Your host, Devonee Thaxton, is joined by a full-time online reseller and founder of Paladin Global Market and Growth Academy, Michelle Hougland. Michelle loves the freedom that working from home provides and is grateful to be able to be there for her children during their early years. Michelle wanted to share the knowledge of her success and created the Paladin Global Market Growth Academy. Her goal is to help clients fast-track their journeys to online reselling success on different platforms such as eBay, Amazon, Poshmark, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, and more. In this episode, we talked about how Michelle started her career in the dental industry and after successfully creating an online business model for selling on eBay, she was able to quit her job and become a full-time reseller.

To learn more about Michelle visit www.paladinglobalmarket.com

If you'd like to be a guest on Savvy, Booked, & Blessed, https://podcast.prosavvyas.com/podcast-guest

Savvy Booked and Blessed.

Joining us today is full time online reseller and founder of PA Global Market

and Growth Academy, Michelle Holand.

Michelle started her professional career in the dental industry, but took maternity

leave 17 years ago and never looked back.

She wanted to create an income for her family while on a flexible schedule

to live the life of her desire.

After successfully creating an online business model for selling

on eBay, she was able to quit her job and become a full-time res.

She loves the freedom that working from home provides and is grateful

to be able to be there for her children during their early years.

Michelle wanted to share the knowledge of her success and created the

Paladin Global Market Growth Academy.

Her goal is to help clients fast track their journeys to online reselling

success on different platforms such as eBay, Amazon, Poshmark, Etsy,

Facebook Marketplace, and more.

Michelle.

Yes.

Thank you so much for having me on the show.

I'm so glad to be here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, thanks.

Okay I'm excited to chat with you.

Okay.

First question, what the heck is reselling?

Oh, yes, I'm curious.

Great question.

Resell reselling is once you have an item that you've purchased brand new

from a store, and you want to either sell it in the garage sale, give it

away, donate it anything of that sort, that is the items that I typically sell

for my clients and for myself online.

And there is a ton of it, especially in America, of things that we have sitting

around their house that we no longer want.

I sell things from collectibles all the way up to vehicles.

That is reselling . Interesting.

How did you get into it?

Tell us the journey there.

? Yes.

So it was I didn't look for it initially.

I was pregnant with my first child and at home on maternity leave.

Had every intention to go back to my dental career, love business,

love running the dental office.

And when I was home on maternity leave, it hit me like a ton of.

Oh my gosh, I can't leave this little one.

What am I doing?

I'm a mom now before a business person, so I need to figure

out a way to replace my income.

And this is back in 2000, 2004, 2005.

Amazon was still a bookstore.

iPhones weren't even out yet.

Internet was not like it is today.

It was.

Such a different d on a bookstore.

Wow.

Yes.

Can you remember it was that I looked up the stats recently cause I'm

redoing my book and it yeah, it was still a bookstore, physical bookstore.

Wow.

. Wow.

So I found eBay and the rest is history.

Was able to resign three weeks later and best decision, just,

I'm so glad I took the leap.

Scary leap.

But I'm glad I.

Sure, Sure.

So how do you get, how do you acquire the products?

How do you, without giving all of the tools, cause they should

join your group and join your academy to figure out how to do it.

But tell us a little bit more about like how the process works.

Sure.

And I'm happy to share, I share a lot of this free content on

my YouTube channel as well.

Awesome.

I find it.

From garage sales, date sales, thrift stores.

And then I also, probably about 50% of my inventory is consignment reselling.

So I sell things for other people and I honestly have not been able to advertise

in years cuz I don't have the room to take all the inventory that people are like,

Hey, I've got this, can you sell this?

Cuz people are busy, right?

It's been quite a blessing for.

Yeah, so you gather the items you, I'm just going to assume, take

pictures, you put it on the platforms.

Yes.

Add some awesome descriptions.

And then.

Pack it up and ship it out.

Is it?

Yes, that's exactly it.

Yes.

Add, like you said, awesome descriptions, puts to make sure the keywords are

optimized to make sure that the people, that the computers can connect the

dots between my listing and the buyers and make sure I'm offering at great

prices, keeping my feedback score.

I'm really grateful.

I still have a hundred percent positive feedback, score

taking care of my customers.

And then just shipping it out right away and sending checks

to the clients and wash friends.

Repeat, That's my day.

Yeah.

, It sounds like a dream.

It's amazing.

It sounds too easy to be true.

