Overview
This week Liz and Doug rewind to the BOSS Reseller Remix, and give their recap. We’ll also hear from the organizers Vikki, Katy and Theresa, and from some attendees!
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the #1 resource for the seller community across all platforms and hub for information on growing your business with List Perfectly. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast, leave a message or ask a question at https://anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com.
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Episode 38 Links
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Transcript
Intro
Doug:
Hey, Liz, what’s up?
Liz:
Not much, Doug. How are you?
Doug:
I’m doing all right. I haven’t had as busy a week as you have had, but we are on episode 38. We’ve had a busy couple of weeks.
Liz:
We really have, we really have. Wow, episode 38.
Doug:
It is, this is true.
Liz:
That is crazy to me. I feel like we’re just getting started.
Doug:
So here’s what I’m thinking. We started last March, year one is going to be season one. Obviously we don’t get a break between seasons. We’re not going to take two years off like the Soprano’s cause we don’t want people to lose track of our storyline, Liz. (Liz laughing) So then, next year will be seasoned two already.
Liz:
That’s amazing!
Doug:
That’s the thing. Did we restart the episode count? I don’t think so. I think we can do season two, episode 40 something and then go from there.
Liz:
Because let’s face it, Doug. When you are watching something on Netflix, do you care what season you’re on? Not really. You just keep following the storyline. And I hope that that’s what our listeners will do.
Doug:
We’ll, just segue. Get to the point where you can have the joy of bingeing us like people do. we’ll be the Squid Games of the new 2022.
Liz:
How’s your week been?
Doug:
It’s been good. Good. You know, I had an appearance. I was on Consignment Chats that went well.
Liz:
I know!
Doug:
We did costumes, I think I lived up to their expectations. And the poor girls tried to stump me with a Duran Duran trivia question, which I was able to answer in the middle of the question.
Liz:
I know, but, but they did stump you on one.
Doug:
That is true.
Liz:
So you’ll have to tune in to see what question Doug was stumped on.
Doug:
Yeah, it was a tough one. They dug deep for that one. Then Liz was on 400 appearances this week for eBay. Radio, TV, pay-per-view events, wrestling events, American Gladiator.
Liz:
Nooo!
Doug:
Sundays! Sunday! Sunday!
Liz:
It was more like a really bad episode of Wipe Out, but I’m just kidding. No, but everything went really well. I did the eBay stuff, we talked about that last week. And then this week I also got to talk to the San Jose Meetup, what a great meet-up and what great members of their community. And I think that was really it. I spent a lot of time this week kind of catching up on shipping, running sales, kind of, you know, the Q4 effect, hopefully coming into play. I need to list more. I haven’t listed anything since I’ve been back. I’ve really just been busy doing this stuff and shipping.
Doug:
If only you had a listing tool that could help you…
Liz:
But I do! But, I need a picture person and I need a listing person and I need two more arms, four more eyes.
Doug:
But also the San Jose meet-up. That’s just my, you know, I love Colorado Springs, your meet-up, but San Jose was my first OG meetup. And I would go up there for eBay. I would stay late and you know, hang out with those peeps back for three something years now. Not every time, but I used to catch them pretty regularly. So that’s a good meet-up. They’re lucky to be able to meet at eBay HQ. The mothership as some call it.
Liz:
Yes, but just to be clear, we did this via Zoom. I did not go to San Jose nor did they. So yeah, we did all of this via Zoom and that was a lot of fun. You know what else was a lot of fun that we’ve been talking about for the last almost two weeks now?
Doug:
Yes.
Liz:
The Boss Reseller Remix.
Doug:
Yes. That was a ton of fun. A ton of learning, a ton of networking. And that’s why we’re here today, Liz.
Liz:
It is.
Doug:
For episode 38. We are doing the long awaited Doug and Liz Seller Community Podcast Boss Reseller Remix recap. Reseller Remix recap.
Liz:
I’m so proud of you, Doug!
Doug:
Thanks.
Liz:
You didn’t say ‘rewind’.
Doug:
Thank you! I know.
Liz:
I’m very proud of you.
Doug:
I know, I still want to do that music festival.
Liz:
There you go.
Doug:
Obscure one hit wonder eighties bands. Modern English, Flock of Seagulls.
Liz:
Oh my goodness. I don’t know. But we’re going to have a flock of organizers in our studio today to talk about the highlights of the Boss Reseller Remix. The takeaways and feedback we got. So I know we’ve talked about it, but for those that weren’t able to make it, or those that have never been to a reseller event, kind of what it’s about. And we’re going to tell you what a reseller event is about outside of eBay Open, because we hear about that one a lot. We hear a lot about Poshfest, and we want to bring to you how this event came together and was different than both of those, yet so successful.
Doug:
Yes, definitely. And we will have some feedback and insights from attendees. We will be listening to some voice messages. We got some emails that we will read in the voice of the submitter.
Liz:
Oh dear,
Doug:
I don’t know. And then we will read some comments too.
Liz:
So Doug, let’s say we go ahead and get started. First, just as a reminder, the Seller Community Podcast is brought to you by List Perfectly every week for your enjoyment and show notes are found @thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast.
Speaker 1:
All right. So now let’s get into it with Vikki, Katy, and Theresa, and we’re going to chat about the Boss Reseller Remix event.
