Fun & Games - Episode 79

https://linktr.ee/KarriKennedy

This episode breaks down the games, ideas, and show tricks that turn a plain ole experience to a fun exciting one where people love not just buying from you, but hanging out with you and enjoy your shows more as well. 

#WhatnotSeller #WhatnotLive #LiveSelling #WhatnotTips #ResellersOfWhatnot #WhatnotCommunity #LiveSellingTips #WhatnotShows #ResellTips #OnlineSeller #LiveAuction #WhatnotHost #SellerTips #ResellLife #WhatnotFinds #ShowNotTell #MakeItFun #EntertainFirst #PodcastForSellers #WhyNotWhatnotPodcast #KarriKennedy​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there guys. I hope everybody is doing really well. I'm excited about this episode because I've had these ideas, these thoughts, this whole episode in my head for a while now, and I'm excited to be sharing it with you finally. Actually, I had four and a half hours of sleep last night, which has not been typical, but uh as I've mentioned recently, my personal life is a Jerry Springer show right now. So I did not sleep too well, even with all my sleeping aids. Um, that being said, my my lack of sleep is to your benefit because this morning I got up and I started taking some notes on things I have done, things I've seen other people do, things I'm trying, all that, um, to have fun in your shows, fun and games and entertainment and all of that. And um, so I pulled it all together in one episode, but this is gonna be a lot. So if you guys are driving or if you're on the treadmill or whatever, just go listen to a different podcast right now and wait till you can grab a paper and a pen and sit down because I am almost guaranteed that you're gonna want to take some of these ideas and use them in your own um shows because it just makes life so much better, honestly. And we're gonna talk all about it. But um uh the thing is you really need to make your shows entertaining, and that is one of the things that I've done, not only for the the audience, but for me, myself, and I. In fact, I had a show the other day, and I was like, Oh my gosh, Sarah, that was such a great show. I was on for five hours, I just loved it. All my people were in the room, everybody was talking, it went really great. And then the next day, or like two days later, I had another show that was four hours and I sold a lot of stuff. And so Sarah came over, she goes, Well, what'd you think? You know, how did that go? And I was like, eh, it wasn't as good. And so, you know, you have good ones and you have bad ones, but you try your best. And I think you, even as a seller, you want to have fun because if you're having fun, it just makes it go by faster. It's who doesn't want to have fun? Hello. So um, that's where we're going with this, guys. And um I I want to talk about um why I think it's fun to be fun and to do this, because honestly, you're in a platform with I don't even know how many sellers, a ton, and a lot of competition. And when you are scrolling, going through as a buyer, and everybody's doing the exact same thing, holding up the item and going, and especially when they're on repeat, oh, that drives me nuts. But they're like, this is a size eight, size eight, ladies, size eight, and they say it like 15 times, and you're like, Yes, yes, we heard you. It's a size eight. I get it. But my point in that, don't do that, first of all. You only need to say it a few times, I promise. I know people are coming in and out, and somebody might be swiping by when you say size eight that happens to be a size eight, but there is a thing of too much redundancy and too much repetition. Um, but most sellers on here do the same thing all day, every day. They lift up an item or they show an item and they hold it up and they run it and they say, Okay, thank you. Susie got that. All right, now to the next person. And here we go, 15 seconds, and here it goes. I've done it, you've done it if you're a seller. Everybody, you know, over and over and over again. And I mean, it's kind of just like doing dishes and laundry, it just kind of isn't as much fun. So I always have music in my shows, I'm always cutting up, I tell stories, I do trivia, I do jokes. Um, if we get a raid, sometimes I invite that person to co-host with me for a minute so we can get to meet them and talk and and visit. Oh, I didn't even have that in my notes. I'm just, you know, but you want to have it to have fun here. And it's because there is a lot of competition. I know people are like, oh, we're just community, we're all friends. Yes, we are, but the competition is to get people in your room and to stay in your room instead of swiping through and going to somebody else's room. And so um, we've talked about this ad nauseum. If you've listened to my some of my other episodes, I believe in community. I try to help out my friends on here, they try to help me out, but at the end of the day, it is competition and you can lie to yourselves till the cows come home, but it really is because it's just like any business on the street. If people are at one store spending all their money, they're not down at your store spending money, right? Um, yesterday I went to the mall and I went to like four stores and I was buying t-shirts so that my whatnot shirts. I feel like I'm on cycle with the same clothes. And I was like, I need to get some new clothes. And so um I was like, let me go and get some new clothes. I went to multiple stores, but you could see the people light their eyes up as I came into their store because um I live by Katie Mills Mall. And I would walk into the store and they'd be like, Hi, how are you? Here's our sales, this is what's going on. We're so glad to see you. And then if I bought something, they were thankful and appreciative. Thank you so much. Here's your coupon, come back, whatever. And if I looked into the store and the people were just like sitting there on their phones and they weren't doing anything, and I didn't really see anything, I'd just be like, eh, I'm walking by. You know what I'm talking about. It happens. So you have to up your game, guys. You have to up your game because you're not just selling items, you have to be engaging and you have to be entertaining and you have to read the chat, and there's just so many things you have to do. Um, but the thing is, sellers are growing more and more and more people are coming, and the ones with full rooms are the ones with loyal buyers, regulars that come and show and they share and they bring more people, and then they come to your show and you have energy and personality. And so they're gonna see that and know that. So even if you're like if you're just having a bad day, don't go on, just don't even do it because they're gonna feel your vibe. I talked about this in another episode, but really your show needs to be fun, it needs to be engaging, there needs to be conversation, and if you add this next level of fun and games, you're in a whole nother ballpark, okay? Think think of it this way, guys. If you wake up in the morning and you know, it's it's a Tuesday morning, we're just making this up. Nobody goes, hmm, I really need a hat. It's a Tuesday morning, or I really need a mug, it's a Tuesday morning. But they might reach over, grab their phone, pick it up, and go, Oh, wow, look, Carrie's having a fun show. Let me hang out with her for a little bit. And it's a mug show. I don't need a mug, but oh, isn't that adorable? I can get that one for Aunt Maud, and I can get that for Uncle Jim and whatever. I don't even have an Aunt Maud. I make these up as I go. I did have an Uncle Jim. Um, anyways, you get the point. They think about it, they go, Oh, that's cute, that's adorable. I want that. And without them being entertained and wanting to be in your show, if you're sounding like um Ferris Bueller's teacher, where he's like Bueller, Bueller, nobody wants