312 : Trevor Morris – Step out and help others and you will get 10X back- step out even when it is uncomfortable!

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Trevor is a little on the shy side. He is quiet, composed and very uncomfortable in front of a group of people. Until he isn’t. Yes it comes out of you when you connect with others, when you help others with NO expectation. Magically you get 10 fold. So should you help others…of course. Should you help others with expecting nothing in return… OF COURSE! Think of the others that have helped you, that answered that question. When you asked “What can I do for you in return for your help?” and they answer: “Just do YOUR best!” Your best is just yours. Go and help others and see what happens in your life.

Mentioned:

Amazing Freedom

Trevor’s FB contact

Sponsors

Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List

Solutions4ecommerce

Scope from Sellerlabs

GoDaddy

Grasshopper

Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)

Stephen:                             [00:00:00]               I’m excited to talk about my sponsors today, Gaye Lisbey’s million dollar arbitrage group. Amazing, amazing group. This is a teacher. This is Gaye, she was a teacher. She is a teacher. Still. You need to learn. This is the type of environment you want to be in because she’s going to help you understand why, and I think that’s the hardest part of this business is understanding why. Why is the red one popular when the green one isn’t? Well, there’s usually a reason and what gay does is probably parse that better than anybody and she’ll explain the reasons for those things. I think that’s really powerful. Yes, she puts out a list. You’re going to get a good use of that list if you get in the group. Now here’s the deal. The group isn’t always open, right? So you get on the waiting list and you can join the waiting list through my link.

Stephen:                             [00:00:46]               I’m doesn’t cost anything to get on a waiting list and if you like her service, which I find that most people do that, that’s why there’s not so many openings. Um, you’ll be with her for a long time. And so it’s amazing freedom.com. She’s part of Andy Slam. It’s group, amazing freedom.com. Forward slash momentum. And you’re going to get in the waiting list. That’s all I can get you on right now. You can use my name and see if that gets you anywhere. But what I like about in the uh, what I like about what they teach in that group or the things that are going on, you know, the current things. I’ve seen a lot of stuff going on about stores going out of business. Well here’s where an opportunity is, here’s why you want to do this. Hey, be cautious about this, you know, with toys r US coming out, you’ve got to think about this and that’s the learning that you need to do.

Stephen:                             [00:01:30]               And Gay is better than anybody else I’ve seen. So I’m amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash momentum will get you to the waiting list. Then hopefully he can get you in the group and then you’re going to see me in there. And uh, we can chat anytime you’re ready. Karen lockers. Group solutions, the number for ecommerce solutions, four ecommerce.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you 50 bucks. Karen’s our account manager. We recommend her to everyone because she’s done so well for us. I mean that’s quite frankly the reason we’ve been paying her for last few years, but she’s become an important part of our team. Her and her team are so involved in our account. I just see the emails coming back and forth, hey, we did this for you. I just saw two listings today. I’m like, wait a second. Why did they show up?

Stephen:                             [00:02:09]               I didn’t put any listings up. They got a. They got a set off to the side by Amazon and they reactivate them for me. You know what I mean? That’s the stuff that just happens when you have a strong team and I can’t recommend Karen enough if you use my code. Momentum. Karen pays me. I don’t want to hide that. Of course we all know that, but you’re going to save $50 and it’s a great opportunity to really, really build out your team with somebody you can trust. That’s why I recommend them. So solutions, four ecommerce solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50. Oh, and by the way, she’s going to do an inventory health report. Why is that important? Well, guess what fees are going up. Is your inventory health number declining like ours is?

Stephen:                             [00:02:57]               Well, here’s why and what they can do. What I like is I get a spreadsheet from them and it says, Hey, here’s a bunch of inventory. Here’s what we recommend. And I’m like, Yep, read refund. I mean delete a return to us, blah blah blah, whatever it is and it’s or destroy and it just happens. That’s what I like. The other thing that I have Karen helped me with a lot is creating new listings. You know, we do a lot of the research ourselves. We upload our images and then boom, magically the listing goes live and I don’t have to worry about it. Those are the services that Karen offers. Can’t recommend her enough solutions. Four ecommerce.com forward slash momentum. Save 50 bucks. Use My code. You save $50 a month every single month and it’s a great service. Plus you get that free inventory health report.

Stephen:                             [00:03:43]               I think it’s a really powerful way, so I can’t. I’m so excited how many people have been joining her because I see it and I’m excited because the messages I get from people saying, hey, this is great. I finally feel like I can focus on something else because Karen and her team are watching this for me and you know, I highly recommend her. Next up is scale lambs and scope and we’ll set it wrong. It’s, it’s amazing. I mean, it really is amazing when you sit back and think about, hey, I want to get this product up and it similar to this product and that’s, that product does well. Well therefore, if that product does well, they have the right keywords, they’ve chosen things correctly, so guess what? You scope and you could see all that stuff and that’s what the most powerful thing in the world is to copy somebody who’s done it right.

Stephen:                             [00:04:28]               That’s what you want to. You want to take advantage of that, right? I mean, it’s, it’s fair, uh, to see and so therefore you can take and apply it to your listing and immediately get that same benefit. That’s what scope does for me. Sellerlabs.com, forward slash momentum. It’s gonna save you $50 on the service. Oh, by the way, it’s free to try. So sign up, try it and say, oh, this is how it’s done. Boom. And then you’re going to, the light’s going to go on and you’re going to be like, man, I can get my products out there. I just can’t wait. Can’t wait. So are labs.com forward slash momentum? The other day I bought another domain. Yes, I bought her the other domain. It’s almost like a, I’m admitting guilt, but it’s because I had an idea and it was something that was a pretty good idea I think is going to go pretty far.

Stephen:                             [00:05:18]               And so what do I do? I go to try Godaddy.com forward slash momentum and save 30 percent. So domains aren’t very expensive. You get a few services, it adds up a little bit. And I usually buy three years. I usually by privacy, by the way, I recommend that to buy that, you know, it’s not that much money, but when you can save 30 percent it makes it that much sweeter and it makes it easier when you’re buying domains and especially if you buy a bunch of domains. I am a domain collector and so I do tend to do that, but that 30 percent makes it a lot easier and I use go daddy because what I like is I can pop in and address I’m thinking and it’ll say nope, nope, could try this version or try this extension and then boom, there it is.

Stephen:                             [00:05:58]               Hey, you better hurry before it goes away and the right, you know, and so try Godaddy.com, forward slash momentum save 30 percent. Also want to mention about grasshopper. Who was that? Just talking to somebody the other day and they were like, Oh yeah, use this company called grasshopper. I’m like, Dude, did you buy it through my link and save 30 percent? Hello? No, they missed that. So save 30 percent. It’s try grasshopper.com. Forward slash momentum. No surprise there, but you’re going to save 30 percent and what the real cool part about that is they’re using it for their private label business and it gives them virtually a second phone on their current phone without having to get another number. They can make up a vanity number. They don’t have to go and do all the grief and sign loan contracts. Pretty easy stuff, and so if you’re creating a brand that you want to identify, you want to look professional, you want to look like a real company. Grasshopper is a great tool. It’s an app you put on your existing phone and boom, you now have a customer service to. You now have a sales department. You’d have a manufacturing division. You could forward it to somebody else. You can have it go to different voicemails, different departments, and it’s all included. So try grasshopper.com, forward slash momentum. Save 30 percent.

Cool voice guy:                  [00:07:13]               Welcome to the ecommerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce selling. Today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.

