Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about what to do if you're scared to fail in your flipping side hustle before you even start.
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Rob: What's up pro flippers? On today's episode we're talking about are you scared to fail your flipping side hustle before you even start?
Rob: All right guys, so today's episode we are talking about people who might be in the woods and thinking about starting their flipping side hustle, but are just terrified to do it.
Melissa: So we were listening to a podcast this morning and like's how it's, how we like to start almost every day if we can listen to a podcast. And one of the things he was talking about was successful people. So how many businesses successful people have started before they got success, right. That was kind of absolutely the gist of it, like, and it was a lot, it wasn't like successful.
He said everybody besides Jeff Bezos, there's not another person that has started something, their first business or their first side hustle. And it, it's been uber successful and it was like amazing success. Yeah. So it's usually a work in progress and you learn something each time of what worked, what didn't, and then you grow as a person, you grow from your failures, and then the next thing could be that thing.
So yeah.
Rob: Absolutely. Okay. And that's a big thing because you might be in the middle of trying to start your side hustle, but you're terrified that you're gonna fail at your side hustle, at flipping. That's what we wanna tell you guys, you will take and, and it might be because of some of your past records, some of your track record that you've done.
Yeah. You may try to do dog walking, you may try to do house sitting, whatever it is, and you failed at those things. And maybe that's why it's stopping you. It's holding you back that fear of, okay, is this gonna fail too? Is this gonna be another failure? And that's really what we're gonna talk about today, is, yeah, what, what you should not let determine that you're not getting started just because you're scared of failing.
Melissa: Yeah. And you are the king of having thousands of different side hustles at some point. Absolutely. And we've talked about this before and it was kind of like, I mean, most people who are, have a little bit of entrepreneurial spirit, spirit, and a lot of people have shiny object syndrome, and it's like, oh, this thing is the coolest thing.
This thing is the coolest thing. Let me go do that. And until you actually focused on having, this be what you were gonna do. Yeah. And you're flipping, you've always did it. It was always something on the side, but then you always got distracted and did something else. I'm gonna start, what'd you start? A I'm gonna start a landscape business, right?
That was?
Rob: Landscape business. I started, I mean, I could rattle them off home painting business.
Melissa: I remember even we made door hangers. When we first married, did door hangers. You were gonna start the land. What happened? Did anybody call you? I don't even remember.
Rob: I don't even know if we put out.
Melissa: I know we made them, I found them the other day.
Rob: We've got to the point of, yeah, maybe if you still got them, let's take a picture and we'll throw it in here. No, but just, I mean, all these different business ideas that I had, and I went into them and I got a little bit of success, but it's still, for whatever reason, I didn't stick it out. I didn't really stick to it.
I mean, honestly, that's where I feel like Melissa and our, our success at flipping right now, has definitely been from sticking it out, learning, growing from what you're doing. And getting better and better at it. But I mean, we could ramble off. I mean, what, what's another couple that give pool maintenance.
Commercial pool maintenance. But it house painting.
Melissa: But it, why didn't you like that one? Or what happened?
Rob: I would rather be swimming in pools than actually walking around doing maintenance on pools. I mean, it's one of those things that I should have realized that I went and got certified for it. I spent money on doing that.
Melissa: I mean, you spent money on your roofing license?
Rob: Roofing license. I was gonna be a roofer test.
Melissa: And I don't think, did you take the test?
Rob: I don't even remember. Are you doing? I think I did, but I failed it. I missed it by two points. Oh. And I never went back and rescheduled to do that. So, but house painting, I painted a couple houses and I'm like, yeah, this is cool.
But this is too, too slow. That's what your dad did. Too monotonous. Yeah. My dad was a house painter. You couldn't do it every day. Absolutely. I I figured that out. Landscaping very, very in Florida, dude, it is hot in the summer down here. Could not do that. Way, way too hot to do that. What else did I do? Your favorite's?
My parasailing. Yeah. He tried, bought a parasail from a yard sale. And I was, that, that was.
Melissa: That was the first mistake. I know we've talked about this at one point before, but that was the first mistake buying a parasail from a yard sale. And then the second mistake was to actually try to use it. So, so.
