[00:02] Hey.

[00:02] Hey, guys. Welcome to the Smart Flip, the podcast for phone flippers who are looking to turn their side hustles into serious profits. I am your host, Chris Roeder. I've been flipping phones for about eight to nine years now,

[00:16] and today I got my co host, Matt, who is the console king on this podcast, guys, we share tips, tricks and strategies to help you dominate the game when it comes to phone flipping.

[00:26] But before we get started today, I do have to point out that we have a brand new guide to flipping phones and electronics. It's the 2025 version. It's 18 pages long in PDF format.

[00:38] You can find it below in the description.

[00:40] I also have a ebook that's about 120 pages long that goes into much more detail and all of that, you can actually find that on episode 11 of the podcast for free.

[00:53] But if you do want the the PDF version, you actually you can buy it for $4.95 in the description below.

[01:02] But with that being said,

[01:05] let's jump into today's episode,

[01:09] guys. Today what we're going to be doing is we're going to be going over the 30 things I learned phone flipping before 30th. So my 30th birthday was yesterday.

[01:18] Past 10 years have actually been looking back, it was actually kind of slow but fast at the same time, so. But there's a lot of things that I learned along the way.

[01:28] I want to dive into them.

[01:30] So we're just going to pop right in. There's 30 things I want to go over and I think a lot of you guys are going to like this, especially because I know a lot of you guys are driving around listening to this podcast, picking up deals.

[01:41] You guys tell me that all the time, and I'm really happy about that. It means you're actually learning something. So. But with that being said, let's pop in. Matt, you ready?

[01:51] Yeah. Let's get it. And happy birthday, Chris Schroeder.

[01:54] I appreciate it, man.

[01:56] So the very first thing that I have learned in the past 10 years is action beats perfection every single time. You need to start now, learn as you go, and adapt quickly.

[02:11] Waiting for the perfect time is literally the biggest mistake. So I want to tell a story on this real quick. So we recently built Resale Hawk,

[02:20] which is our automated marketplace software. And I tell this story about it all the time is I am not a coder, I'm not a developer. I'm none of that. Okay.

[02:30] I don't need those titles, though, to build something. Okay.

[02:35] So I actually reached out to my developer, who we had already had on resale, Hawk. And I was like, hey, I got an idea. I want to do this. Is it possible?

[02:42] He didn't respond for, like,

[02:44] I'll be real. It was like three hours.

[02:47] And I was like, this is on my mind. I'm going to figure out how to do it right now. So I went to Chad GPT. I'm like, how can I do this?

[02:53] How can I make this work? And anyway, it came up as, like, well, you could do a chrome extension. I'm like, all right, cool.

[03:00] How do I do that?

[03:03] And, and then, you know, it, it's kind of it. From there, I built the entire thing in about 15 hours straight. Like, I. No coding experience. I had Chad GPT literally teach me how to code.

[03:17] It was a whole thing. So action beats perfection. This goes for phone flipping as well. You are going to screw up, and that's okay. And we're going to get to that a little bit here in a minute as well.

[03:29] But, I mean, Matt, you, you see me, like, I use you as kind of my sounding board for ideas. Like, let's be real, Like, I'm always hitting you up. Like, what do you think about this?

[03:37] Like, what do you think about that? What do you think about this?

[03:39] Like, very true.

[03:41] And you always have great, like, stuff. Like, what do you think about that whole action?

[03:48] There's a, there's. I, I, I'm. We'll butcher who, who was originally, you know, worth quoting this on, but a poor plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed tomorrow.

[04:01] Love that. Right? So,

[04:03] yeah, this is, this is about putting traction to where you are in the present moment and not getting too caught in your head about taking the next steps. There are so many people that I think probably even hear this podcast and are consuming this content with and gaining knowledge without the experience that is needed to push them to that next step.

[04:27] And I think if you can gain knowledge and immediately test it, that's really what's going to help you win the day. And also feel like you're moving your business in a direction that is healthy.

[04:40] Yeah, dude.

[04:42] That's one thing I hear from people is like, I'll.

[04:46] Let's say they buy one of our programs, right? Yeah, yeah, I'll use it. You know,

[04:52] I'll look at it next week. That right there is your biggest mistake.

[04:56] That is why most people have so,

[05:01] so much trouble getting started,

[05:03] because of that right there. Okay, I got this thing. Yeah,

[05:08] I'll check out it. Check it out next week, right and then next week comes and you forgot about it already. Guys. Like, I didn't realize, like, I.

[05:17] I operated a lot differently than a lot of people in the beginning, because as soon as I bought David's course way back when, I jumped into that thing immediately. Like, as soon as that payment went through, I was in.

[05:30] I consumed the whole thing in two days.

[05:33] And what I started realizing as I started selling programs and mentorships and things like that,

[05:41] people don't do that.

[05:43] I didn't realize that.

[05:46] I thought. I thought, like, that's what everybody did. If you bought this thing, you would use it, you know?

[05:50] Yeah.

[05:52] But it's interesting.

[05:55] But, you know, I want to move on to the next one because I'm not going to dwell on that too much, because sometimes that does upset me a little bit because I.

[06:03] There's a lot of graveyard businesses out there who just never got off the ground. Right.

[06:08] Yeah.

[06:10] The next one here is that. That. That I. I have learned is failure is a part of the process.

[06:18] Every mistake teaches you something valuable if you're willing to learn.

[06:23] So, you know, rewind here a little bit. I. Back when the iPhone X came out a couple years ago,

[06:32] I sold it on ebay.

[06:34] The guy there was my first return request ever on ebay.

[06:39] Oh, okay.

[06:40] And I panicked and I refunded him immediately.

[06:45] Oh.

[06:47] And I never got the phone back. It was an 800 mistake then,

[06:53] but I was distressed, obviously. However,

[06:58] here's what I learned. I learned to never do that again.

[07:02] Yeah, I learned very quickly. And this is before I had actually bought a course or any. Any help on anything. Um, like, honestly, all of that could have been avoided as well.

[07:13] Like. Yeah, like, I could have just asked the community or Facebook group that I was in and gotten an answer pretty quick on what to do. But I didn't. I panicked.

[07:23] Cause I didn't have a community to ask, and I didn't have anybody to ask. Um, makes me wonder how many, like, pitfalls our students have, like, just veered out of the way of, you know?

[07:36] Yeah, that's true.

[07:38] Like, you can never know, sadly,

[07:42] what they might have, like. Like,

[07:45] steered. Been steered away from. So it's interesting. But failure is part of the process. Like, you're going to screw up. My first buy ever was two icloud locked iPhone sixes.

[07:58] Six pluses.

[08:00] I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know how to operate an iPhone. But I learned pretty quickly what an icloud lock was.

[08:05] Right.

[08:07] So, yeah. Anything to add to that?

[08:10] Dude,

[08:14] I Think,

[08:15] you know, there's.

[08:17] I heard a coach once say that there's not winners and losers, there's winners and learners.

[08:22] And I like reframing cultural context in ways that makes more sense.

[08:30] Because black and white polarized thinking, I think is typically really a really poor way to live your life. Like, it's either this or it's either that. No,

[08:40] there's room for everybody to grow and get better at this. And I think if you give yourself that margin to improve and learn,

[08:46] you're smart and you're going to be the guy that's going to keep moving forward.

[08:50] There's another quote out there. It's all, it's just all about failing faster. Right. Like if you fail faster, you get the failures out of the way faster, you know?

[08:58] Yeah.

[09:01] The next one is success comes from consistency. This is something that I had to learn the hardest way.

[09:11] But the people that stick with it are the ones that see results.

