mean my father is a pharmacist, so he did guide me towards my second and third years and kind of plant those seeds in my head for a second job security. So that’s kind of where that came in. But absolutely no entrepreneurial, anything was, was given to me from either of my parents. Really and I didn’t even know like the entrepreneurial mindset or any of that when I was in college. It was just kind of how I was doing things in order to save money on or an order to pay for hobby.
Stephen: [10:59] He’s, and now just to, we’ll keep going, but I want to step, I want you to mentally step back. If you look backwards though now did you recognize, cause you see talent and people who are really good at this business, did you see some of the talent, and this is a little ego thing, but did you see that you had some of that talent then and you just didn’t call it that and then it was like, oh this just clicks.
Eric: [11:23] I was persistent on craigslist and just always like searching for search for something. Like at the beginning it was all motorcycles. I was buying and selling motorcycles. So I was always on craigslist and I think that grind, maybe I can look back and see that and maybe recognize that as a quality, but, but my two roommates were doing the same thing and they’re totally the opposite of me now. So would there out of the business or they’re whatever they, we, all three of us at one point were motorcycles out of our garage that we were renting. And I think I sold between like 20 and 24 motorcycles in my undergrad career and that’s really how I started the whole reselling business is just buying motorcycles off Craigslists either fixing them or just taking better pictures and then selling them back on craigslist, floating the titles.
Eric: [12:11] I didn’t even know what that was called until like I got out of college and talked to some car dealerships and stuff, but they were doing the same thing as I was buying these motorcycles and getting them at good prices and then kind of bringing them to a different market or just taking better pictures and they’re not doing any of that now. They’ve kind of fallen off of the whole flipping train, what we’re motor. You were obviously interested in motorcycles or someone was, well parking was so expensive on campus. 200 bucks equal to a college student. 200 bucks a year, right. That a lot of change I guess in $2,006 so parking was $200 30 minutes to find a spot when you lived off campus was also a pain in the butt when you’re trying to get to class. So motorcycle parking was in the front. Motorcycle parking permits were only $40 a year. So I had the idea, brought it to my roommates, cause you don’t want to do it by yourself. You want to take your buddies, let’s all go get our motorcycles licenses at the same time and get some little motorcycles and start writing class. It was a lot like a lot better on us, on our wallet and just on our time doing that instead of trying to park.
Stephen: [13:22] And so, so then you realized, Hey, there are other people looking at you saying I could use one of those motorcycles too, right? I mean is that kind of was at the thinking that that would be the marketplace to sell to other students?
Eric: [13:33] I didn’t even think of the market. I just had bought one and then I wanted to upgrade. Okay. Start with a 600 cc Ninja, no Ninja, sorry, 250 cc Ninja Ninja to 50 and I bought it for a thousand. I put a little, maybe 50 to $100 worth of work into it, but I sold it for 14 or 1500 suite and I was like, what the heck? How did I buy this? And then I wrote it for a year and then I sold it for more than I paid for it and it just like something clicked,
Stephen: [14:01] something clicked. Um, did, did you think the market was bigger than just college students too? I mean, were you thinking that you know that there’s a whole world out there? Like, I mean I, I don’t know how, you know how deep you were into craigslist and the rest of that at that point,
Eric: [14:17] my mind couldn’t comprehend. Okay. It gets worse at that point. It was, it was, we were so niched down to motorcycles. We were buying them and just selling them to whoever from craigslist too. Craigslist. I think I might’ve sold one on Ebay because the local market was too small and we were also selling a accessories. If the, if the bike came with like a spare exhaust, we would sell the parts on Ebay.
Stephen: [14:41] Oh sweet. Now most people, when I think of college students selling stuff, I would think of college textbooks almost. You know, every college to, you know, the van pulls up with the balloons on the outside. You would sell stuff or
Eric: [14:52] if you wanted to hustle them yourself, you put them up on Amazon or Ebay, that kind of thing. But motorcycles is a new one to me. I love it. I love especially 24 that’s material. I mean that’s not like, you know, hey, I sold three bikes. You know, I’m an expert. At one point there were I think eight or nine bikes in the garage. I wasn’t home, but my roommate told me the cops came, checked all the bits that they were stolen all the time. Short chop shop. That it was stolen. Yeah. Oh, so somebody called and reported you guys? Yeah, we were. We were in a deed restricted community. And they did not like that. We were working on motorcycles in the garage. So, so that worked well. You made additional money. What did you think that you are going to do? I mean cause I know that we’ll get to get to what you do cause I think it’s just so cool.
Eric: [15:32] He still sells. So don’t get me wrong, but did you at one point say this is going to be my future. I’m giving up my non declared degree and I’m going to go and flip motorcycles, cuddle a dealer or anything like that? No, nothing that never was it. You didn’t have that dream. It was just a step. I knew it was just a step, a season of my life. Um, I’m just telling you because most people aren’t that way. They’re always running away from, I get all the time, Steve, how do I leave my corporate job? How do I leave my corporate job? How do I leave it? Yeah, it was school was what I knew I had been in. You know, I’ve been in elementary, middle, high school at this point. I didn’t take a gap year. I didn’t know what the world was like, Alice.
Eric: [16:08] I knew what school. Hmm. Well, I want to jump to your job because what I would say to you is you have figured out how to leave Corporate America, right? I mean, it sounds like in a sense, because you know, we’re, we’re talking in our precall well, so, so you did work for Walgreens, uh, for six months. Right. As soon as I graduated, I took my boards, pass my boards, um, or ball up, took a trip before I did my boards. But anyways, I passed my boards and I got a job at Walgreens just because when you’re a new Grad, you, if you don’t have a connection, you just kind of take anything. So you have a degree, you have a Pharm d, Pharm d degree, which is four years. Postgraduates I mean, so this is your ears, postgraduate or it’s, if you do the prerequisites, right, you can get into certain pharmacy schools, but it’s still going to be considered a doctorate degree.
