This week, Clara, Amanda, and Doug talk with Kat @thenurseflipper about how she made the jump from full-time nursing and part-time reselling to full-time selling, growing a YouTube channel, coaching, teaching, reselling, and more!
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
thenurseflipper.com
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Transcript
Doug:
Welcome to The Seller Community Podcast. This is season two, episode 14., We have Another great episode for you, but first, a couple of quick announcements. So I’m excited to announce that Clara and Amanda, the Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of List Perfectly will be joining me as podcast co-hosts. We’re starting with this episode, which is a great interview with Kat, thenurseflipper, and we have a bunch of awesome stuff planned. So Liz is gonna continue growing her reselling business as you know, at coloradoreworn, and she has our full support. She’ll be missed. We’re very grateful for the time she put into The Seller Community Podcast to help us grow it to what it is today. And she’s active on Instagram, active on TikTok. So please make sure you’re following her there again @coloradoreworn. And I’m sure you’re gonna see her out and about in the seller community. And from me a personal thanks to Liz for helping me put this together, helping me grow The Seller Community Podcast to what it is today. I appreciate it. And I’m gonna miss you, but I am excited for the future and you know, things that are coming with the podcast. So thank you for continuing to listen and continuing to tune in. All right. So for now, let’s get to the chat Clara, Amanda and I had with Kat, thenurseflipper.
Doug:
Kat, AKA, thenurseflipper has been selling on eBay since 1999. On her website, thenurseflipper.com, and on her YouTube channel with 20 million views, she puts out content to help new and seasoned sellers learn more about what is selling on eBay and what items are making the most profits. She also shares tips and tricks that she uses to increase her productivity and profit. We’ll get into this and a lot more, but welcome to the show Kat, thanks for joining us today.
Kat:
Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Doug:
And then we’ve also got Clara and Amanda here who are gonna help me talk to you today.
Clara and Amanda:
Hi Kat.
Kat:
Hi guys. I’m glad to see you both at the same time. I’m happy to be here.
Amanda:
Thank you. And you probably saw me go like, “wow” when I heard 20 million views on your YouTube channel. Congratulations. That’s amazing.
Kat:
Thank you.
Clara:
Kat. You are thenurseflipper. How long were you a nurse full-time, please?
Kat:
I was a nurse full-time for almost 12 years. So I started late in nursing school, so I graduated when I was 30. So from when I was 30 until I was 42, I was doing full-time nursing.
Amanda:
Wow. So, okay. We understand that you were working three 12 hour shifts and how did you fit reselling into that?
Kat:
So I started, when I started reselling, I was working four 12 hour shifts because I was providing the only income coming from outside of the house. So my husband stayed at home with my son. So my income was the only one. So I was actually working four twelves when I first got back into reselling. And then as I ramped it up, I was able to cut it down to three 12 hours, which is normal for nurses. And then finally in July of last year, I cut down to two 12 hours. So as I was doing more, I was able to cut the work down as far as nursing. And I did it all the time. You know, like if, if I was on lunch break at work, I was listing. If I was in traffic, I was listing. Every spare moment I had gone to reselling because I knew I had a goal in mind of leaving nursing to do reselling where I could be at home more.
Doug:
So that’s a lot to balance. So tell us a little bit more about that. Was it, I’m sure the home support system helped and then, like you said, listing when you could, but how did you balance the two?
Kat:
So I think the biggest thing for me was I was so goal-driven that I wasn’t doing much extracurricular stuff. So it was either work or listing. And my son who is three now, was a baby then. So he would come to the shed with me to list. And before I had the shed, when I was listing inside, he was with me. So I was kind of spending time with him, letting him play while I was listing. And then my husband, luckily, does all of the grocery shopping. He does all of the cooking. I pay somebody to clean my house. I don’t wanna hide the fact that I do that just because it’s something I don’t want to do nor does my husband. So I think kind of like outsourcing some of that stuff and paying for people to help, where I could put more time into reselling, which would make me more money kind of helped with the balance. And again, I’m lucky Dalton loves, like, he’s a great going sourcing with me going to the thrift stores. Most of the time he is good in the shed. So I’ve been very lucky that he has been very accommodating and, and again, not much of social life, not much of social life.
Doug:
I can imagine.
Clara:
Yeah. So Kat on your first year reselling, you made $75,000. Would you care to explain how did you do that?
