This week we welcome back Josh Varnell, Hairy Tornado, who is here to tell us everything we need to know about FlipCon 2023, August 9th to 11th at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hear all about how Josh and Hayley Tornado put it all together this year on their own, List Perfectly sponsoring the event for the second year in a row, and the future of FlipCon.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the e-commerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and a 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.
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Intro
Doug: Welcome to the Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly. This is season three, episode 31, all about FlipCon 2023 with Josh Varnell. So this week we welcome Josh Varnell back, also, maybe more commonly known as Hairy Tornado. He’s here to tell us everything we need to know about FlipCon 2023, August 9th to 11th at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.
So he’s gonna tell us how Josh and his wife Hayley Tornado took over last year. Basically, put it all together this year themselves. We’ll talk about List Perfectly’s sponsorship for the second year in a row and what that entails. And Josh is also gonna tell us about the future of FlipCon, but you will hear about all the details, the speakers, the panels, how it’s all gonna work, the food, improvements they’ve made over last year, the parties, and a lot more.
And ladies and gentlemen, if you would prefer to see a video version of this podcast, you can go to the list perfectly, YouTube channel at youtube.com/list perfectlyyt. But let’s listen in on the conversation Clara and I had with Josh Varnell, Hairy Tornado, and learn all about FlipCon 2023.
Josh Varnell
Doug: Welcome to the Seller Community Podcast. Today, Clara and I are very excited to be joined again by our friend Josh Varnell, perhaps better known as Hairy Tornado, who is here to tell us all about FlipCon 2023, coming up very soon in Charlotte, North Carolina, and sponsored by List Perfectly. So welcome back to the show, Josh.
Josh: Awesome. I’m excited to be here and excited to dive into the conversation. Awesome.
Clara: Thank you. Thank you so much. And especially for making time, you know, even it’s like FlipCon is around the corner. It came so fast and I’m so excited. So let’s share with our audience Josh, so give us a little detail about FlipCon and what does a ticket, what do I get with the purchase of a FlipCon ticket?
Josh: Yeah. So FlipCon, it’s, I, I guess the goal of the event is to motivate people, to inspire people, to let people network with like-minded individuals, you know, in terms of information and teaching people, it’s kind of hard-to-find information that is new that isn’t on the internet somewhere already.
Yeah. So that’s not really the focus. It is just for people to come together and learn more about their business. Whether that be strictly reselling or a little bit of reselling mix with some social media. We’re gonna have some YouTubers there that are talking about, you know, how to balance their business between reselling and YouTube and, and all that stuff.
I do think that social media has a huge impact on our sales personally. And for, for a lot of people. So I think there’s definitely some interest there, but I think it’ll be probably 65 to 70% reselling-based conversation and another, you know, 30 to 35%, social media and, and, nice.
We’re gonna have some other speakers that are covering some different topics as well, but they should be pretty applicable to most people.
Clara: Absolutely. I believe strongly in social commerce, and I think it is a resource that is untapped Okay. By most members of our community.
So I’m excited that this is gonna be an important segment of the Flip Con event.
Josh: Absolutely. Yeah. And it’s, I didn’t answer the ticket question, but once you, it’s a, it’s, it starts on Wednesday, so it’s two and a half days. Yeah. Your ticket includes most of your meals, like five meals over the course of two days.
There’s one night where you have dinner on your own. Obviously, you get access to all the, all the speakers. We’re gonna have different breakout sessions where you can, you know, if you’re not like we’re, Whatnot’s another sponsor of events we’re gonna have Okay. Nice area where you can talk about Whatnot.
But if you’re not interested in that, yeah, you can go talk about Poshmark. We will have different areas of the hotel set up for different conversations, which I think is nice. One issue we had last year with people that, yeah, you know, while there was a YouTube panel going on, if they weren’t interested in that, they didn’t have anything else to do.
So we’re trying to make it to where everybody is stimulated and has information that they’re hungry for.
Clara: Yeah. That’s amazing. And also, I remember last year we really crashed in the lobby of the hotel. We were there like, until they guided us to the rooms. But it was just incredible. So many resellers.
How exciting. And it’s again, you know, it’s coming it’s gonna be packed with two days of, nice, breakout sessions. And then you’re gonna have my, I am assuming like a main stage presentation as well.
Josh: Yes, we’re gonna have a couple different speakers that are speaking by themselves on the stage and then we’ll have some panels that are gonna be speaking.
One segment that I’m interested in is we’re gonna have two different speakers talking about quitting a nine-to-hive. So we have Becky Park on Poshmark. And then we have our friend Dave, who’s ADHDave, and both of them are on different, just opposite, opposite sides of a fine line.
So Becky is to a point where she’s making more money than she’s making. She’s a teacher, she’s making more money with reselling and social media than she is as a teacher, but she doesn’t wanna quit her job, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a successful reseller. And then we have Dave who just recently quit a six-figure job to be a full-time reseller in YouTuber.
