The money is made on the buy. That has been an all time classic for me. I've made a lot of mistakes being a part of this game. I call it a game because it really is. The money's made on the buy and that goes for liquidators, suppliers, retailers, e-commerce people, real estate agents and car salesmen. It just applies to life. If it's a good deal.
That's true.
You
It's got to be a good deal at the time you're buying it. Don't hope for the future that it might change because it probably won't. Very rarely it does.
Yeah, definitely. mean, I think it resonates with me. you can, if make your margins when you're buying itself, if you're going to hope that, you know, down the line, you're going to find the right customer that really happens. you know, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a legit quote coming from somebody who has been in the industry. They, know, so, yeah, super, super happy to hear it resonates with you as well. So your background, Damian, is pretty, pretty interesting. You know, you were in accounting, you have, I think you went to DePaul.
What pulled you into this world because you know it's it's it's that they're two different worlds entirely.
Yeah, yeah. You know, I started as an accountant. I went to school at DePaul, like you said, in Chicago. I graduated in 2018 and jumped into the public accounting sphere. And truth be told, I I couldn't do it. It's just not me. Not the way my brain works. It's a very, you know, detail oriented type of profession and it's very heavily number driven. So
I was always good on the number side. I was never good on the detail oriented side. I'm more of a kind of, I don't want to call it a creative, but I'm definitely more outgoing and salesy and marketing oriented rather than detail and spreadsheet analytical oriented. So truth be told, I was working as a public accountant and I was looking for a way out. Starting side hustles, learning e-commerce. I launched a private label product on Amazon, started learning Amazon and how to resell on there.
Mm-hmm.
And ⁓ through that journey, I stumbled across a bin store, a liquidation store. And that concept really, really appealed to me because it was kind of, to me, it seemed like a good combination of my skill sets. I could apply my accounting knowledge and, you know, just, I guess, love for numbers to learn recovery and how to recover more money on the returns and the truckloads that I would be buying.
And then, ⁓ yeah, just go off on my own as an entrepreneur. So there was no bin stores at that time in Chicago. And yeah, I saw it as a great opportunity. me and my ex-business partner of that store, we jumped right in. But then COVID came about. And when COVID hit, we kind of pumped our brakes. And we were given, I would say, three to six month period of reflection and just learning.
finding the time to learn more about the industry and the more I learned about the bin stores, the more I learned about the returns industry and the liquidation world and pallet buying and pallet flipping and how you can make money on the secondary market. Yeah, it just kind of really intrigued me and drew me in because I knew that I could really do well there by applying the skill sets I already had in my repertoire.
Yeah, I mean, I really like how you kind of went from the ecosystem of how selling works itself and then kind of take it from there. So you organically reached a stage and yeah, I completely agree that BinStore is a very analytical, it's a combination of math and creativity of how do you create that treasured experience at the same time be able to do the math of what are your unit economics going to be if you're going to be successful.
⁓ pretty cool, man. So, you know, it's another thing that I learned about you, the first bin store in Chicago, that must have been, some learnings that you learned from other bin stores. I know you've, you know, I, we looked into your background and you've been to like 40 different bin stores across the country, across the world, actually. So did that come about, man? wow. wow.
More than 40 buddy. I promise you've been more than 40. It's probably in the hundreds at this point. I
stopped counting after I hit like 75. So it just got too much. But yeah, I mean, I don't know if there was a question there, but you know, I did learn about the bin stores by visiting other bin stores. And I continue that theory by traveling. I am a huge traveler. I love to do it on my personal time and I love to do it on the business dime, I guess.
Mm-hmm.
I see.
You
because
I believe that, you know, shaking hands and meeting people and checking out operations and touching products and getting to the roots of commerce, which is literally traveling and being a merchant is where money is made. Now, everybody is, you know, attracted to the Internet. Everybody loves to do everything online. You know, I'm a huge fan of LinkedIn. I'm a huge fan of content creation. I love the leverage that the Internet can create. But I do believe that there's a lot of
potential in doing that boots on the ground, old school business, because ⁓ not a lot of people are willing to do it anymore. And if you, you know, if you're one of those people that is willing to show up across the States in the next 48 hours to check out a deal and there's 10 more bids and you're the only one that came to check it out, I guarantee you that you are going to be in the top running for that, even if your bid is in the highest, because at least they're going to be willing to have that conversation with you of back and forth, right?
You
Mm-hmm.
because you actually made the effort, you invested your own time and resources to check it out. now, know, the kind of that supplier, that seller, whoever you might be dealing with, you know, they kind of feel like they owe you one day. They're obliged to maybe give you some more respect by giving you some feedback about your bid or about the way you feel the transaction and your chances just go up significantly. So that's been a principle of mine.
That's really cool. Yeah, I mean, it resonates with me as well. Like showing up really matters. Like you can do your subsequent business once you've met in person, once you've had that rapport with them. that's a dying trade. I completely agree with it. Like more and more people want to work online. And important to kind of have a wave to be able to transact online, but it doesn't substitute the relationship building aspect of B2B where you need to be.
right in front of each other, have coffee, have a beer, whatever you need to do to build that relationship, then convert that into a business relationship. And sometimes just showing up really matters. coming from you, it kind of makes it mean more meaningful for people listening is because you're huge on content online creation as well. At the same time, you're also, you know,
Like you're a huge advocate of in-person meetings. know, it's a, listening would get that value that if you want to build a business in this space, at least you need to show up as well as we tech savvy content savvy as much as you can be.