[09:15] I want to back up on here a little, a little story.

[09:18] So I went to my high school reunion, my 10 year reunion a couple months back,

[09:25] and one of the guys came over and he was like, dude, are you still doing that like, like reselling thing? And I'm like, yeah, I am. I'm actually teaching other people and I've built a couple softwares and stuff now for it.

[09:38] It's like, dude, you've been doing that forever. Like,

[09:41] like crazy, dude. He's like, I've done like six different things at this point. But you're still doing that one thing. And he's like, I'm sure you're doing incredible with it now.

[09:50] I'm like, I mean, yeah, you know, we're doing pretty well, like, right? Can't complain.

[09:56] And like, that was a big like moment for me. I was like, okay, I'm being noticed, you know, like, like this is being like this work is being noticed.

[10:07] Yeah.

[10:08] And the consistency is paying off here. But also consistency. What I don't think people realize is it compounds a lot over time.

[10:19] Like it's just like investing. Right. If you just keep adding in the same thing works with learning as well. You learn the more it compounds upon each other.

[10:30] And I call that success stack or not success stacking, but skill stacking.

[10:35] If you stack enough skills,

[10:37] they kind of form this little web of a brain of itself, interestingly enough. And then you can work things together and it's interesting.

[10:48] But if you stay consistent,

[10:51] you will win. I mean, Matt, you've been consistent with flipping consoles for how long now?

[10:57] A little over five years.

[10:59] You're now known as the console king.

[11:02] Yeah. What's funny is like people think you have all this knowledge, you just been doing it for a while and you've seen enough things.

[11:09] Yeah, I think, I think in any industry you have to be around long enough to build a vocabulary of understanding. I like to think of skills like the way people think of learning like languages or music is how long do you have to sit in that chair until you actually know like how to play all the chords on the guitar or how long does it take to learn Spanish or German and,

[11:30] and then when you, you know, immersion is what bring it is what breeds mastery. And most people, I think in an, in a culture that is focused on instant gratification and obviously culturally being fed that through all the different avenues all the time, I think it's really easy to think that somehow you can look at your results or my results or the wins that people post or the wins you post in the,

[11:57] you know, nothing held back, phone flipping and somehow think that that happened first go round. And of course we help accelerate that process. Right. That's why mentorship is worth the price is like you can pay in time or you can pay an income, but there's one of those that you're not going to get any more of.

[12:16] And you gotta be smart about how you choose to spend your time because it is a currency.

[12:22] But yeah, consistency wins every time. Yeah.

[12:28] Fourth one here is a strong why keeps you going?

[12:32] Yeah, so like this is a big one. So for me in the beginning it wasn't really about financial freedom. It was like I wanted time with my family. Like that was the biggest thing.

[12:44] Like I wanted to be a dad.

[12:47] So once I became a dad, I realized that working took me away from being a dad. And you know, it does that apparently. Right. So like that, that was my.

[13:01] Why is. I wanted to be home with my children. Yeah, I didn't want to be a dad that's always away all the time.

[13:09] And I remember whenever I finally did go full time,

[13:13] you know, I was home all the time. Like my son does not know a life where I him away for hours at a time. Like I went on a.

[13:22] I was gone for about three hours the other day and like my oldest, he's six, he's like, where's daddy? Like,

[13:30] like, like he, it just happened upon. He was like he was over. He was in the bedroom asking Taylor, my wife, he was like, where'd. Where'd daddy go? Like where's he at?

[13:41] Like, cuz he doesn't Know, a life outside of me not being home or picking them up from school or dropping them off or whatever, you know?

[13:49] Yeah.

[13:50] And I remember back to my high school days. Like, we were.

[13:55] I was a senior, and, like, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I said, I want to be a good dad. And, like, that is still the goal.

[14:01] Heck, yeah.

[14:02] And, I mean, I homeschool him. We. He literally goes to Starbucks with me to buy electronics, and we homeschool at the Starbucks.

[14:11] That's cool. You know,

[14:14] that's why, like, and it also, like, I. I let him actually count money out and stuff now to the customers.

[14:23] Now, he does believe that I have a magic card that can buy anything.

[14:28] So we're working on the money part right now.

[14:31] In due time. In due time, young man.

[14:35] Yeah, he. I handed him some dollar bills one time to go buy some stuff at Starbucks, and he was like, what? What are these? And I'm like, okay, got it. This is the next thing we're learning right now.

[14:46] You should. You should tell him it's your Jedi card. Just wave your hand and you can purchase things.

[14:52] Well, he knows how to purchase things now, like with my car. Like, he knows how to use a machine and everything.

[14:59] He's six years old, so I didn't know how to do that at six, so that's fair. The next one here is stay humble and keep learning.

[15:08] I mean, my biggest thing is learn, learn, learn, right? Like, in my 20s, that was kind of my. My thing is, like, I didn't.

[15:16] I didn't care too much to.

[15:19] To save a lot. Now I, you know,

[15:22] and that. That could be part of the downfall. But I. I invested a lot, well over a hundred thousand dollars in. In mentorship and learning.

[15:33] Now that, you know, to a lot of you listening, you're probably like, you should have invested that. You should have bought phones with that. You should have done this, that, and everything else with that.

[15:39] Well, let me tell you what I got from that is I got skills that I never would have gotten anywhere else. I would not have gotten them from college. I would not have gotten them from buying more phones.

[15:50] I wouldn't have got any of that. This award here is for doing over a million dollars using a Facebook group selling high ticket.

[15:59] That doesn't come from college. That doesn't come from buying more phones. That doesn't. That doesn't come from that. It's a completely different skill set. And that skill set has allowed me to translate over, into negotiations with electronics.

[16:11] Because you go from selling High ticket coaching for other people. Like, three, five thousand dollars worth of stuff to negotiating to sell somebody some cash to buy their phone.

[16:24] Dude, it's like. Like, it's. It's completely different. It's like it becomes 10 times easier. Like, a lot of you guys thinking right now, like, negotiating with people is difficult. You are selling people cash.

[16:39] It is not that difficult if you know what you're doing.

[16:43] Like,

[16:45] so keep learning. If you. If you just keep learning,

[16:49] you'll be able to stack a lot of skills and you'll be able to do a lot more.

[16:55] So these are going by categories, by the way. So this first five was mindset and growth. The next one is going to be money and deals.

[17:03] The first one is you don't need much to start. I started with $200.

[17:09] A few hundred dollars and the willingness to hustle can be, you know, your. Your key to thousands of dollars in profit.

[17:16] Mm.

[17:17] Let's be real. Like, Matt, you help people start with consoles, and the first console flip that they can. You know what an Oculus for 60, 70 bucks. Like, and they can flip it for total 150.

[17:30] Like, yeah. Roughly triple their. Their investment.

[17:33] Like,

[17:34] you don't need a lot. A lot of people think you need a lot. You don't need a lot.

[17:39] Like, I. You just don't.

[17:42] True.

[17:45] I like this one a lot. Every deal is a lesson.

[17:49] So whether you win or you lose on a deal, you're always going to learn something new. So, example. I got a good example here. So this phone here,

[17:59] Is this the one? Yeah, this one right here.

[18:02] I bought this phone a couple of days ago.

[18:05] I checked everything, made sure the charger worked. Now, the only thing that I didn't check, and I rarely ever check,

[18:13] was if it connected to itunes.

[18:16] So it'll charge,

[18:18] but it won't connect to itunes, weirdly enough.

[18:22] Very interesting.

[18:24] But I learned something. I lost a little bit on that because there's something obviously up with the charging port, and I can't reset the phone now.