Kat:
So that for me, and this is one thing on my YouTube that I kind of try and emphasize to people is I reinvested everything because I was still working a full-time job. I didn’t need the money from reselling. At that point, I knew my end goal, but at that time I didn’t need the money coming in from reselling. So everything that came in from reselling that first year went right back into inventory. I buy really low. That is one of my big things as well. I buy from lots on estate auctions and things like that and everything I got, I would pull occasionally, you know, like maybe once or twice in a few months, if I needed extra money for the bills. Once I cut my hours from 48 to 36 I was still doing 36 that whole first year. And, you know, just if I needed a little bit, but everything else went back into the business, including like the shed that I’m in for inventory so I could grow the space that I had. I’m lucky I live in the country and I don’t have to get storage units. I have 11 acres and I could probably get 20 more sheds if I wanted, but I have a ton of space. So it was just reinvesting. And I really started with less than $500. And then every sale that came in just went back into inventory and back into inventory.
Amanda:
Wow. That’s amazing. I mean, that’s such a luxury to have that kind of space and it sounds like you’re really making use of it for your reselling. What type of items did you sell?
Kat:
So I started with pallets and I have resold them off and on since 1999, but this reselling journey started about three years ago. And I started with pallets. I saw it on Facebook and there was a lot on YouTube about, you know, the whole flipping pallets. And I’m a gambler as far as taking chances. I like surprises and buying pallets where I didn’t know what was in them. And there might be some high-dollar stuff. I started with the pallets, but probably about four or five months in I realized this is a lot of work and I have a lot of stuff that I can’t use. So we were getting some Lowe’s and Home Depot pallets, and we would end up with returns that were missing tiny little parts that we didn’t know until they got returned from the buyer. So at that point is when I switched over to the estate auctions. So I sell everything. I tell everybody, as long as it’s legal, I’ll sell it. I have done jewelry, collectibles, I do clothes. I literally will sell anything. I’ve been doing a lot of artwork lately and doing very well with that. I’m trying to think of what else I sold. Wheelchairs. I sell everything. I sell everything.
Doug:
When and why did you decide to go full-time reselling? How was the balancing so much? What was that switch that made you switch over?
Kat:
So my initial goal was last year in July is when I went part-time. My initial goal was to go part-time by the end of last year and to go full-time by the end of this year. And I actually, when I went to part-time, I was at the point where I didn’t wanna go to work, I would wake up early, want to call out, and the kicker that kind of kicked me into gear a little bit more was the fact that I just, I wasn’t wanting to go to work. So in early February, last month, I got written up for too many call-outs. And it was actually because I was sick. It wasn’t like not wanting to go to work. I had a couple of COVID exposures. I got lucky. I worked with COVID patients, one on one throughout COVID, and I never, I still to this day have not got COVID, but I didn’t wanna go to work and possibly expose my coworkers or my patients to that.
Kat:
And unfortunately, in the world of a hospital, they don’t care why you call out. So I was over, they called me in to write me up for too many callouts. And I said, “okay, I know, I know I’m over” and got a write-up. And then, and, I’ve not told this story even on my own channel. They told me I could not talk about, or do anything with YouTube at all at work. And I said, “I’m gonna have to think about that.” So when I went part-time, I switched departments. They knew about my YouTube channel. They knew about my reselling. I’m so passionate. Like, that’s what I’m talking about. Like, it’s just what I’m talking about all the time, real-life here. And they told me I could have nothing to do with it. And mind you, I wasn’t watching videos or anything.
Kat:
I was responding to comments after my patients were taken care of after all my charting was done. And they said I could not open it at all. And I was like, okay, but everybody else is on TikTok and Facebook. And they didn’t tell me I couldn’t go on the internet. They told me I could not go on YouTube. And I said, “okay.” So I went home and I said, “you know what, I’m gonna do this.” And I walked in the next day. I worked and handed in my two-week notice. And I didn’t say it on my channel because I didn’t, I didn’t really want to get into like the whole, it’s drama. And I did say that the drama was a lot of why I didn’t want to do it. There’s so many like workplace politics, I think in any, you know, corporate job. And that was pretty much what that boiled down to. I don’t know if it was like some jealousy, like, cuz I was, I was talking about like everything I was doing, I was super excited and they even told me they were very happy with my patient care. My patients were all happy. All my charting was done, but, and I’m like, “so I’m doing my job, but you know…” so that was kind of the kicker that pushed me 10 months earlier than my plan to say “I’m out.”
Clara:
Wow. That is an incredible story, Kat. Thank you, thank you for sharing that.
Amanda:
How do you feel now that you’ve made this decision, this is a life-changing decision that you made and how’s it going?