Rob: I think it was a learning experience.
I mean, that's what I say, but I even brought a partner in who is going to buy the parasail boat. So we could start a parasailing business down here in Orlando Florida.
Melissa: And we do have a lot of tourist areas, so it would be fun.
Rob: We do, it would've been awesome. But, and we grew up in the lake, so as our trial, once I got the parasail, we actually tried it on the lake. We put it behind just a regular ski boat. And as I was going down I didn't realize that parasails have an up and they have a down. So it has to be facing, the sail has to be facing the right way to catch wind and go up. So as I'm running down this backyard with the boat pulling me, the parasail will not go up.
And at the last second, a gust of wind came and flipped it over. And then you caught, you had it backwards. I had it backwards, flipped it over. So then it started going up and I went up in the air and, backwards like, you're going backwards like this Rightwards. Yes. And it spun me over and I went backwards, which praise the Lord.
I did. Cause I made like a half a loop around the lake and the clasp that was clasped to the boat, the actual ring on the boat. That thing popped off of the hook and popped up and hit me 500 feet in the air in the back of the head. Cut a big old gash in the back of my head.
Melissa: You still have a scar.
Rob: Yeah. I should have went and got stitches, but I didn't. But it's one of those things.
Melissa: It knocked you out though.
Rob: Knocked me out. I floated down into the water. My buddy who was driving the boat came back. I mean, I didn't fly down quick. It's a parasail. So he floated down in the water. He came and grabbed me, and, I came to and got in the boat.
We got the parasail back in. I'm glad we're not doing that. Crazy. But one of my experiments, or one of my failed businesses, failed businesses that we were gonna try totally went south. So, I mean.
Melissa: But. Okay. So you made a lot of mistakes on that day, but you did wear a life jacket. I did.
That was the one, I'm very glad that you decided to put that on. Absolutely. Because that could have been really bad.
Rob: Absolutely. So that's one of those things. But guys, these are, I mean, these are all business ideas. We even had a tour I was gonna give tours. We live in a very touristy area with influential people.
Influential, is that the word? I, I don't know if that's the word.
I mean, yeah. Famous people. Let's just say famous. There you go. Because I don't know my vocabulary. Let's say famous people. We have a chain of lakes that has a ton of famous people.
Melissa: Really cool, cool houses.
We're like, well, we could do boat tours on our, get a, we bought two pontoon boats.
We bought two boats to do it, and then we didn't do it. Nope. We bought the domain, we bought like an email address.
Rob: Got sidetracked and we didn't do it. So yeah, that's one of those things. But ultimately I beginning of marriage too, but I really feel like the biggest contribution to our success is definitely by sticking this out.
And my brother-in-law, and I've said this before on other podcasts, past podcasts, my brother-in-law told me, he's like, dude, you have so many great ideas. All you have to do is stick with one, stick with that one idea. And if you stick it out, you learn from it, you get better and better at it, you're gonna be successful at it.
Melissa: So, so don't get discouraged if you have tried a whole bunch of different things and they didn't work. Maybe you do just need to focus on one thing. It may not be flipping, but I mean, that's obviously what we are passionate about and talk about all the time. But if it is, if it is something like you've really have wanted to get your flipping side hustle, or even you want to go full-time and you want to get it off the ground, you know, focusing on it and not letting your, it, it is a limiting belief, absolutely, to think, okay, well I've been a failure in the past, so that is who I am. Or that like, and it's not you. Like even if your business failed in the past, it doesn't, doesn't mean you're a failure. It means that didn't work out for whatever reason. Yeah. So, and that's something I deal with a lot. Like we even talked about, you know, mindset this morning, because I tend to go back, well we, you know, I, this is always what happens.
Rob: So you take it as an identity almost.
Melissa: Yeah.
So this is what's always gonna happen, like, because this is all I've known, like this is how I take it and you're complete opposite and you're like, no, like that's not true. Just because this is what's happened in the past does not define what is gonna happen or what we've done for the future. So it's, it's absolutely, it's an interesting mindset shift.