BOSS Reseller Rewind Recap
Doug:
So, you know, Liz and I are back from the Boss Reseller Remix, which was an amazing event last week! Liz and I were there. We recorded. We were there with List Perfectly. We did an amazing community panel. That was a lot of fun, but we were also there to support our friends, Katy and Vikki, and Theresa and support the event. And frankly, it was an amazing event. I was blown away. I think Liz was blown away, but we’re very excited to have the organizers here today, Katy, Vikki and Theresa. And we’re going to do a bit of a recap. What do you think, Liz?
Liz:
I think it’s fantastic. So just to clarify, I had my ticket and hotel reservations before we even talked about podcasting there. So I was going to go as a seller. Didn’t matter. Day one, Liz was in. Like I had everything done. So I was super excited for the event as a seller on top of everything else that ended up unfolding to be so welcome, Theresa. Welcome Katy. Welcome Vikki.
Katy:
Hello.
Vikki:
Hi. Thanks for having us back friends.
Theresa:
We’re so used to having cheers and rounds of applause when we’re introduced. Where’s our cheers and rounds of applause? We got used to that last week.
Doug:
(Applause sounds) This is for Theresa. Theresa, welcome to the show. Katy and Vikki, welcome to the show.
Theresa:
Thank you, I feel at home now.
Vikki:
All right. Much better, much better. Thank you, thank you.
Katy:
So Katy here, but, it’s funny, you were saying about how you Liz, you were already going to be coming. And we, when we’ve talked about this event, we’ve talked about how as veterans of eBay Open, when we planned this event, we really wanted to steal the very best parts of eBay Open and then make all the changes that, you know, as sellers do everything that we’ve ever complained about, we’ve tried to like make improvements on those parts. And one of the things we kind of stole was the last time eBay Open happened in 2019, they had eBay Radio there set up and they were interviewing sellers and stuff. And so we were really like, we want the Seller Community Podcast there to kind of do a similar thing. And it was really fun to have you guys there in that role, even though Liz, of course you were already going to come.
Vikki:
We probably should have communicated that to Liz prior to her buying everything. So she could have planned better, but you were always, that was always the intent.
Liz:
It’s okay. It’s okay. I had a great time, no matter what, I was just ready to be around my community.
Katy:
Yeah, as were we all. Clearly that seemed to be the resounding message that we all received last week for sure.
Doug:
Yeah. And it was good to be back! And just for the record, I booked my plane ticket days before, so I flew Spirit Airlines for the first time. (laughter) It was great to be back. Very eBay Open-esque for me and what blew me away, besides the people that I knew that were like, oh, it’s so cool to be back. Such a great event. I loved that it was the first seller event for so many sellers and they were blown away. They loved it. They can’t wait for the next one. They’re going to be back next year. They’re already talking about next year and you guys are probably still, you know, recovering like everybody else is just tired and going for five days.
Vikki:
Oh, heck no. Are you kidding me? We were already decompressing at the end of the first night with Theresa talking about how we’re going to do better next year. The three of us have, we already have plans.
Katy:
I mean, we were making plans even before this event, but I will say we’re about a week out and we’re probably just getting to where we’ve caught up on sleep. I think Vikki has taken like four naps this last week and she’s not a napper. I’m more of the napper. So we’ve definitely had to recover from it and have been super tired. But yeah, we’re already making plans. We already, you know, we’ve taken notes of everything that we want to improve. We’re going to be doing like a whole anonymous survey next week. So we can get some real feedback from the people that were there and see what kind of improvements we can make. But we are really happy with how the event played out.
Theresa:
I will say Doug, that I have to say it was good to see you back in your element. That is exactly what you need to be doing in the community, amongst your people, doing the things that you do and do so well. So it was good to see that side of Doug.
Vikki:
Doug was happy last week. It was nice to see.
Doug:
Yeah, it was cool. It was, it was nice to be back. I’d really missed it. So thanks to you all.
Katy:
I mean, I’m certainly sick of seeing Doug so morose all the time. So it’s good he’s happy again. (all laughing)
Doug:
Yeah, it brought me back out of my shell.
Katy:
Surprisingly I mean, anytime you’re putting on a big event, there’s any number of things that can potentially go wrong or issues. And seriously, it was so smooth and probably the biggest hiccup was just lunchtime and dealing with the flow. And the fact that 75% of people just wanted tacos and it was hard to get people spread out again.
Vikki:
Duly noted. Duly noted! At least two taco trucks next year. Now we know!
Liz:
But in talking about the Boss Reseller Remix. A lot of people didn’t get to make it, or a lot of people were hesitant because they didn’t know what these conferences were for. So really what was the goal of the Boss Reseller Remix?
Vikki:
Our goal was to bring the community together. Last year, we knew early on even pre COVID that eBay Open was not coming back in a physical form. As Resellers, so many of us look forward to that event every year to gather and get together and network and to see our friends. And yes, the teaching aspect of it is fun too. But if you are a seasoned seller, the reality is that eBay does teach at these events to a newer seller. So I feel that as a seasoned seller, you don’t necessarily take a lot if you don’t have a lot of takeaways to help you with your business. From the event itself, the main takeaways you get are from other sellers. And we’ve always said that for years and that’s not to knock eBay. The event is always fantastic. And if you’ve never been, I highly suggest you go, no matter what level of seller you are, it’s always a wonderful event. However, as a seasoned seller, people have always felt like the sessions are somewhat lacking for you to maybe accelerate your business or to help level up or help learn a little bit more in-depth on how to grow your business. And one of the things that we had talked about Theresa, Katy and myself had talked about is how can we bring that type of information to fellow sellers and also bring our community together? So when eBay had announced that they were not going to have Open that year, we said, well, why don’t we do our own version? You know, maybe not 2000 people, because heck we’re not eBay, but we can do a smaller version and we can take all the really great things we love about eBay Open and try to incorporate some of the things that we felt were missing and create our own little version of it.
