248 : Paul Apollonia – Selling on Ebay full time for a long time

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Paul is a great example at 70%. So that’s the answer: 70%. Want to know the question? It’s funny when you think about it. We would applaud a restaurant that made it 10 years. That’s a long time in the restaurant world yet we tend to downplay a real ecommerce business that has made it for well over 10 years because they haven’t sold a million dollars yet. They have not scaled to a power player. Yet, they have built a viable skill set  and a model that is sustainable. hmm.. Seems to me they “made” it! Living on your terms has to take over the conversation. Living where you want, how you want and just being there for your family is where it needs to go.

 

Mentioned:

Pauls email contact

Pauls website

Pauls Vimeo

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:                             [00:00:00]               I’m excited to tell you about galas B’s million dollar arbitrage edge analyst group that’s a lot to say but there’s a lot in it. And guess what. It’s closing it’s closing this week it’ll close for Q4. It will not open up until next year. She started a third group. And so there’s only 50 in it. So you don’t have to worry about deal with hundreds of other people buying the same thing. So you’re going to get daily actionable items delivered to you five days a week. You’re going to get the mentorship of being in the million dollar arbitrage group and you’re going to be able to ask questions ask for help get whatever you need. But again get those opportunities join me in this group because I’m in this group and you’ll see me in there. The only way you’re going to get to join this week is if you click on the link that’s in this episode and also in a Gaye’s interview number two 38 was Episode 2 38 and she explains a lot of what it is and their only chance you’re going to have to get in there.

Stephen:                             [00:00:54]               Second I want to make sure Scott from solar labs I was just with Jeff. They are just killing it with this product. It is just not going to dead because you get to see the keywords that are important for your listing. Why go trying to figure it out. You already know an item is selling. So you go and find their keywords and you put them in your listing. It’s a smart move. You already got a proof of concept and scope does that for you. So it’s Sellar labs dot com slash scope.

Stephen:                             [00:01:22]               You’re going to use the code word momentum and are going to save 50 bucks. Awesome awesome deal. I was just with Karen Lochore also and we we spent some great time talking about you know what’s going on in her business and it’s just incredible solutions for e-commerce. Great group you’re going to save 50 bucks if you come through my listings. Right. Remember these people pay me so I don’t want to mislead anybody. They pay me. But you’re going to save$50. And she’s still doing that inventory health now says this is the perfect time to get yourself right. Storage expensive member it’s triple triple storage fees. So get your inventory right get it correct. I just had to create 68 variations of a listing if you heard my interview with her at [2:45] you heard that 68 variations.

Stephen:                             [00:02:08]               They went live today. Products went in today as day I’m recording this and I am so excited. I just I’m so excited because I’ve got another order of them coming in next week. And so I already have the listings up. They look beautiful. It’s everything that I needed and it’s just such going above and beyond. That’s why I love solutions for e-commerce solutions for e-commerce dot com slash momentum and you’re going to get that benefit are going to save your money at the lowest price say 50 bucks and you get the inventory Health Report Go Daddy dotcom you want to try try. Go Daddy dot com slash momentum and you’re going to save 30 percent on all your. Go Daddy needs. I use them for all my domains that I buy have for a long time now I get to save 30 percent just like you try.

Stephen:                             [00:02:56]               Go Daddy dotcom slash momentum. And last but not least is grasshopper I saw somebody just bought it this past week and I can’t wait to hear how it goes for them because it allows you to be the professional that you want to come across as right. You want to have really strong features especially as you’re building customer service. I think a great program for anybody who’s selling a Wal-Mart you need a customer service program. You can use Google Voice it’s free but it’s definitely not as professional and you’re not going to be able to have the flexibility. Imagine one phone your personal phone and that app on there allows you to have all those lines set up you can have it forwarded to other you can you can do custom vanitie numbers you know 880 [6:03] whatever you want. Great program. Try grasshopper dot com slash momentum. Try grasshopper dot com slash momentum. Save 50 bucks there too. All right let’s get into the podcast.

Cool voice guy:                  [00:03:50]               Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people the products and the process of e-commerce selling today. Here’s your host Stephen Peterson.

Stephen:                             [00:04:04]               Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode [2:48]. Paul Apollonia. Now I appreciate this conversation so much because here’s a gentleman who’s a little older than me. Yet for the last 10 years has created a business for himself something that he has figured out that he’s pretty good at and he’s teaching others he’s not the most successful seller. You’re not going to hear millions of dollars in sales. He’s a little humble and yet he’s doing it on his terms. How many of us wish him well let’s say this we get into a discussion about how we describe ourselves when we go to a party. Right. How men define themselves. And now you get to a place where that’s not so important that the older you get the less important that is. And I think we get into a great place I hope people really listen to this. Let’s get into the podcast more.

Stephen:                             [00:04:55]               Welcome back to the e-commerce moment podcast excited about today’s guest. I got to meet him face to face and was very impressed with the story but more importantly just the attitude about his business and his life and I just love it. Paul Apollonia Welcome Paul. Say

Paul:                                      [00:05:14]               Hi Stephen how are you doing today. I

Stephen:                             [00:05:15]               am doing awesome. It’s just a great day working on warehouse stuff. Moving between two or three actually look I have three warehouses right now I’m working with trying to figure out what’s the best scenario and that’s really those distraction. I was just talking with somebody about this. When you get one of these distractions it can change your whole day. I had a plan today. I was going to do this and guess what. Now I’m on these these little side gigs you know dealing with this so happened a lot.

Paul:                                      [00:05:45]               Yes it does. I actually my kids are older now. They’re teenagers and my 17 year old daughter she always up my plans almost on a daily basis. And my wife goes you know we’re serendipitous and I’m like no.

Stephen:                             [00:06:04]               But isn’t it awesome that you have that ability. To me that’s a pretty awesome thing. How many other businesses could you be in that you could just pick up and do something different.

Paul:                                      [00:06:15]               Almost no. Right.

Stephen:                             [00:06:17]               All right. All right well let’s get in the story because you have a you’ve been to this a long time.

Paul:                                      [00:06:23]               Yes I have. I’ve been doing ebay since like feels like forever. I signed on in 1998. Really didn’t do too much just bought a few things obviously. Like we always do and started selling a little bit in the early 2000s. Just goofed around with it left my full time job in 2004 did not do online stuff for another five or six years. I started an automotive e-tailing business mobile did that all about 2008 and 2008 came along and everything came crashing down. I think I was a God thing to be honest with you and I’m moved on to do an online stuff just by accident. Well not really an accident and a friend of mine was telling me I shouldn’t be selling on eBay. It’s a lot easier work and I just ignored them for a couple of years.

Stephen:                             [00:07:12]               Well did you ignore him because you had already had that experience in your life. It’s not that he was way back. It really was not easy. I mean it was not easy. You couldn’t do anything with the photos and everything else right.

Paul:                                      [00:07:24]               Gosh no it was not my gosh I remember going to the post office and waiting in line every single day. So I got somebody from international watched something or when I was another fiasco.

Paul:                                      [00:07:36]               So I think that’s part of a reason to think you’re correct there that it was at the time it wasn’t as easy as it is now. You

Stephen:                             [00:07:43]               know I wonder if that’s a lesson for us to think about. You know I think about. I’ve seen this so many times rates queue for things that we’re selling then all of a sudden the price tanks or last year it was great and then everybody gets in on it right.

