Rob and Melissa Stephenson, of Flea Market Flipper, interview Sheli Gartman about the importance of knowing your strengths to grow your business.
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Rob Stephenson: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we have a special treat for you.
Melissa Stephenson: We are bringing you an interview that we did with Shelly Gartman at the reseller summit, and she is talking to us. She's a mindset and motivational coach. And she actually is one of the coaches in the mastermind that we're in.
And she's talking about finding your strength. So you can really double down on your strengths in your business. So you can grow your business and maybe start to outsource some of that stuff that is not your strength. So it's a really cool thing. really impactful interview. I think that you will get a lot out of it and hopefully be encouraged and motivated to go grow your flipping business.
Rob Stephenson: Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Rob Stephenson: What's up, guys? Today we are excited to have Sheli Gartman join us, who is a speaker, mindset coach. She does a lot of, a lot of things.
We're very, very honored and very excited to actually talk to her today, get some insights into her business and how she helps so many people. So, Sheli, thanks for jumping on here and giving us some of your time today. We greatly appreciate you.
Sheli Gartman: Absolutely excited to be here.
Melissa Stephenson: So just to start off, could you give us a little background on how, cause what you do is you really help entrepreneurs find their strength, strengths and like being able to do more in their own businesses.
So how did you get started on that path? And yeah, we'll talk a little bit about that.
Sheli Gartman: You know, I was working a job in finance and kind of accidentally got deep dive into personal growth. I had a mentor and a friend. She was like, you've got to go to this class. And it ended up being this 3 month long, really intense personal development thing that I probably wouldn't have gone to had I know what it was.
But at the end, I was really glad I did it. And it just changed everything for me. And so, you know, you know, at one point I just transitioned into doing more of that personal development, the life and mindset coaching, which led to, you know, business consulting and some of that as well. With corporations too, really, because wherever you have humans, you have similar challenges and similar opportunities, right?
So it just kind of really started me on my path. And I realized as much as I loved, I loved business. I love doing deals. I loved sales, but I loved helping people just more like with their life. That was really fun to me. And I find that business and personal really intermingle. So I love business. I love personal and I love being able to talk, you know, like switch hit in both zones.
Melissa Stephenson: So that's kind of how you got into the entrepreneur space. Like those are the people that you work with the most, or do you work with a lot of different people too?
Sheli Gartman: You know, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, like, of course, with ClickFunnels. They're all entrepreneurs, like high achieving, you know, awesome, dynamic entrepreneurs.
And then I have worked with, you know, other corporations. Like real estate companies or, Micron technology. I mean, I've just worked with lots, lots of places where there are teams. So I do lots of team development, executive coaching, helping with hiring, just because that can be really tricky to get the right people and to really understand people in one job interview is really hard because people know how to interview and here you're getting married to this person, right?
Professionally. So I've worked with faith based organizations. One of the things about strengths finders, which I know we're going to talk about today. It's one of my I'm just obsessed with it as an assessment. It just it helps in every area, like, wherever there are people in relationships and wherever people want to grow and keep, like, maximizing their capacity in in business or in life that that's one of my favorite tools. So it just, it plays in, in so many ways, like if you have conflict resolution, it's a great tool. If you're hiring, if you want to get married, you know, look at their strengths and see, like, how's this going to really work long term. So it's kind of magical.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah, that was kind of my, my next where we were going with the strength finder.
So like how, like you kind of answered it a little bit in there, but any more to elaborate on how does it help an entrepreneur specifically? Cause everybody here at this summit is, you know, they're either want to get into reselling or they're, they're doing it and they want to scale, they want to grow their, their flipping business.
So how does knowing like what your strengths are help somebody in their own business?
Sheli Gartman: Yeah. And fun fact, when I was getting out of corporate America and finance and, and I started having kids, so I wanted to be at home anyway, I became a flipper and, a lot of what I bought, I would buy on eBay and resell on eBay and they were vintage reptile skin handbags.
And that's not really,
Melissa Stephenson: I remember you telling us that.
Sheli Gartman: That's so niche and strange, right? But that really helped me, you know, try to build my book of business as an entrepreneur myself in the speaking and consulting and team building space because I couldn't just quit, quit my day job and do it overnight.
I had to kind of, you know, develop the eBay business. And then when that built up enough, I quit my corporate job, kept doing that business for quite a long time when my kids were little. And as I built, you know, my network with the speaking and coaching. So, anyway, fun fact.
Melissa Stephenson: That's really cool. Yeah. I love that.
Sheli Gartman: Yeah. And so, I just, I kind of accidentally fell into that and it was crazy to me. I mean, you guys live in this world, but people were like, well, how can you buy things on eBay and resell them on eBay? And I'm like, there's so many reasons people don't know what they have, or it's really dirty and I clean it and then I sell it or.
