In this episode we chat with Flipper University alumna Joanna to learn how she was able to pay $9,500 cash for a camper by reselling used items.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Joanna Bradley
Melissa: Welcome, Joanna!
Joanna: I think we're good.
Melissa: So thanks for joining us.
Rob: Thank you, thank you, thanks for jumping on here, Joanna. We know your time's valuable. So thank you for doing this. So let's go ahead and kick it off.
Melissa: So one of the things just to start off, how did you get started on your flipping journey?
Joanna: So a few years ago I was looking for just new options. I was not happy in my job and I was looking for new opportunities and I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. And I kind of on a fluke found you guys, and I thought I've been kind of flipping stuff for years off and on just having my daughter and baby stuff.
And you know, that kind of stuff. Very, very, very, very part-time. And I thought these people make a lot of money, like full-time income flipping, and this is something that's really fun. What? So I watched and started jumping in a little bit and started doing more and more and building and building. And my journey has just been incredible.
Rob: That's awesome. We love it. We love it. For sure.
Melissa: Yeah. So you had a little bit of a background, like, or just like you did, probably from the stuff that you had. When you first got like, decided to do it as like an income, a side income, did you face any obstacles?
Joanna: Oh, I faced lots of obstacles.
Melissa: Let us know. What is some of the stuff you had to overcome?
Joanna: So I faced time like everybody, right. I faced fear. Everybody has fear of the unknown and can I do it? And I really believed that success was for other people and not me. Even though I was doing okay in life, but the people that were really doing amazing, I just always thought that that was for other people. And so I did a lot of work on myself and why I thought that and what I needed to do to overcome it and did a lot of affirmations and positive thinking and realized really what it boils down to is the hard work and just doing it.
You know, the difference between fear and fear and success is just doing it.
Rob: Yeah. And those are some great points and definitely just doing it. We know Joanna. She is a hard worker. You got to make that decision guys, if this is something that you want to go into, you know, sometimes something's got to give, if you want to see that income or you wanna, you wanna make this successful, as even a side hustle, you really gotta get in there and you got to, and I know time and fear both.
You gotta make the decision, okay, is this more important than what I'm doing right now? That's a decision you have to make, so yeah, Joanna, that's awesome. Great tips for sure.
Joanna: Well, and I think we've talked about this. You have time goes by anyway, right? And so why not make the best use of your time instead of giving yourself regrets and wishing that you had done that or had tried that, you know, just make it now.
There's no better time than now.
Melissa: Awesome. Yup. Yeah. So you jumped into freight shipping, I mean, not right away, like you started and got going and then you kind of waited a little bit to get into freight shipping, but then you did it and, but did it scare you at first?
Joanna: Well that's an understatement.
I think I decided that that was for you. I know that you were successful at it. And I saw some other people being successful at it. And I was so scared. I could not get myself to do it. And at the end of 2020, I just decided, okay, you're going to do it. And if it's hard, it's okay. And if it's challenging, it's okay.
But why is this just something that other people can do? So I listed my first thing and I was so petrified. I just, I was hoping it actually didn't sell.
And it did.
I mean, I have everything going for me. I have, you know, I have a truck. You don't have to have a truck, but I have a truck. I have a really handy husband. You don't have to have that. I do. I have willpower and I'm tough and I'm strong. And I know I can do anything, but for some reason that was terrifying.
But honestly, after the first time and the first time was quite interesting. But after that first time, we really literally looked at ourselves as the pallet was on the forklift, driving across the parking lot and said, why did we wait? This makes no sense. Like this wasn't that bad. This is the end of being scared.
And we're going to go for it.
Melissa: Awesome.
Rob: That is awesome.
Melissa: So I noticed you're sitting in your camper. So tell us a little bit about that and how you used your flipping money, to buy that camper. I know you shared the story in our group, which is an amazing story, and I love it so much. So let us know, how did you do that?
Rob: Yeah.
Joanna: We had a little pop-up camper and it was great. It didn't have a bathroom and it felt like a palace after tent camping, you know. And we started talking about upgrading for us and having something that was more comfortable and not having to go out at three o'clock in the morning to the bathroom at the campground.
