This week we talk to Katie Flynn of @thehippyedit about reselling, social media, work-life balance, and knowing when and how to take time away from it all.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the ecommerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and hub for information on growing your business. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
List Perfectly is the ecommerce resource for selling across multiple e-commerce platforms including eBay, Poshmark, Etsy, Mercari, Kidizen, Grailed, Depop, Tradesy, Facebook Marketplace, Instagram and Shopify.
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Episode Links
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Transcript
Liz:
Welcome to season 2, episode 12 of The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly. I am Liz.
Doug:
I am Doug. What is up Liz?
Liz:
Right now? The sky, the snow-filled sky here in Colorado. What’s up with you, Doug?
Doug:
It’s been chilly here for California, gets down to the forties and then bizarrely up into the seventies in the afternoon, hoodie in the morning, lighter hoodie in the afternoon, I suppose you would say. You would laugh at that, but…
Liz:
Yes. Our high might be 40 today.
Doug:
Yeah. Well, you get our rain as snow.
Liz:
Yes. Yes. The dog’s mad at me. I won’t take her while it’s actively snowing out, but you know, yeah, she’ll get over it, but that’s, that’s it for today. It’s been a busy week since we brought the news.
Doug:
This is true. Always stuff going on. First thing List Perfectly hit a thousand followers on TikTok. Please. Everybody. I know it’s a big, thank you. Come on, please. We’re talking about TikTok ladies, gentlemen. So that’s cool. We’re excited about that.
Liz:
That is awesome. And TikTok the List Perfectly TikTok account really is fairly new when you look at social media for List Perfectly.
Doug:
Yeah. Yeah. We’re at that milestone. So, I think we’ll be doing some live stuff, doing some different stuff. Liz, you’re doing some stuff over on YouTube too. With the podcast episodes. You put some up. What’s going on with that?
Liz:
Yeah. So as part of the podcast if I know our listeners probably think that we have equal parts in this podcast, but that is not true. Liz shows up and talks. Liz talks to the guests and Doug does everything else that goes behind podcasting. So, my little part is I wanna bring our podcast to YouTube. So, I’m now picking and selecting interviews to put on the List Perfectly YouTube channel to help promote the podcast so that we can be heard on more than just podcaster’s favorite streaming stations. We will now show up on YouTube. So, it’s just a little way to grow the podcast and share onto the YouTube community.
Doug:
And that’s at youtube.com/ListPerfectlyYT. No, that’s great. Sort of like our greatest hits Liz, you’re putting out a greatest hits of The Seller Community Podcast.
Liz:
Yes. And it’s been fun.
Doug:
And then again, as you know, go to thesellercommunitypodcast.com for all of your other Seller Community Podcast needs, the transcripts, show notes, links, all that stuff.
Liz:
You’re welcome, Vikki.
Doug:
Our diligent reader.
Liz:
Yes.
Doug:
I do have an announcement. I don’t wanna shock you, Liz. I don’t wanna surprise you, Liz. I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable.
Liz:
Is this, wait, I’m not good with surprises. So, do you think that this is something that I might know about or not?
Doug:
Well, you know about it. But you’re very good at taming my need to reveal everything. So, you’ve been good at helping me with that.
Liz:
Yes, but…
Doug:
List Perfectly is very close, ladies and gentlemen, to launching The Seller Community Blog. Thank you everyone. Thank you. So, the List Perfectly Seller Community Blog is gonna be your resource for selling stories. It’s not just gonna be all about List Perfectly. It’s gonna be similar, kind of to the podcast, selling stories, seller stories, selling tips, ecommerce tips. There’ll be some List Perfectly sprinkled in there, but it’s gonna be a lot of seller stories. A lot of sellers will be involved. We’re talking to some guest bloggers. I think Liz may have some stuff on there. We’ll give her a Liz rants column.
Liz:
Ohhh…
Doug:
But it’s gonna be launching very, very soon. So, another amazing resource for you from List Perfectly. And obviously the goal is always to be the best. So, it’s gonna be the greatest ecommerce blog out there. The greatest of all time, Liz, what do you think?
Liz:
I have no doubt that it will be.