Kat:
It’s going great. So, I actually in between that last day and giving my notice, cuz I did work the two weeks out. I wasn’t gonna just walk away. I got insurance the next day for cheaper than what I was paying at work and actually better coverage, which was the main factor that was holding me back from going full-time prior to that and I’m doing great. Like I’m leaving Sunday, we’re going to Myrtle Beach. I’m doing a meetup with my show co-host Julian beardedthrift. We’re doing a meetup in Myrtle Beach South. And then I’m headed up to Pennsylvania, which we might do, people are asking me to do a meet-up there as well. And then back to Myrtle Beach. So before I would only be able to take like five days now I’m going to Myrtle Beach three days before and three days after to go to the resort, let Dalton play at the pool and we’ll get to meet some of my YouTube viewers. And it’s, it’s not as rushed. I’m probably busier. Honestly. I’m probably busier now than when I was nursing, which is okay. I am completely okay with that. I haven’t figured out a routine yet. And I don’t know that I will, just because I have so much on my plate. I don’t, I don’t know if a regular schedule will ever work for me.
Clara:
Kat, let me ask you. So when you did that switch, okay. Did you get insomnia? Did you get like fear or anxiety making this decision? How was it for you? Okay. You were done. Okay. They really pushed your buttons, right. Too many, too many rules. Right. How did you feel when you were like, “okay, I’m done.” How did you feel?
Kat:
I felt good. It was a relief. I didn’t have any issues at all. And I think a lot of that is I have been listening to a lot of motivational speakers. I’ve been listening to a lot of like entrepreneurs and it’s all like “go for it.” And the best time that you’re gonna, and the most rewarding things are the things that scare you. It was scary. I can’t say it wasn’t scary. And I mean, it still is. A lot of what I listen to is like the best things are like just on the other side of fear. And so if you’re not scared a little bit, then it’s not gonna be great. So I’m just pushing on and I haven’t had any regrets. I’ve been, I’ve been taking naps. It’s great. I get to take a nap with my three-year-old every day. It’s wonderful.
Clara:
I love it. Kat, what a great decision. I’m so happy that you decided to come to reselling full time and keep growing your YouTube channel because it’s big. You’re very successful and you have almost 25,000 subscribers. The traction and interaction you have are very big. Kat, how did the YouTube journey start for you please?
Kat:
So I told you, I found the pallets on YouTube. So I was watching videos of unboxing. And then I got into watching what sold videos, which is what I have built my channel on. So I was watching what sold videos and that was helping me learn more about what to pick up and what to source from online auctions. And I actually reached out to Matt at parttimepickers and I’m like, “can I do this?” Because I felt like I was getting so much from the YouTube community, I wanted to give back. I’m like, “I have these numbers, you know, I’m making all this money, I’m making all these sales.” And I learned most of what I had figured out thus far from YouTube and, I wanted to give back. And I think as far as the traction and growing, I answer every comment. I still, I am the one answering every comment. It takes hours a day sometimes, but I just wanna help people. And I think people can kind of see that and realize it. And I don’t hold anything back. And there occasionally is hate, you know, why are you telling everybody all? But there’s so much merchandise in the world. And there are millions of buyers that I don’t see why I shouldn’t share my knowledge and help other people grow. That’s the biggest thing for me.
Amanda:
That is such a beautiful thing to say because really the internet is big enough for all of us. And you know, you just getting out there might give someone else confidence that “Hey, you know what? I can do this too. I can become a full-time reseller just like Kat,” if you were to…
Kat:
Somebody quit their job. Somebody, I’m sorry to interrupt you, Amanda. Somebody quit their job the day after my video.
Amanda:
Wow.
Kat:
They said, “Kat did it, I’m Leaving.” I have goosebumps. I have goosebumps. She did. She’s like, “Okay, I’m done.” And she quit. And I’m like, oh, okay. Like that wasn’t my intention at all. But like I’m happy for it. She was miserable like I was. And her seeing me gave her the courage to do it.
Amanda:
That’s amazing. Would you have any pearls of wisdom or any advice if there’s somebody listening right now and they’re thinking, “Yeah, I’ve been on the fence for a long time.” Do you have any pearls of wisdom that you’d like to give them?
Kat:
So, I wanna tell you what I would say before I did this. I’ll tell you what I would say a year ago and what I would say now. So a year ago, a good friend of mine was wanting to do it and I’m like, “No, but you have a job and you have benefits. And why, why would you do that?” And I actually, started crying in my video when I was talking about this, cuz he is a good friend of mine. Cuz I told him no, I told him not to do that. And that was my thinking a year ago. And my thinking again, after listening to motivational and very, very successful people to get past the fear, like to do anything great, you have to get past the fear. And if you’re unhappy, where you’re at, it’s probably affecting you mentally and physically and you aren’t happy.
