what's going on welcome back to stacking slabs your hobby content alternative i am brett hopefully you're off to a great start it is a fun part of the hobby calendar year a lot of us are hitting the field going to shows doing the damn thing i will be at the columbus card fest for a couple days here coming up so excited to be out having conversations with collectors business builders you name it and i was having one of those conversations this earlier last week and it was with john amendola put out that episode of passion profession with him and his build of mint ink and we got into a topic that inspired me enough to make a friday note out of it in my patreon group and i couldn't stop thinking about it and so i wanna do a whole episode on it today and that is planting seeds and why planting seeds matters so that is what we're going to talk about today i want to say thank you the summer is busy things are moving quickly a lot of us are trying to manage being parents maybe even more with school being out little we lose time maybe collecting we lose time in our business working and you're here and you're listening so i just want to say thank you for doing that and what i want to get into is this topic of planting seeds and how it applies to us as collectors and i've been thinking a lot about opportunity and how it shows up and why some people get more of it and why some collectors get access to cards before they hit the open market and why people get invited to certain rooms before people know that those rooms even exist or why collectors seem to have things move towards them they're the center of gravity for certain cards and the more i sit with it the more i come back to this idea of you have to plant seeds not once not when you need something not when a card pops up but you have to be doing the right activity all of the time to build and develop not only your reputation but to build your brand in this sports card space and brand matters because if you've got brand that means you've established your reputation and you're establishing trust it's how it forms it's how access forms it it's how relationships form this is how people begin to know what you as a collector care about that is how the right cards start finding their way to you that is how opportunity starts moving in your direction before it is public and i think this matter is maybe more it's more important right now than ever before because we are moving at such a rapid pace there is so much scaling so much growth across the industry everything feels fast way content is coming at us is fast auction cycles move fast all time highs the attention shifts fast one day everyone cares about one lane how about windy the next day everyone cares about another lane how about messy and when you live inside that pace for too long it starts to train you it trains you to think every move needs to happen right now it trains you to think that every opportunity is urgent it trains you to think every card needs to be acted on today it trains you to think that if something is not visible then nothing is happening and i think that is a problem because the best things in this space usually don't work that way my favorite cards in my collection were never the ones that came at me quick they were always the ones that took time they came from relationships they came from the right opportunities the best collections don't come from reacting to what the feed tells you to want the best things come from doing the right work long before the outcome shows up and i think that is what planting seeds is all about in this space and that's what i want to talk about today because i know myself i'm an ambitious person when i was in corporate america i did all the personality tests and in every personality test i ever took i was a one hundred in ambition and i was like this is great a hundred in ambition i got a big motor i can keep going but then you learn when you are under an ambition that all the negative things well some people can't follow you that quickly and also you're draining yourself and that's why you feel exhausted every time you come home from work on friday and that shows up in my work i think that shows up in stacking slabs right you're following stacking slabs you're seeing what i'm doing you understand i'm i'm ambition i'm i have ambition i'm moving quickly new shows every day and i think that is a good trait to have especially when you are doing something like i'm doing and you're trying to build this media network i think that shows up in my relationships and it shows up in how i'm collecting i want something i wanted i want to see the outcome i can feel where i want to go i can get locked on the card the idea of the project the next step the opportunity the ambition has helped me i do not want to pretend like ambition is bad ambition does create movement ambition does create energy ambition pushes you to care but ambition without patience can turn into pressure and pressure sucks it can turn into rushing forcing reaching if the right relationship isn't there or buying something before your own conviction isn't there it can turn into chasing before you have formed true collecting identity around it it can turn into wanting the outcome before you've done the work that earns the outcome and that is where i have had to learn the things i want most in life take time i want stacking slabs to be even bigger than it is and i want it to be even bigger than it was yesterday and i constantly have to train myself to continue to play the long game and continue to put in the right work the things i want most take time the things that matter most in collecting take time the cards i remember most are always tied to a longer process the relationships that mean the most were not built on one deal the opportunities that change things did not show up because i demanded them they showed up because the seeds had been planted some of those seeds were conversations some were patterns some were just being consistent showing up every day some were moments where there wasn't any payoff and most of those were moments where there was no payoff some were quiet decisions that kept showing up that is what i want to talk about because planting seeds is not about sitting back and hoping that is not what this is this is not passive this is not i guess i will wait and see what happens that this is active it's behavior it's intention it's learning how to repeat and not move on to the next thing it's how you participate when nobody's watching it's how you build trust before you even need trust it is how you build relationships before you ask for access it is how you become known for something before a card appears and that is why i think it matters because most collectors want the visible outcome we all do trust me i want certain cards right now but know that it's going to take a minute we want the card we want the card that completes the run we want the dream card we want the certain card that connects back to our broader collection and i get it i am one of you i am not here to act like the card doesn't matter because the card matters this is a hobby build around objects we care about the cards we remember where we were when we bought certain cards we remember certain