[18:32] Oh, no. But you learn something from every deal,

[18:37] whether it's a win or a loss. And if you take it from that mindset, you will win more than you lose almost every single deal.

[18:48] So every single deal is a lesson. Meeting with the customer every single time is a lesson. You will learn something every single deal that you do.

[18:59] Yeah. So I don't know about you, Matt, but I don't know, does that resonate on anything or remind you of anything?

[19:06] I think, yeah, completely. I think if you're.

[19:12] If you're Just pers. I can't over express how important it is to be perceptive.

[19:20] Pay attention to people. Pay attention to their patterns, their habits.

[19:24] Pay attention to products, Pay attention to what seems to be the pattern with certain products and just look for that. Just surely look for that. Like,

[19:37] there's probably a type of person who's a better customer to work with and you could probably save yourself from scams if you're just perceptive.

[19:45] There's probably a type of person who's going to.

[19:48] You know, one thing I talk about is like people that are indifferent, people that don't care, people that aren't emotionally attached to their stuff are really easy to do deals with because they're not desperate.

[19:59] They probably don't need the money as bad as other people, or they're probably so tired of that item that they just want cash instead of that item. You know, that was just a perception thing.

[20:08] So just be perceptive.

[20:11] Love that.

[20:14] I learned this one from David K. Profit is made in the buy.

[20:19] A lot of you guys disagree with that and you're probably not making very much money.

[20:25] Everybody that's ever said that they disagree with me has either. Not one, now started their business and two is not making a lot of money,

[20:33] but the profit is made in the purchase. We already know what this thing is going to sell for. We already know this is not a sports card business where it has like a FOMO effect or like crypto or it's another FOMO effect.

[20:48] Right? Like, yeah,

[20:50] we know what these things are going to sell for. We know there is a. There is a market value for this item in the marketplace. If you. Look, I just had somebody on YouTube actually, I posted about an Xbox series X that I bought the other day for 200.

[21:07] He's like. And I, I was letting people know it's like a little dusty inside all of that, you know?

[21:13] Right.

[21:13] And he's like, that is. That's not gonna sell for over 300. And I'm like,

[21:18] it sold last night for 335. And he's like, you know, he's like, you're a liar. I'm like, whatever, dude. Like,

[21:26] I literally gotta go find a box for this thing. But okay,

[21:30] right.

[21:31] I'll be the one laughing on the way to the bank.

[21:33] Yeah. He was also like, you need to clean that thing out. You need to clean the dust out of it before you sell it. I'm like, I don't do that. Like, it's just a little dusty.

[21:41] They can clean it if they want to. I put it in the description. I said it's a little dusty, the fan on the inside, but it's all good. Works fine.

[21:49] Powered it up,

[21:51] whatever. It sold 330,

[21:54] 500.

[21:56] I guess people can live with a little dust.

[21:58] Yeah, like,

[22:01] it's,

[22:02] you know, one of those things. But,

[22:06] yeah, profit is made in the buy, guys. Like, we know what something is going to sell for. Like this phone that I bought the other day, this 14 Pro Max.

[22:16] I looked at the direct buyer sheet before I ever purchased it.

[22:20] I can't remember what I put it at, but I think it was like 4:50.

[22:24] I bought it for 3:50.

[22:27] I knew what it was going to sell for. I had a guaranteed price, so I made $100 as soon as I bought it.

[22:33] Awesome.

[22:37] Let's keep going here. Negotiation is a skill.

[22:43] Totally.

[22:44] So the better you get at it, the more you profit. Now, I'm going to steal a line from Aaron Goldstein here.

[22:50] He talks a lot about the longer you're in this business, the better you get and the more money you make. And he's right,

[22:59] because you. You. And he talks about this because he's had over 40,000 message negotiation conversations at this point. And I probably have the same. I've been in it about as long as Aaron.

[23:10] Yeah.

[23:12] But the more you negotiate with people, the better your skill set gets. When you follow scripts from people that are reputable and they've been doing this for a long time, they end up working somehow, you know?

[23:24] Like, I don't know how they do, but they've only been tested thousands of times.

[23:29] So.

[23:31] But negotiation is a skill. And if you can build your negotiation skills over time, it can be one of the most valuable assets that you can ever have. Now, you can also swap out negotiation with sales.

[23:45] Okay? So, like, because you are selling people something, you are selling them cash.

[23:50] That is what you were doing. And if you. The better you get at that, the more money you're gonna make.

[23:55] Yep.

[23:57] The next one here is track your numbers. Okay. Know your costs, profits, and margins. It's the only way to grow. So one thing that we. So we moved recently to. I.

[24:10] I have some office hours in recent.

[24:13] But the only way that people can actually book that call to get an office hour with me is if their KPI sheet and account, KPI and accountability sheet is filled out.

[24:24] If it is not,

[24:25] they cannot book a call with me. And there's a reason for that, because I've noticed in the past,

[24:33] people make a lot of judgment based on emotion and not data.

[24:41] Right. So the first thing I ever ask, like, whenever somebody's like, some, this isn't working for me. Google Ads aren't working for me. Facebook ads aren't working for me. I'm like, what is your return on ad spend?

[24:50] Oh, I don't know. Then how do you know it's not working?

[24:54] You know, like, if you don't know that, it's not. If you don't know the numbers, then you don't know anything.

[25:01] So I'm pretty aggressive. I would say that's probably the most aggressive thing that I'm aggressive on in the program. Am I right, Matt?

[25:09] Yeah. No, but it, what I think what that does is it takes people from a mom and pop mindset to. Or amateur mentality to. No, you've got to run this like a business.

[25:22] And the reason your business isn't excelling is because you're not treating it like one. Good business is good math. And guys, I hope you hear this in conjunction with what Chris is saying.

[25:33] You cannot manage what you do not measure.

[25:36] Like, you can't measure. You can't manage what you don't measure. Like, if you're, if you want to cut weight, you gotta count your macros. If you want to,

[25:45] if you want to gain mass, you got to know how much weight you're pushing in the gym. If you want to build your business, you've got to track your metrics.

[25:53] You also got to do it consistently too. Like, that's right. Like, just the act of tracking alone will make you better. Like, if you step on the scale every single day and you are aware of the weight that you are at.

[26:07] This is something I do because I track my weight and stuff. And it guys, it, it does like a mental, subconscious shift in the brain. Like, you're like, oh, two pounds after yesterday.

[26:18] What did I do yesterday? It changes things. Like,

[26:23] but the act of tracking alone will make you better.

[26:27] Like, and that's, that's something I personally realized. Like, I use, I use an app called Strides,

[26:34] and it, it shows me, like, I'm. I'm in the. I don't know why, but I'm in like a habit building phase. I don't know, I'm going through it,

[26:42] but I use a, I use a, an app called Strides where I have, like, certain things I need to do every day. And then after a while, it actually will start showing me my average trends.

[26:53] Like, like, I have completed 86% of my five critical tasks for the past, like,

[27:00] 14 days or something like that. So, like,

[27:03] I'm tracking stuff. You Know, to make sure that, that I know what's happening. And like, that alone makes me aware of what I'm doing and why. Like, if example, if I'm not losing weight, I can literally open that app and be like, okay, so there was three days in a row where I didn't eat clean.

[27:24] Got it. That's probably my problem.

[27:27] Yeah, yeah.

[27:29] So,

[27:31] yeah, track your numbers, track your stuff.

[27:35] So we're moving into efficiency and scaling now.

[27:39] Systems are everything.

[27:41] So I wish I would have learned this sooner. We were actually, I was actually talking with Muhammad Al Adami the other day and he said the same exact thing. He's like, I wish I would have invested in a CRM and systems a lot sooner because automation tools like that save you tons of time.

