Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper share the one piece of advice that helped them find success in business.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Rob & Melissa on the ONE piece of advice that led to success in business
Rob: What's up, guys, on today's episode, we're talking about that one piece of advice that you got that moved the needle in your company. So what is it?
Melissa: Specifically, what piece of advice you got that really changed your business.
Rob: Absolutely.
Rob: All right guys, we were reflecting actually this morning and trying to think about, some of our business growth in our business for the last five or six years we've been doing this full-time and wanted to call to attention, kind of, I would probably call it the best piece of advice I ever got for myself in this business that actually really goes towards our success or really attributes to our success.
Melissa: I would second that because it really was what you needed to hear. And we wanted to share that with you. So like every morning when we go on our run, we listened to a podcast, listen to something, it gets our brain going. And we usually, sometimes it gets our brain going too much and that's kind of how I mean today went too. You're like, getting idea after idea after idea. And that's kind of where, I don't know. I thought about this thing. This is the one thing that your brother-in-law told you years ago.
Rob: So before we jump into that guys, what have we done? Or more specifically, what have I done?
I have done everything. I have tried to get almost every business that you can think of under the sun.
Melissa: Shiny object syndrome.
Rob: Exactly. Just like probably a lot of visionaries, a lot of entrepreneurs, we are always having amazing ideas, amazing in our head. But actually getting them to come to fruition is a lot harder, than the idea itself.
So, I mean, I've done, grass lawn care. I've done, pool maintenance I've done.
Melissa: You tried to get your roofing license.
Rob: Roofing license.
Melissa: We almost started a business, lake tours. We were going to get, we bought two boats for it two pontoons.
Rob: Lake tours! We were going to take people around our chain of lakes that is close to us, very, very wealthy chain of lakes.
And we are going to give people tours of that, an advertising business actually doing blow up advertising. So if, hopefully, I mean, this is just a few, I mean, this is not anywhere near... parasailing. We were going to take people parasailing on the lakes.
Melissa: Quick side note, so the parasailing business, you got this parasail at the flea market.
This is before I even met you. And you wanted to try it out with your friends, right?
Rob: Yep. Actually came from a yard sale. We got it from a yard sale years ago and we went to try it out with one of my buddies. And we didn't know how the whole thing worked. First of all, it didn't come with a rope.
So this was before we were going to start the business. This was kind of getting into, this was the buddy that I was going to start the business with, but we both were going to do this. So, we go down his backyard, he's in the boat, I'm running down the backyard of the parasail there's air in the wind of the parasail, but it's not going up.
So all of a sudden, as I get down to the edge of the lake and my buddies driving the boat, the whole parasail flips over. So I didn't know a parasails have an upside and a downside. If you don't have the upside up, it doesn't pick up air and pull you in the air. So it flipped me over and I went up backwards on the parasail.
So praise the Lord that I did go backwards because the rope that we bought in the clip that we bought to clip it to the back of the boat was not the right one. And it came, unclipped popped all the way up, 500 feet hit me in the back of the head. And I got a gash in the back of my head to prove it. But then I floated down, knocked me out.
I floated down into the water, they came back with a boat and picked me up. So, parasailing was out.
Melissa: Thankfully, you were wearing your life jacket. That could've been very bad and they got you out of the water and everything was okay. But parasailing business was a no-go.
Rob: So we could ramble on here for hours about the businesses that I've tried to do as an entrepreneur.
But, my brother-in-law, he passed away two years ago.
Melissa: He was a very successful business owner and you looked up to him a lot for a lot of things, definitely in business and you always had great conversations with him on business.
Rob: Yeah, we'd had a great relationship. We actually did, businesses, some things we would do together.
But we had the same interest and, he told me one day and this, I don't know if it clicked at the time, but now looking back, it is huge. He told me one day he said, listen, you're very smart. You have great ideas. All you have to do is stick to it. If you stick to one of those ideas, doesn't matter what it is, pool cleaning, landscaping. It doesn't matter what it is. He said, if you just stick to it, stick it out, you will be successful because that is who you are. You will be successful. Six years into this business. I consider us successful at what we do. We love what we do. We spend time together and we have a great time with our kids.
Melissa: I just want to interject, like success also can be defined by so many different things by so many different people. And that looks so different. Like, do we have millions of dollars in the bank? No. Like, but we get to do what we want to do each day on our schedule and it's our schedule to do the work.