Eric: [16:53] Yeah. It’s a long time. You were in school. Right. And so rather than stay in corporate America and you’re working from Walgreens, which is I think the biggest pharmacist out there right now, I think they’re the largest. Um, you said no, I don’t think so. It probably against Dad’s advice too. But you now describe what you do because it blows my mind. I mean, I just never heard the, I’ve never heard of such a thing. So I was dragging my feet, going to Walgreens every day and I knew something wasn’t right. I was not excited to get up, not excited to go to my job. And I had just talked to some people that I had graduated with and one girl went out to the Indian reservations and started working a permanent job for the, um, health and human services for Navajo nation. She was working or not for Navajo nation.
Eric: [17:40] She was working for a Zuni tribe. Um, for the commission corps is, it’s like a health human health services part of the government that takes care of Indian health care in IHS Indian health services. So she had told me that that’s where she was working. She really enjoyed it and that they have these things called contractors that come in and fill gaps in employment where if somebody either uh, moves to a different reservation or gets promoted or, or quits gets pregnant right there or yeah, anything where there’s a gap in employment, they hire these third party contracting companies to find third party contracting. Pharmacists come in, pay you an hourly rate depending on the terms, whatever you can negotiate a rate or per diem depending on the company to see. It all just depends. And you go to these places for anywhere between two and a half weeks I think I worked my shortest contract and or indefinitely like there is always work. I’m constantly getting emails of different places that do need work and I’ve developed a reputation within IHS to where people will come to me for work and offer the work for me. Go anywhere. Well any, anywhere. There’s a need where it’s rural, where other people don’t want to go because maybe there’s not a grocery store within an hour.
Stephen: [18:57] What is it that makes you want to do that? Cause I know it’s going to be, because I’ve seen your pictures of you traveling all around the world. I mean I’ve watched this for over time. What is it that makes you willing to go to that place that they just described? That there’s no grocery store within an hour? What is it in you?
Eric: [19:13] Many reasons that I love this job more so than working behind the desk at Walgreens or behind the counter at Walgreens. It serves a people that have been pillaged and underserved for so long. Just it’s terrible. The whole, what we did to the native Americans is terrible. So to be able to serve a population and then to be very thankful for it, it sets a completely different tone than a corporate Walgreens where that’s about profits. It’s not about patients, it’s about profits. So that tone itself is already making the job, have a way better attitude. And just at the beginning the pay of course is better because it’s rural. They need people to get out there. So there’s monetary incentives, but you’re in beautiful rural parts of the country where it hasn’t been developed necessarily to, to even pavement or touched by human hands within the last thousand years. You know, it’s, there’s some places that are just so beautiful and so peaceful that I can get enjoyment about, uh, from going hiking instead of necessarily have to have like a Walmart or a target or a mall or something. I don’t need those things. Like I just really enjoy the work and the, the beauty of how rural it is and how it’s a different cultural experience. Every time I go to a different place.
Stephen: [20:36] I want to unpack this a little bit more because you know, I’m thinking about the person that you’re replacing the temporary position. You both have a different attitude about that place. Right? I’m not and, and um, you know, maybe I’m putting everybody a bucket, but it generally speaking, I think it is, they’re seeing it as a corporate job that they have to go log it back to the grind. You’re seeing it as an adventure. Oh, absolutely. It’s new three doing the same. It’s a perspective. But it’s perspective. Right?
Eric: [21:01] Totally, totally. And even other contractors. Uh, cause it’s a small, it’s a, it’s a niche of a niche of pharmacy. So everybody knows everybody. And the other contractors, what they say about them, their attitudes, their mannerisms, just how unthankful they are for the job. It’s the fact that I even get to sit in a chair instead of stand is just phenomenal. Like working for the government rather than for a corporation. The stress level is just so much better.
Stephen: [21:30] And I could go on and on. I no, but what excites me, I mean it’s a couple of things. So this is what my, why I’m interested in is because that person asks me all the time, Steve, how do I get out of my corporate job? How do I, this is how now Eric Scott Trade offs. I mean this is an easy, I’m sure if you had to would make it. It’s trade offs and stuff, but I haven’t
Eric: [21:49] Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family if I’m ever working in contract, things like that where it just, it’s a tradeoff and now married, my wife has to see me go for months at a time. If I’m want to go work,
Stephen: [22:00] yeah, that’s an issue. But, but here’s the thing. Who’s more secure? You or that person working for that corporate pharmacist or pharmacy who’s more secure? It sounds to me like you said, there’s work, you always have work. I think you’re more secure and yet you don’t have the security of having that job in my reason I’m saying this is this weekend we were at a family event and uh, a relative, a 55 years old, um, worked for BP oil, uh, the Castro division and it was just like go him at 55 years old and 20% of the workforce eliminated completely and he did nothing wrong and needed to do those others and the corporates, blah, blah, blah. You because of the ability to adapt and, and fill in, you probably have more security than anybody working in that pharmacy. That’s a permanent employee to, is that fair? Yeah, I would say that. And the,
Eric: [22:54] I’m not working because I need necessarily need the money. I don’t see it as that I’m working because I really want to keep my license kind of a relevance and provide an opportunity for myself to just visit other places and develop connections with these people and have having an impact yet. Yeah, having an impact on wherever I go and just to bring, I bring light to the pharmacy, like even the permanent employees there might feel. I left there in a grind and I tried always just like lighten it up and be through, be very thankful for where I’m at and just meet new people and learn new experiences from what they’ve had. Uh, was working with a bunch of, I learned a lot about Mormonism when I was in my last contract because a lot of the guys there were Mormon and it was really interesting to stick count, converse every day and I would never have had that opportunity otherwise.