So tell me about like, know, like I've heard, I've listened to a lot of content that you've created. You always mentioned trust is everything in this industry, like transparency and trust is something that really matters in this industry. do you see, like how can somebody earn that trust, right? It's one thing to say trust is everything, but building trust is a totally different thing. So what ways do you think are you using your career to build trust with the partners that you work with?
I think it's very simple and it's so simple that it's easy to mess up. Just do what you're saying you're going to do. If you do that over and over and over again, people will start to notice and people will respect that and they will start to trust you. it starts with simple, you know, I mean, this is a good example, know, somebody, I'm sure you're the same way you're producing content now and your LinkedIn is doing very well from what I'm seeing.
You know, you're posting shorts, so you're getting a lot of messages now, right? And comments from people that are in the industry or in the business and potentially want to collaborate or do something. And you you get these messages and then let's say, you you reply, you get their email, whatever the conversation starts. And then you go, hey, shoot me a call tomorrow. Yeah, no problem, man. I'll give you a call around 10. 10 AM comes around, crickets. That simple.
Mm-hmm.
Why would I trust you then if I wire you 50 grand for a product that it's going to show up to my doorstep? You know, now I'm going to have to follow up with 15 phone calls, three emails and a secretary to make sure that you are responding to me. I mean, it might be a silly example, but I really do think that it starts with those really small things. Do less, but do them better and focus on doing what you say you're going to do. If you said you're going to call somebody at 10, call them at 10.
If you say you're going to email them a manifest, email them the manifest. It's very simple things like that that just show your true character and how you conduct business and how you go about doing things. I think it starts with that. If you just start following that agenda, you're going to start building trust and transparency. Pictures, videos, and showing up physically is going to help with that as well.
Yeah, definitely. mean, little things matter. They really do. it kind of should at least in the beginning, it really matters as you're earning each other's trust that whether you would do the little things properly versus, when the $50,000 or the 100,000 deal comes about rolling. And, know, the first impression really matters. Like the first impression you put on somebody is really important. You know, there are always, you know, reasons that, you know, somebody had an emergency and whatnot, but
One can always and let them know 10 minutes in advance or 15 minutes in advance or a day in advance that, man, I'm not going to be able to make it. got something come up. So yeah, that really matters because valuing each other time is very important. That kind of shows that you respect the person. And then you kind of build that trust that, all right, we would be able to work together because things would happen. Things would happen outside of our control.
If we can kind of make sure that we have that trust that, I'm going to be transparent with you of something came up or something went wrong with that track load or whatnot, because everything is not in our control. if one can have that trust that, hey, have that trust equation with each other, I think it just becomes much, much, much easier for sure.
definitely.
Yeah, definitely. know, like, let me just piggyback off of that. When, know, when it comes to selling truckloads of returns, especially, you know, things can get wonky really quickly. You know, it's, it's returns damage rates could be high. you know, maybe the warehouse misloaded something, especially if you're dealing with unmanifested things. you know, it could go south and I'm not saying that everything's every transaction is perfect, but you know, it comes back to doing what you're saying you're going to do when, know, when somebody's buying from me and I tell them like, Hey, I will take care of you on this.
Yep.
Yeah
Hey, I understand this is unmanifested and you know, it is returns, but I, from what I'm understanding and from previous truckloads, there's been a 25 % damage rate. So just be aware of that, right? Now you're upfront with them. You're telling them what could be expected, but hey, we did have a few that were 35 damage rate, you know, or 40 % damage. So just keep that in mind. But if it's anything above that, I will take care of you.
And then you see what I'm saying? There's like four or five points of transparency and trust building right there. And then when they don't, that truckload does come back, you know, with extra damage and then just not as good as it should have been. Then you take care of that customer, even if it means you're going to lose, right? Because trust and transparency is everything and your people have to trust you. And especially in this business, it's a very reoccurring business. If somebody's in the return truckload business.
They are churning product. They have figured out how to churn more product quicker and they need to be replenished more often than like a regular buyer, I would say, right? Like a gas station might only buy one pallet of gum every six to seven, eight months, right? They're going to go through that, but they're going to go through it rather quickly. If somebody's buying truckloads of, know, of, Costco, Amazon target returns, they're going to be churning through that stuff a lot quicker because it's typically a bin store.
Yeah.
with
that's very high volume. It's typically an auction house. That's very high volume. Maybe it's a pallet house where they flip pallets, right? Some of these, these people are going through five, six, 10 truckloads a week. So yes, you might take a loss on one, but knowing that you did what you say you're going to do, that customer is going to come back now and continue purchasing from you, right? If you're penny pinching and you, you you screw them over the first time or even the third, fourth time that it's just done. You're not, you're not going to be in this game for very long.
Yeah, I mean, it's all about the repeat business. can fool somebody once with, you know, like, or not providing them with a good service. But if you want repeat customers, and that's where your margins are, right? So that's where your margins are. That's where your business are, you're able to convert buyers of these bin store owners, of these discount retailers, of these physical mom and pop shops, keep coming back for good product. And things are going to go south from time to time.
Right.
would matter is how would you make them right? Would you take money out of your pocket and put that back into their pocket just because you owe them that kind of service that you've committed to? So yeah, I completely agree with that. one thing that I'm realizing, coming from a B2C world, I used to work at Amazon. And understanding of customers was consumers, end consumers, how they buy, how they don't buy. And now stepping into this B2B world, I...