Kat:
So for me, I wanted to be happy. I wanted to be doing what I could do. And another thing for me, when it came up in my chat everybody was like, “Oh yeah, I cut out cable.” Or “I cut out this.” And I say, “No,” I say, “I’m gonna make more money at reselling than I made at nursing. I’m not gonna lessen my lifestyle. I’m gonna increase it. I’m gonna do better. And I don’t wanna look at it as like a demotion at all. I think I can make, or I know I can make more money. I can be more successful in reselling.” And I think if you continue to educate yourself, get the knowledge, learn more stuff, learn higher dollar items. And it’s a lot of work, but it doesn’t feel like work. That’s the biggest thing like reselling, if you love it, it does not feel like work at all. I could work 12 hours a day at reselling and it does not feel like work at all.
Amanda:
Oh that is so awesome. So I’m really curious. Do you have any favorite marketplaces or platforms like what’s your go-to when, when you go to list?
Kat:
eBay is my number one 99% of the time. I list on eBay and I list everything. So I’ve had a conversation with a couple of people recently. They were scared to list higher dollar items on eBay. And I don’t see the need for that fear. I’ve sold multiple, like $3,000 pieces. I’m actually when I leave Sunday, I’m delivering a $2,200 Lladro statue to somebody in Virginia on my way, I will be the freight company. I haven’t had any issues selling higher-dollar items on eBay. So, and that goes into the fear thing. Again, I think people are scared of returns and they’re scared of, “Oh, somebody’s gonna scam me.” And I think with anything in life, like if you do something when scared, you, you’re not really doing it. You’re not really doing it. So eBay, everything goes on eBay, and actually, almost everything goes on Poshmark as well.
Kat:
I think a lot of people don’t know like Poshmark has the Home section. They have like kids, they have toys. So pretty much everything we list goes on eBay. It goes on Poshmark, it also goes on Facebook Marketplace. And then I have started selling on Etsy, but I’m only putting like $20 or higher items there because they do have the listing fee and they don’t have a store option. But those are my four main go-to’s. I might look into some other platforms, but I feel like eBay is giving me enough. I think we’re at like $15,000 in sales this month on eBay. So the other platforms tend to be probably about $1500 a month.
Clara:
Doug, where is the applause? Okay. We need applause, please. Okay. 15,000.
New Speaker:
<applause>
Kat:
Yes.
Clara:
That’s amazing. So you like to go live a lot and you do it with your husband and with Dalton. Would you like to share with our audience who Dalton is, please?
Kat:
Tuesday night live, you will not see my husband or Dalton. Well, occasionally Dalton comes in. That’s our four-panel reseller live show that I do every Tuesday at eight. And that I have kind of kicked Dalton out because he likes to get attention. So he’s in here sometimes, but for our members only, it is me, my husband, and Dalton, which people very, very rarely see. He’s kind of in the back. But we do lives with shipping. It’s just here in my pajama pants that nobody ever sees cuz they don’t see the bottom half of me and shipping, you know, the reality of shipping and then the Tuesday night panel I’ve been doing for about two years has grown very, very well. And it’s nothing but questions. And I think that’s one of the things that has helped that show to grow so much is because like I don’t stop to tell everybody hi because we at this point are getting 5-700 people in chat. So if I did that, I would take the whole show to say hello. So we don’t stop to say hello. And it is literally back-to-back questions from the audience pertaining to eBay or reselling. Occasionally they will ask about YouTube or like our home life. So we answer everything, but it’s just two hours of like packed questions and information from four resellers. We have a four reseller panel and myself and Julian, my co-host, and then we have two guests with us every week. And that has grown very, very well.
Clara:
Congratulations, so the community loves it, Kat.
Kat:
I’m happy with the show. I think last year, Julian and I were like, we’re gonna average a hundred people and now we average over 500 and we’re like, “Whoa,” like it’s crazy.
Doug:
That’s awesome. Congratulations.
Amanda:
That’s amazing. That’s amazing. Would you mind taking us through, let’s say a day in Kat’s listing life, do you have any processes, or you don’t have to share anything top secret, but if you’re going to…
Kat:
I share everything. I share everything. Seriously, I hold like nothing back. I hold nothing back. I have no, I have no secrets. As far as listing, I have over the years kind of refined what I was doing because I used to list one thing at a time. I would go, you know, pictures, edit pictures, list, put it away. And now what I do is batch. So I’ll do like 10 to 20 items at a time. I will do all of the photographs. I use PhotoRoom to remove the background and then I will go inside on the couch and hang out and Dalton will sit in my lap, which is my three-year-old. So he’ll be sitting in my lap watching TV and then I list the 20 items. And then typically next day, when I go to pull the sold items, we’ll put away the items that I listed before so they’re in inventory. And then that’s as far as listing, I do have, I have three people who work for me listing now. My daughter, who is 20, quit her job about a week after I did. So she’s working for me full-time and she’s actually the one that’s listing the most for me, which I figured because she is very much like me. She’s very, very driven and I pay by the listing and then one of my good friends also is doing it. And so it’s, it’s pretty much all family or close friends. So I do have the three of them. So part of my listing is I go into their draft. So I’m fixing the titles cuz I’m big on my keywords and my titles being good. And then I will price it. So I’m paying them to basically make me a draft with the photos. And then I go in and refine that. So I do that first every morning for what they’ve done the day before. And then I still try and list like 10 to 20 items myself a day as well.