to be there. Um, so I think you that's our goal all the time. And I I know we're humans, I know you somebody's gonna listen to this and think that I'm gonna, they're gonna come into my room and it's gonna be like, woo-hoo, party. It's not always to that level, guys. I'm just gonna say, but we should aspire to that, right? If you're gonna take the time and the energy to list the items buy, the items show the items, you might as well have fun and bring them in. At the at the end of the day, I think it's the fun that brings them into their party, into the room, right? And then they end up leaving with the hat or the mug or whatever. You get the point. Okay, so everything we're talking about is all about doing that. Okay, but before I even get started, I have a confession to make. Um during Zero Commission Day, I did something bad. And um I'm just gonna be honest because my conscience was like poking at me because I kind of pushed the envelope on the whatnot uh rules and regulations, if you will. And so I'm gonna be up front because that's just the kind of gal I am, and I'm gonna tell you what I did and just admit it. Um, I thought about it after I did the show. I was like, wait a minute, that I if I had thought about it beforehand, I probably wouldn't have done it. But here's what I did on zero commission day, I did one dollar starts and zero uh shipping and uh one dollar starts, zero shipping and um giveaways. So it was like, okay, how do I get more people in there? And my idea was I had this raffle and I said, if you guys give five dollars to whatnot, um, I will put your name in the raffle, and whoever wins the raffle at the end of the deal gets a Starbucks gift card. Well, actually, it was two $20 gift cards for $40. Okay, 12 people boosted. If you go back and listen to my show, there's more layers to this, but um, it's like two shows back. 12 people boosted within two shows, okay? Two in the first, I had to cancel, then 10. Anyways, the money went straight to whatnot. So I don't really in my mind, it wasn't really like gambling. You know what I mean? Like I didn't get any of the money. $60 went to whatnot, okay? Not to me. And Tina Stewart, T Stewart on here, won the gift card, and she was so happy, and everybody was congratulating her, and everything went fine and it was wonderful and great. Although I don't think the boost worked at all, honestly. We didn't get that many more people in the room, even though 12 people boosted me with five bucks each, okay? So even though the money went to whatnot and I didn't get a dollar of it, right? And I still paid for the $40, people paid for a chance. And somewhere in one of these previous episodes, honestly, I don't know what it is, it talks about what you can get away with and what you can't get away with, and how you know whatnot is really cracking down on the idea of gambling. Um, you can't gamble on here. That's it. I mean, that's why they have the whole little deal when you do a buyer's giveaway that people can go around the system and fill out a little form and they can get in your giveaway, which seems so wrong to me. I think I've had a whole episode on this, guys. But, anyways, people paid five bucks, they were buying a chance, and that is gambling. So that's the problem. And I realize it now, so I'm not gonna do a raffle like that ever again. Now, if I did a raffle and it was if you get a trivia question right, you know, you put your name in and you can get this candy free or something. That way, everybody has a chance that they know what the item is. You you see what I'm saying. That's more fair, and it's not to win a chance. Does that make sense? It's you're playing a game. So I I just want you to know that whatnot is really clear on this, and I don't want to mislead anybody, and that matters, okay? So it's it's not where the money goes in this situation, it's how the whole game is structured. So I'm saying all of that before we even get going. Gosh, it's already 12 minutes in. Oh my gosh. Okay, so, anyways, long story short, just be within the whatnot rules on all of these things, okay, guys. I'll talk about it a little bit before that too. Um, okay, so uh what did I say? Uh, one question that's gonna guide every single game idea that you come up with is did somebody pay for a chance to win? That's it. If they pay for a chance, then you can't do it because that's when it's gambling, okay? Um, if everybody who plays is guaranteed something, you know, something you told them about up front, uh, then everything's fine. You know what I mean? Um, but keep that question in your mind. Are they paying for a chance? Like there was a girl on here, I don't know if I had this in my notes later, but there is a girl on here and she sold wallets, and all the wallets were shown, so you got to see what they all were, and then you got to take a chance. I guess because she showed what all the choices were, you can do it, but you can't do it where you're not supposed to see it. So we're gonna talk about there's some nuance here, you know. It's it's not there's nuance, anyways. Okay, so um, one more thing. Um, just because you see somebody else doing it doesn't mean what not allows you to. So some people might get away with it. We've talked about this before, like speeding in your car. The cop might bust, you know, one person, and then the next person's going 95 miles per hour, but they don't notice it because they're pulled over with a guy who was going 80 miles per hour. You get the idea. So just because somebody does it doesn't mean you should do it either. Okay. Um, anyways, okay, here we go. Uh sorry guys. Um don't just bottom line, don't use sellers as a guide. Use whatnot policies. Okay, so here's one that I saw that was really cute recently. Um, I wish I could remember who it was that did it. I'm if you're listening, hey, I'm talking about you. Um, it was a seller, and I I just thought this was such a cute idea. She puts items in a tin, like those old antique metal tins um that people buy for like you know, eight to thirty bucks or whatever. And it was a like a cookie tin or something, you know, and she put something inside it. Now, her the name of it is 10 10 for 10. Oh, I think that was it. You pay ten dollars for a 10, okay? Now, uh before you say, Carrie, wait a minute, didn't you just tell us you can't get a chance? Yes, but here's the thing they're buying the 10. If you set it up right and you put your verbal stuff in here, your verbal language, you know, right, then you can make it happen. Here's where the nuance comes. They're just buying the 10. The bonus treatment, baby, as I say, is what comes with the 10. Okay, you see what I'm saying? So they're buying the 10 and they're getting something extra with the 10. Does that make sense? So the 10 has items in it, but you're not paying for a chance at some random item. If you get it and you like it, then great. If you don't want it, maybe you leave it and you say, I don't I don't want that. I honestly did not stick around in her show to see what was in the tens, but I thought that was really a cute, fun thing, especially for people who do like to gamble and take a chance. And maybe they didn't even care about what was in the tin per se. They just actually like the tin itself. Um, but that made it like a whole nother level of fun. And you can even say, and I've done this before, do you want me to open it now or do you want to get surprised when you get it home and let the people have the choice? It was funny the other day in my show. I had all these glass bottles, and some of them were really dirty because they came out of an old farm. And I was like, Do you want to keep it clean or do you want to keep it dirty? And everybody in there was like kind of joke joking tongue in cheek, and they were like, keep it dirty, keep it dirty. And some people were, they were