Stephen:                             [00:07:56]               And then it’s not valuable anymore right so you stop looking for do you stop selling it. And then all of a sudden though you go back and look now I wonder if that’s a story you trying something that was horror or it just whatever happened and then you give it some time and then you can get back into it. I wonder if that’s pretty much everything that we deal with little thought. I

Stephen:                             [00:08:16]               don’t know if that’s a good question. It’s interesting. OK so so you decide I’m going to try this. Was this going to be an end all or was this a stopgap till you found another job.

Paul:                                      [00:08:30]               It was going to be a stopgap until unfortunately I went was planning on going back into full time work. And I know yuck but I was able to make it almost my own. So I didn’t have to go and look for another I.T. job. That was great.

Stephen:                             [00:08:49]               So you had a plan right and you say you were going to make you know a hundred dollars a week to make this easy.

Stephen:                             [00:08:55]               And the fact that you got to 70 or 80 and you were enjoying it. That

Stephen:                             [00:09:01]               was enough. Was it enough for you and your wife or was it just enough for you.

Paul:                                      [00:09:07]               It was just enough for me. My wife was work and she. She’s been in a nursing field for ever. And now she’s just you know she’s is there is no conflict. But she knew where I was going with that was she on board with you doing 70 percent or whatever she has been supportive in what ever I have done in our 34 years of marriage to be honest. That’s pretty awesome. As for a better woman.

Stephen:                             [00:09:33]               Well I think that that’s you know what you just said I think is a powerful message for somebody to hear because I see that question asked a lot. So I’m wondering when I see other people out there so I see these posts and they’re like when can I leave my job when does it make sense. And in your case it was it when you made 100 percent of your income it was when you made say 70 percent. And yet you still enjoyed it. I wonder if that’s the permission point. People need to get to they don’t need to replace it all the way because just just by doing it you get better at it right. I mean I imagine you’re much better today than you were 2005 writer 2000 and 2008.

Paul:                                      [00:10:10]               Yes yes yes of course. And I’m always trying to find better ways to get better.

Stephen:                             [00:10:15]               Right. Right. Right. Because you can then focus. And so I wonder people need to hear that instead of waiting til you replace your income get to 70 percent and then let that be good enough because you’re only going to get better that next 30 percent. While it’s probably harder it’s probably easier when you give it your all. You know when you’re when you’re trying to do this part time right. I mean maybe you can attest to this doing this part time is a very difficult to scale. It’s a very difficult thing to replace a six figure income if you were going to try and do that or whatever it is right. It is. And so I wonder if that’s the place that people need to get to with their head. It just sounds the way you said it it sounded so good like hey that’s good enough. Now I can build something run.

Paul:                                      [00:11:01]               And also like I said before there’s nothing wrong that in our time. But I think in our time and knowing you have that check coming in two weeks. You know what I mean like oh I don’t have to work that hard today. Yeah.

Paul:                                      [00:11:13]               You’re going to be two weeks or less I will work this week. You I looked at that chart and you know it’s it’s it’s a lot different doing it part time and doing it on you know it all on your own. You have to really be disciplined and everything else. I’ve

Speaker 13:                        [00:11:29]               learned a lot about myself. Wow. We’ll talk about that. So

Stephen:                             [00:11:33]               you learned a lot about yourself. Did you like everything you found out.

Paul:                                      [00:11:38]               You know about myself to be honest with you I’m pretty much an open book. No I didn’t. One of my good friends way back when I first looked my job was OK now the fun begins. You sort to deal with those he quote evens in your head. You know your mom you know your mom you have to get up in the morning you have to make your own schedule. You

Paul:                                      [00:11:57]               have to you know you have nobody to answer to but you know you can’t call in sick without you know sick of a day is means something different. Right.

Paul:                                      [00:12:07]               You going to make it up the next day you know like I came from the ICU where you are the manager would hand you something to do with it two deadlines you have to make your own deadlines.

Paul:                                      [00:12:18]               I mean it’s it’s I wouldn’t change you for the world now. To be honest with you it’s not just the freedom. It’s just I can’t explain what the freedom feels. It’s just awesome.

Stephen:                             [00:12:28]               But you didn’t like I mean to me and this is hard for guys to admit and it’s not a you know picking on you or anything like that. I think a lot of people get there in their head and then they think there’s something wrong. I think it’s normal that you start to see the things hey maybe I wasn’t as disciplined as I needed to be right. Or maybe I wasn’t in my job maybe I didn’t give what I said I gave 100 percent. Maybe I didn’t.

Paul:                                      [00:12:53]               Oh yes of course. Like when I first left in 2004 and lost or that business now I was doing for a time before that for about a year and I thought maybe I quit my job I’m so busy that I’ll be quite honest I wasn’t ready. I should’ve left my job and I should have waited until a year or so before I was really ready to be new. It was just a bad time for me and I’m just I don’t know why was it a bad time. What do you make a decision on of emotion. To leave. I was just. It was a weird thing you know like I loved that industry for my whole life I was in it. And then I just got up one day and was just like I really don’t like this anymore. I look that’s my head for a couple of months and my weight. Well just leave your job if that’s what you want. And I was blown away. I’m

Stephen:                             [00:13:42]               like What am. So she she took away. You were like wow I can’t leave you know I don’t want to disappoint my wife. She took that away and now there was nothing stopping you. But you know what. It

Paul:                                      [00:13:55]               was funny when she said that is it. I’m going to let you think about that for one more day and then get back to me. Yes.

Stephen:                             [00:14:02]               I was there I had a similar circumstance my wife was the one that encouraged me. You know I mean a pretty good job and it’s a good cause I’m friends with them still you know but it’s just she was like look I think it time is now. You know I mean let’s just let this go. And I was like wow. I mean I was pretty excited it was very very nice that she encouraged it and I think I think that’s that’s a good thing.

Stephen:                             [00:14:27]               I think it’s healthy for couples to have that conversation because what would happen if you left and she never got to speak her opinion about it.

Paul:                                      [00:14:39]               Right. And I think that’s an important need the support of your spouse or significant other Whatever your situation is to be self-employed. I

Speaker 16:                        [00:14:47]               mean I know so many guys that want to leave but then their spouse lives amongst them and that 9 to 5 and that’s I mean that something to deal with I guess bussing it or some of us all doing that.

Paul:                                      [00:14:59]               I mean it makes a lot easier when you know very supportive spouse who says your high paying job like.

Stephen:                             [00:15:09]               Well let’s talk about stuff because you got some stuff right. You are a tough guy you are a big eBay seller so I mean let’s call it what it is. You’ve got stuff. How does that conversation go. I mean does she does she look at your stuff and say call it your stuff or how was that conversation go.

Paul:                                      [00:15:29]               Be honest with you it goes good sometimes when it goes bad. I’m not one of the questions here.

Paul:                                      [00:15:36]               And I have real big print. I need to get to work. It means hiring somebody to come in and help me with this then like my brother we’re going to take someone like let’s find a way. And that’s not a problem. But you know Alex you know it makes inside parts.

Speaker 16:                        [00:15:54]               No. No one knows. Work with clients is a little rough rustling that my hands on I have a lot of stuff. Get rid of a lot of stuff that’s causing some tension in the family.