Stephen:                             [00:07:27]               Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 312, Trevor Norris. You can hear in my voice. I’m very excited. I’m telling you what a great interview because you know, and I’m going to describe trevor and I can’t imagine it’ll get offended by it. He is just a fly below the radar. Put your head down, do the work type of guy. Uh, you know, well educated, smart, smart as a whip, just quiet, you know, if there’s a classroom, he’s not raising his hand every single time to show the smartest. He’s back there taking it all in and figuring it out. And to me, um, as I said in the, after him and I got off the call is, he’s pretty much most guys, you know, most ladies, um, we look to the outliers and thinking that, you know, we should be then we should be them. But I’m telling you after this call, my bet is you’re going to say, I wish I was him because let me tell you, he is one impressive individual. Just a just a wonderful person and a very kind soul and a pretty humble about his success and how that’s all. Those are all good formulas for longterm success. Let’s get into the podcast.

Stephen:                             [00:08:37]               All right. We’ll come back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. Very excited about today’s guest because you know, again, I love my position in life because I get to watch people over time and to see this gentleman just figure it out and expand and expand with his head down real. He’s real calm, real and yet he’s

Stephen:                             [00:08:56]               been developing and developing and it’s just so cool to see them explode and very excited for all of us. Trevor Morris. Welcome Trevor.

Trevor:                                 [00:09:04]               Hi. Thanks for having me.

Stephen:                             [00:09:05]               Well, I think it’s fair. I don’t think that’s an unfair description. You generally, you know, you’re below the line. You don’t stick your head out very often, right? You kinda quiet, Kinda keep to yourself. Put your head down, do the work. Right. Is that fair? That’s fair. And yet, and yet you just got up on stage for the first time in your life. Was that the first time ever?

Trevor:                                 [00:09:28]               I believe so, yeah.

Stephen:                             [00:09:30]               Oh my goodness. All right. We’re going to get to that. So I remember meeting you and who was with you?

Trevor:                                 [00:09:39]               Uh, that was my uncle was about rocky mountain.

Stephen:                             [00:09:42]               Yeah. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was your uncle and your uncle at that time had a massive, massive description, quantity of stuff to sell. Right. Is that kind of the story I remember?

Trevor:                                 [00:09:59]               Yeah, for the most part.

Stephen:                             [00:10:00]               And he was selling it I think on Ebay or locally or what was he doing at the time?

Trevor:                                 [00:10:05]               Yeah. Yeah. So he, he had several storage units full of stuff that he had bought when he did Ebay years ago. Um,

Stephen:                             [00:10:14]               and he just had it all set and he was looking for advice on how to grow it. How come you didn’t take the lead? Because I thought about that. I mean, do you have a perfect opportunity where you and him could have partnered? You could have done all these different things, but I got the vibe that, that wasn’t, you knew that’s not the direction you want to go. Is that fair? In my observation?

Trevor:                                 [00:10:34]               Yeah, that’s fair. Um, you know, I had taken some stuff when I was in college from him and listed it and uh, you know, for, for me and my business, you know, ea is great. Uh, but for me Amazon was better. Yeah. Got It. And so I just saw, you know, Amazon was where I should focus my time and my energy. So for me at that particular time it wasn’t worth it.

Stephen:                             [00:11:05]               And I think here’s the, here’s the important part, you know, that because you, hey, you’ve done it and you realize, hey, this is definitely more my lane and I think more people need to do it now that’s not downplaying. There were some people that try. Amazon, I think of Jay and Ryan have scavenger life friend Jane. I’ve talked and he’s, he’s not interested at all in it. I mean they tried it and they’re like, Eh, it’s not what they want. They want to sell unique things that interest them. They want to stay interested. So that’s what’s so cool is that they could choose their way and you could choose yours. So what did you go to college for?

Trevor:                                 [00:11:37]               I went to college for a maritime administration, which is basically logistics for the ocean, stuff like that. So

Stephen:                             [00:11:46]               the ocean next to your house.

Trevor:                                 [00:11:49]               Uh, I don’t, I don’t live next to an ocean anymore. I was going say,

Stephen:                             [00:11:53]               I don’t think you live in the next to the notion.

Trevor:                                 [00:11:55]               Yeah. Uh, so I went to school down in Galveston, Texas, then I lived in Houston for about two years. Uh, and then my wife and I moved up to the North Dallas area here about a year ago.

Stephen:                             [00:12:07]               And what was it about the ocean that, I mean, because, you know, I used to remember hearing people, I’m going to be a marine biologist, right? Because they were into, you know, sea life and that kind of thing. That was it. Or they’re going to go into coast guard because it was a good way to get girls, but I mean it was always at a beach and that kind of thing. Who wants to be this ocean? Uh, I mean, what was the title again?

Trevor:                                 [00:12:32]               It’s the title of the degree plans, maritime administration, married sentiment, ocean logistics, if you want to call it that. Um,

Stephen:                             [00:12:41]               what led you there? I mean, what, what did you say? I mean, did you see it somewhere? Did you have a family member and a w? What would lead you there?

Trevor:                                 [00:12:49]               Well, you know, growing up I was always, you know, moving stuff around kind of organizing stuff and I’m very good at, I can see stuff like say I see a pallet and I’m like, Oh man, I think that can go up on top of this racking and I could save space or you know, stacking boxes into a cargo. Uh, one of those, you have cargo trailers from u haul

Stephen:                             [00:13:10]               your tetris fan. You were a teacher’s guy.

Trevor:                                 [00:13:12]               Yeah, I’m very good at that type of stuff and I love logistics. And so I was like, Hey, I want to go to a and m, but a and m moved the logistics branch of their university to Galveston because it’s one of the very few satellite campuses. And so I was like, well, I guess I’m going to Galveston and M, you know. Uh, and so that’s where I ended up going. That’s the only school I applied for. So,

Stephen:                             [00:13:39]               and that was, it was still what was just because. Did you love the water too? I mean, was that part of it where, because you could do the same thing for warehousing, right? Material management or whatever it would be for warehousing. Why the water?

Trevor:                                 [00:13:55]               I really don’t know. That’s fair. Is Nice. I like fishing, but uh,

Stephen:                             [00:14:03]               just interesting to me. I mean why, why people choose what they do, you know? Uh, usually there’s something in their background. Okay. Alright. So you studied this, did you graduate? I graduate, yes. Okay. And so what is the typical person who gets that degree? What career path do they have?

Trevor:                                 [00:14:21]               Well, so that’s kind of the beauty is specializes and ocean, but they also, um, they also teach you about land and air, all the different types of logistics. So a lot of people will go out and there’ll be a freight forwarder, a, they could go in the brokerage area. I’m dealing with ships for me. Uh, I worked at a barge company, um, you know, which if people don’t know what that is, it’s basically a smaller version of a ship, but it doesn’t have an engine or anything, most don’t. Uh, it’s pushed or pulled by a tug boat

Stephen:                             [00:15:06]               and they carry materials, right? It could be, they could do containers, but they also could do colon, like I’ve seen barges a coal and open material. Right,

Trevor:                                 [00:15:14]               right. Like the one I worked for was a lot of oil and gas. Oh, cool. Um, so, you know, there’s so many different areas you can go into. I mean, you can go and work at the port if you wanted to go work for a trucking company. You know, I worked for a company that book truckloads. Um, so that’s helped me. Now. Gosh, trucks, I know. Okay. No that lane’s not right. It shouldn’t cost me that much. Or I know how to deal with truck drivers because I did it for several months. So.

Stephen:                             [00:15:52]               So you could relate to all that. So that’s a huge advantage because I see that being a stopping point for a lot of people because you know, you’re dealing with several different companies and there are lots of rules, right? There are rules there and whether they’re necessary or not, somebody’s benefiting is usually how I say it. They’re there and they’re very rigid and sometimes they enforce them, sometimes they don’t, but when they do, you’re in trouble if you’re not correct. Fair. Right. So you’ve got that background. So that’s obviously useful as you scale it. Do you think, again, seeing, seeing, working at that level, seeing that scale because you saw scale early on in your life, is that one of the things that’s attractive to you about Amazon is the ability to, to move volume like that as opposed to the one offs like on an Ebay?

