283 : Steve and Steph Merch – Resale Killers reinventing ecommerce on their absolute term- enjoy your life
What a great couple who knows their relationship is first, then their business comes later. Can you downsize your life to create a family legacy? The key is to try many new things, many new experiences and above all Enjoy your life!
Mentioned:
Steve and Steph Resale Killers on Youtube
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00:00] Wanted to take a second and recognize my sponsors this week, you know, [inaudible] million dollar arbitrage as edge and list group. That’s a mouthful. It is. But guess what? It’s a great opportunity. You can build a big Amazon business. You don’t need a lot of capital when you start. I mean we all started, you know, um, most of it started selling books and then you move into retail arbitrage that is the place that you can turn your money the fastest and online arbitrage. And so by having that skill set, by learning those skill sets, you can get the best bang for your buck. And so gaze group will help you learn online arbitrage. It’s, it’s more than just a list service. They’re going to give you a whole bunch of actionable inventory every single day. Write Monday through Friday. However, there’s also a mentorship that goes on and that mentorship is so important because sometimes it’s great to know what to buy, but it’s more important to understand why to buy it.
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Stephen: [00:01:50] And that’s what gay does. She does it every single day. The testimonials are real. Go take a look. You will be blown away and again, it’s a free trial. I have the link on this episode to reach in your seller labs, Jeff Cohen and the team. They have blown me away with this scope project. We use this all the time for our business. We do a lot of private label. We also do a lot of wholesale and wholesale bundles or multi-packs, that kind of thing, which a lot of people do, but we use a scope to help us figure out what are the key words and so it’s really simple. You basically figure out where you’re going to sell, what you’re going to sell, what category, find that lake product, find the top couple sellers and find their keywords. Boom magic. There you go. You copy the best because it’s working.
Stephen: [00:02:39] And guess what? That’s a proof of concept and scope allows you to do that. So it’s seller labs.com, forward slash scope, seller labs.com, forward slash scope. Use the code word momentum and you’re going to get a couple of days free trial and you’re going to save a little bit of money and you’re going to get some free keywords. It’s worth every penny. I’m in that group. Come and check me out. So our labs.com, forward slash scope. Again, use the word momentum solutions for e-commerce. Karen Lunker, great, great, great group. I’ve been using them for a long time and I guess it’s over two years and I’m in there and I pay just like everybody else. Yeah, she’s a sponsor my show, but she makes me pay and I got the same $50 discount that you can get. Oh, by the way, you’re going to get that through my link and my link only.
Stephen: [00:03:25] Oh, and you’re also going to get the free inventory health analysis. Great Way to start 2018, get your inventory in line and Karen will help you do that. We use them for everything basically, uh, you know, long-term storage fees coming up. Guess what, show evaluate. She’ll make some recommendations and I’ll say, yeah, check, check, check, check these out, this return, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And magically it’s done. I love it, love it, love it. I love the fact that they take and get rid of stranded inventory for me. I see it in there. And then next time I go in and it’s gone. Love it. Love it, love it. Got An ip infringement, she’s going to help you work your way through that. This is the kind of service that you get from Karen Locker, that’s solutions for the number for e-commerce solutions for e-commerce dot com forward slash momentum, right? So you’ve got a forward slash momentum and you’re going to save $50 a month, 600 bucks a year by just clicking that link. She pays me. I don’t want to hide that. I never do. I’m always upfront about that, but it doesn’t cost you anything additional and you’re going to get that inventory health report. The only way you get that is through mind link, the solutions, the number for e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum.
Cool voice guy: [00:04:39] Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we’ll focus on the people, the products, and the process of e-commerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [00:04:53] I know it sounds Corny that I love what I do, but I do love what I do. Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 200 and eighty three with Steve and Steph, the resale killers man. What a cool cup or if you’ve not seen him on youtube, you’re missing out. You like me will get caught up and start watching and then you won’t turn it off and then all of a sudden you’ll realize three hours have gone by and I just watched a million people shop at a yard sale or a flea market where I watched them go to a military base to buy something or I watch them count money through a coin machine and it was, it blew my mind and I just sit back and I just love the way that they work together and we get to some pretty cool points in a conversation and I hope you hear this, especially if you’re in middle aged guys saying, I need to do something different with my life. Or you know, my wife and I, my relationship sometimes struggles with these things. I think this is a great example of somebody who’s figuring it out. A couple was figuring it out on their terms and their approach is a little different, but you can hear they love it. Let’s get into the podcast,
Stephen: [00:06:10] worry. We’ll come back to the e-commerce momentum podcast, very, very excited about today’s guest, speaker, guests, plural, because they do come as a pair and I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I’m interested to hear how they became a pair because there’s definitely a story there and that they worked together, lived together and enjoy their life together. I’m selling and selling in some unusual ways, which I think are quite a sign of the times and I think it’s so interesting now for those of us in the big Amazon world and Ebay world where they’re big giant fee increases in big changes outside of our control. Well, Stephen, Steph say, ah, sorry. We’re going to control our future. Welcome Stephen. Steph, the resale killers. Welcome guys.
Stephen: [00:07:02] Yes, exactly. You know, I figured, you know, it’s funny when I look at your name, I got Steve and then I got stuff and I’m like, well, I’m really stephen with a Ph and then I do go by Steve and my wife calls me Steve. Um, and I’m used to be called Pete sometimes. And my last name’s Peterson, so Pete Stevenson. So they mess with know how kids are. So you two are not the normal sale. Couple, a couple of reasons. One, um, you both seem to really like each other and like your role in the business. It’s true, it’s obvious, you know?
Steve Steph: [00:07:43] OK,
Stephen: [00:07:48] well, you know, I’ve been married 31, 32 years. So guess what? I have done something right. But it’s true. I mean I just watching though, I can see what it is. I always look for respect because I believe that, you know, you have to be respectful and I see the respect he gives you and you give him stuff. I see it and it’s not like it’s subservient and I see the joshing you guys are teasing each other, you know, stuff like that. But I see it and I think that’s just so important. I don’t think you take yourselves as serious like this is, you know, brain surgery is that fair?
Steve Steph: [00:08:57] Is going to be real serious about it. Right? Definitely. But I think that the main thing is like our lifestyle and our lives, we kind of wanted to make it revolve around being fun and enjoyable. You know, so having fun while we’re working together and being together so much and getting along really well is mainly because it’s fun for us, you know, we definitely have fun together and we really enjoy each other. So, um, and I think it’s mainly on Steve’s part because he’s so fun.
Stephen: [00:09:33] It’s a team thing to take the compliment, just take the compliment.
Speaker 5: [00:09:38] It’s all very nice, but there’s also, my wife is very weird and we don’t show everything that we do on. And by weird I mean like just in a good way. Like we just, we say things to each other and we do things that, that we just laugh at each other. Like how, why are we doing this and when we do like the idea
Steve Steph: [00:09:57] more like a laugh and we’re like, we’re so messed up.
Stephen: [00:10:01] Well let me ask you something, and this is a, I think a fair question to work together in an office function or some kind of construction thing. Was it, did you have that much fun there?
Steve Steph: [00:10:12] Oh yeah.
Speaker 5: [00:10:12] No, not at, not at the, the job wasn’t fun at all for me. Step is very, um, she can just, she just handles difficult things differently. She has a better outlook on it, like difficult situations, like, you know, the, the job and I was, I was like, just be down, you know, like I was on the road a lot, not on the road, like for days I was a general superintendent and we had jobs all over southern California from the border to the desert to Los Angeles and it was a massive grind. I was the stereotypical guy that gets a job. You’re making good money and your life revolves around that job. Get up when it’s dark, get home when it’s dark and don’t do anything with friends or family because you’re so wore out. Work in, you know, every, it was six days a week, sometimes seven days a week. And so that was not fun, but the fun was stepped, didn’t work on a weekend she would go to work with me how that was like a salvation on those weekends for me it was like, OK, at least we’re together and you know, we’d be, if I looked back on it, it was so weird. Having OK, here’s my wife, we’re just going to go check, check some construction jobs. And it was,
Steve Steph: [00:11:37] that was our time to hang out, but I worked in the office, I was the controller of that construction company as well. So Steve was in the field all day long, you know, he’d come in for meetings and stuff like that, but I was in the office all day long. So we work together and met at work, but we didn’t work like we do now together. We are together 24 sevenths all the time.