Stephen: [23:46] I think this is going to, I’m going to be using this example so many times because I get so many people who say, Steve, what do I do? I mean, I got to get out of my, my world. Now. What’s cool is you’re still in the ecommerce world and we’re going to get there next. But, but to me this is a perfect example of what’s available today. This was not available when your dad, uh, more than likely, I’m saying
Eric: [24:05] they did it, but it wasn’t as easily accessible because the internet is what connected me to my first.
Stephen: [24:10] No it, right. It would have been, somebody would have had to know somebody would have known somebody or something. Yeah. It was a lot more secret than, than, uh, than it is now. But this whole world exists in every industry, in every company. This kind of ability to work from home. If you have kids and you want to work from home, there are jobs working from home. They might not be as glamorous and there might be while they’re definitely a trade offs, but this world didn’t exist when I was working back in the day when I was trying to figure this out. So to me, you’re a perfect example of somebody who has figured it out and understand there are trade offs, but, but back in the day you had to move to get a job. Well that’s a trade off, isn’t it?
Eric: [24:47] Right. Absolutely. I had to go somewhere. I’ve never been. It was scary. I didn’t have a place to stay.
Stephen: [24:51] Yeah. So I, I just, it blows my mind. I’m just, I’m giddy over it because I just think it’s so cool. Never heard of it. Never knew it existed. Now I’m going to tell thousands of people about it because it’s just such a cool story.
Eric: [25:04] And, and in case you’re, your viewers want to know, it’s not just limited to pharmacy, it’s nursing, it’s pharmacy technicians. It’s anything related really to healthcare. You can bring that skill to the, to anywhere on a rural reservation. They are usually, they usually have either a permanent position or a contract position for that. Doctors, dentists for sure dentists are in high need. And where do you find this stuff out for the physical therapist you would just type in your profession and then travel like travel, pharmacy, travel, nursing, trout, travel dentistry or Indian reservation a or contract dentistry. And just start googling that and then you could find, find or you can even cold call hospitals. Like I’ve gotten to the, to the point where if you really want to find, find work, you can call the hospitals, talk to the director of that department and just ask who is, who does the contracting for you guys? And then link up with that company.
Stephen: [25:58] You know, I, I’ve done a bunch of interviews with digital nomads. You know, the ones that just work from, you know, they bring their laptop and they can work from anywhere in this immediate, it’s similar. I mean obviously it’s a little different, but generally speaking it’s very similar that you’re a nomad. You’re, you know, you’re, you hang, you live where you hang your hat, right? Is that song goes right. It’s pretty cool to me that this world exists and it doesn’t limit you. So the, the, you know, when I ask always, what channels do you sell on Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Instagram, local markets, period. So here you are not living in one place for ever, right? You’re moving around and you’re able to still have a business. How’s that work?
Eric: [26:41] It gets confusing at times, but I don’t have a lot of
Stephen: [26:43] inventory. Like you dropped your numbers. You had like over 5,000 listings on Ebay. I have like 200 listings on Ebay. I have maybe 150 listings on Etsy. I don’t pull huge numbers, but it’s definitely a nice boost to my income. It’s a, it allows me to, to find a nice things for me and my family and even to people that follow me on Instagram and offer things at way lower costs than they would be at MSRP. Well, it also though, it’s another reason that you have more security than that guy that’s working at that one pharmacist. Right? Because again, I’m giving my example, this my in my, uh, relative 20% of the workforce is cut it, he’s gone. I mean it wasn’t his fault and then these, you know, that was, that’s what happens at these company. If, uh, they don’t have a plan B say don’t have a plan B skill and they don’t have the ability to push that up.
Stephen: [27:31] Right. You can collect unemployment but unemployment, it’s not enough to live on. So the ability to push these other things up at when they need to or pull it back when they need to because I am assuming that sometimes your life gets a little hectic, right. Or you know, whatever. Everything comes to a, you can scale it back if you want to and then ramp it up as you as you need. Right. Yeah. This year I’ve been doing a lot more and just my gross sales because I’m not working a pharmacy contract this year I’m taking it off. I’m not working pretty much I don’t think for the rest of the year. And Yeah, I can meet people just got jealous. So you just drop the mic right then and there. And I finished a contract. I finished my contract in February. They want me to come back in October.
Stephen: [28:09] Uh, because I just did, I did such a good job. They, they would love to have me to come back. And I, I don’t know if my wife’s gonna let me come back. She loves having me at home and I’m not even at home right now. I’m in Florida. She’s in Texas. I just, again, I mean I, I just want people who it cause it used to be, you know, all right Eric, go get another job. So I know to a hundred resumes, you know, all that stuff that used to happen, it doesn’t happen anymore and doesn’t need to happen. So those of you have asked me all the time, Steve, how do I leave my full time job? And I’m not saying that this is for everyone, but this exists and I think this exists in other industries. I think there are lots of companies that would say, hey, we’d take a, a temporary, uh, uh, higher for whatever.
Stephen: [28:51] Cause it’s a benefit issue that they can, there’s a whole bunch of reasons. That’s a 10 I did. Yeah. They love all that stuff. Right. But, but what’s cool to me is again that this is a way of life today and that’s, this is going to be a great example of somebody who can do that and stay in the ecommerce and build up your ecommerce. Because what’s cool about your contract to is you fulfill your contract for the day or whatever that means you have the rest of that time to yourself to be able to work on your business if you choose to. Correct. Yeah. And if I’m in an area that has the good, like in my little niche of ECOMMERCE, I’m like one offs. So I need thrift stores and garage sales and, and ways to source inventory. So if I’m in an area where it has that or I have to save it for the weekend and make a trip. How cool was that that you still, I mean, do you still have the thrill of the hunt with, with thrift stores and yard sales still now? You’ve been doing this a long time.
