Everybody Wants To Be A WhatNot Streamer Pt. 1

What does it really take to turn Whatnot into a full-time career? In this episode of Call Me Collect, we break down the reality behind full-time Whatnot streaming—from building an audience and sourcing inventory to creating entertaining live shows, managing shipping, and staying consistent when sales aren’t guaranteed. We also discuss the skills, mindset, that separate casual sellers from those making a living on the platform. Whether you’re thinking about going live for the first time or you’re looking to grow your resale business, this episode offers an honest look at what it takes to succeed on Whatnot. Plus Our Top 5 Whatnot Streamers To US! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I already know, man. I'm sorry for my tardiness. You know what's up?

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Life happens. You know how we do it, but we're gonna get right into it, so I ain't tripping.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Yep, let's get into it. Oh, man. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Call Me Collect podcast. I'm your host, What's Poppin', my co-host. Earth1. We back in the building. Episode three, what not streaming.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Man.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Everybody wants to be a streamer. Nobody don't want to put this work in.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Everybody wants that money, but don't want to put that work in is a fact.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

That's what uh Ronnie Coleman said about being a bodybuilder. Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder. Don't nobody want to lift this heavy ass weight.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

That's a man, he ain't lying.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

That's a fact. Everybody wants the glory, right? Don't want to put a work in.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

The crazy thing is, it's like with a lot of things, everybody thinks they can do it because we make it look easy.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Yeah. We've been saying that for years, but that's that's that's a hundred percent a fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Everybody thinks they can do it because we make it look easy. And I've had people come up to me after the fact, after they tried it, and told me it's not as easy as it looks.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah. Yeah, we make it look, we make it look simple. We make it look like, you know, easy is making this sandwich. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Right. Because technically, anybody can do it. Anybody can turn on a camera, anybody can set up an account. Anybody can talk. Anybody can sell. So technically, anybody can be a streamer, but should you be a streamer? Is another question.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

That's the that's the golden question, man. That's the that's the million-dollar question, as they say.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

It's just like with the NFL, man. Yes, you know how to catch a ball. Yes, you know the rules of football. You can, but does it mean that you can be a professional athlete?

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Bro, I swear. That's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Man, they're not gonna like that one. But no, we're gonna get into what it takes to become a streamer, what we went through, some of the problems we had to face. I'm gonna start with mine, and then Earth One's gonna get into his because his journey was even different than mine.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

My journey started out a little like this. I was already selling on eBay. I had my own eBay store, everything already before Whatnot, before live streaming was even a thing. Right. It didn't really exist like that. And I had a guy come up to me one day. I'm in hot topic. This is back when I was standing in line for Funko's. He told me about an app called Whatnot, and he was like, I got this DBZ pop. I forgot what Vegeta it was. He said, I got it for $10. At the time, this was like a $35, $40 Vegeta. I'm like, it gotta be fake. How did you get a Vegeta for $10? And it was a live streaming app, and you and this person's gonna send you this Vegeta? I couldn't believe it. I was I was stuck in the dinosaur ages of how can you trust a person to send you something that's live streaming how and why would he sell it for $10? There were facts. That's a fact. Couple weeks go by, he tells me about another deal. He's like, you gotta get on there. I'm telling you the truth.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

He said, This meeting is the regular guy at Hot Topic.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah, same guy at Hot Topic. I'm meeting up to give him another pop. Because at the time I was buying collections and I would send him pictures and give him first dibs. I picked up his collection. You need something out of this? So we meet at the mall again. He's like, I got another steal on this. You gotta get on there. You're gonna find stuff. I was like, okay, man, you got me. I'll sign up, I'll check it out. This magical app that you speak of. He's got you hooked. Got you. He had me hooked. So I'm looking, and now I'm seeing it from my own eyes. I'm like, wow. I'm like, people on here really making money. I still didn't understand how they were selling stuff so cheap. Right. But slowly but surely I started to figure out. I was like, maybe they don't care. I saw the volume at which they were moving the items. So I'm like, maybe they don't care about the maximum profit of the item. They just care about making money off the items, which means they're probably getting these pops dirt cheap. Right. To be able to even do dollar starts and all this crazy stuff. So I'm like, huh. So the so the object of whatnot is to move fast, not slow and get the maximum profit. There it is. So then, but in my head, I was one of those people. I said, I could do this. Let me get in there. Yeah, I was naive. I was like, I always wanted to be a stand-up comedian and entertain. So I was like, I can do this. Right. So I go through the orientation. A lot of you guys don't know what orientation is. Lord. Earth. Tell them about orientation.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Listen, orientation, guys, if you're new to whatnot, they let you do it with the click of a button. But when we first started years ago, three, three, four years ago now, you you had to go through a full-on orientation. Like you were going to college, you were in a live Zoom call with maybe 20 other people, you know, and they had a whatnot representative giving you the rundown of, you know, shipping and shipping times and what they expected. They wanted you to send in pictures of inventory and all these things. It was it was a full-on process. And it took, you know, it took like a week or a week and a half to get, you know, to get all of it done. But uh it was crazy, bro. I heard that you don't even do orientation anymore. You click it and within 48 hours you can be a seller. Boom. No questions asked. But yeah, it was a full orientation.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

Like it was like a 30-minute orientation. It was crazy. Yeah, you even had to take a quiz at the end.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, I forgot about the quiz. That's what that's funny. No, they just like, oh, you want to sell here?