[27:58] Resell Deck saves people a ton of time on follow ups and things like that.

[28:04] Resale Hawk, one of our newest things saves people. I literally had, we had somebody join the program the other day and he was like, this is cut out like 90% of the time that I was spending on Facebook Marketplace.

[28:16] Like,

[28:17] systems are everything to me. I love, like, to the point where one of my students calls me the system scientist because I love finding systems that work.

[28:27] I dig that.

[28:28] And honestly, most of the time those systems are built upon things that I've already been doing for a long time. So I've like built a habit. And then I just get to the point one day where I'm just like, I don't want to do this.

[28:39] Like, and this is like, whenever Matt joined the team, I didn't, I never did reach outs. Wasn't my thing. Like,

[28:47] he, he kind of broke me in a way on that by using my students.

[28:54] They started picking himself up left and right. And then what did I do?

[28:58] Started doing 20 reach outs a day. I hated it. I hated it. I hated it. I hated it. But I did it because it was, it worked. And there was a system.

[29:09] It makes money.

[29:10] I mean, over time, I ended up building kind of my own system. Matt has his three ping method. I have my one message that I send.

[29:18] And then that over time turned into Resale Hawk. So the system turned into a software.

[29:24] But systems are everything. Having a system for all of that is incredibly important.

[29:31] The next one here is time is your most valuable resource. You need to spend it on what generates the most results, like sourcing and closing deals.

[29:41] So if you can get to the point where you're spending more time sourcing and closing deals,

[29:51] that's the best thing that you could be doing,

[29:53] right? Like, instead, like Getting inventory. Getting inventory. If you're getting inventory every day and selling it too, I have to put that in there. So I want to say that because if you, if you can free up the time on these like admin tasks, like you can spend, you can spend a lot more time on the stuff that actually makes the needle move,

[30:13] which is sourcing and closing.

[30:15] Yeah, straight up.

[30:16] Don't be afraid to delegate. I have a va. She handles a lot of stuff in the background for me. She generates new ad photos all the time.

[30:27] She handles weekly calls. Like she handles a lot of stuff for me. She even works a lot on my ebay listings. So don't be afraid to delegate.

[30:38] Whether that's getting somebody to close for you and stuff like that. Like, once you get to the point where obviously you can't make it work yourself or you can't keep up, that's the time to delegate.

[30:49] And usually I recommend delegating out like an ebay lister first, then a closer and then somebody to pick up your deals. That's usually the way it works.

[30:59] That's my recommendation anyway.

[31:03] Leverage technology.

[31:05] Definitely recommend that, especially my technology.

[31:10] So obviously ads. Use ads to grow your business.

[31:17] Get more inbound, right? If you get more inbound, you'll close more deals.

[31:22] Outbound usually has a 1 to 5% close rate. Now Matt over here is probably closer to like 25%. But you know, he, he's also got more experience, so. But using ads and things like that to get leverage is basically like putting out business cards every single day.

[31:42] Utilizing ads.

[31:43] It's basically think of yourself, think of how much time it would take you to hand out a hundred business cards,

[31:49] right? Like probably take you a little while. You gotta meet a hundred people. There's a lot of people.

[31:54] But if you could utilize ads to do, to do that, it'll help you out big time.

[32:04] Another one here. You can't do it all alone.

[32:08] And Matt, I think you can speak to this one. But you want to surround yourself with a community of like minded people for support and ideas.

[32:16] I know you can relate to that.

[32:18] So yeah,

[32:20] people are, people are hardwired for community.

[32:23] I mean, how. Stop, stop. If you're listening to this, how did you feel during COVID Were you. You know, and there's, there's a few introverts out there. Be like, dude, I was having the time of my life, okay, but at some point you probably wanted to still break free and go be around people and mix it up.

[32:42] And I like to say it like this. None of us is as smart as all of us. And so if you can apply a previous one Chris mentioned, which is stay humble and keep learning.

[32:52] Right. Well, this I think tethers directly into that is,

[32:56] man, there's such a diversity of perspective out there. And that's what I'm about. I'm all about getting fresh perspective from people that can see things from an angle that I haven't.

[33:06] And phone flippers hit different than console flippers, hit different than couch flippers. And you come into this community and you find this cool mishmash of all these different varieties of people that have like flipped all kinds of stuff.

[33:20] You got everything flippers out there. People that just like scrap from estate sales and garage sales and auctions. And you know, you, you, you gather so much insight from everything and it just becomes this composite of who you are as a human.

[33:34] And it's pretty cool, I think, to be on the giving and receiving end of those contributions. That's what community does. It makes you better. It sharpens you.

[33:43] Also saves you from a lot of scams too.

[33:46] Yeah. Hey, who can vouch for this guy, you know? And there's like three people that'll be like, he's a good dude, you know, didn't have to go chasing for that answer.

[33:55] He had somebody post in the Slack group the other day. They posted a photo of a phone and like three people immediately were like, yep, that's fake. And they gave reasons why.

[34:05] I think Curtis even took downloaded the photo, circled the bezel area and was like, here is why it is fake. And gave like detailed instructions on why it was fake.

[34:17] Like, that is a community. That is amazing.

[34:21] He didn't have to do that, right?

[34:25] Like, I wouldn't have even done that. I would have just said it was fake.

[34:30] But I didn't take it that extreme. But like, that's the kind of community you want to be in.

[34:35] Yeah, totally.

[34:36] Next one here is treat people with respect. Whether it's a buyer, seller, or **** shop owner, building relationships pays off in the long run.

[34:47] It really does. Like I have to say this, like,

[34:50] I try to treat everybody with respect, you know, whether they're brand new to this place or whether they're somebody doing way bigger numbers than us.

[35:00] I try to treat everybody with respect.

[35:02] Every seller I have that meets up with me, I'm always asking them how their day is going.

[35:09] The other day, funny enough,

[35:11] the Xbox that I sold was actually from this customer. He had sold me a phone first and then he sold me a monitor, like a, like a high level gaming monitor.

[35:22] And then the Xbox. But the very first time we ever met and I bought his phone, we sat there and talked for like 30 minutes.

[35:30] And the reason was, is because,

[35:32] number one, I like to get to know my customers a little bit, because they come back when you do that. But he also had a really cool story. Like, he was in the military and he was stationed overseas in Ukraine and stuff like that.

[35:43] Like, it was like he had stories to tell and it was really cool. So treat people with respect. People aren't just a transaction. And they will come back and they will.

[35:56] They will refer you people, they will sell you more stuff, you will make more money.

[36:03] The next one here is communication is key. You need to be clear, honest, and professional in any interaction.

[36:10] So we got our slack group right now is popping with **** shop stuff and pawnshop profits has been out for like a year and a half at this point in that community.

[36:23] And I guess people just need to hear it from somebody else. But.

[36:28] Wait, what? Anyway.

[36:33] Anyway,

[36:35] so whenever, for example, whenever I walk into a **** shop, I'm very clear, I'm honest and I'm professional in what I do. I walk in, I find an employee, and I'm like, hey, my name is Chris.

[36:44] I run an electronics business in the area where I buy, use, and damage broken stuff.

[36:49] Do you guys have anything either in the back or up front that you want me to look at that I can make you guys an offer on today? I'm very clear, honest and professional about how I do that.

[36:59] I do the same thing with marketplace reach outs. I let people know that I run a business that buys using damaged electronics. I let them know everything that I buy, and then I ask if they would take a lower offer if I was able to pay cash today.

[37:10] I'm very clear about what I do.

[37:14] Um, I don't try to, oh, I gotta go talk to my boss. Or I don't have. I don't do any of that. Cause I'm not gonna lie. Right?

