Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Happy Friday, alright
.
So as pressure builds up andthings look uncertain, I'm
figuring out how I react todifficulties and how I plan for
adversity.
There goes a car and so justit's tough just putting money in
and folks like folks think like, oh, business owner, like
(00:22):
everything's so easy.
And then all of a sudden, likeyou put money in and then it
folks think like, oh, businessowner, like everything's so easy
.
And then all of a sudden, likeyou put money in and then it
just goes out the window and endof month, and then it's always
kind of crazy.
So the last two or three daysof the month we have a surge of
revenue.
Like or 30 percent of all ofour revenue comes in the final
like four days of the month andit just like comes spewing in
(00:44):
because we've had historicalchallenges and that's the auto
enrollment that we have afterthe challenge, and so, uh,
that's just how it happens to bea larger influx, because that's
when people like signed up, andso there's also the sba payment
, the commercial rent paymentand like paying off the credit
(01:07):
card.
That all comes at once.
So it's just tough because it'sa big surge of revenue, big
surge of expenses, and so it's abig like up and down and it's
hard to handle that prettysmoothly.
But, anyhow, I got my day jobbonus and I've been battling
some envy.
I got my day job bonus and I'vebeen battling some envy.
(01:28):
So my coworkers one of mycoworkers is getting a new, my
coworkers is getting a new Lexus.
I don't know if it's like asuper fancy one or what, but
he's getting a Lexus.
Someone else is renovatingtheir home in San Francisco.
Someone else is getting acouple like project cars out in
(01:49):
Washington where he lives.
And so I'm I'm seeing like I'mseeing the fun things that
people get to spend their moneyon their bonus on, and that's
going to be two months ofkeeping the gym open.
Part of me wants to just callit quits, put the money for
myself and do something on myown.
So, um, it's a bit of something.
I've been battling some envythat people get to enjoy their
(02:12):
bonus and I'm putting my bonusinto being responsible.
And, well, I'm putting into some, into something that I've
committed to that I'm gonnastick with for now, but
something that I kind of a funtrivia thing I did years ago.
I found out about a spot whereI can buy basically like
(02:33):
returned merchandise from aretailer and like when you buy.
And so I bought like 10 flatscreen TVs, like 65 inch full
size flat screen plasma TVs.
I bought 10 of them for like Idon't remember, like seven grand
or something, and at the timethe value of all of them
together was probably like$18,000.
(02:55):
And so people buy them, like oh, it doesn't fit quite in my
living room, and then theyreturn them to like Best Buy or
Target and then those stores nowsell them at a massive discount
, like 70%, half of retail value.
So I bought them for $7,000.
I probably made $8,000 in totalon it, but it's an experiment.
(03:16):
And so, after this bonus,realizing, okay, what can I do?
And I haven't done it in years,I just did it and it was just a
lot of hustle to try to sellthem and it was more than what I
wanted to keep doing.
So got the influx of cash forthe bonus I want to put it
towards the business and beingresponsible.
And so, like, what else can Ido?
What can do?
That's like similar.
(03:36):
And I had the random likememory of like, oh yeah, I
remember when I flipped flatscreen TVs.
So I looked on the site and Ifound basically a lot of.
So I looked on the site and Ifound basically a lot of and I
don't mean like a bunch, I meanI could actual like a couple
pallets of like a pallet ofMacBooks that either a business
or like a school had sold, andthey're just liquidating them
(04:00):
out.
They're selling them as abundle, and so I'm like all
right, let's do this, like so,put, put a chunk I don't know
20% of my bonus towards a lotand bought like 18 used MacBook
Pros, and my goal is that theseare in really good shape,
they're refurbished, they'rerunning, they're operating.
(04:22):
Someone just wanted to get ridof them.
They don't want to maximizerevenue.