You know, I market it, right? I learned a lot about online marketing from doing it on eBay, because a lot of it was just putting that time and attention into your copy and into your pictures and stuff. And so I learned so much that I didn't even realize I was learning.
Rob Stephenson: Right.
Sheli Gartman: And StrengthsFinders, I didn't start using until probably 15 years ago, which, Is gross.
Like I so wish I had been using it my whole life. I wish I would have had it, especially as a, a senior in high school, college student, like, it's by Gallup. So there's a lot of assessments and I'll tell you why this one is my favorite. Cause a lot of people are like, oh, I've taken all the assessments.
I know myself. And I'm like, I know, I know, I know. But if you haven't deep dive unpacked this, which most people haven't, even if they've taken it, this was created by a PhD. And I think that's one of the reasons it's really deep. It's really wide. It's put out by Gallup research company. They're very heady, very strategic.
They have lots of data and they started going, you know, like Don Clifton that created this, he came back from World War II and he's like, I need to make the world better. And as he started studying psychology, he's like, man, a lot of psychology studies what's wrong with us. You know, why isn't anybody studying what's the most right things about us that we can really leverage in our businesses, in our, in our lives.
And so he came up with these 34 strengths and the good news is we all have all 34. So you're not limited. You know, when people say, well, I can't start a business because I, whatever it's like. Yeah, it's really hard to start a business. And you have to kind of do everything at first. Most, most of us do anyway, but you kind of figure out what you're good at what you're not so good at.
And you figure out how do I hire out or barter or trade or do something really creatively get people to help me until I can get to the point I can hire out. My lesser strengths, I like to call them because there's a lot of things we could do, but we'd rather poke our eyes out. Right. It's just not, it's not our thing.
Like build a funnel. I'm like, well, I just, I will hire that, but I don't ever want to learn that. I just, it doesn't mean I don't have that ability, but I'm not driven to that. I like developing relationships. I, you know, there's just other things that I'm really good at that I like to do. So it really empowers people to like own.
What are you amazing at? What, what, what, when you fine tune that tool and you polish it, are you just going to crush and then what are some of the things you really should try to avoid and say no to if you can partner with people joint venture something to stay away from so that you can succeed or when you're ready to scale.
One of the biggest ways to scale is to really leverage strengths and really get out of the nit know you, like hire the bookkeeper or whatever the thing is that's making you wanna stay in bed, versus get up and do the things right to, to really offload those but not feel guilty about that. And not, and not sit around and think, I call it strengths, envy and strengths.
Shame. Like we look at other people, we're like, why can't I be more like that? Why can't I be better with computer stuff? Or why can't I be. And it's like just leverage the strengths you've got, try to learn things you really need to learn. But the way we're going to make the most money and impact and have happiness is with our strengths.
We're not ever going to be able to do it exactly like somebody else. And I'm sure you guys see that in your business.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah, for sure. And I, I think even to relate it back to like the, our eBay business, like he loves, his superpower is finding things and sourcing things and he loves it. A picker, like to the heart, like loves it.
But then it comes to listing and it's like, That's not so fun. Like, and.
Rob Stephenson: Or fixing things. We find great deals on fixing things and I can do it. I can do it because I've been doing it for years, but should you be, does it make sense for me to be doing that or stay in my zone of genius to where we can definitely utilize that and, and hire somebody exactly, make the most out of that and then hire the rest of the stuff out.
So we totally get that for sure.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah. So yeah, yeah. So, and even to the part of in our, in both of our businesses in the bookkeeper, like we hired a bookkeeper last year and I absolutely hate. Like, I don't like numbers and neither of us do. And so that, and that's been like a struggle for us because neither of us are really numbers people and that's not good when you're running a business.
So we finally hired a bookkeeper last year and it's been so much better. I don't have to do like, I get the report and it's great. Like that's, that's awesome. So, yeah.
Sheli Gartman: And they're, and honestly, they're going to do a better job than you. Yeah. Right. They live it. They breathe it. If you hire the right one, right.
They can crush it. Whereas even if I dabble at it, I'm never going to be amazing like somebody else because it's not my thing. And so sometimes us getting out of our way, it's scary. Like it could be scary to hire. Even if you start with part time, right? A lot of people think when you start to hire somebody, oh, I've got to hire somebody full time.
No, it could be a couple hours a week, you can start with a put your toe in the water and figure it out. Make sure you get the right person. But to your point, leveraging what you're amazing at. Well, you're going to make the company the most money that way, right? Not doing the books and, and maybe not listing at some point.
Once you get to the point that you can have somebody else, somebody else that like, doesn't like to go picking or doesn't like to go talk to other humans, but they're really good with the backend stuff, right?
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah, I do wonder that brings up a question. So you've worked with a lot of people. So do you see when you go through this strength finders with people like they have their strengths and then they have their, what do you call them?