Trevor:                                 [00:16:44]               Yeah. Um, and, you know, I think, I think that’s one of the things, you know why it’s good, I mean it’s good to do like retail arbitrage. Um, but like most people started out doing retail arbitrage. That’s what, that’s what I did for the longest time. Um, and then, you know, about a year or two ago I started seeing a shift and I’m like, okay, retail still going to be good, it’s still going to be there, but to scale my business, what do I need to do? And I started looking into wholesale, which wholesale is good, but it can be very competitive, it can be hard to get with suppliers. Uh, and then I started looking at the overstock industry. I’m in close outs and so that’s been my main focus for about a year now.

Stephen:                             [00:17:35]               So you’re buying truckloads or pallet loads? I guess you could be any of the above. Um, of have close outs. Uh, probably not shell pills but close out over production. I always tell people when they start up, I don’t care what businesses, when they’re making Doritos, when they start up the Dorito line, they start making them and they don’t have enough powder on them. So they sell them as second or what have you. In the old days they used to feed them to animals. Now they actually, because the quality is there, you know, the, the Claudia, they sell them to third party companies that, you know, put their packaging on it and make a lot of money. Right. And so when that happens though, they, at least in my experience that tell me if I’m wrong, is there’s usually about a 10 percent overrun when a manufacturer is making something, right. They usually say plus or minus 10 percent is what least when I’ve had stuff manufactured and that if you don’t take that 10 percent, they’re going to sell it to somebody. Has that been your experience?

Trevor:                                 [00:18:30]               Yeah. So I say like close out stuff like that. A lot of people are thinking liquidation. I get a pallet of just a bunch of random junk

Stephen:                             [00:18:39]               shelf polls. Yeah. Returns, that kind of stuff.

Trevor:                                 [00:18:42]               Right? All my stuff is as if I was buying it wholesale from say Hasbro, it’s all case boxed. Brand new, uh, you know, first first run items. It’s not leftovers, it’s, it’s, it’s first align. So like for instance, toys r us, they went bankrupt, right? They had already placed orders. Who’s had, has ass Hasbro. They had already placed orders with Hasbro. Well, Hasbro, their manufacturing is not like, okay, well we have x amount of these units, we got to sell them off because we can’t sell them anywhere. Um, because Walmart’s already placed their order targets already got their order so they sell it to the vendors that I buy from

Stephen:                             [00:19:29]               and these are manifested, right? These are distributors or whatever, but these are manifested that you could prove ownership that you meet all the requirements. They’re awesome

Trevor:                                 [00:19:38]               tourists and everything. So I’m getting products that I can buy, I can buy as little as two to 500 units of a single skew all the way up to rescue. We bought, we bought 9,000 of them because the pricing was there, you know, it was a dollar 50 landed and we’re selling them for $13 to $15 on Amazon. Sound about a, like my. So my uncle and I were business partners and we split everything 50 slash 50. So I’m selling about 200 units of those a month and he’s doing about the same. Um, so it just depends, you know, on the what are by cost is obviously if it costs us $10, we’re probably not going to buy 9,000 units of them,

Stephen:                             [00:20:24]               which is really smart. I mean issues now. I mean before everybody jumps in and uses the Google, these are not easy relationships to get. These are probably cherished and very well protected, so please don’t share any of them. Right? Yeah, you’re good at that. Right? But that it’s fair. That just does stuff, you know, you and I are in a precall, we’re talking about relationships and where they come from. How does it, how does that fall into your lap? You know, does it, do you just start out there talking to people on a plane? I saw somebody talking, I think it was garland mentioning that he was talking to some great guy on a plane just happened to be sitting next to them or in my case it was my landlord who ended up connecting me with somebody else. How do you, how do you get to those levels of relationships?

Trevor:                                 [00:21:09]               Know? I think a lot of it, you know, like I said before, you know, the Lord has really helped me in my business and I think a lot of it, I give him a lot of credit for it because, you know, it was just about relationships. So on these close outs I was getting vendors from aisd. Um, yes you can go to SSD and you can get some of the vendors I started out with. Um, there is money there. It’s just very hard. Um, it’s competitive. It’s hard because it’s competitive, right. And the next part of it, yeah, it’s competitive and you know, sometimes their pricing is a little higher. Um, well at my church, um, I’ve known a buyer for a major major retail chain for pretty much all my life. He’s known me and you know, one day he’s like, man, it sounds like your business is really growing, what are you doing?

Trevor:                                 [00:22:02]               And I kind of told him about it. He said, Huh, I want to introduce you to some of the vendors I buy from. Maybe you guys can work some stuff out. Can you know, at first they’re like, no, we’re not going to take any Amazon sellers, we don’t want any. Um, and he’s just like, no, listen, just, just hear me out this give them a try. So when I went there and spoke with them, you know, my uncle and I placed a pretty large order and they’re like, wow, this person is serious. This is real. Yeah, this is real. It’s not because a lot of times they don’t like dealing with Amazon sellers because they place a case or two. Right. And we’re like, oh, we’ll buy all of that will buy all of this. So, you know, with that, I was like, okay, he’s going on, sticking his neck on the line for me, you know, we’re gonna try our best to do, you know, place a good amount of order and, and basically build that relationship. So now I’ve built that relationship up, you know, it would be probably very difficult to, near impossible for another online seller to come in because they’re like, well, we already had a couple we didn’t need anymore. Um, so, you know, like you were talking about the connections, the relationships, it’s just that relationship and connection that I’ve had and then he introduced me and that’s, I think that’s how it is on any part of our business.

Stephen:                             [00:23:24]               I think it show in here. Here’s one more thing. Now you said that this gentleman has known you for a long period of time. So he’s watching you in that period of time. He’s looking for consistent. So I always tell you, the people, how do you find people that aren’t crazy or whatever, you watch them over time and you look for consistency because ultimately it’ll come out right? And so to me, I think it’s very exciting that your, I don’t want to use this for it’s, it sounds so stupid. I’m sorry. Your good behavior for that period of time. Him as seeing that you, that whatever that behavior was over time and then he comes along and rewards you for that. That’s got to be a very, very cool feeling. I mean, have you thought about that? Why you.

Trevor:                                 [00:24:08]               There it is. That’s cool. And you know, it goes back to the old saying, you never know who’s watching. Oh yeah. I mean it could be somebody in your family that you had no idea has some connection and, and they’re like, hey, you know, one day this company and say, Hey, I know you’ve been doing this, this Amazon thing or whatever you’re doing. And they just say, hey, I would like to offer you this or you want to go 50 slash 50 and a deal and I’ll be your bank. You know, there, there’s all sorts of different things that can happen. And I know it’s true because I have a neighbor his like, oh, I know the person for this company. I’m like, wow, that’s pretty significant. You know, a person that starts a major, multibillion dollar company, he’s good friends with one degree. I would have never known that. So you never know who’s watching. You never know. Who knows who.

Stephen:                             [00:25:07]               How does that conversation start? I mean, do you. Because if I go with my friends and we start, you know, we go out or whatever and be like, oh, how’s business to you? And like start talking about sixth or seventh minute because I like to talk their eyes roll back in the back of their head and they’re like, oh my God, he’s not going to stop. And then my wife will usually whack me and say, Steve, they don’t care. They don’t care. How do, how do you approach that? How does it, how do those conversations come up for you?

Trevor:                                 [00:25:32]               Um, you know, I think it’s typical with every Amazon seller. You start to talk about yourself and stuff. Um, but then, you know, like this toy buyer, I was like, okay, I’m going to stop talking by Amazon and be like, okay, so you buy toys, you know, how are you buying? Are you buying them from Hasbro directly was like, oh, why do this? But I also buy them from other people and then you just kind of segue into and you go, oh, well what are these other people? Like what do they do? And then you just start asking questions about their business or what their job is. Um, and then I think at the end of the day you go, oh, is that something like I’ve always been looking, because that was kind of how, you know, these relationships kind of started because I was like, so you’re buying it from these people at liquidation pricing, but it’s still brand new factor case back.