Katy:
Yeah. And I think, you know, anybody who’s been to eBay Open knows the very best part is networking and getting to see all of your friends from across the country. And when they did announce that they weren’t doing eBay Open 2020 before the pandemic, they were doing the upfronts, which were regional. And so it’s like, yeah, you could see some people, but you weren’t able to see, like we want to see our east coast friends. We want to see our friends from all over the place. And you know, like Vicki was saying, you know, with the content of eBay Open, it’s very obviously eBay centric. And a lot of the sessions are led by eBay employees. It’s very much focusing on aspects of the platform and things that, you know, maybe aren’t as interesting to sellers. And what we hear sellers say is they desperately want and enjoy the seller-led content and seller panels, like that part, there’s usually like a handful of panels or sessions that are led by sellers. And those are always the ones that people say were the very best of the actual content that you see at eBay Open. And so when we put our event together, it was about sellers teaching other sellers, sellers inspiring other sellers. So we wanted pretty much every, almost every session to be seller led and filled with sellers on those panels. Other than a couple of sessions that we had, that we reserved for sponsors, of course, because that’s just the way you do it. And so I think we succeeded at that, but it definitely was more about the community and sellers being able to learn from each other.
Theresa:
And I think that by having a smaller group, one of the things that we discussed that we absolutely wanted to make sure it happened was that we didn’t have breakout sessions where you had to pick and choose. So we had the main sessions all in the same room because I get it with eBay Open with 2000 sellers. You have to do that because you just don’t have time for it to get everything in. But you know, when you have six seller led sessions and three of them were at one time and three of them are in another that’s beyond frustrating. And so one of the things that we did when we planned this was you can get up and move around and go up to the vendor room and go up to hanging out at the lounge. But all the content was happening on the stage at one time and you didn’t have to pick and choose. And I think that made it a lot more of a success with the sellers. Like sellers, I got a lot of feedback about that, that they appreciated not having to pick and choose.
Katy:
Which we’re not planning to change, where we want to stay at the same venue. So while there is some room for growth, we have some more capacity in that space. We’re going to look at other ways for people to continue to be able to hopefully be involved. So like next year we are definitely looking at adding and making it a hybrid event and adding a virtual component because we know there’s always going to be people who can’t come either financially they can’t come, or they can’t travel for whatever reason, you know, so there’s a lot of reasons why people can’t actually attend the event, but they still want to be able to be involved. And so that’s one way that we’re going to be able to grow next year, but still stay in that same physical space where it’s much more intimate.
Doug:
Tell us how you guys planned all this. And we’ll start with Theresa. Theresa, Katy, and Vikki work together. Theresa’s a bit remote, but tell us the logistics of the planning and how that all worked out.
Theresa:
We had a vision, but I think Katy and Vikki’s vision was bigger than mine because while I wasn’t surprised at anything that happened, it definitely turned out to be way better than I could have anticipated. And I think that a lot of that has to do with a lot of the preparation and preparedness and just having a great event lined up. But I think that the unknown factor was how well it was received by the sellers. So planning and prep, you know, we had pretty much a list of the people that we were going to have to speak to and reach out to them. You know, Katy and Vikki, you can talk about how, you know, everybody just said yes, like nobody hesitated. Like sure, I’ll do that from, you know, Mark to the CPA guy, to eBay folks to, you know, just having somebody on a community panel or Rally Roots, or Rockstar Flipper, like everybody just said, yeah, we’re in.
Katy:
Yeah. And you know, I think that people had faith that we would have the ability to put on a fun event and bring people together, and it was going to be a great time. But I also think that not that people underestimated us in any way, I just think they didn’t know what to expect. And the reality is that Vicki and I both have extensive professional experience putting on events. And while our experience isn’t specifically reseller events, it is big in-person events. And there are so many details that go into putting on an in-person event, particularly a multi-day event that maybe the average person wouldn’t necessarily know to do. And so I think that we brought that expertise, that we were able to put this event on.
Vikki:
I think many people underestimate that, that there are so many layers of details to think about, you know, you think, okay, I’m just going to throw a bunch of people in a room and well, no, not really. You really have to have a very detailed schedule. You know, you can’t just put people on a panel, you have to have questions for the people on the panel. You have to make sure that their vendors are set up in a certain place at a certain time at a certain time, there’s a lot of different levels and details that go into doing something like this. I think even when we started, even though we knew how many details there were, it still ended up being a lot more work than we thought it was going to be. But in the end, it was all entirely worth it.
Theresa:
I mean, it always is. I mean, like we would have, you know, we went over the budget and everything like that. We’d have things like snacks. And then we would have things like we need badges and we knew them, but then it’s like, okay, you need badges. You need to print the names. You need to have the badges. Then you need to order the lanyards. Then you need to figure out, okay, we have snacks. What’s that gonna entail? Where are we going to get it? And when are we going to shop? Like, there’s all these million layers too, cause I worked on the budget part of it, the million layers to every budget line, which is what I’m familiar with. And I’ll be honest with you, Katy and Vicki absolutely have way more experience. In my other professional life when we had events, I dreaded them. It’s not my thing to get down to that level of granular detail for putting on an event.
