Rob and Melissa Stephenson, from Flea Market Flipper, talk about the amazing side effects of the reselling business.
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The Amazing Side Effects Of This Business
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers! On today's episode we are talking about one of our favorite side effects or benefits of this business.
All right, guys, on today's episode, we're going to talk about one of our favorite things that is a side effect of being able to make more money in this business.
Melissa: Yeah, this is something, that kind of we were thinking about when we were traveling just recently. Something happened and it kind of spurred this thought and conversation.
It's kind of how we, we live our life, and I would say you're the one who really inspires this, and it's really giving back to people, so we're big on that, and something happened in the airport that you wanted to share.
Rob: Yeah, absolutely, so we told you guys, in the last episode, we talked about the conference that we went to, coming back from that conference, we had a layover, I think it was in L.A., no, where was it at?
Melissa: Yeah, L.A.
Rob: L.A., was it? So we had a layover in L.A., and Melissa and I, it ended up being delayed. Like three hours. So we're sitting in the airport and right next to us, we sit down and there's a family, two little girls and a mom and a dad. And right as soon as we sit down, the mom wasn't there, but the dad was there, and the little girl was coughing.
And dad was really, really self conscious. Is that a right word? He was worried about her coughing and he was trying to get her to stop coughing. And that was the first thing that we saw when we were there. And I, we have kids. I'm not a germophobe. I don't care about that stuff.
Melissa: I just want to tell them like it's fine.
It's totally fine.
Rob: When you have kids and your kids are in that situation, you're very much worried about people around you. But a lot of people aren't worried like you are worried. So, he was very worried. And we were sitting right, I mean, in a seat right, in front of him. He was right by us. But, anyways, so I heard his little daughter coughing.
He was trying to get her to stop. And then, the mom came back and they started talking, back and forth. And they were not talking super loud, but, talking about getting lunch and how the airport food is so expensive because the dad's like, should we go here for lunch? And the mom's like, it's just so expensive for the airport.
So, they started talking about that and this is all coming to, we'll get to the point of this, but anyways, I'm listening to them, not watching them, but just listening to them. I'm actually on my phone scrolling, probably trying to find something, to buy. But I'm listening to the interaction and, when the mom's like, it's very, very expensive here. And then the mom asked the little girl to get up and take a picture with the airplane in the back, outside the window, that they were going to send it to so and so from Make A Wish. And then I looked
Melissa: and they were wearing Make-A-Wish shirts.
Yeah. Then
Rob: I looked over and that's what I noticed is they were doing Make-A-Wish. Now I wouldn't really know what Make-A-Wish is other than, we had a family friend who, had a terminally ill son, that Make-A-Wish, actually granted a wish. And he came, down here. They live in, Minnesota. He came down here and stayed at the Make A Wish Foundation, which was an amazing, amazing foundation.
Melissa: You went there, didn't you?
Rob: I did, and it's so, so cool what they do for these little kids. So, right off the bat, I knew that it was something that could be a terminally ill kid, that was coming down here to experience a wish or something like that. So I'm sitting there and I'm going back and forth in my head and I'm like, I feel like I want to buy these people lunch, and it's a little voice inside of me.
Now, if you guys don't know, most of our Christians feel like I have the Holy Spirit inside of me, prompting me, and I, you can call it whatever you want, the universe prompting you, and you know that little voice inside of you, telling you to do different things. And this one was like, hey, you want to buy their lunch.
I want, I, I wanted to give them money so they could actually buy lunch and not stress about how much it costs in the airport, to buy food. And Melissa and I don't even like buying food in the airport because it's so flippin expensive!
Melissa: So expensive.
Rob: But I really felt like I was supposed to do this. So Melissa and I asked Melissa if she wanted to get up.
We had like another hour before the flight actually left and I think they were on the same flight as us. So I didn't want it to be uncomfortable like that either. So I got up, I pulled money out of my wallet, and I walked over and I said, hey, I'd like to buy your guys' lunch today. And I, I just, I wadded up money and gave it to him.