Stephen:                             [00:16:08]               My older son says I am Rain Man when it comes to our inventory because I know where it is. I don’t know why I could retain it. I mean literally we have about 4000 Skewes live for sale plus what we have live on Amazon Murcia fulfilled and yet I actually know where it is when somebody is like oh where’s that. I’m like oh it’s over here. I have no clue why.

Paul:                                      [00:16:29]               Isn’t that incredible. And the fun is like when I can’t find an item it’s not like a$100 item is$30. I got to spend an hour.

Stephen:                             [00:16:39]               Well they always say that the biggest complainers are the lowest purchasers right it’s the smallest items you have which will cause the biggest problem. That’s true because somebody who’s spending a couple hundred dollars sold$120 item today. No stress. They knew exactly what they wanted. They were willing to pay for it. However you know if I’m selling a$8 pen because I happen to own I bought an office supply store a gazillion years ago and I own a million of them. I put some of them for years and that one there. Oh. Can you tell me the color. Can you tell me the length could you do this. Could you do that. Will it take this lead.

Paul:                                      [00:17:13]               And I’m like my dude man I don’t want to answer any more questions. I’ve lost interest well it’s like I’m good with it. You know what I mean. You know about this experience so with the good with the bad.

Stephen:                             [00:17:27]               Now that postal rates have changed significantly and they’ve been changing rapidly pretty much once a year sometimes twice a year it feels like right. I lose sometime there was one particular item I lost money on today on the shipping. However I make money on some of the other ones so I kind of look at it as a balancing act right it just kind of I don’t stress about it. I refuse to stress about it. How do you approach that.

Speaker 17:                        [00:17:54]               Well at one time I used to stress this but sometimes you make money on things make a lot of money on one another. It’s just the business thing. I used to streps out a lot of that was which is oh my gosh we’ve got somebody wanting to learn. It would ruin my whole day. I festering over this Roots which means not with normal business not listing things on e-bay not working things out not doing the things I need to do all day because I’m stressing out over a five dollar return I’d like you know that guy like you it’s$5 right. Just accept it.

Stephen:                             [00:18:38]               Is it because back in the day you believed they were 100 percent scamming you period.

Speaker 13:                        [00:18:44]               I think that’s what I. Yeah. Right.

Stephen:                             [00:18:48]               When they can’t they can’t mean that that item really doesn’t work. It was working when I sent it. There’s no way it would have gotten damaged in the mail because I personally packed it right. I mean these are the kind of conversations I have in my hand. And then I’m like always like you know what. Or you know they’re returning something there’s a scratch on this CD and I’m thinking I listen to that say there was no scratch on that CD but could have gotten a scratch Yeah. You know and now I’ve come to that conclusion is that I I changed my attitude and just said you know what. Nobody scamming me. And if they are so I can’t let that control my life because that stuff brings you down right. It

Speaker 18:                        [00:19:22]               does. And. You know I can tell you those that did me and you know know it the kids come home angry and like. Then finally one day I’m like wow my dude you know I’m like destroying my business in this ring most of all it’s earn our business returns and our business. You know every store gets in and I’m a store.

Stephen:                             [00:19:44]               So how many live Skewes do you have now live.

Paul:                                      [00:19:50]               Not a whole lot. Probably about 300.

Stephen:                             [00:19:52]               OK. So about 300. Is that about where you kind of maintain or. I mean of course everybody wants to add more. Right. Everybody

Paul:                                      [00:19:59]               does. Yeah that’s right me. Like you get a lot more than that it’s just it’s a time issue and of putting things up that I know will sell.

Stephen:                             [00:20:10]               I agree with that. But but isn’t it a smart move. Right.

Stephen:                             [00:20:14]               You you know you have 100 items now and let’s just let’s make it easy you have 20 items so 20 items and you look through them and you’re like this will sell the fastest and you’re buying it and that’s experience. This will sell the fastest. This will sell next. This will sell next and you might end up getting five of those items those 15 probably don’t get up and then you add another 20 to it. Right now of a sudden you’re looking at 35 and it grows. So if I and I’m guilty dude I’m guilty. So there’s no judgment here right. Nobody else’s is listen as you and I am guilty of it but it’s true. Shouldn’t we take those five items that we know will sell and then liquidate the other 15.

Stephen:                             [00:20:54]               I know we should.

Speaker 13:                        [00:20:57]               But I’m so glad that you have the same problem. Oh we all do.

Stephen:                             [00:21:00]               Anybody who has an eBay business has this problem right now.

Paul:                                      [00:21:04]               Well but that will sell someday. You know it’s just you just need to just liquidate stuff because it makes room for for better inventory and store shelves in the inventory.

Stephen:                             [00:21:18]               When we were out in Chicago recently and I was talking with Picasa he’s the Craigslist Hunter and we are Chetan. We had a beer and we were sitting in Chinese just a great guy and we were chatting. He was telling me about all these nice people and how it’s really brought up his average sale I mean that’s his whole goal. So he’s not selling volume of items. He’s just has a very high average selling price. I think there is the smart move right is to sit there and say OK you know Paul there are 20 items here these five things will sell very quickly and they’re priced they’ll sell at a price above such and such I might be able to make a pile and make one more but everything else is not worth my time it’s worth someone else’s. But it’s just not worth my time that’s not an ego issue it’s just because you had mentioned that you have a time problem too and I think I’m talking to Steve here not to Paul but to say you know I’m talking to myself.

Stephen:                             [00:22:10]               But I think that there’s very that’s very rational to sit back and say you know what it takes the same amount of time to list an$8 pen as it does a you know hundred dollar camera.

Paul:                                      [00:22:22]               Right. You’re right.

Paul:                                      [00:22:26]               I agree. But then I also saw how it’s going to get a hundred dollars or more. And I’ve got a dollar and that’s turned to understand I’m saying.

Stephen:                             [00:22:35]               So I use a vending machine approach.

Stephen:                             [00:22:38]               Now I do I use a vending machine approach so I sit there and say you know if I bought 40 of an item I love it because I can just put it up and list for sale it will sell for the next three years. Well pretty steady. And I never touch it. I literally have items that I’ve been selling for for four or five years and it just keeps selling. You know every once a month once every couple of months and they do sell and sell and sell when you have a scaled store is no extra cost other than when it sells right. And to me I don’t want to touch it now my pictures probably look like crap because they’re five years old. But you know what they’re still selling. Right. Well it’s funny because you know I’ve lived through five or six generations of eBay changing significantly.

Stephen:                             [00:23:23]               And right now they’re going through some big changes on you know this and it’s not them it’s Google Chrome but it’s things that affect your listing right so outside sort like we’ve all used third party systems to help because e-bay wasn’t complete at the time. And so you have to live with the photo links and the security links and all the rest of that stuff. And I should go back and fix those listings. But it’s you know that’s not as sexy as adding these other things that are sitting there and I want to get them up and get them out because we just went through and picked the five that are going to sell right. I don’t want to go back and fix either. Right. OK. So you’ve scaled to a good size for you and now you have no staff or anything like that it’s just you know it’s just me rarely can I get my family to help me out but they will help me out.

Stephen:                             [00:24:12]               OK. So how do you feel about you know iness how many years you’ve been doing this almost 10 years full time.