deals we remember cards that we miss but the card is often the end of the process it is not the whole process the card is the part everyone sees the work that led to the card often happened in private it happened when you did the work in advance and i've been talking a lot about that on certain flagship episodes and i think it's the part people miss they see the pickup they do not see the seed they see the card in the case they don't see the years of paying attention they see a private deal but they do not see trust built before the message was sent they see the opportunity they do not see the consistency that made the opportunity possible and this is where the hobby can really messed with your head because the hobby rewards what is visible mail day show pickup flip auction win when you're working at a show the person who walks up to the table all those things those things get attention because they are easy to see but the work that creates durable collecting is not easy to see because research isn't loud patience isn't loud passing on things isn't loud building trust isn't loud having the same collecting identity for years is not loud but this is where roots form that is where collection starts to hold that is where you begin to separate yourself from people who only react to what is moving so let's define the idea here for a second what does planting seeds mean in the hobby to me it means doing the work before the reward shows up it means creating conditions that optimize for those future opportunities it's making decisions today that your future collecting self will benefit from it means giving people a reason to think of you when the right card shows up and you know what that card is you know why it matters you already know what you're willing to pay you already know what makes one copy different from another and that is power not power over people power over your own decision making because so many collectors are reacting they're waiting for the feed to tell them what matters they're waiting for the next comp they're waiting for someone else to say the card is good planting seeds gives you a different path you build your own conviction before consensus you build knowledge before the urgency hits these are signs that you are playing the long game and i wanna be clear planting seeds is certainly not manipulation it is not pretending to care about people because you think you can help them later it's not commenting on posts because you want access to someone's collection it is not networking with a hidden agenda people can feel it collectors can feel when someone is only showing up because they want something that doesn't build trust i think it damages it real seed planting is rooted in contribution it's rooted in how you participate it's rooted in paying attention being useful being consistent it's rooted in being the same person when there's no deal on the table and i think that matters because one thing that i know about being in the hobby being back in the hobby for this long what i know from building a business in this hobby is that the hobby remembers it remembers those who communicate well who make things easy who follow through who are consistent it remembers who treated people like people and not transactions and trust is one of the most valuable assets you can build in this space not because it gets you every card it won't not because it replaces money it doesn't not because relationships mean you never have to compete that's not real trust gives you more at bats it gives you more chances gives you conversations it gives you more room it gives you more patience access it gives you a chance to be thought of before something goes public and that matters because cards move through public yes platforms matter auctions marketplaces shows all those things matter but the cards that mean the most often move through trust private messages conversations at a show a friend tips you off to submit information a person knows you knows you will do what you say that doesn't happen because you ask once it happens because you plant seeds over time and one of the most important seeds that we can plant as collectors is clarity collectors underestimate this they think clarity is only about content they think being known for something means performing their collection online that is not what i mean you do not have to turn every card into content you don't have to explain every purchase to the hobby you don't have to make your collection a brand but people need to understand what you as a collector care about and that is different if nobody knows what you collect nobody knows what to bring you if your collection has no signal opportunities will pass you by if your lane changes every month people don't know where to place you if you chase everything people do not know what matters to you clarity creates connection connection creates opportunities can another collector describe your lane in one sentence i think that's important i think that is really important because that means if they can that you're known for something that is the signal and that signal forms your taste and taste is a topic we continue to hit on here on stacking slabs because it is important it is important right now it's another part of planting seeds you're not only planting seeds with other people you are planting seeds inside yourself because as collectors we're learning our own taste we're learning what we wanna build what we can live with and without how we pull back how we show restraint you're learning what has staying power that takes time because taste gets defined through reps you buy something and you learn it you pass on something and you learn it you chase you learn the point is to keep paying attention when you pay attention your collection starts to speak to you it tells you what matters what feels right it gives you that feeling and we all know that feeling it tells you what you bought because you wanted it versus what other people and i think that distinction matters because the hobby is full of borrowed conviction a collector sees something sees someone else sees something someone else cares about then starts to think that they should care about it that's following that path is just how you keep restarting that is how you interrupt your own progress you can't plant seeds keep digging them up to see if they're growing because i see it everywhere a collector starts building a lane then shift to another lane that's hot and a collector starts reaching a category then the feed moves somewhere else so they stop it just happens over and over and over again and every time that happens the compounding resets you make it harder for people to know what you as a collector stand for you make it harder for opportunity to find you you make it harder for your own conviction to build and i wanna say this to the collector who is listening and feels the tension i get it i felt it too i want progress i wanna feel movement and this is why i think it's really hard because planting seeds can feel quiet and slow like nothing is happening it means the work has not become visible yet progress is not only the pickup progress is not only the deal progress is not only crossing crossing into your hands progress can be learning