Doug:
Oh, Liz, wait, ladies, gentlemen, please. Liz is speaking. The crowd agrees with you, Liz. The seller crowd is very excited.
Liz:
I’m excited for this. It’s just yet another way that List Perfectly is helping the community, The Seller Community Blog. And I’m excited for that. List Perfectly is popping up everywhere TikTok, YouTube, and it’s just content everywhere to where it’s kind of like crossposting, right? Like we crosspost to all these different platforms because there’s an audience for each platform. And I kind of feel like List Perfectly’s starting to crosspost content across all of these social media platforms because not everybody’s on Facebook. Not everybody listens to a podcast. Not everybody’s on TikTok. Some people like to read.
Doug:
You know, what’s interesting too Liz is, you know, this conversation goes on out there about, you know, List Perfectly crossposting ecommerce solutions. We see a ton of testimonials about why sellers love List Perfectly. Why it’s, how it’s changed their business, how it’s changed their lives. And we don’t pay for these testimonials. Like a lot of these sellers are just doing ’em on their own. It’s awesome.
Liz:
Yeah. I love seeing that. Every time I turn around its “this is what List Perfectly did for me.” And it’s just genuine sellers. I remember when I started using List Perfectly. Every time something new and cool would come out that helped my business I couldn’t help, but to go, oh my gosh, look at what’s going on. Look at what you could be saving time doing too. And I don’t know if any of our listeners noticed last week, Clara and I were live, and we were talking about making a duplicate listing with List Perfectly. And they made a change with removing item numbers and platforms when you do a duplicate listing. And I was using it this weekend because I got a lot of things that I had sold out in the past. That I can now relist. And so, all I do is I make a duplicate listing and it was so nice to skip that step to where now I just wanna take a post and be like, “Oh my gosh, do you see this? Do you see how much time we’re saving now?” I feel like doing a testimonial about my weekend listing because of that.
Doug:
There you go. Yeah. And the lives over on YouTube too have been great. And you’re gonna see more every week. And it’s just, you know, talking about, I guess what would be a hot topic. Speaking of that, Liz. Tonight, you know, we always say this. We try not to date the episode cuz we want it to, whenever you listen, for it to be relative, but every once in a while, timeliness does come up. So, tonight is our livecast over on YouTube actually.
Liz:
Yes, it is!
Doug:
Your favorite time of the month. The Seller Community Podcast Livecast!
Liz:
It truly is.
Doug:
Oh, sorry. Geez, Liz, the crowd today.
Liz:
I know, I know.
Doug:
I can’t, please. Thank you.
Liz:
It’s nice to see everybody as excited as I am.
Doug:
Yes. And you know, they grow every month. We’ve got our usual suspects that come in and listen in. We’re always excited about that and recap our recent stuff. But the last couple of times we’ve just, you know, gone live and taken a lot of questions, talked about a lot of stuff. So that always is fun.
Liz:
Well, look, I’m already looking forward to the next livecast because during our next livecast, we’ll also be able to include this episode, which I’m super excited about.
Doug:
That is true. This week’s episode, Liz, tell us about it.
Liz:
So, this week we welcome a seller that I started following on Instagram a long time ago. Well, I feel like it’s a long time ago. It’s probably like a year ago because that’s, let’s be honest, that’s about how long I’ve been active on Instagram. And she just really caught my attention as she did yours as she did a lot of sellers. So, Katie Flynn is @thehippyedit on Instagram on all of her channels. She just really has a way in social media to connect with other sellers.
Doug:
It’s H I P P Y. The Hippy Edit. And I think she’s just positive. She’s, you know, got a great message. She knows what she’s talking about. Puts out fun, useful content. And it was just, you know, super cool to finally talk to her. And she was excited to meet us, which was nice too. She told us that she discovered List Perfectly via the podcast that she used to listen to when she was delivering stuff for GrubHub or delivering stuff for DoorDash.
Liz:
Okay. Doug, I’m gonna have to cut you off. Oh, you’re spilling all the information again. I know you just get so excited. I do too.
Doug:
Wait, I didn’t tell anybody about the blog, right?
Liz:
Oh, Doug.
Doug:
Did I mention that?
Liz:
You, you may have, but do we wanna mention it again?
