Join Trish Glenn in a chat with Kathy Cox who shares insights into selling after retirement and more! Kathy Cox (KathySingz) sells vintage, gently used, and new items for women, men, kids, and their homes. KathySingz provides quality items to the average household and collector who appreciates accuracy in descriptions, security in ordering online, quality customer service, and items shipped promptly, packed well, and with attention to detail in each step of the process.
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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Reselling After Retirement with Kathy Cox
Doug: Welcome to the show. We’re excited to bring in our special guest in a moment. We have a lot to talk about today. Cathy’s really interesting. Cathy Cox. Cathy Sings is very interesting. She’s done a ton of stuff. Kathy Singz sells vintage, gently used, and new items for women, men, kids, and their homes. Kathy Sings provides quality items to the average household and collector who appreciates accuracy in descriptions, security, and ordering online. Quality customer service and items shipped promptly packed well, and with attention to detail in each step of the process.
Trish: Hello, Ms. Kathy. Long time no see.
This morning in Mastermind Kathy taught us how to do something in List Perfectly, which I was very thankful for. She used to be a teacher, so she’s really good at it. She likes having little steps and you said detail-oriented. She did it really well. I felt like I should have said, good morning, Mrs. Cox.
So growing up, I had a teacher, fourth grade, Mr. Kenny. And he used to throw erasers at people who spoke too much, and I would have an eraser dodged at me daily. Daily, there was an eraser coming at my head. You couldn’t get away with that anymore.
Kathy is really she’s a really great addition to, Mastermind So we have Mastermind every morning.
Monday through Friday at 9. Kathy’s there almost every day and two things that I’ve really enjoyed about Kathy being in Mastermind. For anyone who doesn’t know what the hell I’m talking about, Mastermind is something we do on Listing Party. So anyone who belongs to List Perfectly, you automatically get a subscription to Listing Party.
And we have live events over there and we have one every morning called Mastermind and Kathy is part of it. And one of the things that I’ve enjoyed since she got there is she can, in a minute, bring me back to earth that not everyone knows what the hell I’m talking about. And this sincerely, because sometimes you think everyone’s on the same page as you, like everyone knows the things that are in your head.
And so sometimes she’s hello. And I’m like, Oh, okay. Yes. Okay. And it’s really good because you need to be able to make sure everyone knows what you’re talking about. And so I really like having somebody in there who’s a relatively new reseller, and that is really a good thing for me personally, and I think it’s good for the group.
And so I just want to thank you again for coming and showing up and participating because it really does make a difference. But on that note, tell us, how you came into reselling. Like what was this for you? Like, how’d you decide to go from, used to be a teacher, you retired? And so what, how’d you pick reselling?
Kathy: In 2019, I was cleaning out my house. An idea that after retirement, we would move to California. So we’re like, we can’t pack this house up overnight. It’s not going to work. So I started throwing things away, donating, doing all that. And I was finding things that just were too valuable to donate or whatever.
And I’m like, I bet I could sell this. And, at first, I did Facebook like other people do. And then I found out about Poshmark, and I started selling on Poshmark. And then my whole world flipped around, and it was obvious to me that I would not be able to move from this house for five years. There was no option.
I knew that my life was going to change, and I was going to be here, and I had some extra room at that point because it was just me here all of a sudden. And I was like, okay, I guess I’ll just keep selling. At one point I was like thinking seriously about retirement, especially during the pandemic.
Kathy: That was when I was like, huh, how soon can I retire from this job? And it was tough. The pandemic is really tough. I taught theater and music during the pandemic. And in case you didn’t know this those are participatory courses. You like the kids to do things and you guide them through what they’re doing, and you teach them how to improve.
The County had made a rule that they didn’t have to turn on their camera and they didn’t have to participate. And I’m like, How do I grade them? This is crazy. How do you teach a chorus class? How do you teach a theater course? I was encouraging the kids, but I wasn’t required to. So it was like, I don’t know if I want to keep doing this for the rest of my life.
