Shownotes
Stephanie has created a large talent pool to get the answers she is looking for. After all she has thousands of satisfied customers who are happily selling on Ebay. So the premise is… by helping others get the answers they are looking for, you learn things (you didn’t even know you didn’t know). So the rule still holds for Stephanie: Give unto others and you get so much more back!
Mentioned:
Stephanie’s book: Meet up Organizer- Step by Step Guide
Sponsors:
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00] Want to jump in here and just bring back up episode 250 Toys for Tots campaign put together by Sellar lambs. It is such a great opportunity. I was with the seller on Friday. Their team is working on it. I’m very very excited. This is a chance for you to use the skills that you personally have developed. You’ve got sourcing muscles not many other people have it. And this is a chance where we can take and use our skills to help those less fortunate. All the information is on episode 250 such a great cause. Kick
Stephen: [00:34] back give back give back this time of year thanks hope your Q4 is going good. It’s
Stephen: [00:40] a great time to be selling and sell a lot. Watch your repressors. I just got whacked on one last$15 a unit. I didn’t lose I lost in profit because I should have blocked one wasn’t paying attention so please do me tell you about a couple sponsors you know scope from solar labs. If you’re not using it to even just to take your wholesale accounts of course you got to use a for private label. Right. You need to understand the keyword you want to understand a key word go look at your competitors get their keywords and then use them. That’s smart business right because they already have proven that proof of concept but take the same approach to your wholesale accounts make sure that those key words are in there. If not upload those changes many times you can but many times you can take advantage sculped from Sellar labs go to several labs dot com slash scope used a code word momentum save a few bucks get a few key words get your listings found.
Stephen: [01:35] Got to find that keyword and scope will be the product that will help you. There are solutions for e-commerce Charron logger. You know again you hear me talk about her because she is my account manager she has been doing a great job. Again I had some stranded listings and I notice them down there on the bottom right hand corner. They’re gone. I look back and they’re gone and I see stuff submitted. I see stuff return. It’s such a great process because I don’t have to pay attention. I can pay attention to the other parts of our business solutions for e-commerce slash momentum. I’ll save you 50 bucks.
Stephen: [02:07] Lowest price she offers. And do you still get the amatory Health Report. Take a look at it set up for 2018. Now tell Karen I sent you. When you think about Q4 lists and I hope you don’t use them just Q4 for Hope you use them all year long again you want to learn how to fish right. And so the best thing to do when you’re buying a list is look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it and then figure that out on your own. That’s the approach that gay lesbian uses and a million dollar arbitrage list. It is closed for the rest of this year. However I have asked them and they have said they would do it if there’s an opening. They will pull from the waitlist. OK so I have the link out on my site on this episode that will have a link that will take you right onto the waitlist.
Stephen: [02:55] So get on the waitlist if there’s something that your interest maybe she’s going to give you a 7 day free trial so there’s nothing to lose. But then once you get in there take advantage learn how to fish right sharpen your tool you know sharpen your skills I guess is the right phrase I should use. OK so again I have that link out on this episode. So jump out there and get on that list. You know go daddy and grasshopper are both national sponsors of the show. I’m very fortunate. I have a third one coming on in February very excited about that. But go daddy. I use them. This was somebody who had a great idea for and for a domain and I’m like.
Stephen: [03:32] Use my link. Save 30 percent 30 percent yes they pay me. We all know that. However 30 presents real I use it myself because I want to save the 30 percent. So let’s try. Go Daddy dot com slash momentum right try Go Daddy dot com slash momentum and you’re going to save 30 percent grasshopper’s the same deal. Try grasshopper com slash momentum and you’re going to save 50 bucks. I saw somebody else just signed up for it. The service makes you a pro.. All of a sudden your business has a phone number has a vanity phone number you can kind of create your own one if it’s available but you don’t need a second phone. And I think that’s the big thing it’s not Google Voice which is choppy Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. This is professional stuff. Press one for customer service press two for my Amazon account manager which we go to Karen’s team. I mean this is a great opportunity. So it’s Try grasshopper dot com slash momentum. Say fifty bucks. Welcome
Cool voice guy: [04:29] to the e-commerce momentum. Good guys well we focus on the people the products and the process of Commerce selling today. Your host Stephen Peters and welcome back to the e-commerce men and podcast.