Clara:
So on average, how many listings would you say you list daily? Okay. Or weekly?
Kat:
Me just me or like everybody?
Clara:
Your team.
Kat:
So me, I’m probably listing a hundred to 150 and they’re probably doing about 200 right now on average. So it’ll probably be about 300 to 350 items a week going up.
Clara:
Powerful. Wow.
Amanda:
Yeah. That is amazing. Would you say, you know, that consistency makes all the difference in your business? Just getting that listing flow going regularly?
Kat:
Yeah, I really do. And I know a lot of people like that are still full-time and doing reselling part-time that’s where the like finding every minute you have and I’m lucky I don’t live in an area with a lot of traffic, but having the photos on your phone, like I almost always have some photos on my phone where I can list. So if I go to a doctor’s appointment, I’m in a waiting room or I am in traffic, I have the photos there to do it. So I always tell people who are still working full-time to try and get at least one or two up a day because eBay likes to see that consistency. And I think it helps with the other platforms as well. And of course the more you list, the more you’re gonna sell.
Doug:
Speaking of listing, tell us how you discovered List Perfectly and then I would like you to touch on the member of your family that works with you, who you haven’t mentioned yet, that helps you with List Perfectly.
Kat:
We have not. So I think it was Courtney. I think it was BOLO Buddies. I wanna say that I found out about List Perfectly, and I was doing all of my crossposting by myself and just copying the pictures over or keeping ’em in my phone and then putting ’em in and this was probably two years ago. It was a while. And then I still started doing the crossposting and we were doing, I think we were just doing Posh and Mercari at that time. It was before the Facebook Marketplace shipping had really kind of taken off and my mom was helping me list. So my mom is almost 75. She was helping me list and she could not do it. Like, she couldn’t take photos of 3d stuff. Like if I gave her flat items, then we were fine. So I would give her brochures and scarves and then it just got to the point where she just didn’t have the photography skills to meet my expectations. I’m like, okay, I’ve got to find something different that my mom can do because my mom doesn’t have much retirement coming in. And I, unfortunately, can’t afford to just give her, you know, hundreds of dollars a month. And so I’m like, “Okay, the listing isn’t gonna work. Let’s find something.” And so I had her start doing List Perfectly and she’s doing the crossposting. And again, as far as technical skill and stuff like that, she doesn’t have much. I couldn’t get the photography over, but with List Perfectly, she’s been able to come, like, even if I’m not here, when I was at work, she can come, she can do the crossposting.
Kat:
And we over the years have switched how we’re using List Perfectly. So I was just crossposting. And then when it sold, I was going and taking it down off every platform. So 1500 of our listings now are in the List Perfectly catalog. So what I did is I’m like, “Okay, we’ve got to stop.” And I actually deleted all of my listings off of Poshmark and I was just starting Etsy. And I’m like, “Okay, mom, we gotta take all of this eBay stuff.” Not all of it, not all of it. We didn’t do all of it, but all of the new stuff. And again, I’m an eBay lister. I start all my listings on eBay, cuz I like Sell Similar. What I do is I list everything on eBay and then my mom will take it and put it into the List Perfectly catalog. And what she does is she puts every, she’ll get caught up with everything in the List Perfectly catalog.
Kat:
And then she’ll go in and put all of it out to the other platforms, secondary to eBay. So to Etsy, to Poshmark, and to Facebook marketplace. And she knows what’s going on. Like I don’t know. I’m like, what, what is she? But she has her system. And again, I think she likes doing Etsy by herself, and then she’ll go do Facebook and Poshmark together. But what, for me, whatever works and gets it out on the platform. And I love using the catalog cuz now like before we were using an and symbol and like an exclamation, if it was on a certain platform in our SKU and now I can go into the List Perfectly catalog and I can see, okay, this is listed. And some of it, sometimes she forgets and I’m like, oh, but then I can go and do it or to tell her like, “Hey mom, you didn’t put this over here.”