Trevor:                                 [00:26:23]               He was like, yes, that’s how we’re able to offer discounts in our store. Like a Ross, Tj Maxx, stuff like that, you know. And I’m like, Huh, that’s interesting. And I said, so could, is there any way I could get in with those people or, or are you not willing to share that with me? Say, well, since we don’t really compete, you know, and I know you don’t mind introducing you. So you know, just something like that, you know, sometimes we get so caught up and like, oh man, look, I’m doing so good, I’m doing this, spend some time and ask about what they do. Um, because I would have never known and I might not even have these relationships I have now if I didn’t ask, you know, from their perspective and their side of things. And then obviously once you show interest in their business, then then they go, okay, so now tell me more about Amazon, what do, what do you do?

Trevor:                                 [00:27:19]               And then you share with them and they’re more opt to as if you’re trading back and forth. You know, maybe I’d talk for five minutes, they talked for five minutes, then they’re not going to get as bored because I’m okay now it’s my turn to share what I, what I do. Um, and you know, like we were at a, one of the vendors, he introduced me to the day of, you know, we walk into the vendor, he introduced me, I do my searching around, I’m buying stuff. Well then there’s one product and from him, from his perspective on a retail side, he goes, man, I think this would be a great black Friday ad. And I’m like, okay, well what price are you trying to own? Try and do it for this price. Okay. I said, so I said, this is what it’s doing on Amazon. This is the rank.

Trevor:                                 [00:28:05]               And of course he has no idea what any of this means. So I have to explain, I say this is something very good, has very good ratings. He’s a man, so I’m going to be selling it. I’ll pick a number. I know he’s selling that 50 bucks and it’s selling for 80 on Amazon. He say I’m still going to be undercutting Amazon. That’s a good deal. And so I helped him making the buying decision, what we’re sitting right there in front of the vendor and then for me helping him and help the vendor at the same time. The vendors like keep in mind I had just met this vendor about an hour ago. They go, listen, we would normally charge you $45 a unit for this item, will charge you, were willing to charge a 35, will give you his pricing. And I was like, wow, like I just met you an hour ago because I helped on this sale and he introduced me to you. I just knocked $10 off this. I’m and we did very well with that item at Christmas time.

Stephen:                             [00:29:00]               And did they do well with Thursday? No or yes.

Trevor:                                 [00:29:02]               Yeah. Oh, he’s like, I blew through all mine on black Friday.

Stephen:                             [00:29:05]               So think about that. So you added value. Now, have you read the book how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie?

Trevor:                                 [00:29:12]               I have not.

Stephen:                             [00:29:13]               Okay, so there’s a point here. I promise you I’m going to make a point. No, because it’s so point a, it’s so on point. Um, I’ve read a bunch of times. Anybody who’s done any of that stuff has read that book, right? Old dudes, US old dudes. That was one of the things. I just found it. I’m moving my, you know, my, my warehouse stuff and I found that the cds and it’s like three or four cds. So I literally have them playing in my truck and I listened to them. I’m away to the warehouse, I’m away home. I don’t really drive much. Right?

Stephen:                             [00:29:42]               And so much of it is close your lips and listen and to listen from the other person’s point of view, find out what their pain points are and help them. And all of a sudden you are now in a different position and you weren’t helping him with an expectation. You are generally helping him. You had no expectations for that $10 discount, and yet it comes and it’s so prevalent. So the power tip here, Steve’s going to give you all the power tip. Please go in by Dale Carnegie, how to win friends and influence. People downloaded. I’m sure you can download it for free on the Internet somewhere it is. It’s, it’s old and it’s dated, but the principles you just heard, trevor explain exactly. The principals pay attention to their point of view and then add value and you win too. That’s very, very impressive for a young guy to figure that out. Very impressive. Very cool. Um, when you take those relationships now, I mean, have they developed to the point now where they’re like, hey trevor, we’ve got these other things that might. Because you bought this, uh, I can’t find anything. I got a can of Sardines on my desk. Probably a bad example because you bought this can of Sardines. We think you might also like these cans of Mackerel. That’s the best example I can come up with. Has that happened for you yet?

Trevor:                                 [00:31:06]               Yeah, it’s happened a little bit. Um, you know, like I said, these companies are mainly selling to like big brick and mortar stores. Okay. So Amazon to them it’s kind of a, they understand it, but it’s still kind of foreign

Stephen:                             [00:31:22]               because you’re not, you’re not the big buyer that like a Ross or a Tj maxx would be at this point yet.

Trevor:                                 [00:31:29]               Yeah. So, you know, they come in and they’re looking for very specific things. They understand that market now they have come to me and said, hey, you bought this item, um, we just got this item in, are you interested, you know, and like one of the vendors that we met, you know, we’re on his hire a buyer’s side because we’ve, we bought so much from him and so he’ll say, hey, I got this deal coming in, I’m going to split it four ways and you know, I’m going to give you, I’m giving you a call before I send out the email on if you want in on this deal.

Stephen:                             [00:32:09]               And so at that point you get an option to choose one to three or four parts of that.

Trevor:                                 [00:32:14]               Exactly. So I could choose one nun or I could take it all, most of the time, like he’s on the phone with me and then his employee on the phone with someone else or you know, whatever it might be. And so I’ve had it on the phone, like I was sitting on the phone. Like, okay, yeah, this person just took it and it’s another Amazon seller and like, okay, so that person is selling it. Okay. I’ve, I’ve sold with alongside them, they’re a good person to sell along and I can make a decision. Okay, well I know he’s taken one spot. I’m going to take another spot, you know, maybe my uncle is going to take another spot that’s three out of four who’s going to take the forest plot, I don’t know. Um, you know, and then they’ve also had it to where they look it up on Amazon and go, Hey, this guy has already selling this item. And they call me and say, hey, we’re going to have two or 3000 of these coming in. Are you interested in purchasing more of them? And I make the decision, yes or no. And so

Stephen:                             [00:33:13]               did you have to share your store name with them? Is that part of the prerequisites?

Trevor:                                 [00:33:16]               Yes. Yeah, yeah. They just want to make sure that you’re not taking the product, you know, uh, because if you buy a product and then you just start dumping it, you know, they’re not going to sell to you anymore because it doesn’t look good on the brand.

Stephen:                             [00:33:32]               Right. And then the last one would be like, are you kidding me? I, you know, I can’t. And then they’re stuck with them. Exactly. Yup. How does it work with a. So would you buy it? You’re stuck with it. I mean, would they ever take it back or. I mean, has that ever come up yet?

Trevor:                                 [00:33:47]               Yeah. So, um, this is a good lesson for people to learn. I’ve learned a lot of stuff the hard way warehouse full of hard way. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, you know, whenever we placed a large order the first time around, you know, we kinda got a little over our head because we were thinking in the retail arbitrage mindset where you might get, I dunno, 10 to $100 a unit and we’re now buying thousands. And so we overbought on our first one. We’re going to take us three years to run through all this inventory. Um, so most of it we took the hit on and then a lot of it before it ever shift where like, hey listen, we’re really sorry, this is our first time ever doing something of this scale and magnitude. We’ve learned our lesson and we’re not going to do this again.

Trevor:                                 [00:34:41]               Would you consider taking back half of the order to sell it to somebody else? And they might say yes. And they might say no, I’m sorry. Yeah. So it just goes based off your like in, you know, whenever I was speaking to them I said, listen, I know we just met. I don’t want to ruin our relationship. I said, if we need to take it, we will take it. I said, but if you have somebody else, I’d be interested in it, you know, if you wouldn’t mind taking it back, that would really help us out and there and you know, these, these are not your typical just medium size, you know, distributors, these are massive distributors and they’re like, oh no problem. You know, I can turn around and sell this tomorrow to, to Ross or something.

