My Biggest Screwups Ever — 0 Commission Day — Episode 77

https://linktr.ee/KarriKennedy

Zero commission sounds like a win — so what does it actually look like when you go all in and break it all down? In this episode I walk through every mistake I made, every dollar I spent, and what I actually walked away with after 272 orders, 53 boxes, $1,163 in sales, and roughly 36 combined hours of work between me and my assistant Sarah. I deposited $622.02 and came out about $840 in the hole. I’m sharing all of it — the shipping setting disaster, the lost RSVPs, the priority vs flat rate mistake, the $1 items that cost me $9 to $12 to ship, and what I would do differently next time. We also get into visibility, the algorithm, and how these kinds of events tend to favor sellers who already have strong traffic. This one is real, it is honest, and there might be a laugh or two at my expense. You are welcome.

#Whatnot #WhatnotSeller #ZeroCommissionDay #Reselling #LiveSelling #OnlineSelling #SmallBusiness #SideHustle #ResellerLife #Entrepreneur #Ecommerce #WhyNotWhatnot #KarriKennedy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there guys. I hope everybody is doing really well. This episode is all about Zero Commission Day. I'm probably going to title it like my biggest screw ups ever. Um, I'm laughing about it now, and I never did cry or get really upset about it. But let me just tell you buckle up because I am going to be very transparent, very honest, and you are going to see how bad I screwed up and how this day on Saturday, when it was Zero Commission Day, I lost big, big, big time. And I did the numbers, I crunched it all, I did the packing, I've got it all here. So yeah, if you want to hear how bad I screwed up, get ready because here it comes. Okay. So here's the deal. Um Zero Commission. Was it worth it? Zero Commission Day. If you guys don't know what it is, I think they have it, I don't know how often, maybe four or eight times a year. I have no honestly idea. I haven't done it, but maybe once or twice before in the last couple years. Um, and yeah, so this is what it's about. It was on Saturday the 18th, and today is April the 20th. So it's been two days. I started at 10 a.m. and it's now five on Monday. Five on Monday. Okay, so here we go. Um, this is my experience. I'm just starting off with that. I am not trashing anybody or trashing Zero Commission Day. I know I screwed up and I take complete responsibility for that. And yeah, you make mistakes. We're human, we do that. If life gives you lemons, you just make some margaritas. And so while I am not thrilled with how this went, I'm going to take it as a learning experience for not only me, but for you guys too. And that's where we're at. Okay, so um, I know some people had amazing days on Zero Commission Day. I'm positive of it. Um, and I've had some episodes recently that talk about how the algorithm funnels to where the momentum is, to where the money is, whatever. So overall, I think that the people who have a good following, who already had a bunch of people, RSVP bookslash bookmark, their shows, whatever, some people did really good on zero commission day. But generally speaking, when I've talked to other people, when I've heard stories, when some of the people I'm mentoring slash consulting with have talked to me, uh, people sent me messages afterwards or whatever, I have established that I think about 80% of people, maybe as high as 90% of people, did not do well. I uh I would really love to have the numbers, um, but I really truly believe across all the different categories that about 20% max did really, really well. So I'm not here to rain on the parade, but that's just where I'm at. Um, there's a lot of sellers out there who had experiences like me, but they're not gonna be as transparent and they're not gonna tell you. And you guys know how I am. I'm pretty authentic and upfront and honest. So, anyways, okay, let me get into it. So I was pretty pumped up about it. Um, I was like, you know, I'm gonna be all in. Now, zero commission, a lot of people thought, oh, that means they're not taking any money out at all. But what it really meant is seller commission, and that's eight percent, okay. And I was like, you know, just a few weeks ago, three, four weeks ago, I did this exact same thing. Why not do it on this day where I'm, you know, saving that eight percent? So I thought, balls to the walls, let's do it. It was a huge decision for me. I really spent a lot of time getting the store ready, getting tables ready. Um, I had Sarah, my assistant here, who I paid 20 bucks an hour for. And here's what I did: I did one dollar starts on almost everything. There was only like three to five items that people saw in the auction that I ran for more than a dollar, but most everything started for a dollar. I had jokes ready, I had trivia ready, I had giveaways ready for when we got rated. I was like jumping up and down. I had energy. I was like, let's go, baby, let's go. And I was stoked. I was like hoping it would just be amazing and I would make thousands of dollars and it would be wonderful, okay? Um and you know, I knew it was a risk, okay? I I knew it, but I was I pumped myself up, okay. Um, but here's here's the thing. Before I went live, um, I did not check everything, and I should have. And I think that was because I was so psyched up and I had so many things going on. We had to get the boxes ready, we had to get the timing ready, and I I even went to Bucky's to get um, well, I didn't. I sent my assistant. Sarah went to Bucky's to get uh treats and giveaways that we just gave in for people who won trivia. Um, I had earrings for people just here. Let me have a pair of earrings. I had um $40 worth of gift cards from Starbucks that Sarah went to pick up. Like we had a lot going on, and I was listing stuff. So there was at least, I think, 85 to 100 items listed. So it was not some, oh, let me just get on, do, do, do, do, do. I