Like we're still working hard, but it is our schedule. And I would totally say that we get to take vacations with our kids. And I would, I would define that as successful. And it's been a business that we've stuck with for the last, I mean really doubled down six years ago. So is when we doubled down on it.
Rob: And kind of our success, what our definition of success is, it's not millions of dollars in the bank.
It's being able to create memories with our kids. So that means going on trips, that means going in the boat and going skiing at my sister's house, it means just being able to create those memories, to be able to give the kids the memories and be able to do that. So like Melissa said we're spending time, exactly, I guess it could boil down to time, freedom to do what we want to do.
And this business has allowed us to do that. Sometimes we'll work, just what two or three nights ago I was at creating a pallet and I was working until 12:30 at night. And then at 12:30, I packed it up. I put it in the back of the trailer and I drove it to the freight company. And that's one of those things that the time freedom we have, I don't want to be doing that in the middle of the night, but I spent the whole day with Melissa and the kids at the beach.
So we drove to the beach and we had an amazing time at the beach. And then when we came back, it was back to work. I have the freedom to do that. That I don't have to ask a boss, hey, listen, I want to take the day off with my kids. I just go and do it. And then I can make up the time somewhere else that I have to do that kind of stuff.
Melissa: So tomorrow's our son's birthday, so we're actually taking the day off.
Rob: Family fun day.
Melissa: Family fun day, even though I said maybe they could go to school, but we always give them the option if they don't want to go to school, that we can a family fun day. So it might only last a couple more years.
So, but he's in kindergarten, so he's all for it.
Rob: Yup, in case you're wondering a family fun day, we take them out of school. We go to a restaurant for breakfast. We go to Chuck E. Cheese, which is an arcade, if you guys don't know what Chuck E. Cheese is. We go to Chuck E. Cheese for a couple hours. And then we do, we used to go to Disney for the day.
Melissa: When we had passes. We don't have passes anymore.
Rob: Exactly. So tomorrow my son wants to go play golf. So, after Chuck E. Cheese, we're going to pack up and go to putt putt golf. And then we're actually going to go to dinner with my sister. My sister's birthday is today and my son's birthday is tomorrow.
Melissa: We front load our week.
Rob: That's what this business allows us to do is to be able to have that time freedom with the kids, to have our own schedule.
So, the best piece of advice I've ever received. Stick to it. Now, how does that apply to you guys? Well, just think about, think about the advice that you've got, you have gotten in the past, whatever you're doing and think about, hey, was that great advice or not, and then try to think about this piece of advice.
If you just stick with it and you can apply this to anything. Most people give up way, way too quick on whatever their dreams, whatever their hopes are, whatever they really, really desire. They give up too quick because it does get hard sometimes.
Melissa: Yeah. It's not easy to, to stick to it. So even just for the example of our like, diving into the internet world of sharing what we do with everybody. Yeah. We started a blog and we quit six months into it. So we're like, this doesn't work. Nobody's even seeing our stuff. This was in 2015, we started our blog and we're like, we can't even, we can't get traffic. We can't like nobody, whatever we're done, like this is too hard.
It's too much work and too hard. And then for some reason we picked it back up about six months later and we're like, okay. Let's see, like, we feel like we have a message to share to people. And now it's turned into.
Rob: We've touched thousands of people's lives. We've shown them how to make a living, flipping we've shown them how to do side hustles and all that kind of stuff.
So we wouldn't have been able to do that had we given up, so that's our piece of advice to you guys today. It might not be flipping or you might not be able to apply this to flipping. For us sticking something out, sticking with it and getting the results and it wasn't a short, it wasn't a quick gratification of, okay, hey, I'm going to do this for six months.
I'm going to see the results and it's going to be amazing. That's not how it always works. Sometimes it does, but it's not always how it works. If you absolutely love it, there's a way to stick with it, stick it out. And you guys will be successful.
I wanted to add too, like,
Melissa: we're very much into like diverse streams of income, like do a couple of different things.
And that's how, like our flipping gig was our side hustle for years before we ever tried to do anything more with it. But having those diverse streams of income is good, but sometimes if you're like trying to start out three different side hustles at one time, that can be really hard. So maybe try to focus, not try.