like, Don't wash it, just wrap it up the way it is, because they wanted the dirt and grime on there for whatever reason. I don't know. I I just work here. Um, but anyways, it was funny. But the point is, giving people a chance and a choice is always something you want to try to do, I think. Um, but anyways, um the brand, the condition, the general value of something needs to be up front. Whatever it is, you have to say it up front. You can't like put something in a box and go pick box one, pick box two, pick box three, because they have to be able to see something on the screen that you're saying you are buying this for X amount of money. Okay. So we we had this back in the day. I mean, I think it's probably been like a year and a half, maybe now. I don't know, but it's been a while. We used to have these surprise sets and everything. And long story short, there's other episodes in the past that you can go look at and you can, you know, do a Google search or whatever, but whatnot has really been more specific with what you can get away with and what you can't. Okay, so the very first one is called the Mystery Tin. So if you're taking notes, that was the first one. Okay, this one is another one I saw the other day, and I was like, that is so smart. I don't know if she stole it from somebody else or if that's her idea. Hold on. It's called the Golden Toy Hunt. And um, actually, I'm not even gonna tell you exactly what it is. This is what I'm calling it. But she had a little golden blank somewhere hidden on her shelves, and it was so much fun because she goes, if anybody finds it and you can point it out and tell me where it is, then I will run a $25 item for just one dollar, which was kind of fun because as she's panning the shelves, everybody's looking for that one hidden item, you know, and um it reminds me of um there's a squirrel at Trader Joe's. And um, if your kids go into Trader Joe's and they find the squirrel that moves, I think every week or every month or something, they get like a sucker or something. I mean, we had six kids, so my kids always went into Trader Joe's to look for the squirrel, and um, it's just a fun activity to keep your kids entertained and whatever. It's just fun and uh kind of like uh Charlie, Charlie in the chocolate factory looking for the golden ticket, you know. Um, so, anyways, the hunt is fun, the reward is guaranteed, everybody still gets to bid. So she's just taking any $25 item that the person who finds that and putting it for a dollar. So fun, fun, completely fine, falls within the guidelines. That's the next one. Okay, the next one is called the Tuckaway Freebie Picker. And I'm I I have done this for a while, but I'm gonna change it up. This is my new idea. Okay, so this one's really, really simple. So after people purchase something with me, a lot of the time I have um a plastic rainbow Hobby Lobby, like I think it's to put tools or little stickers or buttons or whatever in. Um it's it's Hobby Lobby, so you can kind of get an idea. But it has 60 tiny little drawers, okay? And I have put um these because we have a 3D printer, we put these little hens on a nest in there, and people could pick what you know, an a number one through 60. Sorry, a number one through 60, and if they pick number 27 and there's a hen in the back, boom, that automatically is a free bonus, a tuck away, you know, no big deal. They purchase something, they get a free giveaway. It costs hardly any money. I know some people are selling them on here for five and seven bucks, but literally, I I don't even know. It's maybe, I don't know, I don't know, eight cents to make or something, maybe twenty. So it's not that big of a deal. But you could do that with all kinds of things: a piece of candy, a sticker, a tiny toy, a tattoo, um, the little eye masks, I mean, uh, a bracelet, a ring, a necklace, whatever tiny little things in those little drawers. So if, you know, Susie wins the you know, size eight shirt that we were talking about earlier. Hey, guess what, Susie? You're you get to pick one of these numbers. She draws the number, you open the drawer right there in front of her so everybody knows that there's nothing going on behind the, you know, whatever. She gets it, and then you throw it into her box. Boom, done. Fun. They like that. Who doesn't like getting something extra? You know, it's and and just so you guys know, it you could get these at like um Hobby Lobby or not Hobby Lobby, or you could probably go to um what is it, Home Depot or um, what's the other one? Lowe's, Home Depot or Lowe's, whatever. It's a like a little toolbox thing that puts screws and bolts in. You guys could come into my show and ask me and I'll show it to you. Anyways, the key is the items need to be fairly close in value because the second that you start putting something high, high value in there, then it can be, you know, oh well, you gave, you know, there's more question on the I don't know, the up and up on it. You know what I mean? So this way nobody's like, oh, well, she got a Kate Spade, you know, uh, I don't know, necklace, and I got a piece of plastic from the Cracker Jack box, you know, you get the thing. So you just gotta keep it, keep it around the same value, okay? It's free, it's fun. People are having fun, they like getting free things, and also it keeps buyers coming back, okay? So that one is called the tuck away freebie picker, and instead of just Putting hens on the nest in there, I'm gonna try to find more cute, tiny little things to put in there just because I'm sick of the hens on the nest, to be quite honest. Okay, then the other one is um the drawer game, and this is the same actual thing. So I think that thing cost maybe 30 bucks, I'm guessing. It's been a long time since I've had it, and I did put stickers, so each number is on there nice, and mine's like this pretty rainbow. Um, so yeah, you guys can can come to my show and see it. But um, the this one's called the Gore the Draw Game, okay. And this one, I did a cookbook show. This was so great. I did a cookbook show and I had 60 different cookbooks, okay? And you would buy, I'd I started everything at a dollar. So I mean it wasn't like high dollar starts or anything. Maybe I've done it, I've done it a few times. Maybe I did once at three dollars or five dollars, but I know I've definitely done it a few times at one dollar. So they would come in and it would bid up. I mean, depending on who's in your show, you know how that goes. So let's say I started it at $3, for example, and the the person gets it for $4 or $7 or whatever, they get to pick a number. In that drawer, I had another number. Okay, so maybe they pick drawer 55. I opened drawer 55 in the back part of there's there's two sections to this. You got to put it in the back part so they can't see. I'm just saying, if you go get the Hobby Lobby one, in the back part, it might be number seven out of 55. And number seven also had a sticker, which I had taken post-its and cut it in half. And I wrote the number seven with a big black permanent marker on the edge of the book. So all 60 books were up on a bookshelf. They got to see what the titles were. Everybody knew what they were playing for, they were roughly the same price. Nothing was like, you know, a $60 book and then a $1 book. That's where it gets crazy. You gotta try to keep it within a certain amount of like publishing time, or all paperbacks, or all hardbacks, or you get the idea, guys, because if you have something way, way high and something way, way low, then people can say it's gambling, it wasn't fair, we're not happy. I never had this happen. I think I've done that show like three or four times, easily three or four times back when I was selling all my books, and I never had a problem. Most people were so ecstatic to get not only their book, but I also was doing free book