Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about when it's time to stop learning.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Stop Learning
Rob: What's up, guys? On today's episode, we are talking about what you need to do is stop learning.
Melissa: And do this instead.
Rob: All right, guys. Today's topic is stop learning.
Melissa: And do something else instead.
Rob: Not something you'd probably think you'd hear from our mouths, because we are huge advocates of learning, growing.
Melissa: Always be learning, yeah.
Rob: Coaching and doing all that. But what do we mean when we say, stop learning.
Melissa: And this was actually brought up today and we listen to podcasts almost every morning as we run. And so there we're learning, I guess. So, but this was kind of sparked by that by, we listen to Alex Hormozi a lot.
He's really super smart and just has all these wise things to say. And he's very different than a lot of entrepreneurs. Yeah. Like he says different things than you would think that you were supposed to do. And today was that topic.
Rob: Yeah, absolutely. He said, that you have to stop learning. You have to start being a doer and stop learning.
And a lot of people.
Melissa: I don't know if he actually said those words, stop learning.
Rob: I'm paraphrasing in my own, in my own words.
Melissa: But that's what we got from.
Rob: But it is, and he talked about his own story. And most people, most successful people, they're always reading books. They're always learning. They're always getting better and better at what they're doing.
And he said, you guys, I'll surprise you. That's not who I am. I don't read, you know, a hundred books a, a month or you know, like a lot of successful people, he doesn't do that. He says, I come to a problem. When I come to a problem, I go and find a couple books that will help me get through that problem.
I read, I read, I read. I get all these solutions, and then I stop reading and I go, and I fix the problem. I do. I do what I learn and I implement it and I do it. And he says, That's the key to my success. I'm not wasting my time. And it's not really wasting, but he didn't to the effect of he's not reading and reading and reading and reading just to read and not do what he's learning.
He only does it when he has to fix something. He learns how to do it from reading and then he implements it. Yeah.
Melissa: And we see this a lot, like even, you know, some of our members or people who follow us and they ask us questions in our audience. And, a lot of times we, we've talked about this before, like it's analysis paralysis.
You're wanting to get everything perfect. Know everything that could possibly go wrong so you're prepared or know all of the ins and outs before you might even list your first item on eBay. And do you really need to know all the things before you go and hit list? No. Cuz you're gonna figure 'em out. Yeah, it's doing.
Rob: Sometimes the best way to learn is by doing.
Learning the process and then doing, and, you know, fixing mistakes. You're gonna make mistakes. Whether you know everything, whether you know nothing, you are going to make mistakes. But learning from those mistakes, you don't make those mistakes again. So they are very key in your growth, which is awesome.
Melissa: I think about the time that you said that one, I think it was the Nordic track. It's like $1,700 and you had listed it, this was back in the day, listed it for mint condition or like real excellent, excellent condition. And the guy got it and it was not, and you stopped using those words after that.
You're like I'm not gonna be telling people these stuff is pristine when it's not. It's used. So you wanted to make it sound better than it was and that didn't go in your favor.
Rob: That stuck with me over 20 years. Now I do not list anything with the word excellent. Even good. I'm very hesitant with good condition.
No excellent, no mint, no amazing any of those words, those buzzword I do not use. I just show them pictures and tell them this is used condition, please expect normal wear. It's one of those things that you learn from those mistakes and I definitely learned an expensive lesson on that one, and yeah, that's one of those things.
Melissa: So, and I, I think that, you know, we do, we are still big advocates of learning. Like we do think you should do that, but you can't keep learning and not ever start, not ever execute because you'll never keep moving forward if you don't actually execute on what you wanna learn about. So, And do it.
Rob: We are huge advocates.
We pay coaches every year. We're paying, if we told you guys what we spent on coaches, you'd flip. But we're trying to learn and get better skills in our craft every single day. We're trying to do that. But the other thing is, when you learn and you don't do, you're kind of just wasting, you're getting all this knowledge, but you're not implementing.
And I'll boil this down too. One of my friends, he reads, I mean he brags about how much he reads. He reads a ton. He's been.
Melissa: He's so smart.
Rob: He's very, very smart. He's brilliant, totally brilliant. But he's been in his industry for probably a good 17 years now. 17 years and he still struggles day to day with making money.
It's one of those things that he's brilliant and yeah, it's one of those things you would think that somebody who'd been in an industry for this many years, this type of industry that he would totally be successful right now, be set for life, but he struggles because he doesn't implement.
He learns. He learns, he reads books. He brags about all the
Melissa: He knows all the answers to everything.
Rob: Brags about all the books he reads. But then when it comes to actually doing or implementing what he knows, he, it's like a deer in headlights. He can't do it. And that's one of the things that we're trying to help you guys get past that.
Just be a doer. You gotta go out there and you gotta get started today.
Melissa: I was gonna say, that's another reason why we love to celebrate with our members the first thousand dollars that people make. Because that is sometimes the hardest part to get started and make that first thousand because that means you actually took what you learned and you did. You went and you did it. So, that's why we get so excited about that, that first $1,000 Pro Flipper Club because you actually took the information and you ran with it and you probably made some mistakes and that's okay. You learned from 'em.
Rob: Yeah. So yeah, definitely to reiterate. It's very important to learn.