Not weaknesses, but you call them something else. Lesser strength, lesser strength. Do you find that people have a hard time releasing that control? Because I feel like the control, like people want to control everything. So is that like a really a pain point for a lot of people?
Sheli Gartman: It is a pain point, I think, especially for entrepreneurs, because a lot of, a lot of what gets us the bravery or the chutzpah to start a business, right, is thinking we can, and even if people go, that's kind of crazy, like, we're doing it anyway, and sometimes even your family will be like, I don't know.
And you're like, aren't you supposed to support me? And so it could, it could be kind of lonely, but some of those same kind of grit, make it done, get it happen. Things can be counterproductive when it does come time to be more strategic and go to that next level, which means having more of a strategic plan, time blocking, really leveraging my highest and best strengths, really getting out of the stuff that I'm not good at.
And collaborating with other people because, yeah, collaborating with other people that takes energy and effort, especially like onboarding someone or learning how to work with somebody. Right? It's almost like we have to go slow for a minute to go fast. That's hard for entrepreneurs doing it different than we've done in the past.
That can be hard for us. Sometimes we're forced to, and then we're like, oh, I guess I have to learn how to do things online because we're home for COVID. But we resist a lot of that. Right. So I do think some of the same, you know, but that speaks to with strengths. We have our strengths, but there's a shadow side to every strength. So what I find is a lot of people kind of, at least naturally, kind of understand what some of their strengths are. What they don't understand so much is the shadow side of those strengths and how that can really get in the way of not only business, but relationships.
Melissa Stephenson: Interesting.
Sheli Gartman: Yeah.
Melissa Stephenson: I got to go take that test again. I had the tab open for a long time. I got to go do it. So.
Sheli Gartman: It does, it takes about 30 minutes, but, it's so good. Cause like, like, competition or achiever, you know, there's some of those strengths that, oftentimes an entrepreneur will have, right? I see it a lot in ClickFunnels, for example, like that they're high achievers, they're competitive, they're futuristic.
But there could be the shadow side to that, right? Do you have some kind of balance, whatever that looks like for your family? Do you time block out self care, whether it's sleep, working out meditation, you know, and so that can be some of the shadow sides to that. And it really can catch up with you.
Like sometimes we can get by when we're younger. Just, you know, willy nilly grinding it out and the grind sounds kind of sexy and then we get a little bit older. We're like, oh, this is probably not sustainable. You know, like the body starts to go. Hey, you know, I'm going to make you sick for a week. How about that?
Because you need to slow down. Right? And so I think we start to learn at some point. Oh, I can be successful, but like, I, I think I'm on this burnout track. So we start to figure out maybe there's a better alignment. And I think 1 of the 1 of the most objective ways we can do that is by looking at those strengths and saying, am I really living in these and maximizing these?
Am I tipping to the shadow side of any of those? And yeah, where can I just be like, I need to let that go. Some of those strengths can lead to us being controlling. I mean, we're all a little bit of control freaks, right?
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah.
Sheli Gartman: So some of it can lead to us, especially people that have started businesses where they were doing everything.
Sometimes that's harder. Some people are okay with it, but some people have a hard time, like releasing, whether it's the books. Like I've worked with entrepreneurs and like, I don't want somebody else to see my books. It's like. Okay, but like, I know QuickBooks and I'm not a QuickBooks person, but I know they said you can, you know, you can create settings where they can only see certain things and they can't see everything, but it's just setting it up and releasing.
Right. Releasing that if they really want to continue to grow. And so it takes discipline to like, do that and adapt and change. Yeah.
Melissa Stephenson: When you're talking about like, you know, the grind, I think that's very common with a lot of people that are really, you know, they're working hard to get it done and I'm guilty of that.
I'm like, I'll just power through. Like I got this, I can do it until your body's like, nope, you can't, you can't. Like the hustle culture kind of thing. But I think you do. Yeah. It changes your mindset when you get, do get a little bit older. You're like, no, we don't need to do that all the time.
Sheli Gartman: Yeah. Kind of let yourself off the hook a little bit, right?
Like what's the story that I'm telling myself about what I need to be or do to be successful and what part of that's true and what part of that's just. A belief I came up with at some point, maybe that's the way it was raised, or a mentor kind of mentored me that way. But I think it's really good to take breaks and take an assessment of yourself and be like, am I really leveraging on my strengths in all of the best ways?
Or am I trying to snap on some kind of a mentality that somebody else? uses and it works really well for them, but it doesn't exactly fit me. And, and then the seasons do change in life, right? When you're just starting out, that's different than when you're a few years in. And so being willing to come back to the drawing board and reassess it and say, what's working.
And I used to say what's not working, but we, we're so hard on ourselves anyway. I don't say that anymore. I say what's working and where's the dial up. There's always a way we can improve. There's always something we can improve on. So where's that dial up. Don't spend time giving yourself a hard time.