Stephen: [00:11:59] Well let’s talk about the transition. So you went from a honeymoon phase, right? You made it work and the relationship developed and you saw them and maybe you saw him at his best, right? Because you got to see him, you know, he was still that face that, that uh, that romantic phase. I’m trying to be careful to delicate here, but it’s true, right? So then, you know, you saw him the best behavior in that and now you get to see him all the time. So is there a transition? How big is the difference? I guess that’s the question.
Steve Steph: [00:12:29] OK, well let me say this part, I fell in love with Steve. He’s the funniest guy I’ve ever met.
Stephen: [00:12:37] You’re blushing. Steven, you’re blushing right now. I can tell.
Steve Steph: [00:12:40] Oh I am. But it’s true. He, I mean we worked in construction. He wasn’t completely miserable in his job back then. It got worse, you know, as I could, as the company grew, it just got, you know, we were there for so many years. I think Steve was there like 15 years, something like that. And it grew from a mom and pop operation to a big company and um, there was just so much pressure on Steve, you know, the, he took on so many roles. He had so much pressure on him and his job, it just was miserable and it didn’t start out that way, but it turned into it, especially when the company started doing bad and we had to lay off people and more and more work I put on him and it was just so much pressure on the companies failing. It was just a mess and it was not fun to be in. And to be honest, steve had a mental breakdown. He really. Did y’all have any one? We’re still recovering.
Stephen: [00:13:29] Is this where the, uh, enjoy your life comes from Steve. Be Honest. I mean, I, I just want to know because I see you say I can see you say it like when you, when you could see it in your eyes. I can actually see that you deeply mean it. You want to believe it and you want everybody else to get there.
Speaker 5: [00:13:46] Yeah, that’s it. I truly sincerely mean that. And honestly when I say it, when I’m looking in the camera and when Jeff says it too, like originally starting these youtube videos, it was like, hey, it would be kind of fun, but we could also leave a message to our grandkids and our kids even if they watch this. So that is saying sometimes I rant about jobs in general and basing on my experience, but I want, I want so badly for her grandkids to have a different, a different perspective, you know, in a different, um, just some different input versus what society or you know, nine to five grind brands. And every, yeah, I want them to enjoy your life. And that doesn’t mean enjoy. Your life is not all don’t work, guys. Don’t, you know, don’t, don’t struggle with things in life. It’s not that it’s due when you’re doing things that are making you feel like you’re, you know, maybe you’re trying to discover your purpose or whatever that you can.
Speaker 5: [00:15:00] You can be happy doing that. You can be happy pouring concrete. Believe me, I’ve been around guys that had done it forever and they were happy guys. But if you’re not happy and you’re doing something and you feel like you got to be there, you feel like, oh, I’m making this much money. I can’t leave this job. Or you know, I’m, I, some people don’t believe they can do anything else. You know? And, and yeah, and you’re not enjoying the majority of my life. Look be prior to getting out of the rat race was work. Just like a lot of people. The majority of your day is working and it’s beautiful at that. Work doesn’t feel like work. But if it’s like most people, that’s a, that’s just, it’s so wrong. And it’s weird looking back and thinking, man, why why’d it take so long to get out of that?
Speaker 5: [00:15:49] You know, like I knew there was always, like Steph said, it got worse and worse even when it was at its best. I had to struggle to find things at work that made me feel good. Like, like I always enjoyed training guys, you know, I always enjoyed seeing guys come up from maybe a laborer and then make, make they became a superintendent. I enjoyed that process, but I really, really had to focus on it because the rest of the stuff was, you know, horrible. And there was always this nagging voice in the back of my head from the day I started doing construction there was telling me this is not, this is not for you, you know? And I just ignored it. And I think a lot of people ignore that voice.
Stephen: [00:16:30] Would you say though, looking back at it now, would your father, your father’s still alive, what would he say that you walking away from that you failed? You know, it was that. Because I mean, we’re about the same age and so I walked away early from a big career and um, there’s a great job in a good company and all that kind of jazz, but I made that same choice to get away. And sometimes, you know, I mean, I think it’s true. You identify your yourself or at least guys to, um, I don’t know how women do it. Um, I think it’s more clothes or social status for guys. It’s your job. I mean, it really is funny that it was pretty good. It’s a guy, it’s a, it’s guys, it’s their job. I mean, first thing you do, Hey, what do you do for a living?
Stephen: [00:17:13] Right. And then, so now it’s like, uh, uh, I was just talking to my old boss this morning and he’s like, Steve, how’s it going? I’m like, it’s going great. He was telling me the story about townies and they’re laying off again and I’m like, dude, I don’t want to hear any of that stuff. Let’s talk positive stuff. Let’s just talk about good things, how your kids, you know, that kind of thing. And now the conversation, at least it seems to me, US middle aged guys were middle-aged. We’re not old men yet. Um, it’s OK in our world and my friends look longingly like, Oh man, I want to do it so bad. But your father, how’s that conversation? Go
Speaker 5: [00:17:50] where? OK, here’s what’s interesting and I totally get what you’re saying and I know like you’re going deep into psychology here, but I, I agree that things I might, the way that I’ve always worked, you know, like whether when I was in the Marine Corps when I got out of high school and any job I’ve ever had was definitely influenced by my dad. Not him stay in anything but looking back just to. I guess when I was growing up, there was things he would say like he would make me, you know, you know, the oldest, if you’re going to do it, do it right.
Speaker 6: [00:18:28] Hard work pays off.
Speaker 5: [00:18:30] Yep. That whole thing. And my dad, my dad and mom both, you know, they worked so hard and so long and it was just, you know, that was, that was just what you do. But can I get, so that obviously has influenced me because there was a tremendous guilt in trying to get out of the job and like leave the job. 10 fail for many years will the guilt of also. I didn’t want to let people down.
Speaker 6: [00:18:58] I mean there’s a guy, oh my God. Anybody who leaves at least in that generation you gave up or something. And it’s like, no, I don’t think so. Dad retired from the military and then retired from a career after that he retired to position. He’s a hard worker,
Speaker 5: [00:19:17] but he never, you know what the weird part is? I, he’s not, he wouldn’t ever say that to me. You know, like he would like when he found out most people are like, we never just told people what we were doing.
Speaker 6: [00:19:29] I wonder what are you guys making a living because drug dealer. Come on, tell us the truth.
Speaker 5: [00:19:35] Never like all of a sudden we’re going. People go, Hey, can you guys want to go to lunch tomorrow? And we’re like, yeah, we’ll drop everything we’re doing. So they started asking and when we tell people they still don’t get it, but you know, both steps parents and my parents are there like three times.
Speaker 6: [00:19:51] Great. They love it. Yeah. They really. So what do they love about it
Speaker 5: [00:19:56] that were just, I think, here’s how I think it’s stuff you can give your opinion. I think they see it, they’re, they’re older than us and I think they see it and go this is the right thing to do. And I started late, you know, stuff’s considerably younger than me, but leaving, you know, leaving a job like art, the company was going under and I have a nervous breakdown or whatever. I could have easily, you know, I got my contractor’s license and I couldn’t because I had people wanting me to go to work for him. So I had those options. So turning all that down and then, you know, just stepping out into the unknown was, it was thrilling and it was also, there was that part of me that conditioned part of me that was struggling to, you know, accept it. It was very weird, but everybody, I think that they realized, I think both our parents and even friends and family now, it’s been. We’ve been doing this for awhile. I think they, I think they think it’s a good thing
Steve Steph: [00:21:00] just because of how we can’t really wrap their brains around it. Like how is this working, but we can’t be so jealous is kind of what it is. They wish that they had more time and more freedom, but they also don’t think we work as hard as we do. We sit around and sell stuff,
Speaker 5: [00:21:17] but when you make it look easy. Yeah, that’s the truth.