Yeah, it everything, the grass is never greener.

There's always things, but it truly is.

I do feel like I've won the lottery because I remember the

feeling of having to go clock in.

And not to say that's a bad thing But for me, clocking in a job and selling

my time when I really wanted to be home with my little one, I feel like

I won the lottery that I was able to break out of that and figure this out.

But I had a struggle.

As anyone does when you start a business.

And so that's why I love helping others to do the same business.

I'm like, Let me help fast track you cuz there's some bumps in the road

you need to figure out, yeah, what were some of those bumps that you had?

First, the beginning where to find the inventory, which is really

keen that you asked that first.

Where do you find it?

That's the biggest thing for this type of a business and a lot of resellers.

They.

Just try to find stuff out on like thrift stores and stuff like that, which

I always find thrift stores are more expensive and I, that's not my jam.

I really like the garage sales and take, get it right from the person

who's just trying to get rid of it.

Make a couple bucks, get it out their garage before they donate it.

But also adding in the consignment layer gives a steady stream of income.

So at the beginning, that was my struggle, trying to find good inventory to resell.

and trying to figure out what is good to resell online.

Cause it was such a new marketplace back then.

So when you go to these garage sales and things, what are you looking for?

I am what they would call an everything seller.

, some of the resellers.

I'm a part of a mentoring group where, there's seven figure resellers.

They're doing like 5 million a year in reselling these

clothes, which is just insane.

I don't wanna get to that part.

I don't want that level of stress.

I'm that employees.

I'm good just being a one woman show.

Yeah.

But so I keep my eyes open on basically collectibles, leather

goods any type of electronics.

This is gonna sound weird.

Used ready and shoes.

I know.

Weird, but they sell really great online, like the really expensive ones that

people pay for a hundred, $200 for.

I can usually pick up for a dollar or two and I can't tell you how many times I've

picked up, like in Orlando where I live.

Yeah, there's a lot of Disney stuff, so I can pick up these

run Disney marathon shoes that they've been worned for a dollar.

And I sell 'em for over a hundred bucks.

It's the funest thing ever.

It's like a treasure hunt.

Yeah.

It's so fun.

So pretty much anything that I can see has value.

And I really do try to keep the items smaller though.

That's something I heard years, so I Yeah, I was say So they're

not taking up Your whole home.

Exactly.

Interesting.

And so the, starting on eBay and then some of these other platforms started to.

To come up.

How was that transition like learning these new places?

Is there one better than the other?

It just depends on what you're working with.

Great question.

That's exactly, it depends on what you're trying to sell.

If I have bigger items for if I take on consignment clients that have a lot

of things and it's worth it to me to consider a bigger item that I normally

would like to at this stage in the game but it has a lot of value, I'll

go to Facebook Marketplace for that.

Amazon is really great when I find things that are new and sealed in the box.

I can't tell how many times you find, printer ink, that Printer Inc.

Has great value or scanners or you'd be surprised how many things people have that

they just decide, Oh, we never used it.

I'll just get rid of it.

Get a couple bucks for it.

So Amazon's really good for that.

But, And Textbooks on Amazon sell great.

Just a little.

Speak.

And a lot of times when people are done with their college classes, they

didn't turn it in, to keep going.

Sell it to you for a buck.

And I've sold them up to 75, $80.

Yeah.

For it.

So Amazon's good for that.

They have a lot of gated categories, so Amazon's a little picky in that regards.

Yeah.

So it just depends on what I'm selling.

And of course, vehicles, I sell eBay motors, but I sell on all

the other vehicle sites too.

It just depends on the item that I'm selling.

. Yeah.

Gotcha.

When you are pricing these items out, how.

How do you go about doing that?

Yeah.

You're asking amazing questions, so I'm like, yeah, asking for people listening,

but I'm asking for myself, sister.

Hey, and if you have anything after this interview, you just reach out to me.

I've got it.

But I love eBay.

Even if I'm not selling, that particular item isn't on eBay.

I can find.

So many sold market comps from eBay.

Cause eBay shows you, there's a filter that you can enter in the item, in

the search bar, and then you hit the filter and you can scroll down

to see sold and completed listings.

And then you can see one the sell through rate.

How many of these items have sold in the last couple days?

Couple weeks.

And then how much are these people?

How much are people paying for 'em?

And I usually take that into consideration.

I price it just a little bit under and it keeps my inventory moving quickly.

In that regard.

So it's pretty cool.