So I seriously was selling. And then I’m like, you know what I’m running out of a lot of stuff. Cause I was able to sell, and I decided to start looking for sourcing online and buying like closeouts and things like that and started building it up. And then I thought, What’s the date I can retire?
Will I be able to make enough by then? And I started planning it out and I decided now’s the time to take a risk when I’m making an income. So I did a lot of risky things. I bought things that might’ve been $600 and I’m like, I don’t normally just throw out $600, but right now I’ll have inventory when I retire, I can keep selling it. And if I have to get a job, I will. But it was a plan. I didn’t just jump into it. I actually planned it all out and I bought a lot of stuff.
Trish: I’m shocked that you planned it. That is shocking to me.
Kathy: Like the minute that I was, definitely retired, July 1st was what I, Signed on to List Perfectly. I’m like, I am not going to make money if I’m only selling them on the platform. I got to start selling other places. And I did my research and listened to a lot of people and said, List Perfectly sounds like the best. And I have never regretted it. It’s the best decision financially.
Trish: I’m really glad to hear that.
Kathy: Absolutely.
Trish: I just want you to tell us what inspired your name, Kathy Sings. I’m assuming it’s cause you’re a music teacher, but I’ve never asked this question.
Kathy: I started singing at probably, birth, and at the age of five, I started singing in front of people. And when I. Was in high school. I just had this passion to sing so badly that I prayed and prayed and said God, please give me a voice. If you give me a voice, I will use it. I will always use it. And so I love to sing. It is a passion of mine and God gave me this voice. So I need to carry it through my life.
And S I N S wasn’t available. So I just changed the last S to a Z.
I had a passion from the age of five to sing. My son had a passion for film. Age of seven, he was showing interest and I think at eight, his dad gave him a camera and he never looked back. His very first movie was called Ghost. And this was back when you had the little cassette inside. And he in his head knew what every scene was going to look like, and he would film him in order, and then if he didn’t like the take, he’d watch it.
He’d rewind and then record over it and kept doing that until he had his whole movie together. And that he eventually ended up, being a performer, a great performer too. And he was on Broadway for a little bit and did some professional shows and has all of his Union cards and everything and then drew back from that a little bit, went to college for film and now he’s making movies and he’s been doing it and just waiting for his big break, but he doesn’t stop, and he’s got a new one coming out tomorrow.
If you like horror, and I don’t mean horror and blood and gore, but more like the suspense kind of horror, that’s where he excels and that’s what he’s doing. Comes out tomorrow called The Noise Next Door.
Trish: I haven’t even watched the trailer yet and it already scared me. So it is, I’m just saying, I did something stupid earlier. So you guys watch the trailer. It looks the first minute scared the crap out of me. Cause I thought I was calling 911. You guys, it couldn’t be the first time I inadvertently called 911, which is why I thought it was happening. Good for you, Kathy, and tell him congratulations. So fun.
Kathy: Yeah, and I even have a little part in it. I have a voiceover part. And he directed me. He was a very good director.
Trish: So you started on Poshmark. If you had to give someone new starting out, would that be your advice to start on Poshmark?
Kathy: Actually, yes. But save all your photos until you’re in List Perfectly. It’s a great place to get started because you don’t have to fill in a lot of information. And then once you get comfortable with that, then you can go to eBay. And eBay asked so many questions that I was getting what I call analysis paralysis, where I was like, I don’t know what the sleeve is.
I don’t know if it’s a puffy sleeve or, and I was looking everything up and trying to get it, I actually got together with Chris and we created documents, a little You can easily see what is that sleeve. What is that? What is that leg? Whatever, like all the questions that they ask. And then someone said, you don’t have to fill all of them in. And I was like, oh, okay. So I cut back a lot. And then today we’re saying, no, you should fill in what was it, 16?
Trish: So just so everybody knows what we’re talking about I always tell people to start on eBay too. And I understand that Poshmark is an easier platform. And if you’re a brand-new reseller, Poshmark seems like a great idea. The problem is if you’re selling on there for a very long time, it’s hard to move eBay just seems like such a monster. But I totally understand where Kathy’s coming from.