Steve Steph: [00:21:23] We do work really hard and I think now that we’ve been doing youtube people see. I mean most people that watch this are resellers to I think, but they know so they know there’s a lot of work behind it, but you know, family and friends who are watching, I think they’re seeing a little bit more of, oh my gosh, these guys work their tails off. If they have to work hard to make money or nothing. No income comes in. You know, you have to do something still what we do like it, it doesn’t. Yeah, it doesn’t.
Speaker 5: [00:21:48] We know it’s hard. Like we know the work that we do. We know that there’s, there’s the physical aspect of it and all that. But honestly we’re saying it’s hard because we don’t want people to think it’s not, but it doesn’t feel that way to us. We’re never going, oh man, I want to do this again. We’d rather know just that whole beat down. We don’t have that beat down a regular job to actually think easy job. But we’re willing to hustle.
Stephen: [00:22:16] Let me ask you this. So how did you get to this place? I mean because you guys have scaled, you know, let alone the pallet buying, but before then you’re making a pretty good living. So how do you scale to that level? I mean, how does that conversation go? A companies failing? Did you both have to go get jobs or uh, did come along or how does that, how did that happen?
Speaker 5: [00:22:40] When Steph said, I have a nervous breakdown, she’s serious and I had like, I don’t know what it was. I hadn’t, but I did have like a, you sick of it. I melted down and it was like, it was bad, like it was physically and mentally bad. It happened at a time when, you know, like the company that worked for when we started bear or when I started there, they might have made a million the first year and within five years we were doing $38,000,000 a year and you can’t keep up, you know, there’s not enough human beings to go around to, to, you know, man up for jobs that we were getting. So just to give you a picture of that, you know, that and can. I also was in charge of the project management and we just grew so fast and you get into a rhythm and you can get into when we’re human beings, we’re capable of so much like handling a lot of tasks and you know as long as you have good people around you that you can direct. But it, once things started going bad
Steve Steph: [00:23:38] when the economy really took a dive and construction really got hit hard. The account I was controller. So I definitely saw the numbers and I saw the margins and I knew it was coming and that we were not going to survive. It wasn’t our company we worked there, but um, so we knew years in advance, we couldn’t believe it continued on for years after it should have crashed, should have closed the doors to years before it. But it just kept dragging on. And so we downsized. We, uh, we sold our house the more enough that we had. We bought a cheaper house with a smaller mortgage
Speaker 5: [00:24:14] before when we saw this coming in, we were just like, yeah, we, we actually started
Speaker 6: [00:24:18] consolidate Stephen Steph survival mode
Steve Steph: [00:24:22] while we were setting up for hey, if we close the doors in six months,
Speaker 6: [00:24:27] we’re going to do control your future. And you have a pattern of that. Guys. I see a pattern
Speaker 5: [00:24:36] two years prior to me having my meltdown. It’s definitely both like, cause she could say yeah, you know, we knew the company, like how are we hanging on this long? And we both were like, we’d come home and go, man, you think they will close up
Speaker 6: [00:24:52] tomorrow? We got here and I look at that and it was like
Steve Steph: [00:24:56] we were dreaming for it, wait for it to happen.
Speaker 5: [00:25:00] I use the word coward because for me to be in that state right there to where we’re like lethal, have the thought, you know, instead of just having, you know, what, screw this, I’m done with this. I was, I was. I was actually like, go ahead and you guys shut down and then that’ll give me an excuse to not do this ever again.
Speaker 6: [00:25:21] That’s pretty deep there. Steve [inaudible], you could’ve went and got another job, but you knew
Steve Steph: [00:25:28] we were so loyal to the owners of the company too and to ourselves like we aren’t people that want to fail and we are committed and we will work hard and so that we could never leave and especially with both of us in the position that we were in there, it would’ve crippled the company completely so it, we just were trapped and so it was like a light at the end of the tunnel and we just couldn’t do it because we couldn’t
Speaker 6: [00:26:00] just to point them crazy.
Speaker 5: [00:26:03] Steve, I was in a meeting one time and they’d have these stupid meetings, which most meetings are stupid.
Speaker 6: [00:26:10] It’s an Iq drop her, I get it,
Speaker 5: [00:26:14] sorry. I was in a meeting and it was so like I just wore out and it was just such a waste of time. People just didn’t know what they were talking about, like one of the owners and he was just really a horrible meeting. And when I left there I called Steph and I said, hey, I’m done. Let’s move. Let’s move ceos. OK. So we go to Reno, her family’s there,
Speaker 6: [00:26:37] buy a house. I went
Speaker 5: [00:26:40] to Reno and bought a house and the big mistake I made was I reached out to other construction companies and right away, you know, I was able to get a job because I had my experience. I’m not saying, oh Steve, you know, they’ll want to me, but I have a lot of experience with two big companies, you know, we did a lot of big jobs and so I reached out to the company and they said, yeah, we’ll, you know, you could have a job right now. So it’s going to cool and then I didn’t do it like steps that was up for anything I could’ve said any day during any time I could say step, let’s quit this job right now. Even though it felt guilty, she would have said, OK, let’s do it. And she did, but we didn’t do it. So we had a house.
Steve Steph: [00:27:28] We love the people we worked for that band in them, you know, we just couldn’t do it. This conversation is. Sorry idiot.
Stephen: [00:27:36] No, I get the impulsive. I get it. You know, I mean there’s, you know, there’s, especially when you’re there for that long and both of you invested so much into it. I mean, you lived and breathed it.
Steve Steph: [00:27:46] We cared about the people we work for. They weren’t friends in like family, you know, you just couldn’t do it. I don’t know who couldn’t do it.
Stephen: [00:27:54] I get it in laying off those people has a companies going down or the worst part is, I remember sitting in these meetings and somebody be, you know, and we know who’s getting laid on, you know, you always know when you’re in finance. Right? And then you go out there and the guy’s like, oh yeah, my wife’s pregnant and we’re getting ready to buy a house. And I’m thinking, oh my God, this guys doesn’t know that he’s losing a job next week. And that stuff, it sucks your soul. That’s a soul sucking incident that’s happened so many times. It’s repeated across industries today.
Steve Steph: [00:28:24] Yep.
Speaker 5: [00:28:27] Like a big part of me finally melted down because the owner, he would all of a sudden just walking around one day and go, hey, we got to cut a hundred 50 people. And we’re like, well how are we going to get the jobs done and don’t just have it done by Friday, but I want to say I want to talk to him personally. These, these guys, I want to talk to them personally. So we’d have a hundred people show up at the office and he wouldn’t show up.
Stephen: [00:28:53] Yeah.
Steve Steph: [00:28:54] And then I was the guy that had to disguise like Ibiza guys.
Speaker 5: [00:28:59] It wasn’t like. I mean I was the general superintendent, but you know, I would get dirty when I had to. And these were people that were friends of ours.
Steve Steph: [00:29:09] Yeah. And that’s the thing too is the owner was not, he’s a great guy and he had a huge heart and it hurt him to do it. So it’s easier to have somebody else from Steve do it
Stephen: [00:29:20] and he failed. I mean, let’s face it, it, you know, I mean, I’m sure he’s in the corner sucking his thumb to. I mean, it just sounds from that whole scenario, right? Well, it was good, it was good. But in the end it’s ugly. Something good for us. You start selling. Where did that come from? I mean, was it like, oh, we got to this survivor mode, so you downsize, bought another house, hopefully sold that house, but you’re back in mode and you’re like, OK, let’s right. Size. Correct for future possibilities because you probably were making a ton of money, Steve, and uh, sound like you’re doing pretty well and you’re thinking, oh, I’m going to start over again, but we’re going to design. Is it we’re going to design our life? Or is it we’re gonna accept that we’re going to have to start over again and work our way back up to get back to where you were.