Doug:
The Seller Community Blog from List Perfectly is coming very soon.
Liz:
Speaking of blog, Katie, @TheHippyEdit, on her site also has a fantastic blog.
Doug:
Yeah.
Liz:
We talked to Katie about that in our interview, which we are excited to bring to you.
Doug:
And she’s at TheHippyEdit.Com. Anyway, let’s drop into our great chat with Katie, The Hippy Edit. We’ve already talked about having her come back on to go deeper into some of the stuff she talks about. So, listen, in…
Liz:
This week, we welcome Katie, The Hippy Edit to the Seller Community Podcast. Katie, in your bio, it says, “I started in this business with a few pieces from my own closet and we have grown to the thrifted fashion company. You see, today, we are here to provide you with a positive shopping experience through excellent customer service and eco-friendly practices.” So, Katie, this is kinda like a mission statement. So, what is your mission?
Katie:
My mission is to promote sustainability in all aspects of life, not just, you know, in terms of protecting the environment, but also in terms of your mental health, you know, not experiencing burnout, all that fun stuff and I use my reselling business as the vehicle to do that.
Liz:
I love that so much. And I wanna say that that really stands out in everything that you post that you say that you do. I recognize that immediately from you.
Katie:
Awesome. I’m glad to hear that it’s working.
Doug:
And so, Katie, I was telling Liz earlier that you know, I spent some time on your blog yesterday and we put some questions together as kind of a guide, you know, to help us go through the interview. And then after I sent the questions, I saw 14 interesting things about The Hippy Edit after I’d sent the questions. So, you know, there could have been more, but I’m gonna stop the show Liz, because Katie and I found out something interesting that we have in common yesterday is we both have our degrees in political science.
Katie:
Yes.
Liz:
Nice.
Doug:
And so, Katie is a political scientist, and she sells online. I’m a political scientist and I do you know, online content.
Liz:
And you speak about selling online.
Doug:
There we go.
Liz:
That is amazing. I feel like I’m in the presence of greatness degree or no degree, but I love that you two have that in common.
Doug:
So, we’re gonna talk about Marxist Dialecticism and all that.
Liz:
I’m gonna go get some water really quick.
Doug:
That’s right. But to, to bring it back around. So, Katie, how were you introduced to online selling? What made you say that you’re gonna do that?
Katie:
So, I was living with a bunch of my sorority sisters, my junior year, and I shared a room with one of my very best friends. And one day she was just putting her clothes in boxes and attaching shipping labels. And I looked at her and I said, why are you doing that? What is going on? Where are you sending this stuff? And she’s said, oh, I sell my clothes on Poshmark so that I can make money to feed my continuing shopping addiction. And I was like, ding, ding, ding, light bulb, hello, I’m a broke college student. I have tons of extra clothes lying around. Why don’t I do this too? And as for the moment that made me say, this is it, this is what I’m doing. You can thank COVID for that one.
Liz:
So that happened during COVID.
Katie:
Yeah. so, I was running my reselling business for about a year kind of casually on the side. And then the pandemic hit and unfortunately, I lost my job in the nonprofit sector and luckily, I had been doing the reselling, so I already kind of had the business established. But I decided, you know, now’s the time I’m gonna dive in head first. I mean, it’s been an adventure. I really like it. But it was definitely not a planned excursion.
Liz:
I think a lot of sellers kind of felt that yeah. And kind of ran with it. They found ecommerce and then they’re just running with it.
Katie:
Absolutely.
Doug:
And you know, the pandemic was a really big shift in a lot of you know, a lot of ways how we work, what we do, and then people believing their jobs to do other things. And we know tons of sellers that the last couple years they made the shift to full time. Yep.
Liz:
And especially college grads, especially, you know, my son graduated high school during the pandemic. You graduated college during the pandemic. And so, life shifted, life changed fast. They, you were able to pivot and make that change.