knew what I was doing. It was, you know, free shipping, $1 starts, giveaways, you know, and free things and trivia. Like I knew what I was doing, guys. I decided to take the risk, okay? Um, but let me just say before I get started, a lot of people when they did this and they took the risk, they didn't know what they were doing because a lot of people got on Facebook and whatever afterwards, and they thought that whatnot was also waiving the 2.9% processing fee and the 30 cent per order fee. Um, and so that adds up. And so they were mad about that. They were like, wait a minute, they're still taking money out. Yes, because you didn't read the fine print and you didn't come here to listen to the podcast and you missed out. They only took off the 8%, okay? A lot of people thought it was zero, and um, they all, you know, thought it was gonna be amazing too. And so that's what happens, you know. We get excited, and if you get your hopes up too high, then you get them dashed. You know, people have called me and they're like, Oh, I had this show and I wanted to make, you know, and that's really honestly where I think we as sellers screw up is when we get ourselves maybe pumped up too too high, our expectations too too high, because and I'm not saying that you shouldn't have expectations and hopes and goals, and you know, I'm not saying that, but mentally you should always be like, you know, if it works out great, if it doesn't, it doesn't, but not put so much mental and energy into it, maybe. I don't know. I think it's a fine line. You guys know yourselves better than most people, so you've got to decide what that looks like to you. Um, but anyways, okay, I I'm gonna talk about how this episode is my screw ups, and I'm gonna talk about how it cost me big time and how this was such a screw up for me, guys. It's it's so bad. Um, there was a lot of screw ups, and it was it was my fault. I take the blame. Okay, so before I even went live, I did not check my all my things, my shipping to make sure everything was on or whatever. And so I'm like partway into it, about I don't know, I had like 115 people bookmark it. So that sounded good. I was like, yay, yay! But about 10, 15 minutes into the episode, somebody said, Hey, your free shipping isn't on. And I went, what? And they all were like, Yeah, it's not on, it's not on. Well, you can't change your free shipping, at least I don't think you can, in the middle of a show. So I had to shut down the show, and then I was like frazzled and shaken, and that was horrible because now the algorithm is like, what the hell just happened? And why did she go off after what 15 minutes? And I told all those people to go in and cancel their orders. It was only like five orders. I mean, five not orders, five items for three different people. Okay. So I said, I'm just gonna give it to you. You guys go cancel it, I'll put it in your box because it was my mistake, you know. So I'm gonna cover that. Um, but I should have checked that it was on free shipping. I was so busy running around doing everything else. I didn't make sure that my show was set up right. And I think before you go on, you should just make sure that you have everything done 30 minutes before you even go on. That way you can check all your settings, make sure everything's listed right, make sure your numbers are right, make sure you can find your items, etc. etc. I did not give myself enough time. So that's my first thing. I did not check things. That's my second thing, you know, whatever. Um, so I went, I went live, started the sales, did that, had to shut it down. I was rushed to do that. And so when I did that, I had everything scheduled for priority shipping, not flat rate. And then I'm paying extra on that too. So I've already just mentioned three mistakes within like what 15 minutes, 20 minutes, maybe. I think it took me about 15 minutes to get started. So we'll even say 30 minutes. Three huge mistakes. Not checking the time, not checking the setting, and then not checking the shipping again. So three mistakes within 30 minutes. Duh. So the algorithm wasn't happy with me. Those 115 people probably never got alerted. If they did, they went to that show or canceled, whatever. The algorithm wasn't happy. I felt terrible. I gave those people their free items that made me feel a little bit better about the situation. And when people came back, I think I left with about 35 people in the room. When I came back, I think it was more like 25, 30, I don't know. Um, so right out of the gate, five free items, um, roughly $20 worth of free stuff gone. Boom, three mistakes, $20 gone. So that was pretty much the first domino. Um, the second one was when I was frazzled and didn't change that, and now I'm paying more for shipping. I think about three dollars per box. Here's what it ends up to be 53 boxes, and I'm guessing that cost me about, like I said, three bucks a piece. So that's another $159 that I ended up paying, roughly. I'm guessing, I can't guarantee it because each box goes to a different location. So I'm being average, that's $159 by a mistake by choosing a box that I did not need to make. So that was dumb. And uh here's where it really gets me. So some people bought only one item, which Sarah came over to help me with shipping today. Some people only came and bought one item, and that one item might have been like one dollar or three dollars, okay, guys. And I put free candy, everybody got um um the freeze-dry Skittles, a little bag of candy, my new flyer, a plastic bag, they got all of that, and the the packing, all the boxes, all that. So if somebody came in and they bought something for a dollar or two dollars or three dollars, I ended up paying shipping anywhere from like nine to twelve dollars sometimes. I Sarah was here and I was like, Oh, great, this one guy bought this one item for a dollar, and I ended up paying nine dollars to ship it. It was crazy. So that was really, and