Steve Steph: [00:30:04] We never have cared about getting back to where we were at all. It’s help. That’s very healthy. I think for me the goal is to not get there.
Speaker 5: [00:30:16] What way did it was I who left before step because I melted down and I just. I was like, I wasn’t doing anything. I didn’t know how to. I didn’t know how to not get up at four in the morning. I didn’t know how to not be like if I was going to clean off the countertop, I’d make it the cleanest freaking countertop in the world. I didn’t know how to not be a hundred percent in on every little activity and so I was wound really tight so I just, I was hanging out with a dog exercising and then I kinda got bored and started selling my personal stuff on Ebay and Steph shortly followed by then I had been selling a few things and then we would do it together. Like on a weekend we’d go to
Steve Steph: [00:31:09] for stuff to sell and how much things will sell for, you know, just really figuring out as a seller.
Speaker 5: [00:31:17] It wasn’t. We weren’t looking at that as a job at that time. We were just like, hey, check this out. Stuff.
Stephen: [00:31:22] I was at a point in your relationship. Did you notice a change in your relationship at that moment? Because I’m very interested in this because you both seem to enjoy it. I mean he sounds like Steve found at first and then he introduced it. Was it like all of a sudden, oh my gosh, this is like one of the most awesome because you’re hunting and gathering and then selling the reward, getting applause with dollars, stuff like that. Is that a weird question? Do you get. What I’m saying is I’m like, is that because it sounds like such a connection point, was it like, you know, was it like him asking you out on a date and stuff? I mean, was it that moment?
Steve Steph: [00:32:01] I would say no. It was such a weird little smooth transition, but nothing had an event. There was no big. It just was just weren’t fireworks, Steve? Oh yeah.
Speaker 5: [00:32:13] It would be like us. I think it’s the equivalent of if steph would, if she was still working. So she came home and I said, hey, I want to go. Let’s go see a movie. She’d be like, cool, let’s go see a movie. If I say there’s this new restaurant, OK, let’s go check that out. But it was, you know, we started. She, well she’s, I would tell her what I was selling and we were joking about some of the stuff that was being sold and then we, when we started doing, just randomly go to a thrift store, garage sale. It was never about the money. It was just like we were hanging out and we were just, it was fun. We’d go, we’d go get a starbucks drive up to garage sales. Like looking back, there was never any, there was never any goal or any plan. It’s really weird.
Steve Steph: [00:32:58] No, but I think once. OK. So when you first hear those first to change, that is really great. I mean, it is, it’s a great feeling and then you see, oh my gosh, it became kind of like, it’s just so fun to see how much you could forward that you’ve found for so cheap or you know, or something that you’d never even heard of that you to do some research on and then, uh, you’re right a listing and then you just learn so much. It was more of a learning. Something was just something fun to do together. And um, it was really.
Speaker 7: [00:33:34] Yeah.
Steve Steph: [00:33:35] I don’t know, it was very seamless but yet a really exciting time because it was like a change, something new and you saw something in him. He got his dignity back. Yeah. You know what he did? I never really thought about it, but he found something
Speaker 7: [00:33:52] that
Steve Steph: [00:33:53] he didn’t make his insides churn, you know, it is not as. It took a long time for him to detox. He’s not completely deeper, that’s for sure. You know, and it’s been years now, but it’s still, that’s how bad it was. I got my husband back.
Speaker 5: [00:34:12] Yeah. I think one of the big thing was there’s an intensity that I think like I think I, I in general, I realized who I am. I know I have a, you know, I can be really obsessive on things and I try to use that in a good way. But in the industry I was in, there’s a lot of confrontations with, you know, like we did schools in la dealing with unions and ngos compromise daily from the time, like at [4:30] in the morning was my first phone calls in, the last ones would be at 10 at night and it usually was, you know, people needing stuff and it was, there was confrontation, so it was a, it was a horrible, horrible way to be. I got real good at fighting, you know, and that’s not a good thing. You want to be on healthy, so you just learn a little skills on the negotiating in a, in an environment where the negotiations are based on, you know, intimidation and stuff like that. And it wasn’t good. So that, yeah, that first year it took me a year not to wake up immediately. You slept if I slept and then, but I, I think that that’s true. I did. There is, and I see it too. I am. I’m more and more closer to Steve The kid and what I don’t know that I was actually searching for that are heading in that direction, but I can tell you I feel it like Steve The kid was, was not, he was, he was just freaking happy.
Stephen: [00:35:51] Let me say this, but there’s two points here that I think one is you started having success and earning an income, but two, you took financial pressure down the other way and you know, and to me it sounds like when you’ve rolled up to a yard sale with the starbucks and he’s got this smile and you’re not looking to crush them in the deal and negotiate them and that evil way again. Right? To make sure there’s a difference. I mean it’s like you’re helping them because you’re doing what they’re asking, right? It’s enjoyable. It’s, it’s all that stuff and I think about guys our age that are in that grind and just hate their life and just bring it home. And you know, that’s the reason, you know, there’s so many troubles at home and all those different things. I just wonder how many people could find some part of this business and you know, I guess that’s why you know, you teach is that, is that what you’re trying to do is to show others that there might be another way.
Speaker 5: [00:36:50] Yeah,
Stephen: [00:36:51] definitely on Youtube. Yeah. Yeah. Because I could see it. It’s not like you’re, it’s not like you’re saying, hey, we’re the smartest and this is what you do. You’re saying, Hey, this is what we do. Here’s exactly how we do it. Here’s why we do it. And you could kind of do this too. That’s the vibe I get from you guys.
Speaker 5: [00:37:07] Are you?
Steve Steph: [00:37:09] I think you’re helping us figure out what we are doing.
Stephen: [00:37:12] No know it’s true.
Speaker 5: [00:37:15] We do stress that. And
Steve Steph: [00:37:18] I’ve had some rants on there.
Speaker 5: [00:37:20] Hey, if you, if you use reselling, it’s a tool. If you’re in a job that you don’t care for or you just feel like you’re being crushed and you do this, if you’re going to work really hard on a job you don’t like, why not do this part time while you’re doing that other jobs, you know, just suck it up and build up either a nest egg or are, you know, if you need to invest in a business, you’re working on another business or if you wanted to do this ultimately full time and get out of that situation and look at us as just like you said, we’re showing you this is what we do and I guarantee you that most people that if they’re money motivated or if they just want to have a big business in that turns them on a can do way better than us. Way better because we honestly have not. We’ve, we’ve never really put the pedal down and said, let’s see what we can do with this thing. You know, we’ve never done that, but we have done that with our, our friends.
Stephen: [00:38:19] Oh yeah, you’re definitely living life. OK, so let’s talk about this because I think one of the cool things that you guys have done, um, that I admire is you say, wow, you know, Ebay, um, which your, you still sell on and you’re not a hater any behavior in any way, but you guys have definitely created, you’re a lot more freedom for yourself than a lot of others because you become bound by those companies when you define yourself and this is the only way you could sell. You aren’t defined by that. Right? That’s very restrictive. You guys have definitely branched off, um, and really I think are leading the way visibly. And I’m sure there were other mega sellers who do it too, but you guys really have embraced these selling apps and these e-commerce selling apps, these local apps. I’m probably better and more visually than most. I mean, I’ve seen other people, you know, like Chris, a bonafide hustler, right? Christie pre, he sells, you know, using craigslist and stuff like that. But you guys, I mean, you’re scaled selling. I mean, which, which blows my mind. I don’t know how you handle the customer service side. I guess I guess the good news is there’s two of you and you have a good attitude, but paying when it’s [inaudible] it’s a one person, it can be pretty stressful. Walk us through. Why did you go there and just not scale out Ebay?