Katie:
Yeah, it was, it was definitely not a pivot I was expecting, you know, I had always wanted to kind of go full time with my reselling. That was always something that I was like, Ooh, which would be kind of cool. That’d be a fun time. Right. But then I thought it would take five to 10 years to build up my business to actually get to that point. And then yeah, the pandemic hit and all of a sudden, it’s all I had. And so, I was like, all right, it’s a grind, time, time to go. And that’s, that’s what I found List Perfectly too. And so that’s when my business really took off
Doug:
My son’s in high school. And it’s interesting cuz for younger kids, it’s the other way around. He’s got some friends that sell online, and I’ve talked to them about it. Are you interested in making this a career? Probably not. So, it’s like, you know, you could,
Katie:
You could yeah.
Liz:
Yeah. The accidental entrepreneurs that we are. Right.
Katie:
Yep. I had always kind of wanted to be an entrepreneur. You know, starting in high school, it was something that I always wanted to do, but more with the cosmetology route. Like I wanted to be a makeup artist, hair stylist, all that fun stuff. But college seemed like the safer route, you know, like college, getting a degree, getting a secure job and doing all that stuff is the way to go. Right? Like that’s how I’m gonna be successful. And then yeah, I mean this pandemic in 2020 threw us all for a loop and really just changed the way that we all operate and the way that we all do things. So, it’s been an adventure, but it’s been so much fun. Yeah.
Doug:
But you did get the political science degree. So, there you go.
Katie:
Yes. I have that.
Liz:
You can use your degree as a backup to reselling.
Doug:
Is e-commerce your full-time job or are you working other jobs, or do you have other gigs?
Katie:
So, I do have other gigs that I do on the side just for fun and to get outta the house. I’m a nanny who is so much fun. I absolutely love the girls that I nanny for. They’re one and three, so great ages. They’re so much fun. It’s just, it’s a nice, you know, break from being in my apartment all day. So, it’s, it’s just great. I do that a couple days a week and then I also run a digital marketing agency with my partner. And we have a lot of clients that we do, social media management and content creation for so
Liz:
Nice.
Doug:
You’re busy.
Katie:
Yes. Very busy.
Liz:
So, I remember you talking in one of your Instagram lives once, did you drive for Uber at one point too?
Katie:
I did. I was a DoorDash, Uber, and GrubHub driver. I was driving for all three of ’em at one point and that was to again, supplement the reselling just to, you know, help make ends meet, doing whatever I could. And it’s really kind of funny, you know, I was doing that about a year ago and listening to this podcast is what got me through those long hours in the car. It’s very surreal to be here and, and doing this now.
Liz:
Well, that’s amazing to hear because I remember listening to your Instagram live and I tuned in, and I shared it because you gave such great insight on Mercari Local and being a driver and kind of that you had both the aspects of it. So, I knew you did that. So, I did wanna ask about that. That was amazing. And that’s, I’m like, wow, she’s doing all this stuff and educating us on both ends of the spectrum. I love
Katie:
That it’s an adventure. I keep busy and I don’t do DoorDash anymore, but it was honestly a really fun side gig when I did do it. So, I highly recommend it if there’s any resellers out there that are trying to make that push to full time, but still need something extra on the side to supplement, go for DoorDash, you set your own hours. It’s great. I loved it.
Liz:
I, and again, it’s that entrepreneurial spirit, you know, you get to do drive when you want to kind of like reselling
Katie:
Exactly.
Doug:
Isn’t it tempting to like to try a fry?
Katie:
Oh, absolutely. Luckily for COVID purposes, all the bags that I delivered were sealed for safety, but no, it was tempting. The smell is coming out of some of that food. Oh, very nice.
Liz:
I love your name, The Hippy Edit. How did you come up with that name and how is it relevant to you, Katie?
Katie:
So, honestly, if I’m being totally honest, it kind of just popped outta my head and onto the apps there. It was, it kind of became a thing, but if I really sit down and think about my thought process behind it, I wanted something that represented sustainability eco-friendly. And so that’s where the hippie part comes from, you know, flower, power, you know, helping the environment, all that fun stuff. Yeah. And I consider myself a hippie, so I identify as one, I decided to use it and then I needed something that tied it still into fashion. So, I went with edit because you know, you see that in editorials and all that sort of stuff. So that’s where the hippy edit was born.
Liz:
I love it. And in my thought process, I follow you and I got the hippy part and the edit part, I strongly related to your blog because you do blog also. And so, I was like, oh my gosh, this is genius. This is like, when I think Katie, I think The Hippy Edit and I think of your blog, and I think of your sustainability.