I seem to value relationships even more because it's more about how you would build a good relationship with somebody and then kind of do business that would be mutually beneficial. With consumers, they can be about convenience, you're going to ship faster to me, ⁓ you can go wrong sometimes, but with businesses, everyone's in this business to make money, to make margins.
And if you try to miss with that and if you don't give them repeat business or repeat that they need, then you're not really helping them.
Exactly. Exactly. And you know, I think it's a lot easier to be customer centric focus in B2B than it is in B2C, right? Because B2C, everything has to go perfectly with that promise you made, right? If you said it's two day shipping and it's going to be this and this and it's going to arrive by 10, it better be there, right? B2B is a lot, you know, people are more understanding. It's you just as long as you're
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Yes.
transparent back. This is a theme of the episode at this point. If you're transparent upfront and you rationalize, not rationalize, that's not the word I'm looking for. But if you speak to them and you're telling them upfront, like, it's holiday weekend. No, cannot get this to you by Friday and it's Thursday morning. No, no, no, no, no. It will probably be by the mid next week, but I would hope, I would count on Friday next week. Right.
and then you undersell and you over deliver and it works out very well, right? There's a lot, like a lot more conversations can happen in B2B that allow people to kind of chime in and trust you easier because now they're like, yeah, he did say by next Friday is expected, right? And it's, yeah, to be honest, I don't know where I was going with that point. So next question.
No, but I think we touched on the trust and transparency aspect really well, think. It is important. It is very, very important. So let's make a segue. So, man, you've been the pioneers of content creation and getting your voice out, as I said in the beginning, to bring light to the liquidation industry as a...
as a lucrative industry. like how important it has it been for your business journey? Like what value you think others can drive by being more, you know, like going about content creation or just putting their voice out there.
I I think it's been everything. I don't want to give too much credit. it's true. I do think that the content creation piece and the fact that I was able to get in on it early in the liquidation game has done wonders for my business. But it's not only liquidation. I see this happening all across the board on Facebook, Reels, and YouTube, and just
LinkedIn, people that do content creation tend to do better. Their business tends to do better. Their lead generation is stronger. Their trust and brand awareness is a lot stronger than those who don't. If it's year 2025 and I Google your business and your business has two reviews and a shitty website and zero people's faces, no photos,
That's going to be a lot harder to convert than a business where I type something in. And the first thing that pops up is six videos of the CEO explaining what their business is, what they do and why they should buy from them. And then I walk through the warehouse and show it. Yes, you can come visit. It's very transparent and people are, it's, it's, it's inviting. It's welcoming, right? People live on the internet nowadays. Everything happens on social media, Facebook, Instagram, know, Snapchat, like all of that stuff is relevant.
And as much as people don't want to admit it, that's just the wave of the future. Everything is going to be happening on the Internet. And if you it's like, you know, if nobody knows you're in the neighborhood as the gas station, you're not, you know, you're not labeled as the gas station. Nobody knows you're a gas station in the neighborhood. They're going to drive right past you. Right. Same thing on the Internet. If you're not out there screaming like, hey, we are a business. We do business on the Internet. Then you will not be seen. And people are going to just scroll.
AKA drive right past you, right? You need to advertise and there's no better, I would say at like money spent, then content creation.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, 100%. I am on the same boat as you. would even add to that and say that content creation makes you more approachable. When you reach out to somebody in the industry, in the business, they most likely have come across your content because you're...
you're posting about it consistently, you're putting yourself out there. So your cold outreaches become warm outreaches because now at least they know who you are. They might not know you personally, but they now know you your content. So content creation is definitely very, very important in today's market. It doesn't matter which industry you are in. from the demographics perspective, think...
who are leaders in these industries today are millennials and millennials have, you know, ⁓ born and brought up on content. You grew up watching Reels is what I would say, like at least, or like watching social media. I I signed up on Facebook when I was around like, you know, 10 or 11. So it's been, up with that kind of a...
Part of your life.
part of our life and part of many people who are now in leadership roles, decision making roles, who are actually looking after different businesses. to reach them, you have to reach where they exactly are spending their time and they're spending their pastime.
their car rides, or not car rides, no, they shouldn't be driving and watching content. But their train rides and whatever free time they have, they are kind of spending it on these social media platforms and you can meet them exactly over there. And content creation is also not that expensive as paid marketing. So it makes all of your other efforts work. If you're doing content creation, your advertising works better, your outreaches work better.
and watching reels.
Exactly.
your, you like you convert more meetings, more inbounds come to you. So content creation, think is very important for your overall business. The benefit is not clear from the get go is what I would say. Like, as you kind of do it consistently, the benefits start reaping in and you, you know, you keep country accounting that, okay, this, this is what it did for my business.
Yeah, right. I love that you said that because it's very hard to track the direct impact, right? You know, I would let's say business leaders nowadays are used to, you know, R.O.I.s and, you know, and everything return on investment or everything. What's the return? What's the return on ad spend? What's the return on, you know, buying three new forklifts? Right. And you you want to have a measurable impact, which is important. I get it. Like, yes, that is how.