Steve Steph: [00:39:38] OK, well we hadn’t scaled out Ebay for sure. We. OK. One thing that we haven’t really touched on is that we have discovered this whole side of um, buying liquidation. So we’ll buy high end department store returns since we aren’t the greatest resellers in the world and there isn’t enough time to find enough to source enough stock to sell. We found liquidation, so we buy customer returns, shelf pulls over stop, um, from a liquidation company that’s nearest. It’s called via trading and other places too. But, um, that’s where we always have, are just bread and butter, just always sitting in our storage unit. Lots of stuff to sell. Cookware has basically what we love to sell because it sells so well. I’m on Ebay and it’s not usually destroyed very much. It’s just something that can do it.
Stephen: [00:40:23] So your plan was to buy it and sell it on Ebay?
Steve Steph: [00:40:26] Yeah. And we did. Yeah, we did try to sell on craigslist too, but it kind of has, we’ve watched it die over the years. Um, but we sell on, have been ebay sellers. That’s whole time until just, I think it was march, wasn’t it, around March of last year. Last year we went to breakfast with Amanda and our daughter and um, she was going to meet a lady from this app called [inaudible] sale and just to, the lady was coming there to go drop off something that she bought. It was like shoes or something for a son. And so we were like, what are you talk, what is this? And we’ve never even heard of it. And um, she said, oh, you know, you know, a local APP and rockets like craigslist, but there’s actually activity. And um, so she told us about other ones too.
Stephen: [00:41:13] And how old, how old was she at that point
Steve Steph: [00:41:15] when he, I guess it was just last year.
Stephen: [00:41:20] So it’s a generational thing.
Steve Steph: [00:41:21] Yeah, exactly. So we’re looking at that and going, what the heck is just not known about this, you know, we’re all, we only list. So um,
Speaker 5: [00:41:35] we put the apps on our phone while we’re there and we start scrolling through and we’re going, this is unbelievable. Who are the people, you know, at least in our area at that, that there was a lot of action on them, you know, like to offer up.
Steve Steph: [00:41:48] So we started listing a few things on there that, yeah, we got it. We got activity,
Speaker 5: [00:41:55] we came home, listed a few things and boom,
Speaker 6: [00:41:59] stuff that you had listed on Ebay already. Same pricing immediately.
Speaker 5: [00:42:06] Is this really possible? Like, seriously, it was so shocking that it was. Yeah, it was so easy and we live like it takes us time. It’s three minutes to get to our meetup place at the starbucks if it’s not during the morning or the evening commute. So we’d get there in three minutes and we sold and we got real excited after that and we start with. So he came back and we’re putting a bunch of more on the just the two apps at this point. It was all from broad cell and we went on a streak. I have to go back and look at, we have a log, we keep track of everything and it was like 70 or 72 days in that range of selling something every day. And that’s awesome. It doesn’t mean like sometimes we sold quite a bit, multiple buyers and then there was times where we were like, man, we just need one sale, one sale. Because we were, we got hooked on that our street. And it was, it was unbelievable. And our streak actually, even after, like we finally just said, no, we’re taking some time off now we’re turning it into
Speaker 6: [00:43:05] fine, you don’t want a job.
Steve Steph: [00:43:07] Right? But the pressure was, hey, how long could we go? Because we made a bet and we said, you know, Steve said five days, five days. And then we went so far past it, you know, it just was crazy. So when we, uh, first, or that’s how we started doing youtube too is we kind of talked about it because, um, we’re like, the crazy stuff we encounter in our lives is just wire me money. Yeah, just, all of this is such a weird thing. Nobody believes that. Like our friends where we said, you know, they don’t know what we do, so we’re like, we should do a youtube channel and just share with their friends or whatever, family sorta. But um, so when we bought, I think we bought 17 pallets of this high end returns and got it delivered. That was our first video and it’s really awful. But um, because we didn’t know how to even record the right direction, you know, landscape versus portrait. But um, so, but that was our first video and we said, OK, we’re going to try to sell all of this. Lovely because it’s what we’ve been doing so well.
Speaker 6: [00:44:03] OK. So 17 pallets in the past, you, would you have bought that much for Ebay or is that scale
Speaker 5: [00:44:11] in one shot? Like we would do? We would buy more frequently. I mean, 17 pallets is a lot of pallets.
Speaker 6: [00:44:20] I have a warehouse that’s a lot of pallets.
Speaker 5: [00:44:23] We had a storage unit and we would fit probably
Steve Steph: [00:44:27] 12 is what a truck will hold, but they doubled up a cup. The trucks that will to us here, how much would we fit in ours because we,
Speaker 5: [00:44:35] we’d put them in and then we had to break down pallet, I’d say four or five pallets and then consolidate the,
Steve Steph: [00:44:44] just stack them up to the ceiling basically on top of other ballot. That gets back to the whole working hard and being [inaudible] the thing is OK, costs us $200 to get a truck delivered from the via trading place where we buy and uh, to our house because we’re here in southern California in there too. So it’s only 200 bucks, but it’s $200. We buy one pallet or if we maxed out the truck, which will be 12 pallets.
Stephen: [00:45:05] So we might have spoken.
Steve Steph: [00:45:09] So that’s why we usually will do like the [inaudible] range. But for some reason we had more. Are we going to do two shipments? And they just said we’ll double them up to see if we can fit them in a truck. And they did a video.
Stephen: [00:45:20] I have a disclosure to make. I have watched you guys do some of these crazy things. It’s like, I don’t, it’s like a traffic accident. I can’t remember what it is. I mean, literally I have had you guys on for hours at these yards or flea markets, yard sales. I watched it. I’m like, what am I doing now? I’m reading a book or I’m doing something else that’s going on in the background. And I’m like, I can’t look away. I don’t know why it’s weird, but I get it. You’re creating a legacy. Uh, you know, like, it’s like Gary v would say, you know, when he wants his kid. So I mean, I get it. I mean, I think, I think it’s very cool because it also validates or vindicates what you do, don’t you think?
Steve Steph: [00:46:14] Absolutely. It does. And we would do so many things. Like, um, now that we’ve discovered youtube, but because we really had never really watched it before we started doing it. But um, we have figured out all these other resellers and stuff and the things that they sell and we, um, we do so many different avenues, like we do, um, government liquidation. We go to auctions, we go to flea markets, we go to yard sales, we do, um, liquidation, we do all kinds of different things and now we buy them a local apps and sell on them. It’s a good place to stores from as well. So we just have so many weird things that we do and run into that we just wish we had recorded things before in the past because you wouldn’t believe some of this stuff that we’ve come across because there’s a reseller when you just buying stuff opportunistically where it’s just, um, hey, I think we can flip this and make money. It’s some of the things you run into. You wouldn’t be something you’d normally buy, but it’s an opportunity. So it’s just different. It’s just we’re excited that people are watching
Speaker 5: [00:47:10] that whole video that people watch and they’re the, the legacy thing is important and it’s not. I don’t, I don’t even know if that’s the right word, but having like I picture our grandkids, watch it and I, I, I just hope they see stuff and they go, man, they’re fricking crazy and weird or whatever and that they feel comfortable in who you are, you know, like be as we’re just be who you are and if it’s weird, it’s weird and there’s going to be people that might not like it, but you will find some birds that will fly with it. You know, that there’ll be people that
Speaker 5: [00:47:49] you know, that are, that are willing to just be who they are, whether it’s acceptable or not. And then this whole youtube thing, it’s taken on a life of its own. Don’t know where it’s going, but the live like you’re saying, hey, I don’t want to look away w when we’re doing those lives. We wish that there was a way that we were seeing the people and just chatting with him. Just having that, that re, that interaction with everybody and it’s just. I don’t even know how to explain it, but there’s like a community there that
Stephen: [00:48:23] they’re kindred spirits you. Yeah, there’s definitely, I, to be honest, almost all of my friends anymore or in this world, you know, uh, uh, we’re best friends. I mean it’s like real deep relationships and it’s a, it fascinates me every time because it’s like I would have never met this person had I not joined this community in some way and there’s some crazies, but their crazies in your other life, Steve, let me ask you this question. How do you define yourself now? So you were defined by, you were superintendent of these jobs and you’re building these schools. It was a big man about town. How do you define yourself now and. Oh, I’m sorry to, to you say, well, and do you have a smile about it? It’s a different. It’s a different thing I think.