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Facts. Let the scammers in, no questions now. And even then we had scammers even with the orientation. So after the orientation, you know, I do my first stream. First stream is me and this guy over here, and another one of our buddies, we won't mention no names, right? Another one of our buddies. He he was in there as well. And when I tell you this is before raids, this is before promotions, you had to just sit and hope somebody swiped on your show. Right. Facts. And for the first two or three hours, it was me, Earth One, and our buddy. That's it. And then I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna do what everybody else does and do a giveaway and bring and bring a bunch of people in. I did a giveaway, I think my count might have gone up by like two.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Right. This was before you could run a giveaway and you know 30 people jump in your room. Because it was there was a heyday for that as well.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Right. They think they know about Gibby Goblins now, but they don't know about roaches. The roaches. Bring back the roaches. Back before Givey Goblins, there were roaches. Facts. They all gather when the lights off. That's when the giveaway is going.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

The giveaway runs, that light turns on, they scatter.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

That is hilarious. But that's if you even pulled the giveaway, there was a time there was no timer on the giveaways. Like there's a five-minute timer now. There was a time you could run a giveaway 24 hours straight, one giveaway. You gathering people, hopefully, you you know, you run your giveaway long enough, you get 10 people, 12 people, 15 people. There were streamers who would run giveaways for 48 hours straight. I've seen it. We were there. And then if they didn't hit their goal, they're like, all right, well, we'll try and run the giveaway tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

And that was the tactic, though. The tactic was you were trying to hold people captive with that giveaway. Right. And then you would set incentives to where you're like, hey, we're gonna do a giveaway at a hundred followers, two hundred followers, or after I sell 10 items, 15 items, you used to use that giveaway to your advantage.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Facts. We were using that thing as a hostage tool back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Exactly. And if those demands were not met, no giveaway.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

No giveaway.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully the demands are met then.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Dude, that is so crazy to think about. And now people jump in. Hey, how much time you got on the giveaway? Look, it only runs for five minutes.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

That's it. That's crazy to me. It's like, you know, you don't got 10 minutes, man. It's five minutes or less. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

If you swipe into a room and the giveaway is already quite ready, five minutes. Right. The timer's already gone. Oh man, that's funny.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

You brought me back. But so back to the story, guys. So, first show, three giveaways. That was it. A lot of you guys know my first show story. Three giveaways, negative $15 is what I made my first show. Ouch. Way worse than how some people start now. People start fast now. People come up to me and say, first show, I made $300, $400. Right. I had 50 sales. I had 100 sales. Like, oh yeah, on your first show? Awesome. But see, then I don't want to break their heart. I'm like, some of that is that first show love. Facts. A lot of a lot of new sellers get that first show love. The hard thing is repeating. Yeah. And that's part of it. Repeat that show. Repeat that first show. Right. And then repeat that first show and do better.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

Hey, and that's part of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

You're scratching the surface of it, but you're talking consistency.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

That's the word I'm looking for. That's the word. Consistency and growth. Point number one, consistency. Right. A lot of people leave that out. You cannot be a successful streamer without consistency. You can have a baller show. I've seen people have crazy shows, their first show. I'm talking about thousands of dollars. Bro, I remember.

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Hell, even now, I've seen it. And then be done. Then we're saying, what happened to so and so?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Right. Or hey, have you seen such and such stream? Remember, I was just asking about a certain comic book streaming group. Literally just the other day. And I'm like, hey, have you heard or seen them lately? We would we go to their account, guys. They've got how many sales did they have, bro? I think they got like close to 400,000 sales. No activity on their page right now. Gone now. Zero activity.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Not because of bad behavior. Nah. Because they still on there. Account's still active. They can stream today if they wanted to. 400K sales gone. Right. They ain't had a show in months. So consistency, guys, that's the number one thing to me. Don't give up. Just say your show wasn't good and you had that bad show. I had about how many bad shows before I had like a good one? It might have been like 20, 25.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