then all the items, you know. Um, so basically I was literally paying people to take my stuff. And I know some of you are shaking your heads and going, boy, she's so stupid. I can't believe she did that. This has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Yes, I know, I know, I know, but let me just say, I did this a while back and I made like $3,400, $3,400. I got rid of a lot of stuff because I was trying to clean out. So that was the goal was to clean out, and I got to keep $2,400. Now it was a 13-hour show, and I got something like 474 new followers or something. So it was worth it for me to do that. This was a mistake everywhere, and like I said, you've already heard I've made like three, four mistakes at this point, right? So I'm paying people to take my stuff, which I really honestly think that as a buyer, I would would not personally, I wouldn't do that to somebody because I am also a seller and I know that if somebody sells me something for a dollar and they're gonna give me the giveaways and they're gonna let me play the trivia game, and they're you know, gonna give the entertainment and the jokes, and they're doing all this, and then they're gonna pay their own boxing, their own materials, their own time, their own energy. I I basically like seriously, I just I personally wouldn't do that to somebody. Um, I'm not blaming those people at all. I'm not mad at those people at all. But for me, I always try to go and buy at least two, three, four, five things if I can at a show. And I sure as heck, if I went to a dollar start show with free shipping, I sure as heck would have taken advantage of that. And there were some people who did that, but um, anyways, so um, if somebody won a trivia game, I also gave them like a pair of earrings or Bucky's nuggets or whatever. So some people got some free things like that as well. And it that was fun, but when I added that all up, that's like another 30 bucks out of my pocket. I've got all the math here, so that was about another 30 bucks out of my pocket. Did I need to do that? No. Am I happy I did it? Yeah, it's nice getting something in the mail that's free. I'm okay with it. Um, I also had the oh wow, we got rated, you know, five dollar items um for giveaways. And I'm put like Skittles in there, I put candy, I put bookmarks, postmark uh postcards, just all kinds of random things. So that's 15 bucks there. Okay, you stick with me here. So I'll add it all up, but 30 bucks out of my pocket for the giveaways that are writ regular ones for trivia and stuff, $15 for the three raid trains that we got, by the way. Thank you for those people. Um, the giveaways had, oh, I forgot about this. The giveaway bags had the freeze-dry skittles, the candy, my flyer, and most of them had a 3D printed hen too. So when you add all that up, it's a lot too. I've got that in here somewhere. Plus, we had the $40 Starbucks gift card raffles to thank anybody who boosted me. So 12 people boosted me, which is $60 that went straight to whatnot. I think if it wasn't a zero commission day, my numbers would have gone up. But I think there were so many people boosting and so much activity on the platform as a whole, it did not really seem to be working. I think for the most part, it felt to me like there was around 30, 35 people at most, most of the time. Now, when you look online, it says that I had 69 concurrent viewers. 69 people were in the room at the same time hanging out. That was like my peak, but it didn't seem like that lasted as long. And that might have been even, I don't, I don't know. Anyways, um, so what was I gonna say? Um, so the $60 that goes to whatnot. It does not go to me. And the 40 bucks I paid, that went to a girl named T Stewart, who is actually one of my people who comes in regularly. So I'm happy it came, it went to her. Um, we did pull, um, Sarah actually came in and pulled the raffle. Um, but anyways, it it stings in the aspect that we paid 40 bucks and other people paid 60 bucks. And I don't think it that the algorithm really helped me. If the algorithm was really sending more people in there, I think it would have been better. So, anyways, um oh, okay, so um most of the time items were running at some sudden death, seven seconds, sometimes 15 seconds, a couple times I accidentally hit the button wrong and it was 30 seconds, but it was a fast show, and it ended up with here's the numbers, 272 orders, 53 boxes shipped, and the total sales was $1,163. Okay, that's a lot um I of orders for that amount. I I didn't do the math on that, I guess I could, but it is not like the average on that is something like less than three bucks or something like that. Um, so on the surface, though, you might go, well, she got a lot of orders, she got followers, she got a lot of sales. Some people might think that's good. Other people are looking at that and they are cracking their, they are they are cracking up right now, listening to this episode, going, You are an idiot. I I am positive that there are some of you that are like, dude, you are such a loser. I can't believe you did that. But here's where we're going. We're gonna break down the numbers because this is what it gets worse. Like, like I'm sitting here saying this, but it gets worse. You're like, how is that even possible? Okay, so I waited until I had packed all the boxes. Sarah came over this morning at 7:30 in the morning. So I've tallied up her items, her number, all of it. The last the packages went out today at like 2.30 because they were ready to go at like 11, but my kid did not want to take them. It was raining, and so finally at 2.30, they left their house, they're gone, and I deposited. Are you ready for this? $622.2 into my bank, okay? Well, it into PayPal, which then takes out like another $10. So to really let's take that out too. I forgot to add that. But when you take it from your account, you know, from your whatnot account to PayPal, if you do it automatic, I