Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about what it's like to own your own calendar.
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Do You Own Your Calendar?
Rob: What's up pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about do you own your calendar? And if not, who does?
Rob: Alright guys, so today we're talking about your calendar. Do you own the calendar or does somebody else own your calendar? Let's dive into it and really deep dive on this topic.
Melissa: So we were listening to a podcast yesterday with Dean Graziosi and Alex Hormozi, and they were talking, about Dean was talking about their program that he does with Tony Robbins, Own Your Future and I honestly, I don't really love like catchy things. Own your future, like kind of sounds froufrou and all this stuff.
Like I don't love that stuff. I think it's like me, I, but I also don't love mindset stuff. I don't know, it's, it's weird. But, then he said something about like, owning your future, why they named it that, 'cause if you don't own your future, somebody else will. And then he said it can look different for everybody.
That what that could mean is, do you own your calendar? Do you, and that one hit us a lot 'cause that. It means a lot to us. And so it's like, wow. Yes. Like we want to own our calendar and what does that look like? Yeah.
Rob: So well, when we started this business almost eight years ago now, right? Yeah.
Because Brody's almost eight. Yeah. Yeah. So when we started this business eight years ago, that was really what it boiled down to. And we didn't think of it in this aspect of owning our calendar, but it boiled down to my job that I was working at was a report company. We did homeowners insurance and we did reports on homes. Melissa was a personal trainer and we had three, we just had Brody, which was our third right before we had Brody's when we had this decision. Yes. So right before Brody was born, we had this [00:02:00] decision. My company called and me and told me they were cutting our benefits, our health benefits, and
Melissa: which was the only reason you had that job anyway, was because we, you still made so much more flipping and we never put two and two together.
You're just like, make money.
Rob: You didn't think it was a vi, I didn't think it was a viable business to be able to be a flipper. What was a flipper? You know what I mean? Yeah. So it was one of those things that, yeah, we made more money flipping, but we had our benefits from the company that I was working for and they didn't pay me near what I was making in flipping.
So it was one of those things that we had the aha moment or the realization of, okay, well Melissa is done when Brody's born.
Melissa: I had, yeah, I was working part-time as a personal trainer at that point and I was like, I three kids under three is just insane. Or three and under, like it's just crazy. It's nuts at this house I have to be able to be home all the time 'cause we were just flip flopping our schedules. So when I had clients, you would be home with the kids and then when I, you had to go do reports, then I would be home with the kids. So we try, we flip flopped our schedule because we like, it's not for everybody, but we did not want to do daycare. We wanted to be home with the kids.
And so that was super important to us. And we don't want to pay for daycare. It was really expensive. So we wanted to be home with the kids and that was really important. But then I had decided, I'm not gonna be doing personal training anymore 'cause it's just crazy here. So you gotta figure out how to pick out the slack.
So he was planning to pick it up and flip some more stuff and then he got the call or whatever that they're dropping the health benefits. And that was right before we had Brody because we were not gonna be covered. He was due April 1st. And I know we've told this story, so sorry if it's repetitive, but he was due April 1st and our benefits went out March 31st or whatever. So it's like, oh, well this could be bad. Yeah. So, but he was born before that we didn't have to deal with it. So was, he was born early in March, March 23rd. So we're good.
Rob: Worked out, but that was, we had to realize or come to the realization of, do we want to take control?
Do I want to go get another job working for somebody else, or do I want to really buckle down and really figure out how to make this flipping business work in our favor so we do have control of our calendar and the rest is history. We, we never looked back. We actually went full-time into flipping. Some of you guys know the story and we've been doing it for now almost full-time for the, the last, almost eight years now.
But it's been an amazing,
Melissa: and then added the coaching part into it too.
Rob: Yeah, it's been an amazing journey, but at the same portion of that, yeah, it was one of those things that it hasn't been, you know, all butterflies and rainbows. We've gone through growing pains and we've really had to develop what we've done.
But now it's, it is an amazing business that we've been able to build and what we know how to do now, that we didn't know how to do back then and we just learned it along the way. So, but one of the biggest things is owning your calendar. Are you at that point where you can make the decision? And we fast forward into like our kids, all of our kids are in school now.