At least.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Before I had a show to where I got like five or six sales. Right. People don't remember the was where I'm up two, three o'clock in the morning trying to sell mystery boxes, and I got a 25-box mystery game, and I gotta say, I'll see you guys in the morning. We'll continue this in the morning. Remember when you could do that?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah, remember when you could, you could, there was a time you could do that. That's crazy. You could definitely Go ahead. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Yeah, you could say, you can say, guys, I know we got 20 boxes left. We're gonna sell the other 20 boxes when I come back in the morning. And then you had to trust. You had to trust that I came back in the morning and didn't do anything to those boxes. And people used to do that with envelopes. Envelopes. Bro, you could do whatever during the night. It was so much, so much scamming going on and whatnot. I know some people that have done it.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yes, we do. We personally know a couple of streamers who've got here on that bull crap.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

And it was wild to hear them say that.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

But that's why I call it the wild, wild west of whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yes, the wild, wild west of whatnot. You said it right. You just had to trust that the person that you were playing the mystery game with was trustworthy. Yeah. And I can tell you right now, if y'all were back five years ago when all this stuff started, I know some of y'all favorite streamers that was not trustworthy. Facts.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

That y'all loved.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

And 90% of them aren't streaming now. Because they was either scamming, couldn't stay consistent, you know. A couple of the little points we gonna hit, but you know, there was a lot of scamming going on. But that's part of the reason whatnot has has made the rules the way they are and made things the way they are now, to where it's like you 90% of it is like you just really selling. There are no more mystery games, there's no more, I mean, they do the whatnot wheel, but like even then it's really just people, you know, they're purchasing and you know what you're buying. You know what I mean? There's no real games to it. You know what I'm saying? Because guys, it was legitimately like the wild, wild west.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Right. And that's how I came up was continuing the story. That's how I came up was off of games. A lot of people remember I had the cage match with the bingo machine. Man. I had I had the slot machine.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Remember the slot machine? Oh my goodness. The dominoes.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

The slot machine with the slots. Guys, he had the whatnot slot machine pop it. Then I had, then I had the cards, and then my last, my last thing was the gumball machine.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

The gumball machine, man. We need to bring that back. You had me ready to buy a gumball machine and everything. That's a news cooking so good.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Right. But then they said no randomizing. You couldn't have your own outside randomizer. So that's when I was like, you know what? We gonna bring out dominoes. And then they tried to shut down dominoes, but my dominoes bent through every rule they had. They tried to, I'm like, it's not a box.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

He had one of them windy roads out in California. He was he was skipping through these rules, boy.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Bro, I was like, it's not a box. I don't have anything in them. I have what I have what they represent under them, and I have it in the show notes, and it's not random. They get to pick.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

I mean, you was you was skating on thin ice with the rules, my boy. You you you was finesse, you was King finesse at one point in time.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

And then every and every domino was on the screen, and the screen never moved. Yep. So that's a surprise set. I can still technically now do dominoes by the rules of whatnot if I wanted to. I just don't. Because I know there's haters out there that's gonna be like, I don't think he can do that. And then they're just gonna report me for me to then tell whatnot again, a new trust and safety person, that I'm not breaking any rules. Right. People just mad I'm doing something different and they don't want to put that together. And if they do put that together, then they know they're getting it from me. Right. Because I was the person that started dominoes and the only person that's been doing dominoes on the app. That's crazy, bro. And if you do dominoes on the app, I need a delivery fee. He said, You gotta put me on. Facts, you gotta say my name. Yo, hey, yo. But no, but that's my journey, man. I came up off the games. That's what I recognized early on. I recognized early on that I could not do straight up sales. That wasn't my thing. Nobody wanted to straight up buy from me at first.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

At first, it was like if there was no chance of getting something better, people wasn't messing with me at all. I'm not gonna get into reasons why I think that is, because I am more entertaining than 99% of the streamers out there. So you're on your MM shit. I got a few guesses of why they didn't mess with me. We just gonna leave that alone.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

It's because you're short and fat, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

I'm just messing with you, bro. Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

But but for real, you know, where'd that lead you? You're right. I mean, the bigger, better opportunities. It made me have to, I guess, adjust my tactics and sharpen my skills on what I can do to make people mess with me. I'm like, I'm gonna win you over. And the crazy thing is, I've won over people that hated me in the beginning or didn't quite like me when I first started, but they had no choice because sometimes I made the games that good and the odds that good, and the product was that good to where you had no choice but to mess with me. And that's what a lot of people don't want to do. I guess you can call that what we're gonna get into next, pivoting. I guess that kind of ties into pivoting.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