Eric: [29:42] It, it’s, it’s like the dopamine receptors are a lot less sensitive than they used to be. Okay. But not quite as much of a thrill. It can be. I don’t know if you heard about the jacket flip, but I found that during my last contract, hold on. What is this? So, so, or one of the weekends I was working, uh, it was in northern Arizona, southern Utah and I went to a yard sale and bought a vintage Levi’s jacket from a, from a yard sale. You know, it was a dollar 50 and I thought maybe it was worth like 500 maybe it was like $1,000. So the old biggie, it’s a biggie type, big e types of blanket line jacket, beautiful condition. This was work wear. So you’re thinking that it would have been trashed. Most of them would have been trashed. I knew it was early because it was a Biggie, you know, pre 1973 or whatever it is.
Eric: [30:30] And being in such good condition, I was like, this thing has to be worth like really good money. And I, once I got, I didn’t even have to signal there, this is how rural it was. Like there was no cell service. I couldn’t look it up till I got like two hours away. And then I started looking it up and the value of a destroyed one on Ebay was asking $1,200 and I was like, okay, well I need to do a little bit more research on this. And I did it. And I talked to some people that I know in the, the flipping one off world and they told me, well, you’re probably going to get about $3,000 for it, something like 3,500 and we’ll, I posted it up on Etsy asking 7,200 and last, uh, two weeks ago somebody messaged me from Japan in Japanese. He asked me, you know how they do it, will you take a discount or whatever. So I made it. It made the discount to $5,700 is what we agreed on and it’s on its way to Japan right now.
Stephen: [31:24] Oh my God, I’m I, my jaw is on the ground for a jacket. You paid a dollar 50 however, you know, and I, I say this all the time, I’m a noticer. You have a skill set. You, you recognize that there’s clearly something there cause it’s not like you can look it up and use your crutch like we all do. I’m guilty of it too, so I’m not judging, I’m just saying
Eric: [31:42] low risk that it really didn’t take any skill. It was a dollar 50 I knew it was going to sell for at least 500 bucks, but I wasn’t really sure. I had never found biggie before. I’m in Florida. We, we don’t really have, I don’t know as much history as out west because Levi’s is like, it’s a, what is it, a California, it was a California company. So it’s went out west and the kind of took a while to get to Florida. So the older stuff isn’t really hear as much. Never found it before, but
Stephen: [32:12] incredible. Well Dude, that’s a great story too. Jesus. That’s, that’s probably one of the best stories I’ve heard of people getting the most money for something that they pay.
Eric: [32:21] Yeah. The one off, it’s a hall of Famer for one off Roy. It’s crazy. But
Stephen: [32:25] could, is it fair to say that, you know, because you’re traveling and you have an I you, I, you have to be more picky, right? You probably have much more picky, so that’s good.
Eric: [32:35] Yeah. If I’m not getting 40 or $50 on item, I’m usually not going to pick it up unless it is really small or it sells really fast or it’s multiples. Now are you shipping from the road to if, if I have a contract, I’m usually, I have a home base somewhere near that city, so I have, well I’m usually just rent like a bedroom in somebody’s house or something. I find somebody local rent a bedroom, so I’ll just ship from there really. Okay. And so you’re bringing your supplies, which is really not very much. Yeah, very, yeah, very little. You can just source boxes and or just buy, you get the Ebay uh, quarterly allowance of the boxes and stuff. So it’s them in the trunk of your car. You really don’t have a lot of spam. I mean, so this is absolutely doable and you know, I’m not sharing your numbers but you, you’re doing a respectable amount of money.
Eric: [33:27] I mean, you know, some people it’s, it’s nothing compared to like the drop shippers or the Amazon guys that, that private label. But though the margins are so big, like a dollar 50 to $5,700 right to where the cost of goods is. Like it’s pennies. So it doesn’t, God, that’s such a cool story dude. And again, it’s the lifestyle by design, right? You travel a lot cause you want to travel a lot. Right. So would you say you are a nomad? I mean, is that a fair statement? Yeah, I, I haven’t come up with a term for this. I haven’t stayed in the same place. I don’t think for over a year in the last 11 years, like the same residents, like it’s always been a different address either with it, even if it’s within the same city or I go to a different city, but it’s like within the last 11 years now.
Eric: [34:17] And why is that? I mean, why, what is it that’s so attractive to you about, about being that, cause it’s not like you say with Lyft, like remorse, you’re like enthused about it’s still, oh yeah. When I’m in, when I’m in college, I’m looking for a better deal on an apartment or a better way to save money. So we’re gonna move to this address and we’re going to like cram six people into a one bedroom, one bath. Or when my wife got a job, she was in Thailand in 2017 it was, let’s go to Thailand. So we’re going to go to Thailand and I’m enthusiastic. Yeah, I’m enthused about it. Like it’s a new place to explore food and culture. And so there’s just that now that there’s a twist in it with the wife and you have to work out that there’s a, you know, obviously, you know, I always say husband and wife for one, right.
Eric: [35:02] When a couple gets together, they’re one. Right. So now it’s a different discussion. Right. So this you have to be considerate of other people here. We weren’t married until about a year ago, so yeah, it’s, it was, it’s different now, but still working. Yeah, absolutely. Um, she, she knows, she knows who I am. She knows my intentions. She knows I’m not looking at women. I’m looking at the bicycle. Like if, if a woman’s riding a bike down the street and I check it out, I’m not looking at the woman, I’m looking at the bicycle. I could get, I can get 200 bucks for that thing. If you want to. Exactly. What brand is that like what style of bike is that? How new is it? Will kind of components are on it. Like I’m checking the bike out. I’m not checking out the woman. She knows this. So
Stephen: [35:45] you know, I’m thinking about, you know, somebody else wanted to do this. If it, what, what strengths do you have? Do you think that that you bring to the table that others can may be, might be able to recognize it in themselves? I mean, have you thought about it? I know it’s an ego thing, but let me think about it
Eric: [35:58] and be honest. Being a one off seller, I have developed a recognition of quality just by like picking something up, looking at the stitching or the, the construction of the fabric of, of course the brands, you know, where the brand tells you a lot and just, well how did you develop that? Because obviously you just branch, you can look up, I mean that’s a good one. But you can look up to brands, but still, even within brands there’s tiers. So you’ve got to kind of break down the different Levi’s and leave as a good one. There’s a Walmart level, Levis and then there’s a real level Duis, right? And then there’s a vintage level Levi’s and back, it was like made with raw denim. So there’s totally different tiers of items. And even even that, it was a lot of it just experience of touching things, looking things up, being curious about the brands and cruising websites and looking at Ebay completed. So for so many years and just be having a curiosity and not having a laziness to, to just accept this is what it is. I like to dig deeper and go farther and figure out kind of why I
Stephen: [37:01] [inaudible] passed so many things that were not used to because I didn’t, I’m like, yeah, they’re not worth it. And then you go and you’re like, oh my God. And then it’s like your whole world opens up in like, you know, I’ve walked past that 17 times. I never thought that there was possible. Right.