But we fast forward into what we're able to do. What we do together, is, is for our kids. We, everything that we do is to spend time with our kids, to give our kids memories, to be able to do fun stuff with our kids. That's what we do. That's why we do what we do. And it even goes back to when. I left my position at my job, Melissa left personal training.
It wasn't so we could send the kids to daycare. It was so we could spend time with them, so we could really, spend the time with.
Melissa: It was crazy. It was just nuts. It was all a blur.
Rob: It was, but that was where it goes back to, this is what we've done since we've had kids, is really tried to invest in that.
Melissa: And it was super cool 'cause it was something we could all do together anyway, so like while I'm taking care of kids, I started doing more of the books. I started helping you list stuff. Yeah. So you would do stuff and I would do like the listings and that's when I actually got into selling some baby stuff and made my own account.
So we would make some extra money, like on some of the baby stuff and you'd do the bigger stuff. And that's the same time when you figured out freight shipping and how to do the larger items because we were looking at how can we make some more, like how can we do this? So, that's really where that came about was.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: 'cause you've been selling for 27 years, but you never really did the the big stuff until you, we were kind of forced into that we need to make more money. How are we gonna make it work? So, yep. And sometimes those trials make that stuff happen. So.
Rob: Yep. And did go back to the calendar, I could have gone really heavy in the other way of volume and started selling crap loads of stuff, but that was what I equated to working a lot more and making more money.
But at the same time, it was gonna take away from my calendar of what I could do with my kids. And that's where we actually went into the high profits stuff because I noticed, hey, I can sell one item and make just as much as I can, selling a hundred low profit or low value items, I can do one item and it's a lot less time.
The whole process is a lot less time than spending a hundred times of cleaning an item up, taking pictures of the item, listing the item, fulfillment, shipping the item out. When you do that times a hundred versus just one item to make the same amount of profit, you, you, that's what I realize is, okay, this is the way we want to go.
Our business model. We want to spend less time in the business and more time with our kids and with our family. And this is what has allowed us to do it. So.
Melissa: Making me laugh because like you are the person who hates calendars. You don't like to be on anybody else's schedule. And it's funny 'cause you do work hard and we do like a lot of, with the coaching you do like with the listings and stuff, but you don't like to work. Yeah. Like you would much rather prefer just having fun. Like he just loves to have fun and so like he works to have fun and so it's kind of Absolutely. Yeah. Wants to go do stuff, make memories and, and just have fun. And that's another thing we even do with the kids. We talked about a minute ago.
Yeah.
Rob: Fast forward five years after we started and one of the things that we're able to do is create those memories with the kids.
Melissa: Yeah. So on their birthdays we came, I don't even know where this came about.
Rob: I'm sure it was my idea, I'm sure because of.
Melissa: And it must've been before they were in school and then they were started to go to school.
So on birthdays we have family fun day. So, we go.
Rob: You take the kids outta school. Yeah. So every birthday, no matter whether it's my birthday, Melissa's birthday, one of the three kids' birthdays, Roxy, Lexi, Brody, who, whatever birthday it is. We pull them out of school and we spend the whole day together as a family and.
Melissa: And they get to choose what we do.
So before we used to have Disney passes, so we would basically go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, or it's wherever everybody wants to go. It's usually Cracker Barrel, not for my birthday though. I don't like Cracker Barrel anyways. Then Chuck E. Cheese and then Disney. That's kind of what started, and then we don't have Disney passes anymore, so now it's a free for all. Like, where's the last place you wanna go? So.
Rob: Putt golf, some of them go to putt putt golf, golf or glow in the dark golf. Yeah. Or Wonder Works, fun things. So different, different fun things. Just about whoever's birthday it is, they get to pick, what we do for that day. And we just spent a whole day doing that.
Now we own our calendar and we're able to do that stuff because of the foundation that we've laid years and years prior to really creating this memory with the kids. So, but it also breaks down to kids have field trips every year, and for us to be able to go together, husband and wife to the kids field trip, we can, we don't miss a field trip with the kids.
We're able to do all that kind of stuff and that boils down to really owning our calendar, being able to choose. Nobody's telling us what we can and we can't do because we do it this way. This is the foundation that we've built, you know, almost eight years ago.
Melissa: And even when the kids were littler, like when we first dove into this full time, like I said, I was doing more with you, like listing and doing books and stuff and trying to help out as much as I could.