Just, you know, take an action, step into, okay, I'm going to work on that this week. I'm going to work on that one dial up, change one thing. Don't get into overwhelm, which is what an entrepreneur can do. Right?
Rob Stephenson: Absolutely.
Melissa Stephenson: Sure. I'm guilty of definitely like feeling if I'm not busy, I'm not being productive.
So like, and no matter if it's, something that's actually moving anything forward. If I'm busy, that's equates to productivity. And I'm slowly starting to break that down because that's not true. Like you can be, and you're still not getting anywhere.
Rob Stephenson: Yeah, absolutely.
Sheli Gartman: Do you guys know who Zig Ziglar is? He was like, considered the grandfather of motivational speaking.
Yeah. Back, back in the olden days, my dad and he used to travel together and do financial planning seminars. So he did financial planning before he did motivational. And so my dad was quoting Zig Ziglar all the time. And so we all, we were little zigglets. We just could quote everything Zig Ziglar, but there was a really good one about, you know, I think it was him that originally said you can confuse activity with accomplishment.
And so what are, what are those high payoff activities that you do with your strengths? Right. And especially as a business owner, what are the things that bring us the most money? That I'm really good at and then, you know, and really prioritize those and really, you know, try to leverage that strategically instead of just running around in circles, like, oh, just checking off lists haphazardly, like, it can work for a while, but it is more of a burnout model typically.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah. Go ahead.
Rob Stephenson: No, I was curious. So you've worked with a lot of successful people. You've been around a lot of successful people. Is there any specific characteristics or character traits that you could pinpoint? Just successful people period. Is there anything that you've narrowed that down to?
Sheli Gartman: Yeah, it's funny too, because I'm writing a book about that right now. I'm finally writing a book on strengths finders and looking at especially highly successful people because they, you know, they, I find they do have some really similar strengths. The, the really high achievers that sustain it too, not like the burnout model, but the ones that can do it over a long period of time.
And so, I'm finding it fascinating, but yeah, like they're planners. That's a huge one. They plan, they don't just wake up and start running around manically, right. They, they either plan in the morning or they plan at night or both. So they're very intentional and they, you know, they kind of bullet point or whatever, make that list, prioritize it.
And that's so helpful because it's like, you know, when you think about the big rocks, what are the big things that the non negotiables that have to be done today? And then everything else is ancillary. And then I'll get as much done as I can because every day is a grab bag. We don't know what's going to happen.
Right. Right. But a lot of people just wake up and start to go. And so they're just not leveraging, they're not maximizing their time and they're not their energy as well. So, really successful people like in business context, especially are planners. They're also futurists. Like it's one thing I noticed they they don't just think about the future.
Everybody thinks some about the future, but they really think a lot about the future. Where am I going? Why am I doing that? What's going to get me there? And I like to say they, they build the future. They don't just try to show up in it. You know, a lot of other people just kind of hang on for the ride, but successful, you know, entrepreneurs and achievers, they, they want to create the future.
They want to create the world that we all want to live in. And they want to be a part of that. They're innovators. And because of that, they tend to, even though they go through hard times, like we all do, they tend to innovate and adapt during hard times like COVID. Right. You know, there was a bunch of people that were like, oh, I'm at home.
Well, I'm going to get online and, you know, really scale up my online business because it can't go out and do whatever I was doing before. And so that adaptability is, it's funny. That adaptability is one of those strengths finder strengths. And no matter where that is on your 34, even if it's last, you better pony that thing up.
You better like embrace adaptability because everything is changing constantly and faster than ever before. Right. And so if we resist that, now we're wasting energy, resisting, resisting something that's eminent instead of going, okay, how do I, how do I flow with it and maximize every opportunity and continue to blow through the obstacles, regardless of what's going on.
So I think adaptability is huge. And the other thing I find is positivity.
Which is funny because, you know, the shadow side, it's true. And I have it number seven positivity for me. The shadow side of positivity is like toxic positivity. It, it, it is that yay. It's all great. Even when the sky is falling.
You're like, we need to talk, we need to have a conversation because the poop is hitting the fan. Like, sometimes we have to get real and get out of denial. So, positivity that turns into denial is no longer positivity, it's actually denial. We're actually lying to ourselves. Or positivity too soon, like somebody just passes away and you're like, oh, but there's no accidents, you know, heaven must have needed them.
It's like, they don't, they don't need the motivational speech right now. They just need to grieve, right? So, but I find that the positive side of positivity is always looking for, well, what is good about this? What are we learning about this? What can we do with what we've got? Instead of obsessing about what's out of my control, constantly being positive about what I can do, what is good, what is working, and leveraging most of your time and energy into that.
So those are some of the biggest things I've noticed are really, really common denominators.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah. Love it. Yeah. That's super interesting. One of the things you said about being able to adapt and even if it's the lowest one. So even like, there's some of them that probably you might not be super strong with, but it's something you can still work on.