Vikki:
That’s not our thing to be handling a spreadsheet and budget. So this is why this partnership works so well because Theresa hashtag numbers geek was able to handle that portion of it. And we just sent her the emails and the invoices and the receipts and said, here you deal with that part and tell us that we’re on track and where we’re supposed to be. Because that is realistically something that Katy and I both dread and hate. So it worked really well where Theresa is like, okay, that makes sense to me that, okay, that’s fine. Okay. That fits in the budget. It worked out well, honestly.
Katy:
Yeah, but I think some people envision like, oh, you’re really just doing a giant meetup. You rent a space, maybe you paid for a meal and then you just bring everybody together. And that’s pretty much all it is. And Listen, we do meet ups and some of our meet-ups have had upwards of close to 50 people. And it’s like, yeah, when you have a meetup like that, you get a space. You bring in a bunch of cases of water, and a bunch of trays of cookies. And it’s really just about people mingling and having a good time. With something like this, this is a whole different level. This is a whole different type of event. And in order to make it run smoothly and to make it professional, there are a million different working parts. And I’m so grateful that everything came together as it did. And any issues that we did have were very, very minor and easily fixable for next year to make it an even better event. Man, we have some crazy ideas for next year.
Vikki:
We originally, all three of us had actually visited the Blind Center when Chris Linn had done a panel there after eBay Open in 2018. And we were amazed by the facility itself. And shortly after that, I had been in touch with the person who used to run their eBay division, who is no longer there. And I had kept in touch with him because I was amazed by the facility. And I had said, you know, I live here locally and I am, I’ve worked with non-profits for many, many years and I want to get involved somehow. I was very impressed by what they did. And I was very moved by how they worked with the community. So we had stayed in touch and I was running my meetup, my local meetup out of the Blind Center. They were allowing us to use their facility as our eBay meetup location. And, we did several meetups there and we loved the facility. Fortunately, our schedules didn’t quite work out. So we ended up having to move locations. However, we stayed in touch and kept it in the back of our minds. And it was my absolute first and only go to for event space when we decided to start planning this event. And as soon as I was able to look in and see what type of capacity they had and they are an event center. And so this was not outside of their realm of what they do. They do event planning, they host weddings and conferences and all types of things there. What is different about that they do it there at the event center versus we’re already in Las Vegas, right? So there’s a million hotels and conference centers here that we could use. This is a nonprofit organization. So every penny that you put into their organization by using their event center and by renting their event center and their space and using their event planning committee and their catering and all of their sound and their AV, all of the things that you use when you’re planning an event, it goes right back into services that they provide to the visually impaired individuals that their service helps. So I love the idea of the fact that Katy and I both come from non-profit backgrounds. We enjoy giving back to the community. And this was just one more way to give back to the community. While we are hosting a Reseller event, it’s a beautiful space. Those that attended were able to see that it was a beautiful space. It was incredibly professionally done and handled. And their event staff was wonderful. It could not have turned out better. And we feel like it’s a place that we can grow with and stay with for the next several years, holding this event there. They loved us, the fact that they already have an eBay division was also another wonderful tie in that we wanted to showcase. And it just felt right. Everything about it felt right.
Katy:
And you know what, one of the other hidden parts of what goes into putting on an event like this is you’re dealing with a lot of third parties, a lot of different businesses and vendors. And let me tell you, I spent a lot of my time just kind of being flushed down the toilet because I was working with people who were non-responsive having to like regularly call and leave messages and call and leave messages and emails and trying to get people to be responsive and you know, do whatever it was that they were supposed to do. And the refreshing part about working with the Blind Center, as Vikki said, you know, Melinda and her team there were so professional and so on top of everything. And it was so great to at least have part of our event where we just did not have to worry about certain things being taken care of. And it was just great because let me tell you, I had some struggles in a lot of different areas. It was planning and a lot of time that was wasted along the way.
Vikki:
The food was fantastic and the facility is beautiful. It’s new, it’s top notch. There was plenty of space for everybody to mingle, and everything about it. I could not say enough wonderful things about the facility and it exceeded our expectations.
Liz:
And Boss Reseller Remix just didn’t rent out a conference room. There was a conference room, a lounge, another lounge, a podcasting studio, a vendor event, and a stage. And then, like you said, the food the night of the event, I know that I got to stay the last day when they flipped the conference area into an evening night in. And let me tell you the second that the last person left the venue, it was no joke. People coming out of the woodwork, flipping the venue.
Vikki:
Visually impaired people coming out and flipping the venue from a conference space to an elegant banquet hall.
Liz:
Yes. And not only that, you walk into this elegant space and I’m talking, it was beautiful. You walk in with a live band playing. By the way, the live band, tell us about it.
Theresa:
I love their name. I love their name. Their name is the best band name ever, Doug. They are a visually impaired band and their band name is the Broken Spectacles.
Doug:
Yeah. That’s a great name.
Katy:
They were great.
Vikki:
They are the house band and they are a, you can hire them for any event that you have if you’d like to. And it was never a question we were like, yeah, we have to hire them. So we hired them for the first hour to play while we were coming into the party, then we had a DJ. We might need them a little longer next time. We might have to hire them for two hours next time.
Katy:
Did you know that the next day they were putting on a huge gala the next day? So it’s like, they’re just nonstop. Event after event, after event. It’s crazy. And I don’t know if we mentioned it earlier. We said that we had gone for an event with Chris Lynn and back in 2018. That’s because, you know the blind center obviously offers services to people who are visually impaired, but they have multiple ways that they bring in revenue. And one of the really, really big ways is they have a whole eBay store, and whole eBay operation there that, again, employees and is run by mostly visually impaired people. And it’s a massive operation that brings in a lot of funding. So they do event planning, but they also have a huge eBay operation, which is amazing.