That's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

I agree with that. A lot of people don't want to pivot. Once they start something, they're scared to get into a new thing. So with consistency, you also have to know when to pivot. You have to you have to figure out what you're good at. Get good at it, like your selling style, whatever your style is. Some people are monotone. You could be a good monotone streamer, you could be a good hype streamer, you could be a good entertaining streamer. There's different types of streamers. First is consistency. Yeah. First, figure out what type of streamer you want to be or you are. It's best to pick one that really fits your own personality. Don't try to be a hype streamer if you're not a hype person. Right. Because I can tell when someone's acting. Pick something that fits you. I got you. Right. Don't try to be a comedian if you're not a comedian. But figure out who you are, what you're good at, do that. Then if that's not working, like whatever you're selling, or whatever you're good at, you have to pivot. Okay. I got you. I understand I understand the pivot now. And getting into pivot, this man right here, y'all's co-host, oh man the biggest pivot. I'm gonna let him tell the story. Don't don't downplay it either. Come on, man. Don't downplay it. You better say everything you supposed to say. And you tell them.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

But you still got like, you still got 90%, you still got 90% of your story. You ain't even hit them with the with the where we at today.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

We're gonna continue with my story. Okay. But we gotta, we gotta get into yours.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

This is just part one, guys, because we're gonna have a part two. We can't fit all of this in one part.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yeah, no, we definitely part two. There may even be a part three. There's a lot of information for whatnot. It's a crazy thing. I mean, it's a new app, but I mean, we've been on it really long, so it's kind of old to us, but man, it's still a baby, honestly, compared to some of the other selling platforms that are out there. Like, it's still an infant, for real, for real. I try to explain that to people when I when they ask me what I do, but man, listen, it's a crazy story. So I've always been a collector. We actually met, because we collect sneakers. So let me start with the sneakers. I've got a couple hundred pair of sneakers here, and I wanted to announce this today to my brother, Mr. Three God himself. I'm selling all my pairs.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

When I see your closet empty, I'll believe you.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

I'm selling all my pairs. I already talked to my sneaker plug, and I told him I'm I'm trying to get rid of everything. I'll explain that story another day, but just know that all of the pairs are leaving. I might keep five pairs, but everything else has gotta go. So it started with the collecting the sneakers. You feel me? We started collecting sneakers. I've always collected comic books. I was a kid growing up in the ghetto. We didn't really have any money, but I could buy a comic book or two back in the day, because you know, it's a dollar, you know, comic book back in the day, $1.50. You know what I mean? So it was always an opportunity to buy a comic book. And I was a kid who thought, man, if I buy this, maybe one day it'll be worth something. Like my Pokemon cards. And that just, I don't even want to talk about Pokemon cards right now because that story will make me want to cry. So anyway, me and my co-host, the three god himself, he's hitting me and he's telling me about this app called Whatnot. And I'm like, man, yeah, I'm with it. I like buying stuff. And he's like, Yeah, you can buy and stuff. He's selling uh Funko's and sodas and this and that. And I'm like, oh man, that's dope. And he's like, man, I'm making a killer note. And I'm like, okay, bet. So you want to support your friend and stuff. So I'm like, all right, cool. So I'm checking it out. And I think it's a cool app. I'm thinking to myself, man, there's tons of potential and it is dope. And he's telling me the whole time, guys. The whole time, man, get on this app, start selling. You got enough, you got enough comics and toys and stuff. You're not you're not gonna do nothing with all that. Even your sneakers. You can there's so many sneakers you got. You could sell a couple pairs on there and make a killing. I'm like, man, nobody wants to buy this stuff. That's all I can't tell him. That ain't nobody trying to buy this, nobody's trying to do nothing. So I had surgery. I had to have a hip replacement. So I'm at home, and this is when he goes hard with selling. So he's up, like he was saying, he would be up from midnight till 3-4 in the morning, and it'd just be me, him, and our other homeboy. And then a random person, every couple of minutes, every 30 minutes, they come in, see what we're doing, say hi, and then leave. It was just like that. That's why if you're in any of my streams, I say it's the vampire life because we'd be on from 9 o'clock at night till four in the morning regularly. So I had surgery, so I had to have a hip replacement, and uh I'm up, you know, crazy hours going, you know, you sleep during the day half the time, going to doctor's appointments, and I'd be up till, you know, four in the morning, five in the morning sometimes, and I'm vibing with him. He's still telling me, come on, man, do some, you know, I got you got the time off start, just sell a few things. So I'm like, man, I'll try it. I'll try it. Because I've got enough comic books, even before I was a whatnot seller. I had thousands of comics. So I'm like, man, I'll I'll try, man. Whatever. But if it don't go, I'm not I'm not stunting this. The man had to twist my arm, guys. So I sold the cut. So the first on my first show, I mean, I mean, I actually sold a few comics, which surprised me. And then I was like, okay, well, it's not bad. You know, I made a couple bucks, $50, $60. And then I bought another collection and I sold some more. And then we started doing a slab game where I was selling slabs to people. And, you know, I got beat a bunch of times doing that. And um, in the process of buying comics, you know, I'm still paying cars for a living full time. So I'm paying cars. So no, I'm sorry. I jumped ahead of myself. I had surgery. So while I'm still doing off of work for surgery, because I was off about six months, I'm selling on what? Not selling comics, selling comics. So I bought a collection of comics and I had a bin of Playboys with it randomly. Like random Playboy magazines and a bunch of other magazines, people magazine, a bunch of stuff. And I'm like, all right, the guy's like, hey, do you know you bought these comics, but you know, you want these magazines? I need to get them out of my driveway or whatever. I'm like, yeah, you know, I take it, you know, I sell anything. You know, I come from a hustler background. You know, you you see, you see a quarter on the ground, you pick it up. You know what I'm saying? Somebody gives you something for free, you take it. Like you don't say no, you feel me? Like, like we come from that generation. You don't just you don't just leave money on the floor anywhere, even if it's two cents, you pick up those pennies. So I told the dude, yeah, let me have those. Took them and uh did a little Playboy show. I sold every Playboy that night. You feel me? This was like, I don't know, four months, five months in, six months into to doing whatnot, right? Seven months, something like that. I was almost maybe, I was maybe, I was maybe nine months into whatnot. And then I got that collection of Playboys. And then, guys, it hit me that night. I was like, dang, I sold every single magazine. Like, shoot, I could, I could, if I could sell some more of these, it's like lightning in a bottle. Let me find some more. So I started scouring the internet, eBay, every, you know, everywhere, everywhere and anywhere, yard sales, the flea market, and every random gas station. I was just buying Playboys, buying magazines, you know, and I started selling the mags. And I started selling more magazines than comics. And if you're a whatnot listener, most of you guys are not listener, most whatnot shopper, most of you guys will probably be whatnot shoppers. You know the comics, the cards, a lot of these categories are flooded. So I was in the I was selling comics and it was just super flooded, guys. I'm talking about crazy flooded. So, like my man said, you gotta know when to pivot. So I sold that bin of magazines. It was like 100 magazines, 150 magazines. And I thought to myself, well, if comic books are moving slow, maybe I can start moving a couple of these magazines on the side, you know what I'm saying, and make a couple dollars. Bought another collection of magazines. It was a couple, you know, a hundred magazines or something, sold all of those. And I'm like, dude, no way. So I bought another collection, sold those. And then, I mean, it's the rest is kind of history at this point. And then I've, you know, I've been buying collections of magazines and old newspapers and old books and still buy comics. I still buy tons of comics, but yeah, I buy thousands of magazines a month now. All because of this guy. And he had to physically assault me almost to get me to even do it. It was just crazy.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