could have waited three days, but if you do it automatic, they take some money. It was something like $10.52 or something. So long story short, I ended up with basically $612. We're just gonna leave it at that. $612 um out of $1,163. So basically $541 went to shipping. $541. That is definitely more for a four and a half hour show because last time when I did the 13-hour show, it was only about $1,000. So more people were buying bigger boxes, and and I don't remember how many orders that was that day. But, anyways, that was my own mistake because it was all priority, everything went priority, nothing was flat rate, most everything went priority, and that was my mistake. It was a stupid human mistake. But the reason I'm telling you guys this and being so transparent is because I want you to think and check, you know, dot your I's, cross your T's, check everything before you go live. Because my screw ups, my rushing around is the cause of my demise here, which we're gonna talk about. It gets worse. Here, you're like, how could it ever get worse? I know. Okay, we're gonna talk about Sarah. Sarah is my assistant, she is worth her weight in gold. I only pay her, I say only. Some people think it's probably high, but because she's just doing pretty menial stuff, it's not like high-level thinking, but she does have to be quick and she has to keep up and and be on track and on top of things. But Sarah is amazing, and I don't know how I did it without her, honestly. Um, she helps the show go so much faster, and without her, I am just not near as good. But she came before the show and did three hours of prep the day before. During this show, she was here for 4.5 hours, four and a half hours. Then she kind of had to leave. Maybe it was five, but I'm these are my numbers that I think I got. She ran around to Bucky's and Starbucks and Erin's and came over the morning of, and that's another hour and a half and another three and a half. So when you add it all up, Sarah's work was 12.5 hours just for this one show. Yeah, I know you guys are like, oh my gosh, Carrie, you are crazy. I know, y'all. You're you're preaching to the choir here. I get it, I know. I Take responsibility. I'm I'm here being honest and transparent. Okay, so just for Sarah, if she works 12.5 hours at $20 an hour, I gave Sarah $250. Yeah, it's a lot. Okay, now let's talk about my time. I'm averaging just because of how much I sold and what that was, that I spent at least seven to 10 hours. But I'm gonna take the low end just so I don't feel so bad about it all. I'm gonna say seven hours worth of sourcing, four and a half hours live. So roughly, and here's where it gets really crazy about 12 hours packing. Guys, I had like 20 little butter dishes that I ran for a dollar. I mean, there was so much fine china, tiny glasses, little bitty things, but they all required tissue and the plastic wrap and the bubble wrap, and it was just the biggest pain in the ass. So not only Sarah's time, but my time packing was at least 12 hours. So my time is 23 hours of my time. And that's a lot, guys. I mean, packing the people who pack, I mean, it's it's just a lot. So you're talking 272 items, tiny breakable little glass pieces, all having to go through that. It's a lot. I started packing on Saturday afternoon, and I didn't get done until Monday at around 11:30 or something. 11, 11:30. Okay. So put it all into perspective how much time, energy, and effort. So Sarah's was $20 an hour plus my own time. That is 23 hours worth of time. If we add that up, it's 460 bucks. Okay. I'm adding time to this so you guys can just see. This is really the worst case scenario. This is the worst it's ever been for me. I will say I've had great shows, I've had amazing shows. I once made $4,000 in like three and a half hours. So I mean, I've done way better before. This is worst case scenario, but I'm doing it as kind of like a cautionary tale so that you guys can learn from my mistakes and also think how much your time is worth sourcing, going to the store, cleaning, organizing, you know, going through all your stuff, listing all your stuff. It is not like just you have the show and you made that much money. Because if you're not thinking about your time and your energy and your effort and all this other stuff, you're messing up, you're not really making as much money. I'm gonna keep going. Okay, so $460 for my 23 hours plus hers. So between oh I'm sorry, my 23 hours is 460 bucks, and Sarah's, I have it up here somewhere, it was 250. So between Sarah's and mine, it was $710 in labor alone. $710 worth of labor alone. Now I am saying it's $10, $20 an hour, but we work hard. We're not sitting on our phones. This isn't, I think $20 an hour for our economy, for our ages. She's I think $45 and I'm 54. So I feel like that's fair, $20 an hour. Um, so $710, okay. I deposited $612. Okay. I and here it still says $622 because I forgot to take the money out for PayPal. So the labor loan wiped out literally everything I made. Plus, let's not forget the cost of items. So here's the breakdown, okay? Sarah's labor, $250. My labor, $460. The cost of the items, and this is me doing a low so I feel better about myself, guys. I'm sure it was probably more than this, but this is gonna make me feel better. So honestly, I think it could be as high as $800, but I don't know. Okay. The cost of items, $400. So Sarah's labor, $250, my labor $460, items, uh, $400. The candy in the bags, I spent $65 on. And I know that because I had to go to Costco, I had to make the bags, I had to get all the together. I made the Skittles, all of that. Um, the trivia prizes and such, that was $30, $30. Um, the raid train giveaways was $15. The Starbucks raffle was $40. The uh priority versus flat rate, that ended up costing me about $159, where I screwed up, you know. And then in the very beginning, those five free items that I gave those people, I'm estimating those to be about $20 because I really don't remember exactly what they were. That's $20. So the total cost, okay, the total cost, everybody's like, drum roll. Okay, total cost was roughly $1,439. We'll just say $1,440. Okay. I deposited this is so bad. I I'm gonna take out that $10. I deposited $612. $612. That means I came out roughly eight hundred and forty dollars in the hole. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, guys. Just even saying this on a podcast, it is so freaking embarrassing. I I'm laughing because you know what else am I gonna do? Okay, so that is before it just keeps getting worse. I this is the worst story that just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. So that's $830 in the hole. But now let's just not forget something else: packing materials. I spend about $850 to $1,100 per month on packing materials. So I don't know the exact cost of packing materials, but let me just tell you, I have to order all kinds of new stuff because we were running out of it. Um, so $830 in the hole before bought certain boxes and all of that. Plus, I just paid Canva money to get new like business card flyers. So I just okay. So here's the truth about how it went. About an hour and a half into it, I think I was thinking maybe we should get off. And I think I had the look and I was looking at Sarah, but there was stuff everywhere, and I was like, I know we could go, we could go for another you know 25 hours straight. We have the inventory, maybe more people will come in, maybe the algorithm will bring people in. And so I guess there was a bit of hope for me at that hour and a half, two hour part. And so I kept going. And part of me now, I now I know, is that I should have turned around and just said, oh, no, not enough people in the room, you know, 30, 35 people in the room is not enough. I needed to have my 65, 70 people in the room. A lot of people on Facebook groups will say, Do you think I've I've done three up, I've done three shows now. Some girls have said this earlier today. She goes, I've done like three or four shows now. Do you think I'm big enough to have one dollar starts? And I was like, girlfriend, I've been on this app for two years and and I screwed up. I screwed up at the beginning. I didn't have my free shipping on, then I screwed up having to restart the show. I mean, I would not do that. I highly, highly, highly do not suggest anybody do what I did. Do not do one dollar starts unless you know what you're doing, you know. But um, when that happened and I'm looking around and I'm thinking about it, part of it was me also thinking of it as a social experiment. You know, even when I did this the first time a few weeks ago, you guys could go back and look at the episode when I did it. The it actually says my 13-hour show or something. I think I talk about it, or maybe I didn't talk about it afterwards. Somewhere it's in there, I promise. But we were only gonna go on for maybe an hour, and it ended up to be 13 hours. So you just never know from show to show who's gonna be in there, what it's gonna look like, if you're gonna have fun. That's part of it too. You know, everybody who just looks at this as money, money, money, I think you're missing the point on the fact that this can be a lot of fun, you know. You can make friends, you could tell jokes, we were we were cutting up in there. It was fun, you know. So that that was fun. I kept going because it was of that, and I kept hoping. In hindsight, which you know, you don't have hindsight when you're in the midst of it. I think I should have probably stopped at two hours and not gone for four and a half. And the only reason I did get off when I did is honestly because of Sarah's schedule. I did not want to do it by myself without Sarah there. Um, so I went all in, I knew what I was doing. Um, the other thing is I I truly, truly believe that if I had the shipping settings right from the very start with the 115 people who had bookmarked, and I had didn't have to, you know, cancel and start over again and all of that, I would have had more people in there. My last big show like that had like 75 to 90 people in there on average, and I think that that would not have happened. And also, I think if it wasn't on that day with the algorithm, the boost that I got five bucks here, five bucks here, five bucks here, 12 times. Um, two of those actually were in the first show before we canceled it. So that kind of sucks, too. We lost those boosts. Um, but I made these mistakes, I own every single one of them. It's up to me. I take responsibility. There are a lot of whiny people who go on whatnot. I'm calling you out, and you're like, I did this and this and this, like like somebody owes you. No, if somebody wanted to come into my room and buy something for a dollar and get all of that for free and shipping and everything, that's their prerogative, as as it says in the song, you know. Uh, who is that? Why I can't I why do I have these senior moments when I'm doing live podcasts? Bobby Brown, Bobby Brown, right? It's my prerogative, right? Um, I knew what I was doing, and it's it's their prerogative to buy it, and I could have stayed on, I could have not done free shipping, I could have done no three one, two, or three dollar starts. I could have just not even participated. I knew what I was doing, they knew what they were doing. We're all adults here, you know? And um, so I think that matters. Anyways, I think what happens, and this is my take on zero commission day. This is my final on all of it. I think that it's way more than me just losing $840 in the hole and and giving away stuff for free and all of that. I think what I have have realized and determined is that there is not enough visibility on the platform during zero commission day because everybody and their dogs is on there, so many sellers are on at the exact same time, and as many times as y'all want to say, it's it's community over competition, that's all fine and great. But