Woo. So I think it’s just like having them to like, you know, talk to each other, and talk to the audience and like, which side of the line should you be on? You know, you don’t have to quit your job if you want to. Here’s what Dave did. If you don’t want to, here’s what Becky does. So I think that’s, yeah, I think that’s interesting ’cause there are people in the audience that are full-time sellers and there are people that wanna be full-time sellers, and I think a lot of people get a lot of information on that one.
Clara: That’s, that’s amazing. I’m very excited about that because you’re bringing, that’s a controversial topic, you know? And everybody that went up wants to be an entrepreneur. Where do I start? Okay, where do I find the motivation? And I think that the more we can speak about this in that demystify it and share our success stories of how we were able to transition from.
Two entrepreneur mentalities. So powerful for our community. So powerful. Good one. I think that you were taking a lot of feedback from last year. I’m so happy to hear that Becky is gonna be one of the speakers because that was one of the requests that we had last year. I think that was mentioned in the event that they wanted more, women speakers, more women.
Josh: Yep. Yeah, that was a heavy request. All of the suggestions or complaints that we got last year were very minimal. Like, yeah, I wish we had coffee for longer and I wish they were bottles of water instead of cups of water. I’m like, alright, if I can host an event for the first time, and the worst thing you have to say is that you want the water in different containers. I can handle that. We’re gonna have bottles of water as much as you, as much as you want, as many bottles you could possibly drink.
Clara: There you have it. You ask and Josh delivers.
Doug: That’s right. And that event space, the Sheraton there in North Carolina. Great space. I love that. Everything’s taking place in one spot.
So your rooms are there for, you know, whatever’s going on, if you have to go upstairs and take a break, things like that. So we do know that you did tell us that the Sheraton is sold out. So if you haven’t gotten your hotel rooms yet, do you have any recommendations on where people should be looking? Yeah.
Josh: Yeah, that’s a question, that’s a, that’s a great question. So, right now they’re just sold out on Wednesday. So the event starts on Wednesday, August 9th, and goes until the wee hours of the morning on Saturday morning. So some people might leave Friday and some people, I think most people probably leave Saturday morning.
So right now they still have rooms available for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights if you wanna stay an extra night. But Wednesday night is sold out. The good news is that there are a lot of hotels.
Clara: Oh, that’s really nice. On your website, it says, yeah. So scroll down people. Okay. You go to flipcon.net. All right. And then if you scroll down, it says, where should I stay? All the way You scroll all the way down. And then there it says that it’s reserved. But Wednesday night has been booked Solid.
Josh: Yeah. And they’re apparently, I was just gonna tell people to stay at another, help another hotel close by ’cause there’s like 10 or 15 in that area, but apparently, they have a deal with a Holiday Inn that offers some sort of discounted rate, you know, for like an overflow. Like they, they work off of each other. So I haven’t locked in that information yet. But, yeah, I posted it on our, we have a Facebook group for FlipCon.
I told everybody about that, so as soon as, it’s just weird, it’s like limbo right now. We’ll, we will figure something out. You’ll, we, you’ll have a place to sleep, but I’m just not sure where or how much it’s gonna cost yet.
Clara: That’s nice that the Sheraton is offering already like, some kind of liaison or some kind of partnership that they have with another hotel.
Josh: Yeah, they have, they’ve been awesome to work with. Yeah. Hotels are, you guys know, you just did the camp listing party hotels are very expensive to work with. Yes. Yes. But they know how much money you’re paying and they’ll do anything in the world for you. We actually didn’t sell, I think we’ve sold 185 tickets so far this year.
Last year we sold like 240. So we, we might, this year is an extra day and so a lot of people just couldn’t take off, you know, three workdays to come for various reasons, whatever. But we’re still, we’re still happy with that. But I was reaching out to the hotel. I was like, hey, is there anything we can do to cut costs a little bit?
Just ’cause we didn’t sell as many tickets. And she just readjusted some things on the menu for like two of the meals and worked some things. We lowered the cost of food by like $20 a person. I’m like, that’s pretty good. Like I, yeah, I, I love that. You know, so they’ve, they’ve been willing to help us any way they can.
Clara: Nice. No, that’s incredible. Yeah, they’re, they’re very not, they’re not cheap at all, but they will go the extra mile to make the community feel welcome. And I think they did an outstanding job last year. I was so happy with the food. I was so happy with the room, with the service, the fact that I could call, you know, it’s nice, you know, when I was too busy I could call, you know, to just get a quick breakfast.
And they were delivering on time, very responsible. So I was very excited. So definitely a great choice for a location. I’m so happy that you’re doing it again, and I can’t wait to ask you, you know, what’s gonna happen in the future of FlipCon. That is coming soon. Yeah. In the meantime. In the meantime, Josh, is there any other seller, seller activities or any events happening before we get started with FlipCon?
