I could've just commented but this is worth a post imo. I came across this story that blew my mind and immediately thought of what Travis is teaching here. So some guy in Arizona. No money. No inventory. Just a smartphone and a TikTok account. He's walking down Main Street one day - you know the kind, where mom and pop shops used to see foot traffic every afternoon. But nobody walks anymore. Everyone's on Amazon. These shop owners - older folks who've been running their stores for decades - they're sitting on inventory that won't move. They don't have TikTok. They're not on social media. Product just sits there generating nothing. Most people would see two separate problems, right? But this guy puts on his investor goggles. He walks into a shop and says something clearly different: "I'll set up a TikTok Shop right here in your store. Give me access to your inventory. I'll go live and sell it. You keep 50% of every sale. I handle everything." The shop owner had nothing to lose. Zero cannibalization of existing sales (there weren't any). Zero upfront cost. Zero risk to reputation. The owner said yes. Here's what happened: The guy started moving inventory that had been sitting dead. He repeated this at shop after shop across Main Street. That year, he made $750,000 part-time. The shop owners got revenue from inventory generating $0. Customers got 20% off retail. Three winners. Zero capital required. This seems like exactly what Travis means by "investor training wheels". The guy didn't speculate (buy inventory and hope it sells). He didn't gamble (throw money at ads and pray). He CREATED MARGIN from nothing by asking the core investor question: "How do I add $100 of value for $1 (or less)?" His answer: Use my existing skill (TikTok) to transform their "trash can" asset (dead inventory) into a digital vending machine. Every single time: Find what's generating $0, relocate it to where buyers are, split the new money. This is why the "training wheels" concept clicked for me.

There is exceptionally crafted jewelry on Etsy that sells for super cheap. You can find pieces with materials, quality, and design as good as TIffany & Co. selling for a 10th the price. (Barely over the price of materials)... At first I thought the issue was audience size and awareness. However, many of these artists have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of followers on social. Might not be as many as LVHM but certainly enough to have people in their audience that can afford $500-$1k jewelry. So why are these artists selling for so little (if at all)? IMO... Story and location. These artist have a product description like "[type of stone] on sterling silver wire." That's it. "The work is supposed to speak for itself" or some BS like that. And they're selling on Etsy (location). Which is a marketplace that turns their unique art into a commodity. "Why should I pay $500 for a necklace from this artist when I can pay $60 for something looks nearly identical on the next listing over?" My point I think there's an arbitrage play here. Consign or buy some jewelry from half dozen artists. Create a quick Shopify store with a luxury feel and add a compelling story to each piece... Now you have more than just jewelry. You have art. Charge 5x-10x what the original artist sells it for. Your story added to each piece of jewelry creates value out of thin air. J. Peterman catalog has done this for decades with clothing. Their clothing is nice but it's not special. The J. Peterman Catalog writes a paragraph story to go with the clothing... They paint a picture of the dream and life of someone who wears the clothing... And sell a shirt for $120 that would have otherwise sold for $30. Something else J. Peterman does? They don't use pictures of the clothing. (At least not for their "Owner's Manual" products.) They use drawings. Another way they remove comparison - making the price more elastic. It's not a rental model like Travis prefers.

A tool I've been using lately to create images. https://nanobanana.ai/ I personally find it faster AND better at creating images. Pricing is good too. You can create new images from scratch OR make adjustments. MUCH better than Chatgpt's image generator. The other day I asked it to create an anime picture of a apache helicopter and a horse riding into the sunset and it did a stellar job (don't ask me why I needed it 😂)

Finally, landed partners I'm 100% confident have everything in place to run a winning auction! Partner 1: Sales coach with a crazy strong personal brand AND a paid Skool of 148 members. Thinking for this one there's more juice running an auction on his personal FB profile first. Partner 2: 90,000 person group in the FB ads niche in the Latin American market, with lots of activity and ZERO monetization. I would be surprised if we don't get at least 100 sales here.

As Community FIRE Mojo grows… (We’re at 740 members now!) I want to connect community owners with Ronin. About 40% of members ALREADY have a community. Please comment 👇 if you’ve run at least one auction. BONUS: Please share any results you can. Thanks in advance! Rooting for Ya, Travis PS I am going put the comments into a Google Sheet for my reference when I’m looking to connect a Ronin to a Flame.