You failed to mention your biggest lick in the pivot. Because if you wouldn't have pivoted, you wouldn't have hit one of the biggest finds that you've had today.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

I mean Tell them about that find. Yeah. Okay, so biggest find to date. I made the pivot and I figure, you know what, I'll start selling magazines. So I told him and I told all of my friends, I told family, literally across the country, if you see anybody selling magazines, it don't matter what they are, blah, blah, blah, hold them, grab them for me, let me know. So I met a lady who was an old eBay seller. Now, eBay doesn't allow you to sell Playboys or any kind of adult material magazines, DVDs, any of that stuff anymore. So she was, you know, she's an old lady. She was in her like 60s, 70s. She posted it online, and she was like, she's the old eBay seller trying to get out of it. She's got 50,000 magazines. I couldn't believe it. 50,000, literally 50,000 magazines. So I gave her a call and she was like, Yeah, it's really 50,000. She was like, but you gotta, you gotta come in, you gotta do it in in the next like four or five days, because I have a buyer coming from from somewhere, Miami, or something like that, and he wants to buy them all, and he wants them now. So literally 48 hours later, I was in South Florida. I used all the money I had in my savings account to buy it. It wasn't that much, it was five grand, guys. I didn't have it. You feel me? I had to borrow, had to borrow a thousand from my father-in-law at the time. You know what I mean? Biggest lick in my life, man. I've I've still I'm still How much did you make?

SPEAKER_02 31:13

How much did you make off of that that five thousand betting on yourself?