Josh: I mean, I know a lot of people are coming early that week. I was talking to a couple of different people that are coming in as early as the Sunday before, like three days before it actually starts.
Yeah, we’re most people, like a lot of the speakers are coming in on Tuesday before last year. That was a really interesting time ’cause it wasn’t super crowded. Everybody was just kind of hanging out and talking, getting to know each other. So that was really nice. So if you’re already coming and you’re, you know, self-employed, you don’t have to take in another day of PTO.
I’d recommend coming an extra day. Tuesday’s not sold out yet. Come an extra day and hang out. That’s a good time to get some intimate time with a lot of the speakers and without the full crowd there.
Clara: There you have it. That’s a good tip. So to get one-on-one time with a speaker, that’s amazing.
Josh: There you have it. Yeah. And we are also like, I love what you guys did at camp. Listen, party with like, sit with a speaker, and make sure all of your speakers are very accessible. Because I, the last thing I want somebody to pay for a ticket to come to an event to meet, you know? A YouTuber that they like and then that YouTuber just doesn’t have time for them, you know?
Yeah, and it does, when you have two or 300 people there, it does get hard to get FaceTime with people. Yeah. But we’re gonna try everything we can to make sure everybody’s accessible and, you know, if you wanna meet somebody, we’ll make sure, we’ll make sure you meet ’em for sure.
Clara: Oh, that’s, that’s amazing. That’s something that is so much value mm-hmm. To go to these events. That’s what you can get. Okay. When you watch people or you do it virtually, even if you can, for example, Camp Listing Party was virtual and in person, but the power that you get on a going in-person events just it’s so powerful and to have the opportunity to talk to the speakers and have a one-on-one, whether it’s, you know, hey, slow sales, or I don’t dare to do social media. Should I do content? Should I, you know, do a website, whatever it is, you know, it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be really good that they have that benefit.
And that’s what we’re looking for. Accessibility to the speakers, right?
Josh: Absolutely. In terms of other events, I don’t, I don’t have anything. I formally planned, I’m trying to reach out to the Goodwill in that area to see if we can get nice on Thursday night, the speaking ends at like five and then you have free time for the rest of the night.
Yeah. So I was trying to see if Goodwill would, anyway, they would let us like, have a reserve time at the bends that night. Like, hey, just put out Yeah. One row of new stuff and just have it be exclusive. We’ll pay you like a thousand bucks or whatever you gotta have. Just let us in there for like an hour.
I think that would be cool. Just have like, FlipCon takes over the Goodwill bins for an hour. Good. Through stuff, whatever. I love it. I love it. After we finish, I don’t know if that’s gonna happen. I gotta talk Goodwill into it. We’ll see. But I’m excited.
Clara: If you need help, I’ll, I, I can help you with other options after we finish the podcast and hopefully that will help.
Doug: Cool. Yeah, that would be fun. Yeah. So you referenced a couple of learnings, earlier in our conversation, but anything else you learned from last year and anything high-level that’s new this year?
Josh: I don’t know. Like I said, I mean like, we sent out an anonymous survey to everybody after the fact, and we, I think only one person said that they would never come back again, and I don’t even know, I don’t think they even gave us a reason.
They just said one star would not return. I’m like, okay. But that’s gonna happen to everybody else, right? Like I said, all of the feedback was very, very minimal. You know, things that we could easily fix. So we’re gonna have better swag bags this year. You got; Liz gave us some big Ikea-style bags to give away.
We got some more bags coming from My Reseller Genie. We’ve got some cool stuff in there, a lot of stickers. And I think last year we had a fidget spinner and a Frisbee. It’s just, I don’t know, it’s just, we’re giving you some things with a little bit more utility this year, I believe. So better swag bags.
I don’t know. I think the food was good. We’re doing the same. A lot of the same menu from last, well, we did change the lunch menu. I guess the only thing the same is the, is the dinner on the final night. That was like a southern, southern buffet with all the different Southern food, and people liked that a lot.
Oh, see, we, we learned a lot, but it, we learned, I also learned that we didn’t make any huge mistakes. And that was, that was good to know.
Clara: Food was amazing. Okay. Can’t wait. I’m a food person. I can’t wait. And the happy hour also was so, so much fun. I really liked that. I really liked the accessibility of the hallway, you know?
So we could go and get, you know, drink and whatever, you know, and then you could walk into the main room and, and then talk to people, sit down, eat, and so forth. Yeah. That was, that was really nice.
Josh: We had a DJ last year and we did learn that people didn’t really care for that. They’re like, people just wanna talk, you know, go to an event. You don’t wanna listen to music, you can listen to music anytime. So we just kept telling the DJ to turn the music down further and further and further until they got to a point. I’m like, you can just go home. Nobody’s listening. They’re just, everybody was just talking and having a good time. They were. You know? Yeah. So, no, I like that you’re gonna host a reseller event. I wouldn’t worry about music. People just, they’ll entertain themselves by talking.