And it was just what we thought was a dream. And I started putting all my flipping money in a savings and not really watching it. And one night I was flipping through, I was sourcing on a Friday evening and I saw this absolutely adorable camper and my heart started to race. And I went to my husband and said, oh my God, I think I found it.
I know we've just talked about it, but I think, I think I just found it. It's two hours away and he'd started like his heart started racing. He looked at it and it was just, it was a really good deal. We couldn't. I mean, it was six o'clock on a Friday night, it was two hours or two and a half hours away. I knew by looking at it that people were going to go nuts over it, and then it was probably going to be gone.
And so I had to think real quick and I was talking to the lady and I knew she was getting a lot of interest. I probably couldn't negotiate a whole lot, but I said, If we come in the morning, is that okay? And she said, I don't know. I mean, if somebody jumps in faster, I don't know that I can hold it. And I was almost in panic mode because I just knew it was so good.
And I had to have it. And so I thought real quickly, something I've learned through flipping actually and said, what if I send you a deposit right now? It was $9,500. And I said, what if I sent you a deposit right now for $500? Will you hold it until the morning and we will be there before noon? And she said, yep.
And she marked it pending. And we got up in the morning and we went up there and I felt kind of shaky because how often do you hold $9,000 cash? You know, I had already sent on faith $500, hoping that she wouldn't, you know, do something. Like sell it and keep that money. And so I remember the bank kind of looking at me, funny, withdrawing that much amount of money.
And I remember getting in the car and the kids wanted donuts. And so went into, we went to Dunkin donuts and the drive through was so long. I said, I'll just go in. And my husband is very responsible, but I was so nervous about that amount of money that I was like, lock the doors. Don't let anybody knock on the windows. I'll be back in five minutes.
So we're driving up there and my heart was just racing. You know, it's not that often that you hand over that amount of money and, but it was not money for bills. It was not money for anything else. It was money that we talked about doing something like this. And so I thought it was going to be incredibly hard to hand it over.
And instead it was the most freeing, amazing feeling. We got up there, she had it set up at her firehouse and, she was working that next day. So like all the firefighters came out and said, hi, and oh my gosh, we wanted this camper. And so it was just, it was amazing.
Melissa: And that was all flipping money, right?
Joanna: It was all flipping money.
Melissa: So that you'd put away on the side. Yeah, that's awesome.
Joanna: Well, and I didn't realize this is kind of a funny piece. I didn't realize that it was also going to be a good little office for me, you know, seven o'clock in Arizona. My kids are eating dinner and finishing stuff for school the next day.
And I've used it multiple times for meetings.
Melissa: That's awesome.
Yeah, no, I love it. I love that. And then I remember you saying something, before, when you had talked about it in the group that, like you knew that you could make that money back again. Like that was a huge thing for you like to know that, okay, I just put this money, but I'm going to go make it again. So that was really cool.
Joanna: Like I said, I thought it was going to be so hard to hand her this money and there's a big, huge kind of a big metal box on the back of the camper that we put camping chairs and the grill and stuff like that.
And so it made a nice table and I was counting out all the money and all the stress left me and we're driving home and I remember thinking I can make this back. I can make this back in a couple months. And I just got something that we love. That's going to bring us years of happiness and memories and I can make it back. So there's no stress. We were so excited. We couldn't even stand it.
Rob: Heck yeah!. I love it. I love it. It is. It's freeing to know that this is not just something that you make, you know, a $9,000 or, you know, this is something that you've saved for, but you have the tools, you have the know-how, you have the knowledge how to keep doing it and getting better and better at it.
So that's amazing. Yeah, that's a really, really cool, part of your story of buying the camper.
Joanna: Well, and a little one, you know what I wanted to add? I made myself notes and yeah, it's amazing that we got this shiny new to us camper, but really flipping money did so much more. And there's a lot to my journey, but just taking last year alone.
Yes, we got this awesome camper, but we also, I also paid a hundred percent cash for 10 family birthdays. I flew my mom here, to Arizona from Maine, not a cent out of her pocket, not a cent out of my regular, you know, income I made. Multiple extra car payments, multiple extra student loan payments. I bought a hot tub.
I paid a hundred percent cash for Christmas and I'm just a regular person. I'm a mom. I am a wife. I work a full-time job. I have the luxury and opportunity to work with you guys too, and have this business. I get to show my kids how to do this. And this is a family affair. We go together to pick things up.
