Random Thoughts #1 - Episode 45

https://linktr.ee/KarriKennedy

This is just an episode I’m  just talking about decision-making life evaluating and such.

Hopefully something I say, will resonate with you and help.  

#KarriKennedy #Whatnot #EntrepreneurLife #LiveSales #Decision-making #LifeEvaluating #TheStruggleIsReal 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hey there guys. Uh I'm just coming to you today with some thoughts about what's happened in the the last like, I don't know, 24 hours or something. This is just me, my life, my situation, and just kind of talking about my thoughts and feelings. No real learning here unless you're learning from my own experience. Okay, so here's where I'm at. So I hired one, well, I've hired multiple people. Um, the other two girls did not work out. One because she was only 26 and didn't understand that you can't just like call into work and say, I'm not gonna come for two days and reply. Um, I'm gonna take a break, it was two days for her. I was like, no, you're fired. We don't get to do that. Um, so that was the first one. And then the second girl, her life is a hot mess. She's about to get kicked out of her trailer, she's trying to find an assistant housing and all this and that. And, you know, my first desire is to take her, but she also has a seven-year-old son. So my family and friends are like, no, no, you can't do that. So I'm I'm getting that. And every time we give her money, it just kind of goes away. And, you know, I just it's a sad situation. So I've had two helpers and both of them were gone. Um, they were both willing to not only do packing and you know, organizing the whatnot room and everything, but they were also willing to help clean up in my house. So to have somebody who can do all three things was like a huge, huge deal to me. And I was desperate. And this one girl actually came to pick up some items from me a while back um from Facebook Marketplace. And she came in and got stuff, and I said, if you need anything else, I'm selling like all this stuff. I decided I don't really want to send big, huge items because it's so um cumbersome to pack them and get the specialty boxes and all of that. So I can't even remember what I sold her, but um I said, Hey, if you'd like to come. Well, I reached out to her and she actually broke her ankle. This is like months and months ago. It was last year. She broke her ankle, and so obviously she couldn't work for me, but she has been working here for now, I guess, about two and a half, three weeks. Her name is Sarah, and I cannot tell you enough what a blessing she is. I mean, she lives not far from me, which is a huge bonus. I think it takes her like five, seven minutes to get here, so that is massive. I'm paying her$20 an hour to do whatever it is. So if she's helping me organize, if she's helping me pack, if she's helping me clean, whatever it is, it's 20 bucks straight up. She's 44 years old and I am 54. I think that's right. She might be, yeah. And so um, yeah, it just works out really wonderfully. And she's been coming at least three times a week. Um, because I'm doing shows and I'm trying to get really organized with this. Right now I'm doing Tuesday morning vintage shows. Um, wait, is that right? No, Tuesday night vintage shows. Sorry about that. 6:45 Tuesday night, and then Thursday morning at 7.45. So I'm doing a night, a morning, and that's an estate sales. And then I am doing a Saturday personal shopping thing. So we'll see. But what I am realizing, and this is why I came on, I constantly tell you guys stuff. And I feel like if I'm gonna tell you I can't be hypocritical, I gotta do the same thing. And if you are an independent employee, right? Like you're working from home and this is your job, there's no boss, there's no principal, there's no um upper management to give you your reviews. Um, so you have to do your own reviews and figure that out. My kid is texting me what I want for lunch, literally, right now. Um, and uh, so, anyways, my thing is I think after this, what's happened lately, I'm gonna tell you what's going on. I think number one, I went in and just picked a random day, and I picked a Tuesday night so that Hudson could help me with packing on Wednesdays. And I think that was a really bad mistake. And here's what I'm gonna tell you. I'm not gonna tell you who I raided into, but I raided into somebody's show last night. I was only gonna be on for two hours. I was on for three and a half hours almost, and I raided into this girl, and she had like 180 people in her show. Well, if you're having your show in a certain category and there's somebody else who's a big boss lady like her and has 180, no wonder I only had 22, 24, roughly average in my show. I don't know if it says what your average is per show. That would be a cool thing. I don't know if it does. But yeah, so basically what I ended up um thinking is I shouldn't have just picked Tuesday. I should have done what I've told you and what that is, is you know, thinking about who else is going on and also being strategic in that. First of all and foremost, I tell you to do what's best for your schedule, but also I was hoping that my 16-year-old would help with packing more. And let's just face it, I have two boys out of my six kids that are still living here. The 19-year-old is very helpful with running errands and