Crystal, this is what’s great about a mastermind class. Just throwing it out there. Crystal Maus, who is somebody who’s in our Mastermind. And she was actually a guest on here a few months ago.
She is a high-volume seller. And she is in this beta program at eBay where you get somebody who helps you in there. It’s a beta program. She was told by her person at eBay that she wasn’t filling out enough item specifics and that the only way that you were found in unless they go in and click a very specific box the only way you’re going to be found in search is through title or item specifics. After we talked about this for maybe half an hour, everybody gave their two cents and everything, and I think we all decided that filling out a few more items specifics was probably worth it. This pro seller consultant told her that she should do it and she thought she would see a significant rise in her searchability and therefore sales.
The other thing she said was if you’re filling out an item specific, that’s like details and you have a bow and you have pleats and you have this, or you have that, so maybe five boxes, those things count as five item specifics. But five of those could be just off of one box if that makes sense. The other thing she said was, if you go to do the seasons, and you think this is an item that’s any season, that somebody may wear it spring, summer, fall.
Kathy: Yeah, like this.
Trish: You just click them all. Yeah. So it was an interesting talk this morning.
Kathy: That brought up the fact that I found how handy merge is. A brand new feature on List Perfectly just came out about a month ago, if that, and it allows you to go into eBay and find a listing. is the product you’re selling, and it has all the item specifics already in it and you can take what you already have created and merge it with what that person has created and all the empty places that you didn’t fill in will be filled in because that other person filled them in and that’s a quick way. And I, the other day I was selling a wrench, and it was just asking me so many questions. I have no idea. I was like, I don’t use a wrench. I don’t know. So I looked up the wrench and I merged, and it sold in a day.
Trish: I think if you’re somebody who is selling something that maybe you’re not a hundred percent sure what it is, this feature could be really good for you. And if you don’t have List Perfectly and you’re brand new, you can do a sell similar on eBay. So it’s like doing that.
How did you discover List Perfectly? Were you looking for something to help you cross? Yeah. What was your mindset?
Kathy: Yeah, I was. I had been listening during the whole pandemic. I’m really cool. I love to put on headphones and do my chores. And I listen to YouTube or books or whatever. That’s a thing for me, keeps me focused on what I’m doing and get it done. And I was listening to Becky Park quite a bit and she’s on List Perfectly. And I was listening to other people suggesting some various sites and she did like a tutorial on List Perfectly or something and I was like, that’s it. That’s what I want to have. I do not want to keep copying and pasting all this information into eBay. And I need a guide of what I should be saying because, like I said, four years on Poshmark and then trying to do eBay was like, I don’t know the weight.
I don’t know what size box I’m going to put it in. I’m recycling boxes here. I don’t know this. I don’t know that. So it was a, it was like, that is what I want. And so I did use her code and she got. She’s still getting kickbacks, cause I’m still there and good for her. Cause she, she did what needed to be done to show me that’s what I needed.
And so yeah, it’s been a game changer. the only downside of starting on Poshmark that had I started on eBay, I could have just clicked a couple of things and sent everything from List Perfectly over to Poshmark and I’d be done. But because I started with Poshmark, they have the lowest quality photos.
And I did not know that. So when you take your photos and you put it in, in Poshmark, it Degrades the photo a little bit. And then I was relisting cause you have to relist often in Poshmark. So every time I relisted my new pictures were degraded more. And so when I was trying to send my pictures from Poshmark into List Perfectly and then send it to eBay, A lot of the pictures were coming out that the pixelation, it, they wouldn’t accept it because it’s too small.
So I had to go back, pull out that item, take new photos, which was good because then I would look at the tag and see what the fabric content and all these things is. I had never thought before. But. Yeah. So that’s been a bit of a time. It’s almost like starting over. Not quite, but yeah, it’s very time-consuming.