But we could do it with the kids home like we. You know, we'd play with them and then we could still, like, you could take pictures with the, it was something we could all do together. Yeah, we would, and we would go to the flea market together. Yep. And the kids, they, we've been pushing strollers at that flea market and when we had three little, we had one kid on our back, two in the stroller.
And they would, that's how they would go. There's, I remember one time you went without me and you had all three kids. I don't remember where it was. You had all three kids and you went and he's got one kid on his back, two in the stroller. And that's just how we did the flea market. Yeah. And we were consistent.
And at that point you had to be consistent every single week. Absolutely. You had to be there. Now we've got our inventory that we still need to get done, but you were there because we needed to make it happen. So every week you were there and usually with the kids, we were all together. So.
Rob: So practical, what does it look like for you? That doesn't mean, hey, I'm gonna make the decision that I want to own my calendar. I'm gonna quit my job tomorrow. You can't, don't do that. No, I'm gonna start doing it. Start laying the foundations right now. Start your, if you don't have an eBay account, start that eBay account.
Start selling small, low profit items, low value items that you can really build up your eBay account and get to the point where if this is something that you like, you enjoy and you can see yourself going full-time into it, start slow. Start where you're at right now, and I think you even have, yeah.
Melissa: And a great place to start is the stuff that you have in your house. So we have a list of 47 household items, that can be worth money to sell. So you can grab that list. It's freeflippingguide.com. Just to kind of maybe jar your memory, like what kind of stuff do I have lying around the house? Oh, I do have that.
So, let me see if I can sell that. So.
Rob: Yeah, and it's not all like, Hey, you're going to do this list. Hopefully it provokes thought in your, your, your mind of, oh, well I, this one, I don't have this, but maybe I have this and that I can do it. And it'll just get you thinking on the right categories of what you can sell.
Or you can even make some money fast. If you need to make money fast, you can do it and start listing. But the biggest thing is build the foundations right now if you know, you see where you're at. And I even think about Jacque, I mean, just the interview with her about not being happy where she was at.
Yeah. And knowing that she was going to have to learn this business. But the thought of the unhappiness where the track of road that she was on was less, sorry, was greater, greater pain than, than, than the pain of what she knew she would have to learn how to do it, and yeah, just an amazing story. If you haven't seen that yet, you can go check out as well.
Yeah. One of the interviews we do with Jacque, but, just if you're at that point, start the foundation now. Start the foundation today. Start getting your eBay account set up, start listing on marketplace. Whatever you have to do to make steps in that right direction because you know, In three years, you want to be to the point where somebody else doesn't run your calendar.
You run your calendar and you decide what you wanna do that day and you can totally do it.
Melissa: Yeah. And we love the flexibility of this business. I mean, we can work super hard and we know that we'll make usually, you know, you. You get a lot of stuff listed and the next month you get paid for it. So it, it kind of is a, you work more and then you get more money and it comes in, but it's, it's really cool that you can do it at different times and you can work with your schedule.
So even if you do have a regular job right now, you, and you say, okay, well I can only commit four hours on Saturday. That's great. You can make a big headway in four hours on a Saturday to get going with this business. So it's just, and then you can gain more flexibility Yeah. In maybe your other job. And so.
Rob: No, that's a huge point, what Melissa just said, it's the pockets of your day that you do have time if you have a lunch break, that you have, you know, an extra 15 minutes to be sourcing items or to ship an item out.
You have the, you have the pockets that you can work and work, it's flexible, towards. Exactly. Whether it's when you come home, you work for an hour after, after work, or it is flexible that you do not have to say, alright, well from nine to two, I have to be doing this. No, you can pick what hours you wanna do to really, really get the results.
Melissa: That reminds me of, we did a interview with Adam, one of our members not that long ago, and he was like, when he had little kids for a little while, so he kind of backed off his business and was doing just an hour a day and still making I think $2,000 a month. Yeah. And then he just went full time like a, a month or two ago. Yeah. Yeah. And start, you know, so he built that foundation of what he was doing and then he just jumped in full time now. So it's absolutely, it's pretty, pretty cool to see what you can do once you kind of, put your mind to it, that you apply yourself. Absolutely. So thanks guys for listening and go check out freeflippingguide.com to go grab those 47 household items that you can resell today.
Rob: You guys will rock and we cannot wait to see you on the next episode.