[37:22] And people will respect you for that. Like, I had a guy yesterday, he was selling me some stuff,

[37:29] and he was like, so what do you do? Like, how long you been doing this? I'm like, dude, I've been doing this for like eight years. He's like, wow, really?

[37:36] Like, yeah, it's a good. It's nice, you know, Like, I don't have to work a job when I do this. And he was like, what? Really? I'm like, yeah, dude, like, pretty.

[37:45] Pretty cool gig. I make about 80 bucks per device, and he's like, oh, wow, that's pretty cool. You know,

[37:51] once again, pretty honest about what I'm doing here. Like, people respect that. And that was the second time that he had told me something. So moving on to this. Repeat customers are gold.

[38:09] If you build trust, people will come back again and again. Seen it time and time again. Accurate,

[38:16] like, like a lot of people don't realize this. A lot of people do what I call one night stand type of transactions.

[38:25] Real man, they show up, they look all weird, they act weird, they don't try to communicate, they just try to buy the thing and leave. Like, do you think that person's gonna wanna do business with you again?

[38:36] Like,

[38:37] like if you're completely silent the whole time, you know, like you're just looking over the device and, and you're, you're nitpicking every little thing that's wrong with the phone, like trying to get it lower.

[38:49] Like, guys, there are days where I take a loss on devices to keep the customer.

[38:56] I'm okay with that because I want their business in the future,

[39:00] right? So repeat customers focus on them. They are literal gold. I had One student who 54% of his entire business was repeat.

[39:11] And I think Ken, right now, we're interviewing Ken here in a few days.

[39:15] I think half of his business right now is repeat customers. I'd have to double check, but I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

[39:22] Guys,

[39:24] can you imagine making like five grand a month just off of like for free off of a repeat customer?

[39:32] Let's be real here. You know,

[39:34] it adds up. So.

[39:36] Yeah, it does.

[39:39] The next one here is the one that I annoy the students most about. What do you think?

[39:44] Well, Chris, could I interject real quick? And I would like to point out that those two previous points that you brought up, and I hope people heard it, those things are definitely like related to one another.

[39:54] Like treat people like they matter. Okay? And you'll cultivate repeat customers. So think,

[40:03] you know the transactional way you were talking about, like short term gain, long term loss. Think long term gain, short term loss, right? If you have to eat something but you still gain a long term business,

[40:16] that's what it is to gain a repeat customer. And I just think that there's,

[40:20] there's a lot of good stuff in that point. So anyways.

[40:24] So the next one here is something that I'm very aggressive on. And it comes up almost every single call that I do with our students. What do you think it is, Matt, before I,

[40:36] before I say it?

[40:37] Well, I have Access to the list over here. So I've got like a cheat sheet.

[40:40] Oh, that's not fair. Anyway, it's follow up.

[40:45] The deals are often closed in the follow up, not the first conversation. I don't know how many times I have to say this.

[40:53] So if, if any of you guys like, follow me and we've talked on Facebook before,

[40:59] I've probably followed up with you. I'm going to be real, like, if I've ever reached out to you about how's your reselling business doing, you know, all that stuff like, or some some sort of message like that, that means I followed up with you.

[41:13] I'm aggressive on follow ups. Very aggressive.

[41:16] And the reason for that is because only like 3% of deals are closed on the first message,

[41:24] but 80% of deals are closed on the tenth message or the eighth message or something like that. But like,

[41:33] that's why I'm so. Because I learned that. I learned that very early on and I'm like, oh,

[41:38] I just have to talk to this person more often.

[41:42] And guys, following up can be as simple as, hey, following up on this. Hey, did you still want to sell this? Hey,

[41:49] just. I'm out and about buying stuff today. I just wanted to make sure, see if you were looking to sell this. Hey, did that other person buy it? Guys, it can be.

[41:57] I will literally say following up on this to a, to a person, they'll be like, oh, yeah, I forgot about you.

[42:05] Like, I had somebody this morning actually.

[42:08] She, she was supposed to meet up with me yesterday. She didn't show up. I didn't take it to heart. That was, that was a no show. It's okay. Anyway, she just got back with me and she's like, my apologies.

[42:19] So many things started to happen with my car on the middle of the interstate yesterday. I was trying to see about the iPad mini sell for 140. I can meet you whenever you're ready.

[42:28] I have a free day today if you're still willing to buy from me.

[42:31] This is because I followed up,

[42:34] like, hey, we miss each other. Don't know what happened, but I'm still looking to buy your devices.

[42:40] And she had car issues. She probably didn't want to let me know that some people are embarrassed. Let's be real, guys.

[42:47] Yeah, that isn't. I mean, I get it.

[42:50] I wouldn't want to tell somebody that something bad going on in my life, you know, like,

[42:55] but like, if they reached out and be like, hey, looks like we miss each other.

[43:00] Let's see if we can work something out for tomorrow.

[43:02] I'd be like, oh, cool. Yeah. I wouldn't tell them what's going on in my life, but be like, all right. Yeah, sorry about yesterday. Things got, you know, whatever.

[43:12] So follow up. Okay,

[43:17] the next one here is don't be afraid to walk away.

[43:21] I like this one.

[43:22] Numbers don't work.

[43:24] Move on to the next deal.

[43:26] Don't feel like you're obligated to buy something from somebody. Okay. You never want to be put in that position.

[43:34] Like, your, your power is actually in walking away. So, great example. The other day I had a guy who messaged me. He's like, I got two 15 Pro Maxes in great condition.

[43:48] I'm like, I can't remember what I. What I offered. I think it was like 500 each because they were like 1 terabyte or something like that.

[43:54] And he's like, oh, well, I got somebody who's willing to pay 700 each for him. And I'm like, bro, that's amazing.

[44:01] Like, they're paying more than my buyers are. Like, a lot more. I would recommend selling to them. If you have their number, let me know. This dude called me three times asking be like, hey, just wanted to reach out and ask if.

[44:16] If you're willing to go up on your offer at all. I'm like, no, I can't. Just. The numbers aren't working, my man. Like, Like, I would take those deals for $700, by the way.

[44:27] Walking away is one of the most powerful things that you can do.

[44:30] Yeah.

[44:31] Like, if you're going to make, like on a local deal, if you're going to make $40 per device to close the deal,

[44:38] in my opinion, that's not worth it if you're paying 50, 500 a device.

[44:43] Not worth it to me. Okay. Yeah, I want to make at least 80 elite. 80 to 100 on a local deal. Now, if you're direct buyer, it's different. You work in volume.

[44:52] It's a different game. But being. Being able to walk away from a deal if it doesn't make sense is incredibly powerful.

[45:03] Yeah.

[45:04] People don't realize it. Like, once you take something away from somebody, they want it more, you know?

[45:11] Yeah.

[45:12] Did you want to add something to that? I know you said you were excited for that one.

[45:16] People can smell your desperation.

[45:18] Yeah.

[45:20] And you can sense it with others. And that's the thing is, like,

[45:25] I tell new and existing students this all the time. There's always another deal. And the reason that I'm always, I guess, kind of harping on that point is you don't need this deal.

[45:34] This isn't the one silver bullet that's going to make or break your career as a side hustler or a reseller.

[45:42] And the sooner you learn that and. And cultivate. It's really about having an abundance mentality. Right. Like, you can smell scarcity and desperation,

[45:51] but there's. Oh, my gosh. I could. For anybody that's listening to this, I could jump in your zip code right now and probably find you 20 deals. And Chris could validate that and be.

[46:01] Like, you did it two days ago for somebody.