Theresa:
Thing I love about it, it connects them to the reseller community, which is why they got us. And I was there and I took the tour and I watched a visually impaired guy take apart a computer. He knew where every screw was. He knew how to take it out, like, okay, there’s four screws. Now I remove this board. They’re just amazing.
Vikki:
We are still living in a time where having some personal space is important. So one of the things we loved about this facility was that there was a lot of room to spread out. We kept, due to a lot of regulations happening right now, we kept our ticket sales under a certain number. Our lunches were outside. We had food trucks, everybody sat outside at tables, it’s beautiful weather this time of the year in Vegas. That part was really fun. It was nice to be outside and everybody sat in the beautiful air and talked and it was really great.
Katy:
And the theme for the week was really all about community, making connections, building relationships, finding partnerships. And so we had all these amazing speakers that talked about all kinds of different things. And you know, many of our speakers are people who have like social media presence and they, some of them sell courses, some of them have you know, paid groups and do things like that, which while there’s obviously no problem with that, we made it a point that it you know, the week was not about selling to the attendees. It really was about making connections and building those relationships. So really, you know, other than, of course our sponsors, you know, of course up in the vendor room, they want people to sign up for their services, you know, whether it’s something like WorthPoint or List Perfectly or whatever, as far as like all of our regular speakers, they weren’t there to sell. They weren’t there to try to get you to sign up for their private group so that they could, you know, teach you. It was really just about sharing knowledge and building those relationships. And I think that really was clear to everybody that was there and it was much appreciated that it wasn’t a big sell.
Vikki:
Yeah. I think it came across that people were there to share their knowledge freely. They were there. We tried to invite people to be participants that we felt were there for the right reasons. They wanted to help us, you know, make it a successful event. But also these are very successful sellers for the most part. They didn’t need to come and sell their stuff. They sell their stuff all the time. They wanted to come and give back to the community as well. They wanted to come and share their knowledge freely for that moment that they were there and speak with the attendees and give back and be part of the community that helped build them too.
Katy:
And connect with those people who support them. I mean, no matter what, if you are somebody who has a big following it’s because of the support of the community that you have that. And so I think that they all recognize that.
Theresa:
And I think that one of the biggest things that I heard from the attendees and the feedback that I got was how appreciative they were of this small setting and a more intimate setting, and the fact that they felt like they could reach out to these people that they’d been watching on YouTube for years, and the people that have helped them and all the people that were speakers freely give back to the community and our teachers and help with help other sellers figure out, you know, each platform or you know, how to sell and, and issues and so on and so forth. And I think that for a lot of people, they were a little star struck, which was fun to watch. In our business you know, we work at home when we mostly are solopreneurs and we do things on our own. So when you get out and you get amongst your people, and you can actually talk and interact with the people that you’ve watched on a screen, help you build your business, that is life changing to the user and to the seller community. And for me, those are my favorite stories. It’s like, you know, people will say that, you know, I’m starting to see Instagram stories about, you know, different things with the inventory system that I presented and that just warms my heart. Is it something that I invented? No, but I tweaked it. And I figured out a way to teach it. And people are using my ideas and tweaking it for their space. That’s what makes me happy. I love to see all the different pieces of information that people take away. We’re not even a week home, and they’re already putting it into practice, which is the whole reason to go. Don’t just go and listen, take notes, go home and implement the things that you learned.
Vikki:
It was very important for us that every person that attended felt seen and they felt heard, and they felt validated, and nobody felt marginalized. They pay this money for a ticket and they showed up to an event and they didn’t sit by themselves in a corner and they didn’t feel included or inclusive. And I think that we didn’t only speak about inclusivity and community. I think that it really, the event really embodied it. I think we tried to sleep a lot, but it was very much, by the second and third day, I felt it. I know that I felt it. And I think that our attendees felt it. I had many, many, many people come up to me and, and in tears about it. And I had mentioned it on stage, and I know it sounds funny, but I felt like we were almost at like an MLM meeting where everybody was like preaching about Amway or something, because it had that type of feel to it. We really did have a whole kumbaya thing going on. And it was wonderful. You know, it feels almost corny to say it now a week removed, but there was, there was a vibe about that room and about the people in that room that I wish I could bottle up for people that were not there, because it was beautiful. It doesn’t matter if you sell a hundred items a year or a hundred thousand items a year, what you do, and something that you do has value to someone else.
Liz:
Speaking of feedback, we’ve gotten a lot of it. And Doug and I have something for you that somebody called into the podcast to share with you, Theresa, Katy and Vikki. We have a message from our friend Stewart White that we want to play for you.
Stewart White:
“Hey Liz and Doug, Stewart with Franklin Hill Ventures. Just a quick recap on the Boss Reseller Remix. At first off, I wasn’t even sure if I should attend this event, having only been full-time reselling for about two months, I wasn’t sure that it was worth the time to go out there. I’m happy to say it was worth every minute I spent, every dollar I spent, I learned so much, I met so many new people, several of whom I know are going to be friends for life. I’m looking forward to next year. I will be there for sure. A big shout out to Katy, Vikki and Theresa for putting on the event. I know they have lots of help, but I think it’s their leadership that made it so successful. Really enjoyed listening to all the speakers, and learned so much from each and every one of them. And finally, a shout out to both of you for putting on the podcast. It’s one of the highlights of my week, and I learned so much from all your guests. Anyway, I’m out of time. So we will talk to you later.”
