Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper share some tips to help you when you're feeling stuck in your reselling business.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast – Tips For When You’re Stuck In Your Reselling Business
Rob: What's up guys, are you feeling stuck in your reselling business right now?
Melissa: We wanna talk through a few things to help you get unstuck.
Rob: So are you feeling stuck in your resale business right now, guys, we're gonna talk about some key things that will help you grow. We'll help you get past, maybe you're struggling with, hey, I'm outta ceiling right now, and I cannot figure out how to get past it.
We're gonna talk about some things that should help you bust through that ceiling and go to that next level.
Melissa: And some of these things are some of your favorite things to talk about. Absolutely. Because a lot of them have to do with positivity is a big one. And let's dive into that one first.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: So we get to talk about this stuff every morning when we run and listen to podcasts and stuff. But really one of the, the first things is to make sure you are surrounding yourself with positive people, positive influence in podcasts and videos and that sort of thing. So make sure that that is in your mind and not all the negativity.
Rob: So yeah, I feel like a lot of people don't have that positivity key into their life, but it's not as hard as it used to be. You can find audio books, you can find regular books, you can find motivational, you can find a lot of stuff, podcasts, all kinds of things. Even like this podcast, you can find a lot of stuff that is motivating, that is helpful, to help you get around.
And I think of a saying right now, as I'm talking, the one that JLD always ends his podcast with, or he used to is you are the average of the five people that you hang out with. And that doesn't have to be physical people that are in your life, but it can definitely be, hey, I'm listening to Tony Robbins. Hey, I'm listening to this.
Hey, I'm listening to this. These are the five people who are pouring into my life, even if I don't know them, they're pouring into my life. So I can actually, I can be an average of that person. So it, you just take away from that so much more. And like Melissa said, we do a jog almost every single morning and what we're doing, we could listen to music.
Like we used to back in the day we used to. Yeah. When we were younger.
Melissa: We're not that old yet.
Rob: When we were younger, we would listen to music because that would help us get through a run. But now we don't do that. We actually listen to audio books. We listen to podcasts. We listen to all these things to help us grow in our business and grow as a couple.
And as a family, that's what we're constantly pouring into our lives. And you guys have that opportunity opportunity as well, to find those people to help you help build you up that positivity that will help you grow for sure.
Melissa: And I will say, within the couple of years or the last decade really, another thing that has become a huge influence on our lives is social media.
So be very conscious of the people that you follow on social media. Are they helping you to be better at yourself at whatever you're trying to grow at or at yourself? Are they encouraging you? Are they motivating you? Are they, you know, you're leaving with a positive feeling. I mean, I know like positive, positive, positive could be kind of like frou frou but it's not, it's so important or are you reading these posts and you're getting angry. Are you reading these things and just getting frustrated? Are they making you just torment inside? Cuz there's so much going on in the world right now. And I'm not saying to not know what anything is going on. Like don't like live in a bubble, but you have to be really careful who you follow, like unfollow those people that maybe don't make you feel good about yourself or maybe, you know, make you feel inferior.
Like, oh, I'm not good enough follow the people who are encouraging.
Rob: Absolutely. And that is one of the reasons why years and years ago, Melissa and I quit watching the news. I noticed that I would get up in the morning. My normal routine was get up in the morning. I'd eat my breakfast, do my shake, whatever I was doing.
And I would just put on the news and I would watch it. And then I started realizing, dude, this is all negativity. So. Somebody got shot over there. Somebody got shot over here. This is the world. The interest rates are climbing. The world's falling apart. And it's all doom and gloom all the time. I don't wanna deal with that the first part of my day. So Melissa and I gave up news probably about 10 years ago. Yeah. We quit watching it.
Melissa: Maybe longer I feel like.
Rob: Melissa is on social media. I'm a lot less on social media than Melissa is. So if anything crazy happens. Somebody on social media posted and somehow we we'll know about it. Right.
Melissa: We have iPhones. They'll tell us. Right?
Rob: Exactly. But we get to know that. So that is one of those things that you will find your attitude totally dropping. If that is the kind of stuff that you're listening to. And I'm not just saying the news is bad or anything like that, but if you are in groups, if you're around people that are constantly negative and negative and negative that will definitely bring down your productivity and it will, it'll put you in a weird spot versus the people who are telling me, you can do this. You absolutely can do it. And the positivity that you're around that. So, just definitely be aware of that that's around.