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Technically, I'm still eating off of it. But we're talking 200 grand. Let me take a sip from the Stanley Cup. I knew you were gonna say it. I knew you were gonna say it, and I see in your face. Say it again. At least 200 grand. Bare minimum.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Don't get me wrong, guys. I haven't hit a lick like that yet, so I'm not trying to preach or say you should do what this man did and you're gonna make $200,000. That's not what I'm gonna say. But what I am gonna say is the man bet on himself. Yeah. He figured out what he was good at. Yeah. He was good at comics, but comics were slow. But he was willing to pivot. He found something, he tried it, it was going good. He's like, oh, this could work. He swayed away from comics because he still does comics from time to time. Right. But he swayed to what was working, wasn't scared to pivot, and another bullet point, he bet on himself. Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Because guys, he had to force me to me to cut you off. But again, I was working, I was working my full-time job, and I was working from like six in the morning, six thirty in the morning, you know, till five, six o'clock sometimes at night, paying cars, it's flat rates, so you don't, it's not an hourly job. And then I was still doing whatnot from 8 30, 9 o'clock at night till midnight every night. And like you said, sometimes you gotta bet on yourself. And he kept telling me, man, go ahead and go full time, go full time, and best decision I ever made.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Best decision I ever made. And now you full-time whatnot, six-figure man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

I mean, that's not gonna be everybody's story. We just want you to understand that first, streaming is not for everybody. If you're just doing it as a hobby, or you're doing it just to make some money on the side, that's for everybody. That's just like an eBay listing something on eBay. You could do it periodically, but to make it a career, it takes sacrifice from your family, time away from your family, time away from yourself, and and hard work and dedication and consistency. 100%. It's a lot of things you guys do not see behind the scenes that spectacular streamers do. Whether it be for themselves or even if they're streaming for a company. Right. It doesn't matter how they're streaming, there's stuff that you guys do not see behind the scenes. You only see the the finished product. You don't even see the aftermath after the stream. Right. Where you gotta pack six, seven, eight hours by yourself. Right. That's a second shift. You clocked out of the entertaining shift, now you go into the manual labor shift.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

That's a fact.

SPEAKER_04 34:55

Yeah, that's for sure. That's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

People see a three-hour, four-hour stream, but then they're like, you don't see the other 10-hour day, the rest of my 10-hour day behind the scenes. Right. Yeah. Or sourcing the product. They don't they don't know how how often do you travel a week?

SPEAKER_01 35:16

I travel pretty much like twice a month. I try travel pretty much twice a month, try picking up collections. I deliver collections to people as well. So like I yeah, I buy and sell all the time. Like I picked up a collection today before we started. That's why I'm not mad you're running a little late, because I was running a few minutes late myself.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

That's crazy. Man had man's working before doing more work. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Like I got into the house and then I did a private live stream with one of my big buyers. I do private streams with them, and yeah, he went through a bunch of books and picked out a bunch of stuff right before we got on here.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

Yeah. And that's what I'm talking about, guys. Long story short.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

This is just part one, because we only just scratched the surface. We didn't even really get into the meat and potatoes. This we didn't give you guys strategies, techniques, right, tips and tricks. Man, what we didn't give you guys any of that yet. We're gonna give you some basic knowledge that if I were teaching a seminar, this is what I would say. Right. Part one is just an introduction of what the basic necessities you have to have to get started, which is the consistency, willing to pivot, willing to bet on yourself, and hard work and sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

The hard work and sacrifice, that's heavier than you can explain. Because you've got to be willing to sacrifice, uh like you gotta be willing to sacrifice sleep, family time, personal time, all of your time.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Like and we're strictly talking career streamer. We're not talking hobby streamer. Right. Because it doesn't to be a hobby streamer, like I said, you could just hop on, sell what you want to sell, get off, because you just ain't your job. Right. You do it once a month because you got a full-time job. We're talking about the people that want to make streaming a career. Right. Because it is possible.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

It's a a thousand percent possible. But it's not for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

We're gonna end part one right here, guys, but we will get into our top five streamers to us. And uh how I did my top five is I did the top five streamers that were influential to the platform or influential to me. So they may not be the hyper streamer, they may have not gotten the most views, made the most money, but there were streamers that influenced me or they influenced the platform. Right. I'm not gonna rank them one through five, I'm just gonna do a top five in any order. First, myself.

SPEAKER_04 38:40

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

I had to put myself in my own top five. Only because, nope, not not because I'm that type of guy, because I I can say I influence myself. I'm self-driven. So I drive myself. So when I see myself streaming or I get done with a stream, I'm I'm critiquing myself and taking stuff from myself to either do again, don't do that again, you could do this better. So first I'm putting myself in there as the most influence because I'm self-driven and I've learned the most just from watching myself, yeah, or listening to myself.