And it’s weird because I will put it in List Perfectly and I’m like, thank God I’ve got this place where it’s always going to be. And it has a date. So I know when I put it in there, I love that. But the weird thing is oftentimes when I create a whole new listing it sells. Like the next day. And it might sell in Poshmark.
Trish: No, absolutely. But here’s the thing, Posh some of it is just when we touch stuff, it sells, right? Like sometimes it works, but the whole thing about Posh is, that whether you are a List Perfectly customer or not, you really should think about this. You want someplace that holds your photos at the highest quality.
And. List Perfectly doesn’t degrade them. So it doesn’t matter where you put them, they stay at the same resolution. Posh just doesn’t for space reasons. They’re doing it for their servers. there is a reason why they do it and it’s understanding, and they don’t have the ability to magnify the photos, whereas eBay magnifies your photos.
eBay keeps your quality of photos very high because they believe, and not that Posh doesn’t, it’s just a different audience. There are a lot of collectors and stuff on eBay that are, going over every single little section of this photo before they buy it. And they know that the magnification of eBay is a very important thing for them. And it’s a selling feature. So yeah. So there you go about that.
Kathy: Come to a mastermind. That’s the best way to learn how to use LP. And they have videos, and they have that 411 every weekday. I love it. I am just so amazed at the free training that you get through LP because as a teacher, I had to pay money. And supposedly they pay you back, but yeah, they don’t pay you back as a teacher. It would be like; I pay a thousand dollars for a course, and we’ll give you $300. I’m like, what do you mean you’re giving me $300? No, that’s not, the going rate.
I just paid it. One of the things that blew my mind was like, that every day I could get together with other people who are doing this and I get free training. And, if you have a question, you don’t have to try to text somebody and hope their chat GPT is going to give you the right answer or whatever.
There’s a human being there every single day. that blew my mind and impressed me a lot. I love that.
Trish: You emphasize quality customer service and detailed listings. Is this from research? What is this? What, that kind of philosophy, what did that come from?
Kathy: When I was looking at other sellers, ’cause that’s how I did my research before LP. I looked at lots of different sellers and I was on Poshmark. So you have to share anyway. So I was sharing other people’s closets and looking at their photos and their listings and thinking, I wouldn’t buy this from this person because they’re not telling me enough about it and you can’t return it.
If it doesn’t fit, tough, you resell it. You can’t return it. So fine. I’m okay with reselling it, but I don’t want to buy something that I don’t know if it’s going to fit. I don’t even have a shot of knowing because all they put was the size and the brand. And then they told me the color that I can see in the picture anyway.
That’s not enough information for me. I need more. So I would get to people that had good clear pictures where you could see the color and they had measurements where you could like, okay, I’ll take a t-shirt and lay it down and measure my chest. That was it. And so I was learning, what is it that I want as a buyer?
And to me, that was customer service. It’s what kind of customer service are you providing? I know so many stores oh my gosh, you walk in, and it could even be like a high-end store sometimes and you’re asking, you’re looking around, you’re trying to find something, and nobody talks to you. And that might be because I’m not carrying a Coach bag, I don’t know, but I found it really irritating that they would treat me like I shouldn’t be in their store, and they would not ask me if I needed anything, and I would be carrying like eight items that I want to try on. And then I go into the dressing room, and I try them on, and nobody was saying, Hey, do you want another size?
Or, and I’m like, what has happened to customer service? Why are people not providing customer service? So I decided that from that point that my store would provide customer service. If somebody asks me a question, I’m going to answer it within 24 hours. If someone wants an offer, I’m going to do a reasonable offer.
Now. On the flip side, I hardly ever go cheap. I don’t like selling things cheap because I’m investing a lot of my time into making sure that they have a quality listing, they have quality, it’s going to get packed, so it’s going to get there without breaking and without getting damaged. All of that’s important to me, that’s why I don’t give my stuff away. I don’t understand people that go on Poshmark, and sell it for 5 because Poshmark is going to take 2. 95 off the top and you’re taking your time to wrap it and do all that stuff. So I don’t sell for that low. Unless they’re doing like a big bundle, then I’ll do it.