Clara: Pro tip, actually, it’s, it’s a problem because you wanna talk to people and, you know, some of us have accents, some of, and, you know, some, even if you’re an American, you know, from West coast to East Coast, it’s such a difference, right?
I think that you’re absolutely spot on, you know, with reseller events. I think that loud music is a killer. I have to say, when I attended Posh Fest, I hope that PoshFest does Posh, they didn’t put loud music, but it was way too loud, the music, and it was like very, you know, kind of dancing music.
We all ended up in the hallway again, chit-chatting and yeah, you literally, that’s where the action was and you go and pick a boot, you know, on, and they’re like, nobody’s dancing. You know? A few people were like, just little groups, but that was it. So it didn’t bring the community a sense of not having music and the opportunity to talk.
And that’s what we did at Listing Party. And you’re absolutely right. It worked.
Josh: Yeah. I, and the same thing with us, like we had the DJ in the, in the meeting room and everybody just kind of congregated in the hallway. Yes, I remember. And it was, it was just so fun just seeing everybody just.
I mean, just the vibes were very good. Everybody was just friendly. Nobody, it was not cliquey or anything like that. I finally went to bed at like three 15 and there were still like 50 people up, you know, having a good time. The hotel was cool. They’re like, yeah, stay up as long as you want. We don’t care.
We made a huge mess. Somebody brought a confetti cannon and they shot confetti cannon off and the next morning I came, and everything was cleaned, and the tables were all set again. I was like, this is just, this is great.
Clara: Oh, that’s amazing. That’s amazing.
Doug: And I would say too, as you said early on, if your biggest complaints are about the access to coffee and what, and the water containers, that’s not too bad. I’ll say also, Clara and I sat side by side during the Southern Cuisine dinner and we both enjoyed it, and I went back for seconds maybe, I don’t know. And then I did dance a little bit. There was a conga line that I did participate in.
Josh: Yep. It was, it was good. It was good. Had a good time. We’re excited. Yeah.
Clara: Awesome, Josh. But tell me, you know, with everything coming, you know, with this event, what are you most excited about?
Josh: I keep jokingly saying I’m excited for August 13th, which is the day after everything is over. It’s just a lot of work putting on an event if you guys have ever done it before, there’s so much that goes into it and, and I know that people are like, why don’t you just hire, hire an event planner, hire somebody to help you. But like, when you’re putting your name, like Hayley and I are doing the event by ourselves this year. Caleb Phoenix Resale helped us last year. And then he just has too much going on. So he stepped away this year.
So now Hayley and I have been doing literally everything. Hayley made the website. We’re doing the graphic design; we’re doing the meal planning. We’re, everything has been me and Hayley.
Clara: We love you, Hayley. Go, girl. You, she’s been awesome. So glad that she’s so supportive and, you know, going on through this journey with you because you need someone, you know, it’s too hard to do this alone. I’m so glad she’s there to help.
Josh: Absolutely. She’s helped a lot. We have, I dunno, it’s just like when you, like, people know that, that she and I are doing it this year. So, our name and our, our likeness is associated with the event. Yeah. And I just, I don’t want to give up control of that because I’m not at a point where I can like, trust somebody else with my reputation, you know?
Yeah. Like, I want to personally make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. I wanna make sure everybody’s happy and feeling inclusive and having a good time and getting their money’s worth you know, last year my head was, I was exhausted because it was, the last year was just two days, like a day and a half.
Yeah. And even the whole day I was just constantly looking for somebody who’s like sitting by themselves like, hey, why are you sitting by yourself? I just wanna make sure everybody has a good time. You know? Because people take their time outta their schedule. They spend their money; they take PTO whatever to come to an event that we’re hosting and we’re gonna do everything we can to make it worth their time.
Clara: Awesome. That’s amazing, Josh. Well said.
Doug: So tell us about some of the speakers and, you know, the plans you have for the speakers and panels.
Josh: So this year I, as I said earlier like there’s not much information that you could give resellers. It isn’t already available either on a YouTube video or a podcast or, or something.
You know, the information’s out there. So I’m not trying to say this is like some event. We’re gonna learn some next-level, you know, new eBay tips to triple your sales. Like, we’ll give you solid advice on your store. We’ll, you know, sit down and. So look at your YouTube channel, what can you do to get more subscribers?
How can you monetize your social media audience in a way that doesn’t ruin your reputation, but also allows you to make income for your family? Retro Rick is gonna be there. He’s gonna be talking, right? So there’s one panel with Hustle at Home Mom and her husband, TJ, who’s a full-time reseller, and full-time YouTuber. Her husband works full-time. She’s got three kids and she’s. She doesn’t say she’s good at it, but she’s very good at balancing work and home life and how to raise three kids and I think they’re actually homeschooling and stuff, so she’s got a lot going on.