Stephen:                             [00:35:26]               How does it, how does that change the relationship when you see them bend for you? Because let’s face it, that person helped you out enormously. Hey, you know, we all know that we’re lucky to be

Stephen:                             [00:35:38]               able to buy it and sell it. Right? So we all know that, but now it went even deeper where they kind of bailed you out of a bad choice on your side. Right? We all make them. How does that change the relationship with that company? I mean, are you going to fall all over them and do whatever it takes to keep them happy? Is that, is that where the give and take goes?

Trevor:                                 [00:36:00]               Yeah, I think there, there is a farmer given take. So, um, obviously for us. Right, okay, well this company is helping us out, you know, we’re going to help them out when the time comes. And so a good example of that was we made the mistakes and August of last year, well the New York toy show was February of this year. We went to them and on some of the products and like, okay, we’re making good money, and I was like, what’s the lowest you could do if we bought them all? Oh, we could go down this amount. I said, no, let’s not even worry about that so that I’ll pay you what you’re asking for. And he’s like, you sure? I said, yeah, you, you helped me on these products over here. When we made that mistake, I said, I’ll go ahead and pay your asking price. I won’t negotiate you down in pricing. So that way you make more money for helping the mistake that we made earlier.

Stephen:                             [00:36:54]               You’d never make it on shark tank. They would eat you alive, right? You have to negotiate the best price, trevor. It’s all about business, all about profit. Every single time you’ve got to win, win, win, win. At all costs, I’m not so sure.

Trevor:                                 [00:37:07]               Yeah, so a lot of people, that’s their mentality is, oh, I got to beat them down on price. You know, I’m buying private label from China. I got to beat them down, beat them down. Well, what you don’t know is what deal is going to come along next that you could go down further on. You know, if, if you’re saving $2,000 right now on a deal, but you’re still making money at their by cost. It’s not like you’re losing money. Yeah. You’re not getting that extra amount. But what if they say, you know what, if they didn’t cancel that order, I’d be stuck with that and I wouldn’t even be able to buy these deals because my cash would still be tied up.

Stephen:                             [00:37:47]               Right. You know, just, I just found another guy who said something similar and he’s like, look, I want to pay them so much money that they go nowhere else because they’re like, this is ridiculous. Why would I walk away from this? And this scenario, you’ve got to remember that’s a company that needs to turn a profit. They’ve got to pay those employees. That big company has huge overhead. They must turn a profit or they’re not going to. I mean, I’m sure in the end that they look at the whole purchase and they show a profit or loss on it, period. Right. And so when you help them lose money, that’s not a good experience on their part and that, that will hurt the relationship. Love it. Because artful stuff. So how, how does Trevor Morris go up on stage? I was thinking about this and you know, I know joy, joy packard put together a conference in Texas, which is close to home I guess. But how do you, how do you pull it out of you to go up because you are quiet and shy. I guess I would say reserve at least my impressions of meeting once or twice. Um, how do, how do you get past that to go up? Is it because of the confidence of figuring out a winning strategy for business? I mean, where does that come from?

Trevor:                                 [00:39:02]               You know, I’m not gonna say I wasn’t nervous.

Stephen:                             [00:39:05]               I think everybody’s never. Even the biggest speakers are nervous. So that’s okay,

Trevor:                                 [00:39:08]               that’s true. So, you know, when she asked me to do it, I was like, okay, it’s, you know, it’s pretty close. I can drive down there, no big deal. And She just wanted me to share my story and then provide some tips or whatever. Um, and so since I had started a meetup down there, I had told my story and a faster pace, you know, not as detailed, almost every month, you know, because when people, when new people would come in, they ask, you know, how I got started and I, I explained it all. And so I was like, okay, I can do this, you know, it’s just, it’s just a conference. I’ll, uh, I’ll go up there and I’ll speak. And you know, honestly when I got up there and I started talking, I think there’s something different between when you love what you’re doing and when you don’t like it, it’s so much easier.

Trevor:                                 [00:39:56]               I got up there and I just started talking about, you know, my experiences, my, you know, my failure stuff like this and, you know, I look back at them now and I just laugh at them and I just go, wow, you know, that’s crazy how that mistake brought me to this area and when you start talking, time flew by, I was like, oh, that was a quick 45 minutes. Um, and, you know, if I helped somebody gray, um, you know, that’s all I was really there for. It’s not like I’m selling a product or anything else you have,

Stephen:                             [00:40:32]               but you did when didn’t you. I mean, I think that’s what people have to realize that by giving with no expectation you didn’t go there thinking you’re going to, like you said you had nothing to sell. What were you going to get more, more wholesale accounts or you know, no, right, of course not. But by giving, tell us what you got.

Trevor:                                 [00:40:51]               So, I mean, I’ve got lots of stuff from that conference. Um, you know, just meeting with the different people. I mean, the networks and networking was, was really wonderful. Um, and I ended up meeting another seller there who basically has his own prep center. Um, and he, he was speaking and I’m like, Huh. And you know, joy packer did her, her talk on outsourcing. Well, for me, I’m scared to outsource. I think I’m like a lot of entrepreneurs. Oh, I got to do everything in house. I got to do it in house. I don’t trust somebody else to do it and I can tell you I’m living and breathing in that right now. Um, I just outsourced all the liquid, the closeouts and stuff. I’m buying all those toys. I just outsource that whole, I guess you could call it a division of my business, a whole area of my business. I will no longer touch because of the connection that I made at this conference with this guy and you know, we worked out rates together and everything else. And so my goal is that now when I buy it from my vendor, it shipped straight to him. He stores it and he ships in into Amazon on my behalf.

Stephen:                             [00:42:10]               And if you did not know, it’s, let’s close that loop because I think this is so important. If not, you would have put out a question in one of the groups. She would have said, hey, does anybody know of a prep center? You know, uh, kind of in my area. And you would have heard from a whole bunch of people, right? And some. And then you would have heard if you put that person’s name out there, you would have said, hey, has anybody had experience with Steve’s prep center, my name? And you’ll hear the good and the bad because it will be both, right? Because there’s good and there’s bad, right? I mean everybody has different experiences. They have different expectations, that kind of thing. And so that then you’re like, well, Geez, I don’t know what to do. Right? You’re stuck, right? You don’t, you don’t know how to move. And so by meeting them face to face and, and taking that conversation one on one, him hearing you be honest and candid about what you’re doing [inaudible] that changes things, doesn’t it? I mean, your relationship is not just a business relationship. Fair.

Trevor:                                 [00:43:06]               So um, to kind of piggyback off that, you know, um, I had gone around to many prep centers and I was like, this is what I’m doing, Yadda Yadda Yadda and their storage fees, you know, because obviously they gotta make money, everything like that. It’s not free, but they were, they were too high for me, so I was actually only first of building another warehouse on my property that was going to be like 2,500 to 3000 square feet just for storage of all the toys that I buy because I buy buy pallets or truckloads. Um, so I was on the verge of doing that and you know, I really didn’t. I really wanted to outsource it, but it was gonna cost me way more than what I could pay monthly for a barn.

Stephen:                             [00:43:52]               Okay. Well let’s stop there. Yeah, because I don’t want to lose this point too because I just think it’s important. So you’ve done the math, what it would cost for you to build out your own because. And how much money is that going to tie up for you? Right. I mean that’s inventory. You don’t have the money to buy. Exactly. So you’ve done that math and you sat back and said, is there another way you were looking for it and you had not found it until this event? Exactly. To tell me this is not meant to be. I’m getting. I’m getting the chills listening to you.