Doug:
And that was a great comment from Stewart! Some great feedback.
Vikki:
He was great. It was so fun to meet Stewart. I had been watching his, you know, and seeing his comments and the List Perfectly group. And then he had come into the Boss group as a seller. And I always enjoy watching people’s journeys that are very active in groups and seeing their questions and stuff. He was so fun to meet in person. And that’s a great comment to hear that he got so much out of the event. I’m so glad that he came and I got to meet him. And now he’s, he’s a new friend and no longer a stranger friend.
Katy:
It’s really fun to see him interacting with the community because he’s so warm and open. And he’s the perfect example of what makes our community great. People who are invested in building relationships with other sellers in the community and want to help people to be even better and want to learn so they can be better themselves. And I think Stewart is like a perfect example of that. And I’m so glad that he did decide to come to the event because it was great to meet him and kind of see who he is and kind of how he interacts in the world. Because he was just fantastic.
Theresa:
Stewart is a fairly new seller. He is so positive and he’s so encouraging. And he doesn’t think that he doesn’t know anything. He’s like, Hey, I figured this out. Maybe you need help with this too. Like, and I love that attitude. Like he’s not, he doesn’t think that because he’s new, that he doesn’t know anything. And you know, I just, I love his positive energy and I think he’s definitely going to go far. I think he’s going to surpass his nine to five income faster than he thinks he can.
Doug:
I also have an email if you’d like to hear it.
Liz:
Yes.
Vikki:
Yes.
Patty:
“Hi this is Patty Coffman, AKA Trish’s Attic. I attended the 2021 Reseller Remix. And let me tell you, it was beyond my expectations. I cannot imagine the work that Vikki, Katy and Theresa put into this event, you would have never known it was the inaugural event. I met so many wonderful people and saw old friends that were made at eBay Open 2019. It was something I emotionally needed. There are no words to express my feelings and emotions of being able to attend this event. I learned so much and I came home motivated. Thank you, Trish Glen, to get my butt in gear and shut up and list and let it go. I had an amazing time and even got to meet Snoop Doug and Liz O’Kane, both absolutely wonderful people. I will be there next year. No question in my mind.”
Katy:
That’s great. Patty has always been a very supportive member of the community and super supportive of us, Vikki and I, and so we really appreciate those people who have had faith in us and anything, anytime we need help, anytime we need any kind of support they’re there. And Patty is definitely one of those people. So I’m really happy that she came and she had a great time.
Vikki:
You know, we had said something on stage, or I had said something on stage. We had a handful of good friends in the community and supporters that I think would have come to anything that we did no matter what, because they’re friends and supporters. And I think Liz, you’re probably one of those people, you know, and that’s a wonderful thing to have people like that in your corner. But I am even happier that the people that would have come no matter what absolutely felt that they got something great out of this, because that means so much more .
Liz:
We’re not done because we did ask people, what was your takeaway? So we’ll start light Vikki, because this actually came from you. So one piece of advice, and one thing that you said was you have a quote from Dana Jasmine. “Surround yourself with people who would mention your name in a room full of opportunities.” So Dana said that and that just, I mean, it really resonates, right? And I think that that’s exactly what we did this week. A couple of other tips that just came in there that people took away really Trish Glenn, 80/20 rule. I feel like it applies not only to hiring someone, but also for myself. It won’t sell if it’s not listed.
Katy:
For anyone who doesn’t know what the 80/20 rule is. It’s the idea, particularly in her instance where you’re hiring somebody, it’s the idea of 80% is good enough. You can’t expect somebody else to do the a hundred percent that you want that you like, but if you can feel like 80% is good enough, then basically stuff can get done. And I think that does apply for yourself too, because we know sellers who are perfectionists and they’ll take pictures a million times or they’ll try to perfect everything that doesn’t get done because they want it perfect. And listen, 80% is good enough if it’s good, if that’s going to get it listed, it’s more important than hitting that hundred percent and you can never achieve.
Liz:
Deb Bradley says from Alley Roots “Profits, not projects.” I heard that from her three years ago, but it really just struck. We should not let this episode go without mentioning the wonderful Dom Hollins. So just the one quote
Theresa:
The perfect person for that job.
Liz:
Yes, and you know, somebody who’s like done repeatedly telling us to be kind.
Katy:
She was fantastic. You know, we started planning this event, she was the only person we had in mind to be our emcee. She’s one of our favorite people. And, you know, it’s kind of like with Doug, it’s like, there’s a couple people from eBay who, when you go to an eBay event, it’s like, they’re essential and you need them there. And you know, neither of you guys are with eBay anymore, but we still wanted you at our event. And Dom was the, I think the perfect choice to have for emcee and she was even more amazing than we knew she could be. She did a great job of hyping, the crowds, setting the tone and really making people feel comfortable and welcome. And it was awesome. It was really awesome.
Theresa:
And we’ve already penciled her in for next year.
Katy:
And I think, you know, what ties us all together is all of our seller friends and within this community, we all have different backgrounds and different places that we come from. But ultimately when it comes down to it, we all have shared values and shared concepts of, of how we fit within the community and how we treat each other and how we lift each other up and support each other. And that’s as important as the business that we do. And that’s why I think this event was so successful is because we brought all those people together. And then all the people that we didn’t even know that came into it, they got to kind of bask in that and taste it for the first time. And I’m excited to hear that so many people, this was their first reseller event because, you know, they’re going to come back next year and hopefully we haven’t spoiled it for the other events for them, but they, they got to have like the purest best version of the reseller community all packed into a few days. And that makes me really happy.