I mean, you have two ways to go the negativity or the positivity, and if you can surround yourself with, even if it's not people in your immediate family or people in your immediate circle you can find those podcasts. You can find those audio books, you can find those things that will help you grow to wherever you're at wherever you want to go.
Melissa: Yeah. And I was just, you just said it though. I was gonna say, you're like, well, this really being around positive people really affect my reselling business. Like, can that really affect it, but it affects your productivity. Absolutely. It really does. And like, and like what you think of yourself and what, how you can get motivated and encouraged and also all the time that you maybe are not, or maybe are wasting on social media or watching stuff that it doesn't really serve you. So, we like to be to what, kill two birds with one stone or multitask or whatever. So we listen to a positive podcast or audio book in the morning and we run and get our, while we're exercising while we're exercising.
And then we also, of course, we're walking. So we get to see if there's anything on the side of the road at the same time.
Rob: So, and we're investing in our relationship, we're spending time together. So we're trying to do as much as we possibly can. Well, multitask as much as we can. Exactly. And it works out really, really well.
Melissa and I work good together and we absolutely love what we get to do. So that's amazing.
Melissa: That brings us into our next thing too. So at the end, like we finish our run and we have a lot more energy, which doesn't seem like that's right. But it's completely true, like we're even, we'd like to come back and actually film our, do our podcast or record our podcast or videos right when we come back. Cause it's like when we're the most energized. And so if we didn't do that, that it's a little bit harder. We have to kind of pick it up a little bit, and think about it more before. But that brings us to the next part of accountability.
Find an accountability person, somebody that you can, that's encouraging, that's gonna lift you up, but that you can be accountable to in your reselling business.
Absolutely. So we have each other that we get to say, okay, well, what are you doing today? What are you working on? What are you doing? And then, okay, I'm gonna get this done by the end of the day.
And that helps us.
Rob: Yeah, we also have a, a private group that people are in and they are so thankful that they're able to comment in not just for accountability, but the positivity that is in the group. Melissa and I are very low drama. We do not like drama. We don't deal with drama well. And it's one of those things that this group that we have is amazing for how many people are there posting and uplifting and helping other people. I'm doing right now with some of our members, I'm doing strategy calls.
And I, I was on a call last night, with one of our members and he was saying, you guys have built this amazing group that I'm in this kind of tooting on my own horn. So bear with me for a second, but I'm going with a point. He's like this is group is amazing because every time I ask a question, I get a legit, a serious answer, how to fix my problem.
He says I've been on so many other groups. And I don't know, I'm not social media guys, so I don't go into other groups. I have no idea, but he says I'm on other groups. And when I post a question or I posted a question in the, in the past and I get a sarcastic answer, an answer that, other answers make me feel stupid and it's like, I don't get that here.
So the whole point is find somebody, whether it's a family member, whether it's a friend down the street, whether it's an online person who can,
Melissa: You can find somebody on social media or find somebody, you know, a friend on Facebook.
Rob: Yes, who can help you stay accountable, who can help you grow, but make sure that person is a positive person.
Try don't, don't get somebody who's doom and gloom and negative and saying, oh, you can't do that. You can't do that. Those are not the type of people you want as accountability partner, you want somebody who is going to help you get to that next level. And it really is gonna be a positive person who, who can speak to you and hold you accountable on your goals.
Melissa: And we've really made that a thing. That's why our group is more positive too, is because like, that's our, like, we encourage that because we don't want, we start out saying there's no stupid questions. Like ask a question. If you don't know the answer, like everybody's starting from different levels.
So, so everybody started at some point and have the questions. So, there's no stupid questions.
Rob: And our goal is to help people grow with even this podcast, this video. We're trying to help people learn and help people grow. There's no stupid questions. We always want to be at the point where we're further ahead than a lot of people.
And if you look at us compared to somebody else, probably they're further ahead than us, but we want to be able to help people grow. And that's just answering questions and really, really helping people grow, by doing that and not acting like, you know, that's a dumb question or why are you doing that?
Because that's twofold right there. When somebody does post a question, a legit question that they don't know the answer to, and I make 'em feel stupid. They're not gonna ask another question. And I don't want anybody ever to get to the point where, okay, I can't ask a question or I'm gonna get attacked.
So in our group that's what it is. And that's our first thing that we tell everybody. There's no stupid questions. If anybody jumps on you and tries to act that way, we'll kick 'em outta the group. We don't want, we don't want drama. We only want people who are here to help. So that's really what kind of, what we preach and kind of what we do, live out of our own group that we're in.