Mm-hmm.
you build a successful business, right? KPIs and tracking numbers and data is very, very important, but content creation is a little different. It's, it, it just builds a per, not a persona, but a trust factor into your marketing, right? Your marketing and content is two different things. Spending money on ads is one thing that is going to get you in front of people, right? That's going to get the name out there. They might get the click, but then what happens when they get the click? Now you have to convince them.
that they should go through with that purchase or go through with booking that call or go through with visiting your place of work. That's what content creation does. Right. And I tell people this all the time, like, hey, just because you did 20, 30 podcast episodes, that doesn't mean anything yet. That the real results start happening when you start now pumping ads, when you start doing the marketing and now your conversion increases tenfold because now people go in there when they click that link and they go see it.
and Google your name like, wow, hold on this. Maybe I should jump on that call because what he's saying on that video makes a lot of sense and it resonates with us. I know, I had, I give this example to people all the time that I work with that might be in like a, I don't know, like a consulting or like an accounting or some sort of service thing, right? And when they got to give proposals, right. And I told him like, hey, like, you know,
It's very hard to say that why somebody chose a proposal over another, right? Like it's, unless you're sitting down with that client and they give you a full-fledged explanation of why, and the pros and cons of the five proposals they received and why they decided to go with number three over number four, five, one, and two, right? I always give the example that when they have those five proposals in front of them and you are the only one
with content out on the internet and they can put a face to the company, I almost guarantee you that your proposal is going to be the one that they choose. Just because now they know who they're going to be working with, something simple as cadence, right? Like, I like the way this guy talks. I like the way his brain works. I like the way he approaches problems, right? That will make a really big difference when you're trying to close clients and proposals because now people can put that face to that company.
and now it directly impacts you. It can't be directly measured. I'm sorry. I'm sure there's gonna be a way to figure that part out soon, but it makes a huge difference and I'm gonna stand by it all day every day because it's done wonders for my business.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, definitely. mean, I would stand by that too. know, like people make decisions by emotions, what resonates with them versus analytical reasons or, mathematical reasons that I think you were touching on it previously as well showing up is important. Similarly, creating content that resonates with somebody's pain point is important because then they kind of feel like you understand them and people want to be understood more than make, you know, just be, yeah, they are giving me the best rates. And that's why I would go with them. Those kind of deals hardly work because
Yes.
If there's no mutual understanding on what you're solving for them and it's just about making a better margin, sometimes those things, you know, most of the times I would say those things don't really work.
Right, yeah, I totally agree.
So I took inspiration from your content creation and went into content creation of my own. What advice you would give to other people who are in the industry, want to make it, to get out more in front of people. Where should they start? What exactly should be a starting point for anyone who wants to use content creation for their business?
sure. ⁓ You know, I would definitely just start by posting daily or at least using the apps daily, right? I'm not a lot of people are actual users. And I think that makes a huge difference. know, going from using the app to posting on the app is a big step. But you're not going to be able to post without actually being involved on the content. You need to start engaging. Right. So number like.
Let's focus on B2B because obviously every business is going to be different. This is the ReCommerce show. A lot of people are in the liquidation and the resale space. with these individuals, I would recommend for LinkedIn to be probably your primary source of content creation or primary platform for content creation. Start engaging with people. Follow me, follow you and start commenting on our posts. Hey, ask a question. Hey, what do you think about this?
This is my opinion on this, right? Cause now you have at least a base of what to go off of sitting down in front of a blank screen and just pumping out LinkedIn posts, trying to inspire everyone is not going to be easy. It's, it's something that you're going to need to work at. It's a completely different skillset than you're used to. It's not like writing an email or it's not like writing on a nicely, you know, blog. It's completely different. These posts, you know, once you start engaging with them, they're going to start kind of showing you like,
how and why and where I should be creating this content. And from there, you just start posting, right? One or two things daily. I mean, one or two things weekly, and then that might change into daily. But my recommendation has always been LinkedIn for the past few years. I think that's where business happens. know, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, that's all great, but it's just not for our business so far. It really depends on what your business is. But for the B2B, for the e-commerce, for the resale liquidation space,
Mm-hmm.
LinkedIn is where I would say is a lot of business happens.
Yeah, definitely. I'll agree with that, especially some nuance to that is like my experience has been are So in our business, there is a selling side. There is a buying side. Right. So I would say the sellers, the people who are distributing goods have surplus excess inventory. They're definitely mostly on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the best platform to build your brand, both your company and your personal brand. But I would say there are few.
elements like TikTok is great for live shopping consumers. So you're looking for buyers for your product, you should promote on TikTok. If you're looking for discount retailers, flea market owners, binstone owners, to some extent, they are on Facebook. knowing where your audience is, what... So pumping out the same content at five places doesn't work. You need to know exactly who you're trying to appeal to and whether they are even on the platform.
Yeah, no, that's a great point you bring up. think, yeah, you gave a better answer than me, but that's exactly spot on, right? It's not every, you your post, and that's kind of comes back to engaging on those platforms, right? If you're a Facebook user, you will realize who is on that platform, what they're doing, what they're posting about, and what they're looking for, right? Same thing with TikTok. If you're using it, if you know what your kind of audience is doing,
then it'll be a lot easier to create that content for them. Each platform, like you said it perfectly, each platform is going to be different and the same piece of content. could be repurposed, but it cannot be copy and pasted, right? That's super important. don't think, you know, a lot of people have caught onto the fact of repurposing content and using it. You know, if you got one clip, you just post across all the social media platforms. That does not work as well as it did three, four years ago. The algorithms have changed.