Eric: [37:12] Walk past the jacket, the Levi’s jacket
Stephen: [37:16] and killing me here. No, but I, and I always tell people this is if, especially if you’re going to be, uh, uh, in this picking world, right? If you want to buy and resell one offs, um, go to these antique malls and walk through them. Oh, I’m just touch and pick up everything. Right? And then pay attention to this cause I, this is dumb Steve. I see this little shave mug and I’m like, oh, or no red ranger mug. Everybody who’s listening is cringing right now because they all know what I’m talking about. This a little red range, your Mug, I think it’s red ranger or whatever it is. And then I thought, oh my God, that’s gotta be worse. Some things that’s got to be from the 50s TV show or something like that. Radio show. Wow. And then as you walk through the Antique Mall and you see seven other boots with that same, your mind has to stop and say, okay, it’s old, but not rare,
Eric: [38:00] but not rare, but not rarely. If they’re all here, there’s not a huge market of people wanting them or there’s a large apply.
Stephen: [38:08] So stay away. Right. And, and, and that though takes time. And so I, I like to just walk through and sometimes if I just want to get my head clear, I’ll go wander for half an hour with no, and I won’t bring my wallet in just to wander in touch and just, you know, look things up on the phone and get an idea and like, Huh. Surprising. You know? And then I run out to my car and get my wallet and I buy something. But anyway, because I have that addiction, but um, it’s a great way to do it. How about for you? How, uh, I mean, how much time are you putting into thrift stores, garage sales?
Eric: [38:36] The thing, people ask me that question all the time and I’ve never really tracked it. It’s more of a convenience thing for me. If I’m going to the gym and there’s one on the way, hey, I’ll stop and pop in for five minutes, do around and look for something. I mean, is it around for you? I mean you literally like scan. I think it’s quick. It’s in and out quick. Just I’ve been doing it for so long. I, I go to the same stores, I know their habits and I kind of look what’s the new color. Okay. Obviously if it’s a new, if it’s an old color, usually a gem is not going to be there after a week. So you Kinda can’t just ignore a lot of the old colors a lot of the time and you’re, and you’re figuring out what works for you and, and so that, that’s a pro tip there.
Eric: [39:15] So by going to the same pace place consistently and paying attention and noticing or asking questions, you’ll be able to find out when they are putting new inventory outright and, and then, you know, kind of hopefully get your schedule aligned with that. Yeah. Well they usually put it out all day, every day and you just see it. It really is a luck of the draw at some time. It’s played playing the lottery kind of. And the more frequently you go, the more times you play the lottery, you’re eventually gonna hit it. But to me, when I, when I stopped in for five or 10 minutes, it doesn’t cost me a whole lot. But when I do hit it, it’s usually pretty good. Like a $200 item, $500 item. Well, what’s that come at the cost of? Because they, I had a friend who used to say that Steve, everything costs something.
Eric: [39:56] So what are you giving up for that five minutes? What are you giving up sitting in front of a TV, especially if you’re traveling. Well, I’m giving up five minutes. I could be doing something else. Um, but I enjoy the going in, just walking around some, I’ll say hi to the employees. Like at the entire experience to me brings joy. So it’s not really giving up something else. I don’t do Netflix. I don’t do TV. I don’t play video games. So that none of that stuff really brings joy to me anymore. So I don’t feel like I’m losing anything there. I could be spending it with my wife, but she’s working, so I’m not really losing anything there either. It’s just, it’s occupying time and it’s giving me joy. So I dunno. That’s a good question. That’s a great question. I don’t know. Hmm. You know, the nomad lifestyle that you lead?
Eric: [40:35] I think it’s conducive to the one. Awesome. Now you could, and maybe let me ask you why you haven’t, why haven’t you gotten into either the drop shipping or the, um, uh, buying wholesale or a private label for Amazon and, and putting up huge numbers? Why haven’t, and using prep centers and stuff like that, why heaven? What’s not attractive to you for that? Excellent question. Um, so I have a conviction for consumer, uh, against consumerism against waste and to, to me, those types of selling. It’s not for me because it creates a lot of waste in this, in the world. Um, products that are just going to break in and have to be re bought the Chinese quality things compared to something that’s going to last for 50 years, a hundred years, outlive somebody’s life’s a life’s their lifespan. So for me, it’s a conviction thing. Um, I don’t really see myself getting into that just because I am so cheap.