Speaker 5: [00:49:08] Yeah. I’m, I don’t define myself by what we do at all. And that’s why I always say, you know, the pots and pans aren’t sexy, but that isn’t, that has nothing to do with what we’re doing. You know, what we’re selling. I, I honestly, I think I’m, I think I’m a freaking kid. I really do.
Stephen: [00:49:31] You would agree for sure and I don’t and it’s not, there’s no doubt I could see that.
Speaker 5: [00:49:40] I feel like I’m at at a lot. People have asked, hey, what are your plans on youtube and all that if, if tomorrow it wasn’t enjoyable, you know, I say it’s like when we go to the playground and if everybody there is cooling, when we’re having a good time, we’ll keep going to the playground. But as soon as the bullies show up or the, you know, it’s just a bad scene there, you know, the sand has cat poop in it or whatever. When that happened, we will go to the playground anymore. But right now I feel, I honestly feel like I’m playing. I feel like I’m playing. I feel because we talk about this like we can, like we’re going to after this, we’re going to go meet Amanda and Dean Dean and just doing that and be able to say yes, no, 99 percent of the time. That’s like a kid with no responsibility
Stephen: [00:50:33] and think of what that’s doing for their lives. Right. I mean, the depth of relationship, not that your dad wasn’t involved, I don’t mean it that way and I don’t know that he was or wasn’t. But to have it now to be like, I have three grand daughters and you know, one was sick last week or the week before and my son’s like, hey, could you come down and watch him? Absolutely. I’ll be there and nobody ever did that. And so now what are you building, you know, 20 years from now, to me that’s maybe the legacy and the video is just the crazy stories along the way.
Steve Steph: [00:51:08] Aright, what’s sad is I’m sure your dad and Steve’s dad, um, and most people’s dads would have loved to be able to have that freedom, but they’ve got jobs. Didn’t speak though. Yeah. But I’m sure everybody would love to be able to just drop things and go do
Stephen: [00:51:24] well. This opportunity wasn’t there. I mean, think about this stuff. You would have had to go work at another company as a finance person, period. That was your option in what we have, what everybody knows.
Speaker 5: [00:51:42] There’s no like, um, we have, uh, we have a subscriber who is 14 years old and I don’t know what our oldest one is, but I’m sure they’re well into the seventies and anybody, there’s no reason to in this day and age to like work to retire. There’s no reason to retire. Just if you enjoy this type of thing or doing something with that can be you have access to the whole world.
Stephen: [00:52:08] What was your option driving one of the buses or being a greeter at Walmart? That was your retirement and both of those are kind of creepy.
Steve Steph: [00:52:17] The thing is as we resell and continue this, we learned so much and it makes going into a thrift store so much faster because we know more things that we know things to look for. So every day and now with youtube, you know, we watch a lot of youtube now because there are friends in there and we just never knew that existed. That there, there’s a whole other community was there. Because before we started doing youtube, we were the only resellers we knew. We didn’t have any color silk resellers. We didn’t know that was a term that was. We just flipped stuff for later. But um, so
Stephen: [00:52:52] sexy pots and pans,
Steve Steph: [00:52:55] but having friends and other people that do it too is just unbelievable. And just having somebody to contact and say, Hey, do you know anything about this? Or, you know, there’s facebook groups like resellers, society where you can put a post a picture of someone say, what the heck is this? Does anybody know? And 50 people now, you know, it’s just this whole new side of reselling that, um, you know, doors have been opened that it’s just amazing how much we’ve grown as a reseller. It’s
Speaker 5: [00:53:22] weird. It’s like a door open and we’re like, what? That a normal.
Steve Steph: [00:53:28] It’s just been so neat to have this network of people and the relationship that we’ve grown,
Speaker 5: [00:53:35] like people might think we’re joking like we do when we do livestream sometime were like, hey, like we do the q and a and our [inaudible] is we’re going to ask you questions and we’re not looking like we use information. Like we asked them questions and all these people, you know, they’re giving us the answers and you know, they can ask us questions too, but we truly,
Stephen: [00:53:54] it’s like a customer service team. They’re out there and they’re scanning looking it up on Ebay for you. And I’m thinking to myself, what a great scam these two are running here. This is the best thing. Got a big research team all across the world. That’s it’s data for free. I’m like, I love it,
Speaker 5: [00:54:09] but we’re very upfront about the fact that hey, we’re asking you to help
Steve Steph: [00:54:14] and I’m not gonna pay you like say you were just watching and you see something and you’re like, oh my gosh, check that out. You know, pick that up and look at that. You know, somebody actually gets to pick it up and look at it and you’re like, you’re right there. So it’s really fun.
Speaker 5: [00:54:29] It is like we’re hearing from experts on different things and they’re just saying, OK, this is past somebody that somebody just sent a message today. We looked at some albums and he said, hey, I can. That’s what he does. He knows all about him and he’ll, he’s, we could contact him anytime. Just let me know when some help and I’ll help you guys with that
Steve Steph: [00:54:50] crazy yet.
Stephen: [00:54:51] Awesome. The optimism and you guys can’t hear it. Uh, my listeners will. The optimism in your voice voices blows me away because I’m betting, you know, this is a pretty obvious statement, is that a few years ago when you were in the construction world, you wouldn’t have been this way. There’s no chance. Probably when times were good, there wasn’t this enthusiasm. Is that fair?
Speaker 5: [00:55:18] I think Steph, she’s just that way. She’s like, she’s just a happy person. I know. I wouldn’t have been. No.
Stephen: [00:55:30] Now just think about it. You’re there now and to me that’s the thing that you gotta you got put yourself on the back, you’re there now, you’ve pulled your head up and you got through it and now you’re through it and you’re encouraging others and I would just encourage you to encourage more others because there was a lot of guys. One of the stats I saw as the number one suicide group are guys in their fifties and sixties because they’ve lost their identity because they used to be the breadwinner will now sometimes the way, well most times the wife work, so they are not the only breadwinner anymore and now they have a. The kids are gone and you know, so they’ve completely lost their identity. Well Steve is here to say, guess what? You can have it back and guess what? It can be more fun than you ever had. Have you ever had this much fun in your lifestyle?
Speaker 5: [00:56:19] Oh Man. It really is awesome. And you’re right. Is Sad and I know I don’t know the steps, like I haven’t looked that up but we meet people regularly that, you know, they’ll bump into us and on these meetups and the guys in our age group, they, they want to do. We’ve had people say, Hey, I want to do that and we always say we’ll help you. Here’s, here’s our number, our number and we’ll help you. We’ll tell you how to get started, how to, you know, transition and nobody has taken us up on that. And it’s sad because you could see there they, they will actually will spend more time talking to them about what we do and what we did like tell our story and they get all excited and they want to do it. But I know where they’re at, you know, they’re just in a place where they need to be forced out or, or have some awakening, you know, and that.
Stephen: [00:57:17] But you’re planting a seed. And the other thing I would say to you is don’t be. I mean wait till you find out when somebody does come up because this happens to me all the time. Steve, you introduce me to somebody and they’re like, oh yeah, and I’m always like, I can’t remember because I talked to so many people and they’re like, you don’t know what kind of impact that had on my life. You don’t understand where I was in my point in my life. And so guess what? There are people watching your videos that you’re never going to hear from, but you are changing their world because you’re showing them another way. So please, I encourage you to stop and to show more of it because it’s the enthusiasts. I’m telling Ya, I can’t look away. That’s like a trap. I’m telling. It’s a, I’m rubber necking. I’m like, Oh my God, why am I still have this on? I don’t know, but I can’t stop. So let me go ahead.