I feel like it’s important to have customer service. Now, does that mean I list fewer things per day? Yes, it does. It really does. And I’m in the learning process, so I know that looking up all those things sometimes Gives me that analysis paralysis, but I’m getting better.
Trish: I also think how long you take to do a listing. depends on the quality of the item. I’m going to spend a lot more time on something that costs a hundred bucks than I am on something that costs 10. But I do agree with you in the sense that I don’t know anyone who knows me is going to be shocked when I say this, but I’m a busty girl, right? So for me, being able to return a top is really important because it may never fit me, even if the measurements are right, if it doesn’t fall just the way, it may be too. So for me, I don’t do a lot of buying off of Poshmark because there’s no return policy.
And I’m a used clothing seller. So I think I have a lot of empathy for other used clothing sellers. And I just think there are certain things that you have to decide that you’re going to accept and you’re going to move forward. And one of them for me was returns a long time ago, returns a part of this.
I’m going to move forward. I’m taking them and we’re going to go forward. And I think that customer service is like that also. I also try to answer every question. I actually try to do it. If it comes in on Monday, I try to ask about it. on Monday by the end of the business and the same on Tuesday. If it comes in overnight, it will be the next day.
And I also try to be open if I don’t know. Sometimes people want to know things like, the provenance or something, I don’t know, but I always say I have a return policy. So feel free to try it out, things like that. So I try to use those things that some people think of as a negative, as a selling love button.
So how do you decide what you’re going to sell? And if they meet your quality standards?
Kathy: At first, I just was taking anything that people gave me and, now I’ve donated quite a few things out of my, and then you said I shouldn’t have done that, but I did.
Basically, because they weren’t selling, and they weren’t really the quality that I wanted to be selling. Occasionally I’ll get things that I didn’t think I would be getting from a certain buyer and then I’ll price it low just to get it out. But I, to me, I, like today I, so I took two things that I had gotten from a supplier that had missing buttons.
So I sewed the buttons on, I went through my old kit, and I sewed the buttons on, and, if there’s like a seam that’s open somewhere, I’ll sew the seam or at least reveal it. I don’t like big stains, if something is not obvious, I’ll just disclose it, it’s underneath a pleat here, so you’re not going to see it, but it’s there.
Yeah, so I just, don’t like to have lots of faults. I do sell quite a bit of new things new with tags. That’s what I prefer to do. I pushed toward that more recently, but getting things new with tags is not the easiest thing in the world, and oftentimes you gotta buy a lot at once.
And yeah. But Then, if you’re listing 15 pairs of jeans and they’re all from the same brand, it’s going to be a lot easier to list them fast.
Trish: So what do you focus on? Do you focus on vintage, collectors? What do you focus on, or do you think of yourself as an everything seller?
Kathy: I’m an everything seller, but there are certain things I just don’t buy. I don’t buy big things, because I don’t have the room for big things.
We have someone in Mastermind who sells Sound equipment and stereo equipment and stuff like that. Good for him, but he needs a warehouse for that stuff. And I don’t, I have a house and now I also have a storage unit. I love jewelry cause it’s so tiny and you can take pictures really fast, but then I learned, Oh, I need to test the jewelry.
So now like my jewelry’s on hold cause, I’m testing it, even the new stuff to see. It doesn’t have nickel in it. And if they told me that its gold plated, is it really, or is it not? I pick a magnet, can’t tell you how many were sold to me as gold plated, and I use that magnet and pick it right up and I’m like, it’s not gold plated. I love skincare. I love natural skincare, stuff that’s made out of plants and no chemicals and that kind of stuff. And since I’m so obsessed with it and I buy it, I get lots of deals and they’re not deals Like a seller would normally get. It’s just like a buyer would get maybe 70 percent off.