doing stuff when he wants, but if he doesn't want to, it's hard. The 16-year-old, he is um strategically unavailable, is the t-shirt that we're thinking we need to buy for him because he would much rather be doing pretty much anything. Um, he'll find anything to do cook, do dishes, do laundry, he'll find video games, he'll he'll um take the dogs for a walk, anything and everything he can do to not pack. So it was just my hopeful desire to get him, you know, to help, because I was like, well, he's a teenager, he's capable, he should do it. But the reality, Mamas, is if you know this, just because you want somebody to do something doesn't mean they're gonna do it. And just because you're hopeful and you, you know, you want them to care about the things that you care about doesn't mean they're going to. So I think that that was stupid on my part. So now I'm looking at my Tuesday night show and I'm like, number one, somebody big boss is out. I should have thought about that. I should have spent some time really looking. Number two, Hudson's not really helping, so that kind of's blown. And number three, it's only giving me like 22, 24 people in there. So now I'm like, okay, do I give up? And then I'm like, no, I can't do that. I gotta stick with it for a few more weeks and see because I I scheduled them, I need to be consistent, I will pull the weight, even though it's sucky right now. Um, also, I did 921 shipping. I'm really thinking about that. If I only have 22, 24 people in there, which is not what I had on like Thursday morning, for example, last Thursday morning in the estate sale section, I was having like 55 people in there. And when there's 55 people, it's way better because if you hold up an item, there's a higher chance somebody's gonna want it. And so I think that really what I'm thinking um is that I need to um really figure out is it worth it? You know, and so I'm gonna keep going for another five weeks or whatever, four or five weeks in the vintage every Tuesday night. But instead of doing what I did last night, which is stay on, I kept going and I should not have done that because we have spent the last four hours packing, and it wasn't just me and it wasn't just her, it was 20 people's or 21 people orders, but they were breakables and it was a lot. And so we had Hayden helping, Hudson hardly helped, he maybe helped with one or two packages and then us. And I also, so I'm like, ugh, you know, you have to stop and reflect and go, okay, what was good, what was bad, whatever. At the end of the day, I think if there was 50, 60 people in there, I would have done better. How can I get more people in there? Because that's what you guys ask me all the time. And what am I saying? Be consistent, be consistent, keep showing up. Well, I haven't been consistent in this. You know, I've only done it maybe twice now. So I need to keep trying and see if it works. If it works and I keep getting more people and the algorithm sends me more people, then great, done deal. High five, I'll stay there and I'll keep doing these shows. But if I realize that in the estate sale category, I'm getting more people and I'm getting more money and it's worth my time and my energy, then I'm gonna go over there. A lot of you guys don't have this problem because you know what you're selling, you're in your lane, and it's not an issue. For me, I've been in 15 categories, and this has always been an issue for me. I mean, everything from me selling my own facial scrubs and lip glosses to 3D printing to um freeze-dry food that we have, um, books and jewelry and clothes, and I mean, the list just goes on. I've sold marbles and records and estate sales stuff and garage sales. I've just been everywhere. And I really like having the flexibility of that. I think I would get bored to tears if I had to sell the same item day in, day out, sitting down. No offense against you guys. It's just that are doing it. I think it's great for you. I just think my personality and who I am, I would get bored if I had to sit at a table and only sell jewelry. Jewelry day in, day out. So I want the flexibility, but I hate, I really hate how Whatnot really wants you in your category, in your lane, and you can't be more flexible. Like I would have loved today to have been able to say it was a community show, an estate sales show, I mean a vintage show, and a um Bucky's show. That's three different things. I had all three of those things. I talked about community, I did some talking in the beginning. I had a talk show. I would have loved to combine all three of those, but whatnot will not let me do it. And so for that, I'm also not gonna do Buckeys anymore. Honestly, guys, I I started off having just Bucky's because it's down the road. Not everybody has it. They have taffy, they have lots of candies, snacks, whatever. I had a hundred and like 20 items, maybe 115, 20 items for Buckeys. And it was just so I could get more sales because I thought more sales, more followers, and I wasn't making hardly any profit. It was not worth my time, it was not worth my energy. And so I got rid of all of them, but like eight items, like my favorite things, like the cherry sours, um, you know, the Bucky Nuggets, whatever. And I am now at the point where what have I learned today, right? After every show, what should I do? What should I not do? What's good, which what's