A great tool that they offer.

Yeah, absolutely.

So at what point in your journey did you decide.

I've got this down.

As much as, things are always changing, right?

Yeah.

As much as we can like have it solid.

But at what point did you decide now I wanna teach people,

and what was that process?

Oh, great question.

So back in 2000 let's see.

So I started in 2005 a year later, inter consignment reselling because

I was trying to find good inventory while I was still learning the.

And then it was probably a year after that, so probably two

years into my business I started doing selling my ebook on eBay.

, and sold quite a bit of copies before I even realized what I had

my hands on as far as I had touched on something there and people were

needing to find answers for that.

And then I also sold a couple of consulting services through.

Cams back in the day.

And then I paused it for a while and just worked on the business.

And then it wasn't until about 2020 when I started my YouTube

channel and I was like, Okay.

Cause I launched some products, I did some different things through that process.

So back in 2020, I was like, Okay, I'm ready to start taking this to the next

level because I've learned a ton over as you can anybody could if you're

doing something for almost two decades.

And I was like, it's time to really start diving into.

Yeah.

Did you see an uptick or, I don't know.

Everyone was home, right?

In 2020 and things.

Was that like the prime time for you to have started YouTube?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did not, and I think I launched my channel in January, 2020, so

about two months before every Oh, the whole world stopped.

And so yes, that was definitely an excellent time to people.

Unfortunately they're scared.

They don't know if they're losing their job.

They have things around the house.

They have a ton of time, they're stuck at home.

It was definitely an, a quite the timely moment to be able to get started on that.

And I had a lot of time too yeah.

It was good and it was really good for resellers cuz a lot of people were.

We're purchasing.

I really think it sped up the culture in general to move over to online shopping.

Those that were like my mom, Yeah, my mom lost her heart.

She's so scared to use a computer.

I was like, Mom, it's not gonna hurt you.

But, she figured out Walmart shopping and getting them to.

Fit her in the back of her van so she didn't have to go inside and , so I

really think it sped up online shopping and helped probably by about five years.

Yeah.

For people to, that were a little bit hesitant before so

it was a good time for sure.

Bad, but there had some good benefits out of it.

No yeah.

AB absolutely.

When you, I guess through this journey, what are some things that

you wish you knew when you started?

That you know now, Oh my goodness.

I wish I could whisper to my younger self the simple things about just discipline,

budgeting, doing your numbers, not going so fast cuz I was really good when I,

my younger years at, or I've always had that blessing of being able to see

profit and make money very quickly.

But my younger self wasn't good at managing it and holding onto it.

So I wish my younger self would've been better.

On learning the cash flow and the things.

Thankfully I've learned, and the old story, and this is in my book

too, the the turtle and the hair.

You know how the Yeah.

The rabbits all I go.

I had plenty of time go.

That was me when I first start my business.

But sure, if you're, success sometimes is boring and steady.

It's the sure and steady doing the not fun stuff day in and day out.

That's where you'll be a success.

So I wish I could tell my younger self that.

Yeah.

I like that.

Tell us about your.

Yes.

So it is the, I started is the ebook from years ago and I went in to

revitalize it and update it and I'm just pretty much rewriting the whole thing.

Cause it's, I'm like, What am I doing?

Let me just, Yeah.

So I, it was the eBay consignment, the easy way.

Now it's just online consignment, the easy way.

I have secured, my editor been working with a publishing company

the beginning of July, she's going to start chomping into the manuscript.

And so I'm hop by August, I'll have it out and on Amazon and Audible and we'll

see how timelines go, but that's the goal.

Perfect.

What do you talk about a little bit more in your book?

Yes.

So it is going to correlate really well with the online course I've

already created by the same name, but it's teaching people how to

tap into that free inventory.

There is definitely a trend in the d the big reselling sites

like Macari, Poshmark, thread up.

All of them are noticing that culture is moving towards.

Buying used items especially when we're hitting into a recession,

unfortunately, different things like that.

We're wanting to make our dollar go more and it's also good for the environment.

So we're in a quite the unique error for this.

So it teaches people how to tap into that free inventory to be

able to sell it online, which is easier than it's ever bit.

Yeah.

So by free meaning I'm religious on the Facebook market.

I probably check it like four times a day.

Yes.

Not that I need anything, but I want everything.

I'm one of those people.

It's free.

Yes.

Yeah.

Oh my.

Yeah.

So looking at those free sections there.

Got it.