So I’ll buy those stock up on them and then put them all for sale. And then when I need one, I just take it out of inventory and take it off. I’m not obsessing of buying skincare. I’m buying for my store.
Trish: I’m not sure this is real, Kathy. I’m not sure your logic is really real, but I’m there for you, baby.
You do it. I’m trying to make 25%, but hey, have you, so would you do all skincare if you got like the right hookup? Are you that interested in it? I have no idea. I gotta be honest, I’m not a skincare girl I probably should be, at my age, but I’m not I’ve got some good stuff, I can hook you up.
Okay, but let me say this, would you do that if you had the right hookup? Maybe. Yeah. Okay. Just wondering.
Kathy: Yeah. it doesn’t take up a lot of space and usually, it sells for a pretty high price. The stuff that I buy, I’m not buying the stuff that you get in, the grocery store. No, that’s not the kind of stuff I sell.
Yes, I retired. But luckily, every time I say I retired, people are like, You’re retired? You’re too young to retire. I haven’t fully retired. I’m still working. I just moved from one chapter of my life to another chapter of my life. And in doing so, I created a new job for myself that I do.
And now I’m learning and that’s good for your brain. When you’re learning new stuff, it’s always good.
Because I taught theater, inventory was not an issue at all. I knew how to organize inventory. You have to know where everything is. And I knew a system and I followed that from the beginning. So as I grew, I was okay with that. But I know a lot of people face that because they don’t have that background.
Trish: They think, when you guys first start this, I’m sure you have all done this, if you’ve been doing this for any amount of time, you have like piles or just everything’s in a bucket and you only have so many items, but once you start to accumulate. But once you start to have hundreds of items, if not thousands of items, you can’t do that anymore.
And so the sooner you put into place an inventory system, the better off you will be in the long run. It’s just that.
Kathy: Yeah. So that closet that started out with this is going to be in the tops in the closet, then became, this is top number one in the closet. And then it became, this is in bag 107.
And I’m not using the closet for that kind of stuff anymore. So yeah, it grew, but I knew how to grow that. That wasn’t an issue for me, but I know that’s a challenge. A lot of people face working their own hours can be a challenge. And I have ADHD. So I had to program my day. I try to do as much as possible in the morning and the early afternoon.
I still like to work at nighttime, but I try to do more creative things instead of listing because my ADHD meds run out and then I can’t. I get off into the weeds. Yeah. But creative stuff I can do without, if I’m fixing the color on a picture or, doing that kind of stuff, I can do that.
But creating listings at nighttime tends to, I can be like, what was I doing on this page? What am I doing here? Yeah, so it’s a little harder. All right.
Trish: Do you miss teaching? That’s what I was going to wonder. I was wondering, do you miss that about teaching? Do you miss the schedule?
Kathy: I can live the rest of my life without an alarm going off telling me I have five minutes to run to the bathroom and get back.
And someone’s going to be saying, why weren’t you doing your hall duty? Yeah. I’m like, ’cause I had to pee! You don’t know this. People out there, teachers have the highest UTI rate of Any other profession. Why? Because we can’t go to the bathroom. That’s
Trish: Okay, if somebody had told me that the word UTI would have been on there.
I would have bet you a million dollars, but it wouldn’t have.
Kathy: I set alarms, but I mostly set my Alexa so that she just kindly tells me instead of some alarm going off and I have to run. Now I set an alarm for this because I wanted to make sure I was not; cause I can be in place. Ready for something to start and then I’m getting involved in something and then I’m like, oh my gosh It’s three after nine and I’m not in the meeting. I got to get in there So yeah, I will set alarms for stuff that has to be an exact time but if it’s like I’m gonna do my chores from 1130 to 1230 then I just ask Alexa to remind me and I put on my headphones I go do my chores and then I come back to work
Trish: I think I need this a little bit in my life, because if you guys could see, if you’re in Mastermind, you see my office, which I have like bags behind me, like Kathy, stuff behind me, But the rest of my house, man, some days it’s bad because I do this and all of a sudden I’m like, Oh crap, someone should have done those dishes.