Trevor:                                 [00:44:24]               Yeah. So it was definitely a godsend, you know, whenever I went there and then he’s like, oh, I have a prep center, I do this. I’m like, well, what could you do for volume? And then we start talking and like I said earlier, you know, we worked out rates and I said, well this makes sense for me if it makes sense for you. He said, I’m good with it. Okay, let’s give it a shot. So I sent him a truck last week, 26 pallets full of toys, um, you know, and we’ll see how it goes. But in the meantime, that’s cleaned out tons of space in my barn. Um, so now I can focus on other areas of my business. So now toys, he’s handling all the toys. Now I can focus on the clothing and stuff that I buy from another vendor that I can’t send to a prep center because it involves a lot more work,

Stephen:                             [00:45:14]               but it allows you to focus and so by. So it’s not over. Here’s another pro tip from trevor. It’s not all or nothing what you’re describing. Exactly. You’re segmenting your. You’re basically fixing a segment of your business so you can focus on another segment and then eventually if that can get figured out, right. That would be another. I mean, do it now. I see why she had you on stage. I guess it, it’s true though. Trevor flies below the radar, you know, it’s true, right? I mean, that’s not, that’s not unfair, but it’s true. I mean,

Trevor:                                 [00:45:48]               I try to fly below the radar as much as I can. I mean, because for me it’s, it’s not about publicity and you know, Oh man, look at how good I’m doing, you know, at my age or whatever. I don’t, I don’t care about that. I mean, there’s people doing way better than me, you know, that’s great, but there’s also people that aren’t doing as good as me and so I know starting out it was, it was a lot different five years ago, but, you know, I was in college doing it and so, you know, if I can do it, you know, other people can do it too and if I can help them in any way, then I try to just share my story and say don’t do what I did on these mistakes and it’ll save you a lot of money.

Stephen:                             [00:46:35]               Who’s your, who’s your mentor? I mean, when you, when you think about who, where do you get your advice from, um, that you take action on because everybody gives advice. But what, where’s the advice that you find yourself taking action on come from?

Trevor:                                 [00:46:50]               Well, I’m, oddly enough, I would say probably my uncle and my dad. Um, because obviously my uncle we sell together. Um, so he understands Amazon. He’s very good at buying. He’s one of the original ones, you know, him, my Grandpa and my dad taught me Eba in garage selling back in the day. Um, so they helped get me started and then, you know, for Amazon related stuff, I use him as a soundboard and then, you know, I’m more of a, uh, calculate. I liked to. I don’t see a risk taker. I’m a calculated risk taker. Um, and my parents are not a risk taker at all. They’re the go get a degree, go work corporate for 30, 40 years, worked your way up the ladder. Uh, not hardly any risk. Um, and so I use my parents as a soundboard, as kind of the devil’s advocate, devil’s advocate on that side of the business.

Trevor:                                 [00:47:53]               So Hey, I’m thinking about doing this, you know, like when I was talking about the barn and stuff like that, he would be my soundboard and my dad would be like, well, I think you should do it this way or do it this way. Like what about this? Have you thought about that? And it just having those two different soundboards you kinda not one way is going to be the correct way, it might be. Okay. So that’s something I need to think about, but if I approach it this way, I should be able to take out and not have to worry about what they were concerned about. So I think they’re both kind of mentors and in that, that perspective, um, and, you know, just there’s lots of people that I watch and you know, I mean, there’s tons of people. I now that I started private labeling, um, you know, Andiola Ron and Nathan and all of them, you know, they’ve helped me out tremendously on the private label side of my business.

Stephen:                             [00:48:51]               We’re talking about amazing freedom. If anybody didn’t catch that was andy slam into the Rhawnhurst corn and Nathan slamming, so amazing freedom. Um, they’re amazing. It can. I dig in there for a second because somebody just asked me a question about that. Um, now you’ve been in that group for how long?

Trevor:                                 [00:49:09]               Um, probably about a year or getting close to a year now.

Stephen:                             [00:49:12]               And you took action. So let’s qualify that. But when you went back for help, because this is one of the things I tell people when they say, Hey Steve, what’s the best group to get into? I’m always like, look, who do you connect with? Right? Who Do you think is genuine for you? Right? Because some people are, you know, matter by the book and they just need the instruction manual. Other people need hand holding. Other people need whatever they need to be able to get an answer answered. Our question answered right when they need it. Not, not wait six years for a response. Right? Right. That group, and I’m in it, so I see people asking questions. I see once in a while you post stuff. Are they the most phenomenal answering people you’ve ever seen in your life? I’m convinced none of them sleep. I’m convinced. Well, Andy I know does sleep because I know and we were talking yesterday about naps. He was telling me about naps. He’s like, Steve, I need to take a nap anyway. But, but Lauren, Yoda, as I call them, never sleeps. He’s a, he’s a bat or something and then nate has just as bad, but it’s true. Fair.

Trevor:                                 [00:50:13]               Yeah. And they’re, they’re great people. They reply to your messages, you know, and I think where I first met you on a, on their weekend private retreat know Denver. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, my being the devil’s advocate was like, oh, I don’t think that’s worth it for a weekend. You’re going to pay how much, like that’s not worth it. And then for me, I’m looking at, okay, all I need is one product and it pays for this or you know, I’m looking at it as what information can I gain that I can then make money off of. So, you know, when I went to the retreat, I’m just the tips and tricks that I learned there. I then applied to my Pi. I have one private label brand that I had been doing. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was a slow steady sale and that’s just how it was for two years.

Trevor:                                 [00:51:04]               Um, I applied that to that business because it was already going and it did 30 or 40 percent more in profit. Um, you know, from then on in terms of every month, so you get your money back right away. Yeah. So I got my money back and then, you know, I went around asking each one and how they source product because my biggest problem starting out was I just had a difficulty sourcing product. I didn’t understand how to do it and nothing I could do, nothing clicked. And so finally, I think it was like the last night I was with Iran, like [10:30] at night. And uh, he walked me through his process and every, everybody’s process is different, you know, they might not have the same process and whatever he said it just like clicked in my brain. And so we found a product and um, you know, I was sitting at the kitchen table, you know, messaging the supplier at 11, [12:00] at night and I was up for several hours going back and forth because they didn’t want to sell it to me, uh, because I already had somebody selling on Amazon. But eventually I broke through and now I, I ran out of stock last year. Um, and so I just got more stock in and may I sent the products in, I kind of did a relaunch without giving away any products and you know, it, I did like 15 k in revenue just last month of

Stephen:                             [00:52:41]               that one product. And you got to use that college education, that understanding of logistics. Once Lee Ron clicked something and probably spoken to Yoda terms, he spoke a different language that you understood nerd language for you too because you’re both nerds and you guys spoke whatever that language is and it connected and you were, it was like a releasing a dam. And so to me that’s what that group does. That’s what those events do. I’ve seen so many people with the light bulb go off and yeah, Steve’s pitching their stuff. Um, because I believe in it and I, I say that and I’m not bragging. I turn away 90 percent, get somebody else trying to come on right now, a PR person trying to pitch me on their person, why they’re the best thing. I filter out most of them because I got to see it.

Stephen:                             [00:53:26]               I want to see it over time because I’m so worried about giving you bad advice, trevor. You know what I mean? Can I. That doesn’t wear on your soul very well. You know, I’ve been that guy. I’m not going to be that guy again. And so that’s why when I hear a success like this, when a hear of somebody connecting and then following through and then getting it gives me the tingles dude. But again, I think it’s well deserved. I think all this stuff that you’ve been doing with your head down, doing the work, working with your uncle, learning, learning, advancing, and then putting yourself out there, which to me is the biggest takeaway I’m going to take away from this conversation is that trevor stuck himself out there giving without expectation and he’s been rewarded tenfold. Let’s, let’s finish up. Um, when I, when I think about, you know, you would not call yourself a risk taking entrepreneur. You’ve already said you’re risk averse, right? You’re not totally against risk. You’re just not a role at all on seven bed, everything. What’s your advice for new sellers that want to get into and grow their business? Maybe they’re doing retail arb and they want to try to step into these worlds of wholesale or wholesale private label or in your model, what’s your advice for them? Do you have any boundaries that you would say, hey, you know, kind of hold these boundaries in for now and then you’ll, you can push them out later.