And then Rick, he’s a full-time worship pastor at a big church. He owns a video game store, owns a brick-and-mortar video game store, and he has two YouTube channels. So I’m like, why don’t you guys, the three of you guys just get on stage and talk about like, how do you do that? Yeah. How do you have all of that and not burn alive? Like how does, how does that work?
So I think that’ll be really helpful because even if you don’t have kids, you still have responsibilities in life that get in the way of starting a business or growing a business. So showing, having two people talk about their perspective, they may, they may not have perfected it, but at least they’ve been through enough to like to learn something that they can share with the audience and help them with that.
We’ve also got a couple of other topics that I think are just helpful in general that don’t really have anything to do with reselling. We’re gonna have my friend Tiffany talk about, actually, it’ll be, the panel is me and Tiffany talking about debt freedom. Yeah. Like why it’s important to be debt free and how we can use reselling to pay off debt.
You know, so that might be a little controversial. Some people think of debt as a tool, which I get, but debt. Hayley and I are debt free except for our mortgage. And it’s awesome. It’s very easy to run a business if you’re debt free.
Clara: List Perfectly is debt-free. I have no investors, built it all with my reseller income, you know? Absolutely. It’s reality. It’s a free reality. Reselling it’s been, for me, coming from banking and with a law background, for me, e-commerce was the best investment, the best.
Josh: Absolutely. It’s awesome. So we’re gonna teach people about that. At least share our opinions and why we think it’s important and how we’ve become debt free and how our lives have changed. Because of it, Tiffany’s not quite debt free yet, but she’s on a journey like slowly paying it off with her reselling income. So I think that’s a cool perspective. We’re gonna have our friend Chad from Side Hustle Network. He owns two different Amazon fulfillment centers. He used to be on eBay. I think they still sell on eBay a little bit, but they used to be resellers and then they started doing the Amazon fulfillment and he’s also used to be a personal trainer, so he’s like really good at balancing, like, like how do you have two businesses with all these employees in two different states and you’re super fit?
Like, how do you, how do you, ’cause everybody’s like, I can’t work out. I have too much work to do. I’m like, well, he’s got a lot of work to do and he’s, he looks great. Yeah. So what is, what is he doing that we can’t do? Ginger Marvin is gonna join him on stage if you don’t know Ginger. She’s awesome.
Kathy has, she’s lost a lot of weight this year, so I was like, you know, if you guys come to FlipCon, why don’t you just jump on stage and just like, share your story? How did you do that? You know? Cause I don’t know how much weight she’s lost, but it’s significant and she’s looking great nowadays.
Clara: Yeah, that’s, that’s really impressive, you know, to stay on track and take advantage of reselling because reselling can be a little sedentary, especially when you’re listing. I’m so happy. I’m so happy she’s gonna be sharing her success.
Josh: Absolutely. And we’ll have a couple of others, like little breakout sessions. You know, I don’t want to talk about YouTube for an hour and a half because people might not be interested in that, but we’ll hit it on, hit on it a little bit, and then if you wanna learn more, we’ll have a breakout session for you two. We’ll have a breakout session for taxes. My friend Justin, who’s a CPA is gonna be available to answer any of your reselling tax questions.
And, yeah, whatever you need help within your business, like taxes and social media, whatever, whatever. There’s gonna be somebody there that has done it and it may not be perfect, but they’ve at least figured out ways that work and ways that don’t work, and they’re gonna be willing to share that with you.
Clara: That’s incredible.
Doug: Yeah, that’s incredible. And I love what you said about the availability of the speakers. And that helped with it all being in one spot. And I remember last year, like all the speakers were at all the events and accessible, and mm-hmm. That’s what we always say, is like people are intimidated, but go ahead and walk up and say hi. And if you are nervous, find somebody that’ll help you go up to them and say hi.
Josh: It’s funny ’cause all the speakers are kind of nervous too. Like, I was talking to Ashley last year and I was like, are you excited? She’s Hustle at Home Mom. And she’s like, oh, I’m just nervous. Like, what if, what if people don’t like me? I’m like, people are gonna like me. Ashley shut up. It’s fun. But it’s funny, but everybody’s nervous. Just break the ice. It’ll be fine.
Clara: Yeah, absolutely. No, absolutely. I was sitting in front, at Camp Listing Party. I sat by the table of the speakers, and I would be there rooting for them, and they told me, everybody told me, thank you for doing that.