[46:05] Like, so we're not capping when I say that, but it's like, there's always another deal out there.

[46:10] And this deal, it was in an area where we already have a student.

[46:14] Sure.

[46:15] Like, there was Pittsburgh.

[46:18] Like, yeah.

[46:19] And Matt jumped in. Like, we got a guy in Pittsburgh who's doing. He's full time.

[46:24] Like.

[46:25] And Matt was still able to find 20 deals for the dude.

[46:30] Yeah.

[46:31] There's money everywhere. And you learn that. And I think that's another beautiful thing about this community is there's a mentality shift that happens.

[46:40] But I think that that also, that mentality is learned, and it's a muscle that gets flexed one deal made at a time. And so you guys can see kind of the compounding effect of some of these points coming together, but I think they swirl together pretty beautifully in this one that Chris is talking about.

[46:57] And so, yeah, just people can smell your desperation. So don't be too desperate for the deal. Be like, I don't need this,

[47:03] but I'd love to have your business.

[47:06] And guess what? The guy came to Chris. Chris didn't go to him.

[47:11] Who has the leverage? You tell me.

[47:13] I a hundred percent have the leverage there. Yeah.

[47:15] Yeah.

[47:15] Why I love ads so much is it puts. Gives me the leverage.

[47:20] Yeah.

[47:23] So, yeah, don't be afraid to walk away, guys. It's a very powerful thing to have the next one here. We're going to be going over, finding deals on these next five marketplaces are your playground.

[47:36] Facebook, offerup, Craigslist. There's money. We kind of just talked about this too. There's money to be made literally everywhere.

[47:44] Yep.

[47:45] I remember the first time Matt actually sourced my zip code. Early on when he joined the team, he found deals left and freaking right on things that I didn't even know existed.

[47:56] Like, I didn't know that a valve index existed. I didn't know what that was.

[48:00] Yeah.

[48:01] And like an Oculus Quest. I had never bought one before. I had only bought like PS4s and game consoles.

[48:09] But like Matt was finding stuff left and right. He literally, like, it was almost like he took the blinders off of my eyeballs and just it. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.

[48:22] You know, like, yeah, you walk in when you jump into marketplace and you're like, oh, deal, deal, deal, deal. I can negotiate that down. Deal. You know, like it's, it's that type of thing that actually really happens.

[48:36] It's real.

[48:36] And there's, it's, it's the same on Facebook. Offer up Craigslist. And guys, this is coming from a guy who did his first ten grand in profit on Facebook ads alone.

[48:47] Like,

[48:48] I didn't do any reach outs. I didn't believe in it at all.

[48:52] And.

[48:53] Yeah, you really didn't.

[48:54] I really didn't. I really hated.

[48:57] Hey, you know what,

[48:59] that, and I think that's another valuable lesson there is knowing when you're wrong and, and being open to the possibility of other ways working.

[49:11] Yeah.

[49:12] And yeah, I mean you're the big one that showed me that. So the next one I want to talk about here. And I love this one. This one's one of my favorite.

[49:23] Broken does not mean worthless.

[49:26] I love broken stuff. Love it. Those are my favorite things. Whenever somebody hits me up with 13 Pro Max cracked, no power. I love it. I can't tell you guys how much I love it because I know I can lowball the absolute **** out of them and, and make a lot more money than I ever could off of a used item.

[49:46] The reason I say that is because it's true.

[49:48] Like I, I buy broken MacBooks all the time. I buy broken iPads all the time. Broken phones, broken cameras. I buy all sorts of broken stuff all the time.

[49:59] And I love them because when you're selling them on ebay, you're selling them as is. You don't need to fix anything.

[50:08] And you can just be very clear to the buyer, there's no returns on this one because it is broken beyond repair. You can't use it kind of thing. Buy at your own risk kind of stuff.

[50:19] Yep.

[50:19] And guys, what's crazy is people buy them.

[50:24] People buy this. I sold an iPad the other day that was literally bent.

[50:29] Like it was bent.

[50:32] Like you could be visibly see it. And somebody bought it for $220.

[50:37] That's crazy.

[50:38] Like I got it for 75, you know. So like broken doesn't mean worthless. I absolutely love broken electronics.

[50:49] Yeah.

[50:50] And I don't think you do a whole lot with Broken, Matt? I'm not sure.

[50:54] I definitely sell broken. Here's the thing is like if I. I'm not. I'm not a fix and flip guy. I'll tell you guys that right now. Maybe some of you are.

[51:01] And to all of you who are fix and flip enthusiasts, hey, power to you. Keep, keep rocking in the free world. But for broken stuff, the thing you gotta realize is the professional side of it is running your business according to ROI and not according to just like dollars.

[51:19] Like, I think sometimes with the newer or working stuff, people get fixated. And it's like the margins on broken stuff is actually better than the margins on stuff that works.

[51:28] And if you can make that mental switch, you're gonna make more money than the next person.

[51:34] If you were to put most profitable in a line, it would be broken stuff, used stuff, new stuff.

[51:41] Yeah.

[51:41] Margin on new stuff usually is pretty bad.

[51:45] And you have to do a lot of volume to actually make some money there because people know what they got. Let's be real,

[51:52] this iPhone over here is new in the box. It's worth something.

[51:56] But when that iPhone is run over,

[51:59] people don't know if that's worth something anymore.

[52:04] Yeah, it is. You know, there is a.

[52:07] There, there's. It's weird. There's like this.

[52:11] Broken things are probably some of the most undervalued stuff on the market because you're right, people don't know how to price it. They don't know what to do with it.

[52:20] They're not interested in fixing it. Like, the level of indifference is so extreme. It's just like sitting in a drawer somewhere or maybe about to be thrown in the trash.

[52:28] Yeah,

[52:29] it's true.

[52:31] The next thing here is **** shops are underrated. This is a big theme in my slack community right now because one of our guys, Aaron,

[52:42] different Aaron than our coach, but he started buying from **** shop that he's been driving past for like years.

[52:48] Yeah.

[52:49] And he bought what, 4900 and stuff yesterday? I think something like that.

[52:53] He bought a lot. Yeah.

[52:54] So like I've been telling people this for years. Like, Matt, how long have I been telling people this? Like **** shops, **** shops, **** shops. I'm broken record at this point.

[53:04] Like,

[53:05] like go into your **** shops, talk to people.

[53:08] And the one thing I love about **** shops is most of the time they don't know what they got.

[53:14] Yeah.

[53:15] Like broken stuff. They don't sell broken stuff to the public. Just FYI, they don't do that.

[53:23] So I always like to go into **** shops And I'm like, look, I run an electronics business. I buy used and broken electronics. What do you guys got that I can make you an offer on today?

[53:33] It's really that simple. Like, trust me, they will work with you, I promise.

[53:39] These **** shops don't make that much.

[53:42] And they are willing and open to work big deals out with you a lot of the time.

[53:49] Yeah. And it helps to know that like they, they operate like in cash. Like they want cash.

[53:55] Yeah. They want you to drop cash in their pockets.

[53:59] Yeah.

[54:01] So **** shops are very underrated. The next thing here is like, learn to spot red flags. So checking for scams, stolen devices, and shady buyers.

[54:11] This is something that like, we can somewhat teach, but like, at the same time, we haven't seen everything.

[54:19] We've seen a lot, but we haven't seen everything. Right. A good example of this, so really good example actually is one of our guys. Guys, David Ingiwu, as, however you say, his last name.

[54:33] I was able to help him spot a scam on a game console that he. Or a VR headset that he had sold for $800.

[54:41] And we were able to fix that very quickly. What had basically happened is he, he, he sold this $800 thing. A scammer then messaged him with a different address, which is a very common scam on ebay.