That and mainly I'm teaching also how people can sell things for friends and

family and if they enjoy that, even out of that realm, what it looks like.

I don't think it's as hard as people think it is, and you

can make an excellent income.

Cuz think about it, when I first started my first year, , it was, oh my gosh.

Buying things that I didn't know were gonna sell or not spending that

money, which was tight back then.

Yeah.

Hoping that God, it would sell so that I could make the quota

that we needed for me to be able to remain home with my daughter.

Yeah.

So now with consignment inventory, I don't have to spend any upfront money.

I get paid when it sells.

And so it really is a unique business model.

And so this book just opens the doors behind how that really looks

behind the scenes for running one.

Sure.

Interesting.

What does your day to day look like, or maybe even like week look

as a full-time online reseller?

Yes.

For me, I get up early with coffee.

I like to see the sunrise.

I do a Bible study in the morning, and then from there I get my I've been working

on my book when the wa when the house is nice and quiet, then I start my shipping,

get all my packages from the orders the night before already and out the door.

They actually, I usually ship us PS so they actually come, when they

do it, deliver my mail so I don't have to go to the post office.

Super nice.

Yeah.

And then from there I do my listings.

I have a certain number of listings I do every day because it helps

in my search engine results as well as processing inventory.

Yeah.

And then from there, the afternoon, because I do have a YouTube channel

all, I usually take about two days a week to do filming and editing

and that type of thing as well.

But Yep.

And then, Saturdays, my daughter and I go out and hit the garage

sales and we hit it hard and heavy.

If you ever came down, I'd take you with me, but it is hours.

Like we go from 8:00 AM to, 2:00 PM Yeah.

And Pack our food and go.

But there's some good free stuff as well.

So you might enjoy it.

But yeah, and then we just, I take Sundays off and then wash, run through beat.

Just keep it going.

Very, Yeah.

I love a good, I love a big yard sale, . It's it's so fun and I wish I was a, I

wish even more, I was like a DIY and could see some really cool stuff and Oh, yeah.

Resell some of those things.

As well along, along the way.

In your academy.

. For someone who's interested in this, tell us a little bit

more of how that's structured.

Yes.

So currently I have three online courses.

One I have live at this time, the other one I'm updating

and the other one's in beta.

The first one's just how to start and grow your own successful online business.

The second one's, my consignment one that will be paired together with the book.

Yeah.

And then the third one is how to sell your vehicles online.

I've had an unusual amount of response from my eBay motors video on YouTube.

I've gotten a lot of consignment clients across the country that

want me to sell their vehicle.

At first, I'm like, How do I do that?

I'm in Florida, but I've been able to successfully sell two

vehicles in an RV that way.

So I'm figuring out that, but I found that there's a lot of people that

don't just wanna turn into a dealership and lose a little bit, cuz I know

dealership is the middle person.

Sure.

Hold onto some of that profit, especially during this time and day and age.

Yeah.

This course is teaching people how to do it.

It doesn't have to be as scary as you think, and.

Sold many vehicles.

So this course just shows people how to do that.

So that's currently the academy amount at this time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You mentioned a couple times about SEO and your keywords and your engine results.

Tell us a little bit more of how that plays into.

Your postings and things.

Yes.

I love this subject.

I think it's, Yeah, me too, don't you?

I love seo.

I could talk about it all day.

Yeah.

Okay.

We should do that.

No, it's awesome.

I, So looking, whenever I'm looking at the, so comps on items

it is a great it reveals a lot.

Onto what items, what listings were successful and which one sold the most.

And you can tell between that.

So from there, I get the keywords that I use for my listings when I

list the one I'm trying to sell.

Sure.

Also I've learned that like on platforms like eBay and the Amazon

stuff, they don't like, like special characters and different things.

It messes up the computer.

Yeah.

They want the letters, they want it in a certain format so we can talk

the language of the computer and then I don't waste the ti the spaces.

I always like to say that title on our listings is like prime real estate.

It's like having a corner billboard on the middle of a busy intersection.

We have got to maximize each character, so we don't wanna put fluff words

in there, like new adjective words.

We wanna use every word to say can camera, dls, that type of thing.

Things that are gonna draw people to ourselves.

Very.

What as you've been in this space for a long time, what is some maybe

outdated advice that people think of that really doesn't matter?

Anymore or maybe isn't true or has changed or, Yeah, I think people, one, they think

they need fancy equipment to do this.