Katie:
Well, that makes me happy to hear. I’m very, very glad that I go alongside my business.
Doug:
Yeah. We talked about your website and your blog, your social media content is always fun and educational and ties everything together. So, tell us about how and when you got into sustainability.
Katie:
So, I’ve been on my sustainability journey for over 10 years. It started when I read a magazine as a kid that had an article all about 30 ways that you could be more sustainable. Okay. And in that article, one of the ideas was that you could plant a tree in your backyard. And so that year for my birthday, I asked for a tree. And I got one. Hands down, my favorite birthday present that I’ve ever gotten. I love that tree. Fortunately, my parents have moved, so I think it’s time to ask for another one. So, that’s where I got started. And honestly, I’ve just been on a journey to make an impact wherever I can in terms of sustainability. It starts small and I’ve grown it to the business that you see today.
Doug:
That’s awesome. And Liz and Katie, the gift of a tree is the gift that gives for hundreds of years. Yes. If not thousands.
Katie:
Absolutely.
Doug:
It’s the gift that keeps giving.
Liz:
I wasn’t raised with that. I didn’t read that article on sustainability. I, I, I just kind of learned as I got older that, hey, we should probably be doing better. Yeah. We need to be better people. And sometimes, you know, we just get set in our ways that maybe aren’t so sustainable. And so, I love learning from our community and there, you know, sellers like you that do share information about sustainability and really for us that, especially that do sell secondhand or upcycled or thrifted, we are doing it without even realizing it. And you educate through your platforms also, what would you want sellers and buyers to know about sustainability that
Katie:
It’s really easy to do? It sounds complicated cuz sustainability is this big, long fancy word, but it is honestly so simple to just take some really easy steps to run your business more sustainably. I mean, for sellers personally, I focus on packaging. The packaging supplies that I use are 100% eco-friendly and recyclable. Everything can be broken down. Some of it is compostable as well. So, I love, you know, utilizing that aspect of the business. And then the other thing is how you source really matters too. Cause like you said, a lot of us source secondhand, but there’s also a big portion of the community that, you know, sources, retail, arbitrage, and that contributes to over consumption in fast fashion. Unfortunately. So that’s why I stick with sourcing second hand. You know, I go to the bins, I’ll go to regular thrift stores. I’ll do consignment, I’ll do anything that, you know, allows me to resell clothing that has already been loved by someone else.
Doug:
Thehippeedit.com is your website, your hub. So, tell us about that and what can we find at thehippieedit.com?
Katie:
So thehippyedit.com is my baby. I built her myself. She is absolutely amazing. I love her. She’s my pride and joy and yes, it is as she., but I have a blog over there where I talk all about sustainability reselling thrifting, anything under the sun, whatever I feel like talking about I’ll chat about on my blog. And then I also have my shop so you can shop my thrifted clothing that I sell as well as any of my jewelry that I make or the, you know, other little knickknacks that I create are all available for sale on my site as well. I have some graphic designs you can get in touch with me about, you know, creating custom content and digital marketing. It’s a fun place. So definitely come check it out. I absolutely love it. I’m very proud of it.
Liz:
You should be, she is beautiful.
Katie:
She’s beautiful.
Liz:
And Doug’s gonna put the link in the show notes so everyone can go find it and we’re gonna share that on our social. So, our community can find you
Katie:
Perfect.
Liz:
You started on Poshmark.
Katie:
Yes.
Liz:
I mean, we all have what we call a native platform and we’re to typically whatever native platform we have, we’re like really that’s our baby platform. Like that’s our favorite. And you were a speaker at posh Fest 2021 speaking on sustainable changes, a huge impact panel.
Katie:
Yes.
Liz:
How did that come about? How was that for you as a seller in the community?
Katie:
Oh my gosh. It was probably one of the best experiences that I’ve had at a community event. It was a blast I, it came about because I actually realized that they were opening up applications to be posh Fest speakers through their app. I got a little notification at the top of my newsfeed. And so, I clicked on that and filled out an application, submitted it. And then a few months later I heard back from team posh that they wanted me to speak. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is so exciting. And about my favorite topic in the world. So, I was like, yeah, sign me up. Let’s do it. But it was so much fun. I absolutely loved it. Great experience. That’s
Liz:
Awesome. It was my first posh Fest that I attended too. So, it was great to see you and to see all the speakers speaking at posh Fest. That was a lot of speaking of speaking to speak. It just came outta my mouth.