not good. And here's for me what I have learned. For me, I you guys gotta go and do the same thing for yourselves. But I definitely think, you know, you have to do an analysis, you have to give yourself a review. Okay, so number one, here's what I did. I I went last night, I went over in my time. I need to stick to like three hours or under, period. Done. I had this game where they could get 3D hen printed hens out of this drawer. So every single time they made an uh uh order, they got to pull a drawer and then they got different colored ones. We have a bunch of them. There's metallic ones, there was a little sherbered one, there's black, there was a bunch of them. And so everybody loved that. And people literally were buying stuff just so they could go to the drawers, pick a number one through 60, get through the drawer and get their little hen. Fine, great. It was more fun, that's good. I also did a raffle, which I love doing these games, guys. If I could just get paid for doing games, that would be great. Um, but anyways, what I the raffle was a margarita hat. It said Mama Cita needs a margarita, and it's from like a bougie cutesy store. It was 20 bucks. And then I had Kate Spade uh diamond stud earrings. And so I said, okay, guys, you can either go to the drawers to get one of these hen on the nest 3D things, or you can put your name in a like a bowl, a basket for a choice to get either the um earrings or the hat. And everybody was like, okay. So if they wanted the hen, they could get the hen. If they wanted um the hat or the earrings, they could do that. How it ended up going is everybody wanted at the end, some new people came in because I got a raid of 40 people. John Klutch, I think, did that, and I was really appreciative of that. And some of those people stuck around and bought some stuff. So I should be happy. I should be like, woo-hoo. And I am, don't get me wrong, I am more than happy to get a raid. Absolutely. But what I'm thinking is it just kept going. It kept going and it kept going. I think he probably raided into me at like the two and a half mark or something, two and a half, and I stayed on for like another 40 minutes. And while that's good, it's like I just have to watch that, is all I'm saying. Because when it takes, I'm paying Sarah$20. Okay, factor this out. She helped me with the show, which was three and a half hours, okay, plus she did four hours of packing with me today. So that means I gave Sarah$150. I also did$921 shipping. And so I basically lost, like when it was all said and done, because I did it under priority instead of flat rate. It's a whole thing. Anyways, it all worked out, but once all the taxes, the fees, and everything, it was down to like it went from$535 to like$414 or$441, something like that. And then you take the cost of my stuff, my packing materials, the candy, the 3D printed, all the stuff. And then you take another$150 out so I can pay Sarah. I'm like, I haven't done the math, but you guys can see really quickly, my money's going. And so I have to figure out either A, how I can get more people in the room to get more money, or B, how I can get off within a certain amount of time so that my shipping doesn't take so long. Or C, just switch materials. That's what Hudson said. He's like, Mom, why are you selling such big things? You know, I'm doing glass bowls. I sold a bunch of Pyrex stuff lately. They take so much work and time. I actually did a how to pack a box show this morning and do orders. Um, that was 45 minutes also of my day. I know I'm just rambling. But it's like, what was I doing? I know better. I'm not doing these damn talk shows anymore. The algorithm doesn't pay me. People aren't buying stuff. That's why I'm switching to the podcast. I get that if you've sold, you know, 25,000 things and you want to have a show to get more followers or whatever. Um, there's several people who do it. I am glad I'm doing the podcast. I don't want to be doing the talk shows on there anymore. I'll do the pack a box once a month for the next four months, but that's pretty much the only thing I'll do. These pop-up talk shows where I try to help somebody. I think at one point I had like 17 people in the room and then it went down to something like eight. And I was just like, yeah, I'm I'm not, I'm happy to hate help those eight people because at the end of the day, I'm there for even one of you guys. If I can even help one of you, but the thing is, it chunked into my time with Sarah and my money. So I'm basically paying Sarah to help me with the show and to do the packing, and I've got to figure it out. So that's that's what I'm thinking about right now. No more Buckies unless I do. Here's my other thought: I could do a Carrie's Favorites box and make a box of just Carrie's favorites. And I could make like three or four of them, and you could come and get the box. It would have the Bucky's nuggets, the cherry sours, the cinnamon bears, all that in there. And it's really the best of what Bucky's has, like the some really great stuff. The Bohemian garlic, beef jerky, you know, that kind of thing. That way I could have the boxes, they're ready to go, and I'm not going and looking around the store and spending the time and the energy. I just have to be very conscious about my time and my energy. And I think we all have to do that. That's why I'm getting on