Because it’s shocking when you stand up there and you see 200 people looking at you and they pause. And there’s silence and they’re waiting to see what you’re gonna say. Yeah, of course. You know, it’s a little intimidating, but to those speakers, okay. Just know even me. Okay. I froze one time, in front of investors. Three minutes. Okay. I couldn’t pull one word in English. Okay. So it happens, you know, but I think that the fact that we have a welcoming community, and they were there to help each other, just get that energy from the community and, let you know that knowledge, share it with the community so we can help each other and grow.
Doug: For sure. And I always tell Clara when I get up there, I forget my Spanish.
Josh: That’s so embarrassing.
Clara: So Josh, there is a FlipCon Facebook group and what other FlipCon, where, where else can we find FlipCon, please?
Josh: So more information and tickets and schedule menu and all that stuff is on flipcon.net. You can check out all that there. And then we have the, it’s a private Facebook group, but you just request it and I’ll approve you. It’s FlipCon 2023 and that’s just like people can, you know, a lot of people are like, hey, I’m coming early. Does anybody wanna go thrifting? Are you gonna have a rental car? Let’s meet up, where are you from? Blah, blah, blah. So it’s just a, kinda like a message board for all the people that are gonna be there.
And a way to like, you know, schedule stuff like that. There’s a list of all the speakers on there. There are links to all of their social media. Oh yeah, Rachel Strickland’s gonna be there. Rachel Strickland actually was Miss Missouri back in the day she won Miss Missouri.
She’s gonna be talking about motivation and I think she’s also gonna join the health and fitness panel as well. She’s really into health and fitness as well. Oh, okay. So just a lot of people talking about all sorts of stuff.
RNZY we’re excited to have you back. Right. They’re, they’re selling. Six figures worth of sneakers on Whatnot per month. They’ve done, I, I think they’ve done over a million dollars on Whatnot in the last, like 14 months. And now they’re averaging over six figures a month in, in revenue at pretty good margins, like 25, 30% margins. And they’re just absolutely killing it. So I’m excited to have them. Chris Flip the World, TX is gonna be there talking about, Whatnot as well.
He, I, I think both Lindsay and Chris have a unique perspective because they know how to like, W do something and figure out how to make it work, but they’re also constantly exploring different new avenues for business. Yeah, and I like seeing what works. RNZY started selling on the Facebook Marketplace and then they moved to Poshmark, and then they did a little bit on Mercari, and then they did Poshmark, and then they did Whatnot. Now they’re making more money than they’ve ever made before.
Chris Flip the World, used to own a pest control company. He’s got like nine kids. He used to own a pest control company. Then he started reselling. Do an eBay. And then he’s got a great personality, as you can tell from his picture on there, and now, they actually sell and Whatnot three days a week going live from the bins. So they’ll go to the goodwill bins, buy stuff, set up a tripod in the bins, and sell it before they actually pay for it. So they just end up with a huge pile of stuff that’s already sold, and then they just go pay for it and ship it out.
And they, I mean, they’re, I think they’ve done a hundred thousand dollars in sales this year alone, just selling stuff from the bins.
Clara: Wow that’s insane. There is so much money to be made from the bins.
Josh: Yeah, and it’s all volume. Like it’s, I, people are like, oh, I’m, I don’t have a YouTube following. I don’t have social media, so I can’t sell and Whatnot.
I’m like, Chris, I mean, Chris has a YouTube channel, but they don’t have a huge social media following. They’re just entertaining to watch and they’re getting stuff cheap. They’re buying stuff for a dollar, $2, and $3 and selling it for 7, 8, 9, and $10. But they’re selling, you know, 200 things a day, three days a week.
Yeah. So when you do that kind of volume, it’s, it’s so, it’s so easy, to make money. Absolutely. And people love it. Because people buy, I mean, I’ve bought stuff from Chris for, you know, $15 or $20 and we can sell it for $50 or $60. Yeah. So it’s like they’re selling to all these recent and it’s, it’s just a mutually beneficial relationship.
We’re gonna have the Trash to Cash podcast crew there. Yeah. They’re gonna be talking about something. I don’t know. Dave’s gonna be on the job panel. I haven’t talked to Carey and Kevin if they wanna be on a panel or just do a live podcast episode. But either way, it’ll be a fun time. That was great guys.
Clara: Yes. Exciting. That’s amazing. Exciting. What an incredible list of speakers and special guests you’re having. And I can’t wait. I can’t wait to be there. And we talk about it also, so we have the Flip Con Facebook group. We have the website. We’re gonna have, okay, different resources are gonna be offered. Okay. When we arrive in North Carolina and so forth. Anything else that you wanna recommend to attendees or…
Josh: I don’t know. The last night is gonna be, we have a theme night. The last night is always a theme. Last year it was Hawaiian. This year’s gonna be the eighties. 1980s themes. I love it.
Clara: So I got it already. I got my outfit. I promise. I promise. And I got option A and B. So, Dougie, you’re gonna be the judge. Okay.