Stephen:                             [00:24:21]               Looking back would you change anything and if so what I would change my attitude. Like

Speaker 19:                        [00:24:32]               I said when I first started out so it’s just not to just not get all bent out of shape over the little things. That’s sort of been my problem with a lot of things in my life. I

Speaker 20:                        [00:24:41]               get worry about the little things. Let them fester in my head. And I you know what other things pass me by. I’d be a little bit more adventurous maybe going into some other markets maybe even paying for some training. You know like I want to start getting back into Amazon. I did I was on a Since about a year ago two years ago. And I wish before that that I would have been more open to other avenues on e-bay. Great. Ebay pays my bills. I love me for what they do. I think we all need to venture out and the tank just well. Plus

Stephen:                             [00:25:19]               you want to maintain. I mean you’re going to be very cautious about this becoming a job for you. Right. I mean you already you could go get a job if you want your an I.T. guy. All right. And so Ron you want to make sure that it still has the fun and the hunting part is fun. Right. I think would you agree with that. The the hunting part is fun. And for me and this is a weird one most people don’t get this. There’s something about the shipping side of it. For me that’s fun too because it’s kind of like an accomplishment.

Stephen:                             [00:25:47]               It’s it’s who says that we’re they applaud with dollar bills right people that you know customers applaud with dollar bills. There’s something about that shipping piece that finalizes it that I say yes done. It’s

Stephen:                             [00:25:59]               like when I send an FBI it’s no different one and they send an FBI ship and it’s like it’s out of my door it’s out of here ah I’m victorious. I was like with sales. Yeah I won check. Nice. It’s in-between.

Speaker 17:                        [00:26:17]               That’s the challenge Lynn’s story right.

Stephen:                             [00:26:22]               Yeah. And taking the picture creating the listing. Answering questions. Not my favorite part. Right. So. So how are you working on your business then. I mean it sounds like you figured out some things that you know you would change going backwards. Right. But you know I mean you can adjust your attitude right. That’s a choice. Right. Just the fact that you know what I’m assuming. I hope that more often now you’re like you’re moving on and moving around. OK. So that’s good. So you’ve got that piece worked on. How about working on your business though. Have you been able to figure out ways to reduce your touch points to what you and I spent a lot of time talking about him and Tory control because I have a lot of inventory where we spent some time. How do you do that right now.

Stephen:                             [00:27:04]               We walked through a little bit a couple of scenarios. What have you done specifically to start addressing that or just now. This is the second time you have talked about it is this where you’re doing you’re in that formulation plan think of the formulation of the inventory because I am.

Paul:                                      [00:27:23]               I am touching the item way too much when it’s in inventory like I have different theories and I don’t have a lot of amateur like 300 items listed so that’s not a lot of items or do I need to figure out what Like for example I’ve got. Let’s say I’ve got gas tanks. Same gas tank. Well for me it works better to keep them all in one box and have the other lumber on the gas tank or putting them in different boxes with you know people have the you know the item on the shelf in the box to me it just didn’t work out.

Speaker 20:                        [00:28:03]               Me.

Speaker 19:                        [00:28:04]               All in one box. This is SCIENCE telescope right there. One out. OK. So good. That seems less Tuckson and it’s working very well. But I said well here’s Steve’s advice right. So

Stephen:                             [00:28:20]               this is kind of what this is the kind of things that you and I talked about. And so my advice to Paul and we were chatting about different scenarios. I said the method that I use and I heard somebody describe it to me today and this is a very interesting description. He was describing when they put an Amazon warehouse in his town he went and talked to him and he said the guy described it this way. We looked at our warehouse as a hotel very similar hotel. So when you go into a hotel they don’t really have a room set aside for you. You get the next available room right. It’s the next available room. They’re going to rent that to you. Right. The next one that meets the requirements whatever it is you know could be science could be whatever and they rent it to you. And the next available one goes the next guy right. Well your inventory the way Amazon puts their inventory on their shelf is the next available space that it will fit. Because

Stephen:                             [00:29:09]               if you think about it the fact that you’re putting it on the shelf takes effort. There’s another touch point. You’ve got to move over to that shelf. You got to put it in there and place it. So if it’s the closest space to you you saved time right there. OK. When the sale happens. That’s also true because you’re going to save time going to and it doesn’t sound like a big deal because it’s six feet versus 12 feet. But when you’re scaled to Amazon’s level which is you know I mean we have for Amazon where I tell the story is God’s honest truth or for him his own warehouses in our town and they’re all about a mile long. I mean they’re monsters. I mean they’re just so if you think about it right. So in this area Paul what I’m saying to you is that gas tank you know first off I would always seal it you know in bag or whatever it is so you could protect other items by putting it in an individual space.

Stephen:                             [00:29:55]               So in Amazon there’s a baseball bat sitting next to a bag of potato chips next to a bag of coffee next to a pair of scissors next to you know a Starbucks coffee mug. And what happens when when a gas tank. Right. So when the gas tank sells they go to that general area that picker or machine in their case depending which it is doesn’t really have to think because it’s the only gas tank. So it just makes it so much easier where the challenge for you is you’ve got to go pick up that box of gas tanks and look through them. And here’s an example I’ll use even a better example.

Stephen:                             [00:30:30]               I bought two crazy. I bought two. I was about one and then I bought the friends they were dog cut couture shops. I had to look up what the word couture means. And it was something like doggy like fancy outfits. These are some funky sweaters for dogs and some dresses. All this crazy stuff that people do for their dog. And this was really expensive stuff right. Really high. And so I’m fortunate my wife is in Bonn when I bought this store and I finally get all the stuff. We’re talking hundreds of pieces of clothing and sometimes it’s a sweater and it’s three sizes small medium and large. They have dog sizes small and large anyway. We put them in when she put them in. And I was using the V.A. when they put them in she actually put them in a bag and then labeled the bag. OK so it said small sweater a brown sweater. Let’s call that. So

Stephen:                             [00:31:29]               then she put it in a bag. Then we threw them in tub big giant tub. So every time a piece of clothing would sell I’d have to go look in through this tub. Well there was a blue sweater. There was a purple sweater. And then I find a small and then I’d see a look that was terrible. So I mean we’re talking hundreds of pieces the real small they’re all in plastic bags the bags are labeled. So a better process so I couldn’t do much with it because they were all listed. However what I could do is I went into that bag and I sorted it down by color into I think ended up about six larger bags. So I put all the brown in with Brown. I put all the green in with green or the blue and all the red.

Stephen:                             [00:32:07]               And so what happened is when a small brown sweater sold I only then had to look to this bag of brown. I mean it didn’t make it perfect but it was a way I could improve the process so now instead of looking at 400 pieces I’m now looking at 30 pieces is I hopeful in any way. Yes. And so so that process was a way I improve the process. I didn’t perfect the process. I wouldn’t do it again that way. Any bit of it. But when you have a situation that you’ve created and you want to make the best of it so you know for example you could put things in numerical order so you have all your gas tanks in order. Right. In some way you can put you know I’m going to mess up names. I know John Deere is the only one I had a good your tractor.

Stephen:                             [00:32:55]               So John Deere and oh yeah here Briggs and Stratton So the Briggs and Stratton would be a b and then John Deere because it begins with a J would be afterwards and you could put them in alphabetical so you can improve. You could take an existing process rather because it’s not broken but you can fine tune it in a way. And if you do that at scale and then you never do it again. So as you do new things you improve the process so you own what you have because it’s already done rather than go back and redo it. You just fix it that little bit of a twist. And we tell you every time one of those dog outfits sold I think that we did that work and it was you know 20 minutes work separating it. But I save you know 10 minutes every time something sells and little changes like that are the way to take your existing home and tori and improve your current process. But going forward don’t create it again. That’s

Speaker 13:                        [00:33:48]               the real lesson there. And also over that time is money too. You say 10 minutes. So we don’t expect to spend. That’s right. Right.