So I bought the lot and theyarrived at my house and in the
past couple of nights, my wifeand I have been taking these
laptops, turning them on,powering them up, buying
charging cords for each laptop,cleaning them up, scrubbing them
(04:42):
down, making sure they'recompletely wiped and good to go,
and then updating theirplatform so that they're bug
free.
They're updated, they're recent.
Some of these are not likesuper new.
So then, but trying to just dosome hustle muscle and flip
these with the hope of making100, maybe 200 profit per laptop
(05:02):
to generate.
I'm aiming for a hundreddollars a laptop, that's my goal
, and so $2,000 for I don't know.
We worked together three hourstogether, so six hours of work.
We'll say an hour of duediligence, probably two hours
Cause some stuff I did not buythis was when I did.
So it's two, eight hours, eighthours of work, and then listing
(05:27):
them, that'll be another fourhours, 12 hours of work, selling
them or like um packaging andshipping, that'll be another
three hours of work.
So 15 hours.
I don't know um, just napkinmath.
Two thousand dollars for 15hours of work and that's, and
this whole time I don't have abusiness entity set up.
(05:48):
So this is all paying the taxeson the purchase, paying taxes
on the sale, paying a lot ofexpenses and fees that I could
be writing off, and so, as aconsumer doing this, making like
$100 an hour is what I'm hopingfor, that's what I'm targeting.
And then, if everything looksgood, by doing the exact same
everything but having morewrite-offs along the way, um,
(06:11):
maybe like 120 bucks a laptop,so like 2000, maybe 2200, and um
and revenue or profit perlaptop.
But just trying to be creative.
I know I'm taking forever toget to the point, but being
creative on how to find value.
It's not being done, andsomething that I've that I've
(06:34):
like reverted back to.
Just my style is I like to gobargain hunting kind of the
stuff you see on like americanpickers or like garage flipping,
but finding stuff that'soverlooked and neglected.
Overlooked and neglected Stuffthat can be bought at a bulk
price and then sold asindividual pieces, but stuff
(06:55):
where I'm basically a merchantor a retailer, it's just what I
stumble into.
That's not good or bad, but ifI'm going to make this worth my
while, I'm going to have to do alot more than just this.
If the studio is losing eightgrand a month, I basically have
to buy gosh thousands andthousands of dollars like many
(07:18):
thousands of dollars worth oflaptops a month and be flipping
them.
And I've been going slow.
I haven't been working on thisevery single night.
I probably could have gottenthis all done in two days if I
had really focused on it.
But it's more of a test run tosee if the products are good, if
my process is tight, if this isa repeatable thing Something
(07:42):
I'm noticing just with thisexperiment with the TVs.
People don't care about them.
They kind of care about thebrand, but they more care about
the viewing experience and thesize.
So with the TV, it's a prettybasic measurement how big is the
TV, is the color good?
And that's about it.
Laptops are a lot more picky.
People care about likeprocessor speed, memory speed,
the year of production ForMacBooks.
(08:04):
If you have a 10-year-oldMacBook, they only can update to
a certain software level.
You can't get the latest iOSsystem with a brand new MacBook.
You're probably good foranother two or three software
stages.
So having a good old MacBook,you're going to get capped on
your latest and greatestplatform.
So just little things like that.
(08:25):
Laptops are more finicky, morepicky by the buyer and the
aesthetic is really going tomatter.
If a TV has a dent on it,people don't care.
If a laptop has a dent on it,people care a lot more.
So just learning about theproduct industry I know my
process and I know my marginsand so, um, I know my process, I
(08:47):
know my margins, I know how tolist, I know how to deal hunt.
I don't know if my productcategory is any good, but I'll
stop there about the, thedetails of it, just learning how
I operate under pressure, howto revert back and how do I
figure out how to get unstuck onsomething?
And I, I double down, likesomebody told me recently that
(09:10):
I'm a gambler, like a strategicgambler, and in this arena
they're kind of right.
Like nobody pulls out theirAmerican Express card and buys
18 used laptops with the gustoand confidence that they're
going to make money on it.