here and saying this. Like you guys review your schedule, review your time, review because it all adds up, you know. And I'm homeschooling today. The boys took the boxes, right? They went and took the boxes, finally got it done. Um, I can tell you actually how much money I just transferred. So let me go see. Uh, PayPal, where's my PayPal? I'm really doing this right now. So after my show with the 2021 boxes or whatever, it ended up to be 457 bucks. So I made$300, but how much did I pay for all that merchandise and the packing supplies and the Skittles and the 3D, all of it, plus my time. So, my time, you know, am I getting, you know, enough? And that's really where I'm at. Um, and you know, partially, guys, also I was gone for like five, six weeks. I was not showing up regularly. I have never in the last two years ever been consistent in my right lane or my right day. Never. And then on top of that, oh, here's another thing that I did. Ugh, so upset about this. Live and learn, guys. Live and learn. I had a notification. This is something I'm so happy to tell you guys about. I had a buyer's notification, and this is like the second or third time this has happened, and I'm just such an idiot. It never occurred to me. Like, you know, certain things, but you just don't do them, or you heard it and you forgot to do it, whatever. If you do a buyer's notification, it means that every time you go live, every time you do a pop-up, whatever, people can come to your show. You do it just like any other kind of listing, but you could put it in community, you could put it under the category you're in. Um, for me, it's been hard, and that's one of the reasons I haven't, because if I'm selling in one category like freeze dry, but my notification is in vintage, do you see how that doesn't work? All the vintage people are like, wait, you're selling buckies, you're selling freeze dries, it didn't work for me. You have to pick a lane, guys. I can't I cannot stress this enough, and that's what I'm trying to do right now. I think I'm gonna end up in estate sales or vintage and maybe personal shopping. Those are the three that I'm coming down with. But, anyways, some girl in my show the other day bought the$100 notification. Had I just put it at$9,995, it probably wouldn't have gone through because her bank would have seen it, you know, and went, eh, alert, you can't get it, or she would have seen it. But all my people who were following me with the ring the bell notification that I put in there every time I went live and I don't even know how many people it was, it's gone. It's gone. And I have to start all over again. So if you guys are new, my goodness, do a notification, put$9,995 or$99 on it. And every time you go live, you put it up at the top. Put the number at like 0000 or whatever. So it always shows up at the top of your um, at the top of your auction and run that in the beginning and tell people, hey, you guys want me? I know there's people who have like 1500 people following that thing every single time or something like that. And um, so you guys, that's a really, really good thing to do. Okay, so let's review what Carrie has learned. Okay. Number one, be strategic and figure out when you're going on. I think I just jumped on that Tuesday too much. Two, hang in there. I want to quit so bad, guys, after this experience. I wanted Sarah to help me mop my kitchen floors and help me with the laundry and all kinds of stuff, but we spent so much time packing and I just did not make enough money. It was a rough, it was a rough show. When I mean, it was fun. Everybody enjoyed it, everybody's getting great boxes. All that's great. Financially, it was a rough show for me because I'm not making enough money to make it really worth it when I'm only having 22, 24 people in there. I need the bigger numbers. So I am going to do what I said and I'm not giving up. I'm gonna keep going through the next four. I'm not doing Bucky's anymore. It's not worth it. And when it's in the buy it now, as opposed to the auction, we also have to make sure everybody gets their orders. Plus, the other thing is we went and Malia, if you're listening to this, she wanted those cinnamon bears and the Bucky's was out. I didn't know they were out. But when they're out, now I had to give her something else. Fingers crossed, she's gonna be okay with that. Most likely she is. But if she's not, I've got to pay her or go get them again or whatever. So it just became too much. Also, make sure that you put your thumbnail announcement in there and tell people to follow you if you do pop ups, if you do shows or whatever. Stay in your lane for goodness gracious, guys. This has been one of my biggest problems that most people I don't think have. Is that I've been in so many different lanes. And I hate that. Like I cannot tell you how much I hate that whatnot is like this because I would like to be able to prove that yes, I can sell jewelry, I can sell clothes, I can sell vintage, I can sell estate sales, I can do freeze dry and candy. Because I think personally, why wouldn't you want to come to somebody who's selling in all those categories? For me, I have six kids, you know, and I have grandkids and I have dogs. Maybe I'm shopping for myself and other things. I love to go to those kinds of things and the estate sales and the auctions that have multiple items