Right? Like, so it's something you can grow if you know, that's a really an important one to have in the line of business that you're working in.
Sheli Gartman: Yeah. And, and that's one of the things I've been thinking about too. Like, for example, learners. Huge one is all highly successful people are learners and there's lots of ways to learn, right?
You learn by doing your business, you learn by reading, you learn by podcasts, going to events, masterminding. I mean, there's a gajillion ways, coaching, there's a million ways to learn, but somebody that has learner lower, it may be harder for them to sit their butt down and learn or, you know, like commit to a program or whatever it is, read the book or listen to the audible.
But you can time block out and just discipline yourself to do it right like somebody that has strengths like discipline, consistency, all of that. It's gonna be easier for them to get to the gym. It just is. They're just kind of wired where they like routines and they commit to things. And I always go at 5 a. m. or whatever their thing is, but I could still do the same thing if I time block. And, you know, work it out and make it happen. It's just going to be harder for me to kind of pull that tool out of the tool belt. But if it gets me where I say, I want to go, that's part of discipline. It's like parenting, right?
We're not good at everything, but we suck it up and we figured out because our kids are depending on it.
Same thing with marriage. And so I think the same thing's true in business too. It's like, sometimes I've got to do something that will keep me on the cutting edge of this, it'll keep me successful.
And it'll keep me relevant and that's motivating. So even if learners number 29 for me, I'm going to block out time. And it's like, this is my learning appointment with myself. And I'm going to listen to that book or I'm going to, whatever it is, I'm going to go to that class and maybe I sign up for in person classes when I can, so that I have that accountability of I'm in the room and I'm engaged.
So you're right. We can hack into those wherever they are. And we can, definitely partner with people when we have an opportunity to partner or hire people. Really think about what do I need? What do I need to help hold me accountable or compliment me or whatever it is? Because we don't, we don't have them all in our top, right?
So we can't just constantly live outside of those top ones. We've got to be able to do the job we're doing in our top, but then to your point, sometimes those other tools get to come up because that's what we need to do in that moment.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah, that's motivating though, because then it's not like, well, this is not your top strength.
So you cannot do this. Like you can work on it. It just might be a little bit harder for you if that's not a strength. So that's encouraging.
Rob Stephenson: Or find somebody who you can partner with. Just like you said, somebody who you see has that strength. Like Melissa and I have totally different strengths. We're married.
We're, we're very, very well, where we partner together on, you know, holding each other accountable and doing stuff that we're not strong at. So that's really, really a huge thing for sure. That's cool.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah. Yeah.
Sheli Gartman: Yeah. So, and it doesn't put you in a box. It's the only thing I'll say about this assessment.
Like, I don't think anybody wants to be in a box anymore. Like, a lot of the assessments are good. They teach you some, this one's a lot deeper, but like, I like this one because I'm not a D or a red or a dog. I'm just like, I'm, I'm all of these, you know, the, these top 10 or so are the ones I'm going to lean into the most.
But, but, you know, I have all these tools in my tool belt, like somebody that's lower in empathy, they still have it. So if somebody is going through a hard time, you can still, even if it's kind of uncomfortable for you, and it's not your M.O., you can still pull that empathy out. And I think that's really important because it doesn't, it doesn't lock us down and it also doesn't give us an excuse to say, well, I'm just not relational. Yes, you are like, that may not be the way you lead. You know, the majority of the time, naturally, you may lead more strategically, or you may lead more with doing the things, but we are all relational. And also, partly the way we do relationships is with those strengths. So if you are more strategic, you do your relationships, like the value, I like to say, this is the way we lead and love the world is through our strengths. So you may lead and love the world by spreadsheets and doing QuickBooks. I mean, God bless you.
It's not my thing, but you know, but like I lead and love the world different, but I'm still serving and I'm finding, you know, I'm leveraging that, finding that way to create value and lean in and not feeling bad about, you know, who I am and what I bring, but understanding what I really bring to the table.
And I think that's important, but you're not, you're not limited, you know, which I think is good.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah, that's, that's really cool. I was one of the things that I feel like we see a lot with the people that we work with, or that join our program or that just in our, in our world. That they have all the intentions to do something, to do this thing, to get to the goal, but for some reason the action doesn't go and either they want to like learn everything and feel like they need to know everything before they jump in.
But the action, the action step is the hardest one. Is there like something they can work on or a tool they can use to help that be better? Cause
Rob Stephenson: that's like analysis paralysis. They're stuck in analysis paralysis.
Melissa Stephenson: And so like, what, what would you say to help somebody like that?
Sheli Gartman: What part do they get stuck on it? Is it like when it comes to actually buying the things or is it listing the things or even getting started?
Melissa Stephenson: I think just starting is the most thing. Because like even if implementing, yeah, yeah, implementing.
Rob Stephenson: I feel like they're more worried about making a mistake before they'll even actually take the action.