the difference between a car that you admire and a car that you need to own progress can be a lot of different things the reward is not the card you end up with the reward is becoming the type of collector who is ready for it that is a different way to think and i think it's healthier because chasing is fun but chasing drains you building gives me energy chasing makes me reactive building makes me intentional chasing needs the reward to show up now building understands that the reward is shaped by the work and that is the shift the hobby right now creates a lot of chasers not because people are doing the wrong thing or bad but but because the environment is built for reaction think about your every moment in this hobby participating online you open your phone and see what someone else bought you see a comp and card letter you see an auction ending you see a card that got people talking you saw an index that spiked when you start to see all of these things and you react to these things it starts to steal your focus your patience your taste perhaps even your joy it makes you feel behind in a hobby that was supposed to bring you meaning and that is why planting seeds matters right now it gives you back control not control over the market not control over other people not control over outcomes over your own behavior you can control what you study how you treat people how you follow through all of those things that control reduces something that i know i battle and experience and that is anxiety and going into this space it can make anxious people very anxious they feel like they need to do it right right now if they don't they'll miss out on a big opportunity it gives your ambition somewhere to go it gives your ambition a job because ambition without a process turns everything into urgency ambition with a process turns it into discipline and this is why what planting seeds does it turns i want this into what am i doing to become ready for this and i think that question can change the hobby think about the card you want the most not the card you want because everyone else wants it the card you think about when no one else is talking the card that would matter in your collection even if the market ignored it there are dozens of questions that we can ask ourselves about that card because wanting the card is one thing but preparing for the card is another a lot of collectors want the opportunity fewer prepare for it then when the card appears they're scrambling they are asking people what they think they're waiting for someone else's validation that is a position i have been in and i know many of you who have been in i think the advantage comes before the moment before the advantage is built while it is still calm the advantage is built when you know why it matters before you need to explain it and again another topic we've been talking about a lot you start to crystallize this and understand this when you're researching and researching is one of the best parts of the about collecting because research gives you a relationship with the card before you own it you understand it deeply intimately where it fits in where it's going to be how it's going to be be positioned and when you get knowledge and you educate yourself and you can feel that then you create conviction and that conviction gives you peace as a collector and that is really really powerful that is a calm place to collect from we need more collectors who know what they're building we need more collectors who are okay with saying no more collectors who build relationships with care that doesn't mean the hobby needs to become slow for the sake of being slow speed has its place when the right card appears and you know what it is you need to move when the opportunity lines up and you're prepared you need to act the point is not to be slow in the moment the point is to do enough work before the moment so you can act with confidence that is the long game it is not delay it's preparation and preparation changes the way you experience the hobby when you are prepared you can move fast without being reactive and that's the balance slow enough to build conviction fast enough to act when the moment arrives and a big part of this is relationships and relationship building because this is where planting seeds i think gets real a lot of people say they want relationships in the hobby but what they mean is they want the benefits of relationships the access the deals the info someone to send them the cards first they want the outcome but relationships are not built around outcomes they are built around the things we have talked about in this conversation time trust attention care the hobby is this is a space with a lot of action buying selling trading consigning business shows platform money transactions are a part of it and i am certainly not against transactions however i'm against every relationship feeling like one because people get tired of that they get tired of just being treated as a thing if you want to plant seeds with people start with being present without needing anything and this is the hardest thing how do you show up and how do you add value to someone without asking them directly for something it's a mindset thing it's understanding what matters to those people and how you can help sending them cards giving them information all of that stuff regularly compounds and it matters you can't make someone send you a card you can't make someone think of you first you can't make someone invite you into conversation but you can be the type of person who is easy to think of you can be the type of person who is easy to deal with you can be the type of person who adds the hobby instead of adds the hobby instead of extracting from it that is the seed and the outcome comes later and sometimes it does not at all it does not come at all from that person that is another part of this you do not plant seeds with a specific person and demand a specific return that's not planting seeds that is transaction with a longer timeline real contribution doesn't work like this you plant seeds because that is the right way to participate you plant seeds because it matches who you want to be the opportunities that come from it are real but they can't be the only reason you show up now i wanna talk to the collector who might already be a couple levels ahead in doing this because i know you're out there you're building something that not everyone sees you're studying a lane you're building trust you're doing all of these things the feed the reaction doesn't always reward these things patience restraint the feed does not always reward taste because the market catches up so i guess in a way i kind of want this episode to be an affirmation to you keep going i built stacking slabs over a four year period without asking for anything from anybody just adding value doing things year five all of a sudden i'm leaving my job in tech to go all in and full time on this i did not anticipate those opportunities coming up my way to make me give me the opportunity to do this they just happened because trust compounded over a long period of time and the work that i was doing mattered those quiet parts matter the discipline matters this matters too in my cards and