Kathy: I did at one time in my life, cause I did a lot of jobs before I went into teaching, I was a cake decorator and we used to have to do inventory of the freezer. And every week you would do inventory for the freezer and then they would know what to order based on what’s gone, what you’ve used up, and what’s left.
And so I knew inventory was an important thing, but now that I’m actually touching everything I ever listed and relisting it because I have to weigh it. And figure out what kind of box or whatever is going to go in. That was an eye-opener to me is, Oh my, I should be checking this inventory a little bit more often.
Yeah, so that’s one thing that was a little bit more of a challenge than I realized. I was listing something the other day and I was like, I already listed this. I know I already listed it. And then I saw it was a different inventory number. So I’m like, Oh, okay. So I’m going to go check and see, if what I had before is really there.
And it was, so I really did have two of them, but. Without checking that I might have sold it and somehow, I forgot to. Yep.
Trish: Was it a used item?
Kathy: No, it was new. It was skincare.
Trish: Did you make it a multi-quantity?
Kathy: Yes. Okay. I did, but I had already taken new photos because I knew that I would need new photos.
But then when I went to put into inventory, I was like, wait a minute. I know I just listed this a while ago and that’s when I just used the new photos. Upped it to two instead of one because the expiration date was the same. If the expiration had been different, I would have listed them separately.
Trish: Okay. So then let me ask you a question based on that, based on going to Mastermind, based on all your LP knowledge. what are you planning to implement innovate or change in your business, like over the next six, or eight months, or do you not even have that kind of thought at the moment?
Kathy: I know that I need to go; in order to move to the next level, I need employees.
And I have a wonderful girl that, she’s a high school girl. She’s amazing. Sophia, is just amazing. She has attention to detail the way I do. So that’s really good. And she’s also young, so I can pick her mind for things like, should I put this on Depop? And do you think kids would buy this and that kind of thing?
But she’s going to be going away for the summer to visit her dad. So I’m like now what am I going to do? Cause I need somebody as good as her and it’s my home. You can’t just invite anybody into your home to work.
I’m really good at photos, but I get bogged down in the listing and I’m better at stuff that I practice more often. So I feel like I need to invest more of my time in listing what I have photos of.
So if I’m not taking the photos, Then I can focus on listing and get faster at it.
Trish: Thank you get better at what you practice. What do you miss about teaching? And is there any way that missing that you have brought that into your business now?
I think maybe a little bit of Listing Party has helped with that because you still get to yeah, social. And that’s one of the things about Listing Party that I’m not sure people really understand until you’re in it. It’s like having work colleagues.
Kathy: It is exactly like that.
It’s like being in an office where you have your cubicles and you’re all working. But if you have a question, you can pop your head over and go, Hey, I have this thing and I, can you answer this question for me?
Today, I was trying to use Canva to recreate the headings on my sites and I was getting really frustrated I went into the meeting and, waited my turn and then I said, I have a question about Canva, and I got my question answered.
Trish: Yeah, and that’s not even directly something maybe everyone would know about, right?
Kathy: As a theatre teacher for decades, I was alone. There’s no other theater teacher in your school. You are alone. And then when the pandemic happened, all of these theater teachers, we all got together. We’re like, we got to do something because we can’t all rewrite every single lesson or write all new lessons on our own for our five different classes that we have to teach.
So we got together. And that was when I was like, I love this. I like working with other people and bouncing ideas off of each other. And that’s one thing that I got out of List Perfectly that I was really happy to have because otherwise, I thought I was going to be all alone. I really did.