And there's other people out there it's not necessarily our group. There are some, other people and other groups that are, are like ours and absolutely just get plugged into something where you can have that accountability partner who's gonna be uplifting and really hold you accountable and be more of an uplifting voice versus a negative voice.
For sure.
Melissa: Yeah. For sure. And which kind of brings also the group aspect brings it to the next one too, is, having an abundance mindset over a scarcity mindset. So I always kind, I don't wanna say look down upon, but like mindset stuff. Like to me, it was kinda like, eh, that just seems like, I don't know.
Like, I'm more like, give me a task, let me get it done. I don't really care about what I think about it, but then I also tend to go a little more negative mindset than you do, so you have to bring me out of it. So I do have that, which helps but the abundancy versus scarcity mindset is so big because in our group or in, you know, everywhere on the internet, you can see like people who, who are posting stuff.
So like say for our group for instance, people post stuff that they sell and then they other people go find it in their areas. But instead of hiding it, they could just hoard it and say like, oh, well this is gonna be my thing. I'm hoarding it. But instead, they have an abundance mindset that these things are everywhere.
And so they tell people about it. And cuz there is so much stuff everywhere. We've heard that over and over again. Well, you know, there's not gonna be enough stuff to keep flipping. You don't know how much stuff gets thrown out every day. Like it is a lot.
Rob: Just go into any retail store and look at all the stuff in retail stores.
If you think about how many people are buying stuff to replace stuff, where's all the old stuff going that they're replacing? Guys there's always gonna be some great, great deals out there that we can buy and resell in the used market. For sure.
Melissa: Yeah. I watched a video clip of something too, of all the, when the stuff was set off shore and they couldn't get it.
And then all of a sudden this warehouse was overfilled and it was, we had too much stuff that they couldn't even hardly give it away. So then they were selling it for pennies on the dollar to resellers to try to get them so they had some inventory to sell, but there's always stuff. And also that, we got to go walk behind that back of that thrift store.
We were on our trip and the amount of stuff that they have to go through and price and put out on their floor. They had a huge warehouse and they probably had double, if not triple the amount of stuff in back of it like
Rob: that was outside the warehouse, that they could not go through quick enough to get it inside.
Melissa: They're in an outdoor, absolutely section that they hadn't gone through yet because there's so much stuff. And then a lot of that stuff ends up getting thrown away. So there is definitely, always gonna be stuff you can't think, oh, somebody's already selling this. I can't sell it. Yeah. That's definitely not the case.
Rob: Abundance mindset is definitely key in this business, guys. There's so much to go around and I've had other people, approach me and say, why are you teaching people how to do this? There's you know? Yeah. You're gonna put yourself outta business. Guys, I love what I do. I'll do it the rest of my life. And I guarantee there will be stuff.
All the time. Always, always, always, there will be stuff. You can find stuff almost anywhere. We are a society that has stuff everywhere to flip.
Melissa: So, and there's always gonna be people who don't wanna go and search for it. Yep. Who don't wanna go to the thrift stores and look for it. They wanna go on their phone, still get a good deal and have it shipped to them.
Absolutely. There, there are a lot of people that. Our friends and stuff. They're like, here, take this. I don't wanna sell it. I don't wanna, you know, worry about it. Or can you look for this for me? You know? Or they just wanna go on their phone and find it. So, absolutely. They don't wanna take the time. So there, there will always be those different people.
So you don't have to think like there's not enough to go around. So, yeah. And then the last one is that's number four. But be willing to grow and push outside your comfort zone.
Rob: Huge, huge, guys. And we've talked about this before in the past, if you are not growing, you are going backwards. It's not like you're standing.
Melissa: That challenged us this year.
Rob: Yes. A lot. That's you're not just standing still. You think about anything. Nothing can just stand, still not grow or declare or decay. If you are not growing, you're going backwards. It's one of the things you're decaying. I mean, that's probably not the best analogy, but you know what I mean? We're now that's like Melissa and I, this is what we believe.
We believe, like we said, we're, we're investing into ourselves. We're constantly learning. We're constantly listening to, podcast and to audiobooks and stuff like that. But we're also investing into our lives into we're constantly. We, I mean, I can't even remember the last time we have not had our own coach.
We pay for coaches to help us business coaches to help us get to the next level, to set up our business in different ways and stuff like that. This is something that we, it's not just something that we preach to everybody else. We do it. We constantly do it. And yeah, I mean.