Having problem be able to make a mistake, a problem,
Melissa Stephenson: or having a problem that comes up. But you can't get through anything, you know, if you don't get started. So I'm just curious if there's like a commonality.
Rob Stephenson: Fear too. So maybe, yeah,
Melissa Stephenson: I think it's fear and confidence too. I would say.
Sheli Gartman: Maybe tell me a little bit too.
Like I'm wondering the, the, the kind of client that you attract or the kind of, you know, people that do this business, are they more introverted a lot of times? Cause they're wanting to like work at home and list things online and that kind of thing. Would you say?
Melissa Stephenson: I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe some people are, I just feel like a lot of times, like there's some people who, you know, take the information and run with it and do amazing.
And you know, that's awesome. I want to celebrate them. I'm just wondering what other tool we can give to people because that, like, we can give them the same information, but how, like, how do we help them get past, like, maybe more excuses or like, I don't have enough time or I don't have, what would you say?
Like that's kind of stuck.
Rob Stephenson: Yeah. It's just, it's taking action. I feel like that's the biggest thing is just getting people doing it. Yeah. Understand that they will make mistakes. That's how you learn in your mistakes. It's one of those things. They won't take action because they're in analysis paralysis.
It's like, what if this happens? Well, I'm not going to take action because I don't want this to happen. But, that's, that's one of the biggest things. Yeah. I feel like people deal with.
Sheli Gartman: There are some, there are some general things that get people just stuck, right? Fear. It's, it's really true. I mean, and people that say live a fearless life makes me want to poke my eyes out because nobody lives a fearless freaking life.
Like, we're all afraid. I'm a parent. I wake up afraid every day. Like, just stop telling people goals they can't achieve. It's scary. It may not work. And we all know like entrepreneurs have been doing it for a long time. You learn a lot, if not the most by the stuff that doesn't work. And you keep tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, and finding your own secret sauce, right?
Like when I first started taking pictures, I, you know, on eBay, there weren't nearly as good as, you know, I mean, I got to point. I was so good at it now, so fast at it, but it was because of repetition and being disciplined and doing it every day and being consistent. And it wasn't because, you know, listing was my favorite part.
I liked it a lot better than shipping, shipping and handling really made me want to cry. I'd be watching, you know, depressing television shows. And this was back in the day where we didn't have 9,000 channels. I'd be watching lifetime television. Nobody should do that. And do the shipping and handling. But, but, but I knew I needed to do it every day.
If I wanted to feed my family, like I went through the recession and my eBay business saved us, it saved our life. Because, you know, my husband then was like, well, we were both in commission. All of our, you know, all of our stuff was canceling, kind of like COVID. I saw the same thing on my speaking events, right?
All the live events canceled, all the team building events canceled. So that eBay business saved us. And, and it wasn't about doing it when you feel like you're in a good mood, right? Doing it as business, you know, do you want to put both arms around this business and go, or should you just, you know, quit dabbling around with it.
Cause you really, a lot of people, right. They dabble around with entrepreneurialism or MLMs and it's not wrong. Cause sometimes you have to kind of find your way, but like at some point you gotta commit. And that means it's gonna, you're going to get bruises and bumps and you're going to do it wrong. And, you know, and you're just going to learn things by doing it of what you want to do and not do. Like I learned, I'll never ship to Italy. It was a nightmare. Like the stuff would get stolen and the clients would have to pay, right, all these ransom fees for their things. And so I was like, okay, I don't ship to Italy.
And so you just learned that, but that's from time in the saddle, just doing it. So I think there's like overarching things. I think one of the good news. Things to know is everybody's got imposter syndrome. Everybody, 9 out of 10 people have it and the other guy's lying. Like, I swear to you, every, we all have it.
And, and actually high achievers have it worse. Now, most people would not understand that. Millionaires have it worse. Like, it's like there's almost this higher bar. For the rooms that they put themselves in and the, the achievement, they're like, can I sustain it? Maybe I accidentally got successful. Can I keep going?
So imposter syndrome is real. Get used to it. Put it in the passenger seat. Just don't let it drive. Put it in the backseat, put it in the trunk, but it's going to like, pop up. And tell you things like you can't do this. And I can't believe you made that mistake again. So part of it's just that mindset of that's normal.
We all have insecurities and fears, but time blocking and just really doing the things, that you don't love about the business and knocking them out and getting them done is super powerful. And then you get to go enjoy, like I'd be, I'd be like. You guys were, I'd love to go pick and like that, that, that shopping was the fun part for me, right?
The back office was not as fun for me. But I would say the deeper dive to this question would be, it depends. And it depends on one of the things I love to do with team development, working with sales teams or any position is figuring out what are those strengths about them that they can leverage to galvanize themselves, but they're all different.