reality check is if if there's 600 people in one room in in one store, shop, whatever, that means that's 600 people that aren't in yours. Okay, there's there's more more stores being open, but for the most part, we still have the same pool of buyers, you know. It's it's all the sellers went to the market, but it was the same buyers. Um, if there was some kind of huge influx in buyers where they gave, you know, 100,000 people at a big rock concert, you know, $15 or something like that. Wow, I just thought of that. That's a great idea. Hey, whatnot? Maybe you should do something like that where you go to big social events and have you know some cute girls and guys passing out coupons for free $15 from the algorithm, you know, from whatnot, and and get them in there. But um, the rooms that already have activity and momentum, those are the rooms that are gonna get the activity. More people leads to more visibility, more bids, more bids means more money. The cycle keeps going, right? So the rooms that are starting off really slow, and you're a tiny little seller, you cute ones that are just brand new babies who are like, ah, I'm a brand new baby, I'm gonna get on here. It it I the reason you're complaining, the reason you're whining, the reason you're sad, and I feel bad for you. I truly, truly do, is that you thought this was gonna be your big debut. You had the same hopes I did. You were like, Yes, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be awesome. But it wasn't. And I I really, once again, to say what I said in the beginning, I think like 80% of people did not do good. I feel like once these people that are really big get to a certain level, they need to have their own, you know, MacDaddy channel. You know, this is where all the big boys go to play. It's kind of like you think of a uh poker, you know. Uh, you guys ever see the movie Goodfellows? If you haven't, you need to go see it. But um, one of I love Ray Leota, I love that movie, Goodfellas. Um, but you know, playing with the big boys, all these premiere sellers could get their own app and it could be whatnot premiere or whatnot, you know, high rollers or whatever. And then that would leave some room for the little guys and the people who want to come over to here. Like if they could just divide us up, because I totally feel like, yeah, we are getting smashed if you're not a huge premiere seller making, you know, 300,000 a year, a million dollars a year, you know, running constantly, you know, having multiple streams. I mean, there's people like um, oh gosh, Daily, is it Daily Refinement? I think that's his name. Daily Refinement. He has does YouTube videos on how to do sales and stuff. He's awesome. But when he started, you know, he's been in lots of things. He's got warehouses, but he started off with one stream and then it went to you know 12 hours and then it was 24 hours. And now I think he's probably got like three or four streams going 24 hours a day. Just he's just cranking money, cranking money, cranking money when you have that much supply, that many helpers, that much work, that much momentum, that many giveaways, whatever. The new little girl who has 38 items in her bin, and she's like, Look, I've got a full store, it's completely loaded. I'm kind of like, Yeah, right. No, there's no competition. I mean, you can't compete with that. So I just feel like during these massive events, when everybody is going live at the same time, this gap between the big boys and the little guys is just huge. It's just huge. I've been on this platform for over two years, and this show still did not perform the way it was supposed to. Now, yes, once again, I think things happened, but I also think that had this not happened on Zero Commission Day, all those boosts would have boosted me, and I would have had more people in the room. I would have made more money, it would have been even better. And all the people who were there were like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm getting free shipping. One time, you know, like they were happy and I'm happy for them. Never in any of this was I like vengeful or spiteful or bitter or angry or frustrated about any of this. When I was packing those boxes, I was like, she is gonna be so happy with this box. I'm gonna put the candy on the top and I'm gonna wrap it all nice. And I, you know, I'm I'm happy that my customers are getting these amazing deals and that I'm gonna brighten somebody's day by getting these boxes, and hopefully I'll get good reviews and hopefully I'll have um, you know, somebody come back. Um, but anyways, I genuinely believe that whatnot could do better. I think that they need to have more rotation and more visibility for these kinds of events and for the little guys. Um, I think the algorithm needs to have a certain amount of people funneled into smaller rooms. And also maybe, like I'm thinking, you know, separate different seller levels. You know, if you're under a hundred, you're in this in the blue category. I'm making this up as I go, guys. So um maybe you're in the blue category if you're no, well, I don't know, red, yeah, blue if you're at the low category under a thousand. And if you're in the medium category, I don't know, you know, a thousand to ten thousand or something, you're in the yellow category. But when you get up to the high, high level, you're up to red category or vice versa. I don't know. I'd have to put some time and thought into this. But if there was levels and then they did certain promotions for certain levels, so it wasn't across the whole board, then everybody has a fair shot. Okay, I'm making this. Here we go. I have six kids. There's 12 years between them. I was teaching my daughter about Dante and classical education. I remember she was like 10th grade, maybe, yeah, 10th grade or maybe 11th. And I was potty training my son at the same time. And I remember this like it was yesterday, where we were all sitting at