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Gain firsthand insight into how auction professionals can overcome growth barriers and use technology built by auction people for auction people, without losing the personal touch.
Brandon Giella: Hello and welcome back to
another episode of The Innovate Podcast.
Today we are gonna be talking
about marketplace instability.
A hidden risk among
many auction companies.
As we know, uh, there are many, many
different types of risks in a business,
some of which you can easily mitigate.
Some that are not, some that are just
core to the business, core to reality.
But there is a story out there
that you can go read about.
Literally you can open up
the news and find this story.
It is happening.
There's a big thing that happened
yesterday, uh, February 2nd,
um, where uh, some companies are
arguing about, um, their value.
One is wanting to take over this company.
One is rejecting this offer and.
The, uh, ramifications of that as a
user, as a client of these businesses
is something that you should be aware
of because when you're on this, um, some
of these platforms, uh, what happens
with them as businesses affects you two.
So that's where we're
going with this short show.
Jody, I wanna turn it to you.
Tell us a little bit more of what's
going on and why this matters to you,
why this matters to our listeners.
Jodi Amaya: Thank you, Brandon.
Um, yeah, it, it is a,
uh, it's not gossip.
Um, it, there's, uh, marketplace,
um, happenings going on, uh, without
just being too direct, but it's
something that we talk about a lot,
Brandon, on this, on this channel.
Um, because I really believe
in, as business people, we
need to look at our risk.
I mean, even as.
Individuals.
Um, we buy insurance for our cars.
We, uh, buy insurance for our homes.
We, uh, you know, we, we try to look
at risk, um, the best that we can and,
and, and prepare the best that we can.
Um, and marketplaces are businesses too.
Um, they have people to answer
to, they have investors and,
and, and they should answer to
them.
You know, it's people.
It's, it's money.
Just like you, we look at our money.
I, I reconcile.
Well, I don't always reconcile my
checkbook, but you know what I'm saying,
I'm responsible for my own money.
I don't have other people dabbling
in it, so that's a good thing.
But, um, this, I guess my point
about this news is that we really
shouldn't be surprised by it,
but it is a great reminder that we need to
look at risk inside of our own businesses.
And so my question to our audience is.
Do you have a single point
of failure in your business?
I think about COVID.
You know, No-one in the world would've
ever thought about COVID and going,
okay, what if, what if I'm not allowed
to have people come to my office?
How would my business interact?
Or back in the day, whenever I
was having a lot of live auctions.
And I had to have computers and
you know, generator power may
even take a little while too.
I had to think of a paper plan.
We had to have, we had to be
prepared for power outages.
What is your strategy?
What is your safety plan?
What if the marketplace goes away today?
How does that impact your business?
What if they double their cost today?
How does that impact your business?
Um, all of those things.
I I really, we've already talked about it,
but this just made me want to emphasize
it even more that I could go on and on.
But I'm gonna let you talk
because I know we're here.
Um, this is what we wanna continue to
share and advise companies and, and
be advisors to help you look at risk.
If you don't know what it is, then we
wanna help you take a look at that.
Brandon Giella: Yeah, that's right.
It's it, it, when.
When you run a digital business,
there's always going to be
things that you can't control.
There's going to be like, you know,
what was it a couple weeks ago?
A couple months ago, it
was like Cloud flare.
This giant, you know, service provider
on the internet went down and it just,
it shut down billions of dollars worth
Jodi Amaya: Yeah.
Yeah.
Brandon Giella: you know, capital
for the, for that day or whatever.
And it was Amazon's a w.
Before that, and then I just heard, um,
two weeks ago, Google and Microsoft,
both of their inboxes went down
within a 48 hour period and affected
deliverability on a bunch of stuff.
So there's always gonna be
stuff that you can't control,
and that's just gonna happen.
That's, that's the case in physical
businesses, not just digital
Jodi Amaya: Yeah,
Brandon Giella: but there's,
there's a part of it.
Jodi Amaya: and un the top-notch products
and, and, and still have problems that
happens.
Brandon Giella: yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But there are are other things
that you actually can control.
And so we've talked about this, like,
you know, if you're on a marketplace,
there are benefits to that, but there's
these risks and there's these things,
this part of that infrastructure
that you can't control, right?
So
Jodi Amaya: Right.
Brandon Giella: what does an auction
company do knowing that this marketplace
that they're on could potentially be a
risk that they can control and can change?
Jodi Amaya: Right.
Brandon Giella: do you advise them to do?
I mean, what, what do we think about
with this news that has come out and
we're, I know we're being a little bit
vague, but with, with the, the risks that
come with marketplaces, what do you do?
I mean, what's the next step?
Jodi Amaya: Yeah, I think, um,
one of the first things to do
is what, look at your risk.
What is it for you?
Every company's different is, are a 100 of
your buyers coming from the marketplace?
Are 20% of your buyers
coming from the marketplace?
Um, what is your cost?
Um, have they offered you
a backup plan as to what
happens?
Um, if, if they go outta
business, any business, even mine.
Can be purchased and acquisition and,
and all of those things can happen.
But how does it impact your business?
When
you, if, if you were to have a, a
roommate at your house, you would
wanna know about that person.
Like what happens, you know, when you have
taken your core business, your paycheck
and, and you are sharing it with some,
you are partnered with someone else.
What does that relationship look like?
And so what it, if you need to get out
of that relationship, what are the terms
to do that?
What is the cost in that partnership?
