Jeff Kohl

Ill never use @centraltransprt again. We booked a shipment via Uship. They usually come in the cheapest if Tforce or XPO are close Ill typically pay more and go with them. This delivery was set to arrive on Friday. No delivery so I call support, and they say it couldn’t be delivered because the truck wouldn’t fit. Meanwhile in the past two weeks they themselves delivered 2 separate pallets on 53’ trucks and no other carriers have had an issue. But is what it is they delivered it 4 days later on Wednesday in a shorter box truck. (after calls everyday). Fast forward to last week when I get an additional charge of $298 for redelivery and limited access delivery. No luck disputing. And guess what yesterday in our office park Central delivering a load in a.. 53 foot truck.

5:15AM show on Whatnot this morning. Done at 7:00AM here is the summary. 16 first time buyers (35% of all buyers) 235 items sold Slightly below my average order value and sales per hour. This was my first early AM show. Viewers started to creep up from 30 to 80 by 6am then we got hit with a 119 person Raid. (First time being Raided with a large group) But at that point sales actually slowed down as we had 150-160 viewers in. All the new buyers came prior to the raid. Either way I think regular early morning shows are going to stay. Always be testing!

Chick Fil A opened a week ago .5 miles away from my house and its officially going to be a problem. 5 out of 7 days so far and no slowing down. Wasn’t even hungry and stopped for some grilled nuggets and fries yesterday. Not sure what status is the highest but will be there in no time.

Some Whatnot stats for anyone who cares. I have been switching up the show banner the last week, week and a half. One thing that has jumped out, the banners that emphasize $1 starts have a 3-5% higher CTR. Than ones that point out $2 starts.

One story I haven’t told and why @ShannonJean s mastermind is so valuable. For resellers of all experiences. My first and only truckload: I had been reselling for 3 years hitting garage sales, estate sales, FBM deals. I was still doing it part time, but things were going well and wanted to find more repeatable inventory vs 1 off local deals. I did some research and wanted an Amazon coffin box truckload. Rented storage space in a Warehouse 20 mins from my house. Found a company selling Amazon coffin box truckloads $17,200 shipped. Had a bunch of reviews talked to a guy on the phone, he seemed legit said no clothes or bedding. This stuff would be perfect for ebay. Wired the money, a week later boom 24 pallets 6 boxes each. 144 large coffins boxes I was pumped. So excited I overlooked that these were retaped and not the amazon tape. I packed 4 in my truck brought them home listed some stuff on ebay. Would go back to the warehouse every weekend picking through boxes, by 4 weeks in. The excitement fizzled, I maybe made it through 6-8 pallets and realized this was all garbage. It had all been picked through by a company that resells everything back on amazon (1 box still had the original label of it sent to them first by AMZ). They pull the good stuff out refill these boxes with the stuff that requires work or wasnt an easy sale. The whole saga set me back drastically, I wasn’t going to estate sales to source profitable inventory was wasting hours trying to salvage this mistake. Also there was a shit ton of bedding and clothes. If the mastermind was around then and I was in it. The advice would have been dont start with a truckload. Be careful buying anything without a manifest, among many others pieces that would have had me steer clear. If you are a reseller at any level and on the fence join the group. Instead of setting myself back these last two years the group has propelled me forward growing and learning faster than if I was on my own.

Week 3 of Whatnot in the books. Still tough to see the numbers knowing this would have been a weekend on Tiktok. (One day well be back until then I keep grinding it out) First day off going live in 17 days. Week days were slow weekends were great. This week will run second shows in different categories trying to expand my reach. Anyone have any best practices on give aways. Seeing only 25-30% of viewers enter. Should I dump all funds into a larger buyers giveaway at the end of the show?

Spotted this guy at the grocery store. I really hope there is a wii in there and he is going to a buddies house link up with 3 other wiis and run a 16 man Mario Kart and Smash Bros tourney this halloween. Or its just a convenient bag to carry stuff in. But hoping for my first thought.

No matter what happens or how you’re feeling. Take action.

After the viral video with the @redbaronpizza employee. Id really like to see the sales impact that has over the next month. According @grok they generate roughly $1.4 Billion in annual sales and have roughly 20% market share So far they have handled it perfectly. Virality and the positive response, could it be 9 figure impact?

Had my first call with Whatnot yesterday super nice reps and gave me some good ideas to keep things moving in the right direction. First was change up our show thumbnails. Don’t keep reusing the same ones. Second was get more specific. Its ok to run shorter shows with a more specific niche. On TikTok I would go live 4-5 hours provide a huge variety of items and it worked. Now I am planning more themes shows and will run them shorter 1-1.5 hours. Third keep a set schedule of shows. Something I am not great at, I prefer to work around my schedule vs have my schedule work around show times. Last double down on the times that are successful. If weekend mornings are the best time the use your promotion $ during those shows not the slower times. Will be trying all of these next week. Keep you posted.

Chik Fil A opens in my town tomorrow! If you wear cow print you get free food. Who the heck owns cow printed clothing? Couldn’t they have gone with an easier promo?

One of the worst days of live selling I have had in a while. 2 shows 3.5 hours total. $1700 in sales. For that amount of time I have been closer to $2700-$3000 I haven’t dove into the numbers yet but there is no doubt I lost money on both shows. The one thing with live selling is every show is a step forward. New buyers, New followers. I am still building it. Tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to keep growing. 9:00am show.

One of my favorite things about fall in Upstate NY. Apples, go to a grocery store 15 different kinds apples. Love a good hybrid like Sweet Tango or Pink Lady.

One huge mistake I made while building our TikTok live business was ignoring all other platforms. I sourced only for TikTok. I spent 95% of my time on TikTok. Did it grow like crazy?! Yes. I went from 20k a month in May to 125k in a month in September. 6X in 4 months. But when it got cut off in an instant, I am scrambling more than I should have been. In that time Ebay dropped from 50k a month to 15k a month. And Whatnot from 20k a month to 0. Regardless of what happens with TT while it is still pending. I will be more diversified in my revenue streams.

Second full week on Whatnot here are the results. $19k in sales Almost 25 hours live 3,318 items ran Another difference I started to notice. The engagement on Whatnot is way less, the relationship with your audience is less, viewers say less and its more transactional vs entertainment. Makes me enjoy the shows less. I really like chopping it up with people its what makes it fun. Lets see what week 3 will bring.

$15 order of boneless wings. Is this an appropriate portion? I feel a little shorted. Should at least be a dozen right.

A supplier reached out. 3 of the most profitable items I sold on TikTok live are back in stock and available. Only catch is I have to buy 2000 of each. And I have not tested them on Whatnot. Whats the play? Im leaning buy them, may even be able to flip cases.

Another difference between TikTok and Whatnot is the shipping expectations and discounts. On TikTok they provide discounted flat rate to sellers for 1-5lbs. Sellers have the option to pass that down to their buyers or keep it. Our last few weeks I was profiting $1000 a week on shipping. And buyers were still happy with the bundled shipping and free shipping on any item $20 or more. Whatnot the buyers expectation is “discounted shipping” or capped shipping which eats into margins as well as it is almost needed to stay competitive. There may be a way to see what we truly pay vs what is charged but haven’t found it yet. I am going to keep sharing the differences between the two platforms based on my live selling experience. Follow along.