Somebody that's competitive. things. If you have a team really works, right? But if somebody doesn't have high competition, they, they may not care so much. So what inspires one person is very, and activates them into action can be very different than what works for somebody else. Yeah. Right. And the shadow side, for example, if I'm highly strategic analytical and I lean heavily into those strengths. Learners are never going to learn everything and it makes them nuts.
They want to learn all the things they, they think they're obsessed with learning. They need to keep learning. And it's like, you are never going to learn everything right. Have you met Google? Like it was never like, you know, so learn enough and then go like understand phases. Right. There's a phase to ideate about a business and come up with the idea or your branding or whatever it is.
And, and also it doesn't even matter. Like people just obsess about some of this stuff because it's identity, but it's also like the identity is you, it's just your business. So Apple computers, apple has nothing to do with computers. Right. And it's an apple. It's very simple. Right. But they just really focused on making their product and getting it out to the world in a really inspiring, meaningful way.
And so, so should we, so, you know, there's a time to do things, but that's why, you know, sometimes having accountability partners or friends or mentors or coaches or masterminds or whatever, a network that can help be like, hey, Sheli, you're overthinking the title of this book, just get a URL and do the thing.
And then if you want to retitle it later down the road, you could, you have choices in life, like we just make things so hard. But if I was talking to so many more strategic analytical, if they understand that's the shadow side of their strength. And when they start, I call it the slight edge. When you start to tip into the slight edge of, okay, I've been studying this for how long?
I know that I know enough, but I could just keep researching, but I know, I know enough. I need to activate. I need to. Make the plan and step into execution and they may be lighter on the execution strings. So that's harder for them than somebody. Other people are sometimes the opposite. They don't do enough strategic thinking or learning and they just start throwing stuff out there.
They just start going and cool. As long as you're not breaking laws or, you know, like, see what works this one seller on eBay, he was selling, he was selling just a whole pile of his mom's handbags. And I could see one that I knew was worth a lot of money. And he was like, he started the auction solo. It was like $10 and there's just a pile on a bed of purses.
I was like, oh, everything he's doing. He just doesn't know what he's doing. Right. And, then I messaged him and I noticed his shipping and handling. It was only like $30. He has a huge pile of purses. And I just thought I got to save this guy from himself. I just want the one purse and I'll pay you your $30.
But if you're going to sell the rest of that lot, you need to put like a hundred dollars on, you know, cause you're gonna, you're gonna pay all this money and he was like, oh, thanks. Like he just didn't even know what he was doing. He obviously didn't take a tiny bit of time to look at what other similar products, you know, how they were selling a book or whatever, by the way, I bought that handbag for $30 and sold it for $800.
Nice. You know, that was fun. That was a fun pick, right? So depending on our strengths, like they're good, but we can overuse them. And we can underuse some of the other strengths that we need to pair with them, right? If I'm a heavy executor, but I got to block out time to strategic plan because I know I just activate, sign up for a bunch of things that I'm not going to be able to execute on because I don't even have enough time to do all the things I signed up for or said yes to, then that's a different problem than the strategist that gets locked up in analysis.
Does that make sense? We can kind of overall understand that in a big picture, but if, if, if they really want the deep dive, I'll send you guys the link after this too, for, for the assessment, where they want to go do the assessment and do the whole thing. Like Gallup charges $59 for the whole thing. It's worth it because if you only pay the $20, they only show your top five.
And I have found for doing this 15 years, it's, we really use the top 10 a lot and people will be like, I know I'm strategic. Well, it'll be number six. So it'll be right there. So do the whole thing. Cause it's also interesting to see what are my lower ones. And it's like very validating. No wonder I don't like this, or I really resist that instead of labeling yourself as, as a procrastinator and listening to atomic habits for the 50th time, when you seem to understand your strengths better.
And what that resistance is coming from because sometimes it's just those lesser strengths. It's like, oh, I really do feel empowered to have somebody else do my taxes and not me. And I could just let that burden go.
Melissa Stephenson: Yeah. I'm we'll definitely put a link below if anybody wants to go take that test and I've had the link.
And I've wanted to go do it and I have not set the time. So I'm going to go do it. And you got to do it too. So we got, we got to learn. I do.
Sheli Gartman: It'd be fun to circle back with your guys as like, use them as examples. Yeah, right.
Melissa Stephenson: For sure. For sure. Did you, use some of your nice bags before you sold them?
I'm just curious. Like?
Sheli Gartman: You know, what's funny. I mean, they were vintage. So they were like forties, fifties and sixties. So they weren't really set me carry around a lot. But I remember one time I got a more modern one. It was a Grada crocodile. It was like such a gorgeous bag, but it was like a $5,000 handbag.
And, I just didn't feel worthy of carrying this handbag. I went to one event with it and I was just like, so worried. But I was going to like ruin it because I really wanted to sell it. After that night, I was like, this isn't worth it to carry these bags. I'm not my target market. You know, cause I sold them a lot to Beverly Hills or the UK, you know, there was places where people would carry these kinds of bags, but yeah, a little bit.