instead of just one. I was just scrolling for a minute before I came on here, and it's amazing some of the specialty things that people are selling, and it's so cool. I love it. But there's a girl who's selling just orchids, guys. There's another person who's just selling putty, like um Nido is it's called N-E-E-D-O-H. Talked about that the other day. There's people who are just selling, you know, like one item, literally one item, over and over and over again. Um, some have a little bit variation, like they're just selling t-shirts. T-shirts, obviously, a gajillion variations. But I'm just saying, I think personally, I would much rather shop at a place like TJ Maxx that has all the different categories. I can get, you know, gummies, I can get coffee, I can get ties, I can get my kid underwear, I can get kids' clothes, women's clothes, purses, jewelry. I would much rather shop in a place like TJ Maxx than just a brownie short shop. I mean, and I get that there's specialty shops. I'm not kicking you guys at all. I love it, but I'm just thinking if there was some way whatnot could make it where we could prove that yes, legit, I am selling and capable of selling in multiple categories, that would make my life really great. But alas, I can't make the world, you know, conform to my my desires. And the other thing is I will say that whatnot could really make it where they have two dollar and three dollar starts as a listing. It right now it only has the tag for$1. And I really, really, really think they need to change that to$2 and$3 because I think it would make more sense for everybody, all of us in all the different categories, to be able to click on$2 or$3 if you want. And people, you know, come in with the algorithm on that. So, anyways, there is my whole spiel. Um, I just came to tell you I am I am holding myself accountable. I am reviewing myself, I am sticking in it. Is it easy? No. Is it frustrating at times? Yes. I mean, the kids we were there was so much frustration. Like, where's that box? Did you go? We got to get to Bucky's. Packing, get this. Oh, I'm out of tape again. I mean, it can be very frustrating and stressful. I will say another really good thing I did though, and I am doing, is I'm working to get rid of all of my other merchandise. So I'm going on tomorrow morning on Thursday morning at 7:45 Central Time. Please, guys, please come by, buy, buy my stuff. Um, but I have so much stuff from all these other categories, like books, for example. I gotta get rid of my books. I have Christmas. I gotta have a Christmas show upcoming. I've got to get rid of this stuff so I can get my uh my room and my space where I don't feel the stress and the frustration. I swear, I swear that if I if I don't do anything in this 2026 but that, that is going to be it because I am trying to create in my house more stability, more peace, more calm. I don't want the crazy chaos and frustration and stress that can come with whatnot. I just refuse to do it anymore. I've done it for two plus years because I was on Poshmark before this. I'm not doing it anymore, guys. I'm not. I refuse. I refuse. I'm gonna sell this stuff and get it out and get more organized. And I will feel and function better. My family will function better, the animals will function, everything will be better. And I can see the light at the end of the tunnel because we're getting rid of some of this stuff. We're getting the shipping room done, we're getting organization, and I'm gonna figure out my lane, figure out my time, figure out my shipping, figure out how how much I'm paying, all the money, figure it out, and step by step, little by little, how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time? I'm gonna do it. You guys can do it. We can all work together to support one another, help one another, be there. I I am definitely not somebody who has figured everything out, but I sure as shit am trying. Sorry for the oh, I hope nobody's listening to this with a four-year-old. Um, anyways, that being said, it is raining outside in Texas. My kids went to go get brownies because we always make brownies when it rains, and the candles are lit and it's cozy and it's warm, and the packages are done, and it is such a relief. And oh, thank God it's over. And I'm gonna be happy and excited for tomorrow's show and you know, show up again. I'm gonna get up early, take a shower, put my makeup on, get this stuff together. Sarah's coming over. We're gonna get this stuff out, we're gonna do it, and I'm gonna just keep trying, guys. That's all any of us can do. We just keep showing up and we keep trying. Anyways, there's my whole spiel. I hope you guys are having a great day. Oh, and thank you, thank you, thank you for all the fan mail. Thank you for checking out my shop. Thank you for sharing this. Guys, we are working to get to the 7,500 downloads. That's my next goal. We are kicking ass over here. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I cannot thank you enough. And if you guys need to get a hold of me, my phone number is in my profile on Carrie Kennedy. It's K A R R I, Kennedy K E N N E D Y. If you're just here in this episode, go listen to some others. I promise there's a lot of good information in there. Um, and yeah, that's it. I hope you guys have a great day, and hopefully, I'll see you in my show tomorrow. Take care. Bye bye.