Speaker 5: [00:58:06] We’ve had somebody recently, and by the way, we think that it’s because this whole community is making this thing this way, you know, but we had, we had somebody put a message on video like waste of time and then throw back on another one.
Steve Steph: [00:58:22] Alright, I’m going to give you guys another chance. Wasn’t so bad.
Speaker 5: [00:58:27] Next thing you know,
Steve Steph: [00:58:28] somebody wrote us a message and said, OK, I have to admit, when I first started watching, when I watched your first video, I was like, I didn’t like this. He said, and then I’m in the hospital and I’m watching them and I love it. I can’t stop the traffic accident. I’m telling you, you can’t stop like you’re heavily medicated.
Stephen: [00:58:49] I think the key is that you guys are real and most people are like, wait, when are they going to pitch me their course? When are they going to try and sell me something? There’s gotta be some story here. And the fact that you’re not, I think is what you got to keep doing because again, I’ll go back to the beginning of this conversation where I see a deep, uh, well, I see the love and to me that’s a very important, you know, as a married guy, um, I see that, but I see the respect and the respect in each other’s eyes for each other to me is why that you guys work so well together. And if you could teach others that and show the others, especially for guys to hear that it’s OK to, to be that way, man, the world will be a better place and you’re going to have a little dent in the universe. Um, and I just think it’s cool.
Steve Steph: [00:59:38] Well, one thing I wanted to say just because you brought this up about like your dad, what’d your dad say or whatever, but in their whole talk about men, um, it’s been very surprising how many people have asked us, like, that’s been a concern with. What did your family say? What did they think when you told them all, you know, what did your kids say? Where they exchanged or whatever. Um, it’s never been something where anybody’s ever cared. That’s what’s weird is nobody has even judged us in any way from what you thought they were going to. And they didn’t. Well, I didn’t, we never even thought about that, that anybody would, we didn’t care. I guess everybody else is thinking that they would, but maybe they won’t, you know. And what do you care if they do a good thing and make yourself happy for once you know there’s something you could try, something to change, but it doesn’t matter what somebody else thinks. It’s how. Look at how happy Steve is and what’s happened to him in his life. They can have that too. You know it. You don’t have to worry about what somebody thinks so, but they will see your enthusiasm and your happiness in your piece about what you’re doing. Hopefully they love you and care for you. Even if they don’t like it, they’re gonna just, you know, they’ll support you. Most people I think families.
Stephen: [01:00:59] So I think so. I think you’re, I think you’re spot on, but I think it’s giving permission and I think by leading by example, you’re giving permission and I’m, I think five years from now this will be so normal where there are so many entrepreneurs, so many people that have took control of their future. And like I said, do you guys took it a step further by not being bound by Ebay’s rules or Amazon’s rules or etsy or whatever else you have. Steven steps rules, probably steps, rolls, I’m sure it for sure she’s a finance person, but it, it, it, it. To me that’s the next place to go. You’re taking [inaudible]. So let me ask you this because I know Steve doesn’t have a plan stuff. What’s the plan? So where, where are we going next
Steve Steph: [01:01:42] if I am not the planner, Steve, but he just told me he doesn’t have a plan. I mean he said it, I don’t have a plan to release your. I follow along whatever you want to do and I support them and I love him and I will go enthusiastically wherever he wants to take us.
Speaker 5: [01:01:57] Well here’s, here’s the plan and it is weird because I, I’m the type of person that would have been writing everything down, you know, putting goals in writing. I’m not against that. I know for a fact that that does work in this journey. It’s just more of a, of a feeling. I don’t know if this makes sense, but it’s a feeling of where we need to go next and as things happen, like you know, the local sales thing from the time it really took off for us, we were saying this cannot be, you know, just the fluke and I think you’re touching on this to steve where the future is going to be big and I don’t know what it looked like in the future, but it’s going to be big. It’s not going away. The younger kids that will come and contacted by, you know, by the items this way they’re selling this way.
Speaker 5: [01:02:51] It’s so natural for when you meet up with a person that’s in their twenties versus a person that’s our age. It’s a different interaction out there. The people in their twenties are super. It’s like they’re walking into a regular store and there just are trusting that he never asked. They never check stuff like when we sell them things, they never opened the box there. Real pleasant. It’s literally like a walked into a store and they just know they’re going to be treated well and do what they’re buying. Is going to be what we say it is. It’s a interesting.
Steve Steph: [01:03:24] What do you mean by checking seo means like they didn’t plug it into an outlet and say, yes.
Stephen: [01:03:28] Yeah, I get it. I mean there’s a trust factor. Do you guys have that trust? Right. That’s a very cool observation and I agree with you. I think you’re spot on there. Um, this is a transition
Steve Steph: [01:03:38] loving. Another thing too, like when we go to estate sales, yard sales, wherever it’s the or when we hold them and we’re selling at them, you know, at a flea market or a yard sale. It’s the younger kids that are coming in with their cell phones and right in front of you, they’re scanning everything. All the books, it’s, they’re checking, they’re looking up things to see if they can resell it. So there are entrepreneurs coming up and it’s really common. I think I’m in the younger generation to actually do that. It’s very weird. I like it.
Stephen: [01:04:08] I want you to think it’s a very cool because you’re, you’re now, you know, it’s the trades. Remember and I, when we were kids, when somebody would go into the trades, you know, that meant, you know, electric plumbing, right? Very few things now. It could be in selling. I mean, that’s almost like a trade. It’s a skill, you know,
Speaker 5: [01:04:28] one of the oldest, oldest arts and it’s, it’s making a comeback in a big way. I will give you a glimpse into what I’ve been imagining and.
Stephen: [01:04:39] All right, let’s go. I’m ready to see it. Let me get the picture. Go ahead. Ready? I’m ready. I haven’t talked about this to
Speaker 5: [01:04:45] step either, but it’s, I just, I, we basically have talked a little bit about it, but I think I think facebook, the marketplace, like you know, that one in the last few months, we saw it dramatically for us. OK. Dramatically increase in the number of people that were buying from us and facebook has that, that’s shipping option, that’s setting there and I don’t think they put that in and hope it’s going to do. I think they’re looking to the future and I think my personally think facebook, they do the auctions on there, which we’ve never done. I want to do that, but I think facebook can be something that we can, um, we can really take advantage of. I think in a way that we can, we can make like a business, even if it was just using facebook, I believe we can create a fan or not a fan base, but a customer base by the way. We have a customer based on these apps to quite a big one and that’s weird repeat customers. But I think with facebook, I’m not a businessman and I don’t know all the technical terms, but I think we could build something there. Would a stand alone business just using facebook.
Stephen: [01:06:02] I think you’re spot on. I think, you know, it’s become the way we communicate. It’s, it’s a lot more trusting than some guy from Nigeria who keeps wanting to send me my $8,000,000. Right. I mean, Craig’s craigslist, there’s a lot more trouble. Steve. Don’t consider it’s salt. It’s done. I’m going to send you a money order. I’m going to pay you more. Yeah, I don’t think so. So I, I think you’re right. I think there’s a trust factor and you’re right, and kids today, they’re much more accepting. You know, the other thing I noticed with kids today is, uh, we, we, W we will not go out to eat with our kids unless we yelp at first, not me, them, they will not go into a restaurant without yelp. They have learned this is the way they’re doing though that trust factor of watching you selling, they’re watching your reputation on that app follows you.
Stephen: [01:06:47] And so I think that that’s quite frankly one of the reasons you’re having so much success, you know, thinking about, you know, as we close, I want to think about, you know, people who get stuck. One of the things, one of the goals of the show that I always had was to help people get unstuck because it had been stuck before and it’s talking to people like you and others that get me on stuck, motivating the leave pump jazz ready to jump on. What, what’s your advice you would give to somebody, especially as a couple, right? Think about that from a cultural point of view because you’ve seen some other couples and there’s a relationship gap there. You guys have definitely seem to figure it out or find maybe because you know, maybe it’s the grand kid kid or kids, maybe it’s those connections that are like connections for the two of you, but this clearly is too because you could see it. What’s your advice for the stuck couples that are out there?
