Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how your reaction to a situation can impact your success as a reseller.
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Does Your Reaction To A Situation Affect Your Success?
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about how you react to a situation determines your success in business.
Rob: Okay, guys, so today we are talking about your reactions and you have control of your actions and how it can totally affect your results in business.
Melissa: Yeah. So today we were running and I, I listened to a podcast. We listen to podcasts almost, every day when we run. And it's something sparked this topic, and I'm like, I think this is something we should talk about because it is super important. And this might get, like, it's, we're not trying to you know, blame people for anything and how, but I think this is very helpful Absolutely. To think about and to be aware of. And we've been now doing this coaching thing for like helping people with their business for eight years. Like we've had Flea Market Flipper for eight years, which is kind of crazy.
Next month will be our eight, eight years since we bought our domain. So.
Rob: That's it.
And when we went full-time into helping people, we actually went full-time into the career change. Yeah. Actually giving up what we were doing before and going full-time into flipping. So that was our main income and helping other people get the same success. That was, we did all that, lumped it together and started that eight years ago.
Melissa: Yeah. So we've seen a lot of people, you know, come through and we've helped a lot of people and a lot of people had some great success. And then we see people who don't really do as much and it's like, what, what are some of the differences between people who really see success and people who don't?
And so, like, I don't want this to sound like harsh on people, but it, like, it's, it's true. Yeah, like, and so one of the things is how you react to different situations completely can determine your success in, in your business. So like, what does that look like? So if you have something happen to you, do you react?
Like how, like do you let things happen to you or do you stop, think about it, and then find a solution? Or do you let it happen and then you blame the outer circumstances of letting it happen? Does that make sense? Did I say that? The, the yeah. No, absolutely. So like, say, something happens and with eBay and you're frustrated and then you just get mad and then you like, I quit because eBay doesn't work.
So I mean there are, and there are legit, you did that, which I've done that, right? There are legit ways. And years ago there are legit ways to to like, I mean, there are things that happen and you get frustrated. Yes. But do you just let those things always happen to you and then you could, like, it might just make you quit and then you're like, okay, well this doesn't work for me.
Or another instance is like, some people might think, well, they are finding stuff, but I, or there's nothing in my area. There's no none of the, there's no nothing worth anything in my area. I can't source anything. So.
Rob: Yeah, and to go on this a little bit further is this really is a mind shift. It's shifting your mind instead of reacting one way to react the other way. Just like Melissa said with the whole thing, if somebody asks for a return or something like that and it deters you and you have an issue and you just shut everything off, and you're like, all right, this is not for me. I'm not good at this. Instead of thinking of, okay, well how can I learn from this situation?
Get better at it so I can get better at this profession. Profession, thank you. Had a problem getting that one out. Profession or side hustle, how can I get better at it and learn? To keep going with it because it is an amazing profession. It's so much fun to be able to do this. But that, that tweak in your mind, shift understanding that, the same thing with, hey, I can't find anything in my area.
And I think about one of our actual students, Joanna, now coaches, and now she's one of our coaches, but she had the same instance to where she has two, actually two of our coaches are, in another, in the same area, another state, but they're in the same area. And one of them was finding tons of stuff, making tons of money.
And the other one was in the same neighborhood. Well not same neighborhood, but the same town and she could never find anything. And she's like well, I don't understand why she Stacy's finding everything, but I can't find everything. I can't find anything like what Stacy's finding. And then she said she made that decision that she was gonna change it in her mind and figure out how to get results and get better at what she was doing.
And then she said, once she switched it in her mind, she started really finding those items. She started finding Sleep Number beds. She started finding all these other things that Stacy was finding. And all it was, was a tweak in her mind instead of thinking about, okay, well this isn't for me because I can't do it and somebody else is living right by me and they can do it.
Why can't I do it? It must not be a good fit for me. And instead of having that outlook on it, she switched it and then she started finding stuff like crazy and she started, her income started going up and it was awesome. It was just amazing. So yeah, that's just one example of how you can really, really, how you react to a situation can definitely determine your success.