Mm-hmm.
the just the they're very more audience focused now and you will not be as successful across all the five platforms if you're just, you know, repurposing the same thing. If you're doing the same concept or the same theme, you're going to need to change up the hook a little bit. You're going to need to change up the body paragraph. You're going to need to change it up. Who are you speaking to and focusing on that audience is going to be a huge part of
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, definitely. I completely agree with it. brought up a good point about the algorithm changes. can continue posting, but you won't show up. And that kind of defeats the point as well. At the same time, I'll just add one last thing from my point of view. And I'd love to hear more from you on this. is everything, just like in content creation. So doing 10 things sometime is also not very beneficial. So knowing where would I get the best for my
Yup.
time in this case is going to be important. So maybe let's just build on LinkedIn for some time and then kind of expand over that. All right, let me now look at TikTok. Let me now look at Facebook. Let me now look at Twitter X, sorry, right? X or Twitter? X slash Twitter. So actually, have you had any experience with Twitter? Like, you had any success with Twitter? Do you use Twitter in general?
Back
in like 2014 when I was posting things, probably, thank God I deleted already.
me too. I am on my thing.
No,
That is my biggest bang for my buck. That is where I get a lot of where I source my deals. Right. On Facebook, you know, I is where I interact with my customers. A lot of like you said, the bin store owners, the discount store owners, they are on Facebook. They are looking for deals. They are looking for ⁓ things to resell. And that's kind of where my customer base could be located. So I've focused in on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Uh huh, uh huh.
And then I also just do YouTube when it comes to podcasting and things like that, just because it's a great platform to release media. But yeah, I would completely agree. If I had to start, I would start with one platform, get it down really, really, really well, and then hop onto the next one. Twitter, I know works very well for people in real estate, crypto, those type of fields. know that there's real estate deals that literally just get thrown up on X sometimes.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
And you just got a bunch of real estate brokers and investors on there, you know, interacting, talking about cap rates and investment rates and things like that. So it's, it's really crazy on how each platform has found its niche of business people and what they kind of use it for.
Yeah, definitely. mean, Twitter, is also good for like reaching out to D2C brands like those mid-sized brands that are just starting out or the founders mostly like they spend a lot of time on Twitter for sure. Like somebody recommended if you want to reach out to the brands directly, those folks, know, the entrepreneurs, the CEOs, they spend a lot of time on Twitter as well. Especially if you're a, you know, like a ⁓ popular brand, you kind of fit into that cultural aspect, which you know,
provides where you can comment on anything, just not on the professional side of things, but also on the personal side of things, for sure.
No, it's a good point, yeah. I haven't even thought about that.
Awesome.
Yeah. So I think we've covered transparency. We've covered content creation. Should we move on to what do you like? we talk about, should we talk more about innovations, technology, trends that you're seeing, best practices that you're seeing? You've visited 75 bin stores. So I'm pretty sure you must have a very comprehensive view of how physical retail can look like people sourcing from surplus and access inventory.
Touching on your customers aspect, where do you think is the biggest opportunities for these businesses to grow?
Sure. know, where do we start? know, liquidations in the return returns industries, it's far and wide. Right. You have the mom and pop shop, the small retailers that, you know, they could benefit from better sorting, better pricing procedures, better just SOPs and things of that nature. Right. Which are pretty standard. Better scanning. Right. So they could kind of analyze what they're buying and if they should buy again.
But the returns industry could benefit from better sorting, better grading, right? Software and AI that could grade products more efficiently, where you can throw it on a conveyor belt and it could potentially photograph it, check if all the parts are there, inspect it and grade it and give it a condition, right? And then on the overstock and kind of like the liquidation side of things, think the places like the Recommerce platform can come into play where
You're linking buyers and sellers more efficiently, right? Each category set is different, right? The people that are buying pet products and the people that are buying microphones and use tires are completely two different, I mean, two, three, four, they're different buyers, they're different business owners and they are looking for different things. Same thing on the seller side, right? When you have a seller looking to liquidate product, you know, they're looking for the highest recovery, right? We need technology that is gonna allow them to do that.
when they're calling just random closeout or liquidators that maybe are not as, I would say vast or have as many like a big buyer pool and they're just going to offer them, say a thousand dollars per trailer of their product. You know, that's not the best way to do that, right? The best way to do that would be to approach some of the liquidator that's going to get them the highest recovery. And that could be done by having the biggest buyer pool, defining like, Hey, if this is all pet products,
Let me find you the top 10 buyers for pet products that are going to be able to maximize that, you know, the sale for you because they understand their margins and they have technology behind them, backing them, telling them how much they could pay for something like this.
Definitely. mean, where to source from is super important and what your economics would look like. I'm also very intrigued by the idea of using AI to do this sorting, where you're running it through a, do you call these things, but essentially it's visual technology where you're kind of, in AI, visual AI is kind of computer vision essentially is kind of looking at a product and grading it, knowing what to do with it. I've also looked into in the past,
I mean, I know you're a member of RLA and this concept and it's more like barcoding just like we have UPC barcoding on every product. have something I think they've kind of introduced something into the market called as SQRN, which is essentially same like UPC, which gives you information about what to do with this product when it is returned. Should it be if it's open box, then it's this quality. If it's closed box, this is this quality. If it's not working, this too.
do this with it. I think there's some also opportunity of not just having computer vision, but also like using barcodes to be able to do that. What is the right path for it once it has made its way back into the facility? For sure. So man, tell me tell me more about. Go ahead.