Doug:
So let’s go around and each of you please share the single biggest highlight of the event for you.
Theresa:
Getting to catch up with sellers that I knew and meeting new sellers that I maybe have chatted with online. But getting to talk to them in real life. And getting to know more people. That’s what I was looking forward to before the event started. That’s what was my biggest takeaway and that’s what I will look forward to again next year.
Katy:
So I think for me, you know, when we talked about why we started planning this event in the first place, you know, when eBay had said they weren’t gonna do eBay Open 2020. And we were like, well, there has to be an event. Like people need to come together. We need this. This is like our annual kind of refueling and getting re-invigorated. And so we felt like it was needed. And then fast forward, you know, a year and a half, two years going through COVID. And it was that times a million. And so for me, it was really about getting to see all these sellers, you know, people that we knew before, new people that we met, just being so hungry for this human connection. So desperate and, you know, so drained from two years of isolation and not getting to make those connections, getting to see them all flourish and so happy. And so, you know, finally getting to see their friends again. Finally getting to meet these new people again and everything that they were missing over the last two years, especially the newer sellers who’d never experienced this before, seeing how important it is to have this community that just gets you, that knows where you come from and knows what you’re going through. And it was just so great. It was so nice to be able to see that it felt amazing to see people, you know, people were crying. I can’t even explain to you how many times people were crying. There was so much crying at this event and it was all happy tears. And it was just crazy over the top. Just people crying nonstop. I don’t know, Vikki probably cried 20 times, but that’s because it really was emotional. Even for people who aren’t like, you know, super touchy, feely needs to be with people, kind of people were like, we needed this. We’ve gone so long without it and we’re so glad that we’re here because this is what I needed so badly.
Vikki:
So to touch on it, I feel very similar to Katy. For me, it was the very first night when we walked in, and I’m going to cry when we walked into the cocktail reception. And we were like, oh, I wonder how many people are going to come. And 250 people proceeded to fill up the room very quickly. And I looked around and I saw all of our people that we brought all these people together and it was already a success for me. It didn’t even matter if we didn’t even have a conference after that. It was a success to see all these people, to be so happy to be together, to be so excited to be together. And everybody was a little trepidatious at first. Okay. Do we keep our masks on? Do we not keep our masks on? Is anybody hugging? Who wants to have a fist bump? Do we elbow bump? What is happening? We don’t know how to “people ” anymore. By the end of the first day, everybody was kind of like, oh, forget it. We’re just going to rip off the band aid. Everybody just wanted to hug each other. And just, you know, we’ve had almost two years of, as Katy said, isolation, and this is a very isolating type of business in general. And I think that it was, as she said, it was desperately needed. People need other people. And maybe now more than ever, and this was an equalizer. Okay. Let’s face it. Everybody this last week was just people. It didn’t, you know, everybody was on the same page and it didn’t matter where you lived or where you came from. It was an extremely emotional connection that was made with a lot of people. And I cried so many times. It’s true. I’m a crier anyway, for sure. But it was beautiful to see. And people just really wanted to connect with one another. Physically connect with one another. I loved every bit of it. I don’t think I could pick any one part, but I loved every, every bit of the connections that were made.
Liz:
I have seen a couple of YouTubes that were out. And the one thing that I see that is a total constant is that they’re smiling. You’re getting together, never meeting each other before. And they’re like, oh, who are you? Oh, great to meet you. Everybody was smiling. My big theme that I walked away with that I could tell. I mean, because we spent a lot of time in the podcasting booth and up on the mezzanine looking down, the one constant thing that I could see and that I could feel if you can see this, but I could definitely feel it, was motivation. Like yes, people got the gems from the speakers. People got the human touch, but it was the motivation. You could just feel it in the whole entire conference. This was motivating for so many people. Just really, that was it at the end of the day, was that motivation. People were so excited to go home with a reinvigorated sense of I’m going to go sell all of my stuff now and put in to play all of my inventory systems. And, but at the most part, the one thing that I want everybody to remember, out of all of that, is going right back to Dom. And, be kind.
Doug:
Thank you, Katy, Vikki and Theresa for joining us, giving us your thoughts, helping us recap your amazing event. And definitely can’t wait ’til next year. I’ll be there. I’m sure Liz will be there.
Katy:
Thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it as always. And we love coming on and talking to you guys!
New Speaker:
It was such a great event and we were so happy to have you be a part of it. And we already can’t wait for next year.
Liz:
I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to it.
Outro
Doug:
All right, Liz, what’s up in the news this week?
Liz:
So Doug, it’s been actually a fairly light reselling news week. But there is a big one for those that sell on the site Heroine, which is Grailed’s sister site. They are closing shop and will be saying goodbye on December 9th. (sad music) So they had a decent run from 2017 to 2019, for all five of you that sell on Heroine. That is not a dig at Heroine. I did list there. I never had a sale there. I tried. But if you are registered on Heroine, they have put out an email. Check your email, but their official close down date is December 9th. Okay. Doug, I hate rumors.
Doug:
The Fleetwood Mac album? It’s a classic album, actually.
Liz:
I do like that album, actually Doug. That is a great album. But you know, it leads people to believe that, Hey, so if Heroine is shutting their doors, it’s a sister site to Grailed. Will Grailed be opening up to the women’s market? Here’s one line out of the email; “Today our community’s needs have shifted again. There are more women on Grailed than on Heroine with 68% of the Heroine community already active on both platforms.”