Speaker 5: [01:07:41] I have a comment on this one. I think you said respect multiple times during this and that’s a big thing. You know, that you have to respect each other. But I, I feel now there’s this, there’s this thing where ever been, it’s joked about where, you know, you get married, you have kids and then people joke about like
Speaker 5: [01:08:07] making fun of fights with the wife or you know, just negative things back and forth at each other. And a lot of it isn’t as a joke, but a lot of it. I mean there’s quite a bit. It’s not a joke. They don’t, you don’t get to know each other because even though you get married, even if you dated for a long time, it’s a continual process of getting to know somebody because we’re all changing, you know, I’m not the same person I was 10 years ago, so we’re, we’re continually getting to know each other. And if you’re in a relationship where your work is taken up, most of your time, your, when your work is done, if you choose to do the traditional, you know, work til I’m retirement, age and retire, you’re not going to know that person that you’re with and that I think that becomes very problematic for some people.
Speaker 5: [01:08:58] You know, you’re, you’ll be in your sixties or fifties whenever you retire and you don’t know that person cause you both spent so much time trying to do what’s the right thing is, you know, earned. Go to school, get a job, retire and die, and that’s horrible. Horrible for relationship. When, I mean I might be dead tomorrow. So what we do today becomes significantly more important than my retirement is going deep. The hair. It’s true though. All those cliches, like it’s easy to brush them off because there’s. You don’t feel it right away when somebody is saying, even if you hear somebody that’s dying and they tell you something you can, it can have an impact on you, but it doesn’t stay with you because we just have these belief systems that I gotta do this, you know, or I need this car. I got to work at that whole thing is I’m just.
Speaker 5: [01:10:00] Yeah, it’s a trap that’s a, I’m gonna. Use that Pronoun, that trap, that trap. Travel will destroy the individual and it will destroy any relationship that they have in our won’t let them flourish. You know, it might not destroy them. They might still be a num, nothing relationship, but they won’t flourish. Flourish. How am I saying that they won’t do that and this ties into your kids and your grandkids. Grandkids, to me are. I mean, who would ever thought, oh, you’re a, you’re a grandfather. It never would have sounded appealing for stuff. I don’t feel like a grandfather, but when I first heard that it was the most wonderful sound ever.
Speaker 5: [01:10:44] Yeah, it is. It’s like instantly it’s like, you’re damn right, I’m a grandpa something, you know, so it’s, I, I, man, I just wish I can just grab somebody and say, listen, get my skin for a minute. You know, cause I know how that feels to be stuck and I also know how it feels when you finally just get out of that and you know, when you’re a kid and you’re going, what do you want to be when you up? I had that feeling. Now you have that feeling where I’m like, man, I wonder what we’re going to be doing in a year or two year. You know, like it’s exciting. There is no, we have these limits that we put on ourselves. Like OK, in your fifties you do this, you do this. And the actual thought of retirement doesn’t. I don’t even think about that. Now that doesn’t. I don’t want to retire. I don’t know what I’ll be doing, but I don’t want to retire.
Speaker 8: [01:11:37] Yeah.
Stephen: [01:11:39] Anything to add to that?
Steve Steph: [01:11:41] Well, mine was as Steve’s is nice and deep there.
Stephen: [01:11:44] Well yeah, he w he went. He wouldn’t really, you know, what he described, he described hope, getting hope back into your life and it sounds like Steve was at a place where you didn’t have that and so to find it with you and then to find it and just commenting and to continue it to me and build on it, it’s very, very powerful.
Steve Steph: [01:12:02] Well, what I had taken from your question is I thought you meant like couples working together or
Stephen: [01:12:06] he was, but he went deep on his own, but that’s normal.
Steve Steph: [01:12:12] I wanted to say was um, you know, you married your spouse because you liked him in that it’s not just you love them because of course you love them if you’re still married. But I liked Steve. I liked hanging out with him. I liked being with him. I like it. He makes me feel like, you know, but you, you just make me, you’re part of me, you know.
Stephen: [01:12:39] No, I get it. That’s a very cool place to get to. And I’m just, like you said you love each other, but you actually liked them.
Steve Steph: [01:12:48] Yeah. And I know that you can get in a relationship or stresses and stuff and get distant from each other and stop liking each other and I know that that’s common, but if you can, you know, we can get to that point, you know, but we, if you see that the other person has something to offer, that’s a value. Like steve brings different things to our selling relationship and our marriage that we have different strengths and different things that we, the other one brings. So you know, we both might be strong headed and want to do it our way or do this, you know, whatever it is. If you just try to remember that there’s something special about the other person, let them go with it. You know, let them do their thing and supportive. Yeah. Let them be good at. What they want to do is you can let your guard down and just let them have that, you know, just little things of just letting your spouse have that is so important because they need it, especially if they’re crazy. Yeah. But I mean as far as like a reselling couple, where one might have a strength in one place in one might not another, just to allow them to flourish in it.
Stephen: [01:13:59] You’ll find there, they’ll find their strength because they have a strength to bring, just might not be the same thing, which is very complimentary. That’s the best, best of both worlds. So I think I now know we’re enjoy your life comes from.
Speaker 5: [01:14:14] I get it.
Stephen: [01:14:15] I absolutely get it. So you guys can be found on Youtube and the name of your channel was what?
Speaker 5: [01:14:22] The resale killers and Stephen Stephen s, t e v e n s I would expect nothing less than to get to do for that. Hey, by the way, steps dad, his name is Stephen with a Ph step. He gets it right. That would’ve been a um, but she was a boy. His name is Steven [inaudible]. Steve’s right here.
Stephen: [01:14:51] OK. So Youtube, uh, uh, that’s the best place to reach you guys, to Stephen. Stephen Resale killers. And it can, uh, if somebody has a question or anything like that, that’s the best place. Trust me, once you start watching them, you will not look at you message me and tell me if I’m not wrong. You will be like, I can’t look away. I don’t know why. I just wasted four hours of my life watching them at a yard sale or at a flea market and I’m like, oh my gosh. And I’d like, look at these and I’m, I’m looking at the crowd. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m like, oh my God, it’s so mindless, but I can’t look away. I love it. Hey, thank you guys so much, man. I really appreciate it. I wish you guys nothing but success.
Speaker 5: [01:15:31] We really appreciate you having us on hero and everybody out there and enjoy your life. Enjoy your life.
Stephen: [01:15:38] Tells you a great episode. That’s why I love what I do because how could you not be pumped after hearing that again? You know, I think he’s spot on when he’s saying that, you know, these marketplaces are really developed. I remember John Lost and telling me, Steve, a landing page for your unique product is ultimately where you’re gonna go, right? Well, what he’s describing is a local landing page in essence where he’s building his own customer base, you know, had a couple of those interviews. I remember I’m John Your own brewery with the uh, uh, the auction Cincinnati Picker, right? Doing his own local auctions. These guys are doing in their own local marketplace sales. He’s talking about use facebook marketplace in addition to offer up and varage sale. And I just think that that’s where the future’s going to hear that younger families and I think of my own kids, they are so ready to buy.
Stephen: [01:16:27] They don’t want to pay full retail for anything and they’re not willing to wait even for Amazon and giving them same day delivery. They’d rather buy it local where they can see it and they trust and they love a better deal. So I think there’s something to be said. I think you’ve got to figure it out. What works for you. Work out the processes, but they do a good job of explaining it. So if you have any interest in this, go check them out. Again, it’s Stephen, Steph, resale killers on youtube, and they explained it all. They don’t pull any punches. They demonstrate by example, e-commerce, momentum, [inaudible], e-commerce, momentum [inaudible]. Take care.
Cool voice guy: [01:17:00] Thanks for listening to the e-commerce momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found@ecommercemomentum.com. Under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and like us on itunes. Nunes.