Josh: We’re gonna have all sorts of stuff. We have a lot of good giveaways this year. Last year we did a lot of free alcohol, and I really appreciate the free alcohol provided by List Perfectly at Camp Listing Party.
That was great. But I know that was incredibly expensive. So I, under, and I, we post it on Facebook. I’m like, what do you guys want? Would you rather have a bunch of free alcohol or like, More giveaways, more raffle prizes, better swag back, stuff like that? And what, last year we did five free drinks and I think the general consensus is like maybe one or two free drinks or one free drink a night and then just like spend the extra, ’cause we spent, I think last year was like almost $15,000 just on alcohol.
I’m like, if we could cut that out, you know how many Rollo printers I could buy for 15,000 Every, would you rather have five drinks or a Rollo printer? Imagine putting a thermal printer in every swag bag, that’d be awesome. We’re not gonna do that. Don’t expect that. But I actually did have, Munbyn, who makes a thermal printer on Amazon.
It’s a great printer. I’ve actually had one before and they reached out to me by email recently. Wanted to sponsor a YouTube video. Yeah. And I was like, well, here’s my normal rate, but I will accept payment in printers. And I asked for 250 printers, and they were like, no, we can’t do that.
I’m like, come on, it’s a good idea. Yeah. I was like, oh man. I am, yeah. I’ll give you a shout-out in the video and you gimme 250 printers for our, for our event. There you go.
Clara: That’s amazing, Josh.
Doug: So Josh, so, and this kind of, you know, applies to seller events in general, but why do you think sellers should attend events, and why do you think sellers should attend FlipCon?
Josh: I think for events in general, the biggest benefit you get is just being in the same room with people that you wouldn’t otherwise be able, to get one-on-one attention from. Like, yeah, I’ll, I’ll answer Instagram DMS and, you know, when I have a chance, but like, I don’t have a chance to have 10-to-15-minute conversations with everybody all day long, you know?
And I’m not saying I’m some celebrity or anything like that. But if you kinda FlipCon, I’ll, I’ll talk the whole time. I’m sure I’ll have conversations nonstop with whoever wants to talk. We’ll talk about your eBay store. We can talk about you and your personal life. I’ll, I’ll talk your ears off, you know.
Yeah, and everybody just having access to so many professional resellers or YouTubers, there’s so much value there. I think that’s the biggest difference, like why virtual tickets to conferences like this are so cheap. Because it’s not really about the speakers or the information, like the panels and stuff.
The big value is just being there in the same building for 72 hours with all these different people that you could, you know, nitpick and it’s like we learned so much. Just like, not nitpick, that was the wrong word to say. You know, pick each other’s brains. You know, the first night we were sitting at the hotel bar, there were 20 or 30 people there, and that was awesome.
Yeah. It was just relaxed, and everybody was just talking and introducing themselves and, you know. The running ideas are just, just being in that environment is a huge benefit. We are going to a YouTube event, we’re not going this year, but we’ve been the last two years, and those tickets are expensive. Those are $1,200 a piece.
But like the first year I went, Mr. Beast was like 30 feet away from me, just sitting in the audience. I was like, oh, that’s kind of cool. It’s just, he’s just sitting over there, you know? Last year we met Ryan Trahan. I talked to HopeScope. I’m friends with HopeScope now. She’s nice. A big, big YouTuber. So just, just being there, you know, like there, Caleb Phoenix Resale went with, went with me to that, yeah, that YouTube event last year. And he didn’t even listen to the speakers ’cause you could just rewatch the replays later. He was just like talking, talking to people ’cause you only get so much time at the event.
So he was just trying to make the most out of it. That’s, that’s the value, just being there, being surrounded by people, whether they’re YouTubers or just resellers. I mean, last year we had a reseller that was the number one video game seller on Amazon. Wow. He had like 50 employees and all the employees’ jobs were just like processing video games and sending ’em into Amazon FBA.
He has millions, millions of dollars in Amazon sales per year, and he’s just some guy, I’m like, any idea what you’d have to pay to get 15 minutes? Of that guy’s time, you know? But here he is at FlipCon, just like, hang out in the hallway and you can just go talk to him. Yeah. Like that. That’s what you gotta look for at these events.
The people that have valuable information that you wouldn’t be able to access otherwise.
Clara: Yes. Accessibility. There you have it. And have that opportunity, like you said, one-on-one and making the speakers. Josh will make sure that the speakers are available, and that your investment in FlipCon is gonna be rewarded with not only knowledge possible.
Josh: We have three stickers in the swag bags, you will get three stickers.
Clara: There you go.
Josh: You got some empty space on that bug so you can fit another sticker. Sticker on.
Clara: I have room. Okay. I love it. So this is the question that I’m so excited about. Audience, I’ve been dying to ask this Josh. Josh, please share with our community what’s going on. I heard some rumors or what’s. What are you planning with FlipCon 2024? What’s gonna happen?