SPEAKER_03 39:30

So that's one. My second, we probably all know this person, you may even have him on your list. Toy USA.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

I know some people have their views of him because of how he left the platform and what he got accused of, but that aside, I still can't ignore what he did on the Funko side. Right. The man was one of the first to bring mystery boxes to the platform. Right. Good mystery boxes, to where it was like, this is crazy. He was always the first to do something or try something out on the platform before anybody else, and then everybody else would basically copy him because it was like, oh, he did it, it's working, we're gonna do what he did, but no one would stepped out on their own until he did it. So I got Toy USA in there. He was one of the, I guess, godfathers, one of the founding fathers of whatnot, because he was one of the first streamers on the platform.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

And then three, I don't have a name for this person, but shout out, it was a dude in California. Shout out to Buddy in California, because if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have created the cage match with the bingo cage machine. That was a concern. That was a game, bro. That was all him. I put my little twist on it, and that's another thing, guys. Don't be scared to take bits and pieces from great streamers. Trust me, a great streamer don't mean a big streamer because this guy wasn't that big, but he had a consistent base that was always in there playing his games. So to me, he was a great streamer because he was always making money. So shout out to him. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have created my game and made put my own twist on it and be where I'm at today. So he's number three. Number four. A lot of you guys might not have been there outside for this one either. But Funkia Dealer.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Funkia Dealer. That's a classic dude.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

The creator of roaches. Before Give the Goblins, there was roaches. He created that term, roaches. Nice. Did the craziest giveaways. You want to talk about hype? This man started the hype. He would do 150 pop giveaways.

SPEAKER_04 42:32

Dude, that's quite that's crazy. Good times.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

200 pop giveaways. He was the king of hype. He brought the entertainment. One thing, he might have been a scammer. I don't know. Because he's he's no longer on the platform. I mean account deactivated.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Dang.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

But he was still an innovator and still influential on my streaming career because I took some stuff from him as far as bringing in the entertainment factor. Right. Because I saw how he entertained the crowd, and I'm like, I can do that. And then I started to come out of my shell and be more of an entertainer. So that's another one. And then I got one more, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:19

Yeah. I got one more. I'm gonna have to go with my boy Earth One.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

No way. I gotta go with my boy Earth One. Hey, I appreciate it. Only because I still learn from this guy, even though I told him to do it, his work ethic and what he's willing to do, it's the influence on me. And when I see him late night cooking and I see him getting in his bag, especially when he's selling, selling. I know when he's selling. You a fool. When he what's they call that, flow state. When he's in that flow state.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

Right. And I see him working. The Ultra Instinct.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Facts. But no, I see it how you you guys are just seeing a show. When I look at Earth One, I am paying attention to all his techniques and all the tricks he's bringing out the bag. Because that's what makes a good streamer. People not seeing your tactics or your streaming technique where they blend it to where you just think you're getting entertained. You don't even know that he's being very Swiss Army knife with y'all right now.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

This man is crazy, guys. This man is a wild guy. John Wick.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

Hey, with the pencil.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

But that's my top five just because I've learned each of those five have influenced me and I learned a bunch from.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Man, I like that. I appreciate that top five. I appreciate the the look. You know what I'm saying? Like, I appreciate that. That really means a lot. So of course, I'm, I mean, this isn't really in no specific order either. I'm thinking you gotta have Toy USA up there. I again, a lot of us, you know, I started this thing and I was doing comics, but I was buying Funko's heavy. And I would go in this man's show and he would inspire me to be like, man, if he could do this, man, anybody could do this. Because he was an acquired taste. His attitude was not always pleasant. I forgot about that. He wasn't ass. He, yes, to say the least. He would take a pop and smash it. He would take an expensive pop, a $700 pop, and smash the box just because the chat was talking crazy to him. And it would be more people that would come into the room. He'd have 150 people in there selling $2,000 mystery boxes, big, big banger boxes. Huh?