Eric: [41:32] I’m like, I’m hyper frugal if that’s even a term. I’m such a tight wad. It. That’s a skill is I’m sitting here listening to you, what you’re describing and I’m sure other people picked up on this. When you bought, when you bought that dollar 50 jacket, it wasn’t the dollar 50 that we were attracted to. It was the texture and the quality of it. Right? Yeah. And I knew biggie. I knew, I knew biggie. Just that’s my point. You said that you know, you’re looking, you’re, you’re not going in looking for things to sell, you’re going in looking for quality and then maybe you could sell it. Yeah, that’s a different approach. I thought process usually goes, do I need this? Does anyone I know need this? Does, does any of my friends or family need this or anyone that I work with tell me that they’re looking for something like this or can I sell this and make a good profit on it and like keep it, keep it in the world of being used rather than in a dumpster somewhere. When you’re looking at quality,
Stephen: [42:23] are you looking at the top one or two brands? So let’s just say you were looking at, um, electronic equipment. Might be a good example. Right? Are you looking for iPhones and maybe I don’t know what a number two is because I’ve had an iPhone forever. Um, I mean is that, is that kind of the mental approach you look for or, or like when you’re looking at Jean jackets, you’re looking for Levi’s maybe, I dunno, maybe lead genes might fit up in there back in the old ones anyway, but then the rest of them are just non branded or maybe Harley Davidson might fit in there or something. You know what I mean? Is there, is there kind of a one or two that you’re looking at the top one or two of each brand?
Eric: [42:57] I’m trying to help help the Ayers and narrow it. That’s a weird type of reselling it. So the people that have like never even stepped foot in thrift store would be so overwhelmed. But for the newer phones, it’s usually not going to be trickling down into the second hand market at thrift stores and garage sales that often what I’m going to be looking at her like old receivers or or a DVD, VCR Combos, things that I’ve already kind of had their, their time in, in ecommerce space, they’ve already been discontinued. They’re not really made any more. And then figuring out out of those discontinued items, what still has a market because there’s a limited supply.
Stephen: [43:36] Hmm. Okay. All right. So I’m just hoping people can narrow that down themselves to say, okay, when you’re going in rather than looking cause in the Amazon world, right, if we’re going retail arbitrage thing, scan everything, right, Eric, watch it again. You’re taking this rail, go down that side, then come back this side because you never know. Right? You never know. But when you’re doing it with your hands and you have limited time, I guess unless people have unlimited time, but you’ve got to, you got to pick and choose. And again, if you know the top brands and you know the top brands in that isolated market, you can really narrow down your focus.
Eric: [44:09] Sometimes it’s not people always, they harp on brands, but I would say brand style and quality are all things that kind of need to be considered. If you want to take your, you’re thrifting game to the next level, Brian’s style and quality, all Max something could be, uh, you know, the, the biggie smallest sweaters or the Cosby, the Coogee sweaters. Have you seen those? Oh, well, they used to be worth a fortune. Yeah. Well the coochie ones are still really good and anything coochie style we’ll still sell. But that’s an example of just like a style thing. Like it could be an offbrand, but it would still sell because it’s a [inaudible] style. Rubber. Graham shirts would be another one, right? Everybody’s copying kind of, you could see the, you see the color on the inside of the collar. You’re like, Ooh, is that it? And then you look in it, you know, Jason Kenny Smith.
Eric: [44:57] But the thing is that it doesn’t cross over for the Robert Graham style shirts. It only crosses over for the coochie style sweaters. So then you might be misled thinking, okay, this looks like a Robert Graham shirt, so I’m going to buy it. But it’s actually an Allen fuse in and it’s not worth anything. It could, it’s so specific. Everything is so super specific that if you don’t know your stuff, you’ll end up with a pile of garbage at your house and you, and it never sells. I mean, if you go and look up whatever that brand you just said, there’s, there’s probably a thousand of them for sale that have never sold. Right. I mean, it’s one of those things that you’ll, it’ll just be there forever. Yeah. It was a brand that saw the success of Robert Graham and they thought, okay, we’re gonna make something similar in style and sell it for a little bit cheaper and hopefully it takes off.
Eric: [45:38] So you see it in, uh, a yoga pants is a good example. Right now, everyone’s caught up a Lulu lemon now and you know in now you can buy them for $6 on Amazon and they’re similar. They’re not the same and they don’t have the lifetime guarantee of Lulu lemon or the status symbol of the Omega symbol or, but most people won’t care and they’ll pay the $6. But you’re not gonna make any money. So what do you think, I mean when you, like when you’re going out there, what do you struggle with? Because you know, we’re talking about all the great things that to happening. What do you, what do you struggle with? I mean it’s still, there must be some things that just don’t work well in, in the ecommerce side or just like, especially traveling. I think the traveling ecommerce world I think would be a good, good place to go.
Eric: [46:23] It’s hard to scale. It would be, it’s, it’s hard to scale up. When I’m on the Google a lot, I kind of hover around 200 to 250 items and that’s kind of like what I can handle being being so mobile and moving all the time. It’s definitely hard to scale and focus on one task that I just want to increase. But that’s, that’s units not dollars because as you said, you can you, you’re picky now. So rather than selling and making it $3 on an item, you’re going to try to make 30 or dollars. I wouldn’t touch anything for $3 profit. I didn’t ASP and an ASB calculation of all my march sales and I released it on Youtube yesterday and I believe my Ebay was a $65 ASP. That’s awesome. And because of the Jean Jacket sold on Etsy, it brought my Etsy ASP to like $857.
Eric: [47:15] The six, the six items that I sold. How did you know to sell that on Etsy? Not Ebay, I guess I would have been, I initially would’ve went to Ebay. So that’s a good question. Also, a lot of people have been asking me that on Instagram. Um, so there, there is established market on Ebay and there was not an established market on Etsy and I wanted to drive more traffic to my Etsy store and I wanted this sale to maybe BD, um, be recognized by Etsy as a platform saying maybe this was the largest clothing sale on Etsy ever. And maybe they could do some, an article of coverage or something like that saying, Hey, this, this is like a crazy Etsy sale and that would bring something new to their platform because I know things on Ebay have sold for more than $5,700 for sure in the clothing sector. But I’ve never heard of that on Etsy.
Stephen: [48:07] Hmm. So you saw it possibly as a marketing aspect or getting nice. Yeah. And Eric Spears marketing aspect, I mean, do you, right, you were like, Hey, I can get more traffic and more eyes.