Stephen: [04:44] This is episode 252. Stephanie inj. I love the story because you know I was thinking about what I would lead in with and I was thinking like I have the answer. I have found the answer to getting unstuck. And Stephanie is a reinforcement of that answer as was rich Psylocke as is Chris Green as is Mark vine as is every conference that I’ve been to. The
Stephen: [05:15] answer is to find others similar in mine. Network with them and share information and magically information gets shared with you and you get unstuck problems you have somebody else has had them.
Stephen: [05:29] And so in this discussion we’re going to talk about setting up a meet up and you’re going be like really I need more responsibility in my life. Well Stephanie walk you through what it takes I mean step by step she doesn’t hold anything back. Matter of fact she has a book on it for like 10 bucks if you’re interested in how to run when it’s only 10 bucks are$5 if it’s on Kindle. But she walks through and generously shares exactly what it takes. And for me I sit back and I think about somebody who’s shy and I be like wow I don’t know if I could do it. Well Stephanie will tell you it wasn’t always easy but she’s been doing it 15 years. And magically she still learned something at every meet up she goes to. So if you love the conference life if you love going to those conferences rather than listen to people like me up on stage talking talking to people in the audience and hanging out.
Stephen: [06:17] And that’s what you can have. And so search your community and she will tell you how to do it.
Stephen: [06:23] And I just think it’s such a great idea and such a great opportunity I hope to hear somebody send me a note saying they’re going to do it and then I’d love to come and visit you and see how it’s going but to keep abreast of how it goes because I just want to see somebody get unstuck. Let’s get into the podcast. All
Stephen: [06:40] right welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast very excited about today’s guest. Great story. I love a story. And when I heard Chris Green lead me to this story you know it’s a big deal. Stephanie
Stephanie: [06:53] inj Welcome Stephanie Hi Stephen how are you. I
Stephen: [06:58] am awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. Can’t wait to hear your story I only know part of it and when it’s told by Chris Green when he takes the time for me to go meet somebody like Steve you’ve got to meet this young lady. And when he takes the time I know it’s serious. And so you and him have a connection from Texas life and a long term connection. And I it’s quite frankly one of the reasons I wanted to have you on because of the long term. No you’re not old. So I want to go there because you’ve been selling for a long time right.
Stephen: [07:35] You’ve been meeting people for a long time.
Stephanie: [07:39] That’s next in May with thousands of wonderful people and things. Yes it has sounds.
Stephen: [07:48] I mean think about that. Is there anything in your life that I would say my church would be one that I probably meet thousands of people over you know over years. Is there anything else that you can think of that would be where you could meet that kind of quality of people with similar interest.
Stephanie: [08:04] I don’t think so Stephen except maybe on social media and just the very platonic relationships that eBay has opened so many doors in. I’ve never really thought of it as a job or a career. It’s more of a lifestyle for me now.
Stephanie: [08:23] How long have you had that lifestyle since March 1999.
Stephen: [08:29] OK so 18 years 18 years you would consider a pretty significant part of your life. E-commerce and eBay specifically.
Speaker 11: [08:38] Absolutely.
Stephen: [08:40] So let’s go back 18 years let’s go back to 18 years. When you when you were growing up did you grow up in a parent with parents that were entrepreneurs. No
Speaker 12: [08:50] not at all. Traditional work [9:00] to [5:00]. Of course I did that for many many years. I can’t say I hated hated every minute of it. But entrepreneurship beats any career you know working for yourself is so gratifying. What kind of jobs did you have. I was in insurance and I was in insurance for probably 16 years.
Stephanie: [09:19] And then after that it was out I went to the medical field. I managed to show room for five years at the World Trade Center here in Dallas which is where I worked when I got started on e-bay. And actually I was taking some college courses I thought I wanted to be a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Oh it just sounded glorious. Oh it sounds there was a lot of money to be made. I was taking core classes at a local college and realized early on that that was not my forte. It bored me to death but some of the core classes I was taking had to do with H.T. a male web design and that really got me. You know it just opened up a whole new world that was like creating magic when you used HP meld to make something come to life on your computer screen.