um free um bookmarks and freeze-dry Skittles. So everybody just had a blast and it was fun because you didn't know what you were gonna get. And actually, there was a few times too, because they were roughly the same weight and size, people would say, Oh, I don't want the New England cookbook because I don't like seafood. Could you switch with me and could I have the barbecue one? And they'd be talking between themselves, which was also a lot of fun, and I'd just take it from one person's box and swap them out, and no big deal. I'm happy that they're happy and that they're having fun. So you get the point. Okay. Um, you could do that with um little golden books, or you could do it with mugs, you could do it with um the star, uh not Starbucks, uh, Stanley mug, whatever. Something that has equal value that you do on a regular basis, and it's the right size, the right weight, you get the idea. Just nothing real high, high level, and nothing real, real low level. Okay, that one is called the drawer game, and that's uh that's correlating one number that they draw with a number that is shown. Okay, you that's the other key factor, guys. You've got to tell them what it is, otherwise, we're getting into that chance thing and people don't know. Okay, we all good here. Okay, the next one is the slot machine. You guys have maybe come to one of my shows before. I've had the slot machine for like a year and a half. I love my slot machine. Um, it's one of my favorite things. Um, when we have slot machine casino type nights, I've even used the slot machine as my thumbnail, um, saying come on in and take a chance. Um, mine, if it lands on 777, you could get a prize. And the way that it you you're getting that prize is um because you purchase something. So it's once again another little tuck away thing. And if you it's not really gambling because they've already bought something and I'm just putting something in it, okay? Same same thing that we've talked about before. Nobody has to spin, you know, whatever. I you you know, it's fun. Nobody's going, well, she got it, and whatever. I think if somebody came in and goes, Oh, it's not fair, I didn't get it, but I throw candy in already because you're already going to get something with me. This might just be a bigger bag of freeze-dry Skittles instead of the little bag. You see what I'm saying? It's it's zero risk, it's fun. And you know, who doesn't like to go? I I especially when people come in and they're like, I never win anything. I'm so excited. I mean, they're getting all of two ounces more worth of Skittles, but hey, they're happy, you know. Just once again, if you're gonna do these type things, remember similar items, similar price, prizes, whatever. Um, because you gotta whatever. And then this is this is just me taking notes. Um, the sound effects machine. I actually put this. If you guys go to the notes in the podcast, there's a little link and it'll take you to my link tree, and that will hook you up with my Amazon shop. In my Amazon shop, I literally just put this sound effects machine because I love it, I just think it's fun. Mine is M MIA. I don't know where it is. It we used to use it all the time. It has um different sounds like it's like a kid's toy, guys. It costs $9.99, is the one I, you know, $10. But one of them has a fart sound, one is applause, one is the ch-ching sound for money, you know. Um, and so I would hit the same ones basically. No, not the fart one. I would hit the money, you know, or the applause. Like if they got a really good deal and nobody else bit up on it, and I like, dude, that's awesome. I've been giving air high fives to people lately, but it's the same thing. And um, you know, when you hear the little cheer uh crowd going, ah, you know, or the applause, um, it's awesome. I will say I am not a fan of the annoying sounds. There's a lot of shows, they think it's more fun on the seller's side, I think, than the buyer's side, where they use things like air horns and screaming chickens and really loud bells. I personally am not a fan of that. I can handle even the fart noises, but I do not want to hear screaming chickens and uh the bullhorn things um every time you get a news, you know, new first time buyer, or you can always do something for that, you know. Thank you so much. Um, you know, first time buyer, or you know, what a great deal, you got that, you know, whatever. Um, the cha-ching, the money thing, that one's fine. Cha-ching, you know what I'm talking about. Um, so a lot of people do um a little like a brass bell or something, ding, ding, ding, ding, when when that happens. But, anyways, that the point is to make people feel special, like they're doing a good job. Um, there was actually a lady the other day I was in her show, she's a Texas girl, I can't remember her name, but she goes, I bought a couple things from her and her first sale. She goes, Oh, you're a new time buyer, and she's got this like southern accent. She goes, Oh, let me give you an air hug. And she reaches her arms out like to the camera, and then she hugs herself, like she draws it in. And it was all great, you know. But every single time that somebody comes in, she stops and does that. Well, she gets confused on who she's giving a hug to. She's like, Did I already give you a hug? I can't remember. Let me give you another hug. I mean, so, but I the thing is, I didn't forget her. It was very memorable. I'm gonna shop with her again. She sent me wonderful stuff in a great package. As long as like all the steps to your purchasing goes fine, then most likely you're gonna have a repeat, you know, buyer come back in. Um, it cost her nothing to give an air hug. It cost her nothing to say thank you. I really appreciate you. So whether it's the applause, whether it's the cha-ching, whether it's the bell or the hug or high five, whatever it is, making those people feel special is a really great thing. Um, and saying thanks, guys, you know. Um, so okay, so the next one was sound sound effect machine. The next one is the milestone giveaway. Um, and this one um is also within whatnot guidelines and whatever. At the start of the show, you tell your room when I hit, you know, 20 sales, or when I hit 30 sales. And the thing about this is it's building what we've talked about in the past, momentum, guys. You want momentum in your room. Everybody's working towards something. Okay, when we get to this, I'm gonna run the giveaway. And if you stagger your giveaways, like one in the beginning and one in the middle, or one every 30 minutes, or whatever, you have an opportunity for more people to stay in the room because they want to participate in the giveaway. Now, more people will do that if it's a you know $10 Starbucks card or you know, these big shows where they're doing higher dollar amounts or something nice like a Stanley, you know, Tumblr or whatever. But the point is, um, if you stagger those, um, it's called the milestone giveaway. And that way people are investing in you and your goals to try to get to so-and-so level as you're trying to get to your 1K or you're trying to make your your money or whatever. There's a seller on here, and she's done. Um, I I'm uh oh gosh, I'm drawing a blank on her name. I know who it is, everybody knows who she is. Anyways, she's done three 24-hour shows where she's on and I why am I not thinking of her name? Anyways, she's done 24-hour shows and everybody's vested, you know, like, oh my gosh, we're up to hour 15 or whatever. I did that 13-hour show the other day, and now ever since then, every time I was at five hours the other day, and they're like, Oh, let's make this a 12-hour show. It's just fun for people to have these milestones, whether it's a giveaway or it's time, or you're trying to. I've had shows where I'm trying to make X amount of money. My dog had cancer on her head, and I