Stephen:                             [00:34:00]               So so looking forward so you’re looking at this function. So my suggestion is to write down your touch points literally write them down every time you touch it and just say it is what it is. OK touch to this and then go back and say Could I eliminate this debt now. I got to do this. OK. Can I eliminate this one. And when you start identifying the steps that you can eliminate you’re going to make a big change as you just said 10 minutes it doesn’t seem like a lot. It’s only 10 10 minutes times you know 16 times a week is a lot of time is when when you’re looking for women to worry.

Stephen:                             [00:34:37]               What has changed in your process for inventory buying or even just thinking about it.

Speaker 13:                        [00:34:43]               Well actually a lot of people this evening stuff. OK. So your gloves. So your cost of good is very low. Yes that’s right.

Speaker 21:                        [00:34:52]               So I’m very well liked in my town. What I do know is I’m very very picky on what parts I pull off the things like I used to love was everything all I can get. You know this much that like we talked about earlier you know why am I going to sit there and spend 20 minutes pulling all of them all apart and remind us that the dollar part. You know so I’m really really picky on what I pull off and what I sell. So

Stephen:                             [00:35:19]               I think that’s smart. You know one of the other things to think about is the [80:20] rule that Pereo principle. What is the thing that most people buy right and then that would be the item that you would have. And then again what’s the thing that nobody buys. But that’s probably nobody selling. That’s another thing that would be great. Now you know it’s to have that. You know I don’t know how to do that. I’m not that smart. But now we you and I were also talking about an inventory management system and you don’t have one either and neither do I. I mean I want to be clear about that. I’m looking at them. I’m actually talking to a couple of companies but I use actually eBay’s system to do it now they have a skew which we never use because that wasn’t their custom field.

Stephen:                             [00:36:01]               We actually put it directly in the listing I saw some people put it in the title. We do not. We put it in the listing. Yeah that’s you know that’s strength. I was thinking about that this morning. Keywords right. How many of us are really focusing in on the keywords that we’re using for ebay as they become more of a database. Right.

Stephen:                             [00:36:19]               We really need to start paying attention just as we do with Amazon but I’m really looking at an inventory management system because I think I think to scale to the next level which is to get to 10000 Skewes which is my goal I really need to get control because you’re seeing in a very small scale it’s hard to manage go up a level.

Stephen:                             [00:36:40]               You know 10x that it’s 10 it’s 10 times harder. Well double double that if I don’t fix it I’m going to be in the same place.

Speaker 22:                        [00:36:49]               Right. And I think that’s that scares me. To be honest with you growing some of them like I’m having trouble dealing with what I have now which is really nothing other sellers. I just I need to get on and into are imagining it or something or just get this thing under control to where I can handle this.

Stephen:                             [00:37:12]               What would you would you double in size if you could. Yes. And R.P. would you 10x senseis if you could.

Speaker 23:                        [00:37:19]               I don’t know. I don’t know. So there’s a limit. Yeah there is because I don’t know what kind of help I need. I think it’s good to have help but I don’t know by 10x W.O. easily.

Stephen:                             [00:37:33]               PALCA Okay. I just wonder if we’re for you where are the absolutes in your life that you do say the business is off. This takes precedence.

Speaker 22:                        [00:37:49]               Like many school times when I know try it with those you know I put my kids in my my wife and kids first and whatever in her side of the family. So that’s all I’m just get up and go. Or whatever but it’s hard sometimes to do it you know and and all the other half an hour and over there and really make choices.

Stephen:                             [00:38:12]               Well has that changed over the years for you to know.

Speaker 22:                        [00:38:15]               Yes. Yes I’m definitely more grateful for what I have now and what I would say you know 10 years ago I think age does too.

Stephen:                             [00:38:22]               You know when you get older you’re more grateful. Well yeah.

Stephen:                             [00:38:27]               Well I think we should explore that for a second because I think that’s powerful. So you’re saying you’re more grateful today than you were. That’s not a selfish statement.

Stephen:                             [00:38:36]               That’s real right. Why did why were you not as grateful.

Stephen:                             [00:38:42]               And I’m a guy so don’t get me wrong I’m not judging because I’m the same guy.

Speaker 23:                        [00:38:49]               Not Want great cause I think a little bit of that is still in me. I’m just I’m just not thinking sometimes I’m I’m always just I mean is it an ego thing is it.

Speaker 13:                        [00:39:01]               No. Now it’s not an ego thing. It’s just it’s just I need to stop it and all the roses sometimes you know what I’m talking about. Oh that’s interesting. Always running around you know chasing things and I’ve gotten better with that over the last year. But you know I still need to work more. OK.

Stephen:                             [00:39:22]               What are you working on in your business now. What I mean when you sit back and I know we’ve been talking about you know getting control inventory and process and that kind of thing. What else are you working on on your business.

Paul:                                      [00:39:33]               Well right now actually I’ve been working on where I have developed a online eBay training course with a friend of mine. There was also about seven months ago we really haven’t marketed too well. We’re trying to get that going and I’m working on training. I

Speaker 22:                        [00:39:52]               do a lot of trainings and you’re training people how to sell on eBay how to sell and invest in colleges and local adult learning after.

Speaker 23:                        [00:40:02]               Oh that’s interesting. Yeah I love it. I really do. What do you love about it. I just love to see people that just come into the class and don’t know anything about even you know you know they’re working a second job and they’re you know they want to be home with their family. I’m

Speaker 22:                        [00:40:17]               like you can easily with one work you can easily make that part time income up selling on now instead of going out to a second job everyday or whatever. The home just Solomonson you have in your house. We all have about$2000 worth of stuff in our house we can sell. So then from there go to garage sales you know they’ll say the treasure hunt and stuff and everything and then know be home with Apparently family to be working.

Stephen:                             [00:40:45]               I think it’s great that you put a dollar amount on it so that’s your rule of thumb to people hey look you’ve got two grand sitting in your house don’t go looking for anything you going to go buy anything. Selda$2000 since powerful because how many people do you see. Man if I just had$500 dollars right now or something like that right.

Speaker 21:                        [00:41:02]               No they haven’t. And people are still like that don’t they. People come up to me. I want to buy all these products all all up online at Sullum on ebay and I’m like whoa whoa whoa whoa. That’s that’s we down the road. And that’s that’s like why don’t we start mocking stuff you have in your house when you’re many of us probably have about$3000.

Stephen:                             [00:41:25]               So what do people say when you say that.

Speaker 21:                        [00:41:28]               Well first they doubt me. And then you know then they go home and then they contact me back and I go you know what I found this and I found them and I found this other thing and I also say look you have to sell your attachment like stuff you could almost go look at it you know got lost in the fire you’d be OK with it because you need to sell stuff at market value.

Speaker 24:                        [00:41:49]               So you need to build it then you know your feedbacks and your know each soldier name over them. You know to get you know good with E-bay.

Stephen:                             [00:41:56]               So we’re where do you teach this class. And is are more than. I mean do you see them weekly.