Right. No, couple of good points there. yeah. So
I mean, we could be talking technology all day. I think that is the biggest focus right now of just overall the just the return sector and then just the liquidation and reverse logistics. Like I feel like everybody's trying to crack a technology portion of it. Right. And the beautiful thing is that there's a lot of different pieces. Right. So you like you just mentioned like the digital passporting of things. Right. Like
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
If the manufacturer can apply a barcode or something along a tracker into this device where now, you know, the guy that gets the return has access to that, to that, to that, to that barcode and the information that's instilled in it. Now they understand how to refurbish that product more efficiently. Right. And now there's technology that is comes into the refurbishment side of things. Right. And now like, can there be robots that are going to be taking this thing apart and replacing the parts?
Exactly.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
computer
vision is like which part is even broken without even plugging it in. know, maybe I mean, maybe you plug it in and then the computer scans it and tells you like, hey, that screw is a little loose and that wire on that motherboard is that needs to be replaced. Right. So there's different technologies for different parts of the process in the supply chain with we didn't even touch on the retail aspect. I mean, we tried in the beginning. Right. But there's a lot of things that the retailers could benefit from.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
from a technology standpoint too, right? The supply chain is vast and the reverse logistics is a very big portion of it at this point. And it's just going to continue to grow. And now the technology that's going to continue to come out is going to touch small pieces of that reverse logistics supply chain.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah, definitely. mean, the bigger retailers are building some sort of technologies like the routing technology that you were talking about. What exactly to do with the good? Does it go back on the shelf? Does it go to a donation bin? Does it go to a resale bin? Does it go to a e-commerce bin? Does it go to and whatnot? Right. So bigger retailers are doing it, but it's a very complex problem to solve for, be honest, like technologically, before we involve so many
AI related technologies or technologies in general, think what I have seen is there's a gap of even using humans to do it itself, right? So there's a lack of management, 3PLs across the country, which can even take the volume, even use humans to kind of do that sorting and kind of go from there, right? I think if we take it step by step, number of 3PLs that are even
processing returns increases, then that itself is a good start and then we can go from there and start automating things with respect to, all right, this is the biggest bottleneck, let's automate that and go from there, of a thing. There's just a gap in that investment, operations investment itself from many retailers, from many brands itself on what to do with returns. And I think it also increased after COVID when, as you were rightly saying, reverse logistics is a very big part of supply chain now, 20-25 % of the goods make your way back.
to the facility, what to do with them, you can't just leave them over there. There's value in those products. So now I think it's more and more important to even partner with, you know, people like you and me to kind of get rid of get rid of the value, get rid of them at the same time drive a lot of value from them.
Right. there's, know, and then the more experience that we kind of get in this industry is that there's different ways to do it. And there's better and more creative ways to recover value. Right. I stopped branding myself, stop branding myself, but I stopped, you know, my pitch hasn't been liquidations in a while. Right. Now it's a, can help you recover value because that's what essentially this reverse logistics thing is. You know, there's different ways to recover value for different.
types of things for different categories, right? For returns, it's a lot more difficult when you're dealing with one-off, one-skew type items that are just tossed into a pallet and there's 500 different things from different colors, different manufacturers in it, right? And then same thing with overstock or raw material. All of these things are different and it takes a lot of experience to be able to go into a 3PL, a warehouse, manufacturer and say, hey,
I'm going to do a hard audit here and we're going to figure out for each part of this thing that we're dealing here with, how to recover the most value for the things that you deemed ready for liquidations. You deemed that they are beyond repair or beyond value, that you don't want to touch them anymore. You don't want to mess with them. But there is ways that it can be done now with technology that
can extrapolate more value than people think they can.
Yeah, definitely. mean, it's a industry that is growing and more and more people are kind of seeing the value in it. And I completely agree like moving and I love how you're kind of approaching it and repositioning it more from a recovery angle. I think it's cost recovery, it's space recovery more than just getting rid of the goods. So that. Really love how you're kind of approaching it now. I want to learn more. ⁓ You know, we haven't spoken about it offline as well. So, you know, this makes it a very good opportunity to kind of talk about it.
what you're doing now, you've been successful in the created a media brand as well. So like, what are you working on now? And tell me and others a little bit about what you're doing now.
Yeah, so right now I've just founded a couple months ago Archer Logistics. It's a recovery solution, reverse logistics partner. We do lot of liquidations, return management, things of that nature. And then I'm also part of the All Things Circular team. So I've been producing the All Things Circular podcast and that's been going very well. And a lot of... ⁓
Mm-hmm.
a lot of good feedback. So especially from you. So thank you. Appreciate that. But yeah, still focusing on growing my brand and growing in the reverse logistics space. There is so much to learn. There's so many different pieces and nuances to be figured out that I just, yeah, I just want to continue learning it and figuring it out because I, truth be told, I haven't even looked into like, haven't explored the ideas of refurbishment.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I
know about it. I understand the general surface level concepts, but I've never got into the nitty gritty of repair and refurbishments. And that is just like a whole giant couple billion, probably a couple trillion dollar sector of our economy. So there is so many different things that I'm ready to learn. I would say I'm pretty young, but I'm planning on being in this industry for a while. So I definitely want to just keep growing and keep exploring it. As of right now, Archer Logistics is
Yes.
just looking to work with direct owners of goods. And that may, I don't want to just say brands or manufacturers, but that's a huge part of it. But also, three PLs and return processors and things with companies that have product that they deemed obsolete, that they don't know what to do with. We can kind of come in, help them with that recovery process, free up cash and free up space.