So I truly believe, you know,
and I am not anti marketplace,
but I think that we need to look at, um,
the, the restrictions, the limitations,
the rewards, the risk, all of it.
Because there's advantages and
there's disadvantages and, and so
what we've been trying to talk about.
is just having a strategy, not leaving
the marketplace, but having a strategy
on, on, on owning your business data.
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
How do you, how do you see yourself,
um, fitting into this story?
So you've got these marketplaces,
you've got the clients, like,
what is, what is your difference?
How, how do you help the buyer kind of
wrap their mind around like, yeah, where
you, where you fit into this story?
'cause it's, it's a dramatic
story if you read about it.
So
how do you, how do you put
yourself in that story?
Jodi Amaya: There's been gossip and
hearsay and all these things for a
long time, and, and I, I honestly,
I don't, I don't enjoy that stuff.
Like I, when people tell me those
kinds of things, I go, if it's
not real, like I, I don't even, my
brain can't hold all that stuff.
So, um, I'm a, I'm a logic person,
believe it or not, but I, I just
think I'm very analytical when it
comes to where money comes from.
Um, and what's the ROI on it?
So I believe that these auction
companies and what nno a, the reason
why we started InnovA was what I
ended up tagging brand independence.
Is that to me as a business,
you want to own that buyer
relationship from beginning to end
and you are paying for advertising.
You are building that reputation.
You are the one out there chasing
all that consignor business.
You are the one tell shaking
that consignor's hand saying,
I'm gonna take care of you.
You are the one that needs.
To make sure that buyers get there.
Yes, the marketplace helps you, but
if you just direct all that traffic
to the marketplace, it, you could
direct that traffic just to you, to
your business and be in control,
or at least majority control of
that buyer relationship that,
and you're protecting your brand.
If they shut off their power tomorrow
or they, whatever happens with anybody,
whether it's any company that you
feel like you have a safety plan.
So we have to analyze it and look
at risk that I think that's what I
overall say is that we all know this.
And, and we've all made a lot
of money off of the marketplace.
That the buyer, that the buyers
that come to us from marketplace,
we've made enough money.
However, 80%, I know that number is
a solid number in, in mo and not in
all industries, but in, in, in a lot
of industries, the common number is
80% of your buyers are return buyers.
And if they're coming through the
marketplace, that's a lot of money.
If you offered me that kind
of money, I, yeah, I would.
I would be investigating it.
Brandon Giella: Yep.
Yep.
No, it makes sense.
I've told this story before, but I, I
was on a, a newsletter platform called
Substack, and they just shut me down
and I just, I, I couldn't, thank God
that's not where my income came from.
You know, um, but, but it just shut me
off like totally without warning, nothing.
And, um, there was nothing I could do.
And so I ended up switching to a
more independent platform myself.
Um, because I, I'm now able to
control that data, control, the, the
systems that go into it, what I say.
I can export those contacts if
I want and go somewhere else.
Like that stuff became
really, really real to me.
And I've heard other similar folks,
um, do that on other kind of platforms,
you know, big names out there.
But yeah, it's, it happens.
Jodi Amaya: Yeah.
And like full disclosure, before, um,
this conversation today, Brandon and I
are talking about marketing for InnovA
Sorry to throw you under the bus.
Here we go.
Um, you never know what I'm gonna say,
but we're gonna pay him X, y, z, you
know, to do some marketing stuff for us.
And I told him, that's great, but I want
a direct connection to all of my leads.
I
wanna see all of my leads.
I'm paying you.
I want the leads.
So, and because I want to own that
relationship when, when they hit the
button because they're interested in
InnovA I wanna be picking up the phone
calling anybody that wants to talk to me.
So it, but that's how I think about all.
Of these auction companies like you are
paying for your, my hard work and the
brand that I'm building and your brand.
Most people's brands are through
the inventory descriptions
that they're building.
You're spending countless hours,
photoing, writing up videos, doing all
that kind of stuff, and then you're
uploading it to the marketplace.
I did it for so long, I
understand the why, but you can
do that for yourself as well.
Brandon Giella: That's right.
And when one of us is ready to
retire to The Bahamas, you can just,
we can just part ways and we own
everything and we just keep moving.
So
Jodi Amaya: Yeah.
Or you can
Brandon Giella: I'm ready for
Jodi Amaya: at the little Tahiti, you
know, thingy and you can just do upload
pictures right there from the beach.
You
Brandon Giella: That's right.
I'm ready for that future.
Jodi Amaya: Yeah.
I'm
Brandon Giella: right.
That's right, that's right, that's right.
Okay, Jody, thank you so much.
Uh, I love the story.
We were talking about it last week
'cause it was kind of an ongoing, you
know, dramatic kind of conclusion.
I think the conclusion was yesterday.
Uh, and so I'm glad that we're able
to, to chat about this 'cause it really
brought to bear like, this is what we've
been talking about for months, what
you've been talking about for years.
And so I'm glad we're
able to talk about this.
'cause I think it's, it is just a kind of
a fascinating like real world scenario.
What, what we've been talking about.
Jodi Amaya: Yes.
And I think overall we're, we're not
just trying to plant fear out there.
It
is a reality.
And I think the takeaway from today
is just start to start figuring it out
and build your primary channel
that is directed towards your
business and keep your marketplace
as your secondary channel.
And if you need help,
we're here to help you.
Brandon Giella: yeah.
That's right.
That's right.
Amen.
Well, Jody, thank you.
I'm excited for our next
show and we will see you
Jodi Amaya: you.
All right, bye.
Brandon Giella: Bye.