collecting so i say to all of you who are building something whether it's your collection or your own work in this space keep building not because everyone's every seed becomes the next opportunity or a card or becomes a relationship with access keep building because this is how meaning forms a collection with roots feels different you know why the cards are there you know what each card connects to you know the story that's hard to replace now i also want to talk to the collectors moving too fast because trust me i've been there you might be asking too much from the hobby before you have planted enough seeds you might want long term meaning while making short term moves the gap might frustrate you because you will feel the hobby is not giving you what you want it might feel like the best cards are passing you by think the question you have to ask yourself is what have you been planting what are you building because if you do not know what you're building the hobby will hand you options all day there's more options than ever before it is a melting pot of options so many different ways to participate in this hobby everyone's waiting for those people to turn to because they've got options every option will feel possible every lane might feel interesting but the questions that you ask have to be what are your collections standing does it stand for what is your taste what do you keep returning to these are the types of questions that help slow us down as collectors they force us to separate the signal from the noise they make you look at your collecting instead of looking at everyone else's not and it's not always comfortable maybe you'll realize or you've already realized this that you're moving without a direction sometimes you realize you've been collecting other people's conviction that's not a reason to get upset with yourself it's a reason to plant a seed i think in a way we're always waiting for something outside of us to tell us whether we are doing it right planting seed shifts behavior or focus to behaviors did i study today did i have a good conversation did i track the category did i show up consistently those types of things are in your control and when your focus moves from control to controllable behavior collecting becomes more grounded you still care about outcomes we all do but you're not held hostage by them you can feel progress before the card arrives and that matters because waiting is one of the hardest parts of the hobby right price waiting for the right copy relationships it's endless but when you are planting seeds waiting becomes the work you are not sitting still you're preparing learning building becoming ready it's a different kind of patience patience is not passive when it's attached to the right behavior and i think that's an important note for collectors because too many people think patience means doing nothing and so they resist it and i know patience can suck i'm a very impatient person but my growth not only as a person but in this hobby has happened when i have been mindful of patients patients with no behavior is drifting patients with behavior is preparation i think that's a big difference i think what it comes down to for me and it continues to come down for me is whether it is my collecting whether it is building stacking slabs my primary goal is to build something with meaning something with thought with care something that reflects time and i think if you want that kind of collection you have to respect the process that creates it you can't rush you can't demand trust you can't skip clarity you can't force meaning you build it and a great way to build it is to be consistent to have the right conversations moving fast with clarity can be your superpower moving fast with no roots can be costly and i think that's a big distinction i do not want collectors to stop being ambitious my advice here is i want collectors to aim their ambition better put your ambition into learning put it into trust taste relationships consistency put it into becoming known for something put it into being prepared because if you are ambitious only about the outcome you'll rush i've been there if you're ambitious about the process 'll grow and the outcomes that come from that will feel different they will carry more meaning the card will mean more because you know why you wanted it the relationship will mean more because it was not just built around a transaction that is what i want more collectors to experience i want collectors to feel the difference between owning and building owning is a possession building is formation owning can happen fast building takes time so much time i have been in build mode for six years and am nowhere close to being done owning can be bought building has to be lived this is why two people can own similar cards and have completely different relationships with them one person bought the card because it was hot another person bought it because they studied it waited on it understood it and knew where it fit the card might look the same in the case but it does not feel the same and that feeling matters that is part of the joy and i do not want collectors to lose that joy because the hobby keeps pushing them to move faster so my challenge to you all the loyal listeners of the stacking slabs podcast slow down enough to plant better seeds slow down so you can see you can think you understand your own taste relationships then when it is time you can move with conviction that's the balance i'm after and i think that is the way forward for collectors who want more than just transactions so i know this is pretty heavy and we went pretty long but i don't know this this comes down to just being honest with yourself i tend to have a layer about me that i can't help but being honest or maybe overly honest i don't know how to be someone else that i'm not or to buy or collect something that doesn't have meaning to me but i think the like from what i understand through the thousands of conversations i've had over the course of time the hobby gets better when you begin to be honest with yourself i know when i jumped into cards i wasn't being honest with myself because i was buying shit that i didn't care about that quickly shifted and now i'm here and spend almost all of my time here the best things usually don't come from forcing the moment they come from doing the right work long enough that the moment knows where to find them i find this is true in business in collecting in relationships and just life in general so plant the seed water it give it time keep showing up and when the card comes when the relationship opens when the opportunities appear you will not feel like you got lucky out of nowhere you'll know it the work was already working i appreciate your engagement your support for stacking slabs make sure if you enjoyed this episode to tell a damn friend we aren't going to stop only going to keep marching forward so many different topics so many different ways to explore the collector the psychology and how we are showing up in the arena to buy sell trade build do whatever we're doing that motivates us and gets us excite excited about sports cards and collectibles thank you so much take care we'll be back with another one tomorrow talk soon