Melissa: Yeah. And another kind of diving deeper into the return. So we talked, talked about this before, like if you get a return request, we're very big on don't respond right away. Like you need to stop, look at the situation, become a detective, like figure out what's going on. Like is it, maybe it's a shipping claim.
It's not actually a return because that's usually when we get something, it's a shipping damage claim. So, and that's gonna be a different process than the actual return. But you have to just stop, take in the information, and then eventually, like not. Not like the second that it comes and be like, try to respond right away.
So how would, like, how do you handle a a return request?
Rob: Absolutely. Just like you said it, bring it in and this hits close to home because within the last, I think it was a month ago, we oh yeah. We sold a big one. And this would totally deter a lot of people in our industry. $6,200. $6,250. So that's a big sale.
Over $6,000 for a TurboChef oven. And we've talked about it on the podcast, previous podcast. It was the last TurboChef that we sold. The guy got it. And I have a feeling that he didn't know what he was doing. When he tried to hook it up and he fried something, he immediately messaged me and said, this thing does not work.
It just fried my whole kitchen. And right away you could actually, I could freak out and be like, oh my gosh, this, oh my goodness, this is $6,000. He's gonna ask for a return. He's doing this, he's doing that. And instead, I just sat there. I did not respond back to him for over 24 hours. That's the best advice we can give you on something that happens like this.
And most people aren't dealing with a, with a $6,000 sale, you're dealing with a, you know, a $100, a $200, or $50 or $20 sale, and you're having to make these decisions on what you need to do moving forward. So for me, wait 24 hours, put all the information together and figure out what's going on.
And my first response to was, oh, no. I took, I actually tested this and have a video of it actually working right before the day that I shipped it, because it was sitting in storage for two months prior to me shipping it, and I wanted to make sure there was no problems with it when it arrived to you.
So I put it, I hooked it up. Everything was working just fine before I actually piled it the same day. I set up a watermark on my video showing that. Can you tell me more about shipping? Were, were there boards broken when, because it went on a pallet. Were there boards broken? Was there any damage to it when it arrived?
And that's how I responded back. My first response to him is try to be a detective and figure out what is going on versus attacking him and being like, hey, this thing was working. You don't know what you're talking about. You had to do something wrong. That's the a reaction that you don't want to do, but you just need to really gather your thoughts and gather a game plan on what to do.
And I knew the first thing for me to do is to figure out what exactly happened. Even if he's not telling me the whole truth, I need to figure out, ask him questions and figure out what's going on.
Melissa: Yeah, so you don't wanna react too quickly and yeah, and get a rash response because most of the time if you do do it too quickly, then like you have talked to members before where they responded right away and then you're like, ah, I would've done that a little bit different differently.
But you can't go back on that now, like you can't change when you take it back, when you say something. Can't take it back. Yeah. So, I don't know, I'm trying to think of an example, but I know like you, you gotta kind of go through with it that way and then next time I would've done it this way, I would've like not said that.
So.
Rob: But it is, your first instinct is to jump back. Especially for me, I knew I tested this and there was nothing wrong with it. Absolutely. I have a hundred percent confidence that I shipped this out and it was perfectly working perfectly fine. Which the only other equation to the situation is that it got damaged in shipping.
And that's what I was trying to get at. That whole, whole thing with shipping and finding out if something,
Melissa: and without blaming him that he toasted it Absolutely. And letting him, a lot of times sometimes people will incriminate themselves. Absolutely. So like, we had one, I remember a, a chiropractor chair that we had.
The guy said the hydraulic lift or the hydraulic, the the fluid, but it break, the line broke.
Rob: Well, it was leaking, I think it was leaking outta the cylinder itself.
Melissa: And what ended up happening is, and he wrote back months later, he lived in somewhere where it snowed somewhere cold. He left it outside. It froze, and then it cracked.
So.
Rob: The seal around the, the cylinder, which it's like, it's not uncommon because it, it got to freezing temperature and cracked it, made it brittle. It cracked, and then it started leaking fluid and. That didn't come out right away with the whole thing. It was, hey, this thing's leaking fluid.
Melissa: It's sitting here in the, in the freezing, in the frozen weather.