We're getting rid of the word try. Focus on one of those, just do it really well. And then once you have that kind of rolling good, then add the next one in, because trying to focus on too many things at one time, it just is really hard. There's a really great book that we read or listened to. I probably listened to because we've listened to most of our books now.
The one thing, so it just takes you like, what is the one thing and what are the things that you're going to do during your day to get you to that one thing? And it might be your top three things all align with that one goal. Like I have to go stop, we're just using a flipping as an example.
I need to go stop at a thrift store three times a week. So that goes to my goal. I need to get listing everyday. That goes to my goal, that same goal of growing my income from reselling. So whatever that is for you, but I really liked that book because it really helps you focus because it really is one thing.
Like you can't have shiny object syndrome on everything. There are so many things that get exciting to do. It's good to be excited. We don't want to not be excited because you get excited every day.
Rob: Always, always ideas, visionaries, and entrepreneurs. You're always going to have a great ideas to do.
Melissa: But it's taking action and implementing the things that you learned because you have to be, you have to implement.
Rob: I think that goes hand in hand with the advice that we got, is to stick to one thing. You have to take the action to complete, that one thing and stick it out. You guys, that's the biggest thing is stick, with whatever your desire is. And like Melissa said, if you do have three side hustles, you're trying to do pick the one that you enjoy the most, not the one that you're doing to make the money, pick the one that you enjoy the most and try to stick that out and really try and get in there, dig deep and see how you can make it work.
So, but that's our piece of advice to you guys. It's been the one most important piece of advice that I've had throughout our career is definitely that piece of advice, stick it out and you will be successful. And my brother-in-law told us that and yeah, like I said, I didn't realize it when he told me that he did, he told it to me years ago and I didn't realize it at the time.
Looking back, now seeing how long Melissa and I, and it is too for Melissa, she keeps me on track a lot more. She's not quite the visionary that I am, but she keeps me on a straight track.
Melissa: Reeled in a little bit.
Rob: Exactly. So that's good. That helps me as well. And, she was the one who really kept us on that straight path. If I didn't have Melissa, we wouldn't be on the straight path.
We wouldn't be on the path that we're on, the trajectory that we're on, which that's what I needed in my life. To keep me on one thing, keep it there and stay forever.
Melissa: That might also be to go getting an accountability partner. Like maybe your spouse, isn't on the same page as you. And we've talked about this before, too, like, and that's okay.
You can still show them like, look, this is an awesome side hustle, that's what I did with network marketing. Like I had started it and I was like, I'm going to prove to you that I can do this. And we ended up with a pretty good business for a little while. We don't do it anymore, but, you can show like this can work if you work hard at it and then you can get your spouse on board, but that's a whole other podcast topic.
But just to, if you need an accountability partner, there are loads of people out there doing similar things that you want to do, and you can find groups, you can find people on the same mission as you. That's why we are big believers in masterminds. Like what is whatever you're trying to accomplish.
Find those people and then find that accountability partner, if you don't have it in your spouse, that you can be okay, this is my goal for this week. I know when we started blogging I was in a group like really small groups of like three or four girls. And we would all be like, okay, what are you doing?
All right. We're going to get three posts out or whatever it was for that week. And it just helps you to stay accountable to that, for sure.
Rob: And I did think of one thing while you were talking that, JLD John Lee Dumas says, I don't know if he's the one who originally said it. Probably not, but he always says focus, follow one course until success.
And that's the biggest thing that you have to do follow one course until success, is the acronym you use that as an acronym for focus. So that's kind of what we have done in our business.
Melissa: It's hard for entrepreneurs to do.
Rob: It is, absolutely.
Melissa: It's very hard.
So, yeah.
Rob: Awesome. Hopefully this has helped you guys. Hopefully you guys got something out of this.
Like I said, this is something that Melissa and I were reflecting this morning. You know, what has been that one thing in our business? And it definitely boils down to realizing that we had to stay focused. We had to stay on this path, to be successful.
Melissa: Let us know what that is. Share this on your stories and social media.
Let us know, tag us in it. Tell us what it is. Cause we would love to hear it and be able to share it with other people too. So we can all keep each other accountable to stay focused.
Rob: Absolutely! You guys rock, have a great day. We will see you soon.
Melissa: Bye.