Trevor:                                 [00:54:49]               Yeah. So, um, you know, like I said, I’m a, I call it a calculated risk taker. I take risk all the time, but I run the numbers and make sure that, you know, it’s good for my business. It’s good for my family. I’m like a big one a lot of people don’t talk about is cash flow, you know, know your cash flow. There’s there. People will tell you, oh, it’s bad to go into debt, don’t go into debt. Or they’ll say, Oh, who cares, let’s just go into debt. You know, I think there is an equal medium. Um, I don’t think that debt is bad as long as it is under control. Um, so that being said, don’t go take $100,000 in debt and I only have $20,000 in inventory

Stephen:                             [00:55:40]               or go shopping at aisd. Just put 100 grand to go walking around. All right, I got 100 grand. What can I buy? What should I do?

Trevor:                                 [00:55:45]               Exactly? Yeah. That’s a bad plan. I don’t always shop as if you don’t have money. Oh, that’s a good piece of it because if you’re shopping as you don’t have money, you’re going to go, okay, this is a really good deal. I’m going to make $6 off a $2 investment and it’s selling quick. Okay. Then you go, I can get that money and that’s good. So if you’ve shopped that way versus if you go, Oh man, I got 100 k in the bank, I’m going to go walk in there and just. Yep, that looks good. That looks good.

Stephen:                             [00:56:17]               Are these 12 of those 12 of those? Yeah, that looks good.

Trevor:                                 [00:56:21]               Oh crap. Why did I buy all this junk? You know? So I think starting out, if you’re, if you’re doing retail, that’s great. Keep doing retail because it gets you. I’m cashflow, right? It keeps that cash flow coming in, but make as you’re doing it, refine your process and make smarter buys. You don’t have to buy everything. Um, you know, and just because it’s on clearance doesn’t mean it’s good. And I, it’s for a reason, right? Exactly. Yeah. It didn’t feel right. So if you want to do private label, look for a good course that’s not overly priced that they’re doing. Like we talked about, amazing freedom, freedom. You know, I’ve taken several courses and honestly they are the best. They actually have a facebook group. They actually answer your questions. I’ve been to other ones that are a lot bigger than even hold their own conferences and they don’t the owners of that conference or that, um, that course, they hardly ever answer any questions.

Trevor:                                 [00:57:28]               You can’t private message them. So I think looking at what fits your business is best. And another thing is a lot of people starting out get sucked into this whole mindset of, Oh, I have to buy a course for everything or I have to buy this software. Make sure you keep your monthly expenses and check. You don’t have to have every piece of software. Sometimes it’s better to do that stuff manually for a while so you understand it on the back end and then once you have enough revenue and profit, then you do it. Which as a thing a lot of people don’t talk about is they. They brag about their numbers. Well, who cares if you did $6,000,000 if your net profits six percent.

Stephen:                             [00:58:13]               Oh, I, I, I’m, I’m so with, you were one of the few that say 17 to 20 percent. Um, and then others say, that’s a terrible business. You should be doing 30 or 40 percent mountain. Man, that’s good for you. But I got a warehouse, I’ve got workman’s comp and I’ve gotten insurance. I’ve got all these different things. When you, uh, when you look back, did you have any clue that you’d be able to kind of leap frog? Because that’s what it seems to me. This is Steve’s observation. You seem to be leapfrogging. It’s like you, you pulled back and you again, I, I describe it this way. You kept your head down, did the work, studied, invested smartly, lined up with the right people, it sounds like you and your uncle or just perfect alignment there and then you start branching out and then it just seems like you’ve jumped ahead, like all of a sudden it’s like you’re slow, slow, slow, and then boom, you’re three or four steps ahead and then you slow down and then did you ever think you would get there? Because it’s hard, right? When you’re starting out, you’re like, Oh man, I see all these numbers from everybody else. And you’re like, oh my God, I’m terrible. I suck trevor.

Trevor:                                 [00:59:12]               Yeah, no. And, and you know, to hit the seven figure mark or, or seven figures, it took four to five years of hard work and grind.

Stephen:                             [00:59:22]               Nobody says that if you can’t do it in a month, you’re out. Right? It’s phased out.

Trevor:                                 [00:59:27]               Yeah. All the people you hear like, Oh man, in 18 months you can do 7 million or a million plus two. Well chances are they just got lucky. Well, I mean I can hit a million dollars easily and I can lose money. Right, right. Does that make me a good. Well, no. So goes back to that whole profit thing. There’s a lot of people out there. They are doing that in 18 months they’re hitting over a million. That’s great, but don’t always have an angle in mind. So like one, one person I’ve started following recently, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of them as grant cardone.

Stephen:                             [01:00:01]               I know grant, I do one degree from him actually know somebody who knows him.

Trevor:                                 [01:00:06]               Yeah. So I mean his philosophy is, is great. I mean when you’re setting goals, you know, yeah, he has a whole 10 x, which if you haven’t read the 10 x rule, his book, that’s a very good book on mindset. Um, but you know, for him it just, you set goals. So like for me, if I set a goal, I don’t set a goal of Oh, I’m going to do $2 million this year. You said a range. I’m going to do a goal between two to $3 million. That’s my, my revenue goal this year. Because once you get closer, you hit 2 million. In your mind psychologically, what’s going to push you to go further versus if you say, I have two to $3 million, go. Oh, I hit 2 million. Nice. I still have time. I’m going to shoot for as far as I can get to three.

Speaker 6:                           [01:00:56]               Hmm.

Stephen:                             [01:00:57]               And stretch goal right there, right? That’s the stretch.

Trevor:                                 [01:01:01]               Exactly. So you know, starting out, you just gotta you gotTa do the work. A lot of people think it’s easy. A lot of people make it seem like it’s easy. That’s true, but. But it’s really, it’s really not. I mean it’s work. It’s not like you’re just going to sit there and do whatever and now maybe five, 10 years down the road when you’ve have everything else and everything is going great, then yes you can take that time back. Just like I did the toys,

Stephen:                             [01:01:29]               the four hour work, we can start then, but you got to get all the work, all the work. Even even Tim Ferris would say there was a lot of work to get to that four hour work week, which exactly. Exactly. What about personal habits? So, you know, I was thinking about that. I usually ask, my closing question is usually to say, hey, you know, give me a way to improve, but I just think you did that. I think you went right through a perfect example. What people should do. So what I’m going to close with after I get your contact information, what I want to close with is that the basic things that you do, your personal habits that you use to contribute to your success that you think others could benefit from. Because again, I use this, I think you and um, oh, I can’t believe I’m drawing a blank on his name is another pro todd lammy. So another one, they just put their head down and do the work, stay below the radar and then all of a sudden they pop up and you’re like, Whoa, how did he get that far ahead? Whoa. Where did he, how did he do that? And again, it’s these personal habits and I think, I think that that’s where others could use some benefit and I think you could offer some.

Trevor:                                 [01:02:34]               I mean, a lot of it is, you know, like we’ve talked about it, it’s just grind and hustle and, you know, I always, I to say, you know, I’m, I’m hustling to get it done. Um, because I’m young, I’m like, I’m just going to push this hard as I can

Stephen:                             [01:02:47]               rub it in. Go ahead.

Trevor:                                 [01:02:49]               Well, you know, because, uh, an older person, they may have worked for you.

Stephen:                             [01:02:53]               Yeah.

Trevor:                                 [01:02:55]               I’m not saying you’re old. I’m just saying an older person that could be 30, you know,

Stephen:                             [01:03:00]               about 30 years old. No, I said older. Oh, okay. Can we load? She will appreciate this. I have socks older than that and you know, he may tell you my Kelly Lynch story, he sent me socks. He’s like, Steve, you never said thank you for the socks. I’m like, what are you talking about? And he’s like, I sent you. Sorry. I’m like killing. I received so many packages of socks. I had no idea and I felt terrible. I apologize to every time I see him about these socks. So I have socks older than 30, so go ahead, keep going.