That's pretty neat, Damian. And I think we've spoken about this offline a little bit, but I love the aspect that you bring to this business where finding the right buyer by doing a complete audit. So it's not like a fire sale, but the way you're approaching it where I'll find you the right buyer for the product with the highest recovery, with the highest benefit to your business. That I think is really good because it's at the end of the day, it's a relationship business in your...
And good products is in everyone's hands. It's not just in a brand's hand, it's in a distributor's hand, it's in a wholesaler's hand, it's in a 3PL's hand. pretty neat that you're kind of, know, I am super excited to see you back into the industry and now working on this. And obviously I'm a fan of all things circular. I saw your episode with, I think the wire trading team. if I'm not wrong, I'm sorry if I, Justin, right? Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
So yeah, that was pretty nice. That
Yeah, Justin from Via.
was pretty neat. I think you brought up the transparency aspect there as well. So yeah, this industry is huge, man. I mean, even from the podcast and in general, I'm also learning there is recycling, there is heavy equipment that needs to be There are cars, there are properties, are government-related re-commerce, and there are auditing platforms, there are auction platforms. So...
It's not a small industry. I think from people who this as moving goods from one place to the point A, it's not like that. There's a lot of intricacies, a lot of players involved that are adding a lot of value. the one with EAL Green CEO as well. So that was really interesting to see how you can create education benefits to students as well through this kind of industry.
Every time you kind of you put you every time you every energy you put into the space, you learn more. it's it's a bottomless industry in terms of education. And, know, like I consider myself young as well. So I'm hoping to kind of grow in this industry as well see where it takes us, because it's only going to grow over time. ⁓ And as humans, we produce so much more that we don't need. So, you know, they're always going to be need for there's always going to be need for.
solutions that would help us direct inventory, goods, know, anything, heavy equipment, spot, not to places where it can still be used versus putting them back into the earth.
Right, right. Yeah. And you you brought up some cool, good people that we've done some podcasts with here. then, you know, I want to say that both of those, you know, Via and EL Green, those all, all of those concepts, and this is something that I've been learning from this, from the All Thing Circular team. there's a better way to do this liquidation business, this returns business. You know, I came up five, six years ago, just kind of being mentored by these old school liquidators or at least learning from them by doing deals with them, right?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Like the idea of just trying to steal product, you know, for the lowest pennies on the dollar, like that shit's gone. you know, like I'm sorry, I just can't get behind it anymore. Like it just doesn't make sense. You know, you have to approach all of this as a partnership, as a collaboration effort. If you start collaborating with people and being transparent, like I keep preaching, I guess, is that everybody wins more. Like they will literally.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
come back and keep doing it with you because you created a triple or quadruple win-win scenario, right? If you propose to ⁓ somebody that has two, three, four truckloads of overstock inventory, instead of saying, hey, I will give you three pennies a unit and I will just clear it out by Friday, but you get this $1,500 check and you should be happy with it. That's not, mean, sure, you're helping them out on one hand, but are you like,
because I'm pretty sure you're to turn it around and sell it for $5 and it might just take three, four months. But if you asked them and you approached them proactively and said, hey, if you need this out by tomorrow, the offer is three cents. But if you could give me two, three weeks to reach out to some of the partners I work with and get creative here, maybe we can do a rev share split. Maybe 20 80, maybe 30 70. How deep are you underwater with this? How much of an emergency is this really?
Yes.
Because, and then you'll find out that half the time, like they're more than happy to get a higher recovery and wait for the right buyer to come along as long as they know that they have somebody they can trust that's going to do it the right way. Right. So that's been a very big basis for Archer now for Archer logistics is more collaborative efforts, a lot more transparency. And the pitch is no longer, Hey, let me just clear this out for you. And here's a, here's a check.
It's more of like a, how do we, how can I provide more value to you by, you know, working with some of the partners that I have with some of the people that I know in the industry that could potentially help. Right. If you have, you know, three truckloads of AC units, instead of me just giving you $20 scrap value for these units, how about I introduce you to this refurbishment partner that I have in the middle of Tennessee that is going to be able to take these refurbish them and
you know, we can recover potentially $180 and then by doing all of this, I'm in the middle of it, arranging it and making sure it goes the right way. So I think that's the new wave of liquidations. At least I hope so. Hopefully I'm not blowing up my own personal business pitch, but that's my idea now is how to do business. There's a better way. think there's those days of just trying to clear space out with a check are gone.
Mm-hmm.
And the collaborative efforts is what's going to make a biggest difference here.
Yeah, definitely. I I agree with that. The days of jobbers of just exploiting brands and people who are sitting on inventory are gone. a lot of time, who would give you pennies on a dollar and then flip it into the international market or whichever market for a lot, lot more, who would try to see, all right, how do I get the most out of my for myself and not for the other party or the main party involved, the brand involved or the 3P involved.
jobbers that's a that's an old school that's an old school way to do this yep
gone. So yeah, mean, that is something that even we are trying to change with our product commerce center where connect them with the right buyers, which gives them higher recovery, which gives them better control on where exactly that product lands. that's one of the other things that I think we didn't touch on, but it's very important, especially from a brand's perspective is control of where exactly are you going to be able to resell these goods. So if I, if I am, if I have a flagship in Chicago, I don't want it in Chicago. I don't want my access inventory, undercutting my own business in Chicago. So
Yes.
you know, with the the with the white glove approach that you're taking and the the similar approach that we are taking. we're using a little bit of more technology to kind of make it is more important because then a brand would feel more comfortable working with you versus the jobber who's just who might clear your warehouse the very next day. But then are not even going to recognize you and they're going to do whatever they want with their product, whatever, wherever they think is the highest value for them.