Kat:
So since we’ve switched the catalog, it has worked better. And then in the morning I just go in once a day, go into the catalog, remove everything that’s sold and go on. I don’t, I don’t remove everything as it sells because I know people get worried about that. But even with 4,000 items, I think I’ve had two sales on two different platforms in three years. So that happening does not happen that frequently, so that’s where we are at. And that way she helps me. And again, we are making $1500 to $2000 from the other platform. So it’s enough to where I can pay her and help her not have to get another job. What started the whole thing is she was talking about working at a gas station. I’m like, “Mom, you’re in your seventies. You’re not gonna go work at a gas station.” But again, I’m not, I’m not financially at the point where I could just give it to her. I needed, you know, to do something, but I was happy to be able to do that. And now my niece, my daughter, and one of my good friends as well. So it’s nice to know that my business is helping to support other people, myself, which is nice. The growing is scary. The growing is scary.
Clara:
So true. Which plan does your mom like better from List Perfectly? I’m curious.
Kat:
So we do the Pro. We have the highest level and I do that because I think it’s the easiest for her because it’s the least amount of work for her. So she’s not having to copy all the stuff. I love that the weight will copy over and now Poshmark has an SKU. I think most of the platforms have the custom SKU now, which is nice. So it has the location just like eBay does, but all of that goes over. Etsy is a little more time-consuming, which is again why I like only having her do the $20 items. But for me, I think having the Pro plan where everything is copied over for us just makes it easier and where she can do more, you know, kind of be more efficient and get more listings, crossposted. She’s getting a little behind now. There are four people listing to her, to her one. So I actually might have to think about having somebody else come in to crosspost too, but that’s okay. Cause you know, the business is growing and it’s nice.
Amanda:
That’s a good problem to have when you grow so much that you need more help. Congratulations. That’s amazing.
Kat:
Thank you.
Doug:
You’ve got your YouTube channel. You have your website, you have a ton of resources on there and I love the cute dolphin theme. Can you tell us a little bit about the Flipping Pod memberships on there?
Kat:
Yeah. So, I have memberships, those were on my YouTube channel, and I started them about a year and a half ago and I only had the $1.99 membership, which what that is once a month the first Monday of every month I do eBay store reviews, but I’ve had some Posh sellers that follow me and Mercari sellers and I will review items anywhere pretty much. So I go in, I look at their store or I look at their listings and I give them tips and kind of tell them what I would do to make the listings better, to increase sales. And that has gone over very, very well. So that is my $1.99 membership. And then my $9.99, which is probably my favorite, is every other Saturday I do live sourcing. So I take their zip code and go on to HiBid.com, Which is the auction site I use the most and we go look for inventory for them. So that’s live with the screen share and everybody gets to watch. So the other members are learning cuz they’re seeing what I’m picking out. And we research it live, you know, I’m like, “Okay, it’s at this on auction.” We’ll look it up on eBay. We’ll look it up on WorthPoint, see the value. And that has actually grown to where it has rolled over into Sunday too. Cuz I have so many members. So I’m having to do two days a week for that one. And then the $9.99 includes the store review. And then $19.99 is the highest level. So it includes the store reviews, the sourcing. And then that’s the one with the live behind the scenes where they get to see my husband who has never seen hardly ever and Dalton, which everybody loves. So that is like uncut unfiltered every other Monday, which is our busiest shipping day. We typically have 40 to 50 going out. They watch us pack, they can ask questions live. It’s definitely smaller, you know, it’s a smaller group setting. So it’s a little more, almost like one on one, in that one and then they get everything. So I do an extra five to seven lives a month for my paid YouTube channel members.
Doug:
Wow. Wow. The Death Pile Destruction, Facebook group. Tell us a little bit about that.
Kat:
That was another video I cried in. So that started from me having too much inventory because I think the majority of resellers, I’ve met a few who do not have death piles, but the majority of resellers buy too much and I like buying auctions. So I would fill my car up, or fill my truck up and every time I would pull the most valuable stuff and the rest of it piled up. So I started Death Pile Destruction on Facebook and it has gone insane. I think we’ve had it for about three and a half months and we have over 7,000, I think we’re closing in on 8,000 members and it’s so crazy just to see like the amount of support that’s in that group is, I mean, I wish I had more time to spend in there. Honestly, I’m, I’m not in there a ton just cuz I have so much going on, but I have amazing mods and that’s where it comes into having people help you as you, as you grow and have so much going on.
Kat:
But people post their death piles. We do challenges like weekly challenges for listing. They also will do like no shopping challenges. And it’s just a really great group for peer support. The issue that most of us have is with buying too much. So people will send pictures sitting outside of Goodwill. Like “I wanna go in” and people will come and be like, “ah, no don’t” and people have, have gotten through their death piles. And like I think the level of our death piles vary, you know, some people only have a tote and then people like me might have a shed. But since I started it, I’ve got out and threw over 50% of mine and gotten it down. I think you should have a little bit of reserve, but not a ton of stuff that you don’t see for a year. I didn’t even know what was in the boxes. So the big thing for me is I was spending money and it wasn’t listed, so it wasn’t available for sale. And it was like, stale money there. And it could either go up in value or it could go down, you know, you never know which way it will go. And yeah, the group, the group has exploded and it’s like, that group just went insane. It is absolutely crazy. And the amount of support there is incredible.