Trevor:                                 [01:03:34]               Yeah. So, you know, I think just, you know, pushing and pushing and you know, a lot of people get discouraged if they’re older. They’re like, oh man, I just can’t do it. Like these younger people or I’m not that good. That’s not true. I mean, you know,

Stephen:                             [01:03:52]               your uncle, your uncle is a good example.

Trevor:                                 [01:03:54]               Yeah. My uncle is a great example. He’s a lot older than me and, and w we’re doing just great, you know, now he’s in a different point in his life than I am, you know. And, and that’s how, that’s how it all is. You know, some people they want to get to a certain level and they just want to maintain that level. Um, because they don’t want to get bigger. They don’t want the stress to headache, all that stuff of everything else where somebody in my shoes, I’m like, dude, let’s just push this thing as big as we can get it.

Stephen:                             [01:04:26]               And do you post stuff from him and him pull stuff from you strength wise? Is that part of what you get from that partnership?

Trevor:                                 [01:04:33]               Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, minus the buying power and stuff, you know, he’s had 30 years or so of experience and in buying stuff. So he is very good at looking at something going, oh, that might be good. Or Oh hey, I think this will be good. I mean he, he tells me on stuff like, oh, this’ll be good because of this reason. I’m like, no, there’s no way. And that turns out that he’s right.

Stephen:                             [01:05:02]               So he’s drawing back on his experience and you get that benefit. So there’s part of what a personal habit that could be, is connect with somebody. Kind of went back to that whole meetup and Nigga, uh, we’re back to, you know, working with people and relationships. But, and then draw against that. I think that’s a powerful thing right there when, um, so, so when you think about what others should do today, and I guess I’m going to, I’m going to still hold you to this one because I don’t, I don’t think he did answer it because you’re not giving away your secret sauce. You’re pushing. Where do you get that strength from? Because I know it’s just not youth, um, because we’re all young and that we were usually stupid when you’re young, so you know, so, so, so what else do you do though, trevor, that people can do?

Stephen:                             [01:05:49]               I mean, are you using some kind of calendar? I’m looking for something technical because I just don’t want people to leave here a, we talked a lot of good stuff and we gave them really great stuff, but I want them to take action. I mean I just feel like, like you taking action, going up on that stage has done all this for you. You partnering with your uncle, you being consistent through life and then this person watching, like you said, you never know who’s watching, watching you from a side and the opportunity just fell in your lap and it didn’t just fall in your lap. Of course, it’s been prepared for, but I’m just saying I want people to be able to move forward. So I want you to give us something that you’re doing that others can benefit from. I’m gonna hold you to it.

Trevor:                                 [01:06:31]               Yeah.

Stephen:                             [01:06:33]               Are you staying up late, getting up early or you use it some kind of systems or anything or you magic?

Trevor:                                 [01:06:41]               No, I’m not magic, that’s for sure. I really don’t know. I’m, I think a lot of it is, you know, I worked corporate for for two years out of college and um, you know, I agree with Amazon business at the same time and it, there came a point where I had to make a choice. Do I keep working these ungodly hours? I mean, I was getting like four or five hours of sleep at night. Um, I keep working these crazy hours, you know, I’m a real job, 12 hour shifts and then come home and do Amazon or do I pick one or the other? Um, and so, you know, it just, I think me seeing the corporate side of things and how I would, you know, I would work my butt off and I’d be doing other people’s jobs and then I wouldn’t even get rewarded. They’re like, okay, good job.

Trevor:                                 [01:07:38]               Thank you. See? Yeah. And so I didn’t get a pay raise or a bonus with somebody. You shouldn’t do everything in life for a pay raise or bonus, but out of the two years I didn’t get a single one of either of those. So for me I’m like, that’s Kinda weird. So I had to make that that again, calculated risk and it was a lifestyle change. Do I want to keep doing that or do I want to take this Amazon since it’s at the same level as what I’m getting paid at my full time corporate job or do I take it and I try to do this if I’m always spending half of the time or a quarter of my time on my business and I’m already at the same level as corporate, what if I did it full time?

Stephen:                             [01:08:20]               So there’s the lesson, there’s the habit, there it is you filtering and you said it, I just didn’t hear it. It took you to explain it that way. For me to hear it again, you’re filtering everything in some way through your risk meter and calculating it out. And then boom, taking action. So there it is. So you, you listener have to develop your risk program, your risk model. If you will, and then filter everything through it. I like. Exactly.

Trevor:                                 [01:08:49]               And everybody’s going to have a different level of risk tolerance. Yeah, that’d be. There’ll be some people that they don’t want to do it. Like my parents, they have no risk tolerance really. And then there’s me that I’ll do some and then there’s other people, like I just go do risk everything. Um, so you have to, like you said, you have to get your risk meter and figure out at what level, what are your maximum risk amounts that you’re willing to take. And you know, it, it all depends. And you know, when I found out when I went fulltime Amazon, I was able to like double my business and the remaining six months of the year because I was able to vote my time towards retail or whatever that was.

Stephen:                             [01:09:30]               And then you replicated is I sit and think about this. You just replicated by outsourcing your toys. You just explained that now all of a sudden you can focus on this other segment of your business because you figured out your a process guy. I guess we’re back to how we started the full conversation. You got something from that college degree, didn’t you got the process, you got the value from it and yet you know, but I mean it’s kind of a little funny to say you haven’t a degree and working with the ocean in northern Texas far away from there and it applies to your Amazon business. See, to me that’s what people have to figure out. They have this stuff in their background somewhere in their life, their experiences, their college or whatever, but it’s relevant somehow to this world. And if you could use that, you have a big competitive advantage. Do I’m pumped for you. I can’t wait to see what comes next. I’m very excited about it. So if somebody has a followup question, charter was very generous. He’s shy, but he’s very generous. As you here, what’s the best way to get in touch with? You?

Trevor:                                 [01:10:33]               Probably have to say facebook.

Stephen:                             [01:10:34]               Okay. And I’ll put the facebook link there. Trevor Morris, you blow me away. You pop your head up. I saw you and I am so impressed. It’s just so cool to watch somebody who deserves it deeply deserves it and your uncle because he’s cool to you, deeply deserve it and it’s just so cool to see somebody winning who does. So. Very, very cool. I wish you nothing but success my friend.

Trevor:                                 [01:10:57]               I appreciate you having me on.

Stephen:                             [01:10:59]               Take care. Thanks again. Great Guy. I tell you, he loved that. I pushed him at the end and I’m sorry trevor. I did, but I just want to make sure that you get value at the end. Um, I’m used to asking that at the end and he answered it earlier at my request, but it, it really is important that you know, you move forward and you see somebody like trevor who, who does make it sound like it’s easy. Um, and he would tell you it’s not. It took them five years to hit that level of success. What that means for four and a half or four and three quarters. He was just as frustrated as you might be right now. And so the lesson there is, it’s a long game. You want to set up your business in the long game mode, his advice about staying in retail arb and if that’s what you’re doing, do it, do it, do it, get the cash flow, but invest in something.

Stephen:                             [01:11:48]               And I’ve seen some people investing in businesses outside of Amazon or outside of Ebay. I get smart and I’ve heard laundry mats. I’ve seen real estate being flashed around. I’ve seen a whole bunch of other. Oh, a whole bunch of people, a whole bunch of my friends are selling mattresses and if that works, that is awesome. The difference is you’re doing it. You’re executing. That’s it. That’s what it’s going to take. And you heard that from trevor here. Um, it’s by putting the work in. It’s by putting your head down and doing the work. That’s how you’re going to win. And so I just think he’s such a great example of what we should strive to be. So I salute you, trevor, and I want to be like you. ECOMMERCE momentum.com, ecommerce momentum.com. Take care.

Cool voice guy:                  [01:12:26]               Thanks for listening to the incomers momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at incomers momentum. Doug, come under this episode number. Please remember to subscribe and the lake us on itunes.

 

Stephen-Peterson

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