Melissa: I was gonna add that it amazes me cuz we, you know, we listen to a lot of these business people who are a lot smarter than us and we wanna learn from, and some of these people I'm like, why did they've even, they have coaches. I'm like, why do you need a business coach? Like you're uber successful? Why on earth do you need to keep learning?
Like you've got this down, but every single one of them has somebody that they go to and that they're accountable to, and it really, it just, it makes you grow more.
Rob: Absolutely. And we, we're not just talking about anybody, we're talking about people worth $200 million still paying for coaching. Still, actually coaching with people who are going, who are at that next level that they're trying to constantly grow.
And that's Melissa and I, we're constantly trying to grow and every aspect of our lives in our business, that's what we want to do. So, that's one of those things you have to be willing to go, and grow constantly, grow and get better at what you're doing. Not being complacent. Complacent, no good. No bueno.
You wanna definitely be growing for sure.
Melissa: And just this last week we had a cool story that, like Betty stepped outside of her comfort zone and then she's like, you could tell this story better, but why the heck haven't I done this before?
Rob: Yeah. So, so we actually have a student right now who's in one-on-one coaching, a high profit coaching with us.
She's been with us for a couple months now and she actually did her first freight shipment. I helped her walk through the process of it and after she did it, she, she told me she's like, I, you have no idea how liberating this is, it's just amazing that I can do this. Why did I wait so long before jumping into freight stuff?
Because my mindset was, I can't do it. It's way too hard. I don't know what I'm doing. And she said, when, when I jumped into this coaching, you helped me get to that next level. And like I said, I helped her walk through her first freight shipment. And she was like, and it wasn't that hard. She's like this is insane, I am so upset that I went this along without doing these types of sales. I could've made so much more money if I would've just done it, got through it realized how it's not that hard and then I could keep doing it. So she's super excited to grow. She's super excited to keep doing more and more large items, high profit items and all that kind of stuff. So it's one of those things that, yeah, it is. It's really, really cool to grow out of your comfort zone. I'll even pull this back to something for Melissa and I, if you don't know, I think we've talked about it on the, on the podcast, but we were asked to speak on stage.
Melissa: Yeah, we did.
Rob: I can talk on camera. I can talk on microphone. No problem. I that's not that doesn't phase me whatsoever, but put me in a room, especially this had I think 800 or 900 people in the room, put me in a room like that on a stage. And I'm the center of attention. That's crazy. Like that's like my worst nightmare ever is having to do something like that.
And they asked us to do it. And I could've said, no, I don't want to do that. I, because I, you really want to do it. No. And I don't want, I didn't wanna do it, but we did it because we knew we had to grow. We knew to grow. We had to tackle that thing. That was scaring me. And I don't know about, I mean, Melissa probably wasn't scared.
Melissa: No, it scared me scared as scared as much and it scared me whenever we were practicing. And you forgot your lines. I'm like, oh no, this is gonna be good.
Rob: It was crazy, but that's what we're talking about is growing the stuff that scares you when you get to it. And then what did we say? I mean, what did I say when I came off the stage, Melissa was like, would you ever do that again? And I'm like, book us another event. I wanna do it again. I wanna do it because it was a crazy, it was a rush. It was so much fun, to be able to do that. And then after the fact after it's over, I'm like, yeah, I really want to challenge myself.
I wanna get better at this. I want to be able to do this. So.
Melissa: And we never really prepared for anything more than we had for that. Absolutely. So, and we actually got, finally got a copy of it this last couple weeks. So we're gonna, be on the lookout. Yeah. We'll, we'll share it with you guys if you guys wanna want, I mean, if you want to, it was it's our first one.
So it was, but it was fun. So share what we shared with the youth to get them excited about starting their own eBay business.
Rob: Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was so much fun. So yeah. So cool. Anything else you got?
Melissa: Well, recap. And then, so first find some of those positive people podcast, books, shows, whatever it is, and listen to those and be around those people who encourage you.
And it may take, I don't wanna say cutting people out of your life, but like you just might have to distance yourself from some people that maybe you feel like they're bringing you down all the time. Yeah. And not, you know, you can't cut family and whatever, spouses you guys we're not telling you to do that stuff don't like, but just maybe show them that what you can do in your business and show prove to them like, okay, this is, this is working.
Yeah. So I dunno if you wanna add
to that or not.
Rob: No, I think it's a good point. I, but if you're making a mental note, and a lot of people don't realize this stuff, they have no idea because they've never really sat down and thought, hey, talking to Becky, my best friend here. And, I'm telling her ideas and she's like, yeah, you can't do that.