I did my, my favorite story is I sold two handbags to Oprah. That's my favorite story. Wow. Really? That was, I mean, she had a buyer buy them. She wore them during black history month. And, the only reason I found that out was because she missed one of the auctions, the assistant that was buying them for her.
And she messages me frantically. She's like, oh my gosh, I have to have that black Luke Benoit. I remember it was Luke Benoit, black crocodile handbag. I have to have this bag. I work for a very big deal person in Chicago. And I'm like, sorry, somebody else won the auction and she's messaging me. No, you understand I need that bag and I'm like, sorry.
And finally I was like, well, I could tell the other person that if what they would take, if you want to buy it from them and she's like, okay, do it. All right. So the other person threw a few hundred dollars on it and said, and I went, I'm, I'm such an idiot. I had such a great opportunity to make all this money.
And I was just being this broker for a couple of hundred bucks. Right. So I get her the bag and, and just these interactions were funny. She was just so particular about shipping and everything. And finally, I'm like, I wonder if she is a big deal. And so I started asking questions and you could tell she signed an NDA or something she wasn't going to tell me.
And finally, I just said, you guys probably don't remember this, but Dr. Phil got made on the Oprah show.
Rob Stephenson: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Sheli Gartman: He went on there cause he did personal development workshops. You know, with a company called Focus, up until he got made on Oprah. So he was doing these and that was like my favorite series.
And so I just said to her, my favorite show that you guys ever did, cause I'm like, would it be Oprah? My favorite show that you guys ever did was the Dr. Phil show. And I just want to see if she'd take the bait. And she was like, that's my favorite show too. Oh my gosh. And then we just started talking. And so anyway, I tried to get a picture of Oprah with my bag.
I did not get it.
Melissa Stephenson: I know that'd be great. That's like,
Sheli Gartman: she did wear it. She said she doesn't wear everything that comes in, but like she did wear that one of the two bags. I was like, yes.
Melissa Stephenson: That's a fun story. Yeah, that's a, what a fun niche too, to get into.
Sheli Gartman: It was really fun. In fact, a lot of people were like, why did you quit doing it?
But I am an extrovert. And so for me, like I would have needed a partner, like, and so sometimes that's, that's the secret, right? Instead of just shutting down the business, I should have sold the business. So that was my other fail as, you know, my, a new business owner and not really understanding and I kind of hung on to it even as I kept scaling in the speaking and consulting.
I should have sold it. I just was worried. What if a recession happens again? And I have to go back to this. But, what I, what I could have also done was just continue to do some of the buying and all of that and done my other things and had somebody run back off of it. Like now I can look back, you know, right.
Right. But it taught, I mean, it taught me so much. And I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, once you get into that entrepreneurial mode, like even if you have to iterate. your, you know, your business model or whatever to match the season of your life. Like you don't just have to toss in the towel. There are ways to, to move through and break through the hard stuff.
And I would say time blocking is huge. Like planning, but it's also time blocking and treating those appointments like your life depends on it. Your kid's life depends on it because we do that for other people. Do we do that for ourselves? And do we do that for our business? If I'm supposed to list right now, or if I'm supposed to shop, or if I'm supposed to clean the items or whatever it is I'm doing, like blocking out the time and you plug your nose and you go and you get to where you could celebrate at the end that you got it done and you don't, don't let yourself get stuck.
And then if it's really not your thing, figure out what is your thing.
Rob Stephenson: Yeah.
Sheli Gartman: You know, I tried to sell a couple of things before I got into the vintage. You know, handbag thing. And that was just my thing. I just figured out how to refurbish them and restore them. And, you know, I just, it was like, it was like creative.
I was like sustaining environment. It just ticked a lot of boxes for me. So if you haven't found the thing that lights you up, it doesn't mean that thing doesn't exist. Right. But you, you need to be able to be like, I want to get up every day and do this, even on tough days. Yeah.
Melissa Stephenson: And that's one thing I love about this event too.
We brought so many different niches, so many different ways to do like, and you just find what you like, the things that work for you. And so that's pretty cool. That's cool. So where can people connect with you after this summit, where it would be a good place for, and we'll put the links below the presentation.
Sheli Gartman: You know, I mean, probably the best two places would be Instagram and it's just Sheli G on Instagram. And then I'm on LinkedIn as well. Definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. If you have any questions, reach out, try to get back to you.
Melissa Stephenson: Awesome. Awesome. And we'll put the link to the strength finder test.
So I'm excited to take it. So for sure, for sure.
Rob Stephenson: Sheli, thank you so much. This has been so enlightening, so much fun to talk to you about your business, your coaching, everything. You're so amazing. Thank you for spending a little bit of time with us.
Sheli Gartman: Thanks for having me. You guys really fun.