And he's like, no, no, no, you don't have to do that. And I was, I, and he said it like two or three times. He's like, excuse me. He's like, no, you don't, you don't have to do that. And I said, please let me, let me do this. I feel like something inside of me is telling me that I need to give you guys money for lunch.
And then he actually took the money and I was so thankful that he did. And we were able to actually buy their lunch and I didn't see him again on the flight. Melissa and I got up, we walked around the airport, ended up walking like two miles before the flight, just to get our legs moving, all around the airport.
It was a really, really long airport, but all that being said is this business allows you to be able to be more generous to think about that stuff, to listen. And the cool thing about this is when I do act on what I'm prompted to do, I feel like, the Holy Spirit or whatever you, whatever you want to call it to you, but I, for me, it's the Holy Spirit prompting me more and more, to do stuff like this, and it's not like I have money just to give away to people, that's not, that's not what I'm saying, but when I do feel like I'm supposed to do something, and being able to do it, I had it.
Money in my wallet. I had $200 or $300 for traveling. I try to keep a little bit of cash with me in case I find something I need to buy and just to be able to do anything that I need to do. So that was one of those things that it wasn't one of those things that I had to go to an ATM and I had to, I was set up to be able to do this, but this business allows you the freedom to be able to do that when you're not
totally constantly stressed out about finances.
Melissa: And you can always work more and that's the cool thing about this business is you could like you, you might, you know, hit a hiccup or you might whatever, but if you get past that and you know, do a little bit more work, get more stuff listed, you can make more.
That's the cool thing about this business. You can work as much or as little as you want, and you can kind of control what your payday is each month depending on how much you put into it. So it's a really cool business the way it's set up.
Rob: Absolutely. And I I mean like I said, this is not Melissa and I contemplated even making this episode, just because this is not about us.
This is not what we do. It's being able to act out the promptings that is inside of us to be able to help other people and sometimes I get those and sometimes, even like you see somebody on the side of the road who who's asking for food or something like that, it being able to act on that.
That's what this is really, really about. Another thing that Melissa and I, we, we did even this last Christmas and the Christmas before we, we couldn't do this because of where we were financially. But last Christmas we were able to do this and I think we've done another episode on this kind of talking, touching about it.
So, and we're not giving you dollars amount of what we're doing. We're just trying to show you what the possibilities. Is with this business and maybe let that little voice inside of you, prompt you to do more stuff, to be more generous.
Melissa: With the one that you're talking about. So, I only heard about this because of somebody sharing it on social media.
So because somebody shared it, it inspired other people to give too. And it inspired us. And now it's a tradition we do. On Christmas is we put money in a couple envelopes. I have the kids, the kids all wrote out the envelopes, like, we have a Merry Christmas, or did I just tell them to write something nice to somebody?
And we put money in the envelopes and then we go around on, usually on Christmas Eve or Christmas, to people who are working on that day and just give them, I think we did them a little earlier this year, maybe a couple of days before.
Rob: Well, these two, two cool stories. So you might forget, but I'll, I'll elaborate on them.
Melissa: Okay, go ahead.
Rob: No, no. So like Melissa said, it's something that she saw on social media. We were, prompted.
Melissa: It was actually, it was actually from Chalene and Brett. Chalene and Brett Johnson, they do this.
Rob: And Brett spoke at one of our events too.
Melissa: Yeah, he did. And they, yeah, they do this every year and it's a tradition they've done in, now that their kids are even grown and out of the house, they still do it on Christmas.
And I think it's something so cool for the kids to get involved in and see that as well.
Rob: Yeah. So one of the things when we were up, so we traveled Christmas this year. We ended up going up, was it Vermont? Yeah. Yeah. So we were traveling this Christmas. And we didn't want to miss out on it. So we actually did it.
We let Melissa, before we left, she made the kids, sign these cards. This is also something that was really cool, that you're leaving is your legacy to your kids. For us, we're able to show the generosity with our kids. They're able to help, and be a part of it as well. So Melissa had them write out cards.
Merry Christmas. I, one of the cards, I forget what Roxy wrote something. And I had to have a redo it. And it was cool because it, it opened up the conversation with her. Like Roxy, that doesn't really sound. What we're going for here. So we made her write another card. I don't remember exactly what it said, but made Melissa and I laugh.