Doug:
Yeah. That’s awesome. I gotta join up. I’ve got some stuff that I need to get motivated to get rid of.
Kat:
I’m like looking at my shed…
Doug:
We joke that I have five bins. I have five bins that are organized, but I have a bunch of boxes. So I do have a lot of stuff.
Kat:
Yeah. It adds up and it’s hard. I will say, and this, I think this is the part a lot of people don’t get is if you’re on YouTube and you’re reselling and people are looking for content of your sourcing, sometimes you gotta go source, even though you have a death pile. So there’s like an added dimension when you’re a content creator who creates content showing hauls or going thrifting. And I’ve tried, I’ve tried to cut it back. And I actually, did thrift boxes for about two months where everything I thrifted, I just doubled the price and I sold it to my members. And that way I made a little bit of profit, but I didn’t add to my pile, but then it got to where I was like, “No,” and that’s a lot with me with YouTube is that I don’t want it to feel like a job.
Kat:
So I got to where I felt like I had to go thrifting two or three times a week to make videos. And for me, when it’s not fun anymore, then I quit doing it. So I didn’t do thrifting videos for probably three or four weeks. And I’m doing ’em again because I wanna go on one to have fun. But when I got to the point where I did not wanna go, you know, I’m not gonna force myself to go do something just to have content, which makes me have to think of other, you know, other things like that I can teach about and kind of show videos on, on my YouTube versus going thrifting to find stuff.
Clara:
I hear that you offer personal coaching. How does that work?
Kat:
I love my personal coaching and I feel like I’m a therapist a lot of times. I’m not gonna lie. So I do one-on-one coaching for $200 for a month, or I do a 12-month agreement for $150. And what I do is I do an initial worksheet where I kind of assess strengths and weaknesses as far as listing, photographing, sourcing to kind of figure out where they’re at and what they need help with. And then I follow up with unlimited text support. I do a few phone calls, but I try to keep it to mainly text just because I’m going a little bit crazy most of the time. And most times I am able to kind of get to the root of the problem in that first phone call. And that might be, you know, just like overthinking on listing. A lot of people are scared about it. They haven’t gotten their processes down. So I help them with their processes. If they need help with sourcing, it’s very, very individualized to the person I’ve even, I’ve had, I have one, that’s doing it for YouTube. She’s having me help her grow her YouTube channel. So with my one-on-one coaching, I’m happy to help with anything that I have the knowledge to help with. And I have seen a ton of increase in people’s sales from doing it. And again, I think most of the time it’s just really simple. And I think people just need someone to take a look from the outside and kind of help them see where their issues are to help them increase what their revenue is and increase how much they’re selling. And most times it’s pretty easy. I haven’t had a ton of snags with that, which is nice. The 12 months I do more for people that are just starting out. So if they want help with organizations setting up their inventory, going on into listing, photographing, kind of building it up, like I did that first year going from nothing up to a full-time and coming from reselling.
Clara:
Thank you so much for sharing that. That’s a question that I’ve been meaning to ask.
Kat:
Yeah, it’s funny cuz I’m like, they’re like, “I want you to help me with YouTube” and I’m like, “I’ll help with whatever.” You know, if I have the time and have the knowledge where I can help, I’m more than happy to help.
Amanda:
Yeah. And it’s such a wonderful feeling to feel like, you know, you’re giving back, you’re helping someone. You have such a well-rounded business, you know, where, it’s not just that you are reselling, but you’re also teaching, you’re coaching. You’re doing so much. So you know having said that, we touched on a lot of things, is there anything else that you’d like to share?
Kat:
I think like you kind of brought it to the forefront and I think teaching for me has kind of come to the forefront as the most important thing. As far as my YouTube channel and being able to help and getting emails and letters from people who are telling me, I changed their life . It’s amazing to hear. And it just kind of reinforces the whole teaching thing. And for me, the sourcing, I think is more viewed by a wider audience, but for me, I like the teaching. So mine are definitely–even my thrifting videos are teaching. I’m like, “I’m picking this up because of this” or “I’m passing this up because of that.” So for me, it’s all kind of tied into one and YouTube keeps me accountable. Like if I don’t have the sales, then I don’t have the stuff to show people. So, they kind of feed into each other because not only am I accountable, there are, you know, thousands of people holding me accountable waiting to see what I sold, which definitely helps.