was trying to make, I think, $700 or $1,200 or something in that show, and everybody's like, okay, let's try, you know, let's try to get it there. And your mods are helping out, and it's just it's fun for everybody to be kind of cheering one another on and be like a sales team, you know, because then when they hit that number, you're running the giveaway and everybody's happy. So another fun community pulling together to help somebody out in life. And I and I love that one. Um, that's called the milestone giveaway. Okay, the next one is the first buyer reward. We already talked about that, but you get the idea. It's the first person. Oh, wait, no, this is a different one. I take it back. I told you about that. Where you know, okay, next one. This is a different one. I just should have come up with a better name for it. Um, this is whoever the first person is to buy something in the show, gets something. I've been doing this for a while. Sometimes I forget, but whoever buys anything, whoever the first buyer is, gets an extra something in their package. That way, everybody has a chance. It's fair to everybody. Whoever wins that wins it. Um, there's no real chance, you know, involved. And you do it in the first two minutes, you know, to get that momentum going. So um I guess that's the first person to buy, is what that would be called. Okay, the other thing I've been doing since forever, it just probably because I was in education, I was a teacher, I was a principal, um, private schools, homeschool world, university model, all that. Anyways, trivia. We love trivia, we love it, it's just fun. Um, in fact, all day, every day my kids learn something and like fun fact, mom, did you know? And I'm like, no, half the time I have to Google it. But, anyways, because of trivia, um, we do a lot of it, and I have printed up trivia. We've done USA trivia, we've done music trivia. What else have I done? Just general knowledge trivia. The point is, you can have this trivia game. Whoever answers it the fastest in the chat gets to um get it. But the thing is, in my rules, it has to be spelled correctly and it has to be somebody that's already a buyer. Because if they're not already a buyer, then I've got this random item and I have to hold on to it for whatever. So you have to have a box, you have to be a buyer to play the game. And I mean, once again, it could be a 3D printed thing, it could be a sticker, it could be a cute little postcard, it could be a cheap necklace. You guys got lots of ideas. I'm sure you get that. Um, but basically it's trivia. Whoever spells it correctly, answers it right, that already has a box, whatever. Um, the thing is, sometimes it's hilarious because you've got these people and you're like, damn, you're fast. So some of my people, I start cutting them off. I joke around, like, you know, trivia is like too much like alcohol, and I've got to cut them off. So if somebody is like kick ass at not only trivia, but how fast and how correctly they're spelling and everything, I'm like, okay, guys, after three times or after four times, after five, whatever, you're cut off. No more playing. Let the other people play. You've already won enough. And and they joke around with it. Everybody knows we're just having fun. This isn't, it's not like we're giving away Gucci or Prada, guys. You know, it's just fun little things, and it's it's keeping the people in your room engaged instead of going Bueller, Bueller. You get the idea. Instead of saying, here's a, you know, another hen on the nest, or here's a shirt size eight, you know, whatever dress, I guess it would be whatever, pants. Um, but you get the point. No purchase required to play. The reward is guaranteed if you're smart and you know the answer. I think it's fun. I think everybody likes it. Okay, the next one I'm gonna talk about, but I have mixed feelings on this. It's sudden death auctions. Um, if you guys know you get to click when you do the auctions, it's like a little toggle, like halfway down. You just toggle it on, but it goes super, super fast. Um, when it's turned on, you'll see like a little skull emoji next to the auction clock. So your buyers know what they're getting into. Um, and it's it there's good things and bad things about it. I highly suspect that the whatnot algorithm likes it when people do it. I've been in people's shows, especially large rooms, you know, like 80 plus, you know, 600 plus, whatever, and they're doing it, and that's fine. I think it's even bringing more people because the momentum's going and whatever. But here's my take it does create fast energy. It's going, algorithm's happy, everybody's good. But I'm older, I'm gonna be 55 in August, and I'm just gonna say, I think that you end up getting in such a frenzy. Um, I've had it accidentally on before and recently in like the last two shows. I've had it on, and people are like, Carrie, you didn't give us enough time. It was only like five seconds, or it was only seven seconds. If you're going to do sudden death, I highly suggest you give them like at least 15, 20, 30 seconds or something. And they're swiping, swiping. But the thing is, so many people are swiping so fast you can't really see it. To me, that almost feels like gambling because you don't know if it's gonna land on you, you can't see it. And so for me personally, I think I'm just not gonna do it anymore. Um, and like I said, whatnot has never said anything officially about their algorithm doing that. That's just me. I think that that's my theory. Um, but when people are moving so fast and they're like bidding up on their own self, you know, if you're a regular buyer on here, you have probably done that where you're so swipe happy and you want the item so bad that you know, boom. I was in a raid train the other day, uh well, like two weeks ago, and I really, really wanted this adorable antique birdhouse thing. It was so cute. I had my heart set on that, but the girl had it on sudden death, and it was like seven seconds. And even though I would have bid up higher, I didn't get a chance. So I I I think you guys can play with it, but I definitely think you need to be careful with it. But I added it because it does add fun and excitement to your room. If you've never tried it, try it. Okay, next one is called This or That. That's just I'm coming up with little names, guys. I told you, I used to have, you know, a school, so these are different ways of playing almost the same thing. This or that just creates you know an option, okay? So um, I you hold up something in your right hand, you hold up something in your left, and or in a box or a basket or whatever, and they get to choose which one. Now, I've mentioned this before in previous episodes, but who doesn't love choice? I mean, who wants to go to the ice cream store and only be told you only get vanilla? Nobody would ever go to the ice cream store because they want to go to the ice cream store with what is Brahms' is what 21 flavors. We go to this handles ice cream, it's like 40 flavors, and then you got mix-in, as you can mix them together. I mean, unbelievable choices and options. Um, you get different cones, whatever. So when people have the opportunity to have a choice, they like it. It's fun. Um, and also, too, if you do this or that, the the game, which I'm calling it, or you could call it left or right, I don't care. People can choose one or two, left or right, up or down, whichever, top shelf, bottom shelf, however you guys figure it out. Um, other people in the room could go, pick that, pick that. It kind of reminds me of the prices, right? Where um, you know, they'd have the showcase and they'd say the numbers or the spinning, and everybody in the audience would give their feedback like, it's it's three thousand five hundred and ninety-two dollars, you know. It's just the the fun to have other people