I may be right, I may be wrong,but I'm going to at least pull
out my credit card to give it ashot.
(09:31):
And with the business and thestudio, you could make the
argument that well, I can makeas much money if I was cold
calling leads for schedulingappointments, if I was doing
in-person sales.
Potentially I don't think itwould be as profitable use of my
time, and so it sounds bad.
(09:51):
But I think my time is morevaluable flipping physical
products.
I don't know well, we're givingit a run, but not giving up
trying to figure out how to doit with my gm today and we're in
a good spot.
Basically, we figured out uh oh, there's a big nest over here.
(10:13):
There you go.
Um, we figured out what andeparture looks like.
So this coming week on monday,we have our team meeting.
He's basically be announcingthat he's wrapping up his time
as the GM and then on Saturdayhe's going to do a departure
(10:35):
post the members only page andthen we'll figure and I'm not
going to disclose like how heand I are doing like the golden
parachute wrap up thing.
That's his info.
That's confidential but we wantto.
I want to make sure he lands inhis feet well and can find a
(10:56):
job that pays him fairly andthat he's able to to leave on
good terms and get paid well forit.
And so all I have to say Ithink I'm optimistic there's
gonna be some glimmer of hopefeels, because right now
instructor engagement is low.
I think instructor morale is alittle bit low.
Out of my 13 or 14 instructors,only like three are actively
(11:17):
engaging on our instructor page.
So I think people are justgoing through the motions right
now, which is disheartening, um,and so I think, acknowledging
yep, this person's wrapping up.
Don't know who the future is,but here's how I'm finding my
next permanent hire.
I think it'll be a sigh ofrelief for a lot of people and
(11:41):
it sounds bad.
I still think it's a heartlessthing to say.
But it's the classic hire slowfire, fast.
And when I hired my GM I didn'thave any other options, but I
had to find someone instantly.
There was no one in the wings,no one who was getting trained
(12:01):
up to be that future leader, andso it was either like me or
nobody, and I couldn't afford todo it.
It would cost too much to bethe GM of the studio.
So, for better or worse, he wasthe best pick and I knew
probably within three weeksthere was a two weeks, no, two
(12:22):
weeks.
This is a heck of a lot offriction from members, from
instructors, just a lot offriction, just not going very
well, and I probably should havedone like a 30 day, pivot away
faster for his sake and for thestudio's sake, which sounds so
heartless.
But I think they would havedodged a lot of attrition, a lot
(12:45):
of frustrations from people.
And so part of that is I needto have backups and plan Bs
earlier on, because if I'm leftholding the bag, then I'm
basically hiring whatever's left, and that's an awful spot to be
in.
So that's where that is at.
(13:07):
Management team finds outMonday, members find out
Saturday.
He'll do his two weeks noticeat that point.
That's what he's mapping out atleast, and then I have one or
two people in mind for takingover lead.
But we'll figure it out fromthere.
(13:28):
I don't have a full plan.
I talked to the banker today,basically vented to him about
the state of the business.
He was not very helpful.
So I'm not quite sure.
I'm not quite sure what I cando for the business other than
keep putting 10 12 000 a monthinto it and hope that something
magically turns around.
I don't know what to do.
(13:49):
I really don't, and so how longdo I just keep doing that,
waiting for a miracle, versusjust seeing the writing on the
wall and calling it quits?
I don't know the answer, butthat's why I do these out loud.
Help me think so.
When there's pressure, how do Ireact?
How do I find value in themarketplace?
(14:11):
What other side gigs can I doOther than finding a traditional
W2 role, because there'susually not going to have the
income potential needed.
And that's what the next couplesteps looks like, with the
current GM wrapping things up.
So he's feeling good about it.
I think there's partially asigh of relief, but I don't know
(14:34):
.
Well, as long as he's leavingon his terms, in a way that he
feels good about his timeconcluding, then we're in an
okay, spot, that's where we'reat, that's where we're going.
Let's rock and roll.