They don't, If they have a cell phone, they're fine.

If they have an iPhone or even an Android, Android device, you can do that.

You don't have to have fancy lighting.

You can set yourself by a nice natural light of a window at

the right time of the day.

Just make sure the background's clear.

We don't want the cat laying in the background.

Sure.

Tennis shoe there, if you're not trying to sell the tennis shoe.

Just a nice clean area and anyone can get started.

So much easier to think.

And I think the biggest thing that people are scared of starting out is shipping.

They're like, Oh my, It's kinda like the second thought after Oh my gosh,

when I sell it, what are I gonna do?

How do I do this?

And it doesn't have to be that scary.

They've come a long way and things are so user friendly now.

The different computer programs to help us.

Sure.

What are you most proud of in your career?

I took the leap.

I'm so glad I was so young that, so young.

I was like in my, I think I was 30, 31.

I'm so glad though that I wasn't so set in my lifestyle and the different

things going on that I was young enough to just jump out and do it.

I'm so proud of myself for not letting the fear of the unknown.

Stop me and rob me from my years with my little one.

They're only little ones, and this is by no means to make any

mom who's listening feel bad.

But for me it was like a passion ignite inside of me.

And so I think that's also why I am so passionate to share, like I

said, free content on my YouTube my different things that I is to.

To shout it from the rooftops, especially for mamas, there is a way

you don't have to, if you enjoy your job, that's different sometimes.

Yeah.

Some moms are like, Get me out.

These kids are driving me crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But for me it was like I had, I only planned to have one child, my husband I,

and so I just wanted to soak in all that time, and I'm just so proud of me for

being scared, but still taking that leap.

Yeah.

And somehow figuring it out

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that.

I love that.

Okay we're gonna jump into just some fun questions to learn

a little bit more about you.

Tell us maybe one of the best books you've read in the last year.

Ah, so the last year would have to be I love brussel brunson's books.

For the click funnels the, it's like traffic secrets.com

secrets and he has another one.

Expert Secrets.

Those have been really fun.

And if you enjoy seo, if you haven't already, I'd definitely recommend you.

You'll love it.

Yeah.

Cool.

How do you take care of yourself?

Mind, body, and.

Ah, I make myself take Sundays off.

I'm a Christian, but I also do it for my mental wellbeing because I'm

a workaholic and I will work from morning to night if you let me.

. And especially being a full-time entrepreneur.

It's not like you clock out and go home.

Your stuff's still with you, making myself take that Sundays off and in the

mornings with the coffee in my quiet time has truly been very peaceful to me.

Yeah.

It keeps things balanced.

Yes.

Good good.

What is one of your favorite quotes or mantra?

Or scriptures that you love.

I love, there's and for me it is a scripture.

It says, make the most of the time, and I believe it's an Ephesians.

I just really enjoy that.

Sometimes I think I've taken it to the m degree of making the

most of my time by doing too much.

But I just, I believe life is a gift.

Even when I was enjoying with my little one, knowing that she was only me.

Little ones.

Life is a gift.

Tomorrow is not promised.

We gotta make the most of the present, so just making sure we're

squeezing out all that we can from it.

Yeah.

Last question.

If you could have 10 hours back in your week, how would you use that time?

Yes.

Oh, I would make myself stop, enjoy my family more.

Now that my daughter's has graduated and my husband, we, we have an

excellent, I'm just grateful we have a great marriage, but we're like,

Hey, I'm, he's gonna go play on the computer, or I'm gonna go do this.

I think I would be more purposeful to take care of my normal stuff, but just

be more purposeful to go have, do fun play more, I think would be what I would.

Perfect.

I love that Miss Fell.

If anyone is listening and they wanna work with you in any

capacity, how can they find.

Yes, you can find me YouTube on Instagram or also on my website.

It's all by the same name, Palleting Global Market, and it's P a L A D I N.

It is a holy warrior.

My husband helped me come up with the name a couple years ago.

He's my superhero and he was a police officer for many years and a

paladins, like a holy warrior a night.

And so that's how we came up with that.

I like.

That's great.

I love that.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

It was so great.

I learned so many things.

I may become a reseller especially if you are a cluttery person

like I am and I hear you.

I can walk around my house and sticky note everything like that.

Let's sell that.

Let's sell that and call Michelle you.

Please reach out to me.

I'll be happy to help you.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

It was great chatting with.

Thanks for having me on the show.

I appreciate.

Take care.