Josh: Nothing as, as far as I’m concerned, FlipCon, the idea of FlipCon was created by me and Caleb. We were just talking, and we came up with the event. Caleb actually came up with the name. I own the LLC that’s associated with FlipCon. Yeah. Caleb doesn’t wanna do it anymore, didn’t wanna do it this year, so he certainly doesn’t wanna do it again. And it’s just, it’s so much work. Hayley and I just, I mean, it’s, it, it comes in waves.
So like when you first start the event, you have to make the website and get all the banking information and the LLC and all that together. So that’s a lot of work. And then it kind of goes to cruise control and you just like to sell tickets. They trickle in here and there, and then it gets to like a month before the event, and then it’s like a full-time job again.
Yeah. So it’s, it’s just a lot. You know, you’ll get, you have to deal with the customer service of people like messaging. And I know you can hire it all out and I know that. The more events you do annually, the bigger it gets usually. But it’s just not a, it’s not a passion for us. We don’t wanna do it again.
Again, we all decided to do it again last year at the event. Because it was great. Like being there and being in the high of the moment and like, oh, this is great. We’re gonna do it again next year. Yeah. But then when you lose that and you start realizing all the work you have to do again, I’m like, ah, maybe not.
And, we don’t like, we’re not making a lot of money. Like sometimes if you can do an event and make six figures, then yeah, it’s worth it. But yeah, you know, just the food cost alone. I mean, you guys know hotel food is expensive. Yep. The food cost alone is $271 a person and tickets are $329 a person.
So we’re taking our $55 in profit or whatever that is, and we’re putting it towards paying for the rooms and the airfare. Yeah, travel expenses for all the speakers and the, the swag bags and all that stuff. So, you know, yeah. Full transparency. I think we might make like $4,000 in profit for eight months of work and there are just easier ways to make $4,000.
So, I’m willing to, I actually, Theresa actually reached out to me and wanted to know if I wanted to sell the FlipCon name and the LLC and I was like, maybe, we’ll see. I. But this will be the last year that Hayley and I are a part of planning it. I would love to attend if someone else wants to take it over.
But event planning is just not in our, it’s not a, it’s not a passion for us.
Clara: There you have it. FlipCon dot net is available. Well, let’s see what’s gonna happen.
Josh: Ca can we, we’ll sell it on, sell it a Whatnot. Do a Whatnot auction, $1 30 seconds. The FlipCon name and LLC.
Doug: All right. So Josh, before we go, anything to add? And then tell us really quickly where we are, where we should go to find all things Hairy Tornado.
Josh: You know, I, I don’t think, I don’t think we missed anything. I think we hit everything ever. All the topics. You can check us out on Instagram, Hairy Tornado on YouTube, Hairy Tornado, and Whatnot. Hairy Tornado, I keep it simple.
Just Hairy Tornado everywhere. Xbox Live. Netflix. I’m just kidding.
Clara: You crack me up. There you have it. Okay. There is a YouTube channel for those of you, they’re watching us right now. So it’s Hairy Tornado across the board. Right. I find you like Hairy Tornado on Instagram and so forth, right? Wow. 900,000 views on, I told her I wanted to buy it.
Josh: The, videos where we buy everything always do well, and so we did another one at the flea market on Wednesday. This guy had a bunch of T-shirts. Yeah, and I was just going through, I was like, oh, that one’s good. That one’s pretty good.
Yeah, that was pretty good. And after like 20, I was like, how much for all of them? I don’t take all of them.
Clara: You’re like, no, give it all, you know. I love it. Now those are fun videos. Congrats on your, amazing growth, and thank you again, you know, for helping so much our community and, especially with this event, we did Camp Listing Party, but you know, the fact that you and Hayley are really, really, you know, benefiting yourself full time to make this event a success. I’m just really looking forward, you know, with Theresa, Trish, and Dougie being there.
Josh: We’re excited to have you guys. Yeah, it’s gonna be fun.
Doug: Great to be back. And thanks for joining us, Josh. FlipCon 2023, all the info is at flipcon.net and it’s August 9th to 11th. Coming up at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel. Charlotte, beautiful. Charlotte, North Carolina. And the airport’s right there. It’s easy to get there and back. Everything takes place in the venue. Speakers will be available. You can run up to your room for a break. Food, yes. And there’s gonna be plenty of coffee and water.
Josh: And the water will be in bottles.
Clara: I love it. So there you have it. Okay. You requested and Josh delivered.
Josh: I hope that lady comes back. I need to look at you. It was anonymous. I don’t know who it was, but I hope she comes back and sees how many bottles of water we have. I love it. I
Clara: love it. Thank you again to thank you so much for your time.
Josh: Absolutely. Thank you.
Doug: All right, thanks. And we will see you soon. See you.
Outro
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