[54:56] Yeah.

[54:58] And he ended up changing the address to send it to the scammer. And luckily I was able to help him catch it in time because we were doing a check in call and I was like, dude, we need to put in an intercept right now before it gets there because you will not be able to get it back once he gets there.

[55:18] And we were able to intercept it. He was able to get it back and he canceled the order because he, because he screwed up. Right. He didn't know. But like, we saved an $800 mistake because we knew what that red flag was.

[55:32] Right.

[55:33] And like, he would have, he probably would have quit the business. Let's be real. Like, when that happens to people a lot of the time, what happens is they quit. That's an expensive $800.

[55:42] They're like, I'm done. That almost happened in Yvonne. Like,

[55:46] any of you guys who I know, a lot of you guys listening to this podcast have listened to that podcast.

[55:51] He almost quit the entire business because he bought a fake phone.

[55:56] We were able to help him out, be like, look, dude, it's okay. Like, you're going to be all right. And now he's a direct buyer.

[56:05] Like,

[56:06] but like, we were able to talk him off the ledge because we knew the red flags and we were able to help him through it.

[56:12] So, yeah,

[56:14] Anything on that, Matt, on spotting red flags?

[56:19] Again, be perceptive, pay attention to. I mean, when I talk to people and coach them through marketplace and other marketplaces, it's pay attention to the product and the.

[56:30] And just ensure that everything checks out. Like, look at their photos. Do their photos look legit?

[56:36] Right? Do they look like they took screenshots and reposted stuff? Like, really practical, simple, common sense things? Like don't. And that's the thing is like, scammers are going to throw something at you that it's a shiny object.

[56:49] And in most cases, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. So you just got to learn to trust your gut and your instinct and not allow the dream of making, you know, oh, but I can make a thousand dollars on this deal.

[57:02] Or you could lose a thousand dollars on this deal. Like, just keep it real. Like, don't get so fixated on the one thing that you're not covering your base on the other.

[57:11] That's all.

[57:12] Yeah.

[57:14] Winding down here. We only got six left,

[57:17] right?

[57:18] The next one is keep your ads simple. This is more for me, but this is something I've just learned over the years and running ads for literally hundreds of people.

[57:28] Keep your ads simple. Be clear, straightforward.

[57:32] And that messaging is. Is the get you the best response. Like, stop trying to be cute. Stop trying to be complicated. Complex does not sell. It actually makes things harder.

[57:46] The simpler you can you can make something, the better you want it to be. Like, a fifth grader can read it. And if a fifth grader can read it, you're gonna do well.

[57:55] That's why our ads literally say I buy phones.

[57:58] Like, it's that simple.

[58:00] Yeah.

[58:01] Keep everything incredibly simple.

[58:04] Simple scales, fancy. Fails to something my mentors taught me and then some personal lessons that I've had along the way. Guys,

[58:15] confidence grows with your experience. The more deals you do, the easier it gets. I remember Aaron talking all the time about how he would get nervous before a deal. And this happened.

[58:26] This. This happened to me in the beginning, too. I didn't, I don't. I didn't take a note of it at the time. But in the beginning, you're going to be nervous on almost every deal and you're going to be nervous like, what if the.

[58:38] What if the phone doesn't. What if they show up and it's in a different condition? What the one they said and like all this stuff, right,

[58:44] guys? That never goes away.

[58:47] Just so you know. You just get better at dealing with it and the more deals that you do, the easier that it gets and the more that feeling won't show up as hard.

[58:56] I still get it sometimes to this day. Like if it, like if it's. If it's like a really large deal, I'll get that feeling, like if I'm about to pay somebody over $2,000,

[59:05] like locally, in a Starbucks.

[59:08] Yeah, you should probably be a little nervous.

[59:11] Yeah, I should probably be a little. I'm not going to meet them outside at their car, you know. Yeah. Confidence grows with your experience.

[59:21] Yep.

[59:24] Celebrate your wins, even the small ones.

[59:28] However,

[59:29] make a 24 hour rule. You can celebrate for 24 hours and then you're back in the game. I gotta, I gotta point that out. Some people will celebrate their wins for a week.

[59:39] It'll totally take like,

[59:43] like, celebrate your wins,

[59:46] but put it like. This is an Andy for seller rule.

[59:50] He says celebrate Your wins for 24 hours and then get back to work.

[59:54] That's good.

[59:55] And I like that a lot because a lot of people celebrate their wins way too. You know, some people like to have their birthday week. You know, what did I do on my birthday?

[01:00:04] I bought a phone.

[01:00:05] Nice.

[01:00:06] You know, like. Like I was still doing stuff. Like, what am I going to do? Yeah, I got kids, I got a wife, I got, you know, I got stuff I got to do.

[01:00:15] I also enjoy what I do. So, you know, whenever you enjoy what you do, it makes things a lot. It doesn't feel like work anymore.

[01:00:25] I like this one a lot. This is the next one. Every skill is transferable.

[01:00:30] Negotiation, communication,

[01:00:32] problem solving.

[01:00:34] All of this will serve you in every way of your life.

[01:00:39] If you can gather skills, and you can gather skills in a variety of ways. You can gather skills from books, you can gather skills from podcasts, you can gather skills from doing it.

[01:00:50] But all of these skills are transferable. One thing I've noticed.

[01:00:54] So a good example of this is one of my students, Kayla. She's a Toronto phone buyer. She started flipping houses in Canada and she was able to transfer the skill set from flipping phones and electronics to flipping houses.

[01:01:10] I personally think that's incredible.

[01:01:12] It is.

[01:01:14] Like, it's the same business model. You get leads, you talk to the leads, you close the deal, you make money. Like it's the same skill set.

[01:01:23] And she just transferred that skillset to a bigger item, basically.

[01:01:28] So. Which is something I plan on doing in the future myself.

[01:01:34] Anything to add on that, Matt?

[01:01:38] Just a transfer of skill sets.

[01:01:40] Yeah. Yeah. I think.

[01:01:43] I think it's easy to kind of underestimate, like, what skills you might be acquiring and learning as you do this. But entrepreneurship is something that almost requires you to learn what you're doing from almost every angle because there's so many different problems to solve.

[01:01:58] So if you're just. If you can get comfortable being a steady problem solver, you're probably going to stack us. Stack your skills even more, like, successfully, or I guess you would say, like, collectively.

[01:02:12] And it kind of almost fuels your.

[01:02:16] For me, it helps fuel my willingness to tackle problems because running into constant problems can almost feel like,

[01:02:23] not progress.

[01:02:24] Yeah.

[01:02:24] But every time you push through that barrier, you emerge with something that can, for lack of a better term, like,

[01:02:34] well, be monetized. Like, hey, I need to run ads. Let me go learn ads. Oh, now I can run ads on anything. Hey, like, there's not a lot of phones to flip in my area.

[01:02:45] Let me flip some consoles. Holy ****. Now I can flip consoles. Like, I can diversify my inventory. Just when you can change that subtlety of perspective and look at it from.

[01:02:57] From that angle, like, you. It really becomes more like a superpower and less like a.

[01:03:03] Like something. A preventative, you know, something's going to prevent you from succeeding.

[01:03:07] I really like that a lot because the monetization is the reward of getting through the thing.

[01:03:12] It is. Yeah.

[01:03:13] Like. Like, I didn't know how to code for resale hawk. Right. But, like, once I learned that skill, once we built the thing, I was able to monetize it. I was able to create a, you know, a monthly recurring revenue from it almost immediately, because I've actually done it numerous times before in the same way.