We carry pallets together. You know, my husband builds the pallets. I wrap the stuff inside. We take it to the freight yard. My kids, my daughter just made a couple hundred dollars recently herself, you know, they clean stuff. It's a family affair. So there's just so much more to it.
Melissa: I want to get Roxy listing stuff soon.
That's my goal. I'm like, I need to get you listing stuff. So we're almost there. It's great when they can do it with you. So one of the things, so looking back on, like the last couple of years you've been flipping, well first, what do you kind of average a month? Like I know it can be up and down. So what would be an average for you?
Joanna: I would say for me about $2,000 to $3,000 a month, which is amazing.
Rob: Awesome also. Yeah, and we did say you're over $5,000 for January.
Melissa: She had two big flips that were like $1,000 and $2,000, right?
Rob: That's what I wanted to get to is how many items did you sell to get over that $5,000 range?
Joanna: Okay. Two huge freight shipments, almost $1,700 a piece. I think 6 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 items.
Melissa: Okay. Awesome.
Rob: Seven items to make over $5,000 in January, which is awesome. Most flippers have to sell tons and tons of items exactly to get to that point. And that's where you're at six, maybe seven items, whatever it is to get to that point. And two of them were definitely noticeable because they were freight shipped.
So that's one of those things that, yeah, that calls attention to that's why that's our business model as well, is when you can make a lot more money by selling those larger items. And that's what we lean into as well. So that's, that's very exciting for sure.
Melissa: So yeah. So one last question, looking back on, like when you started flipping, what would be some key takeaways that you would tell somebody?
Joanna: Definitely the fear stuff, definitely taking a gamble on yourself.
You know, we put a lot into other people in our families, but taking some time for yourself and believing in you. This is not magic. It's not that I waved a magic wand and just made it happen overnight. It's real and it's been a journey and it didn't happen in a weekend or a week. You know, each year, each month I took different risks.
And by risks, I just mean like experimenting with finding something new to focus on to ship. You know, I grew gradually this wasn't overnight that I made $5,600 in a month, you know? So it isn't a magic thing. And I know that there's lots of scams and people don't trust, you know, stuff out there, but this is really, truly real.
And it is a, it is a journey and every success I built confidence. And I think that's a huge thing that I've learned is to believe in myself and okay, I tried this and it worked. Now let's try this and it worked, you know, because I know that it will work and if it doesn't, I'll try something else. And so I'm careful about how much money I spend on items to flip.
One of the things I do for myself is I figure it out. I don't know, none of us want to lose money. Right. And so I only spend what I know that I can break even on. So I only put, say a hundred dollars on a cooktop because I know that there's no way I'll lose a hundred dollars. I can at least sell the parts or whatever if it's not working or something like that.
So it's just, it's being smart. It's cautious risks, you know, believing in yourself, involving your family, busting through fear, changing your mindset. You know, that's been a gradual thing for me and flipping is so much more than just income. The things I've been able to get for my family, the things I've been able to instill in my kids and teach them, you know, the family time.
There's just, there's so much more to it than just the money.
Melissa: Awesome.
Rob: Well said very well said and something that does stick out is the steady growth. It's a mindset, steady growth of believing in yourself. And it's not overnight. Just like you said, it's not like, okay, I'm going to make the decision that this is how it's going to be.
And it's going to be that way. It's not, it's a steady and it's a conscious, thought decision to, to do that steady growth, whether it's the mindset, whether it's the business, whether, you know, it's, investing. Whatever it is, it is a steady growth. It's not, it's just like the famous saying that, you know, you see millionaires are not millionaires, but you see success. Overnight success. It's typically not overnight. People have worked at stuff for years and years, but they look like an overnight success and that's kinda Joanna. She's doing really, really well right now. But she's put the time in to get her mindset, right. To learn what to buy, take educated risks when she's doing it. So, exactly.
Exactly. So, Joanna, we applaud you. We thank you for jumping on here and giving us some of your time for sure. And yeah. Thank you. Great, great advice. I greatly appreciate you for sure.
Joanna: Yeah, you definitely have to put, you know, put the work in and then the potential is endless.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: Awesome. Thank you so much for being on here with us, Joanna.