Eric: [48:18] Yeah. Some more or less less fees on Etsy and I dunno,
Stephen: [48:24] I genius. Obviously it was the right move. I mean clearly it was the right move.
Eric: [48:28] There were three or four of them on Ebay. So why not separate a little bit on a platform that’s still gets a good amount of traffic for vintage clothing?
Stephen: [48:35] Yeah. Cause I have a, a guy who messaged me this morning and he’s messaged me three times and I’m almost to the place of telling them to stop messaging me. He, you, you have this overpriced. And I’m like, no I don’t. I, no I don’t. But he’s like, I have these in my back room and that I’m like, and, and you know, get your prices. I’m like, look off, offer your five bucks for years if you want to sell them to me. Sure I’ll put them up. You know? And it’s just like people think that their price is the right price and the mark, they don’t understand the market. So I think it’s a genius move when you look at your habits. What I was thinking about this too, because one thing must be when the way you’re doing things, you must be disciplined. I mean, is that fair? Yeah, I have sir. I have discipline in a certain aspects of my life. So, so share with some of what are some of the discipline, uh, things that, that you do to keep a or then it become habits that keep you organized and on task.
Eric: [49:24] Um, org organization is something that everyone’s always trying to improve upon. Um, but one of the, the habits that I just as a person, as my ecommerce career and my, whatever I’m doing on Instagram at the time, like a habit that just has me growing as a person. It’s not related organization at all, but I’m always sharpening my saw. Like I’m always trying to learn from other people no matter who I’m talking to. If it’s a homeless guy, if it’s somebody that’s in the hospital that has a broken leg or is just recovering from surgery, or if it’s somebody getting credit, getting counseled on their diabetes. Like I’m always trying to learn something from somebody. I’m always, it’s the habit seven from the highly, uh, seven habits of highly effective people sharpening the saw. Just always trying to learn a new skill, gain more information.
Eric: [50:12] Um, if I’m trying to, like this year I’m trying to learn how to sew. Like, I’ve never learned how to sew in my life. I just want to learn a new skill to share and have that skill. Maybe it’ll, it’ll lower cost of my life somehow. Or maybe I’ll be able to create a product that I can sell but have a skill that I can, they can have as like a plan B, c, d, e f if something else fails and I could help somebody else if they were trying to learn the same skill. And how about when you said two organization for shipping and stuff like that, how do you approach that? Because I mean when you buy things, are you bagging them, tagging them, putting anything in? Like, I mean, how do you find this stuff? A lot of it’s clothing, so you just hang it up and having, okay.
Eric: [50:56] Less, less than 250 items is not an easy to, yeah, not a big deal at all to where I’ve had to have in inventory. So I don’t have to do with the inventory system or custom skews and, but are you a minimalist yourself for, I like to, I tell my wife I am, but she’s like, you’re not just like, you’re not, you have like a hundred Patagonia jackets. You’re not, I was just wondering, because I wondered if I, the thing is I don’t need much, like I’m not attached to those things. Like I go, I’d give stuff away on Instagram at what I paid for it for if somebody else’s, maybe a green bay packers fan and I have a hat and I found it and I’ll offer it to them at what I paid for it. Or I’ll give something away that I’ve, I’ve found to, I don’t bless somebody else in their life and I don’t feel as attached to, to the many things that I have a lot of things, but I don’t feel attached to them now.
Eric: [51:46] And, uh, we’re almost to the end. And I have a final question I’m gonna ask you, but I wanted to, let’s just talk real quick about, uh, your involvement with the green room. Um, so it’s, uh, you, Chris and Steve, correct. You’re still involved. Yep. And uh, appreciate you. You joined I think in like 2016, you will remember for a long time. I still have never made a meetup. My big goal was to come to hang out with Chris and go for it. And I won’t eat the TACO shell, but I want some of those damn tacos he’s always eating. I always tell them all my, Chris, I’m coming one of these days, I’m going to make it to Austin. I promise one of these days. Just eat the filling with a fork. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you guys have been, yeah. You guys have been out there forever and what I, what I admire and I look at people for the long play, right?
Eric: [52:24] You guys have been doing this for a long time and to stay together and be consistent for that long, that’s rare. You know, I’m in a million groups. This one’s different just because you seem to have, like, I was just in Vegas and I didn’t make it, but there’s a green room meetup. There’s always a org. There’s like a, yeah, they go, even if we’re not there, we’re the admins. And even if we’re not there, like yeah, they still meet up and have a blast and post all the pictures in the group and make everybody jealous. And what I would say is most of those people, so on all the platforms like you there, they’re everywhere. They’re not married to just one as their deaf definition. So I think that keeps it interesting and that’s probably why these, these, these, it’s a common thread between those group of people. Is that fair? Yeah. A lot of the people in there try to dabble into a lot of different things, see what maybe sticks and then maybe they’ll take off with one and just go crazy. A lot of the guys probably ASD in Vegas, we’re all Amazon people, but they might’ve done Ebay in the past. They, they usually start smaller and then grow into kind of what they like and what fits their lifestyle. Hmm. And
Stephen: [53:26] it’s a paid group and it’s not very expensive. Um, and if you’re interested, it’s a green room. What’s it, how does it, how do you have it? Cause I know there’s a weirdness to it. Go ahead. What does it
Eric: [53:35] a Green University greenroom university.com. You can check that out or just send me a message on Instagram and I’ll probably be able to get a discount code. It’s usually between a hundred to 150 a year depending on what kind of sales we’re running. But uh, I think we have like 600 members in it right now and yeah, it’s going on every day. Talking about Ebay, Amazon, Etsy in there.