Kat:
I don’t think we talked about my camps. I have my reseller camps that I’m doing. The first one’s in three weeks and in April and then we have one in May. The April one is sold out, but I rented a mansion in Orlando with a bowling alley in it and a pool and a jacuzzi, and 14 rooms. And we’re doing a conference like a seminar and it’s gonna be two days of hardcore eBay boot camp, you know, and just the teaching. And we’re gonna have time in the morning and at night to kind of socialize and network as well. But my main focus is teaching people of all levels, not just new resellers, even if you’ve been doing this for 10 years, there’s always more that you can learn or somebody’s doing it a little bit different than you are and you can better what you’re doing.
Kat:
So I think we have people that haven’t even started coming up to people that have been reselling for a long time. So it will be fun. We’re doing, I’m gonna do hands-on photography, hands-on shipping the stuff I think that most people are, you know, more intimidated and scared by, and then we’re gonna have the rec time. And Tennessee is a big 16 bedroom cabin on top of the mountain. I am go big or go home. I didn’t wanna do it in a hotel. I wanted smaller, more family-oriented. Dalton will be there. I know a couple of other people are bringing their children as well. Husbands are coming and going golfing, which is kind of funny. I think there are three husbands coming to Tennessee that are like, “Bye, have fun at camp.” I want it family-oriented. The kids are welcome to come and Tennessee is gonna be the same thing, two days of class, but we’ll have like the night before and all, you know, all of, the nights after camp to kind of network and talk with each other, meet each other, help each other. And I’m hoping to continue doing that. Right now I’ve got, ’em kind of back to back and that’s something that I’ve been booking the next one when one sells out. So Tennessee, as of right now, has one private room left, but then I have bunk rooms that are lower cost, cuz I know, you know, not everybody has the budget to be able to do the private rooms. So we have bunk rooms and then the next one will probably be on the beach.
Clara:
I love that anybody from any level, from maybe someone that never sold from a full-time experience, anybody can join these incredible coaching sessions that you’re gonna be doing. I love it. Go big or go home. I love it.
Doug:
So Clara and Amanda, if there aren’t any other questions, I just have one more that I’m gonna throw-in. So Kat you realize there are only set days in the week, right? So how do you do this all and when do you sleep or do you sleep?
Kat:
Actually, I’ve been making myself sleep more. I said earlier I’m taking naps. I think the biggest thing with this is being more efficient and getting more done in quicker amounts of time. I will tell you, and this is against what probably a lot of people…I don’t do descriptions. I do not do descriptions on my listings. I take very, very good photos. We take a picture with the tape measure if needed. The only time I do descriptions is if there’s a flaw. And I think that makes my listing time go a lot faster. And then as far as you YouTube, I was doing seven videos a week. I was doing daily videos and I had to pull myself back and say, “Okay.” And that a lot of that is for growth. You know, the more that you’re out there, the more you’re gonna grow.
Kat:
But I was killing myself, doing videos every day. So I pulled back, I just do three videos a week now, and then my one live and additions to the members and that has helped significantly as well. And I think just like I said, I can’t figure out a schedule, but I know I have the things that I have to do. Like I have to ship every day because that’s what’s making money. So shipping every day. And then after that would come my listing. And after that, then I would go to my YouTube video. And if I have time for anything else, but luckily with only doing three lives is easy. Lives are easy. You turn on the camera, you go live and you’re done. But editing, you know, the editing pre recorded videos are ones that take a little bit longer. So now that I’m only doing three a week, that is a lot easier for me. And I’m not an overeditor. I do not edit my videos a lot. I don’t do fancy stuff. So it’s more just, you know, cutting out the dead space in the videos. My editing doesn’t take a ton of time and then just figuring out the time for the coaching. And it’s a lot, but I have free time, which is nice. And I’m trying to make myself take one day off a week. It doesn’t feel like work. That’s the thing, you know.
Clara:
Couldn’t I agree more.
Amanda:
When you do what you love, it’s not work.
Clara:
Yeah.
Doug:
Thank you everyone. Thanks Kat. Thank you, Clara, and Amanda.
Kat:
Yeah, thank you. I’m glad I got both of you here.
Amanda:
Well, it’s been such a pleasure. Thank you for you know…
Kat:
Oh, you’re so welcome.
Amanda:
For hanging out with us and, and sharing your story.
Doug:
Thank you for joining us on the seller community podcast from List Perfectly. You can find us at thesellercommunitypodcast.com. You can leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast. You can email us at podcast@listperfectly.com. Post a question in the List Perfectly Facebook Group at facebook.com/groups/listperfectly. You can listen to The Seller Community Podcast 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. On Instagram and TikTok you can find me at @snoop.dougie and of course, follow @listperfectly. And you can always use our promo code podcast. That’s P O D C A S T for 30% off your first month of List Perfectly or 30% off your first month of upgrading your plan. Thanks for listening. And we will see you next time.