the dining table. He was getting up on the table, everybody was doing their homework. It was just like a mess. And I thought, this is crazy, you know. Um I had to go potty train him, I had to shut the music off, I had to cook the food. I was just in every different area, you know, handling it all. And I had to realize at that moment that it was really hard, and I was going to have to split up the kids and say, okay, you guys are gonna stay in this room and do this work, you guys are gonna go. And I had to break them up by age level because it was a 12-year span, you know, it's basically two, two, two. There's a three, and then some whatever. It's the same concept and idea here on whatnot. There's all of us, and we're at different ages, different levels, right? You're not gonna put a two-year-old on the basketball court with the 35-year-old man who's an expert player. It's not fair, it's not even whatever. But if I put all the two-year-olds in a room and I, you know, let them watch Barney or whatever it was back in the day, you let them all have the same activities and the same, you know, food and the same, you get the same books at their level. And I don't know why whatnot can't just do that. Go, hey guys, we see you little sellers, we see you out there. We're gonna do something just for you because these big boys, they've already made it, they're making money left and right, and we want to give you a hand up and help you out. So that is my scenario suggestion for whatnot. Now, will they listen to me? Most likely not, but hey, you never know. Um, so, anyways, where do I land at the very end of this to wrap it up? Am I done with zero commission days forever? Actually, no. I I probably am gonna try it again, but I'm gonna try it differently. And am I ever gonna do the free shipping $1 starts again? Yeah, I probably am. I'm thinking I'm gonna do it monthly. I'm I'm going to refine it. I'm going to get better. Even the things that we were selling, because it was in the estate sale category. And so I said, Sarah, we've got books here, we've got all this glass here, we've got all this. We needed to put more clothes in. We did sell some clothes, but we needed to put some softer stuff in so that when we are putting the boxes together, it makes it a little bit easier for us. Just little things like that. When I was like, okay, let's let's have a list of all the different items, have those items in different places organized, which we did. I tell my people, you know, put your wood together, put your silver together, put your brass together. That way it's real easy to get it. Well, for me, we had the books in one area, the clothes in one area, the silver in one area, we had the glass in one area. And so if I had said this is area one, two, three, four, and Sarah literally went and picked stuff from area one, which is glass, and then she went to brass, and then she went to jewelry, and then she went to clothes. If we had a system like that in estate sales, or I think it this would be good for anybody who's selling lots of different items like that, storage, whatever. Um, if you have a bunch of different things and you mix it up, it makes it easier, number one, to pack, ship, whatever. And number two, it gives more variety and a mix for the people who are coming in to see if you don't have all your items listed. I so that that's one of the biggest things I think we learned. So, yes, I will do it. If I do it, I'm not gonna do another 13 hour show. I'll probably do one to three hours or something if it's Gains a bunch of attention, and I'm getting a hundred people in the room, and people are bidding up and we're having fun, then hell yeah, hell yeah, I'll stay. Um, but I'm going to treat it like an experiment, a fun experiment, instead of betting the farm on it, you know? And the thing is, guys, we're all human. I'm sure some of you are lamenting your own stories. One of the reasons I wanted to be so transparent and honest and tell you I'm what, $840 in the hole is because I want you to feel better about your situation and realize we all screw up. We're all human. I happen to have a series of unfortunate events that led up to this, and it could have been preventable. I hope that, you know, your scenarios and situations were better than mine. But at the end of the day, I can't blame myself and keep being mad about it because I got too many other people to be pissed at in my life right now. I just, you know, right now I am uh dealing with a divorce. I have estranged kids. My life is crazy. And so when it comes to work and business, I am just gonna do my best to keep pushing forward, keep going, try to have a positive attitude, move on and do better next time. I'm I'm I'm a little disappointed that I didn't make money. I'm a little disappointed that it turned out this way, but I also know that at the end of the day, this is I know this is gonna sound bleak, but at the end of the day, if I die today, what happened? I lost some money. Big whoop, yay! I can't take my money with me, anyways, right? But I know that 53 boxes went out, and those people all got a nice little candy, a nice little note, hopefully an item that they wanted. And I shared a little bit of love, I gave a little bit of my time, I put in a little effort, and I think it's better to live that way and do your best than to be like, oh, well, you know, they didn't come and they didn't do it, and the algorithm you I could be that way, I could be all blaming and angry and bitter and resentful and ticked off, and you know, I'm not going on again. I'm not, but that's not gonna help me, and it's not gonna help you. We just have to learn from our mistakes and and go on, you know, and and that's it, you know. So, anyways, before you go, um, the last things I'm gonna say are um if you're thinking about doing zero commission days in the future, I'm not here to tell you to do it or not do it. What I am saying is keep your eyes wide open, think