Doug:
Hmm, there you go.
Liz:
So, who knows? Keep an ear out if you’re selling that demographic, high-end women’s wear, streetwear. Definitely keep an eye on that. And it’ll be interesting to see that. Speaking of Grailed, actually kind of going hand in hand, Grailed you can now customize your search with a new look that they’ve put out. So it sounds like they’re investing a little bit more money into the Grailed app while shutting down Heroine. So, keep an ear out. But Doug, that is the only news I have this week.
Doug:
Well, that, and that’s an interesting little teaser by them. We’ll see if they follow through and you know, honestly, no offense Heroine, but that’s a terrible name.
Liz:
Yeah, it was.
Doug:
Because I think different things. But I don’t know, but I guess it would make sense to pull it into Grailed. I don’t know. But when you said rumor, there was another big rumor this week that proved not to be true.
Liz:
What was that?
Doug:
That PayPal was going to buy Pinterest. And PayPal was like ‘We’re not buying Pinerest!’… But I mean, when I saw that, like you said, that got me riled up. I thought that was an interesting move. You know, Pinterest, I think, is underused by sellers and the basic thing there it’s image-based, it’s got a very high percentage of female users and for a while it had the highest percentage of click through of social sites, mostly because you could click through. Instagram hasn’t added that to personal posts, but they’re going to add it to stories, I think, where you can click through to URLs. But I thought that it would be interesting. I don’t know. I always thought it was weird. It was PayPal, but I think somebody, you know, sometimes those rumors come out and there’s a little bit of truth to them. So it’s something to keep an eye on. It’d be interesting for somebody to come in and buy Pinterest and kind of maybe incorporate it to other stuff they’re doing. I don’t know.
Liz:
Yeah. Let me do a little bit of investigating this week and see if I can come up with anything with Pinterest in that.
Doug:
It’s a mystery (mysterious music playing) right now. Oh and then, oh my God. Facebook’s going to change the name of the mother company to Meta.
Liz:
Only internally. It’s not externally. You’re not going to log in and it’s going to say Meta.
Doug:
Well, Facebook will still be Facebook. Instagram will still be Instagram. WhatsApp will be WhatsApp, but Mark Zuckerberg wants to make little avatars, little emotionless avatars, what a surprise, that will run around and do everything for you. So go ahead. And if you want an idea of what it might be like, watch Wall-E first and then watch Ready Player One. So, do you have a Bitmoji, Liz?
Liz:
Um, I don’t know. Maybe?
Doug:
I’ll help you make one. I have one, it’s got my glasses, my hair, my little outfit. That’s going to be what you’re going to see now. It’s going to do all this stuff for me, probably in a couple of years.
Liz:
The funniest thing that I heard come out of that is if you look at the Meta logo, it kind of looks like a Thigh Master. (both laughing) Let’s get to work! That’s the funniest thing that I heard come out of it. I haven’t really been following it. I’m sorry. I’ve been working. Yeah. So I think that that’s all that we have for this week, Doug. I just want to thank Katy Vikki, Theresa, everyone that called in, sent emails, sent messages that we were able to share with you on this episode and really thanks for tuning in and listening.
Doug:
Yeah. Thanks for tuning in. We appreciate the feedback and yeah, definitely, Theresa, Katy, Vikki, thanks for coming on. We can’t wait until next year. Have to see, I think next year might be a fun filled year of seller events. We’ll see. I can’t say that I’ve heard anything. I don’t want to reveal my sources from back alleys and darkened park benches beside rivers in Washington, DC. And maybe that’s because I’ve been watching that Monica Lewinsky thing with Linda Tripp.
Liz:
Oh man.
Doug:
She dropped the dime on Monica and then went shopping and they bump into each other. It’s like, oh! How vicious can you be Linda Tripp?
Liz:
I need to watch that.
Doug:
All right. Well, Liz, if you are looking for us, you can find us at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast. You can leave a message as some of you did this week. You can leave a message at any time or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast. There’s a little message button. You can click there and leave us a message. Some people prefer email. So email us at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com or you can of course post a question in the List Perfectly Facebook group. It helps us if you use the hashtag seller community podcast and mention Liz or myself, and that’s at facebook.com/groups/list perfectly.
Liz:
You can also follow us on Instagram. I am at Colorado Reworn. Doug is at Snoop.Dougie and of course follow @ listperfectly. Those three Instagram handles are also all three of our TikTok accounts.
Doug:
And listen, we need you to follow us on TikTok because Liz and I, even though we talk about TikTok all the time, we’re not power users. We were like, let’s go live on TikTok at Boss Reseller Remix. And we couldn’t find out how to do it. I’d forgotten that you need to have a thousand followers on TikTok to go live. So, if you want us to go live dancing, live whatever, follow us on TikTok.
Liz:
Yeah, I’ve been so inactive there. What happens is I log into TikTok, right? And then I just start scrolling. And then I forget that I came there to share information and two hours have gone and whatever I need to get better at that. I need to get better at that. Also a quick reminder, clearly you found us. You’re listening to us, but you can listen to us anywhere you listen to podcasts and be sure to subscribe, tell your friends if you’re listening on apple podcasts, Doug and I would love it if you left us a review!
Doug:
All right then. So I guess we will…
Liz and Doug:
See you next week!
Liz:
You left me hanging there. Were you going to let me do it by myself?
Doug:
That was weak.
Liz:
What was that??
Doug:
I’m trying to match your syncopation and your tone and your key.
Liz:
Yeah. I’m so inconsistent. Good luck with that.