Okay. Maybe that's not what we're going for, but we got to have the conversation with our daughters, our, our, our kids, our daughter, and our son, to be able to do this, but, so one of them, we were actually, we go and look for people that are actually working on either Christmas Eve or up on the holidays and we, we did it at Walmart when we stopped at, was that, that might've been New Jersey. Yeah, it was in New Jersey. Okay, so New Jersey was one of our stops on the way up to Vermont. We were driving, so we, we stopped in New Jersey and we had to go to Walmart for something and we ended up, finding some really, really cool people inside of Walmart that we just walked up.
Actually one guy was doing the carts out in the parking lot. It was so flipping freezing. It was so freezing cold. And we felt so bad for him. So we actually went up, gave him a card, and did that and then we found some people inside of Walmart, some workers inside of Walmart and just told them thank you for, for you, for, for working and, being part of our, what we're, we're here shopping because you guys are here working, we're able to come and use the store and stuff like that.
Melissa: And the kids do it. So we have the kids go hand the cards, which I think also helps too, because they love to do it for one. And then it just kind of, I don't know, coming from a kid is, it's pretty cool. So I love to watch them do it. So.
Rob: So we got to do that at the Walmart in New Jersey. You said there was a story.
There was and then the other one was we were actually up in,
Melissa: oh, that's right.
Rob: We were up in Vermont and on our way down the mountain, So we stayed on a mountain. On the way down the mountain we saw these two guys walking, and it was a long flipping way down to the bottom of the mountain And they were walking down the mountain.
Melissa: Why do they not have a shuttle for that? They're workers. They worked at the, on the mountain. So it was like weird.
Rob: Anyway, so we walk, we see them and I, I pull over. This is that other prompting. You hear that prompting, a little prompting voice. And I see them walking down, so I pull over right in front of them.
And I say, hey, you guys need to ride to the bottom. We're headed down to the lodge. Are you, you guys need to ride, and they didn't speak English very well. So, but they knew when we stopped and asked them if they wanted to ride. They knew that they wanted to ride. So, we actually, let them jump in the car.
I had to put one of the seats up and put the kids in the back and let them ride down. We were able to do that, but that's a little voice inside of me. He's like, hey, they're walking in this flipping cold weather, why can't we just, it was a long walk to the bottom. So we did it, and then as we let them out, they're like, they're so thankful.
Thank you. Thank you. for it as they're walking away. I think we had already given all away our cards, but this is again, one of the things I think we had given all the cards away
Melissa: That we had redone. That's it.
Rob: And I still had cash in my pocket because we were traveling.
We had money in my pocket that I was like, Melissa, let's throw another card because I feel like we're supposed to give them money as well. And so Melissa had two cards already written out. We threw money into the, the cards and I had the kids go run because they already took off and it took us a couple of minutes to get the cards ready, but they already took off to go, go there, taking a bus from the lodge to wherever they were staying, and they were able to do that.
And that's just one of those things that, I mean, being a part of people and really helping people, is really, really cool to be able to hear that voice inside of you, to be generous and have that generosity, to be able to do that and just change people's lives. And that's what Melissa and I, we really, really want to change people's lives.
We want to have an impact on everybody around us and people that we see. And this business allows us to be able to do that. And that's the really, really cool part about it.
Melissa: And I wanted to add to, to that is a lot of people, they, you know, don't like, they feel like they can't give, and this is not like.
I don't know. This is not us like bragging about giving or anything. This is just something that we feel and hopefully it encourages somebody to maybe give more. If that's you it's not whatever but the people in our group and I think that the group that we've created over the last 10 years, we all have this abundance mindset and I think a lot of it is because we this is huge. We continue to go to conferences.
We continue to go be in rooms where people have this same mindset and so then we bring that back to our people and I feel like our members are never stingy with like information or never stingy with like, oh I can't tell you how I did that because then you'll steal it from me. No, everybody is so giving with their knowledge and so giving like to help each other out Hey, I need this piece does anybody in the group have this part like and somebody can connect them with somebody who does and I don't know that that alone like because I I'm in a lot of reseller groups too and there's a lot of not so it's competition.