about everything, learn from my mistakes. I've written these down. If you guys want to get a piece of paper and rewind it, here are my learning lessons. Set your shipping settings right, spend 30 minutes before you go on and make sure you have everything set and right. If you're priority mail, if you're flat rate, whatever, make sure your pricing is right. Check all of this in advance. Um, how much free shipping is actually gonna cost you? Or if you're gonna do 921 shipping, or if you're gonna do $5 shipping, however, you're going to do it, you need to think about it as a risk. Can you absorb that risk on that day? Because if things don't go the way you want them to, like me, you're going to be in the hole possibly, like me. And now I did add my time, but I also think that you guys should add your time when you're figuring all this out. Let's be real. Time is money, you know. I mean, I think that is it's a big deal. Um, the goal here in all of this episode is not to scare you or stress you out and go, oh my gosh, I can't believe, you know, I'm never joining whatnot because da-da-da. Guys, what I did was crazy. This is not something most people do. I was completely aware of what I did. You know, it's not, it's not like I had a gun to my head. I knew what I was doing. Um, but the goal here is in all of this is that you think about it and you decide: is it worth the risk? Is it worth your time? Is it worth your energy? You know? Okay, so here's the wrap-up. I made $1,163 in sales. I deposited $612, really. So I roughly came out $840 in the hole. I lost 115 RSVPs for the most part. Well, probably at least $85,90 of those because the show started and ended so quickly. I shipped everything priority instead of flat. That was wrong. So two things wrong there. I gave away free items and I paid to ship one dollar items. That's the other thing. I can't, you can't, I should have maybe, or maybe in the future, I'm thinking this now. I could say, guys, if you're gonna buy something, please try to buy at least five items because you know, and I I probably should have said that a little bit more. Because maybe those people who did get the one dollar items were like, wow, that's cool. I like whatnot. Do, do, do, do, do, and they never even thought about it. I'm not blaming any of them. I'm just saying some of them were probably like, score, I can't wait to see uh how if she's actually gonna send, you know, the freebies with it, or if she's gonna put it in an icebox or you know, whatever. I I don't I don't know what they're thinking is, but I definitely think I could have communicated that better. And I worked roughly 23 hours and Sarah worked 12 and a half. And, you know, I'm okay with it all, but and I learned a lot, but I'm smarter. I I'm going to have my checklist in hand, I'm gonna go slower next time. Um, because that's what we do. We figure it out, we keep going, we keep, you know, pushing forward, and and whatever, you guys. And and I'm being, like I said, upfront, honest, telling it even when it's hard and difficult. Um, and so that's about it. Okay, last thing, if this episode helped you guys at all, made you think, made made you laugh, made you feel better about your own mistakes, whatever, please do me a favor and go give me a five-star review on Apple Podcast. And if you think this sucks, then don't just leave me a one-star review. Go ahead and fill out the review and tell me why you think this episode sucks. Go, go ahead. Feel free to also put the negative because I feel like the only people who are giving one stars aren't willing to give their reviews, and I'd really like to see them. So please do that too. Um, it generally is going to help me. Um, and I I really love to hear what you say. Also, guys, in all the show notes, if you scroll down on your Apple and you scroll down, there is a button you can click. It will take you to my shop. You can see the things I suggest to buy, whether it's a light box or my lipstick, whatever. It's all in there. So I definitely suggest you do that. If you guys do want to talk, this is hilarious. Nobody's gonna want to do any talking with me after this. I I had like four consultations last week, and I was like, oh my gosh, so many consultations. Um, and I do actually help guys, I do help people. The other day I saved somebody hundreds of dollars on shipping with a mistake that she was gonna make. So I know I do give good advice. I know this episode, if this is your first and only episode to hear, you're like, dude, why would anybody take advice from her? You know why? Because I put myself out there, because I'm honest, because I risked it, because I tried something new. I I it was a strategy, it was a social experiment. You know, I also am telling you too, I'm very human and I screwed up. That's why you should talk to me. Um, I do uh consultations, it's only uh $20 per 30 minutes. I think I'll always keep it really cheap like that because I like helping you guys and I like seeing you grow. You do not need to do that. You can just go back and listen to some episode. Oh, sorry, hiccup episodes and and whatever. Also, my phone number is 832-607-1526. So you guys can call me if you have any issues, whatever. Okay. Um, and I guess that's about it. I mean, I went 52 minutes. That's because I I have these ideas in the middle of my notes, and I'm like, oh, we should have this tier, blue and yellow squirrel. Um, anyways, guys, thank you so much for listening. Uh, please consider giving me some grace on this and and give yourself some grace if you screwed up or didn't make as much money and whatnot. If you're listening, think about the little guys, think about the starters, think about the tier idea or something where it's not everybody fighting for the same customers and the same dollar, and and maybe we can divide it up a bit. All right, with that, I hope you guys are having a great week and uh we'll see you next time. Talk to you later. Bye bye.