And it's like they, we should not villainize a particular part of the industry too much on the podcast as well. But at the same time, I think a lot to be desired. Yeah, that's true as well. yeah, there's a lot to be desired with an industry. And I'm glad that new wave of businesses are coming in and is also getting created around it. So people know more
Where are you gonna do it if not on the podcast?
what exactly is a better way and if those ways exist. So I'm hoping to get more people to the platform who would kind of bring that insight out and share with other people. How can others collaborate with you, Damian? How can they reach out to you things like that for business, for mentorship and whatnot?
Definitely, definitely.
Yeah, you know, reach out to me on LinkedIn. think that's the best way to connect. Damian Polak on LinkedIn. I respond to messages. I look through them every day. Yeah, that's hands down the best way. Check out our new website, archerlogistics.com. That's a good way as well. And yeah, mean, LinkedIn, that's number one as always.
definitely. I looked up your website. It's pretty neat. I love your creatives. shows that you have a very high bar on things.
Awesome, thanks man, appreciate that.
Awesome. have a rapid fire round before we let you go. Do you want to do that as well?
Let's do it.
Awesome. So just one liners, don't have to think too much. Would love to kind of get inside into your personal as well. So what's your favorite book or podcast that you'd recommend others to listen or read?
Ooh, ⁓ I'm a big reader. I like to read. I definitely like to read. I'll give you the...
⁓ why am I blanking right now, man? Hold on. Miles From Nowhere. There you go. Miles From Nowhere by Barbara Savage. I just finished reading that. It's a bike trip around the world. Super cool.
got it. Wow
nice nice nice nice favorite app on your phone
LinkedIn.
Yeah city that you've worked in or you know traveled through?
I love Chicago, but I'm gonna go with my hometown in Poland. Białystok, there you go.
Nice, nice, nice. haven't been there, but I like to pull in in general, but I'd love to someday. ⁓ Most underrated skill in operations or our industry in general.
Ooh, that's a good one. Most underrated skill.
Is logistics a skill? I mean, I don't know. You know, just being able to move things from A to B is most efficiently as humanly possible. I think that is very, very, very important.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I mean, our industry is more about execution than most people think about. You can sell things, but can you deliver on them is more important because that's how repeat business would be created if you can continue delivering and executing, definitely. lesson that you wished you learned earlier in your career.
Yup.
Right, exactly.
One lesson that I wish that I-
I've got tough questions for you, so ⁓ you can take a bit.
Yeah, these are pretty tough. This is supposed to be a rapid fire. I'm here hoping for, you know, favorite color and favors type of steak. You
know, lesson, I would say that learn to say no more often. You know, I, I came up for the last, yeah, just with the train of thought that I have to say yes to every deal that comes my way. And even though that meant like sometimes I would lose money, but just to like,
Mm-hmm.
keep the relationship going, right? But what I've learned now is that if that deal doesn't make sense from the beginning, just say no. you just pretty much lay it out why it doesn't make sense, because it's not worth sacrificing your own hard money and your cash flow and your time and resources to get a deal done that you're going to lose money on just to hypothetically keep a relationship afloat without that person even knowing that that's the reason why you're doing it.
You know what I mean? you know, because like I said, I got brought up by these these old school OG liquidators. And one of the one of these lessons that they taught me was that you got to be a yes man. You know, if somebody calls you and say, hey, I got this and this, you got to say yes, and you got to bring it in. And that was my theory. I was like, all right, if I'm the yes man, like people are just going to start calling me and giving me good deals, right?
Mm-hmm.
Thanks, and...
But then what ended up happening is people just started calling me with all the crap they wanted to clear out, but the good stuff went to their highest paying customers. it's, you know, like learn how to say no at the beginning, give a good explanation. Like, Hey, I analyze this. This doesn't make sense to me unless I get it for this and this and just walk away because if that relationship is meant to be there, the least respect that if, if it ain't meant to be there, then it wasn't going to meant to be there in the first place. So no point in taking on that shitty deal.
Yeah, definitely. mean, saying no is very underrated. The more no you say, the better deals they become because then you're not dealing with the noise. last question, brother. If not this industry, what would you be working in?
Right. Exactly.
⁓ that's a tough one. And you know what? I have no idea because I just, when I closed Nice Find back in like November, I took six, seven months off and I was trying to figure out my next move and I'm back. I'm here. So obviously I wouldn't be working anywhere else. Potentially, you know, maybe something in real estate. I love real estate. I love ⁓ just real estate investing on the side. Like that's a huge hobby.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
but it's more of a hobby. I don't know if
I could do it full time. It's only fun when I'm doing it on the side. When it starts, when you got to go, you know, every day looking at spreadsheets and deals, we're back into the accounting world and I'm back at not liking it.
Got it, got it. Yeah, I mean, I think you'd be good at it, though, given the energy that you bring to everything. Damian, this has been a pleasure. This has been a pleasure. a lot for your time. This was pretty fun. Yeah, likewise. Thank you. Thank you. You too. You too.
haha
Appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me. Reach out anytime. Good luck on the e-commerce.
Yep.