okay, guys, and then you have to say it. You're the game host, you know. Here, you have to say, guys, do you think she should get option one or do you think she should take option two? And and this is, you know, uh something that she's bought, so she buys the option of one or two. Does that make sense? And I have done this before, I just realized this. I have done this with Christmas ornaments. I've taken little mug, um, muffin tins, and um, a muffin tin has like eight big muffin tins, and I put ornaments in each one, and I call it buyer's choice, and they can come in and they get to whoever wins gets to pick which one of the eight they want. So it's not limited to this or that or one or two. You could come up with a different topic, but the point is choice, and it's also fun if you can get the other people. I'm I said I almost said parishioners, and I'm like, we're not in church. The other uh participants, not parishioners, the other participants to be active and engaged. Guys, do you think she should take this or should she take that? She should have taken this, whatever, you know. Um, and then the same thing with the muffin table, the muffin thing that I just mentioned, you could do that with little things. Um, nothing big, but that takes me to the next one, which is grid table. The grid table. Um, you guys know those big long folding tables that are white with black um legs. You can get them at Costco. They're about eight foot, and I think maybe like by two, two and a half feet. What you do is you buy a couple of those, you put them in your living room or outside somewhere, and you go get blue painter's tape because it comes off easily, and you make a grid on your table, okay? And then you put a number in each one of the squares. You can get numbers from Amazon that are cute little round stickers. I think I might have those in my shop too, and they'll say number one, number two, number one or three, whatever. And then throughout the show, if something gets taken from like item, we'll just say item 11. Let's say you have 20 items on that table, okay? It depends on how big your items are. But let's say you have 20 items on them. Okay, let's say I'm trying to think of an item knives. I mean, nobody's gonna do this because guys will not do this. Let me think of something else. Uh Hats, hats. Okay. You get your choice of hats. Um, all different kinds of designs and whatever baseball hats, whatever, cowboy hats, they're all hats. You can put maybe 12 hats in a grid, and somebody picks number eight. You know, it's buyer's choice, guys. Here they all are. You keep panning back and forth over the table. They just whoever wins it chooses number eight. Boom, bang, they get number eight. That means you have to have your inventory and go, go, go, grab another one and pop it in there for your next show because you want to keep those going. Um, and this is a great thing because once again, they're getting choice, it's easy to see. Everybody loves it. When you walk in, everybody can see all of what you're doing and your inventory. It's it's a satisfying um dopamine hit when you're like, ooh, I can get that. And then also they have a chance, it's a choice, right? Like it's your buyer's choice. But I'm calling this the grid table just because that's the way it's set up. So do that. Okay, another thing that a lot of people do is what's called the vignette shopping experience or something, making a vignette. I don't know how they title it, but I definitely know the word vignette is in it. Um, I think this is more in like the antiques and estate sale kind of, I mean antiques and vintage. Um, and this one definitely takes more setup. This is basically the same thing that I just told you about with the grid, okay, but instead she might have card tables, for example, or um, like card tables, and then she's gonna take, you're gonna get to choose four or five different items to make your vignette. The thing I love about this is the mentality of, you know, instead of just buying the hamburger, you're adding the fries and the coke, right? You're upselling. That's what you want to do. You don't want somebody just coming into your room to buy one freaking thing, guys. I've been packing my last two shows and people are buying one thing. And I'm like, who are you people that are just buying one thing? Buy more things. And so I feel like I have not been doing my job if people are coming in and just buying one thing. Who knows? I don't understand that, but maybe that's all I could find. I don't know. Um, but you want them to buy more. That is your goal, right? To sell them more items. So if you have the necklace, you're gonna try to sell the earrings and the bracelet that match. You get the point. So these vignette people are super smart because what they have done is they've got four or five different tables. And okay, we're gonna bid up to whatever amount, and you get to go and you get to get an item from each one of the tables. So let's it bids up, let's say it bids up to 30 bucks. Okay, now Kimberly, you've got 30 bucks, and you get to get something from each one of the five tables. What, what? Now it's all about Kimberly, it's all about her choices. They go to table one. Oh, you want the little beater, egg beater from the 50s? All right, Kimberly, that's going in your basket. Okay, let's go to the next one. Um, I've seen this in other places too, besides Antique and Vintage. Um, a seller who's no longer on the app anymore, she got kicked off. She used to do um really cute ones where it was um you got a beach bag, and then you would get to pick your towel. You so you got to pick your beach bag, what color it was. They were like all these big plastic things. Then you got to pick your towel, then you got to pick sunglasses, and then it was, I don't know, maybe something like suntan lotion or something, and maybe like a bucket of toys, whatever. The point was you're upselling and and and getting more, and it's fun too, because for a minute there, everybody is eyes on that one person. You're watching that person make choices, and especially with like the vintage and estate, I mean antique stuff, they're like, oh, this purple would go so good with this glass, and everybody's like, Oh yeah, and that orange and that turquoise would, you know, you get the point. Um, so that's a very fun thing. You guys are like amazed right now, right? That I have come up with all this, and remember, I'm I'm impressed with myself right now. You're like, wow, okay, Carrie, you need to get a break. Okay, I'm on four and a half hours sleep. Let me just point that out too. Okay, here is a great one. I'm going to buy this and I'm going to do this because we did this at school. And I'm like, why have I not tried some of these things we've done at school before? So I'm gonna bring it over. Okay, here's what it is. I don't know when I'm gonna do it. You guys can do it before me. If you if you decide to take this idea, message me that you're gonna do it so I can come to your show. Okay. But this is called the Jenga Tower. Okay, everybody knows how Jenga works, right? Um, it's you build the tower, right? And then um, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna number each one of the blocks at both sides. So each block will have a number. This will be number one, this will be number 47. I don't even know how many blocks are in the thing. You get the idea. So um every person who buys something during the show gets to call out a number and I'll pull out that block. Okay, so um, I've got to come up with other names besides Suzy Q um and Kimberly and Kevin. Uh, I need new names, guys. Somebody's gonna come to my show and start giving me new names for when I'm doing these episodes. Um, Violet, her name's Violet. Okay, so Violet comes into the show and she buys a uh fairy lamp from me uh for 150 bucks. And I'm