Katie:
Yeah. It was my first posh Fest too. So, it was really fun to be able to attend and speak in the same session. I was bummed that it unfortunately got moved to virtual. I was planning to go down to Florida and attend in person. But hopefully next year I think we’ll be, I think we’ll be all together next year.
Liz:
I hope so too. It’ll be my first in person too.
Doug:
Yeah. We probably still need a little time. We’re hoping for this year, but maybe next year. We’ll see. So obviously social media’s a big part of what you do. So how did you build up your social following?
Katie:
A lot of really hard work, consistent effort over time and a lot of failing. I learned from mistakes that I made over and over and over again. It took a lot of trial and error and just, just figuring it out. Social media is not an overnight thing. If some tell you that it’s overnight, please send them my way because I would love to know how they hacked the system.
Liz:
Doug and I talked about this on the podcast on and off for the last year. Yeah. You know, social media, resellers and social media know why it is hard. It’s hard to, it’s really hard, consistent. I have a hard time with that. Yeah. and I notice that I’ll like jump and then I’m like, oh, but this one’s getting ignored or this, and it is such a balance. And I am nowhere near, like, I’m just kind of there floating. Right. but I do notice, like I notice when I go missing for a week, I know it’s a community, I’m a Facebook person. You know, I used Facebook for umpteen bazillion years since the internet was invented. It feels like Instagram and TikTok are fairly new to me. Yep. But it’s been great to go out of my comfort zone and to meet sellers on those platforms.
Liz:
What if I would’ve stayed in my zone and in my element, I wouldn’t have met sellers. Like you, I wouldn’t have opened up my eyes for that. And so, when we do that, we tend to notice things around us. Yes. And I know like for you, you had been putting out daily content and I noticed, oh, wait, where’s Katie, where did where’s she got tell it, you took a break. Right, right. So, tell us what made you decide or, you know, or felt your need to go ahead and say, hey, I think I need a break.
Katie:
Yeah. so, it was kind of a subconscious decision, not really one that I was planning to make. I just realized one day that I was feeling really, really burnt out. And honestly, I completely ran out of ideas of what I wanted to post online. I had nothing left in the tank. So, I realized that I just needed to step away, find that balance and just reconnect to my business and fall back in love with my business and with reselling, because that had definitely been happening. I was falling out of love with the whole industry. I was getting really frustrated and the direction that my social media had been heading in, you know, the future that I could see for it, I didn’t love it. So, I was like, hmm, let’s take a step back for a little while. Don’t know how long this is gonna be, but we’re gonna take a step back for a little while and kind of recalibrate and come back with intention with purpose and with a real plan behind what I’m doing. So that’s what I did. I took, you know, a solid two months off and it didn’t take me all that long to rebuild up my engagement again when I came back. So, if you need a break, this is your sign. Take a break from social media. Just give it to yourself. Cuz, I promise it’ll be there when you get back. Yes,
Doug:
Yes. And definitely that digital detox now, and again is important, but let’s talk about you know, work life balance. So, what does work life balance mean to you?
Katie:
Work life balance is something that I’m still, you know, working on myself. I would not call myself perfect at it by any means, but for, it’s just giving myself space from my work, giving myself time to decompress, step away, do some self-care, whatever that looks like for the day, whether I’m, you know, going rock climbing or I am doing a thrifting session just for me, like I’m buying for myself, whatever that looks like, I’m gonna do it. The other biggest thing, turn your phones off at night. Please turn social media off, turn your notifications off, whatever it takes. Just disconnect. Especially as sellers, we are on our phones so much between the apps and social media and everything else that we’re doing. You need that break. You need to actually physically put your phone down, put it in another room and separate yourself from it to actually get that balance of work and life. So, for me, turning my phone off at the end of the night is my biggest, biggest piece of advice and the biggest tool that I have in my toolbox.
Doug:
Oh, that’s great advice.