And so it's like, well, we can't really, like that wasn't really our no deals. I
Rob: ended up giving him a refund, but I gave him a small refund. Yeah, he was asking for like half of it back and I said, listen, and that, that was finally after I went back and forth with what was happening, he came out with it himself saying, hey, I left it out for, a week or something like that before I actually got it in, and it did freeze in this, and I don't know how he told me all that stuff, but he did through eBay Messenger. So I had all the proof of that. And then finally he was frustrated with me not giving him, I think he got the repair bill and it was like $1,500 or something like that. And he wanted me to pay $1,000 or $1,200 towards it. And I finally said, listen, this is not my problem.
This is not my fault. I delivered you the item that I said I was going to deliver to you in a timely manner. And this is where I did get firm with him, but I said in a timely manner, and you left it outside at your shop wherever it was, and it got damaged. That's not on me. I did my part of it. And when I did that, finally he wrote back and said, listen, I, I apologize.
A lot of stuff's going wrong right now. Yes. If you could give me an extra $250, $300 back towards, the repair bill, I'd greatly appreciate it. And that that was as simple as it was, but the whole time before that, I'm having conversations with him trying to figure out what is, I'm being a detective, I'm figuring out what's going on.
And you can, you can jump into it immediately and attack them, but you know, they're gonna go on the guards as well, and they're gonna attack you back. And that's where you're gonna have issues with either a return or something else happening that, yeah, negative feedback or whatever it is, something else happening because you're talking really, really quickly or you're, you're acting really, really quickly and you might not be doing the right way.
You might not be doing, handling it the right way.
Melissa: Yeah. So assessing problems as they happen in your business and taking some time to just see like what is the problem and then looking at it from a different lens, like, and not just like making a rash, a rash response really. Yeah. And I've seen this also.
Another example is our kids too. Like, I see them argue with each other and then like, we're working with our oldest. Like you have, you're in control. No matter what if your sister is annoying you, and I know she is annoying. Like I know she can, she gets under your skin because she like, that's, she has that purpose and she, that's who she is.
She's trying to, so, but you are still in control of how you react and, and I, you know, we go over, you know, the Bible says slow to anger. And it's not easy it's not easy as an adult. Like even when we get in arguments like it's usually the reactions that get you in the most trouble. Absolutely. So it's how you react is what gets you in the most trouble.
So, yeah, so that's just something we're doing with our kids, but it all, it definitely relates to business too, and, and relationships. But, but yeah, so, so just making sure that you take that time and react and, and look at the whole situation. And I love the example with Joanna because of seeing stuff.
Cause we, we do see that like there's nothing in my area and then you'll go dive into the area and be like, look, I found this, this, and this, and just send them $5,000 worth of stuff. And it's like, there is stuff. And if you, maybe it's just training your eye. Absolutely. And training, it's not, you're putting the blame on, there's nothing there when it's reality is you just need to learn how to look for the stuff.
So it's taking the blame off of the situation and then looking at okay, well what can I do to fix it?
Rob: So tweaking your mind, realizing, hey, there is stuff here. I gotta figure out how I can train my eye and train my mind to see this stuff and find it and then get it. So that's the biggest thing is really it's that mind shift, that mind tweak that you need to have that there.
And trust me, guys, we've done done this for a long time. And we're not just talking, like we said, we've been doing it for over eight years. We've had students hit $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $100,000. We have some members who have hit $100,000 in sale since they've joined at Flipper University and those, it's an amazing, but it is a, it's a cool thing to be part of their journey and watch them do different things, like Melissa said, and originally we can see people come in and know if they're gonna get success just by their attitudes and how they handle stuff.
Melissa: And you can see kind of in, you know, we have a a members group and you can kind of see how people respond to stuff. And, so you can kind of see, okay, they're gonna have a little bit harder time and they might struggle a little bit because of how they're thinking about the situation.
So, and it's just, it's interesting to come from that perspective and see that, and it's just something that like growing over time. Like that's just really, I don't know our mindset because we listen to, podcasts, we listen to positive things. We don't listen to the news. Like we don't, we don't take in a lot of negative information because if I did, that would be really bad because I am definitely, my mind goes to more negative and worrying. Yeah. And, and he goes to more positive. So even just the other day where he was like, how do you even think like that, I don't understand. Like, where did, how did your mind even, like, if you're thinking like that, then that's what's gonna happen. Like why are you thinking about that? So, so it's interesting.