Paul:                                      [00:42:03]               No I see. I teach it once a month. It’s a world record. Three and a half hour class and we basically how I start off is I go through quickly through a bunch of slides on e-bay and then we take an item I bring an item and we go step by step selling on e-bay listing it showing how we ship it how to set up the shipping rates how to deal with returns. And that’s basically it.

Stephen:                             [00:42:30]               And this is done at a community college.

Paul:                                      [00:42:33]               We’re OK. Yes college. I’ve had as much as. I like 10 10 people max any more than 10 people. It’s gets a little it gets a little crazy trying to keep everybody. You know I mean.

Stephen:                             [00:42:47]               It’s like herding cats. Yeah. It’s like herding cats. It just doesn’t go very well. I mean it just really does it doesn’t it. So it’s a good visual isn’t it just try to just picture trying to group those cats and then they turn and then they wrap around your leg and there’s one going the other way. I wonder how many towns have this.

Stephen:                             [00:43:07]               I actually had a friend that’s funny you say this I had a friend who I was selling on e-bay but he was a instructor for a community college on e-bay and he is the one that caught me on my process. He’s like helped me fine tune my process and then I rolled with it. You know once. Now I’ve outlasted him. He always looks at me like a man. Steve you took what I taught you and scaled so much more. But it was very helpful and I think it was it was kind of a reassurance that I got from him that was very helpful to me.

Stephen:                             [00:43:34]               Right.

Stephen:                             [00:43:37]               But I do remember sitting next to him in an auction and him bidding against me. And I’m like dude you’re supposed to be my friend. He goes there’s no friends in an auction. Are you kidding me. He wanted that. Ahead you can have it. I mean cheese. Wow. OK. So I love the idea of this so you now have a course of your own you and a friend so. Tell us about the course. Is it the same model that you were using with the with the community college.

Paul:                                      [00:44:05]               Yes it is a little bit more in-depth. You know which first modulars we just talked about e-bay and you know what. So how to sell it which is great. Yeah. Almost the same steps but much more.

Stephen:                             [00:44:17]               That is a video is it how is has a pillow. OK. It’s video. And so how much is this class. The

Paul:                                      [00:44:25]               class is on special Now it’s nine dollars. We’re really getting it. Oh it’s good.

Speaker 13:                        [00:44:32]               Forty nine bucks the class. Yes pretty cheap. OK. There’s a lot of free videos out there. No. Oh Vimeo. Search for so long and will pop up OK.

Stephen:                             [00:44:46]               And I’ll put a link out there for you I hope you guys are on e-bay because I think I mean this is Steve’s advice is that everyone should be on multiple channels. Here’s the here’s the reason you want to start selling on e-bay. They’re going to throttle you. They will they will only let you list 10 items I think or something like maybe 100 or whatever it is they will only limit the pay pal will throttle you. Paypal will throttle you for I think it’s 30 days or something like that. We’re 45 days. And so you if you plan I mean if your plan is Amazon suspends your account and you then plant. All right. I always have eBay. Well guess what. You will not have ebay unless you have any bank account that’s been established and you’ve been passed that throughout those because that’s a very big deal so if you’re interested in spend 49 bucks or you can do for free.

Stephen:                             [00:45:32]               Again Paul mentioned a million free videos out there. But if you want to buy time. Always. I think it’s important to buy time. Then this might be something for you and a link there spend 49 bucks start learning how to do it do it. Sell the 2000 or$3000 you mentioned both numbers in your house. Get rid of that crap. Learn the process go through the pain of shipping yourself because it’s painful. Go through the process of taking stuff to the post office. It’s painful. Go for the process of taking pictures and answering questions. All that’s pain but once you get past that then you’re like whoa that’s it right. I mean you mean like that’s all there is. Yeah. But you’ve got to go through it. And then once you’re at that place you scale past it you now have established epee that you’re a legitimate seller you stablished to pay.

Stephen:                             [00:46:18]               You’re a legitimate seller and now you can take and really then you have a real plan. Otherwise you really don’t have a B plan. And you know Paul here’s the other thing is I see a lot of people saying what do we do with the stuff coming back from hamazon. Where can I sell it. Is there a liquidation company when they’re sending it to a liquidation company they’re getting 10 or 15 cents on the dollar when you sell things. Now you sold both on Amazon and eBay. How close are the prices that you’ve experienced generally between the two other things Amazon’s a little bit more right.

Paul:                                      [00:46:48]               I’ve seen actually speaking of that I’ve actually spoke up on cell phones that have sent me the returns instead of to liquidate or so they form a pretty good money. Simon.

Stephen:                             [00:47:04]               So that was that was worthwhile for you and that so that was winwin.

Paul:                                      [00:47:08]               Oh yes. Win win win. It’s

Stephen:                             [00:47:12]               a win win win win win. Right. Right. Especially because it’s a vending machine. That’s when you really like when somebody gives you six of a pair of Nike’s right of the same size because any list at once. And that kind of thing. OK. So that’s powerful too. So I think I think this is good advice. Right. So partner up with someone if you’re interested in it and or partner into a course and learn how to do it so you have a plan. There’s the other piece of advice I would say to you selling on Amazon is not different from selling on eBay or vice versa. You know there are different nuances. But you know you’re basically buying something at a lower price selling it on a higher price. You know connecting and adding photos or adjusting depending on what it is.

Stephen:                             [00:47:53]               A Wal-Mart is pretty darn close. Selling on well there’s a million other ones. Most of them really aren’t good. But there’s a few I mean more. Cory I think is one that some people are having some success or at sea if you’ve ever tried to sell on Etsy. It’s pretty darn similar that that skill set when the next marketplace opens and there’ll be another marketplace. Believe it there will be somebody else you’re prepared with the skill set that you have. So that’s why I suggested do it and invest the time. It’s not that much time. How long does somebody go through the course. How how long until they start seeing some success. Paul

Speaker 25:                        [00:48:28]               generally within a couple of days I’ve seen people you know keep in contact with my students you know I’ve seen them within a couple of days. You know stay at home moms are one of my favorites to learn to teach because you know I mean they’re home you know and they are not working anymore.

Paul:                                      [00:48:47]               And they feel like you’re not contributing so you’re not contributing to the household. It does not work naturally. So this isn’t enough. I had a woman who was just selling her old baby clothes out of the cellar for a large couple of books. She was thrilled to call me gosh I made$9 today. That was a lot of money.

Stephen:                             [00:49:08]               You know so and she didn’t leave the house she didn’t have to get a babysitter. And I tell this story my my kids have kids in daycare and this year with three of them they’re going to spend 40 thousand dollars 4 000 0. And it gives me a heart attack my heart skips every time I say it. And to repeat it and I get why they’re doing it it makes sense for them. You know in their world. But that mom who made nine bucks without having to do that who gets to see that baby who gets to lay with that baby who gets to you know what I mean there is something you know and again I mean you know I’m I’m not putting down my kids for what they’re doing. I get it. But I also get that that$9 thing is a huge accomplishment. She contributed to the household tenfold a being a stay home mom is a huge you know a huge piece of it. But then actually instead of taking money to contribute back.

Speaker 13:                        [00:50:04]               Oh that’s exactly big. You’re exactly right. You

Speaker 25:                        [00:50:09]               know anything about that because she’s not spending it. Well I mean she spent money on clothes originally but. Right.

Stephen:                             [00:50:15]               Right. And and think about when that child goes into school. She now has a true skill set.

Stephen:                             [00:50:24]               How your wife works full time now.