Liz:
Yeah, it is. And sometimes I forget to do that too.
Katie:
Sometimes I still do. There are nights where I catch myself, I’m scrolling on TikTok and it’s getting late and I’m like, Ooh, I broke my rule turned
Liz:
Off. Yes. Yeah. It’s but as long as we can remind ourselves, right. And we’re like, oh we, we, that, that recognition. Yeah. Do you think that that balance is different for a reseller versus somebody that’s like in a corporation or not to five working for somebody else?
Katie:
Absolutely. and I think a big part of that is because so many of us work from home not, and you know, the world has changed over the last couple years. A lot of people work from home now, but at the same time, a lot of other people can close their computer at the end of the day and fully disconnect from work and not have to worry about it. You know, they’re not, you know, they don’t have to respond to their boss after a certain hour. My boss is my customer. So, if I get a question at 9:00 PM, sometimes I’m gonna have to answer that question, especially if I wanna make a sale. So, it’s definitely gonna be different for resellers. And I think it’s just about showing yourself love and grace and figuring it out and not putting too much pressure on yourself to get it right. Every single time you’re gonna make mistakes. You’re gonna have days where your balance is off, and you didn’t show yourself enough self-care or whatever that looks like for you. But it’s about waking up the next day, forgiving yourself for that and moving on and trying again and doing it better.
Liz:
And I wanna say that that is so important. As a reseller too, we get caught up. I’ve done it in the past and I know some sellers thrive on it, some don’t, but this is a hustle culture. Yeah. This is a true hustle culture. Like sometimes we feel, we have to have to have to have to be a hustler in order to do this. You know what, I go back and forth. I go back and forth. There are some days I’m like, I don’t have to hustle. Yeah. I, I, I don’t have to. And then other days I’m like, why aren’t you hustling more?
Katie:
Yeah, absolutely. I definitely have those days too where I, you know, I’m, I’m one or the other, so yeah.
Liz:
Yeah, exactly.
Doug:
So, when you took that time off, was that just from social media and content or was it from selling as well? And then how did you handle your selling, shipping sourcing, et cetera during that time?
Katie:
So, at first it was only from social media. But then I realized that I wasn’t giving myself the real space that I needed to fall back in love with my business. So, I stepped entirely, really away from selling for the better part of a month and a half. So, I would say I didn’t make any sales if I’m being honest. So, I didn’t have to worry about you know, shipping or any of that stuff. I didn’t source at all. I quite frankly took a complete and total break because I needed it.
Doug:
Good for you.
Liz:
That is, what’s great about this business. Yep. About being your own boss. Yep. You can do that. Yeah. And I hope that you’ve come back to it and that sales have been plentiful for you and that the traction is getting going again. Yes,
Katie:
Yes. It does not take that long. If you come back to it with a strategy and with intention behind what you’re doing, it doesn’t take long to get the ball rolling again. I’ve had sales coming in, even when Poshmark was going through that whole debacle with the yeah. Birch algorithm, I was still making sales over there. So, it’s possible to take a break and step away when you need to and come back, your business will be here. Your followers will be here. Your community will be here.
Liz:
What advice would you give to resellers that are in your same shoes?
Katie:
Show yourself love and grace, you know, give yourself that space. If you need it. If you’re feeling like you’re getting burnt out, you probably are. So, you probably just need to step away for a day or two actually step away. I don’t mean, you know, don’t just not post. I mean, don’t even open the apps, don’t even look at. ‘Em Just give yourself that break to let your mind recover. Because if you don’t recover, you’re not gonna be able to run your business effectively. So just take the break and take the space that you need to. Thank
Doug:
You. That’s great. Yeah, no, that’s great advice. All right, Katie, what you’ve said so far has been great. Do you wanna have a little fun?
Katie:
Sure. Let’s do it.
Speaker 4:
Ladies
Doug:
And gentlemen. Let’s welcome Katie to the lightning round. This is her point. This is the point where she can make up some points. She can recover. Maybe, you know, some of those points that she’s lost. Double points. So basically Katie, the idea here is quick questions. Quick answer. Are you ready?
Katie:
I’m ready.
Doug:
All right. Liz, start us out.