And so like that's, it's always a work in progress though, so we just, hopefully this was. This little tidbit helps you maybe look at the situations a little bit different and maybe, you know, instead of thinking, I can't do this because of X, Y, and Z, then think about, well, I can do this because of this and this and like I can learn this.
So anyways, just, yeah. So.
Rob: And back to the TurboChef, we're still in the middle of that. We will do a full episode about that. But it is a big, it's a big deal. A $6,200, $6,250. Yeah. Over $6,000 and we are dealing with it and yeah right in the midst of it. I'm, I'm a hundred percent confident it will work in our favor, but it's because of the processes of the way that I've handled this situation and the way that I, over-delivered with the whole, the whole sale has been that way. So we'll do another podcast later down the road to where we can break down the whole thing for you, talk about it and get into it. I think it'd be very helpful for anybody going through a situation like that. Yeah. Especially because that's a lot of money. It's, it's not like a $10, a $20, a $100 transaction.
It's something that we, certain things played out in our favor going through the situation. But yeah, it, it, it, it's definitely a cool situation. At the same time, it can be a cool situation. It can be nerve-wracking. Well, it's cool because I wanna deal with this stuff before I'm helping other people deal with it.
That's true, that's true. I wanna learn this. And that's one of the reasons why we still, you'll find a lot of coaches, a lot of people out there who are in a profession for a little while, they get a little bit of success. They lead the profession and are coaching on that profession. I wanna stay sharp. I still will flip the rest of my life as long as God allows me to flip.
Melissa: It's that, and you just love it. So.
Rob: I love it. It's, it's so much fun. But at the same time, I wanna be sharp and I wanna know how to handle situations for all of our students, for all of our members who are looking to us for advice. I wanna know, I wanna be up to date with what eBay's doing and how they're handling situations.
That's what we'd love to do. So, anyways, we will do another podcast episode on that, specifically about that, that return that we have in the, the midst right now, or the making, and let you guys know how the whole thing goes.
Melissa: I will say also on that with eBay, and they said that you're, we've already talked to a couple people and they said that it's gonna, you know, it will.
It will be in your favor, but we've noticed, and this is just with our dealings with eBay for the last little bit, that they have been a little bit better towards the seller lately. Absolutely. I feel like, you know, we saw the pendulum, we've seen it. I've, in the time that I've known you selling on eBay, I've seen it swing like three times back and forth.
Yep. So like they go towards, everything is for the buyer and they don't want to help the seller. They don't. And then it goes, okay, well we need to help our sellers out more. And then they're more in favor of the seller and it just, it's ebbs and flows and it goes back and forth. And for the last bit, it's been a lot more towards the buyer.
Yeah. Like they have wanted to protect their buyers and eBay is the middle man. They have to do the right thing for, like, they're trying to do the right, they're the mediator media.
They're trying to figure out the right, what's the truth about the whole situation. So they're, I mean, it's not an easy spot to be in, but, and so they have to see like, who's legit are, are this party or this party, or are they both?
Or, you know, there's either side and then the truth. So you have to kind of figure that out. But we, you know, before it was like the last probably year or two, it's been really geared towards the buyer and now we're kind of seeing a little bit more help towards the seller. Yeah. So hopefully that continues to,
Rob: well, definitely once they went over to managed payments, it did start leaning more towards the buyer.
Buyer, yeah as being, when any anything happened, they would lean towards the buyer. Now, just recently. Yeah. I've seen it come back and they're actually, they're leaning more towards the seller in some situations.
Melissa: And we've seen, even in our group, a couple of members where eBay's eating the cost again.
Yeah. So PayPal used to, if something was up in the air, they would re refund the buyer and then eat the cost, eat the price, and still give you for seller protection. And now we've noticed like one or two times recently Yeah. That eBay has done that. So, so maybe that's a good thing.
Rob: Stay tuned. We'll see how it goes.
Melissa: We'll see how that goes.