like, whoop, whoop, whoop. Okay, Violet, now pick a number out of the Jenga. And she pulls a number out, and everybody gets to watch the table, right? Because I have this um rolling cart that I'm planning on doing this on, and I'm hoping and praying it works. I just think it'd be fun. Anyways, she gets to pull it out so the whole room is watching every time somebody does it, just like when you actually play Jenga, there's this level of anticipation, right? Now, here's how you're like, How is this gonna work? Well, the reward is going to the last person who successfully pulled the block out without knocking the tower over. So if it eventually goes out, um Brian comes in the room and Brian pulls out number 36 and it all goes to hell. Well, whoever it was before him, um, Ginger, Ginger gets um, she's the last person who did it. We look up at it and she ends up winning something free. Okay. I don't know what the free thing is, but everybody gets to put play. Everybody who's buying, it's just something free. Uh recently I've been sending Taffy. I actually have to go to the post office here after this episode. Taffy is very lightweight. It's, I mean, for the most part, unless you're sending a ton, but I got Laffy Taffy Cherry and I put it in Christmas's. Her name is Crystal Christmas. I put it in her bot, her bag. It's flat, it's thin, it doesn't weigh too much, and she's gonna get that. But the thing is, um, you have to have somebody there. I already thought about this. You have to have somebody there helping you to clean it up, otherwise, you're gonna have Jenga all over your floor and have to care carefully clean it up. Clean it up. I I've seen also other people do Plinko and other games like that. Um, I did not put that in here, but you guys can think about all the different bingo, plinko, all kinds of games that you could bring in here. Another thing I'm gonna talk about is called the dig. Um, there is a lady, I think her name starts with Jovi, I think it's Jovi or something. She sells jewelry and um she has a mirror on uh opposite of her. So you get to see her face and you get to see the pile of jewelry. And the fun with this is that everybody's in the room and they're calling out different things, and they're saying, it's at one o'clock, it's pink, or it's at seven o'clock, and it's it's green, and it's got glitter, and uh, it's got these black spots, and everybody's trying to, you know, interject where it is and help her find the jewelry. And she grabs and she points and she looks and she finds and she runs, and it's just fun. And it doesn't have to be jewelry, guys. It could be toys, small collectibles, whatever you've got, um, keys. I I can't even imagine all the different things in the world that there are. Um, you could definitely do it with stuffed animals, but the thing is everybody gets to see it all and they get to kind of look. So it's kind of like um what are those books? I spy books, and everybody's having fun. And the thing is, you you just have to have that navigation center. You have to have your mod or put it in your notes or something that we're using a clock and colors, you know, so that you're saying it's at three o'clock and it's pink. Can you find it? You know, um, it's got glitter or it's got a sparkle or whatever. Um, and so that's another fun thing to do. And I'm just gonna call that the dig because uh yeah, she's digging for it. The next one is called the live unboxing. Everybody knows what live unboxing is, but if you haven't done it in your show, I definitely think you should. It's so much fun when people come back from an estate sale or you got a palette of clothes, or you just got back from an auction or whatever, and it's all new inventory, and you haven't even gone through it and picked it out. Um, I did this just at my last show, actually. I had a I had two huge boxes of stuff and I was digging through them. They were dirt dirty because they had come out of a farmhouse, but um we were I was sending Sarah to the kitchen to clean things as they were coming out, and we were selling them right there. In fact, one buddy somebody got soaps, uh, it was George and Martha Washington soaps on a glass tray, and I was like, Sarah, we gotta dry this off, it's still wet, you know. So um that's another fun thing because people love the suspense, they love not knowing what's coming. And the the one thing is you never know who's, you know, everybody has different personalities. Somebody might rather go to the big dig where they can see all the items, and somebody might want to go to the show where the suspense is. If you have a shop and you are doing shows, you're not stuck to one of these. You can try all kinds of things, you know. Okay, this is my next one. I'm trying to go as fast as I can. Live dem demo. Live demo is the next one, and this one is one of my favorites. When I I've never seen this lady ever again, but when I first came on to whatnot, there was a girl and she was doing um a live cooking show, and she was selling the items she was cooking with, and I thought, oh, she should be selling the recipes too. I've been telling you guys who have things in the bin, take your favorite recipe and put it in the bin because that is cheap. It's it's something that they can use, it only cost a dollar. You get the idea. But um, she did that, and I thought, that's so great. And I'll never forget what happened. I asked her, Do you think I said, Oh, this is a fun idea. Could I do it? She's like, No, I'm the only one who does it, nobody else can do it, blah, blah, blah. And I was just like, Oh my gosh. Once again, I've never seen this lady again. I don't know who she is, but she was just really rude and said, No, you can't take my idea, which is hilarious now because I'm like, Yes, I can, and what are you gonna do about it? You know, because come on, there's nothing new under the sun. If you want to take somebody's idea, you can take it. I mean, there's there's they don't have a patent on ideas, and the whole idea of doing a live demo. I mean, come on, there's been QVC forever. So I I think this is great. Um, I actually, right when I was looking up this morning, there's a guy selling pizza ovens, and I was like, dude, don't just sell the pizza oven, throw the pizza in. If you're selling knives, cut up a steak, if you're selling cast iron skillets, you know, cook some sausage in that. If you're selling a teapot or a whole bunch of teapot stuff, put some hot tea in it and get the feel and the the vibe for what that party could look like. There's people who are selling whole, you know, sets of dishes with the little tea cups and all that. In fact, I saw a lady selling a whole set for 450 bucks, and I thought, oh, what a nightmare to pack that. But she sold it for 450 bucks, and I thought, I bet you had she put some little um pedophores and you know, some little croissants and and you know, some hot tea, and and had it all set up where you could actually imagine sitting at the table, it could have easily gone for 600 bucks because you're you're getting people to think about it, you're showing them how to use it, right? If you have it, I saw another guy selling a chainsaw, it looked so cheap. I was like, Yeah, let me see you, let me see you hit the tree with that. But I was like, go up into the tree, buddy, let me see that work. And that's that's the key factor here, guys. On the live demo, you you need to show your items and what they do, you know. Um, I just bought knives from my boys the other day. They like them, but they went to sharpen them because they weren't sharp enough. So maybe if they were sharp and I saw them displaying that, I more people would buy. You get the idea. Okay, the next one is story time, and I'm picking this one out because there's a lady on here, and I I swear she's like 85, 90 years old, and she's there with her daughters