Stephen:                             [00:50:27]               Yes. OK. So you’re the you’re the one who has the flexible schedule like you said when the kids need help or whatever kids dead that’s going to step in. But and I’m I’m assuming she appreciates that because that takes pressure off of her. Yes.

Stephen:                             [00:50:41]               And so imagine that wife who was that spouse that was earning money part time or whatever. They get a chance to do it a little bit more and they have that they still have that flexibility of helping the house without having to go and get a full time job because that changes things to coordinating vacations. That’s a problem. All right. You know when you have right now it’s your wife that has to worry about taking days off for vacation. You then have to adjust your schedule around that. But then when you are working it was much more complicated. I hope people are hearing this I mean this is this is real life stuff from two dads that stay home right to do this.

Stephen:                             [00:51:21]               This is a weird one. Did you lose your identity when you lost your job.

Speaker 26:                        [00:51:29]               No I didn’t you know funny you should mention that at one time my job was my identity until I was would go to these parties whereas before kids could call the fire course I said to my wife I said why is it when I’m at a party and the first thing a man asked me is so what do you do. And then women don’t ask women what do you do. They just talk about life. My wife has That’s because men use their job as their eyes. That’s only. When you know you’re right. So I stopped doing that to be honest with you was the best thing I could do was not my job and just what I do.

Stephen:                             [00:52:11]               You know I tell people all my granddad when they ask so what do you do for a living. I’m a granddad. And look at me like why. And what does that mean. Well you know I mean it’s a weird conversation and it takes you in a different way. And then of course I was like can you teach me I’m like now I can’t I’m sorry. But now Paul can polka teacher Steve’s not teaching anybody I’m not a good teacher when it comes to that stuff. You know it’s interesting and it’s different because of our age. I mean could you imagine your dad doing what you’re doing.

Stephen:                             [00:52:41]               No. No way. No

Stephen:                             [00:52:43]               . No chance. But I mean just think about generationally. But but here’s a question. Could you imagine one of your kids doing what you’re doing. Yes. Yes. That’s the difference. Think about that generationally. There’s no way that would have been allowed in your dad’s generation. You’re getting away with it and your kid it would be perfectly normal.

Paul:                                      [00:53:05]               Right. You see the young gentleman 18 year old was there.

Paul:                                      [00:53:09]               Alex. Alex love that kid.

Speaker 26:                        [00:53:12]               Like like I’m 18 years old 70 years old my gosh if I was 18 in morning that I know that would that would have been incredible.

Stephen:                             [00:53:24]               He is he was investing his time into his education and by going and hanging out with all of us. Right.

Stephen:                             [00:53:34]               Right.

Stephen:                             [00:53:35]               It just took him into a new place because he’s like whoa. This is what the future can be. Now I don’t remember much about his dad. I remember the story about his dad. I’m going actually have him on at some point when he does hit successful. I

Stephen:                             [00:53:48]               want him to hit some success but I was interested because here’s a kid kind of it seemed like he was a little bit on his own trying to figure it out.

Stephen:                             [00:53:57]               Right not not with the dad there guiding him down this road like I helped guide my sons down this road because you know obviously I’m pretty good at right. When you don’t have that and you got to kind of figure it out on your own it is a different a different way to get to a different a different place to get to. But I think the way he’s doing it trying to he’s trying to find a job to work for somebody. So if somebody in the Chicago area is looking for someone and e-commerce that you’re going to make them fill boxes or something like that. If somebody is looking. Message me and I will put you in contact with this kid. He’s a nice kid. I mean just a nice nice kid polite smart. You can tell he wants to learn. He will definitely suck you dry information wise but that’s a good thing.

Stephen:                             [00:54:43]               This is a chance to invest in someone else so I always call it selling it to other people. This is a great opportunity so if somebody is interested in Chicago looking for somebody let me know and I’ll put you in contact with them because I just think would be cool but I think you’re right. There’s somebody who’s doing it that says something about that generation coming up doesn’t it.

Speaker 26:                        [00:55:05]               Yes it does it not.

Paul:                                      [00:55:08]               There’s hope for the economy because some of the things I see young people do today and guess what. But then again I didn’t have all this social media stop these phones. You didn’t need it when you were a kid. You know things different back then but we did it too.

Paul:                                      [00:55:21]               And so you know I always we did it ourselves let’s own up to it be man and just say well you know I’ve always like do as I say not as I do. My daughter always says Remember the story it’s all about you doing this. I did. I told you that oh boy I should. I told that on Friday. It’s real That’s good.

Stephen:                             [00:55:46]               It’s really good. OK. So so I guess here’s the positive thing I want people to hear this. Here is a full time sellers been selling for almost 10 years full time went and 70 percent didn’t wait till he replaced his income went when it was good enough. Now has made a good living for a long period of time on your terms and it’s not fun all the time. It is hard. It’s not easy. You heard me when I talked. It’s a business you love this hour and you’ll hate this hour every five minutes or so it will be the best thing in the world. It’s the worst decision in my life right. But you did it on your terms for ten years and you didn’t master hamazon and sold$10 million on Amazon you weren’t a incredible success on Amazon. And yet 10 years later you’re still here plodded along doing what you want to do working on your business.

Stephen:                             [00:56:38]               But at your terms Paul that’s a how many people can say that they would have said I failed.

Stephen:                             [00:56:43]               I tried Amazon.

Stephen:                             [00:56:44]               I was not a 10 million dollar seller and I left because I failed you seemed to be doing OK. It’s a pretty cool thing. Thank you.

Stephen:                             [00:56:55]               I mean I I applaud it and I hope people hear that and just sit back and say OK I tried this this part didn’t it wasn’t as thrilling for him. So I think I think you’re right. I think it is a good thing showing that you know that there is opportunity here and I think that the youth that take this serious that look I tell my son all the time. You’ve got to have a side hustle. You need to. That’s how you have fun. That’s when life gets enjoyable because you’re making that money. You’re reaping the reward. You get to go to Hawaii. Right.

Paul:                                      [00:57:24]               Amen.

Speaker 17:                        [00:57:25]               So like I always said so even when I was working full time or something.

Stephen:                             [00:57:35]               Love it. OK. So what I want to do is one of the things and I think I hope people heard this and hear loud and clear again. Here’s a successful person who’s been doing it for 10 years on his terms. He does not have to measure himself against these mega sellers in a negative way and they’re not downplaying the mega sellers. I call them outliers. There are some unbelievable tons of my friends are unbelievable sellers that I could never be because I’m not willing to do what they do. I don’t have the skill sets they have. Does that mean I failed. Not my terms. I’m cool with it. I’m very very comfortable with it. You’re another example of that and I hope people hear that and really breathe a little bit and say we are unprofitable I’m making money I’m not making as much as I want or I I am whatever on my terms.

Stephen:                             [00:58:21]               That’s good. How many small businesses do you know that are going out of business right. How many have you seen go out of business. Yeah. And yet you’re still survive. So I just hope people hear that. So the goal of the podcast is to help people move forward and get on stock. To me I think you’ve been a good example of somebody who’s been doing it for a long time so give a tip or two that you think people can use to help them continue. Because I think that’s really the answer isn’t it. Even if they don’t get unstuck just keep continuing. It

Paul:                                      [00:58:50]               gets easier yes it does just you know like I said it just seems like it has taken me years to do my work. I’m always doing it listening to it like it was magic this long maybe you should find something to do.