Yeah. It's more scarcity. So it's the two, the difference between the scarcity mindset and the abundance mindset and the abundance mindset allows you to give this and know that you can make more, know that it can come back to you because you're going to give it to somebody. And then now I'm going to go and list something else and sell something else.
And so that it comes back to you and it, and it keeps growing and then everybody gets lifted up from, from that.
Rob: So, so yeah. And like, again, I will say, please don't take this the wrong way. This is not us bragging about. It's nothing to do with us. It's what the generosity that we're able to provide with this business that we have been able to build.
We're able to do that kind of stuff and hopefully it will challenge you. It'll challenge you to listen to that voice inside of you the next time it prompts you to go give somebody five bucks, 10 bucks, whatever it is, just to help somebody out in need. That's what our biggest goal is with this is just to show you what the possibilities is with it.
Melissa: And maybe it is something that is a motivator motivator for you. So for some people maybe going out and doing the work that it requires to for your eBay business might be like, okay, well, I don't really want to do that. I don't really, whatever, but maybe with the thought of, oh, I can give more if I make more, maybe that encourages you.
And maybe that is like a why behind why you're doing it. And so maybe that will help you stay motivated when things get tough. Cause in any business, things are going to happen. Returns are going to happen. You know, something's not going to go right and that's okay. You can get past it. But if you have that, you need something to keep you motivated to keep growing and keep going.
Rob: So that reminded me of what I told you about this. When we're thinking about this podcast, this episode. Chris Harder, Chris Harder is one of the, podcasters that we listen to really, really cool. And he's got a saying, I don't know if I'll butcher it, but he talks about when good people make great money, they can,
Melissa: when good people make good money, they can do great things, great things.
Rob: And talking about just being able to be very generous with what you're, what you're able to make money wise and it really, really cool. And that's kind of how he lives out his podcast. And just being able to think about the more money that you make. The more generous you can be, the more people that you can help. And Melissa and I haven't always been this way. Trust me. We've had struggles. We've had financial struggles. And one of those things that even I told you last year, we were able to do this last Christmas. But the Christmas before, we weren't. We were struggling financially to be able to do it for a couple different reasons inside of our business.
But that's one of those things that when you do, when you're able to do this. It's so amazing to live into it. It's just so rewarding to be able to help other people, in these situations. So.
Melissa: And I would also, I don't know if encourage is the right word, but it's not always like when you have, extra money because, we don't have extra.
But even when we don't, we still do our best to make it happen, find a way. So find a way to make it happen and to be, have a giving heart and a giving. Yeah, just that to have that be a part of who we are, 'cause yeah. We don't want to be stingy or, you know, trying to keep everything for ourselves. We want to be giving back to other people.
So that was kind of a different kind of episode for us. So hopefully we encouraged you to go and work hard. And so, cause this business is amazing. We love it. You can, you can make money quickly and go find the items flip them. And yeah.
Rob: So much fun. We so much fun. Hopefully that comes out when we are talking through all these episodes that we do. Hopefully you guys understand our heart is to help other people do what we've been able to do what we continue to do. Because it's so much fun.
Melissa: I did have something else. I wanted to add that I thought of also. This, like when Rob talked about our business being tough last, like in the beginning of last year, we had a really tough time. I was almost to the, to the point where like, okay, let's just stick to flipping cause we're, and double down on that because that is way easier than this whole online stuff.
It's just too much. It's a lot of work. But then just the other day, a couple of weeks ago, one of our members posted that she bought a car with her flipping money and it's like, she just bought a car with all just money she did from flipping. And it's like that is encouragement for us to keep going when things get hard too, because like, that is amazing.
Like somebody just, they, they make now good money with their flipping business. And they completely bought a new to them car that she said was the nicest car they've ever had. And it's like, I don't know, stuff like that. And it inspires us and motivates us to keep going. So thank you guys for listening.
Rob: You guys are amazing. Have an amazing day and we'll see you on the next episode.