Dylan is the youngest ever advisor to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, which is sold in book stores around the world. Since age 11, he has been collecting, buying, selling, and attending shows around the country. Comics are Dylan’s life, and his day always has an aspect of comic books in it; Whether it is making up more comic boxes, or pursuing the next collection, comic books will always have a special place in Dylan’s heart. Most recently he has cracked the code with his team on running a business with efficiency in college.

• CEO Hack: Taking a deep breath and walking away from that which is process changing
• CEO Nugget: Be proactive, it's all you in the business
• CEO Defined: Leader who see things on a bolder level

Website: https://www.dylanuniversecomics.com/

Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/str/psch1568?_sop=16&rt=nc
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS4DNpDGCP8BZ9Js9kjggBw
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylanuniversecomics_/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dylanuniversecomics/

Full Interview

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Dylan Schwartz of Dylan Universe Comics. Dylan, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Dylan Schwartz 0:39

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I want to do, which is read a little bit more about Dylan so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Dylan is the youngest ever advisor to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, which is sold in bookstores around the world. Since age 11, he has been collecting, buying, selling, and attending shows around the country. Comics are Dylan’s life, and his day always has an aspect of comic books; Whether it is making up more comic boxes, or pursuing the next collection, comic books will always have a special place in Dylan’s heart. Most recently he has cracked the code with his team on running a business with efficiency in college. Dylan, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Dylan Schwartz 1:20

Yes, I am.

Gresham Harkless 1:21

Let's do it. So to kick everything off to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story what led you to start your business?

Dylan Schwartz 1:27

Yeah, so it all started that one day in October when I was 11. I was curious, I really didn't know what I wanted to do that day. And I just thought maybe I'll go check out the attic. I've never really been in there before, it was always forbidden. So I just decided to venture and I stumbled upon a box. It was just comics. And I just started reading them. And I'm like, this is really cool. Because most books, when you're in elementary school, don't have pictures anymore, you really start doing that around kindergarten, or first grade, they really start you off, start reading chapter books, and you said pictures. But the themes weren't basic, you can understand something. It's advanced, it's complex, it was sunny, I can understand. But it had pictures.

So he's like, Yeah, I like this. And I loved art, I loved history. And that really worked well together. Because these were not just comic books, and comic books are an art form. But these were old comic books so the art and the history really mashed up well together. And you really see the shift from this turning into a business because I would point to garage sales, flea markets, estate sales, like old stuff. And I eventually solidified that to just comic books. But I was at a coin show. And I saw the same coin, in exact condition, at two different prices. And one guy had it for three, and one guy had it for 30. So I'm like, huh? Is that guy too high? Or is that guy too low? And then I started filling the gap. And I'm like, Hey, maybe I could maybe I'm good at this. And then I like comic books. And that's what I did.

Gresham Harkless 3:03

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that. Because I always appreciate anybody that's able to take something they're passionate about and be able to build it into the business. I think that's a beautiful thing about this day and age where you're able to do that on a higher level just because there's so much technology and information available to you. And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. Can you tell us a little bit more about exactly how your business works? I know you said you cracked codes, but I wanted to hear a little bit more about that code as much as you can tell us.

Dylan Schwartz 3:29

Yeah, so basically, I drilled up all the inefficiencies where I'm in class, and I'm like, Oh, wait, we gotta get these auctions, launching, oh, wait, I have to great all these comments, I have to say to 6 out of 10. And really just trying to figure out how to communicate what to do when I'm really off-site and not in my warehouse for over 90% or more than 95% of the time this is an operation. So it's pretty hard. So I really just work with my team on ways to communicate better. And really you need to have a team that is loyal and willing to do what you want them to do. And you can know, hey, I can count on you to do this. Because if you're doing everything and you're CEO, you're doing everything that's not efficient, you're not running your business. You're running day-to-day paycheck to paycheck, that's not good. You walk away and it still flows.

Gresham Harkless 4:27

Absolutely, absolutely. So I guess for your business you guys know exactly your business structure. What are the services? How do you like to serve the clients that you're working with?