Trish: Yeah, I agree with you. For a long time, I did this alone. And, when I first started, most of you know this, and I say this all the time, but I owned a really unsuccessful consignment business. And I remember once I was doing it for a while, YouTube Was big then, but it wasn’t as big as it is now, but I paid Casey Parris 50 bucks to come on and to have a one-on-one with me and tell me what I was doing wrong in my store. I didn’t know anyone who did it. I knew nobody. And so he came on he yelled at me in the way that he does. And I was thankful for it. And then he said to me at the end, they have meetups. Why don’t you find one? And I was like, meetup? And I, of course I don’t want to seem stupid. So I’m like, yeah, okay, thanks. And this is probably. Eight years ago, nine years ago, and I found a meetup right after that. And, that is before this, right? The pandemic kind of changed all this.
Having somebody. To be able to call and say, Hey, can you look at this for me? I don’t know what this means, or I got this. What is this? What’s a VERO? What do you mean? I can’t say Velcro in a listing?
Kathy: Not until you guys told me. I was going through with the Velcro, the same thing with a onesie.
And now that we have the AI that will, sometimes it calls it a onesie, and it’s not a onesie, and I know to change it. If it’s not an official Gerber onesie. Correct. So this is Carter’s onesie. It’s no, it’s not a onesie, it’s a one-piece, it’s a bodysuit, but you can’t, but you’re not gonna know that isn’t you’re not going to know what you don’t know. So that’s what’s so great about this stuff. Yeah. It’s like calling this a Kleenex. It’s not.
Trish: What advice would you give to somebody who’s thinking about doing this? Either being a reseller or starting their own e-commerce business. What is something from somebody who’s new? What do you wish you, I know you’ve been doing this for four years, but I meant you’re new to going to that.
Kathy: It was a hobby before and now it’s my business. you talk a lot about having a niche. I still don’t have a niche. But I’m finding things I don’t like listing. Especially because I still have a little bit of a consignment business with people who bring me things and, I don’t like listing some things because they take me too long and I have to get up and down off the floor and I get all sweaty and everything.
And I don’t like those kinds of things and I don’t like anything big, so I don’t buy anything big. Cause I don’t have a place for it and if you’re going to get jewelry, be careful about where you’re going to get it. And there’s a way to test it. Didn’t even know that.
I’m learning all about the little acids and my diamond tester, which is an officially, Real diamond. They are not fake. I knew that for sure. When I put it on the ring and it went boom. And I’m like, okay, it’s working.
Have a plan. And a lot of people get bored when they’re in retirement. I’ve not been bored a minute, not one, If I got bored, all I’d have to do is get on with you guys and then my life is not boring anymore. and the other good thing about this business is it is flexible.
Like I went away for three days for my birthday and all I had to do was prep everything before I left to make sure it was all ready to go out. And it was on a weekend, so I wasn’t worried about shipping because I wasn’t going to mess up my shipping time. And I didn’t have to get anybody to come in and do all that for me, but when I go away for a week, I do.
Trish: It’s just the summer, but you can also, you have the ability to pause all these things. that is
One of the things that has made a really big difference in my life, not so much now, but before when my dad was sick and I could do it all, I could still take care of him and run my business. And I had the ability to if something happened and he went to the hospital, I could pause things. But I also, talk about this in Mastermind.
I say, what happens if you get hit by a bus? If you get hit by the bus, you want to make sure somebody else can come into your house and ship for you. They don’t need to know how to list. You have to make sure that somebody can ship your items so that your items are in the ability to be found. Do you have a little chart that shows where all the places are?
Does somebody figure out your SKU system? Shipping is the one thing that can do that. Really causes harm to your business. Not listing while it may slow you down. You’re not going to lose account health, right? Your account will still be in good standing. If you do not list if you sell something and you do not ship it, then your account goes down in account health, and you can absolutely lose your account.
Especially on eBay. Poshmark’s a little bit more forgiving. You can do it so many times a year. eBay is not very forgiving about that. You need to make sure that things are still able to be sent out. And freedom, being able, it’s a little bit of self-discipline also. We have a lot of freedom, but you need to make sure you’re hitting your goals so that you can at least be able to support yourself whatever that is to you.
Kathy, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it.
Outro
Trish: Thank you for joining us on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly. You can find us at the Seller Community Podcast.com https://thesellercommunitypodcast.com
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