Stephanie: [10:18] And during my classes I kept hearing people talk about this site called e-bay. Back then they still referred to it as a world wide web and it was still very new. And I really didn’t pay too much attention to ebay until I got a phone call one day from a friend who asked me if I had a desk for sale and I said I do. Why. Why do you need a desk. She says well it’s not for me it’s for one of my neighbors he is turning his garage into an office. And I said Really. She said Yeah you’re not going to believe this. He started selling on this site called e-bay and he’s making so much money he had to quit his day job. Well that’s when my antenna went up and I thought I need to check out this site called e-bay and that was back in December of 1998.
Stephanie: [11:14] And so at that time I had an antique booth with a friend and we turned our love for garage sales into what we thought was going to be a nice little side business with this antique booth and turns out I was the world’s worst antique dealer ever. Our rent was$90 a month and we couldn’t even make enough to pay the rent. But anyway. So I asked Elaine if she would be interested in trying this site called e-bay. And she said she hated computers. She didn’t want any part of it but I could go for it. And that’s really how I got started was liquidating the stuff on the antique book and the first thing I saw was an antique syrup dispenser that paid 50 cents for.
Stephanie: [12:04] Sold it for 1739 to a lady in Hawaii. And when I realized that I could turn every 50 cents into like$18 I thought if I had eight hours a day to do this full time I could make some serious money. And so one thing led to another and I was hooked. Well
Stephen: [12:24] let me let me pull a couple key points out of there one. You are buying things for an antique mall. What were you a closet garage sale.
Stephanie: [12:37] Know that was your thing to it. I have been hooked on Garage sales since I was 17 and that’s been several decades ago and I still love the thrill of the hunt. That’s my favorite part besides meeting the people.
Stephen: [12:52] So you what were you buying when you went to garage sales What were you looking to buy.
Stephanie: [12:57] Antiques collectibles and what really. I love cooking. I love anything to do with the kitchen. So for many years I was drawn to anything that had to do with the kitchen and was vintage. I wanted things that look like it came out of my grandmother’s kitchen that was just what drew me. But over the years that has evolved into many other things. So just antiques and collectibles pretty much. It’s just that I don’t think I was choosing the right things or making the pricing was. But eBay opened up a whole new world and the things literally flew off the shelf on eBay where they just sat there and collected dust in my my booth.
Stephen: [13:40] Well that was where I was going to go. I mean it sounds to me like you have an eye for these things she just had to think of a market in your booth. Because I notice this is my observation of antique malls generally generally when you go down them they’re very similar items in most of the booze. Not all the time. I mean there’s always an unusual thing but a lot of them have similar items and that’s how I learned things that aren’t that rare. Right. You just go down when I see the Red Ryder Cup in you know seven boots. I’m like OK that’s not rare. Right it’s old. Right.
Stephanie: [14:11] Used to be rare is not so rare with eBay because it’s opened up the whole you know this to the whole world like baseball cards that used to be hard to find. Now you can find them fairly easily you know on the Internet. So in some respects it’s it’s kind of diluted the market but I wouldn’t try it for anything because it’s just part of who I am.
Stephen: [14:40] Now what makes collecting probably even a little more fulfilling because you can actually finish a collection right you can actually find that missing piece that Disney thimble set that’s missing one. You can actually find it right rather than never finding it. So I would say you had an eye for it and you just needed to find the right marketplace and clearly you did did most of the stuff. I mean because that would be the tell. Right. Did most of the stuff from the book sell.
Stephanie: [15:08] Yes. And as soon as it did we closed it down. And then since I was working at the World Trade Center I had access to market samples. When market was not going on the showrooms would sell their samples at sometimes 50 75 percent off wholesale. And so when market wasn’t going on I would walk around and buy these samples and I would sell those on eBay and at the World Trade Center that the showroom managers it was almost like a sisterhood because when market was going on wasn’t going on it was very quiet and you had lots of time to visit and get to know these ladies. And so I started telling them about my adventures on ebay and see how much money I was making on ebay I was just like I couldn’t get enough. I wanted everybody to know about it.
Stephanie: [16:04] And so they said well I want to learn how to sell on that site called...