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Come to think about it, him being an ass and him destroying pops, because it could have secretly been a selling tactic and a way to get people to come in and talk about him.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Yeah, yeah. Now that I'm thinking back, that's why he's that's why he's in my top five. Because he really had me like, bro, if this man could do it, I definitely could do it because he's a jerk. But it it influenced me because he was making a killing. He was making handover fist money before they got caught up with all that crazy stuff. And, you know, he's really who I would look at because they would do the trips like I do cross-country, picking up collections. That's where I got it from. That's like what's poppin' said, guys, you can take what you see from other streamers. You don't have to, you don't have to emulate and copy everything they do. But if you see something and it's working, you can use that, put your little, you know what I'm saying, put a little seasoning on it, make it your own. He had me inspired because I'm like, man, he's taking trips cross-country. Man, I'll take my family with me, take a cross-country trip, buy some collections, and now I done took a family trip now. You know what I mean? So Toy USA is definitely in my top five. Who else? Savage Pops. Also somebody who influenced me because if he can get Grails, I could get Grails. Okay. But I need it in a 9-8. You know what I'm saying? Or I need you to go find that old Spider-Man toy from 92 still on card. I wanted to be able to find Grails. You know what I'm saying? So I'm, and I'm looking at Savage, and he's doing the same thing from going to different places, cross-country, overseas, and he's buying collections and getting 101 pops, the golden ticket pops. You feel me? Prototypes. When I didn't even know what a prototype was. So I'm like, okay, cool with it. That's another one that influenced me because I'm like, man, if they can find exclusives, I can find exclusives. It's just you got to put the work in. Who else? I gotta go where my brother was popping. Hey, hey, I got to. And not because you my brother, but because, hey, you started this. And I saw you doing it, and I'm like, I personally know this guy. And I know the work he's putting in. If he can do it, I could, I mean, I could kind of work that hard. I could at least try. And and the man got there was a time this man was making hand over fist money. He was he was letting me hold something. Pause. You feel me? And and and I gotta go with man, I've got two more, but but I only got one spot. I gotta go two more, and I gotta uh man. I gotta, I gotta go big decks. I gotta go big decks collects comics. I gotta go big decks collects. Honorable, I I'll explain big decks, but the honorable mention goes to my guy, Blazenderry. Because I seen this man on Pawn Stars.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Talking about sneaker. You're talking about sneaker Blazenderry?

SPEAKER_01 49:29

He do, bro, he don't do sneakers like that no more. He does luxury items.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

I met him at SneakerCon.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

Yeah, he's dope. He's dope. I rate him pretty much every night. He gives me a shout-out and all that. He's super dope. And he sells all kinds of luxury items, clothing, uh wallets, luxury colognes. He's out of New York. Like he, you know, another New Yorker. So he definitely gets the honorable mention. But I gotta go big Dex to clean up the five. Why? Because Big Dex, he he's another king of the pivot. You know what I'm saying? He started and he was doing sodas and Funko's heavy. And he had me inspired. He had us all inspired. Like, man, if he's getting all these excuses from overseas and he ain't even really leaving the house. That's why I'm like, man, if if I start looking for collections, we could pull a big Dex. You know what I mean? Like, he really had me inspired. And guys, Big Dex is in his 50s. So I'm like, if this grown man, he's got a bunch of kids, a wife, you know what I'm saying? Major bills, if he could do it, I'm like, man, I there's no reason we can't. So Big Dex was selling Funko's. He saw the Funko Soda game was kind of going sideways, and he's the king of the pivot. I remember one of his last couple streams, he was letting everything go for a dollar. And then he switched to he switched to comics, and now he's got his own exclusives. He had San Diego, he had New York Comic-Con. Like the man is doing artists exclusives. Like Big Dex is really, he keeps me inspired because I'm like, bro, if he he's on another one, I gotta keep up with Big Dex. He's leveling further than us. Right. And he's literally in his 50s. So that's, you know, I just I use those guys as like, you know, not a measure in stick, but I use them as like, okay, you know, long as these guys can, if they're still on here doing it, I know I can, you know, I can know I can stay doing this thing, man. Like it's it's really, it's really about being consistent. And all of those guys I mentioned, they stream daily.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

And you know, and some of them because you know them personally, or you've just heard stories of what they do behind the scenes, you know what it takes to be at that level.

SPEAKER_03 51:52

Right. That's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

And that's what we want to try to bring to you guys in these future series when we do part two, part three, part four, it might even be five parts of what it takes behind the scenes. Yeah, the behind the scenes y'all don't even know uh on on that level. And don't think that the amount of viewers that you get it tells you how good of a streamer you are, because there's terrible streamers that got a hundred people in their room, but they they're terrible streamers. Right. And there's phenomenal streamers. I mean, there's some streamers that I've listened to and stayed in their room. They got five people, but I would swear I'm listening to the best, to the best podcast or entertaining thing ever. Right. And I'm like, why hasn't nobody found this person yet? Right. Sometimes it's just the product that you have, it's not even your skills. It's your you're doing the wrong things. So I know some good streamers that if I knew if I put the right product in their hand, they go global.

SPEAKER_03 53:08

Facts. They go global. I understand that.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

And then you got terrible streamers that have the right product, and that's the only reason they got people, is because they they got the product that people want, but it doesn't mean that they're good. So don't get that confused, guys. Yeah. And I don't let that bother me, because a lot of people say, well, if your numbers are you got 15 people in your room, 12 people in your room. Guys, I don't care if I got three people in my room. If I meet my quota, I'm good. My goal is to feed my family, not have viewers and not feed my family.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

Man, I hear that.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

And on that note, guys, we're gonna leave it at that. Do you wanna feed your family? Or do you want to feed into the hype?

SPEAKER_03 54:08

Don't feed into the hype. Thanks for answering the call. Thanks for answering the call, guys. Part two next week.