and granddaughters and everything. And I'm not sure what category they're in, but they're they're pulling items and they hand it to her. And this little old lady sits in her chair behind the table, and she's like, Oh, I remember this, and she just goes on and tells all the stuff. She talks about where she got it from and how she used it, or how it was her great-grandmother's, or whatever. She might they're probably in antiques or something, anyways. It's just really fun. So if somebody is is going through their grandparents' home and you have a memory attached to whatever item, uh, having a story that goes with the item, I think just it lends humanity to it. It it makes you it makes you attach to that better, you know, and go, oh my gosh, this is 85 years old. The lady who owned it, she, you know, was in whatever, she survived this or she did this. It's just it makes it more fun. Um, and so I think people are buying the items not just because of the items, but because they're stories, and they are buying a piece of that story, if you will. It makes it real and it makes it um, it helps you connect to something that's real and true. Um, so okay, I'm going fast, I'm going fast. I hit the hour mark. Raid trains, I'm not gonna spend too much time on this. I'm actually hoping to find somebody who does a lot of raid trains to interview so that I can ask them a bunch of questions about it and just have an a bunch of raids, uh raid questions, I guess. Anyways, the thing is raid trains can be wonderful. You make a lot of friends, you have a lot of fun, you make uh new people. It's it's great, especially themed ones. I love them. I've said this before, but I've also said it's it can also be a lot of stray stress. My last one was 30 minutes. I've decided I am more than happy to do raid trains with anybody who wants to invite me, but it has to be something that I similarly have and something that is taking at least an hour on the raid train because I've seen them as short as five minutes, and I just think that's crazy. I mean, five minutes, I don't know. You think that's not a big deal, but you got to shower and you've got to set up your stuff and you've got to introduce your stuff and you go, go, go, go. And I just that amount of stress for me in my regular personal life and everything that's going on, I just I'm not there. Maybe in the future, maybe if you're younger, but for me personally, that's just not what I want to do. I'm happy to do an hour, but I I definitely think if you have not done a raid train yet, y'all need to try to do it. Um, you can post on Facebook Market, you can ask people in other trains, you know, say, hey, I was at your raid train, I really liked it. I bought from so-and-so and so-and-so. Would you consider having me in one of your upcoming raid trains? And a lot of people do them, and it's a lot of fun. So, anyways, okay, I'm finishing up, guys. So I've given you a lot of different ideas and suggestions, and I'm sure I did not give them all because the sky's the limit. But the point here, guys, is you need to be thinking about entertainment, right? We don't want to be, you know, the teacher is saying Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, and just so boring. Um, you know, you can van white the items, you can put lights on them, you can have music, you can dance, whatever. The the point is, whether it's games or sound effects or or you know, a trivia, whatever it is, none of this is costing you too much money, and it's just taking a teeny little bit of time, a few little things here and there. If you're doing the drawer pulls, you might have to spend, like I said, 30 bucks at Hobby Lobby, that kind of thing. Um, the slot machine, I don't know how much that costs. You can get them off off Amazon. You get the idea. And the thing is, you want people to hang out with you. It makes it more fun for you, and then it's not so boring for you because it's not just about everybody else. And I'm gonna just say this because I was gonna start with balance this morning. I have for a really long time in my life put my husband and my kids and my you know people in my life way ahead of me and my needs and my wants. And I think you guys really gotta balance that, right? If you're too tired to go on tonight and you don't, you're not up for the experience or having a game or whatever, take a break, baby, man. You know, just like I'm like, just put your feet up, you know, have a Coke and some popcorn, watch a movie. Take care of yourself. I know you guys listen to these episodes, and a lot of you send me messages and thanks, and and uh, you know, the fan mail and all that, and I really appreciate it. But I also worry that some of you guys are working just a little bit too hard and you need to balance it. So that's a side note here. Um, at the end of the day, the golden rule is is there treat others as you want to be treated. Um, you know, if you're gonna have fun in a show, they're gonna have fun in a show, everybody's gonna work together. Keep it on the up and up within whatnot's, you know, rules and regulations. Don't get into the gambling stuff. You get where I'm saying this, okay? Keep your items like show your items, all of that. Um, and that's it. You know what I'm saying. Okay, so that is it. I wrapped it up in an hour and five minutes. Thank you guys so much for being here. If you don't know how to find me, my name is K-A-R-R-I, Carrie Kennedy, K-E-N-N-E-D-Y on whatnot. You guys can go follow me. You can come to one of my upcoming shows. I have to move some things around. Um, I was supposed to go to an antique show in Nav store and have an antique show in Navasota tomorrow, and I'm gonna have to change that because the woman who owns the store, her husband is got some serious health issues. So we're gonna have to cancel that. And um, it just is what it is. So I I'll figure it out. Um, but anyways, guys, please, I would be so grateful if you guys would give me a five-star rating. If you like this show, if you like this, go listen to some other episodes, they're all a little bit different. Um, share this out, please, please, please. Um, it just takes two minutes to go in and give a quick little review on Apple. So if you're listening to this somewhere else, it's Apple is the one that matters. So you just go into Apple, you give a five-star rating and a quick two-minute review. Not even, maybe it takes 30 seconds, and that's it. That would mean so much to me. And then, last thing, real quick, guys, if you want to sit down and you want some advice, you want some help, you want some tweaking and some thoughts about your show, how it could be better, what you could do, what you might need to change or whatever, give me a call. I've I've been helping out this one lady, and it's just it's so fun to see people go on for their first time, well, you know, organized and know how to do it and feel confident, and it just makes me so happy. I'm um side note, I'm going over my time. I uh volunteer and I've been in charge of the floral department down at the nonprofit I work at. And uh I just signed up to be an English as a second language teacher Tuesday and Thursdays for two hours with 18 students. So I'm super excited about that. So I'm gonna have to change my schedule with whatnot and figure all that out too. Um, but I also do consultations, and that's where I was going. Whoop. Uh, anyways, it's 30 minutes for 20 bucks. So if you guys want help, I love teaching. It's kind Of my my thing, and I love you know being your little cheerleader and telling you you've got this and go. And so if you need that, my phone number is in my profile under Carrie Kennedy, but you can also just text me 832 607 1526, and I guess that is it. I am actually gonna go out for ice cream now. So I hope you guys are having a great day, and we will talk to you next time. Bye bye.