Stephen: [53:54] And you can do it from the road. And to me, again, back to the question that I get all the time, Steve, how do I leave my corporate job? Well, Eric makes money with green room. Eric makes money being the traveling pharmacist. Eric makes money, the traveling drug dealer, everybody makes money. This is not a good connotation. Eric makes money selling on Ebay and Amazon and Etsy and it makes a lot of money selling on Etsy lately. Um, and all these other platforms, you get stock dividends that you don’t have to do anything for it and it puts money in your pocket. I love it, dude. I, I’m, I’m blown away with it. And again, I love the story because this is the answer I’m going to be giving people. Here’s, here’s somebody, I’m going to tell them about this episode to Dm me on Instagram and I will slap him until, well, it’s, it’s one of those things, and I, my heart bleeds for people and what happened, especially it’s, it’s guys in my generation who were defined by their job and then they lose it for no fault of their own, you know, and then they don’t know what to do because that was what their parents taught them.
Stephen: [54:50] I mean, that’s what they learned. You know, you go work for a company for 30 years, Eric, you get to retirement, they give you a watch and you kick your pension and you go, and then you pawn the watch when you get who wears a watch. Right? I mean, but it’s just funny. It’s just, that’s what it was. And in today’s Day, you are completely bucking the system and you’re virtually starting a trend that I think you’re at the tip of the spear, Eric Spears, I think you’re at the tip of it. So very cool. All right, so Instagram, let’s get your Instagram out there. It’s pretty simple. The college picker, the college picker, and uh, you’ll, you’ll, he travels extensively and I’m watching this and I’m like, oh my God, it’s so cool. Uh, all right. All right. So we got the Instagram. That’s the best way to get you.
Eric: [55:31] Yeah. That’s where I’m most active. I’m doing stories every day with random stuff about what I’m buying and selling and trying to just add value to people with little life hacks and ways to save money.
Stephen: [55:40] And if you send him a note, he will actually get back to you. So if you have a question, I mean, I tell people all the time, they’re like, how do I, how do I connect with them? Like I gave you the info. Yeah. Instagram’s the best way to try and reach out to them. These are good people who want to help people. All right. So this is your chance to help somebody, because I’m assuming you’ve had this, maybe you haven’t had that point where you got stuck, but you’ve seen other people that have gotten stuck. Um, what’s your advice, because I’m sure you get people coming into the green room and they don’t, they don’t have the skillsets developed yet. They haven’t figured it out yet. How do you help them get moving forward? What are they stuck on that I was okay. I would say, cause usually it’s stuck in the business. They’re, they’re, you know, they hit the, you know, $5 in sales and then they’re like, you know, they’re not making any money. And they’re like, how do I get past that? You know, to keep it growing.
Eric: [56:30] If you have $5,000 in sales, that’s pretty good every month. That’s a lot to times more than what I’m making on Ebay. So, um, but if you’re selling that on Amazon and you aren’t making any money, $5,000, it depends. I would solve perspective. If you’re stuck at $5,000 in sales, I would say maybe try to really analyze where you are geographically and what markets you might be able to exploit geographically. Like what do you have as an advantage in Texas? Maybe cowboy boots. Uh, what do you have in Florida? Maybe fishing equipment. Maybe you’re in a rural area that doesn’t know anything about Levi’s, so you could, you could try to find something to exploit and your zip code or in your state or in your city or find one that’s near you to drive to. Cause a lot of people are just, they say, I can’t find anything at thrift stores.
Eric: [57:22] I said, dude, drive two hours north, drive two hours south, drive two hours a week, ace drive two hours west and you will find stuff. But that’s a perspective issue because for you, you see it as an adventure. This is exciting. Other people are like, I can’t find it. They’re depressed about it. You’re not depressed about it. Years talking about it. This is exciting. We’re going to go find some cool stuff, man. It’s to go see a new city. How the cities are planned out. Different architecture, eat different foods. You get to listen to an audio book on the drive. Like it gets see beautiful sites. Yeah, it’s perspective. Oh it totally attitude. Totally attitude. And you’re too young to understand this, Eric. I love it. I love it. Love it. Love it. That this gives me so much hope for the future. Dude. I’m, I’m blown away.
Eric: [58:01] Uh, I love the story. I love what you’re doing. I can’t wait to see what else you do. I follow you on Instagram. I’m in there. I’m watching. Um, but again, message him. If, if this interests you, if you’re, instead of US asking Steve, how do I leave my corporate job cause I’m going to direct you to this episode, I’m 100% going to be doing that. I can really help the medical people a lot better than maybe somebody that’s in engineering or something. But yeah, but they, those engineers are needed to, so very cool. Hey, thank you so much, man. I really wish nothing but success for you now. Thanks for having me on. This was awesome.
Stephen: [58:34] How cool was that? Mean, how cool was that story? I mean, think about it as a dad, I’m looking down at my son saying, man, Oh man, you have figured it out. I wish I would have had this opportunity to his age. Can you imagine the change is going to make? Can you imagine the changes he’s makes in that the native Americans on that reservation? Because he goes in with a positive attitude wanting to help them and give them his best every single time. How many people do that? You know what, it’s a perspective issue, right? I mean, again, he’s replacing a person who’s probably not feeling like that. They’re grinding it out every day. Here he is, he gets to go in and, and, and make a difference. And it’s a matter of perspective. He’s in the same job, doing the same work, but he’s just looking at a different, and so I just, I’m so encouraged by this.
Stephen: [59:18] Um, and again, this is going to be my go to when are saying how do I get out of where I’m doing to get into this world to be commerce, which I think is still the best place to be. This is a good example of what’s possible. And then maybe in your world, whatever that happens to be, you’re an engineer, you’re a a, a carpenter, you’re a a whatever. There might be a way to make this work for you too, or this type of approach. Love it. Love it. Love it. He commerce women, m.com ECOMMERCE, momentum.com take care.
Cool voice guy: [59:46] Thanks for listening to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found that ecommerce momentum.com under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and like us on iTunes.