[01:03:35] But because I learned that new skill set,

[01:03:38] like, the reward is monetization and honestly, us buying more phones from people. Right. So,

[01:03:45] like, there. I really like that. That's a good way to put it.

[01:03:51] The next one here is freedom is worth the hustle.

[01:03:54] It really is. Flipping gave me the freedom to work on my own terms and build the life that I wanted.

[01:04:01] I wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't know how to do this.

[01:04:05] Yeah.

[01:04:06] Like, knowing that I can go into Facebook Marketplace or launch some ads or things like this and literally pick up deals and make $300 a day,

[01:04:16] like, with minimal work is amazing.

[01:04:20] Yeah.

[01:04:20] To me. And the fact that, like,

[01:04:23] you can go to any city and do that, you know, like,

[01:04:27] it's cool. Like, it's awesome.

[01:04:30] The very last one. This is number 30 this business changes lives. I've seen it in my own life and the lives of my students. The potential is real if you're willing to put in the work straight up.

[01:04:45] So I'm gonna leave that one as that because it's true.

[01:04:49] Yeah.

[01:04:50] Like, this business is.

[01:04:52] I will say, it's not sexy.

[01:04:54] Right. Me and Matt have talked about this a lot, actually.

[01:04:58] On our weekly calls, we're like, dude, I'm so bored with reselling. Like,

[01:05:03] this is so boring. But I made, like, 250 in profit, like, in an hour.

[01:05:09] Like,

[01:05:10] I was actually talking with, you know Eric Jacob, right, Matt.

[01:05:14] Yeah, I do. Yeah.

[01:05:15] We. We were talking last night about this. We were like, dude,

[01:05:19] this is like, this business is so boring once you get good at it. Like,

[01:05:24] and it's true, though. Like, once you get really good at it, it gets boring. Like, it doesn't have the same, like,

[01:05:32] flair anymore, but you're still making a ridiculous amount of money.

[01:05:38] You know, that way out competes your job.

[01:05:42] Yeah, but, I mean, such is the nature of success. Like, what is success except for something that exists in the form that it is? Right. Like, you achieved what you wanted.

[01:05:53] Congrats your success. And at some point, like, there's a monotony to that process. Right. Like, I think about pro athletes and, you know, watching Steph Curry practice, like, the amount of times he's probably dribbled a certain way, like, he has a certain routine when he shoots free throws, it's like one bounce and then shoot.

[01:06:13] And he's probably done that so many times that it is nauseating.

[01:06:16] But he's also literally re sculpted how the world looks at the game of basketball. And I think it's worth being aware that when you do these things,

[01:06:29] you're you. People should look at this as realizing, like, with the consistency of habits and skill sets and patterns and the stuff you're learning and doing, like, you're. You're becoming a pro.

[01:06:39] Right. Well, what do pros do? They step out there and they do the thing, and they've done it so many times that they make it look easy. And sometimes that also means that what looks easy from your perspective to them probably feels boring.

[01:06:51] But.

[01:06:52] But guess what? Like,

[01:06:54] as far as monetization goes,

[01:06:56] you've carved a niche for yourself.

[01:06:59] You can't be upset about that. I can work through the boredom. Right. Knowing that the freedom is. Is there, and it almost becomes a sweeter reward than money, if to be honest.

[01:07:12] Yeah, true.

[01:07:14] Well, that's 30 guys. Those are 30 lessons I've learned before turning 30, I think this was a fun little podcast.

[01:07:21] Yeah, totally.

[01:07:22] So whether you guys are just starting or scaling up, these are the lessons that have taught me over the years.

[01:07:28] Turning 30 does feel like a big milestone. Honestly, I feel like it's.

[01:07:32] It's taken a long time to get here actually. I was actually thinking about this earlier,

[01:07:38] but I started realizing that it's just because I've been able to condense time down because I don't have a job. So time actually feels longer for me.

[01:07:47] And I don't know if you feel the same way now, Matt, cause you don't have a job.

[01:07:51] So it's almost like time has slown down a little bit.

[01:07:55] Yeah. And I, and I have kids that go off to school. So like on the workday I'm just here with my dog.

[01:08:04] But like I want to talk about that real quick. Like whenever you go full time,

[01:08:09] like it feels fast in the beginning I think if I remember correctly. But like these past. I've been, I've been like self sufficient for about seven years at this point.

[01:08:19] I can make my own money and that's kind of how, how things work for me now. And like those like I will say like from year 18 to 22 felt like it went by incredibly fast because it was, it was the same monotonous grind.

[01:08:37] Right. Like wake up, go to work, go home and like I guess when your days are just that time passes by, it feels like time passes by faster. But like once you go into like a full time thing like this where you're hit with you're.

[01:08:54] And I think it's because like the problems get customized when you're not dealing with the same stuff every day. And therefore it like I don't know, I don't know how it works but I just feel like it's actually taking me a long time to get to 30.

[01:09:07] And it could be because I've just learned so much in the past seven years.

[01:09:13] I don't know, I'm not sure.

[01:09:15] But yeah, no, I think that there's an acceleration to time. As you grow in responsibilities, you realize that the margin you have available is more precious and you have to be more efficient with your time.

[01:09:29] Out of necessity. Right. When I was in my 20s, I could burn the candle at both ends and no one was the wiser because nobody suffered the consequence in my wake.

[01:09:38] If I do foolish things now with my time, I've got a wife, I've got two kids. Right. I've got students, I've got a business. And you can feel the repercussions through all of that If I need 24 to 48 hours to recover, even on a small scale.

[01:09:54] And so the cool thing is, for anybody who's hearing this, let's say you're a young man or young woman in your late teens, early 20s. Because we do have people doing this business of that age.

[01:10:05] Right. Right now you've got, like, you can run in any direction and make more mistakes and feel less repercussions and consequences than you'll ever have. So if you're wondering when you need to, like, dip your toes in the water, like, now's the time.

[01:10:20] It really is.

[01:10:22] Really? Yeah. You don't have. I, I, I am personally starting to feel the late nights now. Like, I started feeling that around 28, 29. Because between 22 and 27 or so, I was up till 1 2am all the time.

[01:10:40] Like, that was my thing.

[01:10:41] Like, I was just killing it.

[01:10:42] It was okay. I would wake up 7am the next morning, you know, like. But I'm starting to feel it now.

[01:10:48] It's like, okay, I can't. Like. So back then, I would drink coffee at night to kind of help stay up and work and get stuff done. Cause I would do all my listing at night when I got home.

[01:10:59] Right?

[01:11:00] Yeah.

[01:11:01] And as I've, I guess, aged,

[01:11:05] like, I can't do that anymore. I feel, I feel it.

[01:11:10] And I'm starting to realize the difference there. I guess I'm just becoming an old man, you know, where I sneeze and throw my back out. That actually happened about two weeks ago.

[01:11:19] Immediately to the gym, bro. Like, worked out for like five days. And I was like, all right, this has to be like a constant thing. So I don't, you know,

[01:11:29] I gotta keep up with these kids of mine. So.

[01:11:32] Oh, yeah.

[01:11:33] But, yeah, guys, this is my the 30 things I've learned before turning 30.

[01:11:39] I hope you guys learned something from the experiences that I've had and that's met that Matt has had.

[01:11:45] And just a reminder that you guys can check out our resources in the description below here on YouTube.

[01:11:50] And if this podcast is anywhere else, it's probably in the description below this too. Once again, you can check out my ebook for free on the audio episode 11 of the Smart Flip.

[01:12:02] You can check it out there. I think it's two hours long, something like that. But if you want the PDF, you can buy that for $4.95. And with that being said, guys,

[01:12:12] this has been another episode of the Smart Flip.