Liz:
Oh my gosh, Katie. Okay. What was the first thing you sold online?
Katie:
It was a pair of boots for my own closet and the sale got canceled because I took too long to ship.
Liz:
Oh, but you eventually got, you’ve got my wah wah button. It wasn’t me this time.
Doug:
I apologize, ladies. Go ahead.
Liz:
Nope, go ahead.
Doug:
All right, Katie, what’s your favorite item to sell
Katie:
Anything? Vintage.
Liz:
What is your favorite platform to sell on?
Katie:
Poshmark? Because it was my first and it’s the one I know best.
Doug:
All right. What’s your favorite social media platform?
Katie:
Ooh, probably Instagram.
Doug:
Ah, nice. Nice, good answer. All right. Thank you, Katie. That was a very quick lightning round, but you did a great job. You actually have won today. 10,000. The crowd was going wild. They loved it Back to our usual show.
Liz:
I have learned so much from you and I have enjoyed this so much. We’ve heard where Katie the hi has been where she’s come back to what’s next.
Katie:
Oh man, that’s a really good question. I wish I had a, you know, more solid answer, but right now I am focusing on creating real structures for my business, real strategy for my business, implementing all of that, you know, making sure that I’m following through on everything that I need to. And you know, I’ve got lots of ideas of what I wanna do in the future, whether it’s reopening my consignment portion of my business or, you know, doing course consultations, all that fun stuff. But right now, I’m just focusing on falling back in love with the hippie, edit, falling back in love with reselling and relearning a lot of what I learned in the beginning. So just getting back to my roots with sourcing and you know, just all that fun stuff, just relearning, reselling, it’s a blast.
Liz:
It is.
Doug:
So, Katie, anything to add? Any final words, anything we didn’t cover,
Katie:
Just that, you know, I think work life balance can be this really kind of overwhelming thing to try and grasp. Especially when there’s so many different TikTok challenges or trends going on and things that you could possibly do to quote unquote, get your life together and get back on track and find that balance. But it’s all about what it looks like for you. And it’s, it’s all about what it means to you. So as long as you feel like you’re, you’ve got a good balance for what your mind can handle, that’s all that matters.
Doug:
That’s great. Thank you.
Liz:
I want to have like a whole other hour talking to you because you’re motivated so much. We’re gonna have to do like a hippie edit part two.
Katie:
I would love to, let’s
Liz:
Go back on and talk more about selling and sustainability. Okay. So, Doug, Katie, I think the next time you come on, we’re gonna have to do a sustainability episode because I have questions.
Katie:
Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.
Liz:
Okay. And it’s a deal.
Katie:
Definitely. Let’s do it.
Doug:
Intro Katie.
Liz:
I appreciate you and your time so much. Thank you for coming on the Seller Community Podcast and sharing your story.
Katie:
Thank you so much for having me. I had an absolute blast. Like I said, I used to listen to this when I was door dashing, just, you know, trying to figure it out. And it’s so great to be here and actually be a guest on this podcast because it’s a great resource for sellers. I, I just think it’s, it’s such an amazing place for sellers to come and learn and yeah, I love it.
Doug:
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And so, Katie, thank you for joining us and thanks for listening. That’s really nice to hear and you know, we follow your stuff too. I always enjoy your Instagram posts and all that. And then you can find Katie on all the social sites, The Hippy Edit, and then of course her blog@thehippieedit.com.
Katie:
Yep. Find me anywhere, send a message. I’d love to connect.
Liz:
Thank you for joining us on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly. You can find us at thesellercommunitypodcast.com. Leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/seller community podcast or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com. You can also post a question in the List Perfectly Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/listperfectly use the hashtag #sellercommunitypodcast and mention Liz or Doug.
Doug:
You can listen to us anywhere. You listen to podcasts and be sure and subscribe, tell your friends, and if you’re on apple podcasts or Spotify, please leave us a review. You can also follow us on Instagram. Tiktok. Liz is @coloradoreworn. I’m @snoop.dougie and of course follow @listperfectly. Also, you can use our promo code podcast, P O D C A S T for 30% off your first month of list, perfectly or 30% off your first month. Upgrading your plan.
Liz:
All right, Doug, I’ll see you next time. Next time.