It's very important to have coaches. It's very important to do that. But all that's dead. You can't do anything with that.
Melissa: Unless you implement it.
Rob: With that information unless you're willing to do. Be a doer, actually learn and then go do it. And that's what we took a lot from the podcast this morning is, listen, I learned what I need to know.
And then I go and I do what I learn. And that's how you fix problems. That's how you grow. You continue to grow. And if you don't know Alex, Alex Hormozi, he is, I mean he is a force to be reckoned with. He is amazing, so smart, just very, very successful. And, usually when successful people speak, you kind of listen to what they say if you want to be successful.
So, yeah, just a, a great, great podcast for us today.
Melissa: Yeah. And I think it is a good, it's kind of almost a good, not habit, but jumping in before you're ready is not a bad thing. Like it really, it can be a really good trait or good thing to do because you will learn, you know, you'll learn from mistakes.
But like I think of that's how we even got started with freight shipping. Like you had no idea how to freight ship, but you saw that that table set was going for like, you could sell for over two grand if you sold it and shipped it. And you even said, if this sells, on eBay, I'm gonna figure it out.
Rob: I'm gonna figure it out.
Melissa: And you've gotten better over the years, gotten stuff cheaper and figured out how to do it even better. But you did it and you figured it out.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: And yeah, I don't know.
Rob: That that whole process probably cost me double on the shipping. I still didn't lose money on shipping, but it cost me double what if I were to redo that process for process right now, from the years that I've been doing shipping and learning these tricks and learning how to get better and better at it, it's one of those things that I could do that same shipment for probably at least half the cost of what I did, back in the day.
And that just goes with it. You learn as you go. You get better and better, but you cannot learn and you can't get better if you're stuck. If you're stuck like a deer in headlights and you're just standing there, you have to go and do it. The more that you do it, the better, better you're gonna get.
You're gonna learn all stuff along the way, and it's gonna be amazing for your growth.
Melissa: I wanted to give one kind of practical application too, if you're worried, like maybe you're like, okay, I don't wanna sell this thing for whatever, and then have a return. So maybe like, okay, I wanna get into that higher end stuff. But what if I get a $500 return? How do I handle that? So one thing you could do, if that's something that you're worried about, keep that money in the account. Don't spend it, just leave it there for at least 30 days and then it's still there if you did like the worst thing happened and you ended up getting a return, well you're fine cuz the money's still there. So I think just like then you've kind of knocked down all those scary barriers.
Rob: So, And you learn something. Yeah. If you do get a return, what can you learn from that situation? What did I do wrong? Yeah. Did I package it poorly and I got a shipping insurance, or a shipping claim?
Did I inaccurately describe it and the buyer was unhappy with it? Did I not take good pictures of imperfections? All those things are learning. It's a learning opportunity for you.
Melissa: Or maybe you did package it properly and it still got damaged.
Rob: But that you're learning. You're totally learning on that.
That's one of the things, and like Melissa said, that's the best advice you can. Sell something like that. Keep the money aside. Don't touch the money until the buyer gets, it gives you positive feedback and you're in the clear. You can totally start doing larger items like that or higher profit items, whatever you wanna do, but take them as learning experiences. That's what you wanna do from, I mean that's how you do growth for sure.
Melissa: Yeah. I would think that would be probably one of the biggest things, like hold up to people getting moving that they kind of worry about that because you start to think. Well, what if this, what if this, what if this?
I mean that's how my mind works cuz, and almost every situation I am like, okay, well but what if this happens? What if this happens in his brain? Like when we have conversations, he's like, how do you even think of how that could happen? Because yeah, the chances of that happening are not very high. So why does your mind go there?
Cuz I don't even think about that.
Rob: So Melissa's one of the ones who is ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, shoot. And I'm like, okay, ready? Shoot. And that's it. And we're total opposite, but we compliment each other very well. Melissa's a lot more cautious and she thinks a lot more about stuff, and I'm just like, all right, if somebody else has done this, it can be done.
And I can do it. And that's the, that's kind of how we do it. And, I mean, that's not a bad attitude to take because I learn in the process. I'm always constantly learning and I'm learning how to fix what I messed up. It's just, it's just a great, great outlook to have for sure.
Melissa: So what's the one thing you can do at today to move that step forward of action not going to learn more?
Rob: Exactly.
Melissa: Action. What are you gonna do? Let us know. DM us on Instagram. Let us know what you're gonna do to take action.
Rob: Be a doer. And guys, right now we do have registration open for the Reseller Summit. If you have not registered, it is free. You guys can jump in there. Melissa will put a link, you guys.
Melissa: It's theresellersummit.com if you're just listening. But we will have a link in the show notes.
Rob: It is gonna be amazing. We're so excited. Phone flippers, plant flippers. I mean, o many different Amazon, Amazon bins, all kinds of stuff. There's so many amazing flippers that are gonna be part of the Reseller Summit, second annual Reseller summit. It's gonna be amazing, guys.
You do not wanna miss out, so if you have not got your ticket, go grab it while we still have tickets available. Get your ticket for that, and we cannot wait to see you at the summit.
Melissa: All right. And it's all virtual. In case we missed that. It's all virtual so you can watch from your own home. But we have a lot of fun, so it's gonna be a great time and it's free and we'll see then.
Rob: You guys rock. Have a great day.