Paul:                                      [00:59:06]               I just want to make sure that support. All right. All right so there is that one time she’s allowed heavy duty you’ve got stuff in the house and you keep bringing crap in the house she’s allowed to stay fun.

Speaker 17:                        [00:59:21]               Easier said than done and it’s really really awful thing. Being around people that are going to keep your focus. OK.

Speaker 27:                        [00:59:30]               I told you more time to just watch. Nothing watching. Sometimes it’s better just keep chugging along. Sometimes you can be paralyzed by watching of stuff. Just keep going.

Stephen:                             [00:59:45]               There’s no better way. You can’t watch how to pack a package after a hundred times. It’s basically it goes in a box and you put a piece of tape on it you put a label on it and you send it. That’s the answer. So there’s no way. Wait. I’ve got the answer. Here’s the perfect method.

Speaker 21:                        [01:00:00]               I’ll never forget what I said when I was going to do Amazon FBA books. Easiest thing to do books is easier. It took me two months to send in my purse and you know lying to those Keralites by watching a lot of those like wait this guy does it just with this guy.

Stephen:                             [01:00:17]               He’s got the answer now that can’t be right. This is the answer.

Speaker 21:                        [01:00:21]               Said I call somebody that does that I said I need to be on call. When’s a good time. She said OK betweenness Alberich this is great. And I just did it and I’m calling her I said I doing this right day my first or my weight. That was a lot easier than paralyzed by all this other outside stuff. You know what I mean. Know I was letting paralyzed me stop doing.

Stephen:                             [01:00:45]               And you know what. You’re the second person I’ve had in the last two weeks that has said the same thing. They’ve had to pull back from all the groups and all the videos and all the courses and actually put it into practice. I think there’s something powerful at some point you’ve got to say I know what I’m doing.

Speaker 18:                        [01:00:59]               Well what’s so funny is there are people with kind of my meat on their head in there having been on Facebook and our huge ebay sellers and are huge animals and I’ve never been on Facebook or even have a Facebook account and I’m going wow how do you do without getting all the information they said. I focus on my business when I have a question. I look it up in Amazon help and help me call them. I don’t like that you don’t really like what it can be done that way.

Paul:                                      [01:01:27]               Hello.

Stephen:                             [01:01:28]               I’m just hanging out with the several million dollar seller in Chicago and we were talking about software and I’m like which one do you use. Because he’s got a ton of skewness and he goes Amazon. I’m like well you don’t use one of the Amazon. That’s it. He knows no better. He’s like I don’t need any of this stuff. You know what I mean. He knows what he’s got that confidence right. And that’s such a powerful tool. Dude that’s awesome. I love what you’re doing. So I’m going to have a link here for your video stuff. I’m going to go find it and I’ll put a link there. How do I sell any. Forty nine bucks people it’s a special. Please if you’ve been thinking about it you know if this is the way to go do something just move forward. Open up that other channel because it could be very rewarding to be honest with you. You know I think about Gary Barrett I use him as a good example.

Stephen:                             [01:02:12]               Gary was a still a coach but he was a good seller. He hated he hated sourcing hated it but he loved the process side of it. Now he’s opened up his own prep Center. He still hates sourcing. Guess what. He doesn’t source. He doesn’t want his stuff. He’s figured.

Stephen:                             [01:02:29]               So you might open up an ebay store and say oh my god this is what I’ve been looking for. This is where I’m getting my fulfillment from. This might be the thing for you. Suspend the forty nine bucks I don’t benefit in any way. I don’t get a dollar of it. It’s just to me if you can buy time and if you can connect if you and you and Paul resonate with each other if this is the kind of person that you want to work with then please spend your money that way and move forward. Love it. All right. So I’m going to put contact information somebody has follow up for me so I get to have your course out there. How else can somebody get in touch with you Paul if they have more questions and contact me through e-mail.

Paul:                                      [01:03:06]               OK Paul period Apollonia a p o l l o n g l dot com. I also have a YouTube channel. Got some I’m building up the videos on the air. Pretty much. What is that. It is on YouTube just look up on name and POLONIA.

Stephen:                             [01:03:25]               OK and I’ll have links to that too. To

Paul:                                      [01:03:27]               have links on those videos of me just talking about stuff and you know it’s just being me basically I’m not you know I mean that’s another thing too. You’ve got to be yourself.

Speaker 24:                        [01:03:37]               Don’t try to be somebody else when you’re in your business and stuff. It took me a while to figure that out too. So easy to just being me.

Stephen:                             [01:03:44]               The that I think you said it earlier is when you get older as you get older you start to become more comfortable. I don’t care what they think. Too late. I’m not getting up.

Speaker 13:                        [01:03:55]               There you go. That’s right. Awesome and I’ve got a Web site. All right.

Stephen:                             [01:04:04]               Wow. You got that early. It helps that it helps to be that you were an I.T. that you were smart enough to get your own domain.

Paul:                                      [01:04:12]               And I’m also excited we get down every year. Myself and a friend of mine. Minute we do a seminar for Expo down the Florida telling us what’s awesome. So yeah we do that. That’s exciting. January we’ll be doing seminars.

Speaker 28:                        [01:04:35]               And do you mentioned that on your Web site. I think I think it’s there. I’m sorry. OK. If it’s not please put it there and then that way people can live up there. Now that’s ok. Make sense. Oh man it’s awesome.

Stephen:                             [01:04:50]               I appreciate I’m going to hopefully stay in contact with you and help you scale your inventory system. I’m going to personally get a little involved here and just help them understand. Again you know think of simplicity and just make it easier for yourself. And then once you get there then you can keep helping other people and I appreciate that you do that because I’d like to do that too. So it is awesome. I appreciate your help. Thank you so much. I wish you nothing but success. Take

Stephen:                             [01:05:14]               care.

Stephen:                             [01:05:16]               Great guy as I said he’s humble very humble yet got a heart of gold and is successful he’s successful on his terms. And I think that that’s what you’re going to get to is don’t measure yourself against others measure yourself against yourself. Set bigger goals here. Here he is 57 years old he’s investing time into learning a new inventory system because he wants to be more efficient. How many of us are willing to do that. You know and I just think that that’s so smart. Great guy. I have always contact stuff out on this episode. Please take a look at it. Hey don’t forget my sponsors gais group is closing. Maybe she’ll let you sneak in once. I try and sell her. I said maybe please but I just think it’s such a great group I’m in there so you’ll see me there.

Stephen:                             [01:06:03]               Got to use solar lab scope. That tool is so powerful. I’m using it for researching on another particular thing too because it just helps me when I see those keywords. It helps me identify what kind of things I want to go searching for so I can look for a particular product by using scope I find the top seller. I see the keywords that they’re using and then I go out and source products for that. This is like every adult is going to say Steve of course everybody said well scope allows you to do that I just love that product solutions for e-commerce don’t forget Karen mentioned my name when you go Wyncham momentum I have a link there. You’re going to save 50 bucks but you’re also going to get that inventory health report and storage charges are coming. The storage charges are coming. E-commerce momentum Tulkarm. Take care.

Cool voice guy:                  [01:06:47]               Thanks for listening to the e-commerce momentum blog as bobolinks mentioned today can be found at combers momentum dot.com under a visa number. Please remember to subscribe and like us on iTunes.

 

Stephen-Peterson

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