Rob: I even think part of my journey, so you guys know, I've been doing this for 20, 27 years, something like that. Part of my journey when I started out and I started to have good success, I sold NordicTracks, one of the NordicTracks that I sold, it derailed me from my journey and had I, it not derailed me, I could probably be even way further than we are right now.
But it derailed me because I sold a NordicTrack. I shipped it out. It was a bigger NordicTrack, so one of the newer NordicTracks that was a heavier NordicTrack. I shipped the same way that I shipped all my other NordicTrack. The wood NordicTracks that are lighter, easier to ship in a box. I shipped it the same way, and it got damaged.
It got damaged on the way, and this was by far the most expensive item that had had sold. And definitely the most expensive NordicTrack that I sold, it was $1,700, right? $1,750 is what it was, what we sold it for. So, I shipped it. I did, made so many mistakes. I didn't have insurance on it, shipped it, it got damaged, and the guy asked for it back.
This is when I was young. I had already spent the money because I got the money. Spent the money and then I had to figure out how to get the money back to do the return. And that derailed me. I'm like, okay, I hate eBay, I hate selling. This is just not for me. It's ridiculous. And it derailed me for a short time of, hey, I'm not gonna do it anymore and I'm gonna go get a real, and that's probably when I went and got, another job and I did something else and I got derailed from flipping.
But had I, I used it as a learning experience and figured out, excuse me, okay, what did I do wrong in this? How can I course correct?
Melissa: Instead of blaming eBay? Exactly. Or the guy.
Rob: How can I course correct? So you, I know, I, I told you I didn't, I didn't pay for insurance on it. Had I done that, my problem would've been fixed. I didn't ship it exactly like I should have because I was new to it, but all those are learning experiences that if you can totally gather learning experiences from every single thing you do, because I'm gonna, I'll be the first one to tell you. You're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna make mistakes at any, not just this business, anything you do.
That's how we get better at everything in life is by making mistakes, course correcting, getting better. So you don't make that same mistake. You, you, you should be able to learn from them. And that's what I should have done. And I didn't, it derailed me. I quit selling on eBay for a while and I probably went and started selling locally so I didn't have to ship, but then I came back to eBay because it's, you can make so much better.
Melissa: You can make a lot more money.
Rob: Make so much more money. And I came back to it and I, I thank the Lord that I actually did. And yeah, I mean, the, the rest is history. I mean, Melissa and I still do it. We do it day in and day out absolutely love what we do, but we stuck with it and we used all the mistakes that we made as learning experiences, how to get better at the business.
Melissa: Yeah. And then you also, if you're listening to this podcast, like you're trying to shortcut your way so you're not making those mistakes, that you still will make mistakes and that's fine, but like, if you listen, okay. Now don't ever ship anything without getting insurance. Like that is one thing we've learned the hard way a couple times.
Absolutely. For two different instances. Instances that I can think of right now, but always get insurance if it's over a hundred dollars or $50 on whichever carrier that you're, yeah you're shipping with., and then always and what was the other one that you just said? Package it properly.
Like make sure that you're packaging your item properly. Yeah. And that, you know, that comes with practice. Absolutely. You can't absolutely just think that, okay, well I don't really know how to do it, but if you don't, you can't ever do it if you don't try to do it. Yeah. So.
Rob: It's a good point because insurance does go hand in hand with packaging properly.
Yeah. If you pay for insurance and then expect, and not to have to package it to the guidelines, the insurance, you just wasted the money on the insurance. You have to make sure those go hand in hand with it. So, but it is, it's learning experience. You get better and better at it, and you will grow in this business if you use them as learning experiences versus failures.
And they do not define you. You just learn from them and get better and better at the next, at the next sale that you actually do.
Melissa: Yep. So if you guys want to learn more, there's something, you know, you really wanna dive in and you're tired of, you know, like, I'm gonna get started. I'm gonna get started.
I mean, we're here to cheer you on like that. We totally appreciate you listening to these podcasts and we hope that you get something from every one. If you wanna dive deeper, you can check out freeflippingworkshop.com, and we go deeper, more into our business model of how we do things with the higher value items.
And yeah, check it out.
Rob: You guys rock. And we will see you guys on the next episode.