No, you can't do that. No, that's impossible. You can't. And then you start thinking. Why this is what's crushing me is because I don't have somebody supporting me and telling me that this is a possibility I need to get rid of that. Not to get rid of your best friend, Becky, you know what I mean? But just limit what you're telling her, that's gonna definitely pull down your mindset, just limit some of those ideas, find that person that you're gonna,
Melissa: Find who you can share it with and be excited with.
Rob: Exactly.
Find those people and do it. And you'll, I mean, you're gonna be super surprised at how your mind will start. Your mindset's gonna start going up and being like shoot, I can do this. I know I can do this. And you're, it will be a huge shift, in your business for sure.
Melissa: Yep. So listen to positive people, find them in your life, find an accountability partner. If you're in our group, be on the lookout, cuz we're gonna start partnering up some people, if you want to do that, you can totally.
Rob: Behind the scenes. Nobody knows that yet, but it's gonna be cool. We're gonna do start doing accountability partners.
Melissa: Change your mindset from scarcity to abundance because another big one is so much out there for everyone and be willing to grow and push outside of your comfort zone. That's it. And one thing that with you said, Betty was so excited that she got this, did this freight shipment and she didn't, it wasn't as bad. And she was able to do it and not have to actually touch the item, which is something that we are teaching in this upcoming course that we are so excited about.
Yeah.
Rob: Now, and, and I wanna back up for a second too, with Betty. And you guys don't know Betty. I know Betty and I, and I don't know how old Betty is and if Betty, if you're listening to this, I apologize, but Betty's probably, I would say she's in her sixties. That's how she's doing freight shipment in her sixties.
Which is. Insane. It's just so, so cool. I hope when I'm in my sixties, I'm doing stuff like Betty's doing, so she's encouraging me and she's doing stuff like anyways, all that being, put aside, I realize when I start talking about somebody, people don't know. I see Betty in my head.
And I know who she is, but you guys don't. So, that's another thing of it, but back to what Melissa said, this is the first time ever guys today is the last day. So if you're listening to this, is it on Friday? Yeah.
Melissa: If you're listening to this the day it came out.
Rob: Yeah. Today is the last day for enrollment at 50% on this new course where we are teaching what Melissa just said, how to do this business sitting in your house, in your Lazyboy chair, wherever you're at at your kitchen table without actually having to touch, a high profit appliance without actually having to touch it. This is the first time we've ever put a system together. The first time we've ever taught this. And it is in this course, so we're super, super excited. Today is the last day of enrollment. If you're on listening to this podcast, you're watching this video, if it's Friday, definitely jump in.
This is your last chance. Before it goes back up to a thousand dollars, $997.
Melissa: Yep. This link will be in the show notes. So make sure you check it out. We are so excited about it, so excited to hopefully work with you and if nothing else, just, hopefully we helped you encourage and change your mindset to a little bit more positive today.
And absolutely so absolutely. I have you in my head every day, tell you what, like it does. I tend to be a more negative person and I tend to go I put myself in this place and then I have him, which sometimes might be a little bit annoying sometimes. Yeah. But,
Rob: and I'm the opposite. I'm like that mountain you're telling me I can't climb that mountain. Watch me. We're going. We got this. It's no doubt. I got this. If I know one other person did it. I can do it.
Melissa: That's, that's a huge thing. I can do it. If you know, one person can do it, then it can be done. And that's a huge psyche. There's a whole that opens up a whole new can of worms. Like with the, what is the minute mile that they broke four minute mile.
Yeah, you're right. That one person did it and they started breaking it. Yeah. And then breaking it because one person did it and then three people did it that year. I can't remember exactly what it was, but yeah, it was that's just because one person
did it.
Rob: So, and that's my mindset. If I know one person has done it, it's possible.
It has. I mean, there's no reason why I can't do it if somebody else has done it. So, and there really are a lot of reasons why I couldn't, but in my mindset, I can, I know I can absolutely do it if somebody else has done it. And that's what I'm sure that gets a little bit annoying to Melissa. Cuz I come up with an idea.
I'm like every day we got this, we, this is somebody else has done it. This person done it. Let's do it. And so, yeah. Anyways.
Melissa: Well, hopefully as we're encouraging it to you and yeah, just a little bit of positivity to your day. Yeah. So.
Rob: You guys rock, we will see you guys on the next episode, have a wonderful day.
Melissa: Bye!
Rob: See ya!