Dylan Schwartz 4:37

So basically, I buy comic books that serve a functional purpose. And I resell them because now mostly on eBay shows to direct customers. I feel a lot of them won't list orders. They said, ” Hey, I'm looking for expert number 6, do you have and I said Yeah, I do have expert number six and I sent them pictures and I saw them that way. But most people who have comic books they didn't just have them to read and now this market has exploded because everyone likes Marvel movies are good. So now all of a sudden, we have a huge fan base, and I'm buying and selling. That's the gap because now prices have gone up. So everyone's happy.

Gresham Harkless 5:15

Absolutely. And you're definitely happy as well, which is and I think I've heard Gary Vee mentioned, I think it's arbitrage is that the correct word?

Dylan Schwartz 5:22

That is the right word. Actually, one of the most competitive industries for arbitrage like stock market When you're trading it's fast, but it's regulated, this is not regulated.

Gresham Harkless 5:36

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So essentially because I know he mentioned it, he even talked about, you're going to maybe a yard sale or something, he sees something, and then you can see exactly what it may be selling for. So you understand, maybe it's a good price, just like stocks, if it's a good price to buy it, or if it's overpriced, and maybe you say, Hey, I'm not gonna buy.

Dylan Schwartz 5:57

Right.

Gresham Harkless 5:57

Nice, nice, nice, and now what I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization. But what do you feel makes you unique and sets you apart?

Dylan Schwartz 6:08

I'm going to put in the time because I'm young and hungry. Most of the people in this industry are about 40, between 40 and 50. And there's an older age group we've between like 60, and 70. But there are not many young guys doing this full-time dealing. So I'm young, I'm in college, but I'm willing to put in the time. And just like boom, boom, boom, just putting in those hours. And many of the older guys are like, I don't want to do this because you left. So the fact is that I'm willing to work really, really hard. I work close to 80 hours every week in the summer. So I'm working super hard when I can false starts, I'll be working close to two hours a day, which is 14, and we will go up to three hours a day. But that's a big difference. So I'm willing to put in those hours.

Gresham Harkless 6:59

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I think it goes back to what you were talking about before, because like when you have your team in place as well. You're not just working hours on a treadmill, you're actually building and putting bricks and a plan in place. When you put in that extra time during the summer. It's not as if you lost it when you go back to school.

Dylan Schwartz 7:16

Right, right. And I'm more like building bazookas to that when I'm first day in class. It's like pressing a button, boom. Don't do anything.

Gresham Harkless 7:24

Exactly. I love it. I definitely appreciate it. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app or book or a habit that you have. But what makes you more effective and efficient?

Dylan Schwartz 7:40

You have to take a deep breath and walk away from any big decision. That's not day-to-day. So anything that's process changing anything that goes against your ethical code, or you're not sure like you got to think about you got to take a step back and think about it really like, Don't be hasty. It's so underrated. Everyone's like, oh, take chill out, take a deep breath. That's really the most important thing you can do is to take that break. Yeah, like take a deep breath back out. Think about it. Is this what I want to do? Does this make sense? Really going to do that when you're innovating? There are multiple different paths.

And you could go down the wrong one. But you don't know it's the wrong news. Sometimes you have multiple paths and doing one way doesn't seem right. The other way that might seem right. You don't know. And when you cross that bridge, you really got to think about it so that you can put your all in because sometimes it's not that illuminated. Sometimes it's really, really hard to figure out. Is this gonna work? I don't know, you got to think about it.

Gresham Harkless 8:43

Yeah, absolutely. And I think sometimes through that, we're always under the pressure that we have to decide now today. But sometimes we can take that break, we can sleep on it, we can take whatever time we need to actually figure out if that's the right decision, if that's in alignment with our business and where we want to go, and so on and so forth. So I appreciate you for sharing that. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine. What would you tell your younger business?

Dylan Schwartz 9:12

So if you know that when the Titanic is sinking if you don't do anything, that's your business. So after you finish watching this podcast, guys, you should think about that and figure out how can you make this business work. How can you make this that if this is really a parallel to the hit by a bus thing? But it's more than that. You have to be proactive, be working to make your business work without you not just like working, really proactively thinking how can I remove myself from this business? And that's something I really learned when I was thinking, Oh, I'm going to be going back to class in the fall. What am I going to do?

Gresham Harkless 9:55

Yeah, and a lot of times people will say, Okay, well, the business will just take a back burner, but in reality, you can continue to grow. But as you said, it's all on you to be able to figure out what you want to do and then do the work in order to make that happen. Because I think there's a lot of people that just say, Oh, well, it's just gonna happen that way. But in reality, you always have an option. Right? You can find you can increase the volume you can work on their margins and scale up as many as you don't have to just put it on the back burner.

Dylan Schwartz 10:26

I was told by many people, hey, just put it on the back burner. Yeah, just do it after college like No, no, no, there's got to be another way to think of it. So that's the attitude you have to go off of, if you're the CEO, if I don't, who will, because no one else will care about it as much as you do.

Gresham Harkless 10:44

Absolutely. And especially in this day, and age, with so much technology and tools that we have out, there is definitely a way to systematise to create processes to do all those things to have those things in place. So that you can be sitting in classes, having your business running, and creating revenue for you. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So Dylan, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Dylan Schwartz 11:10

I'm the leader. And I got to figure out, hey, what do I need to accomplish? And you should know that before you wake up in the morning, you should do that before you go to sleep. You always knew what you got to do? What do I have to do to make money? What am I going to do to increase connections or whatever you got to know to do because no one else is going to tell you what you got to do? Sometimes, if you're friends with someone in a slightly different niche, they might guide you a bit. But you really got to sit down and think about, what am I going to accomplish? Okay, how am I going to accomplish it? What people what tools, what technology? What am I going to use to accomplish it, and then you have to do those things?

And you have to just constantly update. And get updates on what you have to do and make sure that those people who are supposed to be doing them are doing them, you're like the manager, you're like the coach of the team. But you're still working, you're working on your own project at the same time, then it's like, you might have to, and this will happen, you have to all of a sudden stop what you're doing, take care of something else, you're the VIP, and you're the leader, you gotta do everything. But you're not physically thinking of doing everything, but you're seeing everything on some general or broader level.

Gresham Harkless 12:30

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And you kind of have a maestro in front of an orchestra, when you see everything, you understand how everything's flowing together. And sometimes when somebody might be playing on key, you might have to jump in and play that key for another person in place, but it's important to understand and be able to do both of those things. But you're not stuck in that exact same or with that exact same instrument to where you can't see the forest for the trees.

Dylan Schwartz 12:57

It's a double action, you have to be working on what you have to be doing for whatever your project is, or whatever the CEO can accomplish. But also you need to be ready to stop that immediately and jump to a million different things whenever they come up.

Gresham Harkless 13:20

Absolutely, absolutely. Dylan, I truly appreciate your time and appreciate all the awesome things that you're doing. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can find out about all the awesome things you're doing and get a hold of you.

Dylan Schwartz 13:35

Yeah, so I would tell all those CEOs out there to stick with it. No, you're gonna want to throw in the towel so many times, which on a broader level is good, because that means that you're being super creative. And if the world is saying, then it's making it challenging for you, if you rise from the ashes, and you really prevail, and your idea works well, good for you, you've made it, that's you're gonna want to throw in that towel so many times and that fact that you get up with a new idea and say, Well, how about this way? That's how you're gonna succeed.

Gresham Harkless 14:11

Absolutely, I think that's a great reminder that pivoting is not necessarily a failure. If you decide to take a different route or go a different step. That does not necessarily mean that is a failure. So it's a great reminder. And I appreciate you for sharing that with us and people that want to reach out to you what's the best way?

Dylan Schwartz 14:27

You can visit us at www.dylanuniversecomics.com. They can also see us on YouTube, our channel sells comic books online with Dylan. You can see us at shows around the country. You can also check out some of our auctions on eBay, which are the ideas dealing with universe comics.

Gresham Harkless 14:45

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much and Dylan, we will have those links in the show notes as well. But I appreciate your time appreciate you for rockin' and rollin' and putting in those 80-plus hour weeks as well